Travelers' Rest Ponderosa Stage
August 14, 2017 3:24 PM   Subscribe

I just got back from the Travelers' Rest music festival, two days of music in Missoula, Montana curated by The Decemberists. The main stage acts were all great, but I want to laud their second stage acts, starting with the first band to play all weekend, opening Saturday, Caroline Keys And The Lanesplitters and a sample track: Fort Benton.

The Sasha Bell Band was the 2nd second stage band. Love Is Alright is a recent studio track from them. Here's the band performing Castle Keep at a local Missoula music joint. [handheld live recording]

Next up was Alialujah Choir, who were utterly electrifying live. Here's a studio track: Building A Nation, which features a theremin solo. Here's a second track: A House A Home.

Eyelids was pretty thrilling if you liked 90s "indie rock" vibe. One sample would be the track Camelot. Another sample: Falling Eyes.

Sunday's opening second stage band, which also opened the music for next 8 hours of bands, was percussion band 1939 Ensemble. Sabotage [not a Beastie Boys cover] seems to the only video they have online, but they do have a live performance of Prince Street also.

Kyle Craft was next, blowing the doors off the doorless tent with glam bombast, playing songs like Eye Of The Hurricane. Heck, he was so great, here's a KEXP live performance [23m30s].

The name Olivia Chaney might be familiar to fans of The Decemberists, as she is the lead of related band Offa Rex. She did a solo set, including The King's Horses and Imperfections.

The final second stage act to play for the weekend was a band from Thailand playing sort of psychedelic surf rock, Khun Narin's Electric Phin Band. Homemade Thai instruments and Western music merge in tracks such as Chackim or Phua Kao.
posted by hippybear (7 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
There are related videos linked in the YouTube sidebar for further exploration of anyone linked in this post.

I also want to say, this music festival was absolutely THE BEST RUN AND ORGANIZED event of any kind I have ever been to. The drinks and food were reasonably priced, the entire event ran like clockwork (bands began exactly on time, with very little overlap between stages), the venue was large enough for the crowd without being overly crowded.

Bravo to The Decemberists and their booking and production crew and all the staff at the venue and everyone who planned this weekend. Despite the smoke and the heat, a perfect weekend, and a reminder that human beings are actually pretty awesome.

Also, bravo to all the second stage artists. I listened in rapt awe of all 8 of them who performed, and feel like I have had new windows of music opened to me thanks to them.
posted by hippybear at 3:30 PM on August 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Full disclosure: I went to this weekend of music knowing NOTHING about any of the acts performing, including The Decemberists. I'm glad I went. I have a lot of new areas to explore now.
posted by hippybear at 3:31 PM on August 14, 2017


You can listen to 2 albums from Khun Narin on Bandcamp. They rock!
posted by sleeping bear at 4:04 PM on August 14, 2017


I was only there Saturday, but had a great time except for the forest fire smoke. You couldn't even see the mountains just a few miles away except at sunset, you could see their outline against the disk of the sun.

I mainly went for The Decembrists and The Head and The Heart, but I liked Sasha Bell a lot. Looking forward to see what they'll do next year.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 4:23 PM on August 14, 2017


A rich and well-crafted post. A great way for any of us to discover some new music, and *curated* at that. Thank you, hippybear.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 4:37 PM on August 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was only there Saturday, but had a great time except for the forest fire smoke.

The Head And The Heart play against the smoke-obscured sunset.
posted by hippybear at 4:59 PM on August 14, 2017


Great post and nice timing. I'm a 4-mile trail ride away from [Chris] Funk's Solar Obscuration Celebration at Suttle Lake, OR this weekend. Kyle Craft and 1939 Ensemble are playing, and now I'm eager to ride down to the fest.
posted by prinado at 12:08 AM on August 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


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