Free Press Summer Fest has some serious cred for the following reasons: 1) the festival was started by two organizations that are locally oriented and grassroots, 2) the festival does an amazing job of remembering to give serious attention to outstanding local acts, placing them in the spotlight, and 3) they managed to find the best spot in downtown Houston to host a festival, a hidden gem adjacent to the towering skyscrapers of H-town.
Another salient factor in our love for this year’s FPSF was the genuinely enthusiastic participants and festival goers. It was pretty refreshing after years of Austin’s often standoffish and cold, super-saturated scene in which almost no one is impressed by anything. All of these are important reasons that it hurt our hearts to read on Free Press Houston’s “About” page that the monthly publication is “owned by people who hate people from Austin and Dallas.” Still, we’ll resist the urge to fire back a “fuck you,” and instead insist that there’s enough love in both cities for us to share a relationship of reciprocal affinity. We love you, FPH.
I’ll admit when I arrived at the gate for FPSF I was a little skeptical, likely attributable to all the concrete and traffic that surrounds the sequestered treasure that is Eleanor Tinsley Park. However, I was quickly won over. The hill that leads down to the bayou acts as a natural amphitheatre on which attendees sit while looking down on the huge temporary stages erected each year. This year, the stages hosted bands that formed an incredible lineup that would treat fans over the course of the next two days.
But Summer Fest offers much more for attendees than just music. The festival has a reputation for showcasing art, such as sculptures and art cars. Attendees can also take a trip down a waterslide and paint their entire bodies. To beat the heat, you can also pay a small amount more and get a Fancy Pants pass, which affords access to several air-conditioned tents, in which custom cocktails can be purchased. The festival is one of a kind.
Getting down to brass tacks of the music, here’s a simple list in chronological order of what we saw: The Wheel Workers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Eastern Sea, Starfucker, Best Coast, Diplo, Zorch, Morris Day and the Time, Z-Ro, Two Door Cinema Club, Major Lazer, Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, and The Flaming Lips. Check back tomorrow for our coverage of the second half of the day, including Flaming Lips photos! Below are details from the first part of the day.
It was nice to kick the festival off with a local act, and The Wheel Workers performed a solid set to fans who had come out in support as they navigated their set of layered, methodical indie-rock. Austin’s The Eastern Sea played on a smaller stage, drawing a sizeable, avidly intrigued crowd to watch them perform their brand of delicate, atmospheric songcraft. The band utilized a tremendous amount of instruments and personnel. Enlisting seven people playing more than a dozen instruments, the band filled the small stage with energy.
At the same time, Clap Your Hand Say Yeah were rocking out on stage 2, one of the larger stages of the festival. Are we mistaken, or are these guys on somewhat of a comeback wave? After their explosion into fame circa 2006, the band has been scarce, but since the release of their new album in September of last year, their name has graced the bills of a number of festivals. They live set was solid and was one of the first of the day to build a packed mass of people as the group rocked through songs old and new. On the nearby main stage, Starfucker performed with super-high energy, bantering playfully with the crowd. The youthful Portland-based quartet seemed to truly enjoy their set of danceable pop music. Singer Joshua Hodges and drummer Keil Corcoran switched responsibilities, a particularly impressive gesture.
Best Coast has become a staple in the indie music community, having carved out a spot as one of the pioneers of the resurgence of lo-fi, distorted surf-pop. The group performed with only a modicum of energy, and Bethany Cosentino criticized the scorching Houston heat. However, the flawless recreations of the band’s songs were so tight that the band didn’t need much more to win over the crowd. Cosentino wore high-heeled, t-strap shoes, which seemed notable given the environment. 
As a bonus to the performance, Wayne Coyne showed up stage side to shoot photos of Best Coast on his iPhone. (You’ll get another story about a Coyne appearance in tomorrow’s coverage of the Erykah Badu set.)
We’ll close part one of day one coverage with our recounting of the Diplo set. For starters, stage 3, where the set was performed, was housed inside of a large geodesic dome. After Diplo’s tables and equipment were completely set up, the DJ greeted the crowd and touched one of his boards only to have one end of the table collapse and his gear go sliding toward the edge. “Guess I won’t be standing on that table,” he commented. Diplo has seen increasing notoriety over the past few years, even starring in a Blackberry 
commercial in 2010. His set at FPSF was one of the best and most energetic of the day, involving the crowd as he called fans onto the stage twice and crowd surfed during the performance. Collaborator Major Lazer was in attendance to dance and hype the crowd.
Tune in tomorrow for our second half of day one coverage with Zorch, Morris Day and the Time, Z-Ro, Two Door Cinema Club, Major Lazer, Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, and The Flaming Lips.
