photo credit: weworemasks (WEEZER)

Like every festival, the 7th incarnation of the annual Free Press Summer Fest in Houston, Texas had aspirations to be its biggest and best year yet. Two weeks ago, our fair city of Houston went under siege and under water, as flooding and a week of heavy rains caught up, damaging the homebase of Eleanor Tinsley Park on Allen Parkway.

With a contingency plan in place, NRG Park (Rodeo, Texans, etc) was available, and the fest would be relocating for a year in the Yellow Lot. Not to mention, a weekend forecast of clear skies and your standard summer day was on hand, but folks braved the heat and made it.

Hit the jump for the review.

-grizzly and sunbear


photo credit: weworemasks (Kam Franklin, THE SUFFERS)

One of FPSF’s best assets is the fact that it’s held over two days. It’s unlikely that anyone could handle three days of Houston summer in a paved parking lot. The festival crew made sure to set up misting tents, free water stations, sodded plots and air conditioned tents throughout the grounds to prevent any serious disasters that the heat could bring our way.

We arrived right before Portugal. The Man‘s first set on Saturday, which was in the Fancy Pants tent. Here, bands offered stripped down versions of their songs, and P.TM made sure to pick 30 minutes of downtempo greatness to kick off our festival the right way. Soon after, we jetted over and were able to catch newly crowned hometown heroes The Suffers on the mainstage.

photo credit: weworemasks (BAND OF HORSES)

Every year, Mayor Annise Parker chooses one act to introduce, and what better one this year than Kam Franklin and The Suffers? It was a truly great moment for the festival, with the band coming off of new recognition they acquired from hitting the stage on David Letterman, and the crowd sending the band off on their two month tour with a care package of admiration and positive vibes.

The Sword seems to be a staple for any festival taking place in Texas, and we have no problems with that. Their biker-metal leanings are always welcome around these parts, especially at a fest boasting an amount of metal bands you can count on one hand. Elsewhere, Ben Kweller led a sing along in the Fancy Pants tent, only hours before his set on the Jupiter Stage.

Gary Clark Jr. hosted the blues revival, his voice soaring over the crowd on the Mars stage, which could just as easily been one of his biggest crowds to date locally. Band of Horses had everyone weak in the knees bringing tunes from Cease to Begin onwards to the stage. You ever heard 20,000 people sing “No One’s Ever Gonna Love You” without tissues and in a dusty field? Highly don’t recommend it.

photo credit: weworemasks (CHANCE THE RAPPER)

Chance the Rapper last played Houston two years ago after Acid Rap dropped. He sold out Warehouse Live, but even since then, he’s become a household names off of a few free albums and a relentless touring schedule. Social Experiment be damned, these guys rocked the main stage, throttling a sun-soaked crowd back to life with his jazz-infused set. It’s amazing that someone under 25, who still rocks overalls without a shirt (strange festival attire, Chancellor) can command a crowd like they do with the music they’ve got.

Mastodon started to wind things down on day one. And by “wind things down,” the Georgia-bred, shaggy-haired sludge-rockers hit us pretty hard and pretty fast. While the material was heavy on Once More ‘Round The Sun, their fanbase were treated to performances of “Megalodon” and “The Czar,” to name off a few. Across the park, R. Kelly underwhelmed (as expected) but treated festival goers by opening with “Ignition,” giving you no other reason to stick around.

photo credit: weworemasks (MASTODON)

Partying Saturday Night in typical weworemasks fashion definitely gave us a late start on Sunday, which is fine, because all the truly great stuff didn’t start til later (sorry, everybody) — but mainly, ANOTHER eight hours in the sun sounded horrible. Started off with Grizfolk at the Jupiter stage – and while the band isn’t the most memorable on wax or live, they had an excellent cover of Kendrick Lamar‘s “Money Trees” that went over well.

Tove Lo, the fest’s biggest pop star (at the moment anyway), hit the stage shortly after, and that honeymoon was over right as it started. Gaping lack of energy and excitement, a flat voice and no stage presence had me out of there in no time flat. Having seen ILoveMakonnen only months ago in Austin during SXSW had me excited enough to catch the ass-end of his set here, due to it being one of the more live, crowd-friendly rap sets I had seen in a while. Well, maybe it was the heat, but it was the complete opposite on the Free Press stage.

photo credit: weworemasks (R KELLY)

Future Islands have already proven themselves a sensational live band, first their star-making turn on the Late Show and all the subsequent shows to back that memorable performance. Not a shred of intensity has been lost since then as the band were the draw of Sunday as crowds filed in early to catch Samuel Herring‘s patented bob and weave dance moves and guttural vocal ad-libs to songs like “Balance” and “Doves.”

Every Flogging Molly show has but one expectation: To be a raucously good, beer-swilling time. And on that promise, the band delivered in spades. One of the very few punk rock bands on the festival, the seven-piece Irish band benefitted from their straight ahead want to simply rock out, without internet buzz or pretension. What else were the 30 and up crowd going to dance to, Skrillex?

photo credit: weworemasks (FUTURE ISLANDS)

In a surprising turn for the prog-rocky, The Decemberists stole a moment from their newer material for a mammoth three-song mini-set of material from The Hazards of Love. The Portland band were sharp as tacks instrumentally and sounding as rich as ever with Kelly Hogan and Rachel Flotard as a sublime chorus. Meanwhile, Diplo and company were off using the entire festival’s CO2 budget on the show-stopping Major Lazer set. Confetti, streamers, water guns, dancers – the whole motherf’n nine yards.

San Francisco’s Tycho brought the stoner out in all of us, overcoming some early technical difficulties and putting forth a masterful set of ambience and astral projections. What was truly baffling, is the lack of “time and place” mentality for this new wave of EDM kids. Shuffling during Tycho? Where the hell are we?

photo credit: weworemasks (FLOGGING MOLLY)

As they did at Free Press Summer Fest 2011, returning guitar heroes Weezer closed out the Festival with a barrage of classic Weezer material with the added twist of each member of the band taking lead vocals on their respective chosen song. With Brian Bell on “Go Away,” Scott Shriner on “Dope Nose,” and Patrick Wilson on “Photograph” the revolving vocalists gave an improvisational vibe to their stellar set which closed out with the eternal “Buddy Holly” as the fireworks signaling another Fest in the books erupted from the Stadium.

And that’s all she wrote – another successful year of Free Press Summer Fest, despite the first true heat wave after our first big rain storm. Til next year!