Back in July, Phillips Backyard Tilt! kicked off with a bang.
DJ Pee .Wee, a.k.a superstar Anderson Paak – the biggest name in the festival – hailed the event as one of the “top-five Pee .Wee shows of all time” in an Instagram post.
Aside from Paak, the lineup was huge, with other big names like Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Lord Huron, Bahamas, and Sudan Archives. The organization of the festival was equally impressive, with attendees commenting on some of the quickest drink and food lines they’ve ever seen at a festival (it took about two minutes to get through the beer line).
The second part of Phillips Backyard, Reverb, returns Aug. 11-13 with another stacked lineup, including headliners Jesse Roper, local blues musician (Aug. 11), Vancouver indie band Peach Pit (Aug. 12) and American indie folk band Fleet Foxes (Aug. 13).
Vancouver’s Peach Pit will be a huge draw for the festival. Self-described as “chewed bubble gum pop,” the band went viral in 2017 after a fan in the Phillippines, who had a popular online video channel, shared their song “Peach Pit.”
Now with three albums under their belt and some impressive live show experience, such as opening for Two Door Cinema Club and performing at CBC Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Shaky Knees Festival and Capitol Hill Block Party, they are ready to bring party energy to the Phillips stage. Though some might not expect it from an indie band, they are known to put on an incredibly fun live show.
“We’ve got lots of sort of chill tunes that people like and when they’re coming to our show they’re expecting it to be a little more subdued, but we like to just have a full-on rock show,” said singer and rhythm guitarist Neil Smith. “[We] don’t try to take ourselves too seriously, try to be funny and goofy and have fun while we’re playing.”
“I think the key is just the headbang, all you have to do is have long hair and headbang. That’s why I can never cut my hair.”
READ MORE: Interview with Peach Pit
Perhaps a great example of the quirkiness that is Peach Pit is the fact that they wore the same outfits for every live performance during the Being So Normal album phase. And apparently, they are absolutely over that time in their lives.
“We didn’t have duplicates, so we had the exact same outfit every show for like four years. And it was brutal on tour because you’d play a show and obviously it’s hot on stage with all the lights and we’re ripping around … I feel like we thought this outfit is good, we’ll wear this, and then things started going well for us and we thought we had to wear these otherwise the luck would turn or something like that.”
Eventually, they realized that fans weren’t picking up on their schtick, so they decided to stop making themselves suffer.
Smith said they’ll still “try to look handsome” and that they plan to probably play their top 22 songs on Spotify. But he’s most excited to play a song on their newest album called Give Up Baby Go which has a country bounce to it.
“I get to put on my country cowboy duck walk on stage which I think is fun.”
The album From 2 to 3 was produced by renowned Robbie Lackritz (who produces Bahamas), and is influenced by 1970s rock ‘n roll.
Smith said the band is excited for the Phillips lineup they are playing with, which includes Allen Stone, Ruby Waters, Bankes Brothers, and Babe Corner on Aug. 12. Babe Corner is actually fronted by Peach Pit’s guitarist Chris’ wife, Lindsay. Smith said he is also looking forward to seeing Fleet Foxes play.
Peach Pit consists of singer and rhythm guitarist Neil Smith, lead guitarist Christopher Vanderkooy, bassist Peter Wilton, drummer Mikey Pascuzzi, and Victoria musician Dougal Bain.
To get tickets to Reverb, head to phillipsbackyard.com.
