I went to Bled Fest, located at the Hartland Performing Arts Center in Howell, MI on Saturday, May 27.
First act I saw was Heart Attack Man; the Cleveland duo, with a support bassist and a support guitarist, started the day right for me. Check out this interview, with vocalist/guitarist Eric Egan, about how close the duo were to rerecording the entirety of their recently released album: http://modern-vinyl.com/2017/03/03/interview-eric-egan-heart-attack-man/
Eighth act was Koji. The Pennsylvanian man of Filipino-Japanese descent shared a few stories throughout his set regarding his personal life, career and political activities; one of them was his couchsurfing days, ongoing at the time of speaking, because of him being denied of housing after arriving at a Brooklyn apartment complex and him finding all of belongings stolen from the trunk of his car during early 2017. Despite those happenings, he was optimistic of his future being free from consumerism and materialism. The set ended with a cover of Pete Seeger's We Shall Overcome.
Final act was La Dispute. The Grand Rapids, Michigan band performed, from front to back, their sophomore album Wildlife, with an encore consisting of two songs from their most recent album Rooms of the House and two songs from their debut album Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair. If you want to see what passion fans display for a band, especially with the vocalist's lyrics often written as if they are spoken word pieces, this is the band to go see live. They've done, in my eyes, the West Michigan music scene proud. If you would like to learn more about their history, do consider buying or streaming their documentary film Tiny Dots.