Treasure Island Music Festival - Day Two

With a much larger audience in attendance, and a swifter wind beckoning the utilization of hoodies and long pants, Day Two promised to be a chilly delve into some of indie rock’s (referenced only for the purposes of lazy homogenization) heaviest hitters.

    Tunnel Stage acts included Earlimart, Film School, Sea Wolf and Street to Nowhere, most of which proved to be ignorable sets in light of the main stage acts lying in wait (terrific sets by Santa Cruz’s Devil Makes Three, and SF’s Trainwreck Riders notwithstanding). The Bridge Stage was explosive all day long, as bewitching sets by the likes of Au Revoir Simone, Two Gallants and Built to Spill ignited the bloated brood to feverish heights of excitement. A particularly shocking set was delivered from the mesmerizing and talented M. Ward, as well as a set from the ballyhooed Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, whom I found to be shockingly boring and overrated, despite their trudging through the mechanics of the music industry sans record label (an inspiring feat that still doesn’t make them any good). Spoon proved to once again be perhaps the country’s best live band with a polite sprinkling of tunes off of Gimme Fiction and their latest, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

    Modest Mouse were the de facto headliners of the entire festival, and came out of the gate rocking an enormous stage setup, featuring plenty of curious instruments, as well as the dashing cult hero Johnny Marr on lead guitar (whom most of the crowd was more excited to see than frontman Isaac Brock). The band’s command of quirky rock vignettes and supple, wacky interplay made them a great finish to what was a well-organized and very much needed music festival for the Bay. Here’s to it appearing next year!

See more photos of the show at the Synthesis blog. Read the day one review here.

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