Lopstock III Coverage (Part 1!!)

As you may recall, ex-Gnaeus drummer Brendan Garlick resurrected his mid-2010s "bohemian conclave" multi-band concert Lopstock for a belated third installment at LopLops Lounge this past Saturday, which served as the launch event for his new promotional agency Sault Noir. In the lead-up, he teased "one more Lopstock announcement... and it's a pretty exciting one" on social media, but at the time that we previewed Lopstock III on the SMS on July 28th, it hadn't been made 100% public, so what was the announcement? Well, the concert was live-streamed.... all of it. All 8+ hours of it! And this wasn't just a "let's set up one camera in front of the stage and hope things cooperate" situation, as this was in cooperation with SooToday, being live-streamed directly to their YouTube channel and promoted on their website proper, with three high quality (mostly) static camera angles being used for the duration.

Kudos to Brendan for getting this high production quality to log this entire show (with ten scheduled acts, mind you), and it sure blows his already extensive video coverage from the last Lopstock out of the water! This is also a good sign of intent for what he's aiming to do with Sault Noir, even if we don't see video like this all the time. The live-stream runs for over 8 hours and 36 minutes, but is bookended by 7 minute-long static title cards on SooToday's end, and the performance order was heavily changed from the posters, with the three hard rock-leaning acts all pushed into the last four timeslots. The live video begins with Brendan himself introducing the show (he was the evening's MC), and the opening artist was folk/pop singer/guitarist Hannah Lindsay, who played her original songs "The Water Runs Cold", "Speak Your Mind", "The Birds", "Scarred", and "Where I'll Go", a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon", and her own "Your Friend".

Remember, Brendan asks Lopstock acts to keep their sets focused around original material with a one cover limit. Hannah had a strong performance of acoustic pop rock songs here, and while not always too animated on stage, she had a comfortable rapport with the audience, so don't sleep on her opening set! After Brendan offered a quote from Flowers For Algernon and acknowledged his late friend Joonas Kamula, the second act of the evening was local rapper Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow, whose set started with his songs "Set The Tone" and "Danger". Things took a surprising turn next when he acknowledged on stage that he was going to "switch up the vibe a little bit", as "we're putting out a punk album (in) two weeks". Now this is 100% news to me, but as a rapper, Bold Noize isn't a project that I regularly scout. Social media teasers have been minimal as of this writing, but the album will be named "God Save Me", cover art pictured.

The punk portions of Bold Noize's set were still just Tristan alone with a backing track (if he has bandmates, they weren't on stage with him), but he was predominantly singing rather than rapping. The first two songs of this ilk were not introduced by name, but you can see them linked here and here. He gets back to his existing rap output next with "Bring The War", before dipping back to the punk album ahead with the title track "God Save Me", a song named "Dead Inside", and a slower track not introduced by name, before closing with his existing rap song "Talk". Personal Facebook postings suggest that "God Save Me" will be released on major streaming services on Thursday, so keep an eye out then if this interests you. If these are a true indication of how this album will sound, then expect something more like Machine Gun Kelly's rock output than NOFX, but I'm definitely curious to hear how the final product turns out!

Is this just his existing rap structure with predominantly clean vocals, or truly something more rock-based? We'll find out soon! I'll pass judgement on the songs until I hear the studio versions (even the rap songs here were more vocally animated live than in studio), but Tristan can carry a tune as a singer, and while the backing tracks did lean more to his rap output than a fully fledged band (at least as presented here), props to him for expanding his range beyond hip hop! He also made good use of the LopLops venue to rock out in the audience rather than staying on stage, and his rap flow was fast and natural. Check out all of Lopstock III below, with our coverage of the other 88% of it to follow this month!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for much more from Losptock and beyond this week! Thanks everyone!