Forecastle Festival XI: Day 1

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Photos by C. Michael Stewart

By BRADEN LAMMERS

The 11th Forecastle Festival kicked off Friday in Louisville’s Waterfront Park. Following each day of the three-day festival, Hoosier Hits will feature some of the highlights. On Friday, it started with Houndmouth.

Houndmouth

There has been a noticeable change in the crowd surrounding Houndmouth since the band last played in town three months ago.

When the southern Indiana band took to the Forecastle Festival Mast Stage Friday evening, the audience was more than double the size of the crowd they played to at Iroquois Amphitheater in April. It was even noted by one of the band members that Friday’s audience was “by far, the biggest crowd we’ve played to.”

Another noticeable change in the audience was that only a month after the release of their debut album, “From the Hills Below the City,” the audience was singing along through the verses of nearly all the band’s songs, not just to the chorus of “On the Road.”

It was a good thing festival organizers decided to move the band from the Boom Stage to the Mast Stage. It probably would’ve even behooved them to move the band later in the night, as the crowd was just arriving a few songs into their set.

If Houndmouth keeps going at this pace, they’ll likely be starting their next set at Forecastle at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.

Big Boi

A massive crowd at the Boom Stage was treated to one of the more energetic shows of the night.

As soon as Big Boi started his show in the northwest corner of the venue, the beat was bumping through the ground and into your body.

One of the few hip-hop acts to grace the festival this year, it gave people the chance to get down to a thumping beat.

In addition to his solo work, Big Boi featured a good number of Outkast songs during his set.

Young the Giant

The mood changed considerably on the Boom Stage after Big Boi.

Young the Giant brought its melodic pop to the audience members that stuck around and to the new group that funneled in. The dynamic of the crowd shifted to a younger sect of Forecastle’s festival-goers, who seemed entranced by Sameer Gadhia’s falsetto. Young the Giant was a good fit for a summery pop festival and for the festival attendees looking for something a little more mainstream.

A unique highlight of the show, and the venue, was that in the middle of Young the Giant’s set, the fireworks show from the Louisville Bats game lit up the night sky.

String Cheese Incident

When the last group of the evening took to the stage, a psychedelic dance party broke out.

String Cheese Incident, a jam band with an electric guitar, started playing and didn’t stop. One of the best things about a jam band is you hear music straight. The one pause for String Cheese Incident was after a jam band’s bluegrass version of “Walk this Way.” By then, they had been playing for about 45 minutes straight. After a 10-second reprieve they started it all up again.