JOTD Update – Siren Festival Wrap-up

Backstage at Stillwell @ Siren Music Festival

I’m not sure how many of you made it to Coney Island for the Siren Music Festival last weekend but, if you did come, hopefully you made it there by 2:30pm, when Bear Hands played. It was such a great day to be outside drinking some beers and enjoying live music! Bear Hands played a pretty tight set, including the song “Frank” that they hadn’t played in a while, and all the regular favorites such as “Golden,” “Sickly Brunette,” and “Can’t Stick Em” before they finished up with a spontaneous-crowd-hand-clap-backed version of “What a Drag.”

Bear Hands @ Siren Music Festival 2009 (7/18/09)

What was really interesting to me is that it seems like some of the songs – most notably “Frank” – have been re-tooled in the studio and are sounding really sleek and sing-along ready. I am expecting a fantastic reception to their full length (probably being released in late winter?), especially if this live show was a taste of things to come.

One of the most fun/funny moments of the show was when Dylan called Das Racist up on stage to perform a rendition of their unexpected hit “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell” over the band playing a live cover of Jay-Z’s “D.O.A.” and a hail of “Yeah”s, “Uh-huh”s, “No”s and the general histeria/noise that ensued. Fun times all around, although I wasn’t sure that the crowd really had any sort of idea what was going on.

On a side note, Das Racist is playing a show tonight at Union Pool with our friends The Tony Castles and IN, which should be a really hot sweaty time. Come join us!

There were a ton of great other performances over the course of the day, although we spent most of our time at the Stillwell Stage. But near the end of the night, as the sun set and the general revelry-level creeped up a notch, we made it over to the main stage to check out Built to Spill. They were awesome as always, and ended the festival on a perfect note, right next to the Wonder Wheel:

Wonder Wheel after dark

Good night, Brooklyn.

-Drew