Photo Review: Whartscape 2009 Day Three

Photos by Chrissy

This year's Whartscape was nearly impossible for one entity to swallow in its entirety, and the third day certainly put the exclamation point on an action-packed weekend.

Above, Chrissy captured nearly 100 shots of the majority of the bands playing in the MICA lot, and not without bubbles, relay races, and slow dances! The weather remained beautiful and worries of interferences of any kind did not dare to cross anyone's mind. This year's Whartscape was extremely well run all around, and much thanks to Wham City for all of their hard work.

Early in the day, Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez showed off a wide array of promising new tunes that bubbled and crooned their way through the hot mid day sun. Zomes provided a very chill and transcendent set of looped out melodies. And, Santa Dads provided smiles to all as they beatboxed and trumpeted their way through a pretty laid back set.

As the sun began to fade behind the brick wall, excitement began to soak through the crowd. After Gary War's solid set, Future Islands took the stage. Synth pop bliss immediately ensued, as the trio tore through a set well balanced with joyful anthems and heartfelt ballads. Sam is a true showman, as he poured out his heart and soul throughout the entire performance. Bubbles were blown, and dancing was contagious.

As most would expect, Double Dagger absolutely killed. Fresh off their national tour in support of More, it was clear that they were a bit amped to be back on their home turf. Nolan began the set with a slow dance to "Vivre Sans Temps Mort" and ended it with crowd surfing to my personal favorite "Half-Life". Inflatable drums were tossed into the crowd, much softer than the real one thrown last year. Nothing but good vibes all around, as these guys rocked just as hard as ever.

Dan Deacon put everything he had into Whartscape 2009, and one would expect nothing less from his performance Sunday night. Performing with his ensemble, the crowd somehow seemed to double in size. With group interpretive dances leading onto North Ave, a new song, and a relay race, this performance was nothing short of legendary.

Happy faces were worn proudly by everyone present, and the crowd even seemed to actually abide this time when Dan suggested everyone dance more up and down rather than sideways. Not to mention the ensemble sounded fantastic, a seemingly difficult task when working with that many talents onstage.

Stay tuned for photos this week from Day two (Saturday) of Whartscape 2009.