Tarfest 2018: Caught a Ghost, Freedom Fry, Smoke Season and WILD

It was off to Tarfest to catch some bands out in the open air. The last time I went to Tarfest was 2014, I believe. It was time to head back over.

Most of the bands I saw, I've seen before: Caught a Ghost, Freedom Fry and Smoke Season. So the band I was most interested in seeing was WILD. I'm a sucker for pitch perfect vocals. That perfectly applies to Lauren and Zachary, who share singing duties. As I was listening to the band, I ended up thinking Family of the Year, but with a female vocal lead. Also, I'm a sucker for cheerful sounds, which applies so much to WILD (of course, that also applies to Family of the Year).

WILD

Opening the day for me was Smoke Season. I caught this band playing at Echo Park Rising back one month ago. I also caught them playing the Troubadour earlier in the year. Their soul electronic beats are always mixed in with the energy of Gabi. I'll say that Jason, guitar, seemed to be just a touch more energized than normal, as well, during this set.

Smoke Season

Caught a Ghost brought the soul to the late afternoon. They got the crowd to help sing along with a couple songs. Interestingly, as pointed out by lead singer Jesse, the two backup singers have the same name, but spelled differently: Jazmen vs. Jasmine. What I just obsess about when it comes to Caught a Ghost: how Jesse uses his drum sticks.

Caught a Ghost

Freedom Fry closed out the night. Their music brought the festival to a poetic end as the sun set behind LACMA. They also had some of the most fun conversations of the night. The band recently spent time in France -- the lead singer, Marie, is French. There was talk about Marie was trying to teach members of the band how to say things in French. However, the band members didn't think much of it as they said no one can ever understand what the French are saying, anyways. They also amusingly admitted that they prefer Italian food that is served in the US versus in Italy.

Freedom Fry

Quick Hit Band Interview: Freedom Fry

Freedom Fry at Sunstock Solar Festival

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is very influenced by all the things we grew up loving. Alternative pop, folk, & obscure one hit wonders of every decade. We love the dry production of the 1970s so that usually finds its way into our songs.

Other than playing in front of a packed crowd, what thrills you about performing live? Getting to see the immediate influence your songs can have on someone in real time is what thrills us most about playing live. Also getting to perform with the people you love.

Do you have a favorite memory or any thoughts about the Sunstock Solar Festival? Our favorite memory of the Sunstock show was when the power went out for about 5 minutes. The audience all huddled in and we did an acoustic rendition of our song Shaky Ground. Everybody in that moment was feeding off each other’s good energy.

Sunstock Solar Festival 2017

Sunstock Solar Festival. Just to get it out of the way: there were major technical problems with one of the stages and some minor ones on another stage that resulted in four bands not getting to play their sets: YIP YOPS, SWIMM, Fuzzy Crystals and Wild Cub. The festival organizers dealt with it great. I had wanted to see YIP YOPS for a second time as I knew they'd put on an amazing show. I walked over when I began to suspect that something was up and I over-heard one of the organizers talking with them and expressing the festival's regrets. Trapdoor Social, during their set, mentioned the names of the bands that weren't able to play. In fact, if it wasn't for a special appearance, it sounded like Trapdoor Social would have given up their spot to one of the bands. And then the festival itself gave out a drink ticket to everyone as a make up. A great response.

Bloodboy opened the festival, jamming her way through her set with some '60s poetry slam sounds. She commanded the stage, putting on moves that sent her on multiple journeys from one end of the stage to the other. Freedom Fry went up and had to deal with some stage issues. They dealt with it gracefully. The band went to the edge of the stage and played an acoustic song until the situation could be rectified. Wildling had to deal with the same stage issues as with Freedom Fry and made lite of it with some humorous quips, "The sun is out, right?" They ended their set doing two acoustic songs with just the metal barricade separating them from an adoring group of fans. For me, the troubles that resulted for Freedom Fry and Wildling ended up making the early part of the festival more intimate. And brought out some nice quips when one of the bands said something really old-school, "You know we're not Milli Vanilli."

The technical issues got resolved and the festival kicked into high gear. First though, some bands needed to go through sound checks. Run River North was doing their sound check when one of the sound guys said, "You have three minutes left." Someone in the band asked, "Why?" Response, "Some acoustic guitar guy is coming on in three minutes. That's all I know." Ha ha, Chris Whitehall of The Griswolds, who was that guy, obviously overheard that and used it a few times while on stage. "You can find me at AcousticGuitarGuy dot com . . . dot au."

Comment one of the festival by Chris Whitehall: In America, you worship God. In Australia, we worship kangaroos and Vegemite.

Run River North brought the indie folk sounds. Here's what I noticed: the violinist was stuck in this small section of the stage during their whole set until the very end. At the end, she put down the violin and went wild crazy on stage. It was awesome.

Comment two of the festival by Run River North: I'm Steve Aoki and this is my side project.

Trapdoor Social went all out for their set. Prior, I noticed that a high school band had shown up. I was thinking that maybe there was going to be this special moment where they were going to blast out a couple fight songs. I never even thought that for Trapdoor Social's final song that the high school band from South Pasadena would encircle the festival goers and play along with the band. It was awesome.

Best band of the festival award: Yeah, Trapdoor Social killed it with their catchy tunes and, of course, the high school band guest appearance.

Robert DeLong gave us the pulsating electronic sounds. Though my bias was towards Trapdoor Social as being the band of the festival, the festival goers were all behind Robert DeLong. The festival organizers brought out the balloons and a balloon party went on throughout the set. Some of the balloons would end up in the photo pit and various photographers would toss the balloons back into the eager crowd. It was party time at Sunstock Solar Festival.

The Soft White Sixties lead singer knows how to slide across a stage floor like Fred Astaire. With dancing like that, you have to feel inspire.

Comment three of the festival by The Soft White Sixties: What happened to that molecule you were tossing around?

Ra Ra Riot closed out the night with some pop indie sounds. They had a moment of hilarity when the lead singer, Wes, jumped behind the bassist, Mattieu, stuck his arms between those of his band mate's and gave the audience two thumbs up.

Final thoughts: an unfortunate technical problem to start off the festival, but it ended with a bang. This is the second year of the festival. I wasn't able to go to the first year (which featured a favorite band of mine, Cults) Here's hoping to continued growth for this festival and continued improvements and advances in solar power.