After an excellent first day of music that proved Buku has transcended a one-dimensional identity as an EDM festival, I was even more excited about the second day, especially the impending performance by one of my favorite artists, The Flaming Lips. I spent the morning in the French Quarter with a bloody mary and some crawfish étouffée and arrived at Buku around 3:00 PM, just before Generationals took the stage. Their set kicked off an evening that would flow incredibly quickly, which I can attribute to the tight schedule of high quality performances.
Although Generationals held an early afternoon slot in the festival, they were one of the bands I was most excited to see. The four-piece is from New Orleans, and I felt great about seeing them on their own turf, not to mention that their song “Put A Light On” ended up at #1 on my list of my most listened to tracks from last year. The group performed a brief but outstanding set of breezy indie rock. It was also one of the only sets of the weekend where I saw a considerable number of fans singing along in the crowd. The outstanding music from a hometown band and a supportive community of music fans made the set one of my weekend’s highlights.
An hour later, Dan Deacon was set to perform in the same room, however, he never took the ballroom stage. Instead, he took the floor. That is, he set up his tables out among the fans and prepared to perform an amazingly interactive set of dance music. Deacon had fans perform various activities in Simon says fashion before having the whole crowd circle up for a dance contest. Those in the center of the circle could tag-out, and Deacon instituted a no opt out policy for those tagged-in. Deacon also had the crowd split into two sides and run straight at each other a la the wall of death practiced at metal festivals. However, as the running concertgoers met each other, they were instructed to do so with high-fives rather than physical altercation.
The crowd was also asked to form concentric circles; the interior would begin running and tagging people and those who were tagged would join the cyclone and so on. The set was transcendent: an amazing way to take turntables and loops to a whole new level. Deacon, not concealed in smoke or behind a giant DJ station, stood out with his fans in a true display of egalitarianism. I loved everything about it. This is electronic music at its best.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were the next band I caught. I tried to see them in Austin at SXSW, but the line was around the block and I abandoned ship. It’s fascinating, because their crowd at Buku was relatively meager. That’s not to say the band isn’t good–they sounded great–or that people aren’t interested–their packed shows in Austin prove otherwise. Still, it seems that the Buku crowd weren’t as keen on the brand of indie rock TPOBPAH has to offer.
In contrast, Buku festival goers went nuts for Chromeo’s electronic funk. The vocoder was in full effect, and the stage was set with shiny silver tables standing on plastic human legs. One half of the duo, David Macklovitch, delivered an energetic stage performance with fist pumps, standing on the stage’s edge for guitar solos, and quite a few handsome grins. The guy kinda looks like he should be an underwear model rather than an electronic funk musician, but I don’t think fans mind that fact much.
Phantogram’s set in the ballroom was powerful and noisy. The band has forged a strong relationship with The Flaming Lips, often appearing onstage together, but the proximity of these two bands’ sets prevented any cameos on this particular night. Thick smoke shrouded the band and backlighting washed over their shapes, making them appear, well, phantom-like (not to mention impossible to photograph). Phantogram plowed through three songs before stopping to enthusiastically greet a welcoming audience. I had to cut watching the band short to head down to the photo pit for the Flaming Lips.
As soon as I arrived at the power plant stage, it was clear that the Lips wouldn’t be performing the confetti-cannon, giant bouncing balls, colorful streamers sort of set many of us have grown used to. Instead, the performance utilized the stage setting we’ve seen the band adopt since their most recent effort The Terror. A massive tangle of tubes and cords covers the stage and dangles from the ceiling. At the center of the stage, the tangle of tubes twists upward and forms a sort of pulpit for Wayne Coyne, the psychedelic prophet, to deliver his song-sermons of the love and terror of this trippy universe in which we exist. First, Coyne walked onto the stage with a giant silver balloon in the shape of the words, “Fuck Yeah Buku,” which elicited uproarious applause from the crowd.
The ensuing set was a short one and featured many new songs as well as the Lips staples “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1” and closer “Do you Realize??” The band also treated fans to a slow, sustained rendition of “Race for the Prize” and “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton,” both from seminal album The Soft Bulletin. Also amongst the songs performed were a Devo cover (“Gates of Steel”) and a cover of The Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” likely the most appropriate song by the classic band the Flaming Lips could have chosen to reprise. Coyne spent some energy pumping up the crowd between refrains, yelling, “We love you!” and “C’mon motherfuckers!” Pulsing lights coursed through the tubes in rainbow colors like all of the energy of the universe flowing like electricity in the synapses of our collective consciousness.
Seeing the Flaming Lips is tantamount to a spiritual experience and everyone should do so if they haven’t. While the Lips’ past performances have worked as expressions of utter joy and psychedelic love, this new direction deserves applause as well. It’s encouraging to see a band refuse to stand on one single schtick, to move their art in a new direction, even if that direction is far more challenging and inaccessible. The show is still full of wonder and spectacle and was for me the most enjoyable set of the weekend.
So joyous was I after The Flaming Lips that I coasted through the rest of the evening in a state of euphoria both enjoying everything I saw but not investing much energy in the remaining performers. Explosions in the Sky rocked a simultaneously tense and serene set of post-rock that shook festival goers to their cores. David Guetta performed atop a giant lighted box so enormous that he couldn’t even be seen poking out of the top. Schoolboy Q performed a set full of grit and encouraged everyone in the crowd to “SWERVE!” — a command with which they happily complied. Young & Sick, a band fronted by the graphic designer who did all of the artwork for Buku this year, sounded groovy and upbeat and performed in some of the best lighting I saw all weekend. Smoke, backlighting, and saturated purples and reds suck by the way, lighting people. Whoever did Young & Sick’s set knew what they were doing. Tyler, The Creator called everyone assholes and motherfuckers and kicked the press out of the photo pit after the first song, because we’ve collectively “been making him look bad.” In the one song, I will say, he killed it, dropping rhymes with rapidfire fluidity and climbing out on the subs positioned in front of the stage.
I closed the night by watching a set by Beats Antique, a band that is admittedly a bit boring when Zoe Jakes isn’t onstage. The trio’s use of violin makes the songs interesting, but it is Jakes that creates all of the allure and visual spectacle that has given the band their status. She’s stunning and we’ve got photos to prove it.
Stepping outside of our niche of Austin’s music scene offered a glimpse at the musical tendencies and trends of another city. Buku was a little bit gritty and embraced a wide range of artists and styles from hip hop to electronic to psych rock. Many of the festival goers happily let their freak flags fly. In these ways, the festival mirrored its home city as it celebrated diversity and expanded our concept of musical communities in other parts of the country. We’re hoping to see even bigger things from this great little festival in the future.
All photos © Bryan Parker & Pop Press International. Click any image to open in slideshow viewer.
