Freezetival Runs Hot, Then Cold

We had very high hopes when we made our way to the Electric Factory for Y-Rock on XPN's FREEZEtival 2008. After all, Louis XIV (MySpace) delivers smart, edgy electro-rock, Editors' (MySpace) first two albums have gotten some pretty good critical reviews, and Hot Hot Heat (MySpace) is one of those bands that we remember enjoying like five years ago and lost track of, so we were eager to hear what they've been up to.

First up was Louis XIV, the band we were really at FREEZEtival to see. We weren't sure what to expect, but whatever it was, Louis XIV exceeded it. Somehow, in listening to the little bit of their music that we have, we didn't catch on to the fact that they're really good musicians. But they are strikingly talented. Not only that, but in their performance, they come across as a group of really slick dudes. Which is kind of funny, because for a band whose music is largely about sex, they are one un-sexy group of guys. But it all seemed to fit... including the top half of a female mannequin they had positioned next to the drum kit. Frontman Jason Hill oozes charisma. And it really does help when a group can play the hell out of their instruments. Plus, we're all for a band that successfully integrates violins into their music without it coming across as shtick or, well, crap. But everything worked. The set included many songs from their forthcoming album, Slick Dogs and Ponies. Unfortunately, Louis XIV only played for about forty-five minutes, because we could've listened to them for considerably longer. We didn't lose interest the whole time they were on stage.

Then Hot Hot Heat came on stage, and the whole evening pretty much went to hell. Now granted, we were never huge fans of theirs, but we thought they were decent when they were getting the radio play a few years back. However, what we saw on Friday night was absolute garbage. They did have a ton of energy, but for them, that ended up contributing to the incoherence of their set. There's not a whole lot more that can really be said about them.

By the time Hot Hot Heat was done assaulting our ears, it was gonna be tough for us to enjoy Editors, especially considering it was well after 10 by the time the headliners went on stage. And pretty quickly, we realized we were strongly acquainted with Editors' music. Not because we'd listened to them a bunch, because, frankly, we'd only ever heard a couple of their songs before the concert. But we knew their music because, as metacritic.com's review of Editors' debut album, The Back Room, said, "Actually, they sound just like Interpol." And they really do. Too much so for our liking. It's not that we didn't enjoy Editors' sound, but it simply wasn't anything new to us – especially because we've already adopted She Wants Revenge as the Interpol-soundalike we enjoy. (Although that's not really fair to Editors, because Editors have been around a little longer than She Wants Revenge.) It also could have been that we were simply too tired, or in the wrong mindset, to enjoy Editors.

All in all, FREEZEtival started out with a bang, and then fizzled a bit. Next time, we'll go for Louis XIV when it's their show.

Photo by author.