Author | Michelle King
Featured Image by Michelle King
In it’s fifth year as Raleigh, NC’s downtown music festival, Hopscotch 2014 touted a lineup of emerging talent and established acts alike, with main stage headlining sets from De La Soul, Spoon, and Mastodon, as well as a plethora of day parties and nighttime club shows featuring artists as diverse as White Lung, How to Dress Well, and Prince Rama.
Expanding to a three-day event for the first time this year, there was plenty to choose from, so I’ve narrowed things down to a recap of a few of my favorites from the weekend.
Best Main Stage act: St. Vincent
The ever-incredible Annie Clarke was an obvious pre-festival pick for me, but I was truly more taken with her live performance than I expected to be. Part of this may be due to experiencing the first three songs from the photo pit so close she could have smacked me with her guitar, but I think that anyone who was paying attention had just as personal of an experience that night. Much more than a singer-songwriter, St. Vincent is possibly one of the most under-appreciated guitar virtuosos of our time, and her stage presence is to say the least – captivating. While her voice is sometimes carried into realms that sound alien or robotic, Annie reminds you with her live show that she is very much human, if maybe a tad superhuman.
Best Surprise: Scully
My biggest surprise of the weekend came when I wandered into Slim’s on Friday afternoon admittedly clueless as to who might be performing at that time in the day, but knowing I had a pretty good bet to catch something agreeable. This is, after all, the same place I first saw Spider Bags during Hopscotch a few years ago. That’s a big part of the beauty of these types of events; if you keep a little flexibility in your schedule, you’re bound to find some unexpected new favorites. What I walked into was New York’s Scully, the new project of Caroline, Courtney, and Lauren of The Splinters, supported by Kyle from BRONCO on drums. The group is only six-months old, but expect to hear more from them in the near future. Especially if I have anything to do with it.
Best Day Party: TIE – Babes in Boyland and Let Feedback Ring
Leading up to Saturday’s heavily stacked lineup of day shows, Babes in Boyland was definitely the buzzing place-to-be. The benefit for Girls Rock Camp NC was set up in the Warehouse District just outside of downtown like something of a block party, complete with booths offering Slingshot cold brew coffee, Humdinger juice, Sierra Nevada beer, DIY temporary tattoos and other various crafts, a bloody mary bar, and a multitude of food trucks. The event was headlined by new-ish DC punk group Ex Hex, fronted by Mary Timony of Wild Flag and Helium.
Just two blocks down the street from this pop-up party you’d find Legends Nightclub, Raleigh’s LGBTQ club and frequent host to drag performances, dance parties, and special events. With the use of both an indoor an outdoor stage, the “Let Feedback Ring” party hosted by Negative Fun Records, Cherub Records, and Delayed Gratification boasted a lineup of thirteen acts from all over the east coast including local grrl rock act Pink Flag, who’s sweaty mid-afternoon set gave Scully a tight run for their money in the best surprise category. Other noteworthy performers included Philly’s No Other and self-described trash-can-angst-pop band Ghostt Bllonde.
Best Local Act: Tow3rs
Derek Torres, the singular member of Raleigh-based psych pop act Tow3rs, didn’t show up alone to Pour House Saturday night. Backed by a full band and featuring performances from two silver spandex-clad areal dancers, the show was an absolute full-on celebration. With a stage presence reminiscent of my best memories of Of Montreal’s Kevin Barnes, Torres led the crowd into a glittery frenzy, especially with his sing-a-long cover of “Girls of Summer” towards the end of the set. Slightly unrelated but worthy of mentioning, I had earlier been shown a series of photos taken in a Birmingham thrift store of the facial expressions of unaware passers-by as Torres was trying on the women’s shirt he wore during his Hopscotch performance. Definition of confusion.
Best late show: Jamie XX
On Saturday night, British producer Jamie XX took the stage at the Contemporary Art Museum for a DJ set that turned out to be the perfect close out to the weekend. With not much else going on that late into the night, throngs of weary festival goers made the trek to the stunning performance space that CAM is converted into for Hopscotch each year and mustered their last bits of energy to move (in varying degrees of enthusiasm) to the set of classic UK house music blended with a bit of trap and downtempo groove we recognize as signature of his work with The xx. While Jamie’s popularity may have spawned largely due to said work, he’s steadily expanding his discography to include remix and production work for a number of noteworthy artists including Drake, Adele, and Radiohead. He’s currently prepping his debut solo full-length.
Thanks for a great weekend, Hopscotch. Hope to see you again next year.
Michelle King is a music fiend currently residing in Athens, GA. While her business card will tell you she is executive manager and director of publicity at Noisy Ghost PR, you can also find her blogging at She Turns the Tables, racing for Reality Bikes, and going on adventures with her awesome dog.
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