After a good dose of begging and pity I was able to score a VIP pass to the Village Voice Siren Music Festival. Armed with a mini disc recorder and spunk, I dove into the crowd of 100,000 in the shadow of the Cyclone. First up was the Black Lips. I had always heard so much about them, but had never taken the time to sit down and appreciate them. Well after standing 6 feet in front of them during their entire show, I’ll spend a little more time listening. It was exactly as they described… flower punk. Very aggressive with odd reverb and echos mixed in. The best part was when a live chicken was let loose on stage and they took an air tank filled with feathers fly.

The Black Lips

Next I made my way over to the other stage where Matt and Kim were playing. This show was way better than their showcase at SXSW. The hometown crowd was really into it which Matt and Kim ate up. This was the largest show they have ever played and has a way of breaking bands. The band has come a long way from food fights and should make it big any day now. And when it happens, I’m all over that with the, “yeah, I was totally into them way before now.”

Matt

And Kim

The rest of the festival was spent running around, trying to get interviews for WNYC. It went alright, but unfortunately I did not get the band interviews I was promised by the publicists. Overall, festival was 7.5 of 10.