Musical revolution at the Fremont Fair

Naked people riding bicycles, grandmas dressed up in hippie garb and giant puppets parading through the streets; all of this is commonplace in the neighborhood that describes itself as the "center of the universe" -- Fremont. At least, it is commonplace for two summer days each year when Fremont ushers in summer and celebrates any and everything involving the sun at the annual Fremont Fair.

In its 33rd year, the fair's Solstice Parade -- the event's centerpiece -- went a long distance Saturday. Fancy floats, giant puppets and the aforementioned naked bike riders made the parade's longest-ever trek through Fremont. The parade began on North 36th Street, turned right onto Fremont Avenue, made a left onto North 34th Street and went down to Stone Way where participants made a right onto Northlake Way, finally finishing at Gas Works Park.

Each year the crowds become larger and the event amasses more of a following, creating congested streets and crowded walkways throughout the several blocks the fair spans. But once you make it past the clowns parading through the streets (there were literally packs of participants dressed up as clowns in the parade) you find the fair itself is about more than just colorful floats and nudity. There is a wealth of local music, arts-and-crafts and interactive booths where vendors entice the eyes and wallets of fair-goers.

More than 50 musicians performed during the two-day celebration of summer on the fair's five stages, almost making for too much music to take in. The main stage featured a variety of music, ranging from the country-pop songs of Radio Nationals to the hip-hop rhythms of Stingshark. If you made your way through the crowds and managed to get to the main stage, the mixture of musical genres made it difficult to want to leave.

The highlight of the Day Stage was easily Spyplane. The quartet played a well-polished set of rock 'n' roll for a fairly appreciative audience. With an indie-rock flavoring, Spyplane showed why many members of the pretentious music press are trading in their mainstream music tastes in an effort to gain indie credibility. This group's music is proof that a musical revolution is in progress.

Further proof that the blandness of popular rock is losing the battle against challenging, creative and colorful indie rock were the acts on the YMCA Fusion Cafe Stage.

The stage, sponsored by radio station 107.7 The End (which always seems to want to get in on a good thing before it's too late, for instance, hyping-to-death hipster acts such as Franz Ferdinand, The Postal Service, The Killers and countless others), focused on youth-driven bands whose members consisted of mostly teenagers.

And then there was the band Schoolyard Heroes, which took the YMCA stage early Saturday afternoon. Before The End made a format change last year, the band was receiving heavy rotation on the station, making it onto the nightly countdown of popular songs on a regular basis. But Schoolyard got lost in the midst of the format change and eventual hipster-takeover of the radio waves, in effect destroying a local band's opportunity to be heard and enjoyed by the masses.

For those unfamiliar, the group's music is best described as horror-rock and heavy-metal smashed together in a cyclone of frantic guitar riffs, demonic drumming and plenty of screaming, all loud enough to wake the undead zombies Schoolyard Heroes so often sings about. Three out of the four members of the group also happen to be UW students.

The "stage" the group performed on was four wooden pallets covered by a piece of plywood, which caused sound problems and equipment difficulties during parts of the set. But not much more should have been expected from a free show at the bottom of a hill. Technical difficulties aside, the group performed a sweltering 45 minutes of rock in sweltering 80-degree weather.

The band's singer, Ryann Donnelly, is equal parts Gwen Stefani, Courtney Love and Joan Jett. Her stage antics give her the potential to be the next Karen O (singer for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, another band mainstream media obsesses over in order to gain a piece of indie credibility) if the band can reach any level of national success. Donnelly's operatic wails during "The Mechanical Man vs. The Robot From the Outer Limits" makes one wonder how such a fiery singer with a vicious banshee-scream and biting-growl of a voice could produce such beautiful sounds.

In true rock-star fashion the group finished its set with its single "Dawn of the Dead." Marking the occasion of playing at the Fremont Fair, bassist and back-up vocalist Jonah Bergman replaced the lyric "The forces of evil marched on" with "The naked dudes on bikes rode on." Even guitarist Steve Bonnell, with his ever-growing afro, who is normally stagnant while he shreds, was feeling the music, bouncing up and down and moving around as much as he could on the makeshift stage.

The group's set was the perfect way to begin the musical festivities at the fair. Blue Sky Mile, another highly energetic up-and-coming band took the stage after Schoolyard. After the aggressive one-two punch of seeing both groups back to back, whatever band followed the pair didn't seem to matter.

After a weekend of music at the Fremont Fair, it is clear the revolution of removing over-hyped hipster bands from the mainstream has begun, and the "center of the universe" was just one stopping point on indie rock's road to global domination.