ALBANY — This year’s LarkFest marks its 35th year and has traditionally held the title of New York State’s largest one-day street festival.
The free festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24, closing Lark Street for various vendors and live entertainment. The list of bands scheduled to play throughout the day is as follows:
The Relationship (Brian Bell of Weezer) — The Relationship is a rock and roll band from Los Angeles, Calif. and founded in 2007 by Weezer guitarist Brian Bell. In 2010, Bell released the first Relationship album and has since performed and recorded with a revolving cast of players and collaborators. Expect prominent guitars, strong melodies, vivid imagery, and propulsive rhythms. “Weezer guitarist Brian Bell steps out with his other band for an extra-hummable bite of power-pop crunch. Like a candy bar in audio form.” — Rolling Stone
Ought — Based in Montreal, Ought are a thrilling and adventurous quartet, delivering an earnest and exuberant post-punk: dexterous and exacting while bursting with propulsive and fluid energy, as indebted to Cap’n Jazz as to Talking Heads. Ought’s April 2014 debut “More Than Any Other Day” brought the Montreal quartet sudden and universal critical acclaim, including high praise from Drowned in Sound, Exclaim, Rolling Stone, NME, and a Best New Music nod from Pitchfork.
Lower Dens — Lower Dens are a shoegaze band from Baltimore, Maryland formed in 2010. Formed by Jana Hunter, the band has released three full length records filled with cinematic and tonally rich work. Their most recent work “Escape From Evil” has received widespread critical acclaim including the Best New Music stamp from music website Pitchfork. This act was chosen by University at Albany radio station WCDB 90.9 FM.
Delicate Steve — Delicate Steve is the brainchild of New Jersey-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steve Marion. “SPIN” magazine once called the music “a kaleidoscope of bouncy pan-African polyrhythms and swooping six-string melodies, like the Dirty Projectors with guitars instead of singers.” A true child of his labelmeister, David Byrne, “Delicate” Steve Marion translates the felicities of West African guitar pop into an inventive instrumental hodgepodge. Nothing overly heavy or insipid to ponder here, unless you’ve got a problem with unalloyed joy.”— Village Voice
Televisionaries — Rochester’s Televisionaries offer lightning paced rock ‘n roll, yet firmly embedded in surf rock splendor. Too rock ‘n roll for the punks and too rough around the edges for the rock ‘n rollers. “The band swings wild and reckless. It’s as if the wheels could come off at any minute. There are a few sung numbers and helpful liner notes to walk you through what’s going on in the trio’s head. It’s an all-thriller, no-filler, killer-diller fo’ sho’… The Televisionaries are in their Ventures phase, but I can’t wait until they get wise to Link Wray.” – Rochester City Newspaper