All Photos by Philip Cosores
A free music festival is a delicate thing. Well, anything free is a delicate thing. For one, you have the issue of value. When something is given away for free, it is easy to treat it as if it has no value, because, well, you didn’t pay for it. With shows, this can bring in all sorts of riff-raff, from gutter-punks to drunks to people just looking for a fight. And then you have the issue of how to judge something you get for free. When no actual monetary amount was spent to receive a piece of art, it is much easier to forgive its shortcomings, and easier to make excuses for its problems.
Pasadena, as many towns do in the summer, faces these issues with its annual free music festival, named Make Music Pasadena. As a town, though, Pasadena has a few things going for it in that it is generally pretty nice and that it can afford, with the help of its sponsors, high quality stage equipment, security, and talent. This being my second year of attendance (the last year included Matt & Kim, The Antlers, and Warpaint), it is consistently impressive how Make Music Pasadena pulls off the art of the free festival. With a solid lineup that included Best Coast, The Morning Benders, and Ra Ra Riot, crowds flooded in on the commercial downtown district, where streets were closed off to erect stages, yet never to the point of feeling out of control or dangerous. And while there were some logistical issues, for what it was, it is always amazing that people are so well behaved, that the city officials are so reasonable, and that the bands are graceful enough to balance having a good time with keeping everyone in line. Some better than others. – Philip Cosores
The Morning Benders:
The Morning Benders took to the stage a little after three. As the opening notes of “Promises” thumped out over Colorado Boulevard, the audience pushed and shoved to get as close to the stage as possible. The sun beat down on everyone’s backs as it slowly dipped down towards the horizon line.
After “Promises” ended, a female police officer came up to the microphone to tell people on the sidewalk that they couldn’t watch the show along the stage. “There’s no more music until this sidewalk is clear, it’s a fire hazard,” she said. The crowd responded with boos and I overheard a couple people saying that it smelled like bacon. Hundreds of middle fingers flew up after the officer threatened to shut down the show.
The band stood around awkwardly as people on the sidewalk were herded to the appropriate areas. After about 10 minutes, the officer walked off the stage and the band jumped into “Waiting For A War.” Chu then announced that the band was going to play a new song called “I Wanna Be Your Man.” The song, which they played during their set at Coachella, was driven by the heavy pounding of drums and the slightly romantic, yet sexual lyrics Chu is known for writing (“I want to know you from the inside/out”).
The band then moved into a cover that Chu said they’d never played live before. The song was Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” The Morning Benders made the song their own, but still managed to maintain an 80s vibe. Although their set was cut short because of the fire hazard debacle, the trio still fit in “Excuses” at the end. The crowd sung along with the band during the vocal harmonies, which I can say is a truly amazing moment to be a part of. It is this moment that made standing in the blistering heat, being confined to the tightly packed crowd and police interruption to see the trio worth it. – Nicholas Preciado
NewVillager:
Now, in NewVillager’s defense, I was having a conversation for the majority of their set. But, then again, nothing about the band demanded a greater attention and the strongest adjectives I can use to describe them are “competent” and “capable.” Yes, there was nothing wrong with the performance of the three-piece, who showed a fair amount of charisma, but there is still work to be done both on the songwriting level and the performance level if they want to standout and not just be another band on a festival bill. NewVillager are opening for Okkervil River and Titus Andronicus locally this weekend, so I will give them another chance. – Philip Cosores
Best Coast:
Last year, a wave of teenage girls pushed over the barricade at Make Music Pasadena for Matt & Kim. This year, they threatened to do the same for Best Coast, requiring a number of security guards to hold up the metal barrier. This came after yet another delay to clear the fire road, which prompted Bethany Cosentino to tell the crowd, “whatever people tell you to do today, just do what you want and have fun.” This is probably not what the police force wanted to hear, but it also didn’t prompt a riot.
Of course, doing what you wanted didn’t span to pushing, as Cosentino later appealed to the crowd to cool down, as some “little cuties” were getting crushed up front. But, doing what you want did span to throwing a bra on stage, Cosentino’s first ever bra gift, which she thankfully tied to the mic stand.
As far as the set went, it was another solid Best Coast show. If you haven’t seen Best Coast by now, well, it has to be on some effort on your part, as the band has seemed pretty accessible since the release of Crazy For You. The band played a number of new tunes, including “When You Wake Up,” which didn’t seem at all like departures and planned to continue the beloved vein at which they are succeeding. The teenagers should rejoice. – Philip Cosores
Ra Ra Riot:
I was somewhat surprised to see Ra Ra Riot headline the mainstage over Best Coast and The Morning Benders, but Ra Ra Riot quickly reminded of what a remarkable live band they are. Of course, this wasn’t until after a good amount of waiting (again) for a fire lane to be cleared. When finally given the go-ahead, Ra Ra Riot launched into “Too Too Too Fast,” and, unfortunately, the song lived up to its name, with some kind of technical error happening about a minute in. But, this is where a band finds grace and Ra Ra Riot have it to spare, deciding to just start the set from scratch and bringing an even more enthusiastic version of the song to the table. Yeah, I don’t know how Ra Ra Riot slipped off my radar, but after their set, they are right back on it. – Philip Cosores
Kisses:
From the mainstage, and after a delicious bacon-wrapped boar meatloaf, we made our way to a courtyard where a couple “emerging” artists would be performing. One of these, Kisses, took the stage with Hawaiian clothing and leis, even bringing enough to hand out to the crowd. Kisses frontman, Jesse Kival (who also fronts the band Princeton), clearly enjoyed the large crowd that gathered for their set, playfully counting-down the number of songs remaining in their set while mildly-creepy fans gazed directly at him with unblinking eyes and mouths that seductively mirrored his lyrics. But, obsession spawning aside, Kisses is about having a good time, which came to a head with their last song, when Kival invited the crowd on stage and everyone obliged, swallowing the band in a swarm. Quickly, security could be heard over the P.A. threatening to end the night early if everyone didn’t get off the stage. As they did, revealing a still-playing band, Kival egged them on, stagediving rebelliously to the amusement of his two bandmates. Yes, somehow Kisses had made the biggest impression of the entire day, turning a free set in a restaurant courtyard into a memorable rock and roll statement. Great shit. – Philip Cosores
Zola Jesus:
So, Zola Jesus’ reputation preceded her before her inspired performance at Make Music Pasadena. I knew she was a tiny blonde girl with a huge voice, but had never really had chance to check out her music before. No one told me about the mummy pants, though. That was weird. Before her set began, Zola showed off her dance moves to the house music until an organizer of the event came on the P.A. to announce that the crowd needed to move back from the stage if the show were to continue. The audience quickly obliged, as at this point they were used to delays and orders. But soon after, as Zola Jesus stormed through her set, moving into the audience and to every spot she could climb or walk to, it became apparent that the singer is more upside than anything. Her music, though decent, still has more potential than achievement, but with her voice (which is awesome) and her spunk (which is overflowing), she only needs the songs to get to the next level. I wouldn’t doubt that they will be arriving soon. – Philip Cosores
Robotanists:
By the time Robotanists began their set in an even smaller courtyard, surrounded by bars and only accessible through an alley, people were drunk. Like, it was frightening how wasted the crowd was. People held their friends up, glasses broke often, strangers kept trying to talk to me. In contrast, Robotanists classed up the place by bringing a string-trio to the stage with them as they rolled through their focused set of rock jams. They even did an encore. And as a completion of a journey where the stages got gradually smaller, it seemed like this was really what Make Music Pasadena was about: local bands getting the chance to reach a new audience and show off some of the hidden L.A. gems to the public. And at this task, both Robotanists and the festival succeeded. – Philip Cosores
