Forecastle Music Festival- Louisville, KY

After a last second decision Thursday night, I decided to treat myself to a weekend out of town. With Maris learning to surf in Hawaii and being hit on by Bronzed Hawaiian Beach Muscles, I thought it might be nice to go check out a few bands and escape the ever so predictable weekend in Knoxville. 

A last minute call to a friend landed me VIP all Access passes to an annual festival hosting The Black Keys, Man Man, Avett Brothers and Widespread Panic (whom I was none too excited to see).

We got to town after a 3 to 4 hour drive through the Kentucky's misty valleys to make it to the opening growls of Dan Auerbach's guitar. The Black Keys closed the night out- They played for an hour, sticking to most of the classic Keys tunes. It was a standard Black Keys show, lots of head-banging, air guitaring and rock-devil finger throwing. Good times were had, bourbon was drunken- The night was still very young. We were fresh out of the car and ready to burn that city to the ground. 

After the short-lived friday night Festival experience we hit the town. Meeting up with locals and acts from the festival, running around like animals. We spent a chunk of time in one of the most interesting hotels I have ever been in. It is called 21 C, it is a boutique/hotel/museum. Very chill, very awesome. As we approached the elevator doors we were greeted with this mind melter......

    

(dont forget to turn off site music before playing)

Let's fast forward to Saturday.... We caught a couple good acts, we saw Philadelphia's noise rock/experimental outfit Man Man. I love to see a band that really enjoys what they are doing and at least attempts to push the envelope. This band, in the few times I have seen them, did both-exquisitely.  Man Man was a warm up for the main event, Pretty Lights. 

They played a late night DJ/drum set on a riverboat (the oldest of it's kind in the country). Needless to say, people were pretty excited, considering most people don't catch to many up and coming DJ's on a 100 year old river boat in the south. 

The boat was rustic and worn. You could practically smell the many Debutant Balls that were held on this ancient wooden triple-decker. No pun intended....

This is a shot from the bathroom. Notice anything strange/creepy about this picture, because their DEFINITELY is something foul afoot. I'll give you a hint- It's not me..

The boat was a lot of fun. Met up with some old friends..

The Pretty Lights show was the set of the weekend...

So here comes Sunday. I was exhausted. Running on fumes. Bad fumes. Tired. Sore. My ears rang at a frequency I could tell was slowly dying, never to be heard again. I need something low key- Avett Brothers. 

They sounded great as usual. At that point of the weekend however, there was no more impressing to be done on me. I realized I am getting a little older and music festivals really kick my ass in the dirt. It was fun, the band was lucky enough to snag a picture with me wielding a freshly wrapped burrito. 

Lucky they caught me before I really got down on that tasty little treat.

All in all it was a great weekend. It made me realize how much I love 3 days of music. It also reminded me of how much I hate the third day, until RIGHT before we leave. 

Louisville is a wayyyyy cooler city than I had previously imagined. We road back to Knoxville, silent, contemplating our weekend and how we had felt about the places we had seen, smiles we shared, decisions we made, burritos I ate. 

I looked in the rearview mirror while in this deep meditation of exhaustion and retrospect and saw this...And realize, we had IN FACT, burnt that town down.

Later Lousiville, you nasty little rascal.

_Brock