photo credit: weworemasks

While Free Press Summer Fest has our heart because of its Houston roots, Fun Fun Fun Fest long remains as our favorite Texas festival. Going on its eighth year, F3F has been known for its wildly diverse lineups and its dedicated stages to comedy and heavy music, and basically being the festival that us weworemask-ers can dive in head first towards and enjoy completely at the Auditorium Shores. This year’s lineup brought plenty of gems and rarities as years past, and we hope you can sit tight for this three-day festival recap. Hit the jump for plenty of photos and words about Austin’s best offering outside of SXSW.

-grizzly and sunbear


photo credit: weworemasks

[DAY ONE]

Striding confidently on stage in a maroon velvet jacket tacked with punk rock pins on the lapels, Johnny Marr broke out guns old and new, kicking off with grooving “The Right Thing Right” and wrapping his set with the legendary “How Soon is Now?” The former-Smiths guitarist even flirted with the front row of Austinites, calling the ladies “fellas” and the dudes “darlings,” keeping the mid afternoon mood lively and lovable.

photo credit: weworemasks

Following the dance-happy disco set from Little Boots, Small Black, who are a dreamier cloud of synths and drum machines on record, turned up the live-instrumentation, becoming a more immediate-sounding band and setting off an arms-up dance party all their own. Kurt Vile and No Age were polar rock-opposites during their sets across the park from one another. Vile, an hirsute mass of unbridled locks and in a perpetual haze, sneered out introspective vapor-rock that cut through the dank billows of marijuana that clouded the crowd. The Los Angeles duo of No Age however were taking it out and chopping it up to the tune of eleven, stirring up mosh pits along the way.

photo credit: fun fun fun fest (Big Freedia)

Miley Cyrus ran “twerking” into the ground for you, you say? Well, shift your focus toward the wizard of the art form and watch a Big Freedia set to restore your faith in the concept altogether. This is a set that left us no room in the photo pit and had everyone from the front of the crowd to the back immersing themselves in 45 minutes of New Orleans bounce.

photo credit: weworemasks (Lupe Fiasco)

While Cut Copy celebrated their release of Free Your Mind and kicked off a dance party at the Orange Stage, Lupe Fiasco was set to bring his culturally charged set to the Blue Stage. Technical difficulties in his set enraged the Chicago native, who cut his set short after a handful of songs, pissing fest-goers off in the process. A shame, of course, because the set began so strongly.

photo credit: weworemasks (The Walkmen)

The Walkmen had their set cruelly cut short, forcing frontman Hamilton Leithauser’s hand (“Just 10 minutes? Well, I know what I’m gonna do…”) and wrapping up their last 2 minutes with the powerful “The Rat” and the rousing proclamations of “Heaven.” It’s a shame that those guys outfitted themselves so dapper for such a brief set, but something tells me they didn’t much mind – They’re always dressed to impress.

photo credit: fun fun fun fest (Snoop Dogg)

Snoop Dogg rapped for the aging and nostalgic adult in all of us, bringing what’s now a novelty act to the Fun Fun Fun Fest crowd. No, really – he did his verse from “California Gurls.” Across the park, RJD2 picked up the pieces that Lupe Fiasco left and spun his way into the hearts of the now dwindled crowd. You know your favorite DJ? He probably pales in comparison to RJ, who floated effortlessly across five (count em) turntables, bantering with the crowd and sending Day 1 patrons home dancing.

photo credit: weworemasks (Chromatics)

[DAY TWO]

The shrillest, most-blood curdling sounds welcomed us into the second day of the festival in the form of Melt Banana whose buzzsaw guitars and blast-beat songs had rookie stage divers belly floppin’ and feet-firstin’ their way into injury lane. Italians Do It Better’s founder Johnny Jewel took over the Blue Stage for back to back sets with Chromatics and Glass Candy. Fans of slick euro-disco/pop sound needed to just stay put to transition from the airy, glistening sounds of the former band with its stunner of a front-woman, to the glassy disco of the latter two-piece, which was a tornado of glitter and pink hair.

photo credit: weworemasks (Geographer)

San Francisco’s Geographer, with their oversized synths and strikingly good looks, were winning over all the swooning girls, and admittedly this blogger, on the Orange Stage. But it was Television, who proved to be largest draw for the Austin crowd. Though sounding a bit rickety, something I chalked up to sound board issues, the guitar-mastery of Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip shone through, dueling off solos for “1880 or so” and leading a glorious sing-a-long for “Prove It.” The set was short and definitely missing some highlights, but hey, we got “Marquee Moon” as a closer, and isn’t that what we all truly wanted?

photo credit: weworemasks

Scott Hansen, the photographer and musical act known as Tycho, kept San Fran’s representation at the fest at a peak. His set fell at an opportune moment during a sunset, and the billowing clouds of weed smoke above the crowds only helped the experience. His 2011 album Dive will surely be getting plenty of spins this coming week, as Tycho proved to be one of the most memorable sets of the weekend – and was soon followed up with an energetic and empowered DJ set from Simian Mobile Disco to close out the Blue Stage’s Saturday lineup.

photo credit: fun fun fun fest (MIA)

Saturday’s headliner was a highly anticipated one. M.I.A., who recently released Matangi, took the honors of capping off Saturday evening — except she completely blew the opportunity with one of the more uninspired festival sets in recent memory. Excited to hear old songs? Well, that sucks for you, because there was only a handful, and she went through the motions on them anyway. Have you ever seen an act live and realized that you’ll probably never listen to them again? Well congratulations, Maya, you’ve accomplished such a feat.

photo credit: weworemasks (Cloud Nothings)

[DAY THREE]

Los Angeles producer Shlohmo summed up the drag-ass nature of the third straight day of live music with an accusing “Austin, you look fucking bored!” True, most festival-goers were burnt out on eardrum-rattling music, fried festival food, twinkies, and drugs (oh, the drugs!), but we still had enough guff to power through and show face.

Cloud Nothings were stirring up mosh pits to the tune of the anthemic “Stay Useless,” pits that would pale in harsh comparison to the violent slam dancing of Cro-Mags’ set, riddled with headfirst stage dives, spin kicks, and more denim cutoffs than Never Nude closet.

photo credit: weworemasks (August Burns Red)

August Burns Red, while definitely metal enough, were a sore thumb on the Black Stage this year. Their Christian leanings definitely combat with acts like The Locust and Slayer, who were billed on the same day as them, but this mattered not to the band, who flew threw a pulverizing and double-bass riddled set. And the moshing came to life during this set, after singer Jake Luhrs offered up the front of the stage as a launching pad for everyone’s stage dives.

photo credit: weworemasks (Dismemberment Plan)

The newly re-formed Dismemberment Plan were finding their indie-rock groove, moving the late-twenty/early-thirty something aging hipsters into the swaziest of sways, a far drastic turn from the gaggle of tweens who withstood the college rock to catch a psychedelic set from MGMT.

photo credit: weworemasks (Deltron 3030)

Each year, F3F seems to have one hip-hop act that all backpackers will absolutely lose their shit over. This year? Deltron 3030, accompanied by a full orchestra. Having just released Event II, Deltron performed fluidly and effortlessly with Kid Koala and Dan the Automator (who played the role of the conductor for the aforementioned orchestra). Let me tell you — it was an absolute joy to hear “State of the Nation” and “Virus,” and then Del treated the crowd to the Gorillaz’ “Clint Eastwood” for good measure.

photo credit: fun fun fun fest (Jurassic 5)

Those festival promoters really nailed some of the timeslots for these artists. Following suit of Tycho from the day before, the trip-hopping Bonobo was granted the “sunset” timeslot of Sunday, while currently on tour for his fifth and newest album, The North Borders. And while Simon Green handles the bulk of the work on record, their live show boasts a full band, adding plenty of depth to their performance.

One of the bigger setlist conflicts (for us, anyway) was having Jurassic 5 and Slayer perform during the same time slot. Lucky for us, we snuck away from Slayer just in time to catch “Jayou” and “Concrete Schoolyard.”

The long-awaited and heavily attended set from The Locust was a melee of bizarro-synth squiggles, screeching guitars, and some of the most furious drumming of the night. In a short span of 20 minutes, the band shredded through nearly a dozen songs leaving in their wake a blanket of brutality that would cloak the black stage, making a perfect introduction for…

photo credit: fun fun fun fest (Slayer)

…SLAYER!!! From the opening titular track of “Hell Awaits,” to the mandatory “Reign in Blood,” to the Jeff Hanneman-tribute “Angel of Death,” Tom Araya, Kerry King, Gary Holt, and especially Paul Bostaph, whose hyperkinetic drumming pummeled my balls into mush, the band were classic Slayer, all upside down crucifixes, squealing solos, and Araya’s goofy between song banter. The crowd were a slovenly mess of guttural cries, half-time headbanging, and bros who were just plain excited to see fucking Slayer. Turns out, under the flagship savagery of speed metal, we are united as one. God Bless you, Slayer.

Thanks to Fun Fun Fun Fest for another great year and allowing us to cover the festival yet again! Til next year, folks!