Kevin Bronson on April 15th, 2012

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Who: We Are Augustines on the main stage
In 3 or Fewer Words: Afternoon delight.
Memorable Because: Straight-up indie-rock may be about as fashionable as bashing Radiohead these days, but We Are Augustines – singer-guitarist Billy McCarthy’s post-Pela project – do it better than almost anybody. The Brooklyn-based band’s powerful early-afternoon set on sun-splashed main stage provided an unsettling disconnect, its 2011 album “Rise Ye Sunken Ships” dealing in dark matter surrounding McCarthy’s personal struggles and the death of his mentally ill brother. But “Chapel Song” and “Book of James” rang out like hymns over this desert cathedral, and McCarthy’s stentorian voice, a little worse for the wear due to heavy touring, quavered with intensity on the piano ballad “Philadelphia (City of Brotherly Love).”
What I’d Tell My Friends Who Were at We Were Promised Jetpacks: We were promised a lot of things, kids.
– K.B. (Concert photography by Scott Dudelson)