Rock the Garden Rocked
By Brian Baier
Who says not to trust anyone over 30? I thought it would be a good idea to attend a concert featuring Solid Gold, Yeasayer, Calexico, and The Decemberists, right in the relative back yard of Minneapolis. If the response I got from my friends under 30 via facebook regarding Rock the Garden 2009 is any indication, I may still be trusted for good musical taste. I refuse to concede, as was so indefensibly put to me, only “kids are supposed to have all the fun and go to all the rad shows.”
Who gave these kids permission to use the word “rad,” anyway?
Hosted by the Walker Art Center and Minnesota Public Radio’s 89.3 The Current, the 9-year-old event has become a highly anticipated day in the city. The organizers executed Rock the Garden 2009 with the apparent ease of an open invitation party where only the cool folks show up. I have few qualms about basking in the perfect June sun on a wonderful grassy amphitheater behind the museum. I would only fear that danger that sometimes befalls events that are overcome by their own popularity, attracting undesirable guests seeking an excuse to drink and be merrily destructive. Rock the Garden will unlikely go down that road.
The Walker boasts an ideal space for ample crowds to converge fluidly. While thousands attended, I never felt pressed in from any corner. The audience itself deserves credit for maintaining an atmosphere both relaxed and enthusiastic.
Chris Keating
Hosts and attendees succeeding on their ends, let’s not neglect part three of this summer gathering equation: The musicians. While not inclined to join the chaos inherent in some festival crowds, Yeasayer’s Chris Keating confessed this particular event’s more casual vibe felt less claustrophobic, more welcoming. “Sometimes festivals can feel a little more hostile,” he said, citing the position of playing three bands before Radiohead at Lollapalooza, facing twenty rows of people waiting for the big name to take the stage. “Or maybe that’s not fair,” Keating ceded, comparing when “it feels like no one knows your music” to the benefit of “playing to new people as opposed to doing shows where you’re probably playing to people who have your record.”
Yeasayer
It is every music reviewer’s conceit to cobble together a concise description defining an artist’s sound and style, almost competitively assembling that magic sequence of words. I submit for you, my summation of Yeasayer: Soulful, electronic, indie anthems. They gave an emotional performance with grace and ease. Performing already more than half a dozen times in the Twin Cities, hopefully they feel less and less like the odd band out when visiting.
Zach Coulter
Steadily finding themselves as a local favorite is the band Solid Gold. Recalling the funk and synth of 80s new wave bands, they also are a clear product of the evolving indie rock scene. Songs like “Bible Thumper” offer a danceable beat while charting a mellow course to head-bobbing approval. The band has found a nurturing, if temporary, home in the Twin Cities. Outgrowing their origins in Madison, Wisconsin, the band currently resides in Minneapolis, hometown of front man Zach Coulter.
“Traveling is a huge asset to being in a band, a perk that I enjoy,” Coulter said in a phone interview. When I asked where he’d like to end up, he suggested a nicer climate, possibly somewhere in Europe, but ultimately, “There’s a lot of places I haven’t been, so I can’t specifically say.”
That preference for comfortable weather may have little to do with playing music outdoors, however. Solid Gold is an album-oriented band, forced to play along with a series of programmed elements like drum machines and samples on stage. “I thought some of the songs were going to be impossible to perform,” Coulter said of performing from their most recent album, Bodies of Water. “Opera singers, trumpets, and violins, we don’t have them on a day to day basis.”
Calexico
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to speak with anyone from the two later acts. Calexico refurbished the most sober style of southwestern rock, layered with south-of-the-border horns and a cursory wisdom. Each song spoke to a different stretch of road on some lonesome traveler’s soundtrack. The band based in Tuscon, Arizona, seemed almost venerable compared to the relatively dramatic verve of the other artists on the bill.
Decemberists-Shara Worden
Carrying the audience from the last rays of sun through the first hour of darkness were The Decemberists. No simple collection of hits marked their turn on stage. Instead, we were treated to a 17-part fantastical tale, the complete track listing of their newest album, The Hazards of Love [ed note: available on vinyl and CD]. Bittersweet and darkly comical, an enchanting blend of theatrics and musicianship transformed the evening before us.
Decemberists
The Decemberists followed this heavy and invigorating storytelling session with a short selection of their older tunes, even orchestrating some impromptu choir practice, directed by lead writer and singer, Colin Meloy. Then came the rocking finale, a cover of Heart’s “Crazy On You,” a really great way to send everyone off.
Decemberists
[You can watch that performance via youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yrL8PeORjU] Citing time restraints, The Current’s DJ Mark Wheat announced an end to the evening, apologizing for The Decemberists being unable to play longer, as they would have gladly done so.
