BMP bomp

Sage Francis and his band took the stage in "Fuck Clearchannel" t-shirts (yes, it was a CC venue), then horrified the beer sponsors by thanking Budweiser for turning his dad into a child-molesting drunk. Dresden Dolls were headlining, but Amanda Palmer wasn't taking any chances about being the absolute center of attention: yes, that was Amanda streaking in FULL NUDITY across the Avalon stage during Kaiser Chiefs set, leaving FNX music director Paul Driscoll holding her bathrobe, jumping on singer Ricky Wilson, and then rushing into a waiting robe held by her tour manager. (Before the set, Amanda bragged that she was going to pull this stunt in an on-air interview with Driscoll.) Wilson, not missing a beat: "That's the only time I've ever played that song with a boner!"

Speculation that Amanda, who does the shaved-off/painted-on eyebrow thing, might have replicated that practice elsewhere on her anatomy, were, shall we say, completely and utterly unfounded. FNX's Chris Rucker reports it was a little unruly. We suggest Palmer get at her homegirl Cynthia Von Buhler for some grooming/marketing tips. (Cynthia, you may recall, once sold her pubic hair out of a vending machine. Little quarter-bags of her short-and-curlies sometimes showed up along with her press releases. Eeeeuch.)

Among those who kept their clothes on: we hate to disagree respectfully with our esteemed colleagues, but the Raveonettes put the J&M Chain game on smash: you wanna know why Phil Spector's hair does the way it did? That's what the first twenty feet of shimmying boys 'n' girls looked like midway through Raveon set. We're sorta iffy on the new album, but live? Packed-to-the-gills house, line down the street, and you could hear 'em killing it from a block away.

Louis XIV sounded pretty good, but we really wish they'd headlined a Lansdowne Street club: if you caught their MidEast set a while back, you know what we mean. They rocked "The Grand Apartment" and most of the Atlantic album . . . uh, we think. [This is where we refrain from putting some of our own people on blast -- but for serious, if our passes aren't WAITING AT THE FRONT GATE NEXT YEAR, we're gonna get Yngwie Malmsteen on you asshats.] During catorce's set, we caught glimpse of Interpol (in daylight!) goosestepping through the grounds surrounded by three or four tons of security manpower.

The "official" Phoenix review action is up over here. Photos coming soon.