I’ve been to enough music festivals to know that I don’t like music festivals. They’re expensive and crowded and no one’s actually there to listen to the music and girls in flower crowns and guys in Indian headdresses and, oh god, I’m 100 years old, aren’t I? Oh well, better to be ancient and enjoy Judas Priest, Run the Jewels, and Deafheaven than young and suffer through Skrillex.
This past weekend was Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest, which despite my aforementioned opinion on festivals, is actually quite…what’s a word that means “enjoyment, amusement, or lighthearted pleasure”? It’s three days of good music, not-obnoxious people, and stages that are called, you’ll never believe this, the “Blue Stage,” not the “Tampax Pearl Unscented Tampon Stage.” That shouldn’t be a big deal, and maybe it’s not, but it’s symbolic of something. There are still music festivals out there that won’t make you feel like a crank, where you can see Killer Mike and El-P blazing (in every sense of the term) through Run the Jewels 2, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. in a pink track jacket, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford proving he can still hit (some of) the high notes, Nas performing Illmatic, and Deafheaven turning a crowd of metalheads silent in anticipation for the next tidal wave of noise. Fun Fun Fun Fest is one of them.
Here are some photos from the three-day festival, courtesy of Nadia Chaudhury.
Run the Jewels (sans El-P, who was probably off telling Sun Kil Moon to suck his d*ck)
Killer Mike manning the Taco Cannon
Ginuwine
Dinosaur Jr.
Judas Priest
Glassjaw
Courtney Barnett
The New Pornographers
Nas
Girl Talk
Deafheaven
Yo La Tengo
Rocket from the Crypt
