ZapTown

[Review Written By Danielle Look]

Locals Only
Transpanther/ Joyful Noise / Standard Recording Stage
3:30 p.m.
Lucky Pineapple

Early Saturday afternoon, the stage at Locals Only was filled with classically trained musicians from our southern neighbor-city, Louisville: bass, keyboard, drum set, trumpet, trombone, saxophone, two electric guitars, and one percussionist. Their sound ranged from freaky-bizarre carnival-esque instrumentals to super-fast punk to straight up noise rock. Lucky Pineapple has a special fondness for percussion toys, which simply enrich their full band sound and upgrade the fun factor. Dressed in slacks, button-up shirts, pull-over cardigans, and even a couple of ties; Lucky Pineapple’s vintage business-casual appearance made a statement: we are professional musicians and we let our playing entertain, not stage props or costumes.

The small crowd of listeners learned that the transmission on the Lucky Pineapple van went out en route to Indianapolis. As they prepared to play their final song, the title was muffled by slight stage confusion, but then announced as a dedication to the beloved band van. A completely satisfying close to their set, the song engaged the entire group from start to finish and the horn section got wild together with simultaneous trills and scales at the song’s climax. If this was paying a tribute to their van, consider it fact that Lucky Pineapple REALLY loved their (now defunct) mode of transportation.

Locals Only
Transpanther/ Joyful Noise / Standard Recording Stage
4:24 p.m.
I Need Sleep

Next, another out-of-town band (this time traveling from Knoxville, TN) played on the stage that they had taken the time to adorn with various plants of different size and breed. As a matching embellishment, one guitar even had a long, single leaf dangling from it. The guitarist’s pants matched the drummer’s shirt: solid, bright, neon green. All this and more (Hawaiian board shorts, a pink visor, zebra print shirts, rolled up pant legs) accomplished a true sense of an altered environment from the previous set. “Can we turn as many lights off as possible?” asked one member to the sound guy. And there was instant ambiance. I Need Sleep, too, enjoyed percussion toys like a child does candy. This fascination produced a lot of fun noise and grew smiles in the audience, while their intentionally peculiar voices and puzzling lyrics provoked curiosity. Thinking locally, I Need Sleep could be Amo Joy’s counterpart if Knoxville was Indy’s Bizarro World.

The Monkey’s Tail
5:34 p.m.
The Post Script

Inevitably, more than five hours into the festival, schedules began to fall behind. At The Monkey’s Tail this proved to be a good thing. 30 minutes past their start time, The Post Script were done setting up but still working to fix microphone shorts. Seizing the minutes of unused silence, bassist Blain “The Beast” Crawford began to pluck his guitar and stole the show before it even started. The impromptu solo jam distracted from technical difficulties but, more importantly, gave Crawford the well-deserved spotlight all to his funky self. When he wasn’t impressing with his bass skills, he utilized the microphone and engaged the audience with a natural, entertaining stage presence.

As a result of the late start, the set was shorter than scheduled, simply a warm-up for the band’s 8:00 p.m. show that would take place later at Indy CD & Vinyl. Still, one listening session with The Post Script and the genres they draw from quickly come into focus. With striking precision, they’ve managed to fuse pop, funk, and rock into something so universally appealing it could be dubbed “one sound, fits all”.

North Side News
Heavy Gun Blog Hip Hop Stage
6:15 p.m.
Grey Granite

North Side News, a small two-room café hidden at 54th and College, was Broad Ripple Music Festival’s most unsuspecting venue for all things great. DJ tables occupied a corner; rappers and beatmakers performed in front of the picturesque window; limited seating occupied the back; and a thick, lively crowd filled all spaces in between.

As a remixed Final Countdown blasted from the speakers, Grey Granite blazed through his audience with microphone in hand, jumping up and down while bumping into fans all through the room. When the song began to fade and Granite’s lyrics stopped flowing, he confessed between gasps for air, “I got too excited… I’m all out of breath and it’s only the first song!”

The set was short (at best, 15 minutes) but satisfying. The one-man-show known as Grey Granite truly is amplifying, and apparently it’s the music that does this to him. Granite closed with an original song, Highper, that begins with the vivid line “Snort this song, straight to the brain. Music gets me highhhh.” This put the crow in a frenzy as arms were thrown to the air to cheer, sing, and dance along. Mimicking the recorded version with uncanny likeness, mid-way through Granite orchestrated a massive crescendo to near-silence. DJ brought the sound down while Granite corralled the audience and literally lowered them to the floor. As quickly as it disappeared, the noise came back like a slap to the face and an orgasmic burst of energy erupted. Granite never once stopped moving, frequently hopping on chairs, pointing to the “HeavyGunBlog.com” sign, then jumping back down to the ground again.

HeavyGunBlog.com made public their gratitude to the Broad Ripple Music Festival for having a place for hip hop at 2009’s event. Judging from the high attendance numbers and amazing variety of local talent that participated, hip hop will certainly not be left out again in 2010.

La Jolla Wasted Space
Indianapolis Songwriters’s Café Stage
9:15 p.m.
Deep Cricket Night

Deep Cricket Night closed the Wasted Space Stage Saturday night. Although stationed in Chicago, the band has many ties to the Indianapolis and Bloomington music scenes and frequent the cities often. Deep Cricket Night returned to Broad Ripple as veterans of the village’s music festival; in 2008, they played early to a small audience at The Indy Hostel. This year, however, the band returned to its acoustic roots to make music with Lance Drake’s beautiful falsetto and wicked guitar skills; Joey Werner and Ciaran Cooper providing comedic relief, backing vocals, constant smiles, and percussion beats; and Geraldine Haas, vocally quiet but a musical powerhouse, playing her cello.

Deep Cricket Night played many songs from their 2008 release “Before Morning”. Live, though, the audience was treated to pleasing extended versions of DCN gems “”When You Fall Awake” and “Through The Arches”. As the set progressed, the band moved toward more obscure and lesser-known works, including the “Creepy Make Out Song” to which the introduction included instructions to “do your part.” As the end of the set approached, Cooper left his chair to join Drake at the front of the stage for a moving presentation of “Song on the Door”

With the absence of electric and bass guitar covered by the deep, rich sounds of Haas’ cello, Deep Cricket Night brought the stripped-down, folky feel of their album to life. The unique instrumentation adds a new dimension to listening not often experienced with other live performances of this genre. Evaluating the high degree of quality Deep Cricket Night achieves in singing, song-writing, and musicianship, the band easily ranks among the top of the list for the Broad Ripple Music Festival 2009.