Here’s an idea some might think is crazy. Take a couple of peacocks, some goats and various other farm animals; combine them with a rollercoaster, a zipline, some tarot readers and a two-person vaudevillian jam band. Then, add in four massive inflatable pink robots and PNW indie icons Modest Mouse.
Sound like a recipe for disaster? Well, believe it or not, that idea resulted in a perfect music festival experience in the form of Modest Mouse’s Psychic Salamander Festival at Remlinger Farm in Carnation.
The two-day festival, co-headlined by Modest Mouse and The Flaming Lips on both nights, was a relaxing change of pace from other music festivals. Instead of featuring a lineup with dozens of bands across multiple stages, Psychic Salamander kept things simple and focused on quality over quantity with one stage and 12 acts total. And the other major bands on the bill — Courtney Barnett, Built To Spill, Sleater-Kinney and Yo La Tengo — perfectly complimented the headliners, creating an excellently curated, and relaxed, experience.
Adding to the experience was the atmosphere. The single stage meant there were no overlapping sets, which eliminated the stress of having to rush from stage to stage in an effort to see everything. And since there were fewer bands on the bill than a typical festival (six each day), that left plenty of time to explore the festival grounds. And about those festival grounds.
On initial glance the grounds looked like just a stage in a field with a few tents set up for various vendors. However, like Modest Mouse’s catalog, the more exploring you did at Psychic Salamander the more you were rewarded.
It was my first visit to Remlinger Farm and because of the placement of the stage in an open field, I was having a hard time figuring out exactly where the farm part of the venue was located. After getting my tarot cards read at one of the two tarot booths, I wandered past the marketplace area where festivalgoers could buy clothing, jewelry and art. As I kept walking beyond the area where the stage was set up, I found myself in the company of two rather large geese. Around the corner there were peacocks and chickens. Then, I found the goats and a pig and some rabbits. That’s right, I had discovered the farm.
But it wasn’t just the farm that made this festival a unique experience. There were plenty of amusement park rides, including a rollercoaster, zipline, Ferris wheel and bouncy house to enjoy. Add to that an arcade, pony rides, pioneer gemstone mining and food options ranging from pizza and dumplings to Thai food and burgers and it felt like a mini county fair inside of a music festival.
And as for the music itself, the experience would not have been as exceptional if the music was bad. Every performer I watched seemed to be on their A-game. Boise’s Built To Spill, a group I’ve seen and interviewed multiple times, are incapable of delivering a bad set and their set at Psychic Salamander was no exception. They started with a sprawling “Goin Against Your Mind” off “You In Reverse” and from there it was a set filled with twangy guitar solos and selections from their massive catalog.
Australian shredder Courtney Barnett was the only artist on the bill who I hadn’t seen live and her set was impressive. Her brand of observational storytelling mixed with fierce guitar playing made her the perfect act to follow a flawless set by Built to Spill.
In a surprise move, instead of headlining their own festival Modest Mouse followed Barnett. It had been a good 20 years or so since the last time I saw Isaac Brock’s band and I was looking forward to seeing how the band has matured over the years.
When he walked onstage Brock was all smiles as he greeted the crowd. He almost seemed in awe of what he created. Throughout the set it was clear Modest Mouse are now a seasoned live band. From the opening song “Breakthrough” to the scream-along closer “Shit Luck” the band was dialed in.
The six-piece group played a set that spanned Modest Mouse’s catalog with an emphasis on earlier material. And while nothing from “The Moon and Antarctica” was performed during the first day of the festival, they did perform the entire album on the second night. Highlights from the first night included a raucous “Bury Me With It,” “Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine,” which was one of several songs from “The Lonesome Crowded West” in the set, and “Cowboy Dan” by request.
The Flaming Lips followed and they were in fine form as well. Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was his usual playful self, displaying showmanship and compassion during the group’s 90-minute set. And as far as live shows go, The Flaming Lips are unrivaled when it comes to playfulness, jubilation and spectacle.
Large confetti cannons fired off at various points during the set. Massive balloons the size of blue-ribbon-winning giant pumpkins were thrown from the stage. At one point Coyne dressed up as a flower to sing a song about doing LSD with lightning bugs (“Watching the Lightbugs Glow”). Early in the set four 10-foot-tall inflatable robots swayed and danced during both parts one and two of “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.” And at one point two men wearing eyeball costumes danced alongside Coyne while he sang in front of a large pair of inflatable lips.
Aside from the spectacle, highlights included the always life-affirming “Do You Realize??,” which Coyne performed underneath a giant inflatable rainbow, and the inclusion of The Chemical Brothers cut “The Golden Path,” on which The Lips feature. The Flaming Lips are a band that’s dear to me and their Saturday night Psychic Salamander set was easily in the top tier of all the Lips performances I’ve seen.
It was a bright exclamation point at the end of this year’s festival season. Out of all the bands out there I didn’t think Modest Mouse would create the perfect music fest experience, but they did. Overall, the Psychic Salamander Festival was a resounding success and hopefully it returns next year with another expertly curated lineup and the same down-on-the-farm vibes that provided the perfect exclamation mark on the music festival season .
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