Treasure Island Music Festival, Day 2

Next up was the Mumlers who were delightful, entertaining and brought some good local fun to the event. Lots of instrumentation switch-ups with the band that kept things lively.

Ra Ra Riot brought out the beautiful poly tech youth of privilege. Not sure if I was still waking up or rainy elements, but I felt like I was living in one of those Coldplay scored PBS underwriter commercials. Then there was the beautiful Alexandra Lawn's styling electric cello which served as a reminder that not everyone is affected by this darned recession that most of us are experiencing.

Papercuts time. A great way to get your mope on with gentle guitar and breezy synths. Some Stuart Murdoch vocal affectations with occasional ascending melodies that rose to the heavy fog-laden skies. All and all it is always nice to see local boys not blowing it and keeping the Sunday afternoon vibes in motion.

Superchunk was amazing. Twenty-one years forward and these geezers still got what it takes. I hope that M. Ward is taking notes; it could save him from boring me senseless when he plays later with what's-her-pretty-face. Superchunk’s "Cross Wires" was full of energy and made me wish more people still talked about them. Some of the best brand of Hüsker Dü pop taking the B. Mould (Sugar era) as mode of inspiration and argument for genre.

Sea and Cake performed with great jazzy bliss. "I would like to thank the island people for putting on this island festival," Sam Prekop said with chilled out gratitude. Their set proved light, airy; perfect island afternoon delight.

She and Him was about as interesting as Zooey Deschanel's acting. Makes you dream about being in one of those echelons were you can buy yourself a band and stick all the hard music stuff on M. Ward who is just expanding his brand and probably attempting to convince Ms. 300 Days of Summer that he is way more relevant than Ben Gibbard. No contest, right? But I digress.

As we returned to the Tunnel Stage, Sea and Cake had yet to strike their gear before Monotonix took to the crowd for the greatest performance of the entire weekend. By that I mean lead singer Ami, guitarist Yonatan and drummer Haggai dragged instruments and cables into the audience and started a crowd surfing riot. (not to be confused with Ra Ra Riot who despite the implied moniker did not start a riot in any way, just to be clear here)

"Shalom! We come in peace!" The Moses-in-the-wilderness-bearded Ami assured the audience who was elated to finally have an artist that broke down that cumbersome fourth wall barrier. Amazing still was his plea of, "Everbody, please!" Which was a lead-in for a joyful rendition of "Hard Day's Night" before the band went into a Fun House era riff. Shit, what Osterberag and the brothers Asheton are to Detroit these grizzled three must be to Tel Aviv.

After Ami went King Kong on the sound booth, he retreated with Yonatan and Haggai to the front of the stage and had us all sit down on the muddy ass grass. He made fun of us San Franciscans and said in his Hebrew accented English, "Hey, it's like a Grateful Dead show!" Then he uttered the sacred Marley quip of "'scuse me while I light my spliff" and the band treaded into Bad Brains territory with some skank guitar, before returning back to the thrashing and bashing.

Broken Social Scene. It never fails to amaze me how they ever made it past being a buzz band. The Vancouver Sun said it best when they described the whole lot of Pitchfork privilege as a bunch of dudes and dudettes on a stage doing a whole lot of nothing. Looked to me like a big collective pose for some Fader photo op.

Surfer Blood's vocals sounded weak with the exception of the alt Sirius radio saturated "Swim" track that made them thoroughly enjoyable for all of 3 minutes and 18 seconds.

The National sounded out some lame rock n' roll swindle of the brooding gloom variety that I'm sure drove the Sufjan set wild. Seemed like most of the artists backstage at that time were having a phat WTF sesh, shaking their heads in a motion of "why?" before heading into their elite sports bar to witness the Giants lose 1-6 Phillies. Not even an underwhelming Rogue Wave performance could have saved us on that Sunday eve.

The good news is that Belle and Sebastian headlined with class and concluded the festival with delightful grace. The Glaswegians commenced with "I Didn't See it Coming" from the opening of their new album Write About Love. Murdoch kept the mood light, threw a few footballs for the kids and performed a great encore with "Judy and the Dream of Horses" that illustrated the band's overall tightness. I wonder if all the members still make equal pay for their efforts. While I have often lamented B & S's reformation, sanitization and sobering of the Glasgow scene it should be noted that they did not disappoint. And hey, they didn't have Norah Jones with them on stage for duets now did they? Still figuring out that recent collaboration out for myself.