Coming into day two of Fall Line Festival, I knew I was going to be going all over town to see the bands that I wanted to see. When the schedule came out, all I could think about was how all the bands that sold the festival to me were all playing the same day, some of them at different venues.
I was supposed to be on assignment to take pictures at Gallery 5, but I couldn't help but start my evening off by seeing some of the bands at Strange Matter. Out of all the bands that I had to miss out on the whole weekend, I was most disappointed that I couldn't see Sundials or Diamond Youth. Nonetheless, I was just as excited to go to Gallery 5 because I really wanted to see Speedy Ortiz and Pity Sex.
Before heading over to Gallery 5, I caught Springtime's set. While I'm sure there will be another article talking about Strange Matter that night, I just have to say that I absolutely loved their set and was especially stoked hearing them play a cover of Lifetime’s "Cut The Tension."
Right after Springtime's set, I raced over to Gallery 5 to make sure I didn't miss out anymore on the show over there. I got there just before Helado Negro got on stage. A solo-chillwave act, Helado Negro (which means Black Ice Cream in Spanish) is the brainchild of South Florida native, Roberto Lange Carlos.
The show Helado Negro put on was impressive, having dimmed nearly all the house lights with his own minimal lighting and projector on stage. His backdrop was the cover art from his new record, Invisible Light. The live show immediately reminded me of many of his chillwave/dream pop contemporaries, such as Neon Indian, Beach House, and Purity Ring. Helado Negro's light show isn't the only thing that’s comparable to the aforementioned bands, with his sound paying homage to them as well. Helado Negro's songs are reminiscent of the Latin sounding percussion and samples from Neon Indian's "Psychic Chasms" and having vocal melodies that made me think of Beach House, but sung in Spanish instead.
Earlier in the summer, I was introduced to Speedy Ortiz through my compatriots here at RVA Mag. They played at Strange Matter last month, but I had missed out--much to my chagrin, because I had really been getting into their new record, Major Arcana. Their set easily surpassed my expectations of how they were going to be. They opened with "Taylor Swift," the first track the band released and what I believe is such a great example of what makes the band great. It's grungy, catchy, and really smart.
I absolutely adore the chorus, "'Cuz now I got a boy in a hardcore band, I got a boy who fucks to Can, then there’s the boy who sings those sad songs I like, I got too many boyfriends to see you tonight." Not only is the title satirical of Tay-Swift's lyrical subject-matter, but I just love the caricature of the thousands of young alt-rock snobs (including myself) who think they're lady killers, but end up getting played by their supposed romantic interest.
The band has plenty of personality and it shows on stage. The grunge aesthetic and noisy guitar-pop sound that I love shines through in their live show. During their performance, guitarist Matt Robidoux tried to perform some kind of spontaneous sound-experiment with his guitar by duct taping a number of empty water bottles to his guitar. I didn't notice any actual effect on his guitar other than just a bunch of noise, but it was definitely entertaining to watch. When vocalist, Sadie Dupuis was asked by viewers about what Robidoux was doing, all she could do was laugh and say she had no idea. It goes to show that the band doesn't really plan much of their show and genuinely seem to have fun playing and doing whatever they want on stage. The set ended with Robidoux taking the rest of the tape he had used and just wrapping up Dupuis and bassist Darl Ferm.
Aside from Big Freedia at the end of Saturday night, I would have to say that Speedy Ortiz was my favorite part about Fall Line Fest. I've been absolutely hooked since seeing them.
Not to be overshadowed by Speedy Ortiz, Pity Sex came on after them and closed the night at Gallery 5 with a show that was almost as good. I was looking forward to seeing Pity Sex, who I had also spent much of my summer listening to. I was introduced to Pity Sex after they released their new record, Feast of Love, through one of my favorite labels, Run For Cover Records. The band performed a number of songs from the new record, but also played a few tracks from their EP, Dark World. Much like my opinion of both those records, I was definitely much more pleased with the songs they played off of Dark World. It could be a personal preference, but it seemed those songs had more energy and were much more memorable. I think the decision to have Pity Sex play after Speedy Ortiz was a good one, with both bands being similar in terms of taking much influence from 90’s grunge/guitar pop, but Pity Sex seemed to wind down the evening a bit more, with their songs being a bit more moodier. I think that contrast was definitely evident watching them play one after the other.
After the show I went to go see Big Freedia, which absolutely lived up to all my expectations of seeing what real twerking is. I would say a bunch about it, but you can read a pretty thorough review of that show over here.