Siren '07

Before I get some much needed rest, some Siren thoughts:

* Best non-music related occurrence - the weather. I have no problem dealing with heat when there is no humidity on a sunny day. That is what makes Coachella tolerable. And there was a nice breeze too. First time at Siren that I have seen the fans on stage turned off. Only thing that could have made the weather better -> a late day misting like we got during Spoon a couple years ago.

* The 1/2 hour main stage delay was only a bummer on one occasion. The Twilight Sad -> White Rabbits. We were digging TTS, who we were seeing for the first time, and we had just recently witnessed a top-notch WR performance at Bowery, so we stayed at the main for the entire TTS set. Immediately after TTS we bolted over to Stillwell, but were only able to catch one WR song. Fortunately, that song was "The Plot", my favorite, so it wasn't a total loss.

* Legen ... wait for it ... dary. That is not a term that I use liberally. In fact, before now, I believe that I have only used it once here at The Pummeling Den. I still stand by that declaration, just as I stand by this declaration - Matt & Kim's set was legendary. Musically, the set was no better than, and perhaps even slightly less impressive than, their set at Bowery. It was the intangibles that made this set one for the record books. M&K were out of their minds on the natural high of their biggest, most important show to date and the crowd ate it up. Matt pointing out where the fans were and coaxing a barrier crash. Being in the midst of complete pandemonium the likes of which I had never seen at any of the previous Sirens I have attended. It was one of those sets, where immediately afterwards, everyone is looking around at each other, silently acknowledging that they had just experienced something special. Something legendary.

* Voxtrot was very strange. I have seen other bands, like TL&Rx for instance, go from very small stages playing in front of few to very large stages in front of many, but none of those shows felt like this. During their set, Ramesh talked about the Rothko show, which I, and a handful of others attended. And now they were playing 2nd to last on Stillwell (IMHO, way more impressive than opening at Prospect). It felt very surreal. I think the band thought so too.

* Stuck to the plan the entire day (and threw in Noisettes for good measure) and was very pleased with the results. Elvis Perkins was delightful. The Black Lips were... interesting. And Cursive deserved to be the Stillwell headliners.

* Broke the tradition of a Nathans hot dog and the cyclone after the show, due to some sudden stomach unpleasantness. But it's OK, because Daft Punk (which, btw - is now SOLD OUT) will be bringing me back to Coney in less than three weeks!!