Fun Fun Fun Fest 2014 Day One

Fun Fun Fun Fest is an annual music and comedy festival held in Austin, Texas. It is currently the only genre based festival in the United States, and features stages that specifically focus on hip-hop, electronica, indie rock, punk, metal and comedy. For the ninth year of the festival, the major day one acts included Judas Priest, alt-J, John Waters, Death from Above 1979, 2 Chainz and more.

With an overall slow start to the day, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicince rocked the socks off the Black Stage. Biafra is one of those performers who almost has too much energy for his own good. His songs are all centered around government corruption, federalism, etc. During his song “Barak,” the fans started a small mosh pit which was basically the only movement in the crowd. Biafra has so much passion when he performs that it’s almost as if he overwhelms the crowd with his performance. It’s like watching a grandpa try to entertain a grandchild. He also played “Brown Lipstick Parade” which sounded awesome and received a fair amount of love from the small crowd.

Over at the Blue Stage, the vibe couldn’t contrast more with that of the Black Stage. Here, performer Lunice was throwing down some sick beats. It was a typical electronic/hip-hop set but the crowd seemed to enjoy the dancing. The hype was heightened for his remakes of popular songs including “I Don’t Like” by Kanye West. Lunice seems very focused on his music, and interacted with the fans throughout his set by getting them to dance, but in general there wasn’t really anything special about the set.

Back at the Black Stage Amon Amarth was gearing up to start their show. They showed the festival what real rock n roll looks like. While playing songs “Victory or Death” and “Death in Fire,” the group thrashed their long hair all over the place. Smoke crawled over the stage, and the lead singers raspy voice was nearly impossible to understand if you’re not used to the genre. The crowd was jumping in circles and holding up their viking horns during the performance. For the heavy genre it was a pretty impressive show.

Back again at the Blue Stage was Run the Jewels. They obviously came to have the time of their life at Fun Fun Fun Fest because both the duo and the crowd went nuts. They attracted the biggest crowd at that point in the day, and the audience was really vibing to their set. They talked a little bit too much throughout their set which seemed like they were just trying to kill time, but when they did play songs they sounded pretty awesome.

The Blood Brothers followed Amon Amarths performance at the Black Stage and people were litterly running there to make it in time for the show. Their stage performance was full of energy and passion and the fans loved it. They drew in a huge crowd and it’s mind boggling as to why.  Their lead singer has a distinct, scratchy voice, which in part is probably intended, but something just did not sound right. They sounded like cats fighting in an alleyway; you couldn’t understand a thing. It was hard to sit there for even half the set.

On the other side of the festival at the Orange Stage, City and Colour took the stage. He dedicated his set to the line of people who waited in line at will call for over 6 hours to get their wristbands. Some didn’t even make it through the line in time to catch his performance at all. He opened with “The Grand Optimist” and sounded absolutely incredible. If one were to close their eyes it’d be impossible to tell the difference between his live performance and recorded album. He switched between multiple string instruments throughout his set which further proves his talent. As he continued to play “As Much As I Ever Could” and “Sleeping Sickness,” which he sang beautifully. The crowd was pretty much just standing there and enjoying his majestic voice the whole set. The crowd slightly booed when he left the stage without playing his biggest hit to date “The Girl.”

Once the sun had set and the air got brisk, Death From Above 1979 was ready to start their set at the Black Stage. Their iconic elephant nose artwork was the backdrop of the stage, and lit up with multiple colors throughout the set. They played “Cheap Talk” and “White is Red” while the members rocked out on the drums and the keys. They barely took a break throughout the whole set to talk. It was an ongoing rock show! They played “Gemini,” “Government Trash,” “Always On” and other fan favorites. The fans loved it and overall they put on a pretty badass performance.

Back to the hip-hop side of the festival, Atmosphere was getting ready to conquer the Blue Stage. He opened with “January On Lake Street” and got the crowd pumped up for the rest of his set. His performance is mellow, but this guy knows what he’s doing. For songs like “GodLovesUgly” nearly the whole crowd was going nuts. The beats sounded incredible, and his smooth voice just worked perfectly. While he performed his more popular songs like “Shoulda Known Better,” “Sunshine,” “The Waitress” and “Yesterday” you could feel the love that was being generated by the fans. It was great.  Even though his music is mellow, he really had the fans bumping to the beats and having a good time. It may have been one of the best performances of the day.

Lastly, to close off the night, alt-J played the Orange Stage. One of the biggest fallbacks of this performance was the lighting. There was so much smoke and so much lighted being emitted off the stage it was hard to even make out the band members figure sometimes. Understandably that was probably intentional, but it kinda sucked for audience members really far away. While playing their hit song “Fitzpleasure” the crowd still wasn’t too hyped. Although they sounded amazing, their set was honestly pretty boring. They also played other well known songs including “Breezeblocks” and “Tessellate” but no one in the crowd really moved around. Regardless, they sounded great, but there set may not have been the right choice for the end of day one at the festival.