John's Forecastle Day 2 Review

Saturday at Forecastle could almost have been called Crazy-fest for all the raucousness, some planned some not, that filled the entire day.
For me the day started about 2 pm when I showed up to try and sneak into The Flaming Lips press interview.. but as my Press Pass only got me into the Festival and no where else I was turned away (which I'm not complaining, compared to the big time press agents covering the Fest, it is kind enough that the Forecastle peeps even gave us a Junior Press Pass).
But shortly after this Metro Safe decided to evacuate the grounds due to threatening weather, which turned  out to be only a threat with no real punch, but better to be Metro-Safe than sorry.  The downside was that after the evacuation there were thousands and thousands of people still exposed to the elements wandering around downtown with no where to go (including the 37flood team).

displaced Forecastlers spilling into the streets during the evacuation

After an hour of evacuation and an hour of re-entering the metaphorical ship had righted it's self but with a little confusion as to what-where-who was playing and when.  But this set back was a blessing as my afternoon was freed up to catch the entire Freakwater set. The last time I saw them play was at Mercury Paw waaay back, and they haven't missed a beat. It was a great trip down memory lane, and great to know these guys (mostly girls actually) still have a following of die hard fans.

Freakwater of the WFPK stage

After freakwater was the onslaught of overlapping headliners: Jim James, The Flaming Lips, and The Black Keys all playing over top one another. with the 3 biggest names of the fest, I have no idea why these bands were not spaced out over the 3 days. on Friday I left after Big Boi ended at 9pm because the last band was The String Cheese Incident which isn't my cup of tea. (Sunday's Headliners are Avett brothers and Animal Collective, and the latter canceled).

Regardless, Jim James being the top notch performer, put on one hell of a show mixing My Morning Jacket songs with his Solo songs along with crowd favorite covers (He ended the night with Let It Be). On stage with him were Louisville favorites like Kevin Ratterman and Dave Gibbons drummer from Month Of Sundays.

Jim James Band

After Jim James wooed the crowd I caught some of the explosion that was The Flaming Lips, it would have been great to see the whole show, but when acts are scheduled on top of each other a man has to choose, and I chose Louisville natives... and I stand by it.

The Explosion that was The flaming Lips

I did see The Black Keys, which was an energetic trip across their entire catalog, which was great for folks like me who kept up with them for their first 3 records and then trailed off... They did have a second guitarist, a bassist, and a keyboard player which surprised me.   The first time I saw The White Stripes play with a bassist I was a little shocked, but playing live means bands get a chance to do things a little differently.  

Because of the evacuation the schedule was kicked back an hour which meant The Black Keys, being final band of the night, played for maybe 30 shorter than planned, but this was no ones fault.. when the city permits office says you end at midnight, you end at midnight (actually the Keys snuck past this by about 15 min..  but if they hadn't there might have been a riot). 

and that was DAY TWO!