YO YO A GO GO Festival
I used to go to school in Olympia, and one of the guys I went to
school with was Pat Maley. I wrote an article about Pat last month,
so check it out if you want, but here's the summary: Pat runs and
recording studio and record label and they're both called Yo Yo. He
also put on a big music fest this summer that was cooler than
Woodstock 2 and Lollapalooza put together. Underground and
indie and even major label bands from all over the country came to
play at the 5 day music fest. A ticket for the entire 5 day show cost
$40.00, while tickets for one show cost $6.00. With these prices, I
don't think the bands were getting paid much, so they must have been
playing because they wanted to. I caught 2 shows and they were both
2 of the best shows I've seen in years. Pat and his huge volunteer
support staff did a great job not only picking the excellent bands,
but also in making sure that the show ran smoothly. The show
seemed more like a big party where everybody was there to check
out the bands. The show was in the Capitol Theater which is a
really nice old theater with a big stage and a balcony too. Upstairs in
the foyer, there was a little record shop set up where you could buy
t-shirts, tapes, vinyl and CD's of most of the bands playing and other
hard to find indie releases from area record labels. Everything was
really cheap too, like $10.00 for a shirt and $9.00 for a CD, not like
most overinflated concert concession stands.
There was no drinking or smoking, and everyone was on their best
behavior. Everybody seemed really friendly and into the show.
Definitely, not your normal concert vibe with people pushing and
shoving and big bouncers looking for trouble. The first show started
out with Bunny Grunt from St Louis who were really cool. They not
only played and wrote great sloppy pop songs, but they were funny
too. They seemed really glad to be there and implored everyone in the
audience to come talk to them after the show because they were
lonely. The other standouts that afternoon were Satellite and
The Softies with Go Sailor. Go Sailor and the Softies are both
Rose Melberg's (of the late great Sacto band Tiger Trap) new bands.
The Softies was Rose and Jen Sbragia with both of them playing guitar
and singing. They harmonized together beautifully and had written
some great songs. They were joined by the rest of Go Sailor and then
did one song with both bands. Jen then left the stage and Go Sailor
played and excellent set. With Rose singing, it was reminiscent of
Tiger Trap, but a little cleaner and tighter. The other band in that
set that knocked me out was Satellite. Their singer/guitarist Kent Oiwa
led a power trio (I hate to use that word, but these guys
seriously rocked) that combined both noise, pop melodies and a sense
of just how far you can push a pop song before it becomes an
experiment in noise. Of all the bands I saw, Satellite was one of the best.
When the afternoon show was over, we wandered around downtown
Olympia for a while which was cool, because I hadn't done it for
about 10 years. Olympia is a port town at the Southmost tip of
Puget Sound. There are lots of cool old buildings downtown and
lots of cafés, coffeshops and bars to hang out in. There was also the
annual Lake Fair on Capitol Lake which is also downtown,
complete with rollercoasters and other arcade rides. But all the
rides were too expensive, so we walked out to the end of the inlet of
the sound and dug for clams but didn't get any.
The evening show was as good and maybe even better than the
afternoon show. The outstanding acts in my opinion were
Bloodthirsty Butchers, Georgia and Ira from Yo La Tengo, and
Codeine.
Bloodthirsty Butchers came all the way from Japan, and
even though they couldn't speak hardly any English, they didn't need
to because they rocked so hard nobody even cared. They reminded me
of Fugazi a little bit, with at least as much energy and maybe even
more, but a little more melodic at times. I couldn't understand a
word they said in their songs, but it didn't matter because they
seemed hella sincere in whatever they were saying, and that's what I
always look for in a band: Sincerity. At one point, the lead singer got
onto the mike and said "Thank you. Thank You. Me no speak english.
You no speak Japanese. We.. are...PUNK ROCK!"
Yeah, that's all they needed to say. I just heard that these guys have a
split 7" on Pushead Records coming out with Rocket From The Crypt so
check 'em out and if they ever play live near your town, don't miss 'em.
The other highlight of the evening in a completely different way was
an acoustic set by Georgia and Ira of Yo La Tengo. I had seen the
critically acclaimed Yo La Tengo at The Cattle Club and wasn't
really knocked out although I thought they were good. I remember
thinking that the guitar solos were kinda' long. Well, their acoustic
set was stunning. What the loud band had covered up, you could now
hear. To call the songs great would be an insult. In Yo La Tengo,
Georgia plays drums and sings, and here she only sang. I think this
also helped to focus the performance. It was one of the best sets I've
ever seen; intimate, pristine and fun. By the end of their set, the
audience was slightly hypnotized and the distance between the stage
and the audience was non-existent. At some point in the evening,
Sonny and Lynn showed up (not late just later was the running
joke) and we ran into snowboarder/skater/punk rocker Arlie John
Carstens. Arlie and I discussed the idea that was to become his
article in this month's Heckler, Leisure Queens Suck Face With
The Mainstream The last band of the set was Codeine, who Sean
Schroeder (Heckler music editor) says is awesome, so I was
looking forward to their set. He was right, they were really great-
like a moody slow version of Helmet-but by now it was 2am, and we
had to drive 2 hours back to Portland. Sam, Marila and Larry were
falling asleep so we bailed early and made the drive back to Portland.
All in all, the Yo Yo fest was the best show I've seen in years. This
was the true "PunkStock" of 1994, an event that will be remembered
by more than a few people. If you missed it I feel sorry for you. Your
only saving grace is that the entire show was recorded, and the
highlights will be available on CD from Yo Yo records in early 1995
Thanks again to Pat and his crew for putting on such a great show.
And with that, the Heckler Road Trip for 1994 was over. Sonny and
Lynn went North to camp in the Olympic Rainforest, Carnel went to
Bend to try and find Travis Yamada (see snowboarding section),
and Sam and I left the next day and drove back to Sacto and Larry
and Marila finally got some rest.
Ours was fast, furious and fun and we'll do it again with some
variations next year. But don't wait 'til then. Home is for coming
back to, hit the road and write your own story.
-Botch
