We are officially in the throes of full-fledged summer festival season, and Forecastle, taking place on Louisville’s Waterfront Park next weekend (July 13-15), is certainly among Central Kentucky’s favorites.
Helping connect artists with new fans is one of the greatest services a festival can offer, and bearing that in mind, we like to highlight a handful of artists each year who might be under-the-radar for many of our readers. Cheers to discovering your next favorite band!
Click here for the full 2018 Forecastle schedule.
DEVON GILFILLIAN
3 p.m. Friday at the Mast Stage
Nashville-based recording artist Devon Gilfillian is one of the artists on this year’s lineup who I wasn’t familiar with before listening to the Spotify playlist the festival created, but his song “Here and Now” jumped out me at first listen. Relatively new on the scene with just one EP under his belt, Gilfillian infuses a healthy dose of soul, funk and retro-inspired R&B into his sound, which to me is more reminiscent of 1970s Memphis than modern-day Nashville. He’ll bring the funk to Forecastle with the first set on the festival’s main stage on Friday.
Recommended If You Like: Charles Bradley, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye
BERHANA
5:15 Friday at the Ocean Stage
The influences I’ve seen up-and-coming L.A.-based artist Berhana cite range from Michael Jackson and 1980s popular culture to Japanese disco-funk and surf rock. But what you’ll mostly hear from him is a new breed of R&B-tinged soul-pop, flanked by sexy, minimalist beats and his own stunning, soulful vocals – songs that should be perfect to listen to underneath a bridge on an early summer evening, with the sun preparing to set on the river all around you. Consider me there.
RIYL: Frank Ocean, Miguel, Prince
HIPPIE SABOTAGE
6:45 Saturday at the Ocean Stage
While I usually dig the EDM lineup curated by Forecastle, this year feels a bit light on the deep booty grooves. Kevin and Josh Saurer are a pair of brothers based out of Sacramento who produce hip hop beats both for others and for their own project, Hippie Sabotage. While I’ve never seen these guys live (and admit their band name veers a bit too heavy on the tongue-in-cheek, even for my taste), all signs point to them being fully capable and willing to make it drop this year, even if their sound is more chill than trap. On a day that will otherwise be filled with fantastic but relatively laid-back indie/Americana-leaning sets (Chris Stapleton, Margo Price, Jenny Lewis, War on Drugs are a few highlights I’m looking forward to catching on the bigger stages that day), I’ll be ready to head under the bridge that evening in search of some way-too-loud bass at the Ocean Stage that evening, so I’m glad these guys will be there to drop it.
RIYL: Odesza, RL Grime, Flume
RON GALLO
1:30 Sunday at the Boom Stage
Sunday is the day I’m looking forward to the most, and Ron Gallo is one hell of way to kick things off. Bearing influences of 1970s punk rock, art rock and pure, unadulterated rock-and-roll, the Philly-based three-piece (led by Gallo himself) is sure to ignite the day and get the sweat rolling nice and early – and get the crowd prepped and riled for young Louisville rockers White Reaper, who kick things off on the main stage an hour after Ron Gallo’s set.
RIYL: Foxygen, Modern Lovers, King Tuff
KHRUANGBIN
4:30 Sunday at the Boom Stage
I can’t imagine a much more perfect backdrop for Sunday afternoon than the worldly, psychedelic music of Texas-based genre-spanning trio Khruangbin: chill enough to nurture your festival-weekend hangover, but upbeat & interesting enough to get you going for your last day on the Waterfront. This group has perhaps my favorite-ever feature on a band website – you enter “starting point” and “ending point” destinations, answer a couple quick questions about the “flight” you want to take, and Khruangbin (or more likely, some fantastic algorithm Khruangbin worked to develop) curates a Spotify playlist for you based on your responses, featuring a blend of their own songs and others they think you might like. (My playlist included Serge Gainsbourg, Cluster, Mulatu Astatke and a whole slew of rad international acts I’ve never heard of.) The group’s wide swath of global influences are evident, from Thai, middle-eastern and Spanish funk and psychedelia to Texas gospel (two of the band members met while both were hired as instrumentalists for the St. John's Methodist Church in Houston).
RIYL: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Budos Band