The C.O.T.: Youth Lagoon helps launch Treefort Music Fest

Consider Treefort Music Fest officially launched thanks to Youth Lagoon, Mozam, Lerk, and a packed house on a Monday night at The Reef. The show, led by current "godfather" of the Boise music scene Eric Gilbert (Finn Riggins), was created to promote awareness for Treefort Music Fest, an emerging artist festival coming to Boise in March. Youth Lagoon, the musical endeavor of Boise-native, Trevor Power's came out of nowhere in 2011 with it's very well-received debut album ,"The Year Of Hibernation." The album found a place on pretty much every indie-rock blog's "best of" list for 2011, garnering an impressive fan-base worldwide. The sold-out crowd made it clear that YL has plenty of support from it's hometown and that it's success should be a huge positive for the up and coming Boise music scene; not only by gaining more attention from outside places, but also by drawing these types of crowds at local shows, allowing artists like Mozam and Lerk to share their music with more listeners. In fact, the show was so packed, we were pretty much stationary for the entire time, which explains the same vantage point for all of the photos (can you guess where we were standing?) That's not to say that there wasn't plenty of head bobbing, foot tapping, dancing, and even a mini-congo line that included Powers himself.

A pleasant surprise of the night was the opening set by local producer LERK, a.k.a former Youth Lagoon guitarist Erik Eastman. His beats were sick and we are excited to see even more musical diversity coming to the Boise scene. Some highlights of the set were a beat with a YL sample along with another, subtly borrowed piece from Miley Cyrus' Party in the USA.

LERK making a filthy beat @ The Reef

Next came Mozam (apparently he's dropped the "Beaks" and added an accomplice) who pretty much blew the flames out on the tiki torches at the venue. Mozam's primarily instrumental music sounds great at home, but is even better live, where one is able to get a taste for the creative manner in which Trevor Kamplain produces his exotic and original sound.

Mozam @ The Reef (Trevor Kamplain on the right)

Mozam @ The Reef

Mozam, what was in that glowing box? Marcellus Wallace's soul?

Finally came the main event, reminding us that some music does have words. The production on the vocals of YL's debut album, The Year Of Hibernation has an intentional lo-fi quality that might make many wonder what Power's might sound like live. The answer is that the dude sounds even better live, which definitely not the case with a lot of artists. Most impressive is how polished YL's live set is after such a short time on the road. The band seems on point and ready for it's upcoming European tour, that includes dates in Australia and Japan. In spite of all of his recent success, Power's carried himself like a typical Idahoan... humble, laid-back, and happy to be home. Dressed in a vintage, white and pink Idaho shirt from who knows where, Powers led us through most, if not all of Hibernation, ending the set with with his song "July," a track that was a catalyst for YL's jump into national recognition. Thankfully YL promptly came back up for an encore performance of "Daydream," one of Hibernation's more upbeat tunes, proving that people were still very much into the show, even though many likely had to get up in only a few hours. All in all it was a damn good time had by all and we are looking forward to covering more events in The City of Trees.