Culture
Day One of NMF ’17: a Retrospective
By: Hiatt Hernon
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Look.
You may not know me, but it’s time to face the facts. Music festivals and I go way back.
Attending them.
Being at them.
Been there, done that. What I bring to the table is an extensive library of music festivals that I have been at while they were happening and I was there listening to the music and being a person who goes to music festivals.
Maybe I’m overcompensating a tad.
Truth is, I’ve never been to a music festival before. So the lessons I learned at the 2017 Nelsonville Music Festival are all the more essential.
First harsh lesson: NMF doesn’t stand for “Neutral Milk Fotel.”
Second, less harsh lesson: There’s a tangible communal atmosphere here. I’m normally not one to stop to talk to strangers, but here it’s become impossible not to. The colorful walkways are lined with art and near the back are paper-mache Seussian creatures. The Nelsonville grounds are transformed into a distinct environment: shops and food and people galore make the fest feel more of a small community rather than a purely musical coalition.
That, of course, isn’t to say that the music isn’t the focal point. Day one of NMF 2017 was headlined by Conor Oberst, much to the delight of the crowd. There’s a very subtle yet very prominent aspect of showmanship that comes out well in his live performances.
He’s able to play the every-man role in his folksy ballads- singing about lost love, bars and other Americana traditions in between- and yet there’s a certain captivating quality to his reserved words between songs that indicate a charisma that escapes the realm of relatability. Added on is a heaping serving of violins, accordions and harmonicas to fit the NMF aesthetic neatly. Oberst’s performance, even taken independent of his music, is noteworthy.
Parquet Courts hit the main stage right before Oberst’s performance. I’m not sure it’s possible to use the word “quirky” in a non-derogative, positive way anymore but it seems to fit. There’s a bit of goofiness to their presentation, playing movie themes inbetween songs and employing fourth-wall breaking band banter, but that didn’t stop them from turning it up a notch. The quartet played long enough to grind the sun out of the sky with crunchy post-punk guitars so we had the pleasure of a main event under the stars. Thanks guys!
Porch stage show-stealers were the pleasant surprise of my day one experience. Perhaps my favorite performance of the night came from Columbus-based surf-rockers Bummers. They were able to hit on a good variety of moods, starting with some lush darkness that, when paired with the amoeba projections on the stage behind them, felt like boogie boarding down that creepy tunnel from Willy Wonka. Later they were churning out some surprisingly funky, dance-able tunes that still had that over-arching surfer/stoner edge.
Another shout-out should go out to Athens’ Blue Moth, who took an industrial shredder to the porch stage with some sneaky-hot blues-psych licks. These boys won me over for sure, and it seemed like a lot of people were in the same boat as they attracted a well-deserved sizable crowd.
Day one is now in the books and already I’m completely exhausted. Not to mention it only gets more hectic from here. I may have been able to hide my novice music-festival-going flaws so far, but tune in for days two to four to see me exposed as the weak, incompetent fest attendee I really am!
Scattered thoughts:
-Best band shirts?
3. An Aesop Rock – Skelethon shirt. Maybe not as much of a strange sighting as I thought it was, but I did have to do a double take.
2. A Husker Du – Zen Arcade shirt. If this had been New Day Rising, it would’ve been number one.
1. A Black Flag/Bernie Sanders mash-up shirt. Because I’m a sucker for “two random things thrown together” shirts (See: my Legend of Zelda/Canidce LeRae shirt you’d be LUCKY to have me bust out.)
Also, no one has opened up the “pit” yet. I tried to get things rowdy during Conor Oberst, but you throw one elbow and suddenly you’re the bad guy.