So… Here’s The THING : A Review Of THING Festival Year One [Part 1 of 2]

Opting for the scenic route, we drove down highway 101 to reach Port Townsend, a city that I’ve often heard about in passing, but never made the effort to visit before.  Not only did I not know much about the Washington State harbor town or the former military facility, Fort Worden, that we were heading toward, but the festival being held on the premises was somewhat of a mystery itself.  It was the first year that it would ever be taking place.  Simply titled “THING,” it wasn’t even promoted as a music festival, but rather a “multidisciplinary event for music and arts enthusiasts.”  The fact that it was presented as something different than the standard fest is what caught my attention.  In fact, these days, that’s exactly what I’m looking for.

I’ve been burned out on the corporate festival format for more than a good while.  It seems as though THING‘s founder felt a similar way, despite — or, perhaps, because of — being a longtime figure operating within it.  Prior to THING, Adam Zacks was the man behind Sasquatch! Music Festival, which he laid to rest last year, after a very respectable 17-year run.  That level of experience brings with it an endless amount of knowledge about getting something like that off the ground and how to run it.  Just as invaluable, however, is learning what you don’t want to repeat.  I attended the first year of Sasquatch! back in 2002 when it was only a one-day event with a small handful of acts on the lineup.  At the time, it had been 5 years since the touring incarnation of Lollapalooza had called it quits and any sort of festival “scene,” was virtually non-existent.  We watched Sasquatch! grow over the years from an impressive indie showcase to a major multi-day event, and, eventually, into something that began bringing in a little too much of a drunken fratboy crowd for me to even feel like attending it anymore.  The often inspired curation wasn’t to blame, but the overall climate in the music world and expectations from the general public about what a music festival was supposed to represent had shifted in unfortunate ways.  I mean, when we reviewed it back in 2010, the lineup featured names like WEEN, The National, Quasi, Public Enemy, The Mountain Goats, and Pavement, but some shirtless boozed-up dipshit in a straw hat and holding a long-necked plastic guitar-shaped novelty drink still stepped on and fell all over us during “Range Life” and then, tried to start a fist fight with me, when I told him that he needed to back the fuck up.  It wouldn’t have mattered who was playing, this clown wasn’t paying attention to the music, anyway.  For Zacks, it might have been overwhelmingly about the acts — by then, comedians had been incorporated into the schedule, as well — but it was becoming increasingly clear that wasn’t the case for everyone that was buying those wristbands.

With his latest endeavor, not only is a spotlight shined on the performers to an even greater degree, but a conscious effort has been made by Adam and his partners at Seattle Theatre Group to maintain a particular type of environment.  With the sales being capped to around 5,000 tickets, it never felt crowded and there was plenty of open space to move through freely.  The environment benefits from the natural beauty of the historic park which lays claim to “featuring 100 historic structures” and “span[ning] two miles of saltwater shoreline with views of the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, and the San Juan Islands.”  Something that I wish that we’d found time for is the guided viewpoints hikes that were offered over the weekend.  Also available were “yoga & fitness classes,” a woodworking demonstration, “drum luminescence meditation,” a sign painter demonstration, and a group activity which involved working together to reassemble a grey whale skeleton — only the last offering required any additional fee.  Along with the music there was comedy, podcasts, dancing, lectures with actors, visual art, a film screening, and even a mentalist.  When we entered the festival grounds, one of the first things that we encountered was families decorating lanterns for the nightly lantern parade.  Children 13 and under were free.  This was an event that I could actually bring my 7-year-old to.  In fact, that’s exactly what I did.

Bedouine

The first thing on our agenda was Bedouine at the Littlefield Green stage.  Born Azniv Korkejian, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter was part of the draw for me and why I made sure that we didn’t roll in too late for her set.  Alone with an acoustic, while sporting a burnt orange trench coat and large tortoise shell sunglasses, she delivered her music with such delicacy that it was almost as if it had been caught by and floated out to us on the wind.  Her affinity for the likes of artists like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and even Nick Drake, isn’t something she makes any real effort to conceal; but it’s primarily noticeable when she proves successful at replicating and triggering specific emotions in ways that are reminiscent of their respective works.

With such earnest and emotional music, it helps to have a performer with a good sense of humor to add some levity to the more somber elements.  Korkejian stated that her live show has changed since releasing her sophomore album, claiming that, when she only had the first LP out, she’d just play the entire thing.  As long as she wasn’t scheduled for more than 32 minutes, then everything was fine.  Now, with two albums worth of material, she said that it affords her the ability to select what she wants to play and do a “greatest hits” set.  “This is one of my greatest hits from 2 years ago,” she added.  That’s when she played the song, “Nice And Quiet.”  Earlier in the set, she also joked about her good fortune in clinching the “highly coveted festival opening spot”

Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see her take the stage so early on the schedule, as I feel that she has more name recognition than some of the other artists on the bill, but it was actually a solid choice that brought a nice casual start to the festival.  Plus, if you were to look at the announcement flyer, you’d notice that Zacks intentionally made sure that all of the names were listed in similar font size to present everything/one with equal importance.  At a time where big shot acts negotiate and demand specific positions and font sizes on festival flyers, it’s just another refreshing aspect for THING to establish as part of their ethos in its inaugural year.

Makaya McCraven

Makaya McCraven was up next, but we didn’t prioritize his set, choosing to wander around and get some food, instead.  It’s not that the jazz drummer/bandleader isn’t great, because he is, but we’d already caught him twice at the Pickathon festival earlier in the month and figured that we could miss this one.  In the end, we found ourselves naturally drifting back toward the Littlefield Green stage, anyway.  As I did, there were 2 things that I noticed.  The first was that, even after seeing him twice before, the grooves that his ensemble was pushing out sounded incredibly fresh and intriguing.  The next thing that jumped out at me was the realization that, aside from his percussionist, McCraven was playing with an entirely different lineup than he had with him only a couple of weeks before.  And it wasn’t simply the players that were different; there was also some variation in the instrumentation — his previous outfit included a vibraphonist, while this was more keys heavy.  This makes sense since last year’s Universal Being LP was comprised of recordings from 4 different sessions in 4 different cities with 4 different lineups, the last of which was recorded at the home of Jeff Parker from Tortoise.  Performing what he refers to as “organic beat music,” the influences and directions are all over the map, often sounding as much like he’s cracking out a hip hop or electronica beat, as something from any typical jazz number.

Someone would later mention to me that, when they saw this set, it sounded to them like McCraven was just making a lot of it up on the spot.  It just goes to show you that different people are drawn to and impressed by different things.  Stylistically, Makaya is doing his own thing, so he’s difficult to pigeonhole, but I’m really glad to see him finding himself on festival bills like this one.  It definitely adds dimension to the lineup and, hopefully, exposes a number of people to something that they might not otherwise encounter.  With the way he maneuvers through genres and influences, McCraven is working toward a similar goal with his music, already.

Orville Peck

Littlefield Green is positioned up against the side of a building called the McCurdy Pavillion, which was originally constructed for use as an observation balloon hangar in 1921.  Now a seated indoor venue, this is the space where Orville Peck would perform.  Matador recording artist, Snail Mail, was scheduled at roughly the same time, but she was way the hell over on the opposite end of the entire festival at the Parade Grounds stage.  Both artists have been generating a good amount of hype this year, but the fact that Snail Mail was so far from everything else made the decision that much easier.  Other factors in my decision were that I felt like Peck would bring more energy with his show and, the fact that he sports full-on western attire, complete with a Lone Ranger-style mask that has fringe hanging past the lower portion of his face… It’s just more interesting to photograph.

Orville Peck has built up a fanbase in a relatively short time with SUB POP releasing his debut only a handful of months ago.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been completely sold on the mysterious Canadian country singer.  His whole vibe, from the urban cowboy getup to the Chris Isaak vocal moments he breaks out all seemed a little bit too much like a shtick that he was relying on.  Meanwhile, the recordings weren’t fully clicking for me.  I mean, it’s a really good shtick, but I just wasn’t completely convinced that there was much more beyond it.  That being said, that’s why I was there.  This was his chance to convince me there was something of value underneath that cowboy hat.

It worked.  During his set, the songs really came to life in ways that they hadn’t for me on tape.  Visually, the matching outfits of the backing band was a great touch, organically pulling us in like a hand on the the neck just enough so that the music could unload its power into our chests and faces like some sonic MMA move.  Behind the mask is Daniel Pitout, the South African-born drummer from Vancouver, BC DIY punk outfit, Nü Sensae, and frontman for Eating Out, an indie rock trio that includes Mish Barber-Way of White Lung.  The worst case scenario would have been if I had to watch this guy “do a voice,” while trying to force feed us a country theme like some kind of hacky costume, but the whole thing was really cohesive and didn’t seem forced to me once I saw him.  In other words, these sound like “real” songs beyond some half-assed concept.  It also doesn’t hurt that he has the ability to pull out the Roy Orbison range if and when it calls for it.  Once you’re aware of Pitout‘s other projects, there’s a continuity there that makes a lot of sense from the energy behind the tunes to the way he strings together certain phrases or melodies.  Plus, along with being a rollicking high-energy moment in the show, his cover of the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris track, “Ooh Las Vegas” displayed a certain amount of reverence for the genre that he was embracing.

For an openly gay artist and activist who founded the AIDS Day Music Project, the leather fringe mask feels like a nod to a culture for those who get it, while simply looking “cool” to those who don’t.  It’s similar to when Rob Halford ushered in leather daddy fashion to oblivious metal heads.  Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to my delicate little baby mind that he might be sporting a fetish mask.  The Orville Peck album is even titled Pony, sharing its name with a Seattle gay bar that the singer made sure to mention was one of his favorites.  Encouraging us all to see a drag show at least once in our lives, he segued into his song “Queen Of The Rodeo.”  For me to feel like endorsing something, I have to genuinely believe it on some level.  At this point, I’ve climbed over that major obstacle with this guy and am convinced that what he’s creating is more than just a marketing tool, but an actual expression of his art.  Peck recommends catching a drag show.  If you’re already a fan of his music, I’d recommend putting one of his shows on your calendar, as well.  And if you’re not already a hardcore fan, but happen to be at a festival that he’s performing at, you could do a lot worse than finding yourself at one of his sets.

Japanese Breakfast

Back out on the Littlefield Green stage was Japanese Breakfast, the moniker of Philadelphia-based musician, Michelle Zauner.  Originally from Oregon, Zauner follows a long line of Northwest artists that Adam Zacks has made an effort to showcase in his programming throughout his years of operating Sasquatch!  Along with her rhythm section, her backing band includes her husband/collaborator on a second guitar and keys.  From what I’ve heard, her sound could generally be described as indie pop with some heavy dream pop leanings and sprinkles of shoegaze.  Based on her music, the videos that I’ve watched, and even her NPR Tiny Desk Concert, one might expect something on the more reserved end of things with some soothing ethereal vocals.  Instead, what we walked into was one of the most high energy sets we’d see all weekend.

The band started off with “Diving Woman,” a song supported by the type of infectiously repetitious bassline in the vein Yo La Tengo‘s “Moby Octapad;” one which digs its hooks in quick and pulls you into an endless whirlpool until the final notes.  Even when I’ve watched this tune performed for in-studios, it didn’t have this much energy behind it, but Zauner was staying active, pogo-ing with her guitar, and walking out onto the monitors toward the crowd.  She even grabbed and bit into an apple handed to her by an audience member.  She was rocking a pair of Doc Martins with a matching dark blue satin suit pants and blazer combo that had an abstract leaf-like pattern on them.  Her hair was loose except for the 2 little buns on top of her head like horns, and she was wearing blue eye-shadow.  Her on stage wardrobe isn’t taking things to Orville Peck levels, or anything, but sometimes it’s nice to see a performer excited to dress like it’s showtime.

Her first album, Psychopomp, was recorded surrounding her mothers death, and that can become a difficult thing to promote, after awhile.  Its understandable that she’d want to make a conscious effort to enjoy this stage in her career by offering a much more upbeat live show with a ton of enthusiasm behind it.  Later in the day, a security guard (pictured in the photo above) told me that hers was his favorite set at the festival, so far.  It wasn’t mine, but I definitely feel she was a solid addition that provided some appreciated momentum at that point in the festival.  As I was speaking to a friend that I’d ran into, I heard the band break into a cover of “Dreams” by The Cranberries and… Let’s just say that I was not a fan.  To give it the benefit of the doubt, I just looked up footage of them performing the song at Pitchfork Music Festival and it isn’t very good.  That being said, there are a whole lot of acts out there where the situation is reversed and the strongest part of their repertoire is someone else’s music.  If I was Zauner, I’d stick with my own material and shelve this one.  Her stuff is much stronger.

Kurt Vile & The Violators

To reach the Parade Grounds stage you have to walk through an exit and flash your wristband to enter through another fenced area over by the stage when you get there.  I never fully got a grasp of the layout or how/why it was set up this way, but it seems as though that space in between must have been accessible to the general public.  If so, I’m happy to hear it.  There are buildings that you can stay in for the night at Fort Worden, as well as at least one restaurant outside of the checkpoint.  On the large field leading up to the stage was a massive inflatable structure called the luminarium, right before you hit an area full of vendors known as The Night Market.  Things like this welcome the local community into the fold, which is important.  Unfortunately, I mostly sped past this section on my way to our next stop on the schedule.  We had another Philadelphia act to get to.

Depending on who you are, the Kurt Vile & The Violators set could be considered one of the best shows you were going to see, or one of the worst.  I heard — or overheard — both takes from people over the weekend.  I’ve seen Vile a number of times by now and he’s not really the type of artist to put on a flashy show.  The songs are pretty much going to have to speak for themselves, while he stands there with his curly mane blowing in front of his face.  As someone that prefers his more stripped-down earlier bedroom recordings to his newer stuff, I’m not really expecting windmills on the guitar and high kicks anyway.  That being said, if you pay attention, the guitar work is saying plenty without the theatrics.  Vile pulled liberally from his catalog and even whipped out a banjo.  That was enough; it worked for me.  My one disappointment is that he was scheduled at the same time a Natasha Lyonne and I would have liked to see what the Slums Of Beverly Hills actress prepared for her time slot.

I slipped out of the photopit and back to my family to find my son, Ronin, dancing to the music.   This was somewhat of an important moment for me, since I have video of him dancing to Vile at Pickathon, 6 years ago, when he was just shy of 2 years old.  He was wearing the exact same protective earphones that he had on now, too.  People around us reacted positively to seeing him getting so into it and one group threw him a beach ball to play with.  He batted it around with them for a while until it wound up in the crowd never to be seen again.

Parquet Courts

Parquet Courts are always great.  I first saw them in 2013, back when their album Light Up Gold was really starting to gain them some recognition.  In fact, I have a photo of their bassist, Sean Yeaton, and Kurt Vile, with their arms around each other and their tongues out, that I took backstage during that same Pickathon festival I mentioned earlier.  Since then, they’ve pumped out 4 more albums, a collaboration with Daniel Luppi, and a pair of EPs.  One of their songs even earned them enough hype that they wound up playing it on Ellen.  That’s daytime TV popularity.  I haven’t followed them as closely as I did at the beginning, but every time I hear something new from them, I’m into it.  Any success that they’ve had they’ve earned and their music shows a natural evolution in their post punk sound.

During their time at THING, they mixed it up by playing a varied set that was enjoyable throughout.  There were tracks that I recognized and others that made me realize that I needed to finally get on the ball and dig back through everything that I’ve missed.  These guys are clearly about the music and staying consistent, hammering away, and pushing themselves forward.  The best part is that they still deliver with the same raw stage presence and energy that they had when I saw them performing a midnight set in a sweaty barn 6 years ago.

John C Reilly & Friends

When I saw John C Reilly at Sasquatch! back in 2012, he was performing on the smallest stage at the festival.  He wasn’t listed as one of the bigger names, but the photo pit was so packed that they made us rotate into it in shifts.  Aside from his Dewey Cox guitar and one of his “friends” being Dan Bern, who wrote a number of songs for the character in Walk Hard, the actor’s appearance had nothing to do with his film career.  He was there to play roots music.  His appearance at THING was no different and neither was the amount of photographers or misguided attendees there hoping to hear him throw out catch phrases from one of his classic comedies.

The McCurdy Pavillion stage sits low and the photo pit is non-existent.  I was in there early trying to scope out the best way to photograph the stage without being a distraction to either the performers or the audience.  There was a huge line outside and only about 3 of us with cameras, but that was short lived as a huge mob of photographers appeared out of nowhere.  Even crouching down, it was absurd to watch what seemed like a swarm of at least a dozen or more photogs moving in unison.  We barely made it through the first song before John C Reilly told us all to get the fuck out, explaining that “these people paid a lot of money” and that nobody wanted to hear our cameras clicking.  It worked against my benefit, but I still had to agree with him.  It was ridiculous.  Fortunately, I had a seat reserved right up front, so as everyone else poured out the side, I just sat down to watch the show.  Shortly after, he asked the regular audience to put their phones down, as well, so that we could simply be in the moment and experience the show.  [For your health!]  He promised that they could snap away at the end, if they still wanted to get a photo, then.

After a couple of songs, Reilly brought out his friend Tom Brosseau for a few more tunes as a duo.  Among them was “Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar” by the Delmore Brothers.  Reilly credits Brosseau as being the one who encouraged him to pursue live music.  Tom has been with him from the beginning and they’ve been performing this track by the Delmores since early on.  The Magnolia actor spoke often and was humorous in his banter, but this wasn’t a comedy show.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that someone in the back wasn’t still going to yell out “Shake n bake!”  John simply responded by saying, “Hey.  I love all those movies I was in, too.”  But he also explained that this show was about something else.  For him, his celebrity is something that can be leveraged in a positive way to bring forgotten music to the world and keep it alive through performance.  He told us that a lot of younger fans have come up to him full of surprise, asking, “You wrote all of those songs?!”  To which he responds, “I didn’t write ANY of those songs.”  These are really wonderful tunes, though, and Reilly truly does have a great voice for them.  He also had some tremendous accompaniment.

The frontman hyped up his band, promising amazing things as he brought them out one by one.  The upright bassist was Alan Hampton, someone I knew that I’d seen before, but couldn’t remember exactly where or with whom.  He looked familiar and, in researching him now, I realize that he’s an accomplished musician/writer/performer who I may have seen perform with a number of artists including Sufjan Stevens, Robert Glasper, and/or Andrew Bird.  Next to enter the stage was multi-instrumentalist, David Garza, holding a nylon string classical guitar.  Aside from his own prolific body of solo work, Garza has contributed to releases for artists ranging from Blonde Redhead and Blues Traveler to Hanson and Juliana Hatfield, along with opening for and backing Fiona Apple on her 2005 Extraordinary Machine tour.  The next player to enter was Andrew Bird.  The crowd justifiably lost their shit.  The final surprise was “Port Townsend’s own, David Grisman!”  This was one of the greatest moments of the entire weekend for me for a couple of reasons.  One is that, for the last 20 years, I’ve been trying and failing miserably to make it to shows by the legendary mandolin player and inventor of Dawg Music.  The other is that, when I met Kim, she refused to listen to anything by Jerry Garcia, wholly convinced that she hated anything even remotely associated with The Grateful Dead.  It was Garcia and Grisman‘s joint album, Shady Grove, filled with their own interpretations of old-timey standards, that ultimately won her over — I, basically, played it on the sly without her knowing what she was listening to.  For Grisman to join him on stage was a big one for us.  If there was one moment that really made THING feel like something special, as if there was some sort of magic connected to this event, this was it.  The entire set was great, with the highlight for me being toward the end, when they played “Russian Lullaby,” a go to for Jerry and Grisman when they used to play together.  Apparently, this lineup and setlist was thrown together with only 2 days of practice prior to the festival, something that makes the results only that much more impressive.
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Reilly addressed certain social issues like the importance of immigrants and workers rights, through various comments and songs during his time on stage.  He tried to keep things lighthearted, while acknowledging that there were some heavy issues out there in the world.  This music was intended for healing purposes.  Since a number of songs referenced the “lord” and/or “Jesus,” he felt obligated to mention that he always viewed himself as a lapsed Catholic that would have expected himself to dismiss anything approaching that subject matter, but then he got into bluegrass music, which is lousy with such references.  He told us that, when he says “Jesus” it could mean Buddha to some of us, and, when he says “God,” it could even mean the ocean.  While stating that a lot of the songs they were playing “ask the question, ‘What the fuck is going on?!,” he noticed Ronin up front, and tried to cut himself short to apologize, since there were kids in attendance.  “When I get nervous, I swear,” he explained.  “It makes me feel cool.”  He refused to mention Trump by name, but ended the set by dedicating the song “Loud Mouth” to him.  Unable to decide between that and “Honeysuckle Rose,” they opted to play both concurrently, since they share the same chords.

DE LA SOUL

John C Reilly went well over his time limit, and although he continued to promise that he’d get us out to De La Soul before they started, that didn’t quite pan out.  For whatever reason, the music bleeding through the end of his set didn’t register to me that it was De La on the Littlefield Green stage.  I’d mixed things up and expected them over at the Parade Grounds.

Photographers have a 3-song limit in the pit and I wasn’t sure if I’d missed my window or not, but the security guards were incredibly cool all weekend and waved me in.  Without any time to adjust my camera settings after coming from an indoor space, I just started snapping away, regardless.  When the Long Island trio busted into “Stakes Is High,” I finally relaxed and took a breath.  It’s the title track to my favorite one of their releases and was produced by J Dilla.  At the time when it came out, both the album and Dilla were severely overlooked.  Things have changed since then.  Stakes continues to be referenced less often than the group’s first three Prince Paul produced LPs, but it’s still managed to earn recognition as a certified classic.

I don’t have much to say about their set other than it’s De La Soul.  They’re pioneers and they still sound as solid as ever.  Their stage presence is on point and, although they went through some of the more cliche routines that you might expect from a hip hop crew, nobody could claim that they weren’t still effective.  I’m referring to the thing where they try to determine whose side of the crowd is more live.  After 3 decades in the game, they have plenty of material to sift through.  Considering what day it was, it would have been a disappointment had they failed to do “A Rollerskating Jam Named “Saturdays”  Likewise, songs like “Me, Myself, & I” and “The Magic Number” felt like a given, but you have to give the people what they want and the crowd was excited to hear them.  De La made only a brief reference to the issues they’ve faced with their former label, Tommy Boy, over issues related to royalties and control of their work.  Even then, they only did so to stress that they are in a mindset where they are determined to push forward and beyond all of that drama.  They also thanked us all for any continued support they’ve received, and for helping to ensure that their last album, The Anonymous Nobody, was such a success.

UNCLE RICO & Napoleon

While standing in the De La Soul crowd, I looked to my left and noticed that Jon Gries, the actor who plays Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, was watching the show right next to me.  The music coming from the stage was “Ego Trippin’ (Part 2)” from their sophomore effort, Buhloone Mindstate, but the group was doing a start/stop thing, at the beginning, rather than going right into it.  Someone on the other side of Gries was commenting on how they just keep teasing the track with a look of anticipation on his face.  That’s when I noticed that person was Napoleon himself, Jon Heder.

“Hey, Ronin.  We’re standing next to Uncle Rico.”  His eyes got huge.  “That’s Napoleon Dynamite right next to him.”

“Napoleon Dynaite Live” was listed on the flyer, so I expected them to be at the festival.  I just didn’t necessarily expect them to be hanging out in the crowd.  I know how people love to talk and quote along through film screenings, so we watched the movie with my son earlier in the week, just to make sure that he knew what was happening.  I leaned over to Jon Gries and explained that we’d recently seen the film and that Ro had been quoting it all week.  Now, he seemed to be all out of quotes, frozen at seeing them this close to us.  That’s when Gries turned to his costar and said, “Let’s take a photo with the kid!”

These guys were incredibly gracious.  Apparently, they hadn’t been around all day, only just arriving in time to catch this De La Soul set.

Scott Silven – Wonders At Dusk

There were a few things going on late night and two of them included cast members of Napoleon Dynamite.  Fort Worden was used as the set for the 1982 Richard Gere motion picture, An Officer And A Gentleman.  Obviously, this meant scheduling a live read of the script by folks like Jon Gries, John C Reilly, and Stephen Tobolowsky, while the movie played in the background.  Perhaps, next year, they’ll tackle The Ring, which was also filmed on the facilities.  Being held at the same time elsewhere was Pedro’s Dance Party with actor, Efren Ramirez, himself, manning the turntables.  We decided to go with option number 3: Scott Silven – Wonders At Dusk.  Scott is a mentalist.

Wheeler Theater is another throwback to a bygone era with it’s art deco interior and glass encased ticket window.  The stage was lowly lit, decorated with a candelabra, an antique tufted chair, a desk lamp, and even an old typewriter, which all played into the eerie vibe of the historic space.  At only 28 years old, Silven is a world renowned mentalist and illusionist who began studying hypnosis at the age of 15 and has gone on to gain international recognition.  He had several performances throughout the weekend, but we chose this time specifically, because it conflicted the least with the rest of the schedule.  I knew that I would just naturally navigate toward the music, if I didn’t check myself, so I wanted to make sure that we made it to some of the more unorthodox acts on the bill.  If possible, I wanted to take advantage of the full dimension and experience being offered at THING.  This was perfect, in that regard.  It allowed us to relax indoors and completely forget that we were even at a festival at all, for a moment.

Without giving too much away, the show involved a lot of guessing what people were thinking, drawing, and/or had written down.  It was that kind of routine, but with variations to the approach and complexity.  I’ve seen this sort of thing before, but never in person and never at a festival.  Still, for obvious reasons, the people who were chosen to participate were clearly much more affected by the experience than the rest of us.  This was a great booking to mix into the schedule and something that helps THING stand out as its own entity in the greater festival landscape.  Silven‘s cerebral antics definitely left the kid’s mind blown.  Ronin‘s only disappointment with the whole thing was that he was never selected as one of the people to go on stage.  Meanwhile, I strolled in dreading the possibility of getting pulled up there.  Now I have mixed feelings.

With the first ever day of the THING festival under our belts, Kim threw Ro onto her back and we headed back down the trail to the campgrounds.  It was a strong first impression, and we still had another full day of this THING ahead of us.