Ideatstock - Pitkin Plaza

6/16-18/06

I suppose it's about time to write about Ideatstock. I hated that name. It was three days of Ideat Village in Pitkin Plaza. Nobody knows about Pitkin plaza. It's an overgrown space above a parking garage in back of the patio next to Moka on Orange. It's probably the most interesting place to see a show in New Haven. They hide a generator behind some bushes and cut the grass and all the hip people in New Haven bring cheap beer, pets and children to watch the rock and roll. Going into it, I knew there would be no way I would see the entire thing. I accepted the fact that this would have to be an incomplete account.

I showed up late on Friday night. The first night was a 5-year reunion of sorts - it was 5 bands that played at the first Ideat Village 5 years ago. I missed Broken and Groovski, but showed up during Low Beam's set. I liked Low Beam. They had male/female vocals and the guitar/keyboard interplay was interesting. The most obvious influence was Sonic Youth
It was nice to see Doctor Dark play as the sun set. They are a continually evolving group. Every time I see them, they have new arrangements or band members. It's great that they make room for the accordion and three guitar players. They choose their songs wisely and perform in a way that is accessible to people who have never heard Captain Beefheart before. I'm always pleased when I see them.
The Vultures ended the night. There was a good crowd by this point and the band had a lot of energy.

Saturday started late on account of sprinkles. I believe it was Happy Endings that played first. Whatever their name was, they were an old-man, leftist rock band. So, yeah, kind of annoying.
I missed the epoch when you could actually go out and see a new wave band perform live. So, The Simple Pleasures was a wonderful surprise. They were probably my favorite new discovery of the weekend. They had their '80s thing down tight but, somehow, they didn't seem dated. I don't know. It was a joyful performance and the shtick didn't overwhelm the songs. They got the people dancing, and that was important.
While The Simple Pleasures were clearing their gear, Will Conley delivered one of his rap/poems. He is masterful at his craft and I enjoy listening to him, in spite of the fact that I usually hate poetry. He uses pop language and references cleverly and isn't constrained by the form.
Dr. Difibrulator and the Flatliners was one of the more unfortunate performances of the event. They were billed as a bunch of high school kids that showed up and begged to play and, well, I guess that's what they delivered. If the singer would be willing to do some real damage to himself, I'd say they came close to the Iggy precipice, but instead they were just kind of lame.
Then there were a couple of guys with acoustic guitars. Neither was distinctive enough for me to remember his name.
The Liz Larsons were an acceptable pop/rock band. They could stand to be weirder and louder, though.
Spider and Fly were the first really aggressive band to play that day. They occasionally got close to the nu-metal thing, but not too much. The singer really put himself into the performance, although the drummer delivered the better stage banter.
The Earls of Sandwich played some punkish covers, but boringed them up a bit.
That was the end of the day for me. I'm not happy that I had to miss Humanoid or Bloarzeyed or Nightcrawler 1947 and I was curious about the Satans of Death, but Chuck Berry was playing in Meriden. Really, though, it was a tough decision. I'm sure I'll have an opportunity to see those bands again.

I was wary going into the Sunday lineup. I knew there would be some jammy nonsense and, well, see the title above. But, my fears proved mostly unfounded. Even the stuff I would normally be repulsed by didn't get to me too bad. I was occasionally bored, but infrequently irritated.
First up was Kohath and they played songs with spanish lyrics. I don't know how to evaluate them because I'm not familiar with other artists in the genre, but they weren't too annoying.
Next was Parker's Tangent. It's made of a bunch of people I've seen around the city for years, but I never knew they played together. They were a competent rock band. Nothing remarkable.
Deep City Elm - oh, how I hate the bongos. I sincerely appreciate what Ed Leonard contributes to the local music community, but I do not enjoy this band. I guess I'm allergic to anything that's groove-y. I can see that they're aiming for some kind of transcendence, and maybe they find it, but it just doesn't connect with me.
It was getting hot by the time Kimono Draggin' played. They were troopers, though. Much of the audience was too fatigued to do any dancing, or even remain standing, but they still put on a good show. They played some new stuff and it has me looking forward to whatever they do next.
The Greg Sherrod band played next. I listen to Skip James and Charley Patton and wonder how it evolved into this. I guess we have to blame BB King and Eric Clapton. Every member of the band was very technically proficient. They sound exactly how you'd expect a blues rock band to sound.
Tim Palmieri played solo acoustic guitar. He was billed as a member of the Breakfast (formerly known as the Psychedelic Breakfast) so I was not really looking forward to the performance, but I was pleasantly surprised. He used a delay pedal to get many strange and interesting sounds. It was actually a lot more enjoyable than I would have expected.
Eiderdown was another new discovery that I liked a lot. The frontman is pretty compelling and the songs are good. They're new-wavey, kinda, but classic alt-rock, kinda.
I saw Pencilgrass once when they first arrived from Miami, about 2 years ago. They were a disco/funk/soul group that I mildly enjoyed. But now, Holy Shit. It's like they've been to space and were bombarded by bizarre cosmic, sonic rays. It's like they've been replaced by pod people who wear their skin, but have alien songwriting concepts. There are two camps in funk - the Rick James bullshit funk and the weird, outer space George Clinton Funk. Well, these guys have gone way the fuck out past George Clinton. It's still, ultimately, dance music but now, it's so much more than just that. After the day of sweltering misery, the sun was beginning to sink and people were able to move again and Pencilgrass got the people moving. Tragically, their set was truncated by troubles with the generator. I took these technical difficulties as my cue to take off. I knew nothing would top that last performance. And, I'd heard the next group would be reggae, and I didn't have it in me to endure that.

Little did anyone know that this would be the last day of Ideat Village for the year. The following weekend's show had to be called on account of rain. Just god pissing on us, like he always does.


http://www.ideatvillage.org/

http://www.myspace.com/lowbeamteam
http://doctordark.org/
http://www.myspace.com/thevultures

http://www.myspace.com/thesimplepleasuresband
http://www.myspace.com/thelizlarsons
http://www.myspace.com/spiderfly

http://www.myspace.com/parkerstangent
http://www.myspace.com/deepcityelm
http://www.myspace.com/kimonodraggin
http://mikerossphoto.com/thegregsherrodband/index.html
http://www.myspace.com/timmytour4life
http://www.myspace.com/eiderdownmusic
http://www.myspace.com/pencilgrassmusic

I took pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594171957258/
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594171968887/
http://flickr.com/photos/oldangelmidnight/sets/72157594171985426/

and these people took pictures:
http://flickr.com/photos/jrglagowski/sets/72157594170044187/
http://flickr.com/photos/jrglagowski/sets/72157594170085047/
http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupid=103177653
and I'm sure other people took pictures too.

I also got some video:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=oldangelmidnight