Photo Review: Hampdenfest 2009

Photos by Chrissy

Hampdenfest 2009 went down Saturday, and even with mother nature giving her version of a mist tent all day long it was a grand ol' time. This is easily the best neighborhood festival Baltimore has to offer, always displaying a diverse array of quality music.

Sick Weapons (photo set below) are quickly becoming one of my favorite local live acts, and seem to get tighter each time I see them. They were an intriguing crew to catch in the family-friendly environment, and had to build some new tweaks into their set. In particular, there was a new horn section made up of Ellie Beziat's fist which substituted for curse words. I think it helped to bring in a wider audience, as I even witnessed a five year old pulling some nasty breakbeat hanstand twirls in cadence with the raging guitars.

The photo set up top is of Vincent Black Shadow's excellent performance. These guys have been pretty fantastic the last couple times I've seen them, and Saturday's jaunt in the dreary overcast setting proved no different. Their persistent mastery of psychedelic punk continued heavily last weekend, and checking them out with Monotonix down in DC October 13th would be worth heading south down the BW Parkway.

Hollywood were also pretty stellar on the Roland Ave stage. Dude's all ripped it pretty heartily, as they thrashed some gutter rock riffs that kept things nice and dirty. Hollywood's got another show coming up at the Golden West on the 24th. Buzzing guitars were certainly a theme of this year's Hampedenfest, and I'm all for more of it next year.

Below are the other flash galleries, but click here for links to Sick Weapons' set and Hollywood's set. Both of which are also shot by Chrissy.