Great day of more stuff for the second weekend, and a fun time to hang with my youngest kiddo while watching tunes. She got to introduce me to Conan Gray, while I got to make sure she heard Twen.
But also, dear Lord, the dust. I thought weekend one was bad, I honestly don't know if I could have survived three full days of the dust level I experienced on Friday. If it keeps being like that I'm going to have to be one of those weirdos in the gas mask looking filter thing. I spent the long wait in the post-fest Whataburger drive-thru hacking and sneezing for like 30 minutes. Blech. I saw a video from yesterday of someone filming how huge the crowd was for Paramore, but what I really saw was how huge the dust cloud was over that big crowd. Just awful.
I really don't know much about the world of Pokemon, but I had a thought as I was watching the super fun Wet Leg show, that I felt like I had just watched the evolution of a Pokemon. We started at Twen, which was really great. I love "Ha Ha Home," its got a great sound and a fun set of lyrics. And they seemed to be pleased to even be here, and jamming out accordingly. I left that stage to go see Blondshell, which felt like more of the same thing - another rock band fronted by a woman with a strong voice and a lot of personality. So we moved up to the second-level of the Pokemon. And finally I went over to Wet Leg, while the wife and daughter went for Noah Cyrus, and they were the final evolution of excellent rock and roll sounds fronted by two super fun ladies. They sounded great - the set was pretty much their album on shuffle - but the tunes were tight and everyone seemed in sync. So glad I got to finally catch a set.
Here we went and sat in the TV tent for 30 minutes, listening to Vacations play from the stage nearby, while we recharged for a bit. Pretty hot day and lots of sunshine. After a beer, we headed towards Conan Gray at the AmEx stage. He was something - very flamboyant and staged - like he had thought hard about where to stand for each moment of the show. This was not a show that I had been previously excited about seeing, but honestly, "Maniac" and "Heather" were freaking fun. I'll be curious if that dude turns his quick rise into fame into an actual career, or if he disappears from the spotlight.
Arlo Parks is also surprisingly good. She walks the line between straight R&B and some rap flavors, but we enjoyed a little bit of that from the back of the crowd before wandering back for Nathaniel Rateliff, who was excellent yet again. That was the fourth time I have seen Rateliff and the Night Sweats, just this year, so by now I feel like I know the set pretty well. I love the exciting moments, when the horns are going wild and Rateliff's voice is maxed out, but I have also learned to love the quiet beauty of songs like his solo track "And It's Still Alright." That song is lovely.
We left there to hurry over to get close for Billy Strings and get up close with some friends, and he still freaking jams. I already talked about him last week from that show, but it's just a wonderfully fun thing to see someone at the absolute top of the instrument game hammer their way through songs. I'd go see him again anytime he comes to town.
In a weird shift, my youngest decided that she wanted to see The Chicks instead of SZA. I had been committed to going to SZA (even if I wanted to watch The Chicks with the wife) just to make sure she got to see the one thing she wanted to see the most, but she and her friend pulled an audible for reasons that are still unclear to me and went to see The Chicks. I don't know if they knew a single song. But whatever, it was good fun to watch them again, this time with my best gal in tow. Again, too many of the new songs, but we got to hear some of the key hits from their old catalog, so it was good stuff.
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