Saturday at Forecastle started slightly more anemic than the powerhouse of Friday's line up, but at 7:15 pm Kentucky born country hero Sturgill Simpson lit up the main stage to a large crowd that seemingly barely noticed music was playing, much less a solid set by one of the state's finest.
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| Festival-goers chatting as if Sturgill Simpson wasn't 15 feet away tearing up the stage |
Despite a large portion of the crowd ignoring the Kentuckian, Simpson played his special brand of soul-country soaked in electric organ but with a tinge of displeasure, remarking at one point about the main stage's technical difficulties that have plagued the entire weekend, "See, this is the problem with playing festivals, you don't get a sound check so you just gotta trust that this shit is gonna work.."
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| Sturgill Simpson & Co. |
Regardless of the sound issues and a half aware crowd Simpson put on a hell of a show, playing 'Welcome To Earth' and other crowd favs from A Sailor's Guide To Earth as well as some earlier work such as "I'd Have To Be Crazy" from 2013's High Top Mountain. Simpson has a way of speaking honestly to the down-to-earth working crowd while simultaneously injecting a layer of pretension, with comments such as "I just wanted to tell y'all, we are getting on a plane next week to Japan to play Fuji Rock. You know how many fucking country singers from Kentucky can say they did that? This many!" while pointing to himself.
Despite a lighter drawing line up for Saturday, the most noticeable theme of Forecastle 2017 is that 'Festival Culture' has surpassed the festival itself. More than any previous year, the crowd donned wild costume and body paint, that would seem out of the ordinary if it wasn't the norm. Of course none of this is necessarily a bad thing accept it would seem a good number of the guests were there because it is a festival instead of what is going on at this festival.
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| Phantogram |
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| LCD Soundsystem |
Regardless of this, there were several stand out performances on Saturday including Phantogram, Vince Staples, and LCD Soundsystem as some of the more interesting sets in an otherwise sea of molly fueled glitter painted festival fodder. With large screens strobing live feeds of the members of LCD Soundsystem in alternating red and blue lights (the magic combination to induce photosensitive epileptic seizures known as "Electric Soldier Effect" or "Pokémon Shock"), making for the most captivating/impressive set of the night with LCD classics such as "Yr City's A Sucker" from the 2005 self titled album and "I Can Change" and "You Wanted a Hit" from 2010's This Is Happening.
And that was Day 2!
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| The Electric Soldier: LCD Soundsystem |
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| The Laser Blaze of LCD Soundsystem |
Read the review of Day One
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