{"id":2446389,"date":"2019-07-16T08:38:55","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T14:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=859224"},"modified":"2019-07-16T08:38:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T14:38:55","slug":"forecastle-festival-2019-10-best-things-we-saw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/forecastle-festival-2019-10-best-things-we-saw\/","title":{"rendered":"Forecastle Festival 2019: 10 Best Things We Saw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now in its 18th year, Louisville, Kentucky\u2019s three-day Forecastle Festival is a mid-sized city fest done right, with a cross-genre slate of national rock, hip-hop and Americana acts, a lovely waterfront setting, a user-friendly layout, and an emphasis on the unpretentious Ohio River city\u2019s dual traditions of bourbon, of course, and indie music that punches above its weight. RS<\/em> was on site for the 2019 installment this past weekend; here were some of the highlights.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Killers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Best Vegas Entertainers: The Killers<\/strong>
First-night headliners the Killers brought Sin City to Derby City, giving the Forecastle faithful a 90-minute masterclass in showmanship and super-sized ambition. Bookending the 17-song performance with their twin breakthrough hits \u201cSomebody Told Me\u201d (played second) and \u201cMr. Brightside\u201d \u2014 both off the triple-platinum Hot Fuss<\/em>, which turned 15 this year \u2014 Brandon Flowers and Co. flexed their might as big-venue vets, channeling golden-era U2 on the stirring, stadium-sized \u201cThe Way It Was\u201d and \u201cRunaways,\u201d firing up the dance floor with the sly machismo send-up \u201cThe Man,\u201d and paying heartfelt tribute to the late Tom Petty with a rousing \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d\/\u201cFree Fallin\u2019\u201d mashup. Seasoned showmen that they are, the Killers know how to make a set they\u2019ve run tens of hundreds of times feel like a singular event, but even Flowers admitted surprise when fireworks went off during \u201cShot at the Night\u201d \u2014 from the minor-league Bats game at neighboring Louisville Slugger Field \u2014 which, while not premeditated, felt perfectly apropos.<\/p>\n

Best Cameo: Nick and Sam Wilkerson from White Reaper With the Killers<\/strong>
Louisville garage-punk crew White Reaper were one of Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2018s favorite Forecastle discoveries last year, and while the five-piece wasn\u2019t on the bill this time, its rhythm section \u2014 drummer Nick Wilkerson and his brother, bassist Sam \u2014 gave their Killers counterparts Ronnie Vannucci and Jake Blanton a breather on \u201cFor Reasons Unknown\u201d \u2014 a local spin on a longstanding tradition of having fans sit in on the 2006 single from the group\u2019s sophomore album Sam\u2019s Town<\/em>. White Reaper spent last fall on tour with the Killers, Sam Wilkerson explained to RS<\/em>, \u201cand when [Vannucci] asked Nick to play it I told [Blanton] I could too, because why not? Playing with them in our hometown was a dream come true. Touring with one of your favorite bands is surreal as is \u2014 let alone jamming with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Locals: GRLwood<\/strong>
Hotly tipped local duo GRLwood stormed the \u2018Castle Friday afternoon with a revelatory set of visceral, satirical, societal norm-shattering punk rock. Receiving a hero\u2019s welcome from the in-the-know hometown crowd, singer-guitarist Rej Forester and drummer Karen Ledford quickly got the not-yet-initiated up to speed. GRLwood write songs relating to the young, queer experience, but also the struggle just to exist, with a caustic sense of humor and an innate knack for melody. A curious amalgam of tricky surf riffs, Nineties emo dynamics and sparser, more dirge-like elements, the group\u2019s depth and range is uncanny for a scrappy two-piece \u2014 no boys, no bass \u2014 formed less than two years ago. Forester\u2019s vocal control is a marvel, shifting on a dime from a mournful moan to an operatic tremble and, when the songs really get going, a slasher-movie scream. And the catchiest tune of their set isn\u2019t even out yet \u2014  \u201cI Hate My Mom,\u201d off I Sold My Soul to the Devil When I Was 12<\/em>, due August 2nd \u2014<\/em> but had the whole crowd shouting along by the second chorus, the mark of an instant classic.<\/p>\n

\"Anderson<\/p>\n

Anderson .Paak<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Best Renaissance Man: Anderson .Paak
<\/strong>Anderson .Paak\u2019s name has graced numerous festival handbills over the past few years, rising steadily towards the top with each year. The L.A. native\u2019s headlining Mast Stage performance Saturday showed why, distilling over a half-century\u2019s worth of influences \u2014 hard-grooving Stax-inspired funk, reggae, disco, sensual Nineties R&B, socially-conscious contemporary hip-hop \u2014 into 90 thrilling minutes. With his megawatt smile and Energizer Bunny stamina, the chameleonic 33-year-old musician, joined by his ensemble of crackerjack players and singers the Free Nationals, cartwheeled through songs off his four SoCal-centric LPs since 2014 (Venice, Malibu, Oxnard,<\/em> and Ventura<\/em>), crooning, rapping, dancing, conducting drum clinics from behind his auxiliary kit, pausing only to make sure the crowd was still with him (they were) and to pay his respects to fallen comrades and fellow Angelenos Nipsey Hussle and Mac Miller, closing with a cover of Miller\u2019s \u201cDang!\u201d The only knock on Paak\u2019s go-for-broke live show is it makes his albums seem comparatively one-dimensional and overly reliant on big-name guests, like Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, and Smokey Robinson. With all the talent and charisma to be his generation\u2019s answer to kindred spirits Prince and D\u2019Angelo, as he continues to move up in the world, putting it all together on record is surely more a when than an if.<\/p>\n

Best Workout: Chromeo
<\/strong>You have to admire David \u201cDave 1\u201d Macklovitch of Chromeo\u2019s commitment to fashion over function. Even 80-degrees with 70-percent humidity wasn\u2019t enough to get Macklovitch to lose his leather jacket for his and longtime partner Patrick \u201cP-Thugg\u201d Gemayel\u2019s Friday evening set of pulse-quickening synth-and-guitar calisthenics. That wasn\u2019t even the French Canadian funk lords\u2019 only show that night \u2014 a few hours later they did it all again at the first of two official after parties on the Belle of Louisville riverboat. With an excess of middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter-driven acts at Forecastle, especially during the mid-afternoon, early-evening hours, Chromeo provided a stylish and welcome alternative: getting the blood moving to beat the heat, rather than sit and wilt in it.<\/p>\n

\"Tyler<\/p>\n

Tyler Childers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Best Native Son: Tyler Childers
<\/strong>A gifted singer-songwriter with a timeless country-bluegrass sound, 28-year-old Eastern Kentucky native Tyler Childers earned sudden public-figure status with his 2017 LP Purgatory<\/em> that, as a low-key personality, he still seems to be processing. At the Mast Stage on Sunday, he playing to an audience for whom he required no introduction, and Childers was squarely in his element. Purgatory<\/em>\u2019s alluringly dark \u201cWhitehouse Road\u201d kicked off a comfortably loose set full of evocative story-songs, high-wire guitar work and beautiful fiddle-and-pedal steel interplay that read the sun-fatigued crowd perfectly. Big things are around the corner for Childers \u2014 with Purgatory<\/em> follow-up Country Squire<\/em> just weeks away, he\u2019s poised to take his rightful place alongside fellow Kentuckian Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell at the vanguard of country\u2019s serious singer-songwriters. As usual though, Childers didn\u2019t seem too bowled over by his own achievements or the big turnout so much as genuinely surprised. \u201cThank you for coming over here, taking your time to gawk at us,\u201d he said with a gentle laugh just before closing the book on his hour-long set. \u201cIt\u2019d be a really empty, awkward place without you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Step Forward: Sunflower Bean<\/a>
<\/strong>Sunflower Bean has tried several different styles in its six years together, earning some blog buzz with its dream-pop debut Show Me Your Seven Secrets<\/em> and later scoring a minor adult-alternative hit with the wistful, Fleetwood Mac-like \u201cTwentytwo.\u201d Opening up the Mast Stage to a sparse but spirited early-bird crowd Sunday, the four-piece sounded punkier than before, verging on Sabbathian stoner rock in spots. But this is a pop band at heart, and leaning into it on standout \u201cCome For Me\u201d the set found another gear, with frontwoman Julia Cumming passing off her Rickenbacker bass to keyboardist Danny Ayala, taking the mic and channeling Prince, Madonna and Chrissie Hynde with a distinctly New York cool. \u201cY\u2019all are the real ones, coming to rock at 2 p.m.,\u201d she\u2019d told the crowd earlier \u2014 but it\u2019s her genre-hopping band who seem be the ones finally getting real.<\/p>\n

\"Nelly\"<\/p>\n

Nelly<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Best Throwback: Nelly
<\/strong>Three summers ago, Nelly\u2019s 2000 debut Country Grammar<\/em> sold its 10 millionth copy, elevating the St. Louis MC born Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. to a short list of living hip-hop icons to reach Diamond-certified status (Eminem, Outkast and MC Hammer are the others). Sweating it out with a massive, reverent Saturday afternoon crowd on the Boom Stage, Nelly, now 43, performed as if no time had passed at all, armed with a Y2K party playlist\u2019s worth of rap radio staples both his (\u201cHot in Herre,\u201d \u201cRide Wit Me\u201d) and others\u2019 (Mark Morrison\u2019s \u201cReturn of the Mack,\u201d Blackstreet\u2019s \u201cNo Diggity\u201d). First-wave-millennial festivalgoers \u2014 those in middle and high school when Country Grammar<\/em> dropped \u2014 ate it up, as happy to throw it back to a simpler era of bling, braggadocio and speaker-shaking low-end as the outwardly grateful Haynes, who thanked the audience no less than 100 times, was to bring it to them.<\/p>\n

Best Pinch Hitter: Big Freedia
<\/strong>Late cancellations from Chicago\u2019s Noname and Miami\u2019s Denzel Curry left Forecastle\u2019s hip hop-head contingent crestfallen, and the announcement of Big Freedia didn\u2019t do much to quiet the grumbling. Where Curry has earned acclaim for his introspective musings from the South Florida streets, bounce-music pioneer and LGBTQ icon Freedia\u2019s high-BPM, hyper-repetitive style is positively anti-lyrical. Yet on a weekend where Freedia\u2019s hometown of New Orleans narrowly dodged a tropical storm, the rapper and her two-DJ, four-dancer entourage\u2019s Sunday afternoon appearance on the Ocean Stage under Interstate 64 served as a walking (or rather, twerking) celebration of the Crescent City\u2019s unique culture of art, hedonism and eccentricity, and what thankfully wasn\u2019t lost.<\/p>\n

Best Downtime Activity: Jersey Spotting
<\/strong>Kentucky Wildcats-Louisville Cardinals is a college basketball rivalry rivaled only by UNC-Duke. So at an outdoor music event in the state\u2019s largest city in the dog days of summer, you can bet attendees show their allegiances, often in unexpected ways. Sure, Bird and Irving Celtics jerseys are a dime a dozen anywhere, but when\u2019s the last time you saw someone repping Ron Mercer, a Nineties UK legend-turned-NBA journeyman? Or Rajon Rondo with the Kings or Bulls, teams the ex-Wildcat played on for only one year apiece? Forecastle had both. As for Cards legends, this is a parallel universe where U of L alum and Utah Jazz shooting guard Donovan Mitchell has, in just three years, achieved Kawhi or Steph-level stardom. Grads of Indiana (2013 No. 2 pick Victor Oladipo) and Purdue (a rare Glenn \u201cBig Dog\u201d Robinson from the \u201896 Olympics \u2014 he didn\u2019t even play!) just up the road got props too. But with Forecastle far from a strictly-regional concern, jersey sightings aren\u2019t limited just to basketball, much less Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio teams and athletes. Also seen this year: a Jose Canseco A\u2019s, 2002 NBA playoff nemeses Robert Horry and Vlade Divac (unfortunately not in the same place) and at least three varieties of Bo Jacksons (Royals, Raiders, Auburn University baseball), reaffirming Forecastle\u2019s reign as the festival-jersey motherlode.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now in its 18th year, Louisville, Kentucky\u2019s three-day Forecastle Festival is a mid-sized city fest done right, with a cross-genre slate of national rock, hip-hop and Americana acts, a lovely waterfront setting, a user-friendly layout, and an emphasis on the unpretentious Ohio River city\u2019s dual traditions of bourbon, of course, and indie music that punches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 22:34:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}