Rock out at Blackout Fest, pt. III
By Dani Purcell, Staff Writer
April 19, 2008 | 6 a.m.
The thirteenth year of weekend-long music explosion Blackout Fest concludes with an expansive set of 13 bands this Saturday at The Union, spanning an eclectic collection of genres, styles and personalities.
Although Blackout Fest focuses heavily on promoting local Athenian bands, several acts span the country. Some venture from the neighboring Ohio cities Columbus and Cleveland, while others travel from states as far as Minnesota and North Carolina. Despite the distance, this festival promises to unite music acts across the nation.
The Pages and Sad Bastards begin the final leg of the three-part show at 3:30 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., respectively.
Athens-based rock outfit Red Dahlia leads the festival’s final day with one of the earlier sets. The fact that the band received an early allotment does not diminish its relevance and contribution to local music. Red Dahlia shatters stereotypes about female-fronted rock bands in its lack of dramatic sex appeal, supplemented with powerful progressions and energetic live performances.
Guitarists Matt Toledo and Kenny Smith provide solid, catchy riffs over singer-keyboardist’s Jodi Toledo’s subtle contribution of keys. Toledo’s vocal ingenuity is characterized by the combination of her strength and tonal clarity. Red Dahlia’s lyrical subject matter is universal and seemingly abstract, but Toledo’s vocals sincerely permeate layers of guitar-driven melodies.
The Athens staple instrumental hodge-podge of hysteria, psychedelic and epic thrash-metal, October Fist, takes the stage at 5:45 p.m.
Blackout Fest acts appear to progressively increase in obscurity and abstraction as Saturday night continues with Columbus natives Necropolis, a five-piece act with a pension for extreme abstraction. Necropolis combines an electronic element to its beastly instrumental militia, complemented by near-undecipherable barks as vocals.
“Give Up,” is a prime example and key track that explains Necropolis’ unusual style. It begins with a rough bass line and explodes in a barrage of instrumental noise pollution, eliciting further disjointed catastrophe in attempting to bestow this band a genre.
The band has received mixed reviews from varied sources within Columbus. Many critics praise Necropolis’s success despite its gritty recording, and nod toward its blur of kinetic musicality and organized chaos.
The party continues with Birthday Suits, a quirky two-piece hailing from Minneapolis, scheduled to play at midnight. The duo presents a post-punk collective of high-distortion melodies, cranking the volume and the noise in a curious recipe of equal parts ear assault and dancing-in-your-parents’-garage beats.
Birthday Suits discernable quality makes its music appear friendly, yet with a driving sense of external viciousness. The underlying approachability factor lies in the band’s fuse of garage rock and playfully shouted choruses.
Other bands include Dropdead Sons, Silo Circuit and many more. The thirteenth annual Blackout Fest draws to a close with Terrible Twos, at 1 a.m. For information and updates, visit Blackout Fest’s MySpace page here.
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