Saturday began Day Three of Big Ears, the intensely original, international, collaborative multi-medium arts festival produced by AC Entertainment in venues all around downtown. Composers, bands, filmmakers and fans came into Knoxville from places as far-flung as Los Angeles, Paris and Brazil to see the lovingly curated selection of avant-garde delights.
Meanwhile, at Big Asses, a “locals only” affair for indie, punk, and garage rock at The Pilot Light, 20+ Knoxville bands blazed through the day with a party of their own.
The festival went from midday to late night and featured bands like Hellaphant, Dixie Ghost, Big Country’s Empty Bottle, MEOB, The Criswell Collective and more.
Blank made it for early evening rock sets from Bark and The Crumbsnatchers.
Bark
Bark is Tim and Susan Lee’s side project where Susan slides over from bass to drums and sings a little more prominently and Tim plays his Fender Bass VI guitar, a hybrid of a bass and electric guitar that lets him hold down the low end and fry up some crunchy chords and short solo squeals on the same instrument.
In Tim Lee 3, both Tim and Susan contribute to the sound as well, but as Tim’s singing lead most of the time and, well, the band is named after him, it’s easier to imagine it as his project. With Bark, however, it feels like a pure collaboration of a couple that is having a great time making music together. It’s refreshing to see seasoned vets of the Knoxville scene jam lo-fi garage-rock with conspiratorial grins like a couple of excited teenagers.
Crumbsnatchers
Crumbsnatchers have gotten tight! The band, coming off its recordings sessions for Big House, their upcoming full-length tracked at Famous London Recording Studios, seems to have hit its stride; the rhythm section of Rylan Bledsoe and new bassist Niles Haury is locked in, as are guitarists Sam “Guetts” Guetterman and Phil Mosteller. Alternating between bouncy ska-inflected riff-swapping and furious distorted punk chords with incendiary fills, the band jumped around the stage, even leaving it to walk out among the crowd, dancing vigorously with a never fully-realized mosh element bubbling under the surface. Guetts is a charismatic front man, ripping off his shirt and screaming about crazy stuff before sweetly saying “I love you” to the crowd at the end of the set. Crumbsnatchers’ album release show for Big House will be at Scruffy City Hall on May 20.
