One the second day of The Growlers Six Festival, overcast skies welcomed the festival-goers back for another full day of music. Around 1:00 p.m. the crowd was pretty sparse, but those who showed up early brought their Halloween costume game even stronger for day two.
At the Junior Stage, a small crowd were getting into Billy Changer’s post-punk sounds. “She’s Good to Go” could be heard from the entrance to the festival, and several attendees made their way to his set. All the band members were wearing shiny suits and wigs, also embracing the costume-themed festival as many bands before them had. The former Corners bass player has a knack for writing catchy melodies and instrumentals that are equal parts dreamy and driving. “Barbarella” had his small but enthusiastic crowd swaying around. The band also danced around while playing, and their energy was just what the crowd needed to ignite Day Two.
At the same stage, pop-punk group The Regrettes were getting ready to play a 30-minute set, and the band entered to the drummer’s furious pounding. Each of the band members were wearing suits and pinstriped bowler hats and mustaches. They opened with “I Don’t Like You,” and frontwoman Lydia Night beckoned the audience to come closer. “Hey Now” had the crowd bobbing up and down to the punk beat, but during the song a deranged concertgoer decided to climb over the barrier to the stage, push a bunch of photographers, get up on the stage and actually push Lydia over pretty hard so that she fell on the floor, her head potentially hitting one of the amps. The young lady was escorted kicking and screaming off the stage by security, and The Regrettes were understandably unable to finish their set. This was the second incident this weekend (this first being a fans’ stagedive during Danny Brown) where security guards were slow to respond, resulting in some type of injury. The incident had both band members and fans shaken up.
At the Someone Stage, Frankie Cosmos was performing to a medium-sized audience. “Is is Halloween already?” Greta Kline aka Frankie Cosmos asked the dressed up crowd before going into “Fool.” She took a moment to introduce the rest of the band, including their new bass player Alex Bailey. “We came from New York, but we love Long Beach… or is it? No, it’s San Pedro. Well, we love Cali,” Kline shared, sharing in the confusion some of the other bands had of as to where we actually were. They went into “Outside With The Cuties” after that, Kline turning her back to the audience and often taking a knee during the simple guitar solos. The crowd bobbed up and down for the faster-paced “Is It Possible/Sleep Song.” “You all look amazing,” Kline directed her attention to the audience again. “I’m trying to figure out what my costume is… field… skeleton in a field,” she poked fun at her flowery skirt and thin build. Toward the end of her set, the motorcycle noises from the “Wall of Death” attraction distracted the band, as they laughed and looked at each other when the revving added to the music. “Oh, someone’s on a motorcycle… cool,” Kline shared before finishing the remainder of her set and closing with “Embody.”
The vibe was completely different at the Something Stage for Antibalas, a collective of Afro-beat musicians performing to a medium-size crowd. They wore distinct patterned clothing and some had matching vests. The horn section danced frequently to the music, and the percussion section included a shekere, congas and a marimba that the singer was playing. The group did a good job of hyping up the crowd, eliciting a call and response as the singer said, “sing this mantra with me: stay in the moment.” A lot of the crowd were dancing to the beat, and some were noticeably intoxicated, being held up by their friends.
Back at the Junior Stage, Jonathan Richman and Tommy Larkin on the drums performed a casual and comedic show. Richman played his acoustic guitar and danced along to the drumming in front of an attentive and intimate crowd. “No One Was Like Vermeer,” was just one example of the way in which Richman used his lyrics to tell a story that captivated the audience. During “These Bodies That Came to Cavort,” he often ad-libbed, speaking about sitting in front of computers and his disdain for technology. The crowd cheered and laughed along to his dance moves and lyrics. “Your drummer this afternoon has been Tommy Larkins!” Richman shared his appreciation for his performance partner before closing his set, and had a message for the audience: “everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, so be kind always.”
The Someone Stage was packed for B-52’s highly anticipated set. Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider and Cindy Wilson came out to cheers from the crowd and dove into “Planet Claire,” and the crowd immediately started dancing and grooving. “My dog is as old as this next song, ” Schneider introduced “Mesopotamia,” and the band danced along, raising their hands in the air. The conversational style of their songs and theatrical dance moves were a lot of fun to watch and the crowd basically never stopped dancing. During “Roam,” Pierson and Wilson did some “hippy dancing,” gliding across the stage.
“Party Out of Bounds” added a theatrical element to the performance with the slide whistle and opening “surprise!” “Make sure you have a lot of Grey Poupon at your party…” Schneider joked. “Here’s a dance song!” he shared, going into a crowd favorite “Dance This Mess Around.” “Wow, someone’s wearing a lot of oil of oregano,” Schneider joked, presumably noting the distinct weed odor emanating from the crowd. They used “Wig” to make a political statement, sharing “the wig is better than a bad combover!” referring to President Trump. Everyone danced and sang along to “Love Shack,” but the crowd really went wild for their closing song, “Rock Lobster.”
During the same time as B-52’s set, the Geto Boys were performing to a completely different audience over at the Something Stage. The crowd really got into “Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta,” and the trio moved about the stage constantly. “Do that shit, Bill,” Scarface invited Bushwick Bill to dance has he did a short breakdance on the stage. He got right up to the crowd, holding the mic to the audience during their set, inviting individual members of the audience to sing “oooh.”
Dan Auerbach drew in quite a crowd with his mellow sound. The audience grooved along to “Waiting On a Song.” But meanwhile at the Junior Stage the vibe was much more aggressive for Fear’s performance. Singer Lee Ving is known to love offending people with his lyrics, and he didn’t stop at that, sharing statements like “this was written for an engineer, she just happened to have big tits.” The full circle pit was fast moving for just about every song, one punk storming the barricades not once but twice. “This is the religious portion of the presentation,” Ving shared before diving into “More Beer.” “How many of you have had the misfortune of being in New York?” Ving asked before going into “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones.” But the crowd got even wilder when Ving brought out members of Lamb of God and DevilDriver to sing along to “I Don’t Care About You,” which had the crowd joining in, flipping each other off.
For those who needed an extra dose of feminism after catching Fear, Beth Ditto’s set was a great start. The Gossip singer’s solo material was dance-worthy and soulful, and her witty banter with the audience made the set worth sticking around. “I like to call myself the poor man’s Adele,” and “I hope you like U2 because we’re about to cover all of Joshua Tree” she joked. But the crowd really danced hard when she started The Gossip song,”Standing In The Way of Control,” demonstrating her great vocal abilities. At one point, a song in her set was mashed up with Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which drew more of an audience in as outliers ran into the crowd and danced around. “Heavy Cross” was probably the most known song of her set which again had the crowd singing along and dancing.
Alice Glass played a short set due to taking the stage about 30 minutes behind schedule. She had a decent sized crowd who were ready to get down to some industrial pop. She opened with “Forgiveness,” which had the audience bobbing around. “It’s been a rough week… I’m gonna sound like shit,” she shared morosely with the audience, perhaps a reference to recent post accusing her former Crystal Castles bandmate Ethan Kath of sexual assault. However, she did not sound like shit to the crowd, who showed her support by cheering enthusiastically.
Julian Casablancas and The Voidz followed suit, running about 30 minutes behind at the Someone Stage. “Dang, this is nice, I’ve never been here,” Casablancas shared before singing “last night I dreamt of San Pedro” jokingly. He performed heavy songs off Tyranny like “Where No Eagles Fly,” and, while some of the crowd were engaged, there were a lot of audience members shifting around, or going back and forth between Girl Talk, who started on time at 7:45 p.m.
The Something Stage was quite a spectacle for Girl Talk, as massive inflatable hands and feet extended from the stage, a toilet paper dispenser invited the crowd to TP the stage, and a full crew of dancers were getting down to the EDM sounds and remixes on the stage.
Girlpool performed to a small audience at the Junior Stage, sharing “thanks for coming to our set, not the band who’s throwing the festival’s set… pretty bold move,” the singer shared as The Growlers sound filtered through from the main stage. They opened with “123,” and the crowd nodded along. The band embraced the costume theme as well, each dressed up in their own unique costume. Their sax player added some texture to their soft set. Their entire set was very mellow, as they performed songs mostly off their latest album Powerplant.
As The Butthole Surfers were getting ready to take the stage, visual appeared on the screens of the Something Stage of colorful cows flipping about and multiplying. The visuals got even more random — Kathy Griffith holding a slab of meat, and the medium-sized crowd cheered loudly as the band members took the stage. The remaining crowd was torn between Beach Fossils, The Growlers, and Butthole Surfers, and many filtered about the stages during the final sets of the festival. Butthole Surfers were playing live for just the second time since late 2011 (they played their first show in five years at Day For Night 2016).
Paul Leary, Gibby Haynes and company played screeching hits like “Who Was In My Room Last Night” and “Hey,” but perhaps the most popular song of their set was “Pepper,” which they performed toward the end of their show. The visuals were a bit concerning, as the gory reels of film replayed brutal stabbings and other acts on women, perhaps making their set hard to watch for a Butthole Surfers newcomer. But to the die hard fans who banged their heads along to the dissonant sounds, they were treated to a shock-rock set in all its gory glory. Before exiting the stage, frontman Haynes threw up a peace sign at the crowd and either a “fuck you!” or “love you!” — it was hard to tell.
The Growlers extended their set by about ten minutes, playing as the remaining audience at the festival made their way to the exit or took one final opportunity to ride on the yoyo swing set. The Growlers Six was a weekend of unforgettable acts, filled with a gamut of experiences that is sure to keep fans coming back for more.
File Photo – Boston Lynn Schulz
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