In an attempt to make up for the night before, I began my second day of the festival at 11:00AM at the Doug Fir, where Port O’ Brien was playing a small set for Seattle’s KEXP. I’d always wanted to see them play live, but given that the show was for radio, it wasn’t all that exciting. They joked about the Doug Fir’s lighting, which is almost always red, but then realized that people over the radio couldn’t see it.

A little later in the day I swung by the Wonder Ballroom, where the first of 3 free Nike sponsored shows was going on. Who else but No Age was playing, making for my 11th time seeing them this year. What’s left to say except that I cannot wait to see them again. Seriously… I love this band.

Let us please promote whoever booked this show, because no one was complaining about the lineup: No Age followed by Battles absolutely free.

Battles is one of my favorite bands to see live. Their adaptations are incessant and their energy is never ending. Drummer John Stanier for example isn’t content to leave the stage until he is using the amp to prop himself up. Someone heard him say, “I think I’m gonna have to sit this one out” as he sat quietly behind the band as a pool of sweat piled up underneath him. This isn’t to discredit the rest of the band though, who also could be seen dripping buckets of sweat as they impeccably blended songs of old with those more recent.

Ice Cream Man could be seen giving out free treats outside of the show, cheering up those who maybe couldn’t get in.

I caught a very brief bit of Calvin Johnson, who was stranger than I remembered his records being.

His voice was reminiscent of Noah Georgeson, who I maybe would have preferred to see, if only for those crazy eyes. Unfortunately I had to dash, missing M. Ward.

The reason I didn’t stay was The Cool Kids, who weren’t exactly playing at the same time, but people sure were pouring in early. I watched a bit of Cool Nutz before catching up with him for a bit at the bar downstairs. Even White Fang were there early.

The Cool Kids were just that, with a crowd of almost entirely teenagers singing along. They’ve come a long way since they played the festival last year, and it showed in their confidence and delivery on stage. When they played last year, they weren’t quite able to put the mic in the crowd for half the song. Now, people were singing every word, as if they didn’t even care to hear the Kids themselves.

Ditching Del, I scrambled to Holocene, where an at capacity crowd was anticipated. I’m pretty sure that anytime Bradford Cox steps into town, something changes. Good shows happen on almost every Thursday, but this particular one brought the masses to Holocene. Starfucker were in the middle of their set when I arrived, and there was absolutely no way to get closer than the door to the room in which they played. I thought that I was doomed for Deerhunter, but the room cleared nicely after Starfucker left the stage. It’s definetly nice to see Starfucker getting so much attention; they deserve it.

Deerhunter didn’t make people wait too long to get on the stage, however their bassist was busy “Shapeshifting”, leaving Bradford to fend off the crowd with jokes and threats. It was pretty obvious the bassist was on something, as he appeared pretty disassociated and even had a bucket to vomit in. Musically though, he did fine, blasting through some of my very favorite songs from the new album. It was really fun to watch the relationship between Bradford and the new guitarist Whitney. He joked with her and she’d throw it right back at him. Although the crowd was large, it was evident that they were perfectly comfortable, even with a man down.