Be the Riottt! Festival - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium - San Francisco, CA- 11.11.06

Posted by Brian Berry on 11.15.2006

Underground music's biggest names came out for the inauguration of this exciting festival featuring The Rapture, Clipse, The Wrens, Sage Francis, Metric, and many others!



On Veteran’s Day, thousands of Northern California’s under-30, hipster elite ventured to the 7000 capacity Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in downtown San Francisco for the Be the Riottt Festival, an all-day music event celebrating the launch of Riottt.com. According to their website, the goal of the festival was to “feature the most cohesive representation of music, street fashion, and art in the nation”. While there wasn’t a single piece of art found in the venue (trust me, I looked into every crevice of the place), and the few “street fashion” booths were largely unimpressive, the event boasted a concert of nearly 30 acts on 3 stages, spanning many musical genres…and a shitload of advertisements for Scion automobiles.

The goal of the day was to catch at least a couple songs by each act on the bill. This task was nearly completed in what was an eventful, 10-hour concert dominated mainly by top hip-hop, dance, and rock artists.

Birdmonster

At 2:10pm, hometown heroes Birdmonster took to the stage and presented their brand of high energy, John Mellancamp by way of Modest Mouse, bar rock. Aggressive musicianship, a clean, melodic sound, and jumping off of shit on stage was enough to capture the attention of the sparsely populated crowd early on. These four young men always impress live and this performance was one of the day’s highlights.

Meanwhile, the kids in Heavy Heavy Low Low performed on the second stage playing a mix of death metal, clunky jazz, and hardcore. Their set got some of the screamo kids a rockin’ but not this critic.

A third stage opened at 3pm, where rapper P.O.S. was the strongest performer of the hour. His harsh delivery is like DMX without the bark, while the backing beats were filled with industrial synths and electric guitars. Consider a more street tough version of Linkin Park and you’ve got the picture.

On the main stage, RX Bandits played a set of emo-rock to a small, diehard legion of their mainly teenaged fans. Before their first song, singer/guitarist Matt Embree declared, “This is definitely one of the weirdest shows we’ve played” [a single look at the festival line-up reveals the origin of this statement]. These Southern Californians were once a ska-punk act but they now sound more similar to bands like Jimmy Eat World and The Get Up Kids; only RX Bandits have a trombone player. Embree was not impressed with the extreme amount of Scion ads throughout the venue as evidenced when he announced, “Just so you know, we have nothing to do with these corporate advertisements. Just so you know.”

Over at the second stage a heavy, Christian dance-rock band called Showbread played spastic dance-rock that fell somewhere between the pop clarity of The Killers and the whiny post-hardcore of Blood Brothers. The major difference separating Showbread from their contemporaries was that Showbread sucked major balls. Bob Saget and Rice A Roni jokes fell flat with the crowd and served as a nail in the coffin of one of the festival’s lowlights. The mulleted keytar player, dancing like ‘80s pop sensation Tiffany was somewhat endearing though.

The Wrens

Everyone familiar with Ian Wright’s Dancing About Architecture column knows The Wrens are a must see live act. The New Jersey quartet absolutely destroyed during their 40-minute main stage set, playing most of the classic 2003 album The Meadowlands. It can’t be emphasized enough how good the sound was on the main stage and The Wrens were one of the beneficiaries of the amazing system. The band’s marriage of Beach Boys melodies crossed with Spoon-like indie guitar rock went over well with the crowd, many of whom sang along to every lyric of the set. Bassist/vocalist Kevin Wheelan stole the show with his over the top stage theatrics. Any other middle-aged man playing a half broken bass, jumping wildly all over the place, with their beer belly hanging out of an unbuttoned shirt would be laughed off the stage. Somehow, Wheelan’s performance got the crowd going nuts while his bandmates musicianship was nothing short of exemplary. A comedic highlight of their performance came when guitarist/vocalist Charles Bissell joked, “Thanks for the free Scions” followed by Wheelan’s retort, “This is the first time we ever felt like The Cure” [regarding the unnecessary fog machines placed at each stage]. This was to be the highlight of the festival.

The 5pm slot featured the socio-political conscious old-school rap troupe X-Clan, local hip-hop/techno/reggae act Zion-I, and post-hardcore trio Fall of Troy. While Zion-I most effectively grabbed the crowd’s attention, none of these acts held my interest. It was time for a food break so I walked to one of the many stands selling pizza, nachos, and hot dogs. The choices were slim, especially considering we were stuck in “Be the Riottt State Penitentiary” for the day (i.e. no ins and outs at the show).

The biggest crowd of the day formed for the DIY hip-hop collective, Living Legends. The seven talented MC’s on stage played well off each other, and more importantly, got the audience moving like none of the other performers did. The second stage featured the paint-by-numbers, My Bloody Valentine biters in buzz band Asobi Seksu. On stage three, gifted wordsmith Busdriver, who was decked out in a beige Cosby sweater and brown cords, dropped jaws with his million words per minute, intellectual hip-hop rhymes. Despite the high bass level on his vocals, Busdriver delivered a physically exerting, delightful set.

With half of the festival completed at 7pm, the number of young women accosting concertgoers with Scion propaganda, decked out in black spandex and day-glo raver necklaces, had somehow doubled. There was no safe place to be but in one of the performance rooms.

Sage Francis

The biggest surprise performance came from Rhode Island hip-hop artist Sage Francis. His intense, stream of consciousness approach to the craft was more literate and better delivered than P.O.S.’s set earlier in the day. He came off as a man possessed and would’ve scared the shit out of newbies in the audience had it not been for amusing rants about his overweight figure, hatred of Jay-Z, and self-described “emotastic” rapping. Highlights came during the sobering post-9/11 single “Makeshift Patriot” and “Dance Monkey” where Sage rapped while a break dance-off took place on stage.


The 8pm block showcased the most diverse hour of music for the night. Drone rockers Explosions In the Sky played to the main stage. They sounded great live but with four hours of concert to go, this reporter needed something more energetic. Australia’s The Presets took a LONG TIME setting up at the second stage. When the duo finally took to the stage, fans found electro beats, a talented drummer, and sterile vocals. Over at the third stage, slam poet legend Saul Williams put on a wordy set of politically conscious rock.

After seeing Emily Haines wearing some kind of negligee-like outfit during Metric’s set-up there was no way to leave the main stage. She’d definitely clock in to my Top 10 of hottest indie rock babes. Unfortunately, Haines and her band didn’t excite me as much as her legs did. Both in stage mannerisms by Haines and in sound, Metric were reminiscent of a more polished Yeah Yeah Yeahs. With nothing convincing enough to keep me at the main stage it was time to check out one of Northern California’s emerging bands on stage two, Xiu Xiu.

Xiu Xiu

411mania columnist, Ian Wright said it best: “[Xiu Xiu] has balls. If you’re playing music this experimental, you have to mean it”…and they meant it. Jamie Stewart’s vocals are somewhat similar to The Cure’s Robert Smith at his most subdued moments. The lyrics of Xiu Xiu’s songs are like mini-confessionals and the band performs with all the seriousness Stewart’s words deserve. Musically, they’re a hard nut to crack. Drummer Ches Smith’s insane compositions matched with co-founder Caralee McElroy’s multi-instrumentalism create an ethereal world of heartache and depression. The only band that came to mind while watching them was Joy Division, only Xiu Xiu take a more avant-garde approach to their craft. Amazing set.

Back at the main stage, mash-up artist Girl Talk had somewhere close to 100 fans on stage and no music playing. After talking to a couple people I heard that the controversial deejay jumped into the crowd and hit his face on a guard rail, got back on stage to spin, then pulled shitloads of fans on stage to dance. All of this happened within 10 minutes before the festival booted him off the stage.

Deerhoof, fresh off a world tour in support of Radiohead, headlined the second stage. The trio never fails to impress live. Their off-kilter blend of j-pop, free jazz drumming, and straight up rock ‘n roll wowed the crows especially on “Twin Killers” from the 2005 album The Runners Four as well as the concert staple “Flower”. You need to see drummer Greg Saunier and lead-singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki live to appreciate their awesomeness.

Clipse

As the night winded down, only The Rapture and Clipse remained. The Rapture pulled in a good chunk of the crowd with their disco-punk stylings, borrowing heavily from their new album, Pieces of the People We Love. The set was energetic and got what was left of the slowly disappearing crowd to shake their money makers. The Rapture put on an adequate show but for my buck I'd rather see !!! (Chk Chk Chk), a funkier, more spontaneous, band of similar style who are one of the best live bands in the business.

Over at the third stage, the cocaine dealin’, minimalist beat havin’ Virginia brothers in Clipse took their sweet ass time getting out on stage. When they finally arrived the tightly packed room went berserk for the charismatic duo and their songs about…uh…cocaine. That’s their thing. They rap about cocaine. They’re the best at what they do (i.e. finding words that rhyme with “re-up”, “yayo”, and powder). Unfortunately, the vocals were up so fucking high that with every syllable uttered another trickle of blood exuded from my ear canal.

In the end, concertgoers appeared ready for bed (or the bar, whichever comes last), and pleased with the inaugural Be the Riottt Festival.

The 411: Sets by The Wrens, Sage Francis, Xiu Xiu, Busdriver and Deerhoof were highlights of this young, fresh festival. Food selection, corporate advertisements, and a "no ins and outs" policy were definitely the lowlights. The venue was well selected although the sound on the second and third stage could be much better. Overall, a good start to what could be a promising expo for music's edgiest artists.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]