AMERICAN PANCAKE: Moon Block Party 2- Growing Pains and Good Times in Pomona, CA

The 2nd Annual Moon Block Party has come and gone. I wasn't able to attend the entire festival so what better way to celebrate the day than to view Instagram pics posted up from the party goers themselves. If you want to leave comments next to the Instagram pics, please LIKE us on our Facebook page and post comments in the FaceBook Moon Block Party Album.

The Festival, like an 2 year old, is going to go through some growing pains and some of them were evident yesterday. Last year, the set up seemed to be a bit more inviting.The Stages seemed to be closer together and the flow of the the vendors and art installations seemed to just fit together in a more seamless way. This time around the Moon Stage seemed to way down the street and there were a lot of technical hiccups, especially on the Sun Stage where the PA system was distorting terribly. A little vocal distortion never hurt anyone but this sounded really abrasive like the speakers were literally blown. The snap, crackle and pop was even made worse because the high end distortion cut through everything else. The drum mics were also clipping in and out so the sound for Habits, Ahkiyyinii, Death Hymn #9, The Lovely Bad Things and Allah-Las was really not too good. I am sure the sound crew (who I believe were volunteering) were doing their very best but all those bands deserved better. One of the Allah Las put it best during their brief sound check when he said through the mic, "It sounds like shit." Still they persevered and played a great set to an appreciative crowd. The next day the Allah-Las posted this on their face book page: "We wanna thank everyone who stuck around during our set at moon block party, even though the mics made us sound like rammstein."

By the time Kiev played on that stage the sound crew pulled up the sound board (snake and all) and did the mix directly from the stage (stage left). It seemed to clear out the distortion a lot, although the PA seemed to lose a lot of it's power resulting in a low vocal mix. This was still a buh-zillion times better than before. I am wondering if there was just not enough juice to power the system. The Moon Stage fared better although they had some technical issues during Dante Vs Zombies and Dante gave the sound guys a bit of a tongue lashing when Laena Geronimo's mic was not working. I know it was hot and there were some problems but Dante's attitude was veering into the "dick zone." Still, they put on a solid show. A little while later, I heard that the Moon Stage lost power altogether for a little while.

Again, these are just growing pains that the Moon Block Party organizers will surely learn from. The great thing is that even while the audience where listening to broken glass vocals on the Sun stage they enjoyed the bands just the same. Of the Bands I saw, Death Hymn #9 killed it (sweating stage blood and bullets), The Lovely Bad Things stirred up their usual mosh pit even on a hot day, and the Allah Las commanded the crowd even with their heavy metal vocals (lol). The audience and bands took the technical lemons and made sweet musical lemonade. I wandered between stages and caught some of the acts at the Jive Joint Stage. The vibe was intimate and the crowd really showed their love. I caught some of the art installations and gallery art and pulled my neck muscle doing like 5 double takes at the body painted girls. One of the fun things to do was to watch people notice them and do a quick double take while not trying to run into a light pole.

Kiev (with the much improved non distorted PA system) played a set with long musical jams and their enthusiasm spilled over into the crowd. As I said at the beginning, I was unable to see all the acts and many of the later acts but I did get to see the Cosmonauts. I have seen them a dozen times but there was something extra electric going on last night as the crowd pressed up tight against the stage in a non stop, stage diving, crowd surfing fun fest. IT was awesome! Crystal Antlers had some bad luck. According to their Instagram, they abandoned their crippled van, grabbed instruments and hitched a ride (?) That may of been Instagram hyperbole (or not) but they did make it. You have to absolutely hear CA in full- loud power mode but they were on the Sun Stage with that some what lack luster PA system. After their first song, they edged down the volume just to be able to hear the vocals. They still sounded sweet. I reluctantly had to head out mid way through their set and was not able to see the rest of the bands or attend the after party.

The time I spent there was very cool. I ran into a lot of people and bands I have not seen for a while so it was nice hanging and catching up with each and every one of them. Let me know what you thought of the bands you saw and what you thought of the Moon Block Party overall.
Till next year-
RDC