There's listening to M. Ward in your headphones and then listening to him live. His fuzzed-out retro guitar sound translates well live when he's electric but acoustically it sounded a little flat. And his hushed vocals the same. But that was when i was sitting about midway up on the terraced concrete/ rock benches. I moved down low after the first song and sound held together more tightly.
He blew through a bunch hits (if you can call them that) off of his latest "Hold Time" and "Post-War" including the sweet "Never Had Nobody Like You" and morality tale of "Chinese Translation." On "Hold Time," the album's title track, DeVotchka's violin player Tom Hagerman while Ward laid down his guitar and took over on the keys.
Across the way I was introduced for the first time to King Khan and the Shrines by hearing from a distance over the speakers "This one's for the fat girls." When I finally could view the stage it all started to make sense. The leader of the group, Erick Khan, is a big man who was dressed in a long, flowing gold cape, dark blue boxer shorts with a gold plated crotch and a headdress with tall black feathers. This all strangely enough fit the music pretty well. I caught three songs and they all were a funked-up garage rock with a ton of energy. The crowd ate it up.