A young girl tripped over her father’s shoes as they danced together, beaming in the middle of a crowded field on Nov. 15. Clustered together on the grass with a petite chihuahua, a family of four allowed their chatter to sync with the lyrics of every song. A few feet away, an older woman, requiring no partner to sway with her, allowed each melody to carry her body into graceful movements.
For nearly eight hours, Los Dias de la Crescent—a free music festival hosted by the Crescent Ballroom—transformed the Civic Space Park into the heart of the Phoenix community and culture. Thirteen local bands unified the diverse community as they showcased their art for hundreds.
Vinyl Station was the first highlight of the day. Following the delightfully alternative sounds of Flower Festival and Hasty Escape, the band needed no words to begin; all it took were a couple strums on an acoustic guitar for the crowd to traverse to their stage from the other.
I wasn’t planning on sitting down for the Vinyl Station. It was in the beginning of their set that I planned to explore the park-turned-venue and its vendors, but the power in Matthew Thornton’s voice in the midst of a mercilessly beautiful music glued me to my spot. With gorgeous lyrics and a passionate performance, the band created an amazing listening experience, providing indie folk undertones reminiscent of Mumford & Sons, embellished with a local, soft rock twist.
After that, Los Sociales and ¡Caray! gave the audience two tastes of the city’s diversity. The Latin music showed me an aspect of Phoenix that I rarely get the chance to witness, in the widely Americanized downtown culture.
Then, Playboy Manbaby, a staple in the world of downtown music, captured the essence of everything local music should be. With unparalleled energy in the performance of a distinctive ‘spazz funk’ genre, the group proved that simply listening to a CD—or rather, a cassette, thanks to the preferred medium of singer Robbie Pfeffer’s local label, Rubber Brother Records—could not compare to a live show.
More interactive with the audience than the majority of event’s bands, Playboy Manbaby demonstrated the connectivity that could only occur in a local set as they pulled the listeners forth.
“For those of you with a short-term memory, we are Playboy Manbaby. We are not the Dave Matthews Band. This is not the Cricket Pavilion. You do not get discounts for standing in the grass,” Pfeffer joked. “So how about you come forward and pretend this is actually a concert?”
As Sincerely Collins and Miny shared their time on stage, the festival would see what pop culture looked like in a local setting. With rapper Miny demonstrating her drumming skills from her days in metal music, with a couple of talented dancers by her side, the half hour of hip hop was certainly something to see.
The Old Storm was a classic band with a pure rock ‘n’ roll heart. A fallen cymbal in the middle of their performance had no effect on the duo’s pitch perfect performance.
Within the band’s portion of the music festival, The Old Storm’s vocalist and guitarist, Andrew Jadyn, accurately described the atmosphere of the event in one statement: “I know you guys have been here all day, but I know that means you love music, and I love music, so we’re all together on that.”
We don’t have the same fanatical obsession for local bands as many people do for national celebrities, but Los Dias de la Crescent showed that we have something greater in the cozy downtown music scene. We have full appreciation and respect for the fact that our bands are made up of real, approachable people performing solely for the love of music. That said, there is something remarkable in the fact that Phoenix is a place where we can gather as a community, not to hopelessly scream in support of unreachable artists, but simply to admire an art.
And when Dry River Yacht Club came on, music performance was indeed an art to admire. The gypsy rock band attracted the start of an enormous crowd as they created a theatrical, mysterious and fairytale-esque performance. In displaying the close friendships within the group throughout the set, Dry River Yacht Club wowed me with a contagious happiness that inspired me to dance with the crowd.
Bogan Via followed with a crowd-pleasing performance, and soon after, Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta took the stage. The large mambo band was filled with high energy performers, including Salvador Duran, a man with a huge talent for bass vocals, and Larry Lopez, the most entertaining drummer I have ever watched. While their genre is not my typical go-to music, the group was definitely one of my favorite performers of the lineup.
Snake! Snake! Snakes! continued the event with an expectedly wonderful show. Bearing similarities to Cage the Elephant, the band returned the audience to a perfect amount of indie rock, representing the world of local music well.
Ending the Civic Space Park portion of the music festival was Black Carl, a rock band inspired by touches of blues and funk. Led by the powerful vocals of Emma Pew, the musicians gave notable performances, including that of “The 20” and “Become My Hallucination” to make a memorable ending to the night.
In the Crescent Ballroom, a handful of other local music artists continued Los Dias de la Crescent for the 21+ crowd to hear until early in the next day.
The incredibility of the festival could not be captured solely by descriptions of the music, nor would descriptions of the downtown-based vendors and scrumptious food (I am partial to Rollover Doughnuts for pastries now) do it justice. It was Pew that summarized what dazzled me the most.
“This is my city. This is your city,” the singer said. “I’m so happy that you’re all here.”
The bands, the vendors and the journalists like me were not there solely for their jobs. The audience was not there simply because there was a complimentary event occurring. We all walked onto the fields that Saturday afternoon to witness the community meld into a stunning attraction of friendship, love and culture—to create a picturesque city that was ours to share.
If I were to report on local music for the rest of my life, there is nowhere I would choose to live other than downtown Phoenix, because decades of listening and writing could not encompass my appreciation for our community and its music culture.
Contact the columnist at Emily.Liu@asu.edu.
