Well a light mist never hurt anyone, or even rain in general! Everyone seems totally fine with the light mist this early afternoon at 80/35! Lots of great music to be seen, Avi Buffalo is going to be rocking the main stage soon! Great little band im stoked to see live!
July 2 and 3, 2011
Drummer from Crowd Plays with Yo La Tengo
Yesterday during Yo La Tengo’s set they called upon a fan from the crowd to play drums during on of their songs. Pat Curtis from Radio Iowa interviewed the lucky drummer. Click here to watch the video.
Des Moines Register! I’m on the front page! Record Setting Day
I’m at Devin’s from PCC’s house and his parents were like hey I think you are on the front page of the Des Moines Register! Yep, I am you can see my first pumping in the air to YO LA TENGO.. Its a great article by my buddy Joe Lawler and its nice to hear that yesterday was a record setting day! YEAH!
SPOON SPOON SPOON!
Man last night was incredible! SPOON had one of the best sounding fun sets I have ever seen at a music festival! The sound was amazing! And they played everything anyone would want to hear from a shortened Festival set! I loved the show! I was back hanging out with LADD A. From the Vaud during the show and we talked about how amazing it was that 8 years ago we were putting on shows at the OCTAGON or the Fall OUT Shelter and Now look at DES MOINES a mass sea of people watching some of the biggest artist in the WORLD playing in our back yard!
Man after the festival we headed down to the VAUDEVILLE for the FREE PBR after party and it was amazing, DES MOINES really came out to the after party and we rock into the 4th in style! HELL even SPOON showed up at the Vaudeville for the after party! Dreams coming true at 80/35! Get down to the fest today lots of fun stuff a head! Im so excited for Christopher the Conquered set, some big things are planned!
Spoon doesn’t disappoint
Attendees of 80/35 witnessed yet another Des Moines first last night. After Yo La Tengo earlier in the day played Des Moines for the first time in the group’s more than 25-year history, Spoon played Iowa’s capital city for the first time in their 17 years together.
Spoon stuck mostly to songs from their new album, Transference, but also played some older favorites. There wasn’t a lot of talk from the band as they flew through an hour-long set before coming back out for several more songs.
The sound-quality for Spoon was great; call me what you will, but I felt like many of the other bands playing Saturday were much too loud. The one issue I noticed was some of their effects seemed to be going off at the wrong time, but I think most fans – myself included – were more than willing to overlook a few minor missteps in an otherwise great performance.
The bad news? There’s an 80 percent chance of heavy rain Sunday, and a 70 percent chance of thunderstorms tonight. Could get somewhere between two and three inches. I for one will still be out there!
Some more photos from Spoon:
Morning After Day 1.
It’s a rough morning. After finding out that none of my posts from yesterday actually posted from my phone, I have decided to simply introduce myself, write a recap of what I did day 1, and decide how I am going to handle day 2.
My name is Luke aka Aeon Grey, local hip hop act, producer, promoter, etc etc etc and more importantly tomorrow a piece of Maxilla Blue. I am writing from a rather unique perspective as a stage manger, sound engineer, performer, and live blogger. My travels around the festival grounds have so far been limited to 20 minute segments of bathroom breaks eating and coffee.
I’ve had some great food, and I think I will probably find some more on day 2. I started day 1 with tacos from the Mooncheese tent outside of the Des Moines Social Club. The menu was prepared by my friend and excellent chef Hal Jasa. Great halibut fish tacos with a little bit of hot sauce was my choice. On the food tip, I spent the rest of the time dipping in and out of the air conditioning at Ritual Cafe, drinking tea, eating black bean wraps, and using a bathroom that was a stable fixture. I am not sure what day 2 will bring, but I plan on having a little more time to explore. Plus I’ll figure out how to update more often so I am not doing just a long recap.
What I was able to hear of the music on day 1 was excellent. I have had to spend most of my time organizing acts around the Mediacom Electronic and Hip Hop stage on 13th St., as well as helping sound. But nothing over there disappointed me. I tweaked sound for the hip hop acts, Tripp Marxx, Adapt, Guante and Bigcats, Muja Messiah and St. Paul Slim. Seeing the performances from behind the stage is some of the best. Hearing exactly what the acts hear is a preference of mine. If you’re out and about braving the rain today, we have locals Guerrilla Hustle, Gadema and Richie Daggers, plus travelling in Kanser and Qwel of Galapagos4 out of Chicago. Qwel is a personal favorite of mine, and inspiring lyricist whose talent is unmatched. If you’re without tickets to Modest Mouse check that out. And my group Maxilla Blue is playing as well.
The rest of the music was sadly experienced in quick walks past the stages. Everyone seemed to have a thick crowd and people are really enjoying themselves this year. I wish that I could of spent more time watching some of the acts, but time simply did not allow it. I am looking for stand ins today so I can check out at least a couple of acts entire sets.
So far so good, so exciting, and so exhausting. Someday I am hoping I can just be a spectator again.
I just did what at 80/35
Well I was getting pretty wiped from going to stage to stage and having brews so I just treated myself to a MASSAGE at 80/35.. Yes they have it all here! And dang the massage was really awesome! the Massage tent was located right in between the sounds of Earl Greyhound and Slightly Stooped so not your typical massage music, but then again most people do not get massages at Music Festivals! BUT you can at 80/35!
Im getting excited for SPOON, I was happy to see them up on stage watching YO LA TENGO! I must say congrats to everyone here you are all being so lovely and it seems like everyone is having the time of their lives! Ok lets go get a little GA GA GA GA GA GA!
YO LAMAZING
Man how often does one of your top ten all time bands play in your back yard! Well it seems like every 80/35.. 2 years ago we had the Flaming Lips, last year it was MALKMUS and now the band who i consider the GREATEST INDIE ROCK BAND OF ALL TIME….. YO LA TENGO…
Man Im so happy I got to see Yo La’s first ever show in Des Moines, Fellow Des Moiners Marc and Angela Hogan came with my Wife and I to Omaha, last OCT. to see them and they killed it then, so I had been setting the bar high for friends who have yet to see them! AND THEY DID NOT DISSAPOINT! They had a killer set list full of gems through out the catalog, including “SUGAR CUBE” right when its started to rain a bit! They called someone up from the crowed to play drums, I was hoping it would be me but who ever it was did an amazing job!
It does not get much better then standing in a group of your best buddies watching one of your favorite bands just KILL IT! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE 80/35 set of all time so far!
THANKS 80/35 for making my year with that! OH SHIT SPOON TO COME and then I’m off the the Vaudeville Mews to Play a FREE AFTER PARTY! LIFE IS GOLDEN!
Yo La Tengo’s first Des Moines show
Indie veterans Yo La Tengo have broken into the Des Moines music scene (they also said they’ve been playing music longer than most of the people in the audience have been alive).
The trio busted out some raw and mesmerizing cuts tonight, and even brought a member of the audience on stage to play drums on one of the songs. 
We still have Slightly Stoopid and Spoon coming up on the main stage. This is almost too much of a good thing. Hopefully the weather cooperates for us through the night.
Photos
