The youthful enthusiasm of a decidedly all-ages crowd won out over cold, rainy conditions on Saturday, as Sweetgreen put on their Sweetlife Food and Music Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion, offering an expanded range of culinary options and an equally diverse lineup of twenty musical acts headlined by Swedish house producer Avicii, but highlighted by veteran indie-rockers The Shins.
One of the few sets to actually start more or less on time, The Shins’ early-evening performance marked singer-songwriter James Mercer’s first local appearance with his revamped backing band, which currently features Jessica Dobson on guitar, Yuuki Matthews (Crystal Skulls) on bass, Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse) on drums, and Richard Swift on keyboards.
Three songs in, the band launched into a rousing rendition of their resplendent new single, “Simple Song,” easily the finest track on Port of Morrow, Mercer’s recently-issued fourth album under The Shins’ moniker. Other new songs like “Bait and Switch” and “No Way Down” couldn’t quite match the incandescent pop songcraft displayed on older selections like “Australia” and “Caring Is Creepy,” both of which were delivered with vibrance and verve. “Saint Simon” provided a mid-set highpoint with its hymn-like vocal melodies and lilting guitar chords, and Mercer thanked the crowd for humming along to the infectious “Phantom Limb.” A long, surprisingly noisy instrumental coda punctuated “One By One All Day” before “Sleeping Lessons” capped the set with an irresistible, slow-building surge.
Earlier, pop-rockers fun. kicked off the proceedings on the main stage, warming up the crowd with a cloying performance that (of course) pivoted around their ubiquitous anthem “We Are Young,” the early 21st century’s unfortunate antithesis to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Highly-touted hip-hop upstart A$AP Rocky took the stage half an hour late before delivering an abbreviated four-song salvo, while Fitz and The Tantrums gamely showcased their crowd-pleasing soul revivalism, adding a cover of The Eurythmics’ 1983 hit “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).”
Explosions In the Sky’s late-afternoon set elicited the incongruous spectacle of teenagers crowd-surfing to post-rock, fans perhaps inspired by the Texan group’s Friday Night Lights soundtrack to turn festival-going into a contact sport. Soaring instrumentals like “Your Hand in Mine” and “The Only Moment We Were Alone” were rendered with power and nuance on three guitars, bass, and drums, but after about a half-dozen (fairly similar-sounding) crescendos, energy and interest seemed to wane a bit in the crowd, even though the band’s impassioned pitch didn’t waver.
Located next to the “Food Forest,” the “Treehouse Stage” was running even further behind schedule than the main stage, which proved fortuitous as it allowed indie-music fans to rush over after The Shins’ set to grab a Shake Shack burger or a Peak Organic IPA while catching a few songs by the always mesmeric Zola Jesus. Afterwards, Twin Shadow’s George Lewis, Jr. offered an enjoyable indie-pop set with a new crew of backing musicians, spiking songs like “Shooting Holes” and “Castles in the Snow” with jagged, droning guitar solos.
Back on the main stage, Kid Cudi saved fan-favorites like “Mr. Rager” and “Pursuit of Happiness” for the end of his outing, his charismatic showmanship whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Finally, ecstatic festival-goers frantically waved their obligatory glow-sticks as they danced away the rest of the night to Avicii’s throbbing, melody-laden beats.
