BY: NOAH RANDALL, CO-SPORTS DIRECTOR, WBSU THE BUZZ
“That rock and roll, eh?”
It was the predominant sound on day two of Borderland Music Festival, which, of course, meant it was right up my alley.
Flipturn was the first set we caught of the day and immediately created a chilled-out, relaxed rock atmosphere.
Usually, believing a band when they tell the crowd, “This is the best crowd we’ve played for,” is like believing the casinos want you to walk out with money.
Obviously, flipturn didn’t get that memo. They clearly fed off the energy from the crowd, and vice versa. Highlights from their set include frontman Dillon Basse talking about the Buffalo Bills while tuning, their performance of “Sad Disco,” which made our music director Lilly cry, and drummer Devon VonBolson coming out into the crowd to drum before playing the rest of his set with a snare drum on his head.
Afterward, we headed over to Mike’s Amazing Homespun Stage to catch a bit of Arcy Drive’s shed-rock stylings. Staffer Julian Biviano and I were waiting for them to play, “Louie,” and as they introduced the song, lead singer Nick Mateyunas FaceTimed his grandfather live on stage.
We knew the crowd for the Pixies would make it a lot harder to find a spot near the front, so a couple of my colleagues split off to brave the long lines to get us all food. Meanwhile, Lilly and I muscled through the crowd to find a good vantage point.
Ever since I found out we were attending Borderland, I needed to hear the Pixies play “Debaser” — a Skate 3 soundtrack staple that pushed me through a particularly rough period of my life.
I got my wish two songs into the Pixies’ set, and it was everything I hoped for. Screaming the lyrics back and jumping around consumed me with a feeling I can only describe as lightning in my veins.
Finally, Jack White came out at 9 p.m. and threw down one of the nastiest, filthiest, and most disgusting sets I’ve ever seen in my life. Swampy, fuzz-ridden guitars, fed through three amps and countless effects. The wall of sound was so loud that we all had to wear earplugs — a decision that should let us keep our hearing for a few more years.
I held a stank face for most of the performance while bouncing back and forth. Drummer Patrick Keeler stayed in the pocket like a quarterback stepping up to throw, and the show just felt like one big jam. It was hard to tell when one song ended and another began.
White, ever the showman, oozed confidence, conviction, and idiosyncrasy as he hopped around the stage screaming at the top of his lungs before leaving abruptly after “Steady As She Goes.”
To my very pleasant surprise, White returned to the stage and immediately ripped into “Fell In Love With A Girl,” my favorite White Stripes song. Again, I felt the lightning zap my veins as soon as I recognized the song. I jumped, screamed and head banged so hard my neck hurt the next day.
Looking around the crowd, I was dumbfounded by the number of people who were just as mesmerized as I was. Something about an electric guitar, a bass guitar, and a drum set unites people and infuses energy into them like no other.
As a musician myself, I find it hard to see and feel the sheer joy in live musical performance and not fully commit to the urge to focus on trying to do this for a living. I felt so inspired to make music, regardless of the quality. I wanted to run home, pick up a guitar, and play music with the people I love.
So, that rock and roll, eh?
As rocker Alex Turner once said, it may seem like it’s fading away sometimes.
But it will never die.
And there’s nothing you can do about it.
