*all photography by the excellent Cliff Rhodes
On August 10th, 2024, the 5th Extra Chill Fest took place, highlighting an array of genres from rock, to hip hop, to funk, to folk. It’s refreshing to see a festival uplifting local talents across all sorts of music in Charleston. It rekindles a certain hope for southern sound thanks to the hardworking efforts of Chris Huber, Thaddeus Addams, Chris Gardner, and many more, as well as the supportive community that showed up in force.
Charleson’s community has grown and in turn, the community that shows out for these performances is tightly knit. Extra Chill Fest highlights actual Charleston music unlike Highwater’s skeletally dry local pool. Lined up for the day were acts of all different sounds, but all of them aligned in a pursuit of the best sound in town.
It’s a tough thing to rank, but I think it goes without saying that UnHeard Entertainment stole the show- but so too did Hound’s grand opening of the festival- and Hellacious Sauce’s epic closeout for the deck stage- or DollaMenu’s late night fantasia- plus, excellent performances from the likes of Slow Funeral and Moonkat Daddi.
Let’s break into the day from the beginning, shall we?
Hound
Hound opened the day with a “you had to be there” performance. Beloved rock bros Blake, Jackson, Conner, and Alex took to the stage, delivering a monster truck rock show that felt like it’d tear the place down. Blaring sirens of guitar, dooming bass lines, and sky-shattering screams laid waste to the deck as Conner’s chords cut out horrifying riffs (a la Stu McKenzie).
Both singers brought out something special from the band. Blake’s fiery vocals made for an unforgettable live performance and Conner’s cool Julian Casablancas-esq presence on the mic was always closely followed by the band with the swagger of The Strokes
“We’re out here in the cold”- Blake screams, striking at a similar vein to Worlds Worst (one of my favorite bands in the game right now). They blast off into supersonic rock riffs before receding into slowcore melodies. It’s a perfect lineage that goes all the way back to Pixies’ teaching of quiet-loud-quiet. Alex crocodile rolls the song with a crazy drum fill and it’s a swirl of post-rock mayhem. It’s evident that the band had been heavy on Steve Albini’s work as of late- it harkened back to Pixies & Nirvana time and time again- a fitting bloodline considering their voyage to Albini’s studio days before his passing earlier this year.
“Blake is my favorite guitarist in Charleston, because he’s not afraid to play it wrong- he does the Pixies shit where he throws away what it means to be a guitarist” -Drew Prentice
As they roll around on the fretboard with cowboy rock, Blake shouts, “Come on cowboy giddyup!”
Meredith Foster
Meredith Foster brought a change of pace with her heartfelt folk set. Earlier this year, I caught her at a SoFar Sounds event, and her performance at Extra Chill Fest was just as captivating. As her folksy vocals filled the air, she sang, “Oh Carolina / So I when I get back home gonna start a fire / Don’t you know I miss you / So when I get back home we’re gonna start again.”
Foster introduced each track with a tale, once about receiving her ex’s wedding invitation in the mail. Bayou after bayou conjured amidst the revolving folk tales as the deck sank into acoustic guitars. Honky-tonk dreams and pocket change filled her lyrics as she oscillated between wisdom and learned foolishness. Her acoustic guitar arpeggios served as the perfect backdrop for her storytelling, as she sang tales of heartbreak and resilience, “I’m not Miss Americana, I’m not Ms. Carolina / I guess I’ll never be the one for you.”
Hotel Hugo
Another Carolinian act took the stage and kept the winds roaring in a forest of indie rock, filled with splintering guitars and chugging rhythms on the bass and drums. As they proved their chops, they cut through the sound like woodchippers. Absolutely rockin. Brett Nash even pulled up on the bongos.
UnHeard Ent
A standout performance as always. We’re so lucky to have such talented hip hop artists here in Charleston. Every time Mos Stef touches a mic, it turns to gold. Iceberg’s duo was cold. Holy City Records’ blasted through the Pour House and the whole crowd echoed on some “Elegant Shit.”
City Paper not including Hip Hop is bullshit.
Slow Funeral
Slow Funeral churned its gears and revved up in grungy twangy slowcore as the scene fell to pieces slowly descending into growling distortion. In a flash, Mary goes in for the kill and the band strikes out with screaming guitars. “It’s nothing” rang out in eternum while rhythms wove webs and captivated the audience.
They debuted a song they wrote the night before. It began with singing, then the band came in. The riffs were steady as were the drums but the vocals cut caverns for rivers of melodies. Drawing in lines of rock with Amyl & The Sniffers, Radiohead, and Polkadot, driving bass lines took us speeding around the block while guitars shrieked in indie rock squeals
Hellacious Sauce
A mafia of musicians walked onto stage… Amita Fukui on the synths, Drew Prentice and Josh Gecowets doubling on guitars, Shelton “beatman” Desaussure on the drums, and McCarthy Fitch on the Bass and Keys. MC’s Gavin Hamilton and Thaddeus Adams (aka Indi Gxld [The mastermind behind this operation]) in tandem commanded the crowd with excellence.
Loser Chris even hopped on to stage to join the fun with Extra Chill bars.
As the crowd moved inside, the show raged on.
Dear Blanca rocked the stage, with hometown hero Brett Nash taking command from behind the drum kit. DJ DollaMenu hopped on the mic during JTrawwww’s set, spitting bars that blew out the speakers with some serious heat- cracking out punchlines at every turn. Maxwell’s Silver Jammer tore up the strings across their set. Grandaddi Caddi was wild, with MoonKat Daddi howling over synthesized beats as a triumphant home run- outta the park. The creativity displayed by all the artists tonight – incredible.
This is exactly what Charleston needs more of. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always pay off and a lot of shows of this caliber end up losing cash on the good work they do. Growing a grassroots community takes time and can lead to a flourishing future for the community all around. Stay #ExtraChill.
