Hillside's Party Band (USS vs Woodhands)

There were a few bands vying for this year's title of "Hillside Party Band." Trying to attain the title held by such greats as Thunderheist, Shout Out Out Out Out and Holy Fuck is a lofty goal and I considered Winter Gloves, USS and Woodhands to all be contenders. As already documented, Winter Gloves successfully got the tent jumping, but hampered by their mid-afternoon time slot I wouldn't consider them to be the party of the festival. Given the first kick at the can were USS with the closing slot on the Island Stage Friday night.

USS
Arriving at the tent I was shocked to find a line-up just to enter the area - this was a never-before seen phenomenon at Hillside and frankly was something I never wanted to see. I was disappointed when I heard the band start up while still on the outside trying to catch a glimpse through a break in the tent wall. More disappointed were the obvious Hillside first-timers who cut in line in front of us and then continued to complain that they'd spent $50 for the night's tickets just to see USS. Slowly people filtered out, likely those that were unaware that the show was going to be a slightly obnoxious display of dj-beats, yelling and shenanigans. Finally I made my way inside to find exactly what I expected; people stood atop picnic tables and everyone was already jumping.

[Pictured: Ashley Boo-Schultz, the Human Kebab's impression of a Human Mic-stand, Bob Marley, Albert Einstein]

USS are basically a two-man team of hijinx - a DJ and MC/guitarist who start parties wherever they go (I refuse to use their stage names since at least one of them is supremely silly). During Cloudboy the frontman went for a crowd surf to start the crowd interaction and then gave us something familiar with a bumpin version of Outkast's Hey Ya. The DJ's showmanship included scratching with his nose, head, elbow (with chin-in-hand) and even standing on the turntable to scratch with his feet. Later he lay on his back with his feet in the air clamping the mic between them to act as a human mic-stand for the MC. Speaking of MC, already on-stage upon my arrival was a full-sized Einstein cut-out that accompanied their statement that "E=MC everything"! The self-proclaimed "moronocy" continued as the singer clamoured onto the DJ's shoulders to sing (as well as continue to make a milkshake - don't ask). In between high-kicks, jumps and cartwheels they brought out another cardboard cut-out - this time of Obama - who made the ill-advised attempt to crowd surf and was immediately ripped to pieces (literally). Bob Marley didn't have the same fate since he remained on-stage through Hollowpoint (with the 'I's the B'y' chorus dedicated to the Newfs!) as well as the eventual encore.

USS did their best, including all the stage antics they could muster, and did manage to get a party going. In my opinion the whole thing was just a little forced, on the crowd's end anyway, as people didn't let quite as loose as Hillsiders are known to. Nonetheless, like the milkshake that the boys made and consumed onstage during their set, the tent did end up frothing by the end.

Woodhands

The next attempt came from Woodhands - another two-piece - this time with a drummer, Paul Banwatt, and a keytarist (among other things), Dan Werb. In fact, considering there were just the two of them the stage set-up seemed as intense as it was for the Library Voices who had preceded them with a whopping 9 members! Once the drums, keyboards, synths, effect pedals, keytar, vocoder mic and everything else were set the crowd in the Island tent was bursting at capacity and ready to get the party started. Everyone was so gung ho to go that Dan just grabbed the mic and started the show without allowing the lady on her way to do the introduction to make it. From the first kicks to the drum the audience was into it, as was geek-extraordinaire Mr. Werb who was all over the stage, and sometimes in the crowd, screaming into the mic. Whether or not the crowd knew the songs ahead of time didn't matter as the beat was easy to find and the dancing was wild. I Wasn't Made For Fighting was a fave of mine, but songs were interchangeable since people were loving everything coming their way. Even the cover of Electric Avenue and a few lines of "you say I'm just a friend" were met with a raucous response. With balloons and surfing sweaty bodies floating over our heads during set closer Dancer there was no way we were ready to end this party just yet. Again the lady attempted to address the crowd after Dan and Paul had disappeared backstage but she was entirely drowned out by the won't-take-no-for-an-answer cheers for another song. We got our wish and the two gods-for-a-night returned to rock us for another ten minutes. The show was uninhibited dance-your-ass-off party-time fun for all. Congratulations Woodhands - you take the Hillside 2009 party crown!