Monday, September 30, 2013

Burn Selector Festival

Burn Selector Festival... Was... Awesome. Absolutely brilliant. I was a bit distracted during the day (Sept 6) because I wanted to try to get a look at Warsaw's sights, pack for my trip, and figure out my route to the airport. Therefore, it didn't really sink in that I was going to see The Knife until about 40 minutes before their show!

I took the tram to this horse race track on the south part of town. The tram took a looooong time. Probably a good 35 minutes. I saw a guy show his girlfriend their Burn Selector tickets, so I knew who to follow. The walk from the tram was very far! We went around and over a freeway. There were NO signs there or in the main part of Warsaw for the festival. There were a bunch of us from the tram going though, so it was easy. The walk into the actual festival gates was SO long, too! Only blinding lights every 50 meters to indicate something was happening.

I got a sweet one day wristband that I'm still wearing from some guys who were super excited I I from Los Angeles. One guy even put on a Latino accent to say "Los Anhelis". They asked who I was here for. My answer was The Knife of course, but it should have been The Knife and James Blake.

I have never been to an outdoor music festival, but this one felt huge and proper. I'm sure it pales in comparison to bigger name fests, but it was a sight to see. A big huge half circle tent held a bunch of food trucks and other corporate booths. There were TONS of tables in there, and they were really decked out in big state fair style. After that, they had a really neat model for their logo seen below.



If you look closely, you'll see it's composed of cans. I believe they are the energy drink "Burn" that the festival is named for.

I arrived at the main "Cyan Stage" just as James Blake was starting. I only know two of his songs and like them, but never really followed him. Mistake! I was blown away by his performance. To sum it up crudely, there were three main types of songs he played. The first is him singing with fairly minimalistic musical backing. He had a keyboard (and I'm sure synth), the guy in the middle was on drums, and the guy on my left had guitar and synth. His voice is so good. So good. Probably falsetto and so smooth and delicate and atmospheric that it really is just an instrument for most songs, not a focal point. The accompanying music is terrific. The drums are wonderful because they are so loud and powerful and tight. Mostly because they are electric, but live electric drums are really something to see. I loved the tight "tack!" of the snare hit. "Limit to your love" was simply marvelous and nearly blew my face right off of my face. It's hard to imagine louder bass and if you've heard the song, you know that when the bass kicks in, it's very powerful. Well, imagine that bass at a level that shakes your pants and shirt and hair. Yes. Brilliant.

The second type of song he did were almost dance club style songs. It's quite unfair to use that description, but they are even more danceable and he repeats only a few phrases for the entire track. I LOVED it. The songs don't do a house type buildup and drop, but have heavy beats that are rhythmic and so fun to follow. I had no idea he had songs of the type, and it was probably the best surprise of his show. The lights above their heads went crazy, the scene went crazy, I went crazy! But the band was cool and calm just like always.

The third type of song was only for maybe 3 tracks. It was just James and his keyboard under the multiple light spot light. Very good and emotional. I was so glad I saw his set and am now kicking myself for not enjoying his music sooner. Well, it won't happen again!

Finally, it was time for The Knife. Wait, was I actually about to see The Knife? Yes! Unbelievably yes. After loving them for probably close to 6 years, I would finally see them live. They are a private band and don't tour much. I got a great spot because of the changing of the crowds after Blake.

We first a slightly high than normal man's voice. He said a few lines and maybe thanked us for waiting. Then he made a good reveal, something like, "Let me just step up here so I can see you!" and we saw his long "beautiful" wig, his very heavily made up face complete with glitter, heavy eyeliner and blush, his big bushy beard, and his outfit that would make Cher embarrassed. He was skinny and had a calf length blue silk robe on. He had a pink top on and short silver glittering shorts on. I believe he had on matching blue tights. He was here with the Knife and to warm us up because they like when we dance and move! The warm up was so long, I'm not sure I'll remember it all. But he first made us say "Self consciousness is the illusion that I am doing this alone!" So then he moved into the warmup, always shouting encouragingly at us in his highish voice. Deep breaths, arms up, arms pumping, leg dips. Then we got into some bouncing. He made us bounce in our knees, then the pelvis so all the guys balls would bounce, then the chest so all the girls' tits would bounce. Then up to the face so we could now work our senses. He said we have to be aware of the world around us so "Open your eyes!" He made us turn to the person next to us and say "I see you!" and then the other side. Not enough people around me were participating for my taste. Here was this hilariously dressed man shouting warm up instructions at The Knife's concert at they seemed "too cool" to do it. Whatever. We did the same thing with "I hear you!" and "I feel you!" When I touched the girl next to me on the shoulder she got super creeper out and laughed to her friend. It hurt my feelings but whatever, they were the ones not fully opening themselves to the experience. I felt better when the big eastern European looking guy put his arm around my shoulder on the sway or dance together part. We held hands in the air as instructed when the jump dancing came. It was cool to see everyone jumping at once almost in union. He said the show was about rejecting things we don't support, so we put our arms at chest level and pushed forward shouting "No! No! No! No!" rhythmically. Then he said it's also about accepting things, so we put our arms up and shouted "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" He divided us down the middle (conveniently where the big cable cover was) and made us face each other. The left side shouted "No!" and pushed forward. My side shouted "Yes!" with our arms up. I was glad to be on the yes side and loved seeing the people next to me shouting in my direction. It's rare you see everyone's face lit up at a concert. It was so funny to do all these warm ups to the beat at a concert when elbow room is so tight. Oh, that reminds me that we shouted at the stage, sound booth, and our elbows as they were up "What's up, stage/sound booth/elbows?!" We did some cool down and he made us shout "I move to be moved!" because The Knife does the shows to be moved by us, too. He finally introduced The Knife after thanking us. Here he is, looks like I butchered some of the details. Probably should rewrite it, but I've spoken.



They came out in CLASSIC Knife fashion. Classic. Heavy fog and low, blue light. Each musician or dancer moved out in a shimmering dark blue robe with hood, of course. I believe there was some special light to accent the bright colors of their orange shoes and the small parts of paint on the instruments. I will most certainly fall short to accurately describe the instruments. But, gotta try! The items were covered with black sheets and we're slowly unveiled. There was a multi colored electric harp on the top right of the stage. The middle was dominated by a... a I don't know what. It was probably about 7 feet long and was maybe 8 inches thick. It seemed to be an elongated pyramid shape, though. It had black electronic pads on the side. When someone finally started playing, it became clear that it was a lay down electric bass of sort. The song they played was "A Cherry On Top" which is very fitting to the creepy, slow presence they had. The electric bass was so killer and you could feel every scrape of the bow. The harp was fun to watch because the strings were multi colored and moved dramatically when plucked. When they finally revealed all the performers, the beat to Raging Lung started (I believe) and the ones seemingly without instruments produced big, brightly glowing shakers. One was a big orange rock. One was a big yellow mallet that had a crude, rock shaped head. Karen held a yellow cylinder and a blue ring as she serenaded us with the lyrics to Raging Lung. Yes, yes, it was awesome. The bass was SO loud, probably to a fault in some songs since it was so overpowering. I was glad I had my earplugs because I saw a few people manually plugging their ears. I had trouble believing I was watching Karen sing live. Her eyeshadow spilled way over on her face and was blue and black with glitter. She leaned up to the mic and looked super cool with her dark blue hood on. I wish I got a close up of the screen that showed her head back singing. Below you can see the bass, the harp, Karen right in front of the harp, and the big bells and oversized wind chimes.



I don't exactly remember the order of songs (I'm sure I can look it up), but I think it might have been "Without you my life would be boring". It was just the song played over the speakers but the dancers made it fun. They were doing a lot of forward and back stepping and leaning back and forward. Most of the time they were facing the left or right, not us head on. A lot of arms in and out and turns, too. Nothing special, but I liked it.

After a few songs, Karen came out into the lights with a huge, screeching "Waaaaaaaar-saaaaaaaaw-vaaaaaa!" with her head back in triumph and conquest. It was one of my favorite parts of the show, haha. Then she said "You turn me on!" and flicked her tongue in and out with a big pedo grin. She dedicated "Got 2 let u" to everyone who was ready to say no the traditional patriarchal societal norms. She spat huge war cries of "Fuck sexism! Fuck homophobia! Fuck racism!" It was awesome to see the song live because it's not on the Shaking the Habitual album for which the show was named. For this song, they had a TV flipped on its side in a decorative frame to look like a fancy painting. When Karen's brother sings on the song, the TV turned on and it had Karen dressed up like a male professor singing her brother's part. I think it was a challenge to genders, but it looked funny. She hella got down to that song, too. She was flying across the stage and, at parts, dropped to her knees and really shook her torso with like a "come on, what do you got?!" look. I think you can kinda see the TV and Karen to the right of it in this picture.



Another highlight was the dance performance to One Hit. The dancers acted out a majority of the lyrics described in the song. The line about pornogrophy was memorable a woman got bent way back on her back and someone was held above her close to her privates, looking eager. The part with "one hit, one kiss" got a punch in the arm followed by one person holding another in a dip while a third leaned in for a kiss. I believe they did something fairly simple for the "family latrine" line. Oh man, I love that line. My favorite part was probably the line about "spending time with my family" because the whole dance cast posed (probably close to ten) for a picture and then sneered and changed when "like the Corlionis!" came (not sure of the spelling, but the family name from the Godfather).

The general style remained fairly constant through the show. There were songs with blue loose outfits with not super professional but super fun choreography. There were songs of creepily dressed performers such as the previously mentioned "Cherry on top" and "Raging Lung" . They were dressed similarly for "Full of Fire" but the lights were red all around. Karen was far in the background singing for the highly cheered song. The most interesting part was the fact that the dancers stood still for at least half of the 9 minute song. I recorded a video of some of the song. The lights were bright red and white and were going nuts. I looooved it. That song is so heavy and it was bad ass to hear it forcing itself on me with live vocals (hard to tell they were live tho, so consistent). I saw one guy squinting away from the shock of the lights and I thought, "Let it in, man! Be it! Dance it!" as I rocked out.

There was one song that I didn't quite recognize that had Karen on the electric bass and vocals and just one guy on a super catchy triangle. I wish I would have got a video of the triangle. I'm sure I can find the studio song. That song lead into a break with just the triangle and 4 dancers swinging lit up tubes to create a wacky sound.



I believe there was only a dance performance to "Tooth for an Eye" and it was in the blue clothing style. Except for just a few breaks for a thanks or talking, the show was seamless. One track smoothly ran into another, and before I knew it, "Stay out here" was going with two singers who were not Karen. I didn't see her brother so I'm not sure he was at the show. The song was creepily well done as expected. The dancers almost praised the singers like a Native American rain dance. This is a good picture where the brightest lights showed the male and female singer.



It was hard to tell the cast apart at times, but I believe both singers were seen dancing many times before. They both had bowlish cut blonde hair and the girl smiled a lot when dancing.

"Stay out here" slowly turned to something that evoked a reaction from the crowd and a small light of recollection from me. The bass was SO booming that it took me until Karen's vocals to realize it was "Silent Shout"! Awesome! I did NOT expect that, one of my favorite songs from the album of the same name. The lights were white and crazy above their heads during the instrumental parts that we totally moved to. It was kiiiiiiller. When they broke it down for the vocals, Karen stood in front of the only lit center light that kept changing colors. It was an awesome contrast.







I *think* the show ended with "Silent Shout" but the crowd stayed FOREVER cheering for more. It was really impressive, I've never seen a crowd stay so long. The lights partially came up, the big screens ran the standard line up slides, and the crew started taking everything down. Nonetheless, the crowd went NUTS when the big storage trunks were brought out for the electric bass.

It was a terrific show. Most of the songs were awesome performances from "Shaking the Habitual" and the few classics were so surprising and appreciated. I heard mixed reviews about the show (one commentator even saying it looked like performers were not trying at times) but I loved the experience. It was all the more fun with the wacky warm up and the surprise of seeing The Knife given my earlier distractions.

I needed to catch a cab back to my Platinum Residence. It was difficult. There was a huge cab line, but all of them seemed to be taken though empty. I moved to the main street (out of the turn in to the festival) but still saw cabbies waving people away. I crossed under the freeway and saw a huge group of people waiting at a bus stop. Maybe there was a bus coming, but I didn't know a thing about it. I considered walking. It had been a LONG tram ride, but surely I could walk it in two hours, right? Never mind the fact that it was already about 2:15 am. I walked back under the bridge and saw a guy at the very end of the line with no one really around him. He waved to a cab, it pulled up, then he hugged his friend and sent him off in the cab. He tried for one himself and succeeded after only two attempts. "Alright!" I thought. Just gotta be aggressive. Be-e aggressive. So I got one quick and even though he spoke only slightly more English than I spoke of Polish, it was a pleasant ride back and I thanked GOD I didn't walk. It would have been a horrible end to a wonderful night.

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