A beautiful day in Oakland to put those fancy earplugs you never wear to the test! It was my first time seeing Prison Affair and this iteration of The Exploding Hearts. Both were fantastic. Hearing The Exploding Hearts play “I’m a Pretender” live and that loud was pretty moving.
Having seen Osees many times over the past 15 years, including booking them at 924 Gilman in 2011, this was one of my absolute favorite (and holy crap, loudest) performances by the band. Earplugs don’t fail me now!
Devo was super inspiring to (finally) see live! Maybe it’s the giant sound system, but those songs just hit differently when cranked all the way up—a perfect way to end Day 1 of the fest.
Photos by Matthew Kadi and Studio Fallout
