Kevin Bronson on April 16th, 2015

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Who: Desaparecidos in the Gobi Tent
In 3 or Fewer Words: Strident, thank you.
Memorable Because: Conor Oberst walked onstage wearing a shirt that read “DEPORT CONOR OBERST!” (a new merch item, naturally) and later issued a warning. “Almost everything you’ll hear coming out of my mouth today is extremely negative.” Oberst’s resuscitated hardcore band — whose first album since 2002, “Payola,” will come out in June — were indeed outliers at this festival. You don’t hear much in the way of political screeds from synth-pop bands, but Desaparecidos had plenty to go around and punctuated them with heavy rhythms and some shredding/finger-tapping from guitarist Denver Dalley. They even spliced in some vintage spoken-word recordings between songs (a favorite: the intro to Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom.”) Funny (but maybe not) that a lot of the politics from 2002’s “Read Music / Speak Spanish” still apply today; it’s not surprising, after all this time, that I can strain my throat shouting along to “Greater Omaha.”
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were at St. Lucia: You’re deported.
— K.B. (Photos by Bronson)

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