Categories : Music Reviews.
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Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Day two of Sled Island started with a groggy head and a severe lack of balance. It also started with yet more beers on the patio of Local 510, listening to the pleasant strains of Cavaliers! and My Gold Mask. Though I shamefully didn’t put myself in a position to actually see the bands, I was present enough to listen to My Gold Mask. While their opener sounded like something akin to wounded yodeling, the rest of the set from this Chicago two-piece was surprisingly charming. With Radians just getting started, I packed up and headed towards the Republik to catch the much-hyped Chain & The Gang. They didn’t disappoint. During a short set, they were sublime, ridiculous, funny, and played a few really good songs, as if to prove that they could. Chain & The Gang either have no idea how good they are, or they know exactly how good they are.
Ty Segall rounded up the early afternoon at Republik, with his reverb-y garage rock. He didn’t break any new ground, but he won over a tired crowd of hungover concert-goers. The energy of the set was impressive, in spite of the awkward time and clearly sleep-deprived crowd.
Concert organizers kindly left a gap of a couple of hours between the day sets and night sets, allowing the wounded masses to head home and catch a few hours’ sleep. And boy, did it help. As the evening began to ramp up, I found myself in the Marquee Room listening to a fairly disappointing set by Valleys. It was no fault of the band’s, though. Sound problems and sparse attendance led to a not very interesting performance, though the last few songs did start to build momentum.
From there, it was off to The Distillery, one of the stranger Sled Island venues. About half the crowd was the bar’s usual headbangers, and then it was filled out with Sled’s hipsters and indie kids. There wasn’t much tension in the room, thankfully. I got there in time to catch The Donkeys, who were definitely having the most fun of anyone in the room. Their stoner-pop was silly and likeable, but over the course of about 8 songs they sounded like 5 different bands.
And that’s when Sled Island got my attention – The Thermals. The Thermals ripped the cover off of the festival, and turned The Distillery into the place to be on Thursday night. Their energetic punk-pop lathered the crowd into a frenzy, and it ended all too soon with their closer, of course, “Canada.”
For me, at that point, day two was over. No topping The Thermals on this night. Until tomorrow …
