Free Press Summerfest 2009

Musically a far cry from ACL the Houston Press Summerfest 2009 was pretty damn awesome.

I had been looking forward to this festival for a while. For once Houston was going to put on something relatively interesting besides the International Festival or the 4th of July fireworks. I was amazed over the past few months how many people were talking about it, everyone planned on going.

Before I get into the music let me tell you what made the festival itself so great...

First and foremost, the hill. Being at Eleanor Tinsley Park, the whole festival was on a hill. There was not a bad seat in the house, visually or aurally. The sound was great, even if you were way off to the sides of the stage or at the back of the hill. You didn't have to fight your way to the front to enjoy the music.

The people were pretty cool too. Everyone was just having a good time.

It was hot, really hot, and humid of course too. But there are trees EVERYWHERE and there was no problem finding a nice shady spot to watch the shows.

The activities were pretty great too. My favorite to watch was the paint slide. I don't know if this was a planned activity or not, but people would smear themselves with what I assume was non toxic paint and slip and slide down the hill. With a running start you would end up sliding way past the tarp and into the mud, the main reason that I didn't do it. That and after a while it just looked like people were sliding on liquid sandpaper as the slide became covered in mud. It was pretty great though, next year I'm going down it for sure if it is around. There was a volleyball court that got a lot of use and they were giving away lots of great refreshments like snow cones and vitamin water.

I took full advantage of the FULL BAR in the tent too, along with the occasional trip into the tent to enjoy the A/C which helped bear the intense heat outside. The beer was plentiful and refreshing too, but it was nice to get a nice strong pour of liquor to keep things moving forward. Everything was $5.00, food, beer, liquor...

The music was great. I heard a lot of new acts that I had never heard of before, some that I had heard of but never really gave a listen to. My favorite of the festival was a band from Austin called Eastern Sea. I'm sure some of you know them since they're from Austin. They had a great vibe and the chick on the keys really brought it together. Check them out if you haven't already.

Explosions was great! It had been a while since I'd seen such a great Explosions in the Sky show.

Octopus project, which I had heard of but never got into, was really great as well. They put on a great show and have some pretty great beats. So did Broken Social Scene. Other notables were Devin the Dude, Prince Paul, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and even this crazy band called the Sword.

Overall I think it is something to plan for next year. It was a huge success, which indubitably will bring more people which could change the dynamics of it altogether. Even if it was more crowded I think it would still be a great festival and well worth the money.

For some reason I can't upload pictures onto the blog. I'll try again soon, the paint slide pictures are pretty great.

Hope everyone is doing well and that we get to hang soon.