After slowly unveiling the appearances of Sleep, Matthew Dear, and John Cale, over the last month, Hopscotch Music Festival has finally unveiled the full slate of bands for this year’s takeover of Raleigh, North Carolina and as with years past its a stunner. Unlike so many festivals that go the “take over a whole town’s venues” route, Hopscotch is tight, organized and makes sure that all its bands, big and small get proper attention–whether in the immaculate Memorial Auditorium, the clerical confines of the Longview Center, or any number of the small smokey clubs that make up Raleigh’s downtown. With such a setup, Grayson Currin (contributor to Pitchfork and Music Editor at the Independent Weekly) and Greg Lowenhagen are allowed a certain modicum of freedom in their booking. What results is a bill that draws some an atypically experimental undercard and some big names to boot.
Big Boi, Spiritualized, Sleep, Local Natives, John Cale, Kurt Vile, Low and Earl Sweatshirt top off a bill full of BPM favorites, but though Hopscotch always shines on its bigger stages, the beauty of the fest is that it’s able to draw so many smaller bands too. What other festival can book Virgina post-everything metallers Inter Arma alongside Floridian beatmaker XXYYXX? Or pair the floor tom anarchy of Foot Village with Action Bronson’s new New York rap stylings? There’s just so much interesting music going on in so short a time span. Try not to get whiplash catching all the acts you want to see.
Hopscotch goes down September 5-7 in venues all across Downtown Raleigh, and you’d be heavily advised to head over to their website for ticket info.
