Sunday, August 13, 2023

Lopstock III Coverage (Part 3!!)

It's been too long already, let's continue our extended look at Lopstock III at LopLops Lounge on July 29th today via the middle two acts who played at the 8+ hour "bohemian conclave! Firstly, just some unfinished business from our coverage of Bold Noize's set in part 1 from last week, as we can now officially title the three new songs from his debut punk album "God Save Me" that he did not introduce by name. In order, they are named "Hopes Up", "New Man", and "The Taurus", and while I will talk more about this album/its punk quota on the site soon, Tristan would perform five of the nine cuts from "God Save Me" at Lopstock. Now that we have more details, give those songs a look/listen above! As for Lopstock III in progress, we pick things back up with the fifth of ten acts from two weeks ago, namely local rappers Mykey "Sawbé" Preston and Ethan Stoneburgh (who typically performs under just his last name).

The two MCs have performed together frequently since at least 2019, and have rapped in joint sets often in 2023, Lopstock among them. They're introduced by promoter Brendan Garlick at 2:44:37 of SooToday's multi-camera live-stream embedded below, during which time Brendan defended the local rap scene as being quite real (I guess there are people who don't think we really have one). Sawbé & Stoneburgh led off with their joint single "NFR Cyphers, Pt. 3", before curiously going in reverse to do "NFR Cyphers, Pt. 2" next (albeit sans Mic Swiff from the studio version). They next perform "We Ready", afterwards doing a brief song that I couldn't identify by name (possibly called "Stages"?), before Stoneburgh traded places with the aforementioned Bold Noize for one of his joint songs with Sawbé, "Sand Castles". Stoneburgh returns for another brief song that wasn't introduced (perhaps these are transitions by design?)

Next, the two MCs are joined by fellow local rapper Grief and (from off stage) Bold Noize again, uniting all four performers on "Rust", which Stoneburgh is the lead rapper on rather than a featured performer. A brand new song (possibly named "Hellbound"?) is performed by Sawbé & Stoneburgh next, before they do another song not introduced by name. Grief returns to the stage next to join in on "All Eyes", whose hook was sung in studio and at Lopstock by Handsome Sandwich frontwoman Taylor "Tea" Emlaw! Nice to see her involved, especially as this is Sawbé's most popular song on Spotify! Taylor trades places with Bold Noize for this set's closing song, with all four No Filter Records MCs joining in for Sawbe's "Burning In Hell". Hip hop isn't something that I am super knowledged about, but Sawbé, Stoneburgh, and crew are talented rappers with good flow and intensity when called on!

Sawbé made use of the LopLops space well, and while Stoneburgh's stage presence was a little stiff, you can see how the two pair well on these songs, with Grief also impressing for his features, and Bold Noize making up for the lack of rap in his set to boot. Rap fans will definitely want to give this set a look below or via the song names linked above! As Lopstock started with acts with shorter sets, the sixth set from young local alternative/indie rock quartet The Hollow Heads' set concluded the first half of the festivities. If you're unfamiliar, you may recognize them from Rotaryfest Stage 2 both this & last year (among other events), and frontwoman Gabrielle Dumas was involved in the Clusterfolk Music Festival last year as a solo artist. Also, Pointless' Bill Priddle & Dustin Goodall helped produce their debut single. Gabrielle is joined here by guitarist Ethan Roode, bassist Liam "Curls" Morassut, and drummer Joseph Rosso.

You may recall seeing this set via The Hollow Heads' own YouTube channel, with the band having re-posted their songs from SooToday's live-stream there as a complete set and via individual uploads, so keep those in mind for the convenience. In order, they played "Rat Race", "I Get It", "Breakup", "Invested", "Rearview", "Gypsy", "Belly",  and "Lucy", before closing with a brand new song named "I Need Time", which featured two guest musicians, namely singer Juliana Regan from two sets previously, as well as The BAG drummer Bradley (credited as Ben) Nixon on rhythm guitar. For the record, The Hollow Heads did not play their aforementioned debut single "Complicated", and like the preceding rap set, they had no covers either. The Hollow Heads' set was nicely varied for subgenres and styles, with "Rat Race" being surprisingly heavy compared to everything after it, and Gabrielle was very much at ease on stage!

She had a knack for storytelling and crowd banter, with vocal ability to match, and this young foursome definitely showed a lot of talent across their nine song set, so don't bypass them! We have now reached the (more or less) halfway point of Lopstock III, and the full hard rock/punk acts will start being touched on next, but to see what all went down between the 2:45:00 and 4:12:00 marks on July 29th, check out the full live-stream below or via individual songs linked above!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site next! Thanks everyone!

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