“This is the part where you realize you should have called a cab 15 minutes ago,” the ’ frontman told the packed Hi-Dive just after 1 a.m.
The Zebroids are sort of a Denver must-see, but still, he may have been right. The third day of the began at noon, and itap likely that some strong-bodied, stable-minded people arrived early and stuck it out for the last sets. That’s more than 12 hours of music, standing and partying for anyone unable to do math today.
See our full coverage of UMS 2014 here
Things got going at the Main Stage at 3:30 p.m. with South of France — a band that, it was agreed among some Reverb staff, is very nice. Though the stage was empty before the Denver (soon to be L.A.) foursome struck its first chords, a crowd soon gathered to hear the sunny sounds. Kelly Lueke and Jeff Cormack’s voices sound so carefully produced and prominent on their LP, Another Boring Sunrise, that you end up wanting the same from the live show. Itap not quite the same, but it doesn’t block their shine. South of France will be sorely missed when they depart for L.A.
That show set the tone for the next few hours at the Main Stage. Even through cloudy skies and scattered rain showers, the music was sunny. Sparkling, reverb-drenched sounds brought the crowd to the beach — a beach where guys in snapbacks, tank tops, collared shirts and stylish sunglasses contemplate the big things. Miniature Tigers, Gardens & Villa and Cayucas — hailing from Brooklyn, Santa Barbara and Santa Monica, respectively — were all in fine form. The lineup made perfect sense as they each offered a variation on the aforementioned sounds, tweaking the recipe to give the audience something unique.
Then, suddenly, Baths was on stage. Will Wiesenfeld’s music matched the dour skies and the crowd loved it. Just before he released his 2014 EP Ocean Death, his album Obsidian was getting attention for just how dark it was. Written around a bout with E. coli, itap a record meant to confront mortality. Somehow, this was still plenty of fun for a bouncing and swaying crowd. The pounding low end, often piercing high end and erratic rhythmic bursts are strangely melodic. Itap an electronic assault, and yet no one plugs their ears and walks away. Itap possible the man is performing dark magic.
The final Main Stage show yanked everyone back in the other direction. Real Estate is certainly on the sunnier side, though it feels more like sunshine in an East Coast suburban back yard. The intricate guitar interplay is hypnotizing, beautiful and soothing. John Wenzel called it “the best elevator music in the world.” Itap a strange thing to cap off Saturday at the main stage, something so mellow, but it works.
Perhaps thatap because the day parties and other shows around S. Broadway are taking care of the raucous stuff. At the Hi-Dive, Brothertiger (who played just after Miniature Tiger’s Main Stage set) was bopping and emoting behind a stand of synths and drum pads, flooding the room with something that was atmospheric with enough of a beat to make the whole room do the Brothertinger dance (definition: shuffling from side to side with too much shoulder movement).
At the Centennial Day party, a dirt ground back yard just off Broadway was full of people drinking beer for the price of a donation. Blue Rider was on the stage. You’d probably recognize guitarist Alex Eschen’s glorious mutton chops and awesome ’70s shirts from all the times you saw him bravely manning the Hi-Dive door this weekend (and other weekends, but this one in particular). In an open denim shirt, thick chest hair and huge gold medallion on display, he and the rest of the band (almost as retro looking) tore through a set of genre-hopping rock that landed somewhere in between psych, funk and bar rock.
Later at the Skylark, Austin’s Whiskey Shivers were showing the crowd what bluegrass can be. Though some people filed out in advance, those who stuck around learned that the genre can go punk, and they stayed, and they loved it. The washboard player wore overalls. The fiddle player wore a mullet. None of them wore shoes. Their brand of bluegrass could provoke moshing, but the breakneck banjo, fiddle and guitar solos mostly induce frantic jumping and whoops of joy. You’ve never seen an upright bass player look so much like he might be making (rough) love to his instrument. As is their wont, they hopped down into the crowd for the final song, sealing the deal with the crowd. They will be remembered.
And so we come to the Zebroids. The Denver mainstays, whose UMS bio said only, “f— you,” and whose Facebook bio says,”f— art, letap party,” covered FIDLAR’s “Cocaine.” That mostly involves screaming, “Cocaine, runnin’ round in my brain.” As a dude in a zebra mask literally herded the audience closer to the stage, the band thrashed through their IDGAF brand of party rock, pouring booze into a skull-shaped cup to be poured into the mouths of eager audience members.
There is no big takeaway for Saturday at the 14th UMS. It can’t be wrapped up neatly with bow. And the UMS shouldn’t be, especially on Saturday. This was a wild accumulation of every kind of music you could possibly think of. Outside the Skylark around 1 a.m., a shaking, stuttering man spilled his emotions onto the sidewalk — how he was in the Air Force, debilitated by a head injury, estranged from his daughter, getting help from his brother and, should anyone need to be shot, he knew a guy we could call. He was the walking (stumbling) embodiment of the day.
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Ashley Dean is an editor and designer for YourHub at the Denver Post and a new contributor to Reverb.
Seth McConnell is a member of YourHub at The Denver Post and a regular contributor to Reverb.
