Warm Love Cool Dreams Post-Festival Re-Seeding
Reexamining the broke, the woke, and the bespoke of Warm Love Cool Dreams
Back again! If you didn’t know, the good people over at Empty Bottle Presents laced me with a light little press pass to their just-wrapped Warm Love Cool Dreams festival last week. Shouts out to them!
This is not the promised second article, but rather it is a redux of the pre-festival piece from last Thursday. If you will, it is a little extra credit, and who doesn’t love extra credit?
The problem with prognosticating is, everyone is shit at prognosticating. Someone might be the smartest, most in-the-know person in the world, and they are still bound to fuck up in some way.
Last week, I dropped a heater in which I prognosticated my ass off, ranking each of the artists who would be performing at Warm Love Cool Dreams. And, having seen (nearly) all of them live in the flesh, I got a lot of shit twisted, so I feel that I would be remiss not to reseed the broke, woke, and bespoke selections based on their performances last Saturday and Sunday.
It’s only fair.
Disqualified
Smerz
Previous ranking: Woke
The controversy of the weekend unfolded during Saturday’s 5:00PM slot: the girlies wanted to see Smerz, and the fellas wanted to see Mark William Lewis. It was a tale as old as time, but let’s just say that nobody saw Smerz.
Whitney
Previous ranking: Woke
I should’ve known the whole time that I wasn’t going to watch this nonsense. The Chicago locals went off at like 7:15PM on Sunday evening, which happened to be the perfect time to imbibe and unwind. No disrespect, though.
Broke
Kumo 99
Previous ranking: Bespoke
This is not their fault. For reasons beyond comprehension, the breakbeat, dance-ass duo performed at 3:00PM on Saturday afternoon. They do not make 3:00PM-on-a-Saturday-afternoon music; they make music for the wee hours of debauchery. The frontwoman was also sick apparently, and that just isn’t right. As such, Kumo 99 was not hitting, but they shouldn’t be written off.
YHWH Nailgun
Previous ranking: Broke
I knew it! These fools pulled up with the nu-metal filter turned up to one hundred! In a stark contrast to the noisy instrumentals and whisper-y croaks on wax, YHWH Nailgun leaned deeply into their butt-hardcore bag to produce a performance that many seemed put off by. This combined with the frontman’s waist-high mic stand and chicken-esque crouch to reach said mic stand made the upstarts’ performance feel more unsettlingly surreal than any parody ever could. Maybe that was the whole point. Regardless, NEXT.
Pixel Grip
Previous ranking: Broke
The singer of this band truly made this performance dip from uninspired to downright despicable with her on-stage banter. My favorites include the pre-song incantation “I’m going to need my guitarist for this next song — somebody let him out of his cage” and post-song catchphrases like “Get out of my face!” and the laughably lame “Oh, fuck off!” It’s safe to say that the band’s services will no longer be needed.
Toro Y Moi
Previous ranking: Woke
Chaz Bear turned up to the outdoors stage with Oakley Meta Glasses and a ring light simulcast livestream! Miss me with that.
Woke
The Jesus and Mary Chain
Previous ranking: Woke
These oldsters really rock! Thanks to their nearly ascendent performance, the rocking elder Scots’ performances were perfectly prognosticated.
Courtney Barnett
Previous ranking: Broke
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was wrong! Courtney Barnett, a singer that I have long found lame, really tore this shit to shreds! Shoutout to her, man. She and her band were so good that I might even see her again one day…
Moin
Previous ranking: Broke
Moin, for better or for worse, was hit with the third slot on Sunday, but they made the most of it! Most people were milling about the concourse during their performance, taking in the sights, the smells, and the savors. Somehow, Moin provided a perfectly absurd, supremely loud and left-of-center backdrop for all of that. They did not gain a new fan in me, but they do have a new spectator from afar for the rest of their existence as a band.
Lauren Auder
Previous ranking: Bespoke
To be clear, Lauren Auder did not stink, but her performance did demote her from bespoke to woke. She and her band arrived just moments before they were set to start, and they took a handful of songs to tighten up. Each of them seemed frazzled, but everything did eventually snap into place. When all was said and done, they had a solid showing.
Being Dead
Previous ranking: Woke
To keep it a buck, Being Dead rocked! Their crowd, on the other hand, was a corny as can be and nearly ruined it, and had the three-piece not been as tight as they were, they easily could’ve slid into the broke bucket.
Bespoke
Mark William Lewis
Previous ranking: Woke
Shit was biblical.
Nourished by Time
Previous ranking: Bespoke
I love being right! The hour-plus long set felt like a whirlwind in the best way. The backing band was locked in, and bandleader Marcus Brown was truly on one. During one of several moments of ecstatic buoyancy, Brown and his loyal right- and lefthand men each hopped on their respective music machines and made magic happen in ways that I could never imagine. I need to see them again.
Tortoise
Previous ranking: Bespoke
Tortoise has been around so long that this performance, which was incredible, didn’t even feel like a victory lap. Instead, it felt like five men operating at the peak of their joint powers, playing and experimenting like it was their first time in the same place in a very long time. They were all drunken smiles, and they seemed to really appreciate taking the stage. Had it not been for Mark William Lewis and Nourished by Time, they would’ve had the best set of the weekend.
Tobacco City
Previous ranking: Bespoke
I had no grounds to preemptively proclaim Tobacco City to be a bespoke selection, but my gamble paid off. Their performance began with maybe 50 audience members, but the band didn’t give a fuck; they played like they had just sold out an arena. Tobacco City might just be a band of stars in the making.