We’ve got one last recap from the WOXY.com stage at the Monolith Festival to give you today. As darkness fell on the 2nd night of the festival, we were treated to a performance from Au Revoir Simone. The trio of lovely ladies from Brooklyn have almost as tricky of a setup as White Rabbits did. You see, they all sing and perform from behind a wall of keyboards and assorted samplers. Getting all of those things running in perfect harmony can be difficult, especially when doing a show after recently returning from overseas. One of the small snafus for the band was when Heather realized that she had an outlet for European voltage on one of her machines.
It didn’t take long for things to get sorted out and they played a terrific set. Their live set has gotten even better since I saw them last, which makes sense because they’ve been touring incessantly to support their album The Bird Of Music. In fact, shortly before arriving at Red Rocks, they were invited by Air to open up dates this fall across Europe.
Below you’ll find 2 downloads from their live set at Monolith and also a video interview that Shiv recorded after their set with Erika and Annie.
The energy in the room was still pretty high from the White Rabbits performance when Hot IQs started to setup for their set. I think the thing that pleased us the most on Saturday was that even with very strong lineups on the other Monolith stages, our room inside the Red Rocks Visitors Center stayed full throughout the day. It certainly didn’t hurt that Hot IQs have become strong favorites on the Denver music scene. Their fans came out in full force to support their Monolith set, which showcased the trio’s infectious indie pop tunes and fed off the great energy of the crowd.
The band were even unfazed by a technical snafu that occurred early in their set where a main power source got unplugged. It takes more than a little lost power to break the energy of this band. They played a collection of tunes from their debut album, their recent EP, and even snuck a few new tunes into the set as well. If you listen closely, you may even hear the sound of (confetti-filled) balloons being popped by the crowd during some of their songs after they were thrown off the stage by the band.
In addition to the live MP3s below, you can also check out the video interview Shiv did with the band where they talk about playing at Red Rocks and working on their 2nd full-length release.
Ian’s performance ending up running a little later than it was supposed to, which freaked out the sound guys. It probably should have because White Rabbits have a fairly elaborate stage setup that includes two drummers who keep perfect time with each other. Their set starting late was one of the few snafus of the weekend, but the troubles quickly disappeared with their excellent set.
I’ll admit that I was a little lukewarm on the band before Monolith. I liked some of the songs we had been playing at WOXY, but I guess they hadn’t made too much of an impression on me. Seeing them live changed all of that. By the time they started their set, I’m pretty sure that the room had filled to over capacity. I didn’t even try to make it to our little nook in the back of the room, I just watched from the side of the stage.
Even though some of the guys in the band were a little under the weather, they played a set of tunes off their Fort Nightly record that made the massive crowd go wild. It was probably the most unexpected set of the weekend for me because I didn’t know that there would be so many people pushing their way up to the front and singing along to every word. When all was said and done, the band fully won me over and I declared that they were the best performance of the weekend. Check it out for yourself with the free downloads below:
After a blistering set from Forget Cassettes, we shifted gears on the WOXY.com stage for a solo, acoustic performance from Ian Ball. We had already seen some good crowds turn out in the first part of the day, but Gomez fans started to really pack out the room in anticipation of his set.
Ian is going to make his solo debut on October 30th with an album called Who Goes There. His performance at Monolith included some of these new tunes, a couple of Gomez classics for good measure, and even a stripped-down cover of the 80’s pop hit “Maneater” from Hall & Oates.
Armed only with a guitar and his sharp wit, Ian captivated the crowd and told some hysterical stories. You’ll hear about how he was asked to write a 15-second theme tune for the recent “Grey’s Anatomy” spin off (and how the show turned him down). He also explains that one of his new solo tunes, “Failure”, is about premature ejaculation. There are a lot of laughs and great music from Ian’s performance available for download below!
Got another video interview from Monolith to share with you to start off the week, lots more Monolith coverage to follow as well. Check it out as Shiv interviews De Novo Dahl…..
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The second band to perform on our stage Saturday afternoon was Forget Cassettes. It’s been very interesting to watch the evolution of this Nashville-based band over the last few years. The original members (Beth & Doni) are back together again and they are joined by their new bass player Jason during this performance.
2007 has found their second album, Salt, picked up for release in the UK and Japan. With more people discovering their music, they’ve continued to put on an impressive live show that probably confuses a few people but amazes the rest of the crowd. Their songs often start soft and delicate and then slowly build up into loud and, sometimes, very intense tracks. They like to play with that dynamic, almost teasing the audience into wondering when the songs will shift.
Their performance at Monolith was outstanding and continued to prove that no matter how many times the lineup changes, Beth is a frontwoman to be reckoned with. Their set included a few new tracks (one of them, “Ribbons”, was premiered recently in our Cincinnati studios) and even a rousing cover of PJ Harvey’s “Me-Jane” which they started working into their live sets recently.
Our first day at Monolith was a blast, but we were wiped out by the end of it. After getting a good night’s sleep and a quick breakfast, we headed back to Red Rocks on Saturday morning ready to get the second day going.
We hadn’t seen Via Audio since they dropped in to EAR Studios with us down in Austin at SXSW earlier in the year. Since that time, the band signed with the SideCho label and were getting ready to release their debut full-length record Say Something Say Something Say Something.
It can be daunting to be the first band to take the stage, but as soon as the band launched into their set, people started to pour into the room to check them out. I can guarantee that they walked away from the afternoon with some new fans.
They were really fun to watch on stage with loads of energy. There was a magic moment during their performance that just blew me away. That happened when they broke into “Enunciation” from their new album. It’s a nice jazzy number that really highlights the range of Jessica’s voice. You can download that song below, along with some other great moments from the band’s Monolith set.
