West Fest

One can’t just lace up sneakers and jump into a marathon. You gotta train. And there’s no better warm-up for feats of endurance like Lollapalooza and Pitchfork than this Ukrainian Village street fest. With a motley array of sexy blog favorites, this year’s West Fest comes off like a little brother, or appetizer, to next weekend’s ’ Forkful of hipster darlin’s.

Don’t be fooled by the name of openers Yawn (Sat, 1pm); the upbeat Chicago boys, cruise-ready Animal Collective disciples, load their giddy indie with bongos and leis. Later, Brooklyn chillwavers Class Actress (Sat, 5:30pm) and Beach Fossils (Sat, 2:30pm)—says-it-all song titles: “Vacation,” “Daydream”—bring groggy ’80s vibes. Clearing the path for the headliner is local dark and doomy ensemble Bloodiest (Sat, 4pm), with members of Yakuza and 90 Day Men. We hear the slo-mo headbangers have merited a rare hamburger at metal mecca Kuma’s. With bare, bulging torso and blood trickles running down his bald noggin, Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham leads the charge with his sprawling Canadian art-punk troupe, Fucked Up (Sat, 7pm). Sometimes a welcome lefty talking head on Fox News, Abraham has lately been outspoken against the artist boycott of Arizona. Like spiritual, and musical, forefathers Fugazi, F’d Up embraces confrontation.

The inexplicably buzzed-about mallrat Dominique Young Unique (Sun, 4pm) at least offers some diversity to Sunday. A potty-mouthed Tampa Bay teenager, Unique cheerleads over aggressive electro-funk riddims. Small Black (Sun, 7pm), another Brooklyn act staring at the past through kaleidoscopes, whips out the droning keyboards for some New-Order-in-a-tin-can. The Windy City dream-poppers in Light Pollution (Sun, 2:30pm) aim for a more epic sound, with soaring vocals over gurgling synths and pulsing drums. Shaking its fist at sci-fi, Scotland’s We Were Promised Jetpacks (Sun, 8:30pm) top the bill, finishing with a sprint, inciting sing-alongs to jumpy, anthemic postpunk smothered in a thick Scottish brogue.

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