treefort music fest 2012!

treefort 2012


this blog has been a couple weeks coming, but there was a lot to sift through!
myself and a few other djs at keol promoted to death the festival known as treefort and, for all the hype, treefort did not disappoint. treefort was a multivenue music festival that brought more than 130 live music acts during four days in late march into the treasure valley captial city of boise, idaho. such an event was uncharted territory for this part of the world. the northwest, as far as the media, and even the rock and roll biz, is largely concerned, mostly only traverses between portland, seattle and vancouver. beyond the cascade mountains, though eastern oregon, eastern washington, idaho, montana are still the homes of nomadic, homesteaders with no cultural life to speak of … or so you may have thought. that perception gets a jolt of culture and such backwoods stereotypes will undoubtedly change with more events like treefort. every participant seemed to be giving thanks to eric gilbert and the good people in finn riggins, and so must i. finn riggins has shown the love for la grande time and time again and were gracious enough to allow keol and la grande life a good view of the procedings. finn riggins has been one of the biggest ambassabors of the boise music scene. over the past five years, they have worked endlessly to make boise a consistent presence on the on the national radar and treefort 2012 was the epic culmination of months and months of grueling work to organize a sxsw type event for the northwest. since sxsw is such a huge deal, too huge actually, thousands of bands are out on early spring tours, so it seemed only logical to capitalize on the timing and get some of those touring bands and a variety of local acts together into idaho’s intimate capital city!
most significantly, treefort was held as a benefit fund raiser for radio boise 89.9 fm, a radio station launched last year as a community free form station. i am guessing they collected quite a few coins because treefort turned out bigger than probably even the city of boise could’ve expected. huge, chart topping bands like built to spill, of montreal and blitzen trapper played treefort, but also so did lots of dirty rock and rollers that i played on the rabble rouser show for weeks leading up to treefort. myself, dj yeti, dj cez-fire and dj clue picked about ten acts each that we would try to track down and interview for keol. from the best times of a four day frenzy, i have compiled this blog/podcast to memorialize the great weekend that was. with thanks to eric, lisa, and cameron for all their hard work in promoting the idaho music industry, it was really a magical experience.
to hear excerpts of my shows containing the interiews, click here.
to hear my rabble rouser hour podcast for the month april dedicated to treefort, click here.

day one (thurs, march 22)
all along, day one looked the most promising and it turned out to be as hoped for. what i didn’t adequately plan for was all the hustling that day would involve. finn riggins started out the festivities by playing live at the neurolux at 6:00 pm. the first keol car pool arrived at our “campsite” near eagle around 4:00pm. by campsite, i mean ultra modern apartment whose tennant, a woman unknown to me named megan, left it free and fully stocked for five of us to use all weekend. thanks to dj yeti for somehow securing that hook-up. yeti drove cez-fire, phil and myself. dj panda had a late final on thursday and she and dj clue met us later that evening.
after checking in at treefort and a short orientation of our surroundings, it was on! the other guys headed straight for the neurolux. the finn riggins show had already started and was quite crowded with a line into the alley, so i did the unthinkable – skipped it and headed for pengilly’s where aaron mark brown was set to perform at 7pm. the venues of treefort encompassed a 12 block by 3 block area in downtown from the freeway entrance to the basque district. pengilly’s was at the far end in the basque district. the red room was on the oppoiste end of main street near the freeway entrance. two of the first day acts i wanted to see and had arranged interviews with played at pengilly’s (a late substitute for a closer venue, the boquet, which is now closed), two others were at the red room and linen bldg. so a few hurried twelve block walks happened in the space of three hours…

aaron mark brown (pengilly’s, 7pm)
walking so much is no big deal for me. i do it everyday, but i just don’t do it so hastily trying to track people down and catch the next act in less than 20 minutes… aaron mark brown helped start the event on a calm note. he’s based out of nampa, a town i have been to many times, where my buddy paul resides and, as it turns out, knows aaron. that makes sense when examining the quaint small town vibe of downtown nampa – never mind that it is surprisingly the second biggest city in idaho. aaron gave a great set of show tune-esque numbers as his cd release party for “realities of grandeur.” aaron was an entertainer, playing barrelhouse type piano and a bit of a brass section on about half the numbers, and rocking out guitar for other singer songwriter type numbers. i could not immediately nail down an interview. with both my frantic pace on the first day, and desire to not to rush performers as they exited the stage, i was more interested in giving musicians time to unwind, load out, grab a beer and that kind of thing. so i trekked all the way back down to the linen bldg to see every bit i could of one of my most favorite bands at the festival – buffalo death beam.

buffalo death beam (linen bldg, 8pm thurs)

regular listeners of the rabble rouser show should be very familiar with buffalo death beam. and while the name sounds uh, deathly, the music is quite the opposite of what you would expect for most of my show, but no doubt i have seen this band three times since september and they have been slightly better each time. they played at juniper jam in enterprise in september, great pacific in pendleton in december and now treefort. and, front man, curt krause, who also has a solo project known as edmund wayne, played in la grande this past february along with correspondence school. after so many encounters, i was glad to finally catch up to them after their performance and chat with them for about 15 minutes. the interview is slightly muddled because holiday friends were playing downstairs, but nonetheless a good talk on the pullman area. here is a video i took of them playing “staff of the shepard” is on youtube.

old death whisper (pengilly’s saloon, 11pm)

after the linen bldg, i trekked back to pengilly’s to see old death whisper. i had never seen them, but was excited enough to not mind missing sallie ford & the sound outside. their singer “rico” called me to set up an interview, which took a bit of finagling to get us both on the same end of main street. once we did hook up, i hung out with rico and chewy primarily, while the other band members stopped and chatted during load in for the show. a good bunch of guys and one of the funniest interviews one is likely to come by. odw did not disappoint on stage either. check em out. and their *new* cd!

dinosaur feathers (11pm) & mr. gnome (midnight) at the red room
during another hike back down to the linen bldg, i couldn’t decide if i wanted to try to squeeze in to catch the end of sallie ford or save some front spots for mr. gnome. the sight of so many people hawking around the linen bldg, kept me walking, right in the back door of the red room to see the end of dinosaur feathers.
they’re a fun party pop synth meets punk band from brooklyn. they stayed around late and had some vinyl for sale, which i purchased, whilst also purchasing most of mr. gnome’s vinyl, until i ran out of money. still need the second album on vinyl…
that makes me wanna go off on a tangent for a minute. this is what i got to say about getting into concerts for free. most club owners feel they must charge admission because otherwise people don’t show up. if there is no charge, it gives the feeling of no value, so people aren’t interested. maybe subliminally, but kid yoshida doesn’t think from a business mindset. i go to free shows because i don’t like crowded shows. from my perspective, it seems stupid to charge admission to a bar that sells drinks. when i don’t pay a cover, i don’t feel ripped off and i buy rounds for all my friends and the bands and spend tons of money. that’s opposite most, but that’s kid yoshida logic. so, since we got free passes and press access, saving me $100 or more, i spent about that much in the red room that night alone. not to mention all the stuff i would go on to buy the next three days. that also reminds me that when tiffany (of buffalo death beam) saw me in the linen bldg she said “nice shirt.” i said, “thanks, you sold it to me.” i wore my buffalo death beam shirt the first two days, until panda made me take it off. but because i protested so much, she said i could wear it again on the fourth day. which i did. hell, back when i bought that shirt in pendleton in early december, i wore it every day until after new year. i love that shirt, mostly because i paid $15 for it. i paid $15 for it because a) it’s a starving artist band and b) they only charged $5 for the cd. in most cases though, i wouldn’t buy a t-shirt. certainly wouldn’t buy one from an arena rock band, or say of montreal. with any other business, i wouldn’t purchase t-shirts because that is effectively paying to advertise for someone else. doesn’t make kid yoshida sense. seriously, do you buy a $15 t-shirt from a band you see for free, or a $40 t-shirt from a band you see for $??? and never even get to talk to? shouldn’t be a trick question. with good people like those at treefort that give so much just because it feels good, i am all about giving back. i spent money and worked hard, but i got lots of value for it. that is all for the tangent. thanks for listening.

saw mr. gnome from up front of a packed house, saved room for panda and the others and even my old friend valerie squeezed in. good friends, good times! after mr. gnome played a show that lived up to my ridiculous amount of hype and then some…i interviewed sam, and then since ryan from dinosaur feathers was still hanging out, i got to interview him too! two for the price of one! came hoping for four interviews on the first day, and got four! one that i didn’t expect and didn’t get one that i expected, but i lined up with aaron mark brown for a later date, which would turn out to be on our way home as a stop in nampa…

day two, friday, march 23
this is where things become cloudy and mashed together. but oh what a time it was.
made it back into the city around 6:00. i didn’t see k. flay on the main stage, which i later seemed to regret as the buzz was that she was a white girl that could rap for realz. instead i fluttered about the linen bldg watching some of sister crayon, but actually spending more time outside in the ale fort. i ended up drinking several beers that day, though overall, i am not sure i ended up getting my money’s worth, but it went to a good cause to keep boise’s brewerys in the spotlight. the deal was $25 for a cup that was good inside the tent for the three remaining days. i certainly spent more inside the respective venues on different kegs of the same beers! such as, at the crux, where panda and i strolled next.

deaf kid (8pm) & tim blood & the gut panthers (9pm) at the crux

sons of guns (10pm) at the red room
the spyrals (11pm) & yeah great fine (midnight) at the crux
we planned to see cat massacre and get an interview, but they were a late scratch and their guitarist dominic munoz’s other bad deaf kid played instead. they weren’t the tightest band in the treefort lineup, but still kept the crowd revved up. had the motors not already been warm by the time tim blood & the gutpanthers rolled on, the crowd would have have been blown right past. well, that happened anyway, but at least we had a chance to revel in the fun of it all for a minute. a short set later, i was interviewing tim blood on the sidewalk outside.
in about ten minutes, he had given more than enough stories to ensure a landslide victory in the rabble rouser of the month voting the next weekend.
the beauty of day two was that the red room was now only half as far of a walk from the crux as it had been from pengilly’s. and back to the epicenter of the excitement we went for sons of guns. there aren’t enough times in one life to see sons of guns. even though we can see them in la grande a couple times a year, there was still no reason to try cramming into the neurolux to see blitzen trapper, who was playing at the same time. sons of guns made a good many fans that night in the red room,
which was just as much of a sweat box as the neurolux must have been. at one point, i stepped out to meet yeti and cez fire, and as i ran back down the alley to the club, someone working on a back dock asked, “is it really that urgent?” “of course, they only got two more songs!” valerie was out again and seemed to love sons of guns just as much as mr. gnome the night before, which says everything in something smaller than a nutshell. the generous boys left two cd’s for her, after we departed back to the crux to see the spyrals. valerie and i had another beer that i surely didn’t need. for sure, i was plenty drunk and have to rely on the treefort schedule and a mp3 recorder as my memories. it is always a shame to see great bands like the spyrals and barely remember much of it. we later saw most of yeah great fine. but in the middle of it, cez-fire and i met some people in a sports bar down the street, coming back for the last couple of songs. some random dude in the street talking to me (this happens everytime i go to boise) then hears ygf launch into the fugazi cover for their final song, and the two of us went running into the crux and managed to be in the first couple of rows. what a weird experience, but then i ended up interviewing the band afterward with all of their original members there and everything. it was quite a reunion. we stayed out another several hours to see pictureplane and etc. because dj yeti had gone home early, we took a taxi back, which cost about $30. not bad, but it was a bit of a miracle we even knew how to direct the driver to the house really. and then phil stole the driver’s cigarettes. the next morning, i felt like i had just fallen asleep when it was time to get up and get back at it.

day three, saturday, march 24
tartufi (3pm), snake rattle rattle snake (4pm), built to spill (8:30pm) on the main stage
and and and (11pm) at the red room

despite the long night out, saturday turned out probably the best day overall. most relaxing for sure. tartufi played early on the main stage, tons of people and an awesome pic of the crowd was posted by eric gilbert.
tried to interview tartufi, but the noise from snake rattle rattle snake drowned most of it out. the good news is that they will stop in la grande on the way to ranch fest on memorial day weekend for a better interview at KEOL! the awesome thing is that snake rattle rattle snake was also stellar.
nice to see these bands from afar places like sf and denver. (actually, that’s relateively close considering a couple bands came from other countries). panda and cez-fire were trying to work out an interview with hillfolk noir, although some various complications in that dj yeti, who had set it up, was back home with serious sickness. it was a futile event, although i heard they had a chance to go to hillfolk noir’s house to do the interview while they changed diapers or something. don’t know how true that scenario was, but i would’ve jumped on that in a heartbeat. panda did eventually track down their drummer jared the next day,
but for the moment, i rescued panda from getting feisty with cez-fire about not having much fun and we disappeared with paul, lindsey, kids and dog to a nice park out of the treefort radiated zone for a couple hours. back at the epi-center, we found snake rattle rattle snake in the linen bldg press room and did a nice interview. even though brainstorm was playing downstairs, we still managed to be heard and some nice little words of advice from them regarding how the scene you create and are a part of is as great as anything anywhere else.
we all disappeared to watch built to spill. panda, phil and i meandered over to the stage, listening from down the street. ordered a joke of a taco that was expensive and took about ten minutes to make. then we moseyed around to the stage and just chilled. that was such a relaxing point and made built to spill sound right at home. about that time i was hit with a bout of dizziness, i guess it could be called, which lasted about until we left to go home. that was my first chance to see built to spill and i am generally a bit leery to see older established bands because they often lose the fire. built to spill, however, really had it that night. it was a cool, breezy, spring night to see the legends from boise jam it out.
the place was packed and hopping. a perfect event really, they ripped it up for a good 45 minutes and then came back for a few encore numbers that kind of fizzled overall. the night pretty much fizzled after that. i bought some stuff from tartufi and snake rattle rattle snake booths and went back to the red room. i watched and and and
while panda, clue and phil and others camped by the entrance. and and and has a new release out for the new era. copies sold only on vinyl and digital download, no cd neccesary. despite that i would have preferred to stay at the red room and watch teens, we headed back to the linen building to wait in line to see araabmuzik, a dj from rhode island. missing a band to wait in line for another an hour later…yeah treefort really got hotter as the weekend wore on. it turned from casual la grande style to pushing through crowds portland style. and for it all, araabmuzik was not that fun. too much of a ecstasy-rave type thing. in fact, the boise djs big ups, who preceded, were considerably more entertaining. so after a few numbers we were back to bed and a nice long sleep ensued.

day four, sunday, march 25
run on sentence (7pm) at the crux; of montreal (8:15) at the main stage
blasted canyons (11pm) at the linen bldg
the next morning, panda and i went to ross, bought some shoes.
we kinda needed them, but really we just need to live near a store like ross. how the hell are we ever supposed to buy anything we need in places like la grande and pendleton? pay out the kazoo, or use online shipping type things? no thanks. go to boise!
the day was a slow moving one. the nice person, megan, who let us use her apartment had been to stay with her boyfriend for the weekend. part of our duty in staying there was that we went to his place out in the nampa country side to have beer and grilled food. so, kind of the way it worked was that we had a free place to stay in exchange for going to have their food and beer. somehow it didn’t add up, but who would turn that down? i had left a bottle of wine that i bought at the boise co-op a few days before, so i feel closer to even on the karma scale. we also watched the kansas jayhawks move into the final four with a win over northa carolina, whilst conducting our remote feed station check in from our nice countryside party spot.

yeah, we missed some concerts, and while it maybe would have been nice to see wild ones or art fad, i was pretty concerted out. even a band that i had really loved watching a few months before, run on sentence,
seemed to have a different feel amidst the huge and somewhat tiring spectacle. during run on sentence set, i called matt from blasted canyons to arrange and interview. he asked me to come over and, cutting out all the weirdness that went with it, dj yeti and i were at their hotel room half an hour later. what a great band, but not even close to the commercial nature or even niceities of most other bands. they said how they felt and didn’t hold back. it was, in short, a really unique and awesome experience and quite a great interview came from it. certainly the longest interview I aired. we didn’t have much going on until their set at 11:00, so we walked in to watch some of of montreal, a band which matt said “destroyed music.” and as i had felt prior to built to spill, a bit apprehensive walking in to see such an established act with so many people enamoured by it. it’s not my usual type of concert. to be fair, of montreal wasn’t awful, certainly the stage show was worth watching, but after about 20 minutes i had seen more than enough. and panda had no issues with leaving early, saying, “the singer looks just like the singer from a.f.i.” i would say most of us were fine with the more unique, less advertised acts. and that certainly was blasted canyons. the last band i saw of the festival was worth watching no matter
how tired we were by the end of he fourth day. one of the best bands all the way around. having met thm before hand helped. the dynamics of the personailty differences, the changing off of instruments every song, the no frills, sheer force of the straight in your face, but not overly aggressive was exactly the kind of band i always crave. melodic and pushy, these guys knew how to rock and had a good time without being goofy about it.
starting with aaron mark brown/buffalo death beam and ending blasted canyons, finally getting to see old death whiper, mr. gnome, tim blood & the gutpanthers, tartufi, seeing our local celebs sons of guns well received in another state, as well as being introduced to a host of other fun music, treefort had everything anyone could want in a festival (except reasonable tacos). not too big, but still pretty big. everything perfectly executed.
after two songs from the back of the stage of the brett netson band, i was whisked away by the team ready to end the trip. the beauty was that the trip ended where it started. we stopped in nampa on the way and I finally got that interview with aaron
mark brown while eating lunch with him and my buddy paul. visited aaron’s wife’s ceramic craft store, puffy mondaes, and then embarked on a long trip home. the trip getting home always seems longer, especially when going to work that night. you never really want times like that to end. i could have fun like that all day everyday. but the brighter side there is that spring has only sprung and there will surely be more good times like that to go around for the next few months… may day is now only a week and a half or so away. so let’s not dispair. just take the good times when they come and look back at all the pictures, videos, interviews and other cool mementos we got to take away.



rock and roll. long live it.
treefort 2012. thanks for reading. peace out.