I Was There: Pygmalion Music Festival, Friday

[Pygmalion Music Festival with Sunset Stallion, Owen, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Santa, Black Mountain and The Hood Internet]

Click below for photos from Friday’s shows at Krannert Art Museum and Canopy Club!

Sunset Stallion, Canopy Club:

Owen, Krannert Art Museum:

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Krannert Art Museum:

Mmm, wonderful. With swoon-worthy songs, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down feel subtly folky, displayed through catchy guitar segments courtesy of Thao Nguyen and repeatedly suggested audience clapping, but still stray from being pegged as such. By far one of the most surprising acts on the bill, their show was one of the best of the festival, and definitely worth seeing again.

Santa, Krannert Art Museum:

I‘ve easily seen 10-15 Santa shows, and while I’m a big fan of the band, there’s times when Christmas spirit towards songs I’ve heard over and over tends to stray. At their Pygmalion performance, though, it was different. The drumming was great, the new songs were impressive, and the boys are definitely on the up and up. Keep your eye out for them — they keep improving significantly, and considering they were great at the start, it’s a good sign.

Black Mountain, Canopy Club:

I love Black Mountain.

I also love honesty. And, well, I was enjoying Friday night a bit too much to focus on how good their music was. But, boy, did they set the mood well.  The club was pitch black, with eerie red lighting shining on the band, a drastic difference from the brightly-lit shows at KAM earlier that evening.

I learned two things that night about Black Mountain — one, don’t get so excited for The Hood Internet that you forget to stay sobes enough to enjoy the band before them, and two, I’ve been outdid. As the wearer of a gold necklace with a soft pretzel charm on it, I thought I had cornered the market on concession food jewelry until the keyboardist chatted with me about what was around his neck — an in-shell peanut dipped in silver. You’ve won this time, Black Mountain. That is, until I dip a real soft pretzel in gold and throw it around my neck.

The Hood Internet, Canopy Club’s Void Room:

Sweaty bodies pushing into a tiny, tiny pit, thrashing around to the mashed up music is a fantastic way to spend a Friday night, and so was the act I was personally most looking forward to seeing at Pygmalion. If you don’t know anything about The Hood Internet or bolted to go to a bar or something incredibly sad and lame like that, you might want to check them out right now, and feel bad for missing it.

The kids went crazy. If you don’t believe me, check for yourself: 

Dan Deacon had a similar craze, but this was friendlier. More excited, more positive. The last time I saw The Hood Internet, I was behind a group of high school-ers, swiveling their hips like they had just figured out their joints bend that way.  The music crowd of CU disappoints from time to time, whether from lack of screaming enthusiasm or by attendance, but god damn, this town really brought it for this show, shirtless, sweaty bro’s included.

Deacon’s show had an abrupt end during which people unarguably turned and exited, but on Friday, the Hood duo weren’t going to be set free without at least one more song, providing the crowd with enough closure to move forward from the exciting evening, free of disappointment, and energized enough to stay out through the late morning hours.