Last night I went to Cafe Du Nord, mostly to see Kelly Stoltz, a great local singer/songwriter with the whole John Cusack sensitive guy thing going on. His set was pretty enjoyable, but it bothered me that the show, part of Noise Pop 2004, was heavily underwritten by Miller High Life. There was a Miller sign on one wall, with a red spotlight specifically placed over it. There were cases of Miller onstage, and all the musicians were drinking it through their sets. Not only that, but the Noise Pop logo has been engineered to resemble the Miller logo. It's tremendously disappointing that an assiduously indie festival has had to get big corporate backing. I mean, couldn't they cull together a few decent microbrewery sponsorships? I'm sure Sierra Nevada has the money -- and the audience -- to underwrite such a thing. Still corporate, but small, and (relatively) local, and that makes all the difference. The Miller sponsorship just left a bad taste in my mouth -- not to mention the highly cliched and irritating BritPop/Beach Boys/Weezer sounds of headliners The Tyde. Their music was as cynically engineered, commercial, and lifeless as their main sponsor's product.
Posted by Chris at February 29, 2004 01:38 PM