Who came up with the pitch: "What if we did South by Southwest... but cold!"
Fire that man.
Actually, a little fire would've done wonders last week in Boise, where the annual Treefort Music Fest was trying to heat things up in the face of very wintry weather. There's simply no getting around how much of a damper sub-45-degree weather puts on the festivities when your event requires a bunch of outdoor stages and walking between venues. Regulars kept telling me how last year Treefort temperatures were mostly in the 70s, but it still fundamentally seems like a bad idea to host a festival when frigid temps feel like a 50/50 proposition. (Just bump it to April, jeez!)
That said, I'd never attended Treefort before, so I tried to make the most of the experience.
For the uninitiated, Treefort sort of operates like SXSW in Austin. Over five days, a bunch of musical acts play the various downtown venues and a big main stage, for over 40 stages total. While a bulk of the lower-tier bands are Boise or Idaho acts, it also draws in headliners — this year included Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ani DiFranco, Margo Price, Surf Curse and local legend Built to Spill, plus tons of up-and-coming touring artists. There's also a variety of entertainment like comedy, podcasts (full disclosure/plug: I did my podcast Everyone is Wrong as part of the fest), beer, food and yoga. While this year's slate wasn't the strongest in Treefort's history, it still seemed worth the trek south to check it out.
INLAND NORTHWEST SOUND
For artistic folks in our parts, Treefort is great because you can usually find a handful of acts from the greater Spokane area on the bill. This year was no exception.
▸ ITCHY KITTY has become a Treefort staple with its delightful hissing punk. In part thanks to the band's friendship with Built to Spill (which is taking Itchy Kitty on tour again starting in late April), the group is an annual fixture. While singers Ami and Naomi's typical fishnet-heavy attire might not have been ideal for playing the frigid outdoor stage at a bus station parking lot, the group's always kinetic and shrieking energy helped heat up the crowd. Spokane's best band ripped through plenty of favorites and a few new tunes from its upcoming album during a wicked Saturday night shredfest.
▸ A few days before at the same bus station (though inside one of the open air garages), fellow local punks GOTU GOTU also brought a noise attack to the Idahoans. With their always dependable, wacky, wavy inflatable tube men in tow, the band created a little Thursday evening chaos before the temps turned colder.
▸ On a much more chill end of the spectrum (sonically speaking), Spokane's PRIESTESS brought incredibly positive dance vibes to a couple indoor sets. The pink-and purple-coiffed master of the decks played the gaming hotspot Spacebar Arcade late Friday and then turned around Saturday for a set at Boise Center as part of Hackfort (Treefort's tech component). After days of festing, the vibes she brought for that Saturday set were a comforting, danceable electronic aloe for the soul.
▸ Not to neglect our compadres across the border, BAILEY ALLEN BAKER was the lone Coeur d'Alene representative on the bill. The deep-voiced folk singer enlisted a band of Boise locals to help him through an agreeably homespun set at Lost Grove Brewing's little outdoor stage.
Spokanites Jango the Goon and Dirt Miller were also at Treefort, but I wasn't able to catch any of their sets. There were 511 total music acts at Treefort, folks. Unlike Pokemon, I simply cannot catch them all!
SONIC HIGHLIGHTS
Of course, I wasn't gonna spend most of my time seeing folks I can see in my own backyard on the regular. Here's a smattering of other standouts from Treefort 2023.
▸ NNAMDÏ was so nice, I saw him twice. The genre-blurring polymath had been on my "need to see" list for a while, and his sets totally delivered with a combination of singer-songwriter creativity, hip-hop flow, brash humor and mental health meditations.
▸ Perhaps the best set of the fest came from rising experimental Brooklyn art punks MODEL/ACTRIZ. The band plays its instruments in all sorts of atypical ways to create an always on-edge musical palette, while singer Cole Haden strutted around the bus lot stage and wandered among the crowd, getting in people's faces and intensely singing with direct eye contact. It was a fierce and menacing energy release.
▸ Tacoma's SKATING POLLY probably rips harder than your favorite band. The group's "ugly pop" sound shined on 2018's The Make It All Show, and the high kicks and new songs (from the upcoming album Chaos County Line) that the family band busted out at the bus station stage indicate they won't stop rocking out anytime soon.
▸ Immediately after the Zags face-planted against UConn in the Elite Eight, I was able to seamlessly transition to seeing PEARL CHARLES. Her mix of graceful songwriting and disco flair were a welcome sight after she had to cancel her Spokane gig in 2022.
▸ A host of acts brought delightfully fun energy to keep people powering through the wintry conditions. The horns-free Philly ska band CATBITE had folks in the Shredder skanking the night away on Wednesday. Fellow Philly oddballs GROCER delivered quirky pop rock that was both investive and silly at Lost Grove Brewing. ILLUMINATI HOTTIES started the main stage mud pit shenanigans on Thursday afternoon with one of their typically bratty pop punk sets. Nerdy hip-hop is almost always a winning proposition, as MEGA RAN proved once again at Spacebar Arcade late Friday with songs about The Mandalorian, Mega Man and more. Itchy Kitty besties PRISM BITCH never skimp on the rocking energy, and their capacity show on Wednesday at the Shredder was one of the wildest times at Treefort. Seattle hardcore pop artist TEZATALKS got the early crowd hyped at Treefort's coolest venue, Rhodes Skate Park. And the winner for too-on-the-nose set of the fest goes to standout Boise post-hardcore band WINTERFOREVER, as the first snow of Treefort began during the group's Thursday midnight performance.
▸ When I badly needed a mental health break and escape from the cold, popping into the splendid Egyptian Theatre and taking in the always-excellent low energy comedy of TIG NOTARO was a relieving treat.
▸ And of course, I don't think I could say I officially attended Treefort without seeing BUILT TO SPILL. The Idaho indie icons fully delivered, closing down the fest with a super late-night rock jam at El Korah Shrine on Sunday.
TAKEAWAYS
So if you're a Northwest music fan, is Treefort worth the trek down to Boise?
I'd put it at a conditional "yes."
There are certainly things that could be improved about the fest. A better shuttle system? More bands playing multiple sets (like SXSW does), so you don't feel like you're having to make as many tough scheduling choices? Definitely, the fest's choice to move the main stage to Julia Davis Park seems like a total misfire (it was formerly in a big parking lot), as the entire field in front of the stage was a full-on mud pit by Thursday afternoon. Definitely change that! And of course, I might suggest not springing for an wristband (they won't sell out) until the week before to make sure the weather isn't gonna be this sour for the 2024 edition.
That said, it's a chance to mainline music in a way that's just rare to find in the Northwest. Just the ability to wander downtown Boise and be able to catch parts of three or four wildly different musical sets in the course of an hour or two is a thrill. Treefort Music Fest is not perfect, but no fest ever is. Don't miss the forest for the Treeforts. ♦
