Crane Farmfest, Saturday May 22nd

The setting at the Crane Farmfest was a great scene for a rock show: with tools hanging on the wall, the awesome echo bouncing off the dilapidated barn in the back of the lot and the haunted house across the street that looked like the "Michigan" Chainsaw Massacre house. The party started at 8 and the tunes began at 9:30 and went till after 2 am.

Burton's Garden kicked off the night with their blues/funk/stoner rock mix. The keyboards had a hint of 50s sock-hop, which was just part of the funk that gives BG their original sound. One of the songs started out with a Bo Burnham feel to it, sounding similar to "Bo Fo Sho'", and then went into sounding like a Poison ballad. The sounds didn't clash like you think they would, the band blended the funk into the rock quite effortlessly and I only noticed the specific sounds because I was looking for ways to describe it.
Sadly, all the songs of Burton's Garden meshed together and eventually I didn't really pick them apart and just listened as if it was one long song- like those annoying techno songs that last forever and you're not sure when one ends and another begins.

Going from Burton's Garden's funk to Billiards Music's stoner rock was a great transition. The band obviously takes influence from Sublime, but not until talking with Brandon Jo, the singer, did I realize the singing was taken from Incubus. One of their songs was a crowd favorite, being more of a short jam song, the lyrics "your face is fucking nasty" made the crowd laugh and cheer. The bongos paired with a drum kit adds a nice groove to the rock Billiards Music plays. The bongo player was having a little trouble during the set when the stand wouldn't lock into place and he had to drop to his knees to play, but he never missed a beat (or at least the crowd couldn't tell).

A better transition was from Billiards Music to Glass Moshpit Fighting, which shares the bassist and drummer. It was the first time I saw the band, but everything I've heard from other local bands about them was held true. Moving from the first two bands to GMF was quite a change, but the harder shit was a nice transition point for the rest of the night. The punk influence and scream singing definitely brought the metal fans out to play. The floor filled up and the band requested that the people outside the barn come in, and they didn't play until they did. One of their songs went from a groove rock starting to I'll rip your face off and included the lyrics "I'll fucking kill you/ I'll fucking rape you..." Lex Gauna, the bassist, clarified that they would never kill or rape anyone. And the guitarist added that it's supposed to represent it in an artistic style- which was said in a sarcastic tone and got the crowd laughing.
"John Wayne (in a mustang)" was played and was said to be Black Tooth's favorite song, which lead to an invite for Clint Cox (singer of BTB) to come up and sing with GMF. And the lyrics of "get big play sports" also got the crowd laughing and was a sarcastic song about those really masculine guys.

Black Tooth Brigade showed their fuck-your-face metal style at the barn. Clearly using the pent up energy from their acoustic set the night before, the band raged out- including the fifth of Kessler they brought on stage. the band meant business that night, and you could tell because every member lost their hat in the first 5 minutes of the set (and they always wear hats). Up front a girl, who was drunk as a skunk, got the mic from Cox, the singer, and said that she was going to fail her breathalyzer the next morning and we needed to make this shit worth it- which is a prime comment to make during a rock show, for the obvious stereotypical reasons.
The girl's request came true: a pit started, the band passed around Kessler even to the crowd, the band was raging out, and the drunk girl puked up the shot of Kessler she took.
The band was proud of their set, feeling more comfortable with their usual distortioned metal than their acoustic. The people were up front head bangin' along with the band, and BTB got the first pit of the night going.

Next up was Occasus. This thrash metal band definitely got the crowd moving, and along with their original songs they played some covers. One cover was a Pantera song, which they actually pulled off unlike Pop Evil (a bigger name band) that I saw butcher one. And the other was the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right," which the crowd enjoyed singing along to and hearing a scream version of the song was definitely an interesting spin. Starting their set at 1 am cost them some crowd members because by then, at least half had left . They played a new song, which the name escaped me because everyone was very loud and the barn carried the sound really well. The singer said that he didn't really know the words yet and would just allow the crowd to sing along, but the band didn't mess up- which is a gold star added to their chart.

Last, and in my mind least, was To Lie Beneath. Stylistically I categorize this band as fight music, which was epitomized in the girl fight that broke out during their set. One girl pushed the other and fell on top of her, and then proceeded to use her shin to pretty much choke a bitch, but people cut in and separated them and kicked one of them out. the screamcore, scene kid thing TLB had going allowed the obnoxious moshing that not everyone was familiar with- like the guys of BTB. The crowd was doing windmill kicks and thrashing around, but TLB got a good pit going, finally! And a circle pit also started during their set.
To Lie Beneath just reminded me of the other screamcore bands out there, and they didn't really provide anything in their music that would set them apart from the people already doing it. It was breakdown after breakdown, which is cool for a while but it starts to get old. The people left at the barn were inside, but it could have been because it was cold and damp outside.

Overall the scene at the barn should be in a band DVD and the more relaxed setting of a show put on by one of the bands, Glass Moshpit Fighting, instead of a promoter allowed the bands to have more fun too. With a barn full of good music and nothing around but an airport allowed the people and the bands to play loud and play hard. At the end of the night everyone was tired, but of course there were the fair share of after parties being discussed- I guess when you're in a band, you don't need a lot of sleep.