Siren Fest - Coney Island

It was quite a day at Coney Island on Saturday. Unlike the past few years it was not deathly not but the humidity was disgusting. Still, it was a perfect day for some rock as the rain stayed away and this amazing free fest came to play as they say.

Be Your Own Pet's Lead Cutie Explodes with Youthful Yea Yea Yeas Style

Be Your Own Pet - As we arrived a little young blond girl and a bunch of middle teens were hopping around on stage like a mini version of the Yea Yea Yeas. Only saw 2 or 3 songs but people were begging for more. Their response... "We don't have anymore songs." no band should ever say that. There is always something and what the crowd wants, within reason, they usually get.

Dungen's Lead Man Does his best Jimmy Page

Dungen - Swiss psych rock throwback, pronounced Doon-Yon with style panache and virtuoso musical skill and a classic lead singer to boot. Look for their double disc release in August. Quite a show, think a rocking, more personal Sigur Ros with Darkness-style. Very sweet. Only one member could speak English and he was pretty humrous in his Broken English telling the crowd, "It was nice playing for you. There are more people in this crowd then live in our country."

Q and Not U

I wasn't much a fan of Q and Not U but this show was impressive. This energetic DC trio put in quite a performance. Too bad they are breaking up after a few more shows.

Spoon's Lead Singer Britt Daniels

Spoon - Siren didn't have the major names this year. They lost a lot to Pitchfork's Intonation but the bands they got were quality for the most part. The crowd was all waiting for spoon, you could tell. Britt Daniels just conquered the crowd and rock them all the way through highlighting tracks off their latest critical darling release Gimme Fiction, a superb disc with Kill The Moonlight favs like "Jonathan Fisk" and "The Way We Get By."


Now to the negative. Brendan Benson was the second to last performer on the main stage. He, his band, and his songs were stagnant. I remember hearing his old album Lapalco before it was re-recorded it was coy and fun like Ben Kweller. Now he's trying to hand. Alternative to Love is like a Maroon 5 copycat album. No one should be copying that crapfest.

Also saw about 5 minutes of Morningwood. Boring. They had a lot of energy but they should put it into their songwriting.

Related Links
Siren Festival
BrooklynVegan - Siren Fest Review and pics