Photos and video from TRK Fest!

Years ago I spent three weeks living on a farm in Saxapahaw, and came to the conclusion then that, despite popular belief, it's actually a hell of a lot hotter in the country than it is in a city. I thought about that Saturday at TRK Fest while witnessing several local musicians, and a whole lot of local music fans, on the verge of passing out due to heat exhaustion. Poor Ryan Gustafson (below) looked like he was just going to melt up on stage. The only good thing I can say about the heat is that I sweated so hard I only had to make a trip to the dreaded port-a-potty - in which it was easily about 30 degrees hotter -- once.  

I had decided early on I wasn't going to stay till the bitter end, mainly because I didn't want to drive back to Raleigh from Pittsboro after Megafaun's 11 p.m. set. I got there right before Ryan Gustafson took the stage and stayed through Mount Moriah (below), catching Veelee (top) and Butterflies in the process. I would have liked to have taken the Piedmont Biofuels tour and stayed around for Midtown Dickens, but I was just spent by that point. See more photos from the show. 

I was glad to catch Butterflies for the first time, and more impressed with Veelee this time around. But Mount Moriah stole what little of the show I saw. Midtown Dickens and Phil Cook from Megafaun even joined them for "Lament". Other highlights of the day included making my first tie-dye since college, and finally trying an Only Burger, which was pretty tasty indeed. 

Video of Ryan Gustafson

I finally took Alex's advice to go see Ryan Gustafson last night at Slim's, but due to the sound quality of the show, I'm going to hold off on making a final assessment. I don't know exactly what happened (I heard that something - whether the PA or an amp -  had broken), but the sound was truly terrible. Yes, I know that Slim's is not the best-sounding club in town. The only bands that sound great at Slim's are loud, dirty rock bands. But this went beyond the usual muddiness. Several die-hard Ryan/Max Indian fans - including Alex - took off early because they just couldn't deal with it.

That said, I can't tell much difference between Ryan Gustafson and Max Indian, probably because both bands  -- along with the Light Pines -- share three members: Gustafson himself, Carter Gaj and James Wallace. When it came time for Max Indian to play their set, they just switched bass players and kept going. Just to keep it confusing, Ryan Gustafson covered some Max Indian songs and at least one Light Pines song. Light Pines definitely have their own distinct sound, but judging from what I heard last night, Ryan Gustafson's music and Max Indian's are pretty similar. The biggest distinction is that Gustafson is far and away the best singer out of anyone in the Drughorse Collective. Listen to his material on Myspace. It's more rootsy sounding than what I heard last night, and his voice fits it perfectly.

And with that, I leave you a video that features Carter, rather than Ryan, singing. I'll get a better video of Ryan next time I see him.