The view from above. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
It’s a jungle out there.
On Day One of Treasure Island Music Festival 2011, San Franciscans returned to primeval roots, embracing the solitude for the island in the middle of the bay to let loose. Animal imagery ruled the roost, with plenty of ticketholders toting tails and sporting feathers (how did that ever become popular?). For many who forecast for mid-70 degree temperature, clothing was a premium (guys, wind chill factor). Face paint was not. Over in the food area, festival-goers feasted like lions, tearing at Korean BBQ burritos and grilled cheese with primal appetites.
Performers bought into the wilderness vibes as well. Buraka Som Sistema practically dedicated half its set to the leopard (print) spotted derrière of hypewoman Blaya, while the dancing women of Empire Of The Sun transfigured from swordfish to bumblebees to God knows what in the night’s closing set. And who can forget those awesome gigantic jellyfish bobbing up and down during Cut Copy?
Embracing the intersection of animalistic and electro, Treeswingers got down on what will be remembered in the almanacs as the closest thing we’ll get to an Indian Summer in the Bay.
A few artist recaps and highlights from Day One after the break…
No caption needed. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
Aloe Blacc may have been stuck with an early set time and the smaller stage, but that didn’t stop him from getting his funk on. The Orange County native strutted across the stage in a vest and green shirt, busting out spider-like dance moves while his backing players–adorable nerdy types–jammed on sax and trumpet like it was high school band. Blacc tossed out hits like “Loving You Is Killing Me” and “You Make Me Smile,” even managing to make the audience split down the middle and make room for a Soul Train line. The aisle devolved by the end of the song, but by then Blacc had moved into a drawn-out jam of “I Need A Dollar,” and everyone was too busy doing call-and-response about pecuniary needs to worry about much of anything at all.
The American electrodance group YACHT flew all the way from Iceland to bring their synthpop to a less majestic island. The group, the project of Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, featured haunted-house vocals and wink-worthy bass lines with just enough theatrics to make them memorable. Bechtolt, him of the frisky locks, may not be the strongest live singer, but his quirky footwork won cheers in “Summer Song” and “Psychic City (Voodoo City).” And yet the winner of the show was the prowling wardrobe malfunction, otherwise known as their lead female Evans, who vogued her way through the show, unperturbed by the fact that her white mini-dress was creeping north.
Too cold to be naked. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
To anyone who thought The Naked And Famous were going to give a shiny pop set: should have brought earplugs. The band of kiwis switched between Passion-Pit-esque melodies and shredding guitars and touched on tracks from their only album — “Punching in a Dream” and “The Sun.” In between songs, singer Alisa Xayalith–sporting the same circle-round sunglasses as Claire Evans– chattered in a New Zealand accent, saying she was going to see “Bettles” and “Cat Copay.” They closed out with a false start to “Young Blood” because, as they explained, “it’s so hard to see all these buttons in this light,” but it was so adorably handled that it made us not even mind the annoying girls who stepped on our toes in a rush to see them play that stuck-in-your-head melody.
Two hands, two keyboards. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
Down from four to three members, but undeterred, Battles, took to the Tunnel Stage without a word or a care. But with the northeastern wind and sun on their backs, it was anything but smooth sailing for the the New York City trio, as their supporting LCD displays failing almost immediately. They played admirably though, as roadies rushed around them to lay cable and the screens flashed from black to the default Macbook galaxy background and back to black. Those unconcerned with visual aesthetics, however, were treated to something special as Ian Williams tapped away at his fretboard and drummer John Stanier shifted tempos and slammed the highest crash cymbal we’ve ever seen (it beats the record held by Silversun Pickups drummer, Christopher Guanlo). Jamming straight through a number of tracks, heavily from latest album Gloss Drop, Battles only paused for a brief message from a Michael Scott-sounding Dave Konopka before getting their LCDs up and running–complete with talking heads of Matias Aguayo and Gary Numan–for “Ice Cream” and subsequently “My Machine.”
Hola. (Brian Valdizno)
The island wasn’t prepared to receive the Portuguese electro-dance crew Buraka Som Sistema. Repping the progressive kuduro style (think tribal house), the group whiplashed curious onlookers into a disjointed, pulsating frenzy. The lyrics may not have been as aggressively lewd as last year’s Die Antwoord, but the ass-shaking definitely was. The four dudes ripped through their BPM-raising “Hangover (BaBaBa)” but they alone couldn’t lead the dancing tide – thought the big guy was surprisingly fleet of foot. It was their booty-clapping dancer-MC, Blaya, that skyrocketed the tempo from club to breakneck. She dominated the stage with her neon-orange lipstick and unbelievable hip gyrations, and while the group called “50 girls on the stage” for some confetti-canon party time, her ass put all the waif indie chicks to shame.
"The best MC in the UK" (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
Dizzee Rascal, the self-proclaimed Best MC in England was everything that Major Lazer should have been at Outside Lands. Dizzee’s British-inflected raps slipped from furious to silky effortlessly, and his bare stage setup with one supporting MC was all that was needed to draw the Treasure Island population to the Bridge Stage. The set blended dubstep, reggae, hip hop and the occasional alternative sample (see Florence + the Machine on “You’ve Got the Dirtee Love”) to bring out the awkward thizz face from all the San Franciscans. The crowd readily responded to the rapper’s instructions to jump and bounce from the get-go, but the show hit perfection after the high energy, hilariously anti-drug song “Bassline Junkie.” No one could resist the call of the “Big, dirty, stinkin’ bass,” a feeling that was sustained through “Dance Wiv Me” (sadly lacking Calvin Harris, though the guest singer did nicely) and the seductive “Holiday.”
Laptop, Imma eat you. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
As a creator, Flying Lotus is a genre-dissolving mastermind. One of a kind. We knew that. But as a festival DJ, Steven Ellison was something of a wildcard for those who had embraced the defining Cosmogramma from the comforts of an armchair. But with the onset of night over the island, FlyLo shook the island to its core, sending shockwaves as far as the Silent Disco, which was supposed to be, well, silent. The most electronic of acts, the LA producer alternated between experimental beats and crowd-pleasers, squinting at his laptop as his mouth remained locked in permanent grin. Introducing album material as “Cosmogramma shit,” FlyLo was his own best hypeman, taking time to survey the crowd on their level of sobriety. After spewing through “Robo Tussin” a remix of Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” and mouthing the words to Tyler The Creator’s “Yonkers,” Flying Lotus closed his set with a promise. Find me a house party tonight in San Francisco, and I’ll come and play free of charge, he said. We’re guessing someone had a good post-TIMF night.
An Australian greeting. (Brian Valdizno/treeswingers)
Cut Copy, slotted before fellow Australians Empire Of The Sun, put on a show to make the land down under quake. Fittingly, a school of iridescent jellyfish surged through the crowd for the nighttime set, wafting through the exuberant dancers looking like the poltergeists from the band’s second In Ghost Colours. In his band’s decade of performing, singer Dan Whitford has transformed from a laptop junkie into a festival maestro, seen Saturday night in his double fist pumping and dandy foot-stomping to the Zonoscope-dominated set. The animated frontman permitted himself more emotion, letting his voice crack through “Need You Now” and his limbs to wave unrestrained in the drum-heavy “Corner of the Sky.” He still looked like a robot in comparison to Empire of the Sun’s diva, Luke Steele, but the Melbourne electronic quartet proved that their years of touring have cultured a tight, synth-pulsing, dance-demanding live show.
Treeswingers’ Top Three
Battles- My Machine (ft. Gary Numan) (download)
Flying Lotus- Robo Tussin (ft. Little Wayne) (download)
Cut Copy- Corner Of The Sky (download)
-Ryan, Ellen, Brian and Marisa
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