CD101 Summerfest 2008

This year’s CD101 Summerfest was probably worth the money, but that’s not saying much since it was only $5. You’d be hard-pressed to put together a festival with seven bands for $5 (about 71 cents per band) and have it not be worth the cash.

The evening was mostly a disappointment, though, especially compared to last year’s great performances by Silversun Pickups, Sea Wolf and Miranda Sound. VHS or Beta played an underwhelming set last year, but for some reason the band was back this year to headline the main stage at the LC Pavilion, and Saturday night’s set wasn’t any better. In fact, it was worse.

The Louisville band is apparently content to recycle ’80s pop in a danceable form, mixing glossed-up post-punk (minus the spidery guitars) and Robert Smith vocals (minus the drippiness, adding some vocoder). Every song in the set sounded familiar, and not just because I heard most of them last year. It just felt recycled.

The instrumental numbers were no exception. I thought I was listening to muzak versions of other songs--like watching an infomercial for the “Instrumental ’80s.” Much of the crowd seemed to concur, as people trickled to the exit in larger numbers as the set went on, leaving a sparsely populated lawn.

Philadelphia’s Dr. Dog warmed up the stage for VHS or Beta, and while the fivesome didn’t set it on fire by any means, it was a performance worth seeing. For the most part, I preferred the songs the bassist sang--he’s got a howler of a voice that translates better live, especially on “The Beach” and “The Ark,” which was the best song of the night and deserving of the radio play CD101 has been giving it.

Dr. Dog played a lot of older stuff, which is unfortunate because most of the newer stuff had the most energy and sounded freshest. Also, everyone but the bassist was fairly distant and aloof, and that created a barrier that didn’t need to be there. Fortunately for Dr. Dog, the band’s swaying melodies juxtaposed with bouncy grooves helped to make up for it.

Darker My Love had a similarly indifferent stage presence. Maybe they were pissed off at being relegated to the tiny side stage, and deservedly so. Why put a psychedelic band with Big Muff guitars and huge, fuzzy bass lines on the side stage and put acoustic two-piece honeyhoney on the main stage? There’s probably some sort of logistical reason for this, but switching those two would have put both bands in a more natural setting.

Despite looking quite bored, Darker My Love rocked out nicely, albeit inconsistently. Songs without a distinct vocal hook got lost in a way that they don’t on record, but others--like “Blue Day,” “Two Ways Out” and “Talking Words”--rang true and trippy.

Honeyhoney ended up being my favorite band of the night, and previously I didn’t think much of the girl-guy duo. The band’s debut EP, Loose Boots, is a little too polished for my liking, but live the two stripped it down to Ben Jaffe on bass drum and acoustic guitar and Suzanne Santo occasionally accompanying on violin and banjo. Jaffe threw in some nice vocal harmonies throughout, but Santo’s sexy, jazzy voice was the set’s highlight--like a younger, salacious version of Over the Rhine’s Karin Bergquist.

Turning the Smashing Pupmkins’ “1979” into a jazzy vamp was a cool twist, and “I Go to Work” showed Santo’s blunt and playful sense of humor. Honeyhoney was also the most stylistically divergent band on the bill--something the fest could have used more of.

There’s not much good I can say about ism and Tickle Me Pink. Ism was like a less proggy, less talented version of Muse. Every song sounded the same as the one before. It reminded me of a high-school band that just discovered Boss guitar-effects pedals, complete with awkward silences during equipment failures. “Sacred Cows,” the CD101-pimped tune, was borderline horrible. Fittingly, the set ended with a song called “Give it Back,” which is what I wished the band would do with the previous 20 minutes of my life.

Tickle Me Pink--winning the award for worst band name of the festival--played super-bland emo songs with repetitive choruses that were usually screamed by the lead singer (who sported mid-’90s Jennifer Aniston hair). The parts without distortion highlighted his severe vocal limitations, and the lyrics were just atrocious. Exhibit A (“Go Die”): “It’s been so long since I saw you/But it’s been the time of my life/Now that it’s all over/I want you to go die, die.”

I missed Columbus opener the Lost Revival, but even without seeing them, I can pretty much guarantee they were better than ism and Tickle Me Pink.

Like last year, I still have to give kudos to CD101 for putting lesser-known bands on a cheap bill and giving them the opportunity to play for more people than they’re used to. (One example: Dr. Dog was scheduled to play the 300-capacity Basement recently; the band played to a heck of a lot more warm bodies than that on Saturday night.) The festival is also a good annual reminder that we’re lucky to have an independent rock station at all.

Let’s hope next year’s lineup, though, is worth a little more than $5.