The Septuagenarians are back at it again!! On behalf of The Evening Class, Michael Hawley and I leaned into five full days of music, dance and art (Wednesday, March 25-Sunday, March 29), sampling from 500+ bands performing at 40+ venues throughout downtown Boise, and reminding ourselves that rock and roll will keep us young or—perhaps more realistically—keep us thinking we’re young. Treefort Music Fest is a fountain of youth in form and function and fantasy.
Michael and I lean into Treefort at different angles. For weeks before the festival he takes advantage of Treefort’s Spotify list and—I kid you not!—listens to every single band to familiarize himself with every single band. I wait until a few days before the festival begins and determine my schedule by how I want to move around the festival village and who’s available to listen to wherever I happen to be at any given time. Moving around the village has become a concern due to a bad back that makes walking long distances difficult and so I’m grateful to Treeline, the festival’s bus service provided by Valley Ride, that allows me to bounce between far-apart venues, if I’m so inclined. That’s really Michael’s thing. He crisscrosses the festival village, diving into the Neurolux, hanging at the Shrine, rushing back to the Main Stage in an enthused effort to see as many acts as possible. My focus, no less impassioned, is more centralized and tempered by the experience of having attended Treefort since its inception. I’ve watched it morph from a waddling toddler to full-blown adolescence. I’m also morphing. Edging towards decrepitude, I call it, though I’m not quite there yet. Still, I’m not as prone to bounce from venue to venue like Michael.
He jumped feet-first into Day One by catching eight sets (okay, some were just 2 or 3-song partials). We both started out, however, with The Other Room There, before he took off to see Dela Freed at the Boise Brewing stage, The Old One Two at the Neurolux, Death Lens at the Shrine Ballroom, back to Boise Brewing for The Thing, then joined me at the Music Hall for the tail end of Son Little’s set leading into Tune-Yards. We had agreed beforehand that we had to catch one of our Bay Area favorites—Tune-Yards—at the Treefort Music Hall, which I knew was going to be a packed event, and I wanted to have an advantaged perspective from the slightly elevated tables to the sides of the stage so I arrived early to claim one and stayed with it the whole evening so that—by the time Michael joined me—I could share our unobstructed view of the stage. I settled into my table and didn’t budge. You could call that unfair and selfish. I call it smart, even clever. The only disadvantage was that I couldn’t leave it for fear of losing it and so didn’t record any of the acts: The Other Room There, Floating Witch’s Head, Kassa Overall, Son Little and Tune-Yards; but, that was okay. I just wanted to enjoy the music.
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| Photo: © Jordyn Puckett |
Settling into my chair before Floating Witch’s Head took the stage, the physical sense that I would not be moving all evening seemed underscored by how my age from hereon in would negotiate Treefort. I want to make a point here that Treefort allows for such accommodations. I may not be able to experience Treefort as I have in years past, but it’s clear to me that I can enjoy Treefort for many more years in different ways. Looking out at the youthful crowd milling around while waiting for the next act, I was touched by the heedless entitlement of their youth. Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. I’m not sure that’s true. But it does give an elder pause observing young people throwing away minutes, idle hours, like party confetti. I bless them and the joy Treefort will give the young for generations to come, let alone senior statesmen like me.
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| Photo: Unknown |
Cribbing from Treefort’s website: “Floating Witch's Head is a project based in Boise, Idaho concocted by Travis Ward (guitars & vocals) with Michael Mitchell (drums), Eric Gilbert (keyboards). RIYL [“recommended if you like”]: garage, psych, swamp, proto-punk, acid rock, beards, hot peppers, pickles, parties, nice people.” I mean, is there anybody who doesn’t?
Boise's own garage-psych power trio offers overdriven guitars, organs, Moog bass lines and driving rhythms that are easy to love. At the heart of Floating Witch's Head is the songwriting of Travis Ward—also the frontman of the nearly 20-years active Hillfolk Noir. While Hillfolk Noir is very much a folk oriented affair, Floating Witch’s Head is a sweaty, gritty, tube-driven, garage-y milieu. Joined by Eric Gilbert (previously Finn Riggins) on organs/synths and Michael Mitchell on drums (who I’ve also been enjoying in LED’s house band), this is a band dedicated to the artistry of music and all the little things in a song that make it great. Ward’s open guitar tunings and overdriven amps lend themselves to a very heavy, psychedelic blues-oriented guitar. Gilbert on keys provides organ leads and soundscapes while providing perfectly punchy round basslines through his Moog synth. Then there’s Mitchell on the drums whose taste on the kit balances driving rhythms with laid back beats in all the right moments.
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| Photo: © Josh Farria / The Seattle Times. |
Participating in a New York Times survey conducted by Giovanni Russonello, fellow drummer and Grammy Award-winner Terri Lyne Carrington described Overall as a “pre-eminent style bender and blender, successfully juxtaposing genres through his production expertise and use of melodic and harmonic forms that deftly integrate the new with the old.”
That bending and blending is evident on his latest album CREAM (2025), where the acronymic title track “C.R.E.A.M. (Cash Rules Everything Around Me)” artfully reworks Wu Tang-Clan’s original; “Back That Azz Up” covers Juvenile; and “Nuthin But A ‘G’ Thing” leans right into Dr. Dre.
While I was enjoying Floating Witch’s Head and Kassa Overall and holding onto our primo seats at the Treefort Music Hall, Michael was out and about exploring the festival village and edging up against mosh pits. He had regrettably missed seeing Boise's own Dela Freed at last year's Treefort Music Fest and—having fallen in love with their 2022 single, "Billboard Jesus" (with its anthemic chorus, "I don't need your Billboard Jesus, to save me from your diseases")—he rectified last year’s omission by catching Freed perform a stripped-down version of “Billboard Jesus” on the Boise Brewing stage.
The last time Michael got close to a mosh pit was 30 years ago during a Rage Against the Machine set at Free Tibet in Golden Gate Park. I experienced that mosh pit with him. We were having a perfectly nice picnic with friends when Rage Against the Machine took to the stage, the crowd exploded into fury, and me, Michael, our friends, our picnic supplies, abruptly shifted 30 feet away from our original position. It was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Thus, I am grateful and respectful that Michael dared edging up against a mosh pit while watching L.A. post-hardcore punkers Death Lens perform their new single "Debt Collector" at the Shrine Ballroom.
Brooklyn-based The Thing takes a back-to-basics approach to rock and roll. Raised on Zeppelin, psych rock, and jazz, each member adds a distinct edge. The result is loud, unfiltered, and entirely their own. Michael caught a Boise Brewing stage performance of "Dave's TV" from The Thing’s 2025 self-titled third LP.
Michael then joined me back at the Treefort Music Hall to enjoy Tune-Yards. My prediction was right. The place was packed and I was glad we could watch the concert from our comfortable position. I have so many filmic memories of San Francisco, including a performance by Tune-Yards at the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival (2012) where they accompanied projections of Buster Keaton’s shorts. That was a thoroughly entertaining event. As was their Treefort performance, which Michael described as “insanely great.” The highlight was "How Big is the Rainbow" from their 2025 album "Better Dreaming." Tune-Yards mastermind Merrill Garbus (accompanied by Nate Brenner on bass and keyboards) led the audience in the song's ethereal chorus. She also struck a few seriously comic Maori warrior poses.
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#Treefort2026
