Nelsonville Music Festival 2017

I’ve been hearing about the Nelsonville Music Festival for several years from some friends in Columbus.  And ever year, I salivate over the lineup this little festival would get.  After reading this below, I knew I had to make it there, and soon before anything changed. 

This festival may be the largest non-profit festival in the country, with over 15,000 people taking part over four days, the eclectic mix of artists that perform cover a wide range of music [… ] The festival itself is community-based and barely has any major corporate sponsorship.

( Nelsonville Music Festival: May 28-31, 2015 Via CMJ)

What an incredible experience.  Going from the urban, dance, house environment in downtown Detroit - directly to a rural, camping folk festival in rural Ohio was a little jarring, but in the best way possible.  I’ll also give a big shout out to the group of friends that provided me with instant companionship and camaraderie.  I could have asked for a better introduction.  I captured many performances on my YouTube channel, but some of my favorites are here:

Here’s also an assemblage of other random clips from the weekend.

And then some photos… The rest are on my Flickr page.

Franz Ferdinand (5/31/17)

This year I decided that (almost) immediately following the Movement Festival, I was also going to attend the Nelsonville Music Festival.  This gave me 1 whole day at home between trips.  While I wasn’t originally planning on catching Franz Ferdinand at the House of Blues on this day, a series of awesome events landed me there.  Totally worth it.

Movement 2017

Another year, another Movement electronic music festival.   

"DETROIT — If the giant commercial music festival seems to be a model of the recent past and the small, carefully framed festival seems one of the evolving future, Detroit experienced both past and future last weekend.

The Movement Electronic Music Festival had its tenth annual edition here on Memorial Day weekend, attracting a total of more than 100,000 people from Saturday to Monday to Hart Plaza downtown and to after-parties until daybreak around the city. "

(Via Made in Detroit, Differing Music Models - The New York Times.)

Great as always!! Let’s watch the tape!

Video Day #tzaupbeat

MØ has a great new video out for her Nights With You.  ODESZA released a new travel video for Late Night, but unfortunately their new album won’t be out until September (8th).  Next up, I stumbled on this Evan Klar video for Barefoot which instantly caught my attention, and now we just wait for a full album.

 

Bonus:  I just posted about the Flint Eastwood show, but also wanted to go back and share one of their videos as well.

Video Day #tzachill

Perfume Genius will Die 4 You in in his new video.  Dan Auerbach is King of this One Horse Town in his new video.  Justin Townes Earle also has a new video for Maybe a Moment.

 

BONUS:  I was able to catch The Cactus Blossoms at the Nelsonville Music Festival, and this was one of the songs that really caught my attention:

Pantha Du Prince (5/21/17)

Movement is coming this weekend and Pathan Du Prince was billed as a festival Pre-Party!  Granted, it was a week before the actual festival, but this show was totally worth driving to Detroit twice within a week.  His electronic music had everyone at the Marble Bar up and dancing!  I couldn’t imagine a better pre-party than this.

Tall Heights (6/18/17)

I have been sitting on this Tall Heights album for some time, and had to dust it off and re-familiarize myself with it before their performance at Mahalls 20 Lanes.  I’m so glad I did!  These Boston boys definitely have their Fleet Foxes / Band of Horses influence, but they’re able to maintain a distinct sound all their own. What an enjoyable show!

Justin Townes Earle (5/16/17)

It had been nearly 8 years since I saw Justin Townes Earle down at the Kent Stage.  It was such a good performance, that I knew I wanted to come back down for this one.  Though I would have loved to see Tom Evanchuck open again, this time his band The Sadies opened.  We missed their performance, but they were back on stage with Justin.  

He’s one of those performers that I have most of their albums, but I can’t say I really know any of the songs all that well.  But that really makes no difference when seeing him live. His stage presence and sound can keep you full entertained, even if you’ve never heard any of his music before.

Coraine Tate sings Buck McDaniel (5/11/17)

My friend Coraine Tate was graduating from CIM with her Artists Diploma.  As part of this final performance, she wanted to put a poem (Desiderata) to music as a tribute to Dr. Mary Schiller. She worked with Buck McDaniel to compose a piece that was really amazing.  This was also my first time in CIM’s theatre, which was almost just as amazing!

Flint Eastwood (5/4/17)

Everyone once in a while  you see a live show that just blows your mind.  This was one of those shows.  I had been checking out the new Flint Eastwood album for a little while, and it had really started growing on me.  I’ll admit that I’m always skeptical of bands with names that play on popular culture like Com Truise and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (now just JR JR), but then again I guess I’ve looked past it for those bands.  Once I got to the venue, I ran into my friend Barry who tells me he’s seen these guys multiple times already, raving about them!  As soon as they started performing, it was perfectly clear why.  They were a force of nature on stage, unlike anything I’ve seen since early Future Islands!  So incredible.  I can not wait until they play in the area again!  Check out the video to get the a better impression - albeit paling in comparison to actually being there.