This weekend's Free Press Summer Fest at Eleanor Tinsley Park is officially (way) sold out, so our readers who don't have passes at this point are sadly now forced to test their skills at the "secondary market." For those of you who are already in, this week Rocks Off will be bringing you our staff recommendations for acts you might consider checking out while you're there. Today we asked our writers to choose their toughest decision during the festival. (Note: planets correspond to FPSF stage names.)
UPDATED (Friday, 5:15 p.m.): Corrects the date the Suffers and Omotai play from Saturday to Sunday.
SATURDAY
Buxton/Jandek My biggest scheduling conflict strangely enough comes right at the very beginning on Saturday afternoon. Local Americana heroes Buxton make their FPSF return at 12:40 p.m., just ten minutes before underground legend Jandek makes his FPSF debut. I'm ultimately going to have to go with Jandek, as I've never actually seen the recluse in person before, but it's a tough one. COREY DEITERMAN
Paul Banks/Nick Greer & The G's These sets begin within ten minutes of each other Saturday, and I can't decide who I want to see more. On the one hand, I've been an avid Interpol fan for more than a decade and was thoroughly impressed by Banks' recent solo effort; on the other, Greer and crew are putting out some of the most fun and infectious music this city has to offer right now. The temperaments of the two artists couldn't be more dissimilar, so I guess I'll just see how I'm feeling Saturday. MATTHEW KEEVER
Paul Banks/Japandroids Hats off to Summerfest lineup schedulers, as there aren't many obvious schedule conflicts this year. I think they did a fine job spacing out like genre acts, allowing fest goers time to move from stage to stage to catch their desired sets. Paul Banks and Japandroids both play relatively close set times to one another; however, I'll be sure to see Banks, as I've only seen him with Interpol in the past. NEPH BASEDOW
Alabama Shakes/The Geto Boys My biggest scheduling conflict last year was missing Flaming Lips for a psychedelic encounter with a turkey leg (have you ever really looked at one?), this year it's Alabama Shakes vs. Geto Boys. Brittany Howard is my favorite contemporary frontperson, I first saw (hell, heard of) them on SNL and I've been in love ever since.
But on the other hand, IT'S THE GETO BOYS. Seeing them would be up there with the time I met MC Ren and Tomica Wright, aka Mrs. Eazy-E. APRIL BREM PATRICK
Calvin Harris/The Postal Service So, a time conflict between Calvin Harris and the Postal Service may seem like a strange thing to have, but it's pretty valid, despite the fact that they're on polar opposite ends of the musical spectrum. It's been a long time since the Postal Service has performed live, which makes it an obvious choice based on that fact alone, but it's at the end of the day and their music is so mellow that it could become overkill.
Calvin Harris, on the other hand, will be high-energy mayhem, and he's one of the better songwriter-producer-DJs around, so he's hard to pass up as well. It'll come down to whether I've hydrated enough to jump around like a fool for an hour, I'd guess. ANGELICA LEICHT
