Capitol Hill Block Party Preview: Matt’s Picks for Sunday
Capitol Hill Block Party July 26-28, 2013
By Matt Ashworth
The final day of the Capitol Hill Block Party kicks off at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, when one half of Seattle electronic duo Beat Connection performs on the Vera Stage under the name Dutty Wilderness.
By the time the festival wraps with a set from Portland band Pure Bathing Culture at Neumos tonight, thirty-five acts will have performed across four stages. The overwhelming sentiment from our group of roving reporters is that the most interesting performances are happening on the secondary and tertiary stages, away from the chaos of the main stage crowd, so take time to go “off schedule” and wander in to something new. Here are a couple of shows I’m looking forward to today.
Sandrider (2:15 p.m. at Barboza)
One of Good to Die Records’ seven acts performing this year, Sandrider embodies the label’s loud, heavy asthetic perfectly, throwing down the propulsive rythyms, noisy guitar and chunky riffs that put Seattle on the musical map back in the early 90s.
The Comettes (3 p.m. at Barboza)
This Seattle band seemed to magically emerge from the ether over the last two years, recording a great in-studio for KEXP and earning opening gigs for megastars the Lumineers after only playing a handful of shows. I like their romantic brand of eerie, textured 60s psychedelica and am curious to see if they’ve got a full set of good songs together already.
Cults (5 p.m. on the main stage)
This New York band seamlessly blends two of my favorite things, 60s girl group vocals and fuzzy guitar. When the drums kick in at about 1:16 in “Abducted” its so perfect, so glorious, that it makes me think the world might be OK after all.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i1MXHGB8g0]
The Flaming Lips (8:15 p.m. on the main stage)
The problem with going to see a band you fell in love with twenty years ago, for the first time, is that the context has change so drammatically it’s difficult to be anything less than a disappointment. Having come to grips with the fact that the Flaming Lips won’t play my ideal set list, which would essentially be a recreation of their albums Hit to Death in the Future Head (1992) and Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (1993)
with select songs from the fourteen other albums they’ve released during their amazing career, I think I’ve set proper expectations. It’s going to be an absolutely madhouse, so get to the main stage early to jockey for position.