What the Heck!

I love Anacortes. It's cold as hell at night but it's got a good vibe, especially when carloads of indie rockers with bikes strapped to the back drive up from Portland and San Francisco to see 3 days of K Records bands and the like. The Department of Safety did a really great job with What the Heck Fest- mad props for renting out the Port Warehouse- right on the water, open garage, bleachers, dock, and a big ass performance space with excellent acoustics and plenty of room for a sea of cross-legged sitting down twenty-somethings. I have never seen so many people sitting down to watch a show- seen it in tiny living rooms and basements but never a whole freaking warehouse. Bands warned everyone to watch out for their keys falling down in the cracks (the water was right below our bottoms) and birds pooping on our heads.

The Dept of Safety provided decent schwag too for everyone in exchange for a $13 entry- little green zine booklets of the weekend line up with fern stencils on the cover and an official What the Heck Fest post card. I got to see Mount Erie, Mirah, Your Heart Breaks, The Lonely Forest, Karl Blau, Kimya Dawnson, Earth, and OPaon. People were selling baked goods for a $1.50! Love shows with food...Folks were shooting hoops between bands and hanging out on the dock and I met a surfer boy from San Francisco who told me all about the Critical Masses down there with 300+ people drinking in the streets, taking up both sides of the road in tunnels, complete with your friendly police escort. He was so classic Cali, everything was "cool". It was a very cool nite indeed.

Then we have Louis who sees a good mullet and goes up to the guy to shake his hand to look him in the eye and sincerely tell him what a great mullet he has....and its Karl Blau....he has no idea who Karl Blau is. And he has no idea who Kimya Dawson is either and for a second forgets he's not at a dive bar in his navy town and yells "Kill Your TV" to her while shes on stage and she responds "uh-oh, someone's gonna start a fight", instantly picking up on his out-of-place heckle. Its funny to see Louis intermingle with random indie rock figureheads that so many people put on pedalstools and think are untouchable.