Rock the Garden 2009 Report

89.3 The Current and the Walker Art Center’s annual Rock the Garden music festival took place this past Saturday in front of a sold out crowd and a scorching sun (at least initially). And while at times the level of the music didn’t quite match up to the splendor of the day, no one could really come away disappointed from one of the best organized and curated outdoor concerts we’re likely to see all summer. This year the stage was wisely turned around to face the grassy hill that was once home to the Guthrie, providing great sound throughout the venue and wonderful sight lines to the nearly 10,000 revelers on hand.

(Solid Gold)

Local boys Solid Gold were entrusted to kick off the show. And while their music isn’t necessarily best suited for the bright sun the band is well versed in playing in the heat of the afternoon, as evidenced by their recent Grand Old Day set and multiple trips to SXSW, and their performance proved to be a perfect soundtrack to the start of the fest. Relying solely on music from their debut record Bodies Of Water, the band seemed to enjoy playing to their largest local audience and to a slew of family and friends, the youngest of which was even dancing on stage along with the music. It was a relaxed and comfortable set that showed off the group’s technical proficiency, the strength of their songwriting, and perhaps even benefited from what I felt was the best sounding mix of the day (other than the headliners). Songs like “Get Over It,” “Bible Thumper” and “Who You Gonna Run To” absolutely soared in the outdoor setting, and were well received by the hometown crowd, which the band seemed to genuinely appreciate. It was a great set to start the day.

(Yeasayer)

(Yeasayer)

(Yeasayer)

Yeasayer were next and unfortunately they wilted under the heat of the day. Despite the band’s best efforts it was a set that suffered from a muddy mix and a general lack of energy. Part of that was due to the band recently replacing drummer Luke Fasano with Ahmed Gallab, who while certainly competent, didn’t have the ferocious and unrelenting beats of his predecessor, and the band often employed two percussionists during their set to try and replicate the sound of Fasano’s lively drumming. The set started positively with “Sunrise,” and “Tightrope” was certainly engaging, but the set really lagged quite a bit until they played “2080,” which ended up being the only real burst of energy the band showed during their sleepy and, quite frankly, dull sounding set.

(Yeasayer)

(Yeasayer)

(Yeasayer)

(Calexico)

(Calexico)

Calexico followed and unfortunately failed to initially bring the energy level up with their languid, Southern-style Americana. But unlike Yeasayer, Calexico had the musicianship to carry off their subtle songs and covers in an outdoor festival, and ended up playing a great set. The band poured their hearts into a cover of the Minutemen’s “Jesus & Tequila” that they made entirely all their own with a bluesy, down-tempo rendition that still managed to maintain the fire of the original. “Sunken Waltz” was also stellar, as was “Two Silver Trees,” which converted some new fans around me who had never heard Calexico’s music before. The highlight of their set was a fantastic cover of Love’s “Alone Again Or” which benefited from a great horn section and a driving, energized beat. It was simply perfect, and thrived in the gorgeous setting and the slowly setting sun. Calexico’s performance really set the crowd up well for the Decemberists, whose lead singer Colin Meloy intently took in the Tuscon band’s set from the side of the stage.

(Calexico)

(Calexico)

(Calexico)

I knew a lot of people that weren’t too happy about the Decemberists’ plan to play the entirety of their new record, The Hazards of Love, from start to finish at Rock the Garden, but hopefully those people all left impressed and gained a new appreciation of the album after the band breathed some life and plenty of theatrics into their rock opera. And the setting couldn’t have been any better. After the heat of the day had burned away and the sky slowly turned pink during their set as the sun descended. After the slow and delicate introduction to the album played out, the stage belonged to Colin Meloy (playing the role of both the tragic hero William, and the villainous Rake) who didn’t say a single word to the crowd during the course of playing the album, but still managed to delight the nearly 10,000 people sprawled about the Walker with his captivating singing and storytelling and energetic stage antics. The record’s somewhat obtuse subject matter and narrative played out well onstage, helped along by the stunning guest vocals of both Becky Stark, from Lavender Diamond, dressed in an ornate white dress to play the role of Margaret, the heroine of the tale, and Shara Worden, of My Brightest Diamond, dressed in black to play the role of the jealous and controlling Forest Queen.

(The Decemberists)

(The Decemberists)

(The Decemberists)

Such an implausible and impenetrable love story wouldn’t necessarily play well to a beer and sun soaked crowd without some lively and lovely arrangements, and The Hazards of Love is chock-full of them, going from the delicate strumming of “The Hazards Of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone),” to the proggy heavy metal of “The Queen’s Rebuke” that seemed to really win over the fist pumping crowd. All in all, Love is a concept album that tells a story that indeed deserves to be heard in its entirety, for these songs would lose both their meaning and their impact upon being heard out of the context of the tale. Taken as a whole however, they are packed with emotion and a complexity that soared in the outdoor setting and proved to be a fitting conclusion to a day filled with music. And by the time the band got to the heartbreaking finale “The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned),” the story and their set came to a dramatic and stirring close. Deciding to play the entirety of their new record on this tour was a bold move by the Decemberists, but inevitably it proved to be a smart one, as the story and the songs truly benefited from being heard as part of a cohesive whole, and this exhilarating set proved that the album wasn’t a misstep like some reviews have claimed, but rather a gloriously compelling addition to their already impressive back catalog.

(The Decemberists)

(The Decemberists)

(The Decemberists)

(The Decemberists)

The choices for the encore struck me as a bit odd and certainly didn’t mesh well with each other, as they went from the subtle and tragic (and all too quiet) “Leslie Ann Levine,” into the wistful beauty of “The Engine Driver.” But no matter how much I love “Engine Driver” there was no denying that the encore was lagging a bit at this point. And perhaps the band sensed that as they tried to liven things up with a fun crowd singalong (with separate parts for each quadrant of the audience) for “Billy Liar” that stretched on a bit too long though still giving the end of the set a bit of a spark. Meloy introduced “Dracula’s Daughter” by claiming it’s the worst song he’s ever written (it is hilariously bad, and thankfully also brief). It segued nicely into a spirited version of “O Valencia!” that had an energy and a bounce to it that the other numbers chosen for the encore lacked. It also completed the sampling of one song from each of the band’s previous four full-length records during this part of the set. But years from now all anyone is likely remember from the encore is the band’s blistering cover of Heart’s “Crazy On You” that set the place off, and again allowed Stark and Worden to show off their pipes as they sang the hell out of the song. It was a perfect exclamation point to a set that, while being a bit uneven at times, still managed to enthrall and enliven the crowd and showed that despite concerns otherwise, the Decemberists did indeed rock the garden.

(The Decemberists)

[Review by Erik Thompson, photos by Jon Behm.]

The Decemberists: Purchase | Official | Twitter | MySpace | Wikipedia
Calexico: Purchase | Official | MySpace | Wikipedia
Yeasayer: Purchase | Official | MySpace | Wikipedia
Solid Gold: Purchase | MySpace

Also: The Decemberists @ State Theatre