Green Fest Returns With Strongest Showing Yet
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 24, 2011 6:00PM
Photo of The Thermals by Jim Kopeny
One might be forgiven for looking at the line-up for Green Music Fest this year and thinking the Pitchfork Music Festival had come early, the line-up is that good. Now in its third year, the festival has truly hit its stride in attracting top tier talent to a neighborhood street festival. And, after two transitional years, the festival has settled in the heart of Wicker Park, on Damen between North and Schiller, for the foreseeable future.
The core of the festival is the attempt to bring together eco-conscious vendors and activity and top notch musical acts. Seriously, we can't underscore how impressive this pairing is. In a world where most "earth first" type events default to booking jam bands or other hippie-friendly groups. Green Fest takes a 180 from that approach and has lined up Yo La Tengo, Les Savy Fav and The Thermals to top the bill at one of the two stages each day. These are literally three can't miss acts, but let's break 'em down for you anyway. Our most anticpiated set is Les Savy Fav's, since the group's live shows are always a beautiful and frenetic mess, and the group is coming off the heels of what we think is their best album yet. The Thermals fuse pop and punk with a steady eye on indie music's past and a complete ignorance of the influence of the current state of mall-emo punk pop. And Yo La Tengo -- we'll be honest -- are legends. We admit we've seen hit-or-miss shows from them in the past but the odds are in their favor that they'll deliver a satisfying set.
Upping the musical ante are the support acts. Most street fests force you to sit through countless mediocre acts before delivering up their headliners, but Green Fest has stocked the earlier slots on the bill with a truly rewarding slate of acts. The Life And Times will have pope boogieing in the sunshine, Secret Colours will convince the masses their beer's just been dosed with acid, and Soft Speaker (one of our absolute favorite local acts) is sure to turn in a compelling set of their stadium rock-cum-psychedelia-cum-indie blast. And while those are just our personal favorites we can find something to like about almost every band in each day's line-up.
So let's see. Awesome music, street fest food and a positive eco-friendly message? If we can just get the weather to cooperate this is set to be the finest fest of the summer so far!
Green Fest is June 25-26, on Damen between North and Schiller, 12 p.m. - 10 p.m., $5 suggested donation
Green Music Fest Line-Up
Saturday, June 25th (South Stage):
Yo La Tengo @ 8:30 pm
The Life and Times @ 5:45 pm
Secret Colours @ 3:00 pm
Saturday, June 25th (North Stage):
Trampled By Turtles @ 7:00 pm
The Meters Experience @ 4:15 pm
Midwest Hype @ 1:45 pm
Sunday, June 26th (North Stage):
Les Savy Fav @ 8:30 pm
Tight Phantomz @ 5:45 pm
Musikanto @ 3:00 pm
Sunday, June 26th (South Stage):
The Thermals @ 7:00 pm
Soft Speaker @ 4:15 pm
Blane Fonda @ 1:45 pm