02 May Day One: FANtastic

Photo by: Chris Salata

Last night’s start to SunFest was a little wet. But the fans came out.

At almost exactly 5 p.m., the skies offered a soaking of most of South Florida. Despite the raindrops, there was a remarkable number of attendees on Opening Night. These concert-goers danced away and enjoyed an incredible night of music.

If you were there you earned your real FAN badge!

The first act to take the Ford stage was Fort Lauderdale’s Shatterglass. The hard rock band had the difficult job of opening for a small crowd, and deserves recognition for their energy and cheeky jokes. Their song “Coming Undone,” is featured on the video game Rock Band 3, and their new single “Psycho Girlfriend” is really quite catchy. Lead vocalist Zoog mentioned that women seem to enjoy the crazy girlfriend tune even more than their boyfriends.

At 6 p.m. (no rain delays, folks) Roadkill Ghost Choir maneuvered through a sea of equipment tarps to bring their truly beautiful music to the growing crowd. The six-piece band from DeLand, Florida, could easily be one of the top highlights of the entire festival. I knew that Roadkill’s sound was precious before their SunFest debut, but hearing them perform in person was a phenomenal experience.

The band has drawn comparisons to Cherub and Lord Huron, but I personally don’t feel like that’s sufficient. Roadkill is a less sleepy Fleet Foxes…a more twangy Bon Iver…a less somber Sun Kil Moon. I was tapped on the shoulder twice by new fans asking, “Who is this?! They are [expletive] awesome!”

And they were.

I was most intrigued by band member Kiffy Myers on the pedal steel. The horizontal addition gives Roadkill a deliciously eerie sound both during songs and transitions. Don’t kick yourself too hard if you missed them yesterday. These Florida boys aren’t very far away and I hope they come back to down here soon.

Photo by: Chris Salata

Edward Sharpe and the (twelve) Magnetic Zeros were the final act to take the Tire Kingdom stage. Most of the members were wearing shoes, but not all!

Lead singer Alex Ebert was a mighty presence in front of his folky family. Complete in an unkempt beard and barely-buttoned white shirt, the mastermind (or madman) leader of the Zeros orchestrated a most refreshing performance.

The band opened with one of my favorite songs, “40 Day Dream” and during their almost two and a half hour set played dozens of their beloved tracks including, “Up From Below,” “Awake My Body,” “Fiya Wata,” and “I Don’t Wanna Pray.” Of course they played “Home,” but there was also a touching acoustic performance of “Brother” before the band ended with the magical “Om Nashi Me.”

The eccentric collective ventured to South Florida in 2010. South Florida welcomed them back with open arms. The crowd for the Zeros was in constant movement, singing along with hands in the air, and doing hippy jigs in their wet shoes. The misty rain and the rainbow of lights flooding the stage only added to the glow. Edward Sharpe produced happiness in every song.

As a music journalist, one topic I often discuss with bands is their quest to find the right chemistry on stage. There are so many non-vocal cues that members need to know and recognize to keep a set progressing smoothly. Obviously the more members, the more difficult this would seem. But everything was effortless for the Zeros.

This whimsical band is harmoniously in tune to each other at all times. All of the members were smiling and laughing throughout the set. As a fan, it was like being invited to someone’s crazy family reunion and finding yourself welcomed with open arms. You couldn’t help but fall more in love with them with every song.

There were so many instruments used that it would be impossible to name them all, but I did see the largest tambourine in existence.

At times the band would just jam and play together without a forced direction. Ebert would stroll from member to member and invite them to dive into their own perfect solos. This allowed fans to get a sense that everyone in this band is talented and necessary. No one is just taking up space on stage. It was impressive and I felt humbled to be in the crowd.

Photo by: Chris Salata

I did have to peel myself away to catch a portion of The Smashing Pumpkins, but the mood was drastically different by the Ford stage. It was easy to identify the biggest fans though because they had driven straight from work and were still in their slacks and button ups.

The stage set up consisted of two large glowing triangles and stacked screens that seemed to mimic Muse’s tour props. I came up on Billy Corgan introducing the track “Oceania” for fans of an “altered” state. The Pumpkins played “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Tonight, Tonight” and ended with “Today,” which was a nice surprise. It all sounded impeccable and I am confident Pumpkin fans were pleased.

I, however, slinked back to Edward Sharpe to continue my barefoot dance.