Treasure Island 2013: Beck, Sleigh Bells, HAIM Trade Laptops For Rock on Day Two

In keeping with tradition, Treasure Island 2013 skewed far more rock & indie on Day Two than Saturday’s kickoff on the tiny island in San Francisco Bay. Palma Violets earned a streak of new fans, while the sisters HAIM continued to earn their reputation for the most frequently heard phrase about them: “You just gotta see ’em live!” STRFKR drew strong crowds on the main stage, while Real Estate unveiled new songs. This was all before the triple-shot of Japandroids, Sleigh Bells and Beck, which was a flavor-shifting high note on the peculiar weekend.

When they weren’t demanding that the crowd throw British candies at them, the sisters of HAIM set the stage for the rest of the day’s more guitar-driven atmosphere with a run through the majority of their debut album Days Are Gone. The studio recordings of these songs, by comparison, are a mere whisper to the roar of their live execution. Frontwoman Danielle Haim, along with bassist Este and guitarist Alana, traded vocal leads, rock-sneer faces and solos like veterans focused on fun, with little to prove.

The ladykiller musical ache of James Blake followed Portland dance jammers STRFKR on the main stage, whose cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was a high point of tongue-in-cheek fun for the day. Bringing massive crowds in for his slow-burning electro-R&B, Blake’s loop-layered vocals and minimal instrumentation were accompanied well by the early-rolling fog from the San Francisco Bay serving as a backdrop to the stage.

The breathy, melancholy hypnosis of tracks like “Retrograde” and “CMYK” was, however, momentarily outshined by particularly well-endowed sex dolls that were making their way through the audience.

Canadian garage-blast duo Japandroids powered through some very cold fingers amidst the dropping post-sunset temperatures, with frontman Brian King and drummer David Prowse inspiring the first authentic mosh pit of the weekend. That tends to happen when a band thinks of (and introduces) a song like “The House That Heaven Built” as a slow jam. 

After having powered through the center of it, confirmation is here: if you’re cold at a show, start throwing your body into people. Like a human concert equivalent of a swarm of Japanese honey bees, it generates some intense heat.

After standing in line for 40 minutes for a cup of precious hot coffee to the bizarre sounds of Animal Collective’s weirdo freakout excellence, Alexis Krauss and Derek E. Miller of Sleigh Bells took the stage with a new drummer and a second guitarist.

Tearing through material from their new album Bitter Rivals amidst the violent strobe spectacle, as well as an early appearance from the happy-blast excellence of fan-favorite single “Comeback Kid,” Krauss & company kept the energy on ten and the jaws on the floor. Why the hell they were relegated to the side stage is a mystery.

Beck’s a weird cat. Understatement, I know, but it’s impossible to predict what you’re getting at a Beck show. I’ve seen him act as if he’s been possessed by Prince on ecstasy, rolling around on a purple bed lowered from the rafters. I’ve seen him warble miserably through a heartbreaking acoustic set in the Sea Change era. But last night, he was a straightforward songman, delivering reliable – though pedestrian – renditions of fan favorites like “Devil’s Haircut,” “Black Tambourine,” and “Modern Guilt,” which was prefaced by an awesomely funktified run through half of “Tainted Love”. An unexpected duet for the live debut of “Let’s Get Lost” with Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss, a track from the Twilight soundtrack, was met with confusion and ecstatic enthusiasm from the crowd.

The only unwelcome oddity arrived when he utterly butchered the second verse of his breakthrough slacker-anthem single “Loser”.

He did break form, however, for a rip-roaring version of “One Foot In The Grave” that was instrumentally limited to a microphone and a harmonica. It was here that the crowd came unhinged, stomping and clapping along like we were at a backwoods barn-raising. It was fantastic, pure, passionate, and as musically divorced from the previous day’s play-button dance party as one could imagine. 

Check out our Day One coverage from Treasure Island 2013 right here, as well as our featured artist galleries below!

Treasure Island 2013: Beck