Last year was a challenging year for Evolution Festival, the two-day, three-stage music festival in Forest Park. In the festival’s second year, organizers hit a streak of tough luck. First, one of the weekend’s headliners, Blondie, dropped out after calling off their tour. (Fellow classic-rock icon Billy Idol was added in Blondie’s place.) Then, just days before Evolution, another headliner, Jane’s Addition, suddenly broke up after singer Perry Farrell assaulted his bandmates during one of the band’s concerts. (Tom Morello stepped in as a last-minute replacement.) Then, heavy rains turned much of Evolution’s site, Forest Park’s Langenberg Field, into a mudpit, and there wasn’t enough mulch or muckboots in town to make the mud much easier to navigate. The rain that came in on that Friday night, the eve of the festival, also forced that evening’s Billy Joel and Sting megaconcert at Busch Stadium to be rescheduled to two nights later, in direct conflict with Evolution’s classic-rock-friendly Sunday night lineup headlined by The Killers. Still, despite the obstacles, the skies cleared, the shows went on, the crowds showed up, and Evolution staged a memorable festival with well-received sets from the headliners, which also included Beck, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Killer Mike, Elle King, Todd Rundgren, and Son Volt.
This year, the weather is looking better, and Evolution has no lineup crises or cancellations. And like last year, the festival will feature evenings filled with well-known artists, this year including rock heavyweights (Lenny Kravitz, Sublime), hip-hop elder statesmen (Public Enemy, The Pharcyde), pop legends (TLC), popular indie-rock singer-songwriters (Father John Misty, Sam Fender), aughties garage-rock revivalists (The Hives, The Kills), soul-and-blues favorites (Corrine Bailey Rae, Marcus King), and Americana stars (Maggie Rose, Pokey LaFarge). But also like last year, some of the biggest musical treats of the weekend will perform before 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and will likely be heretofore unfamiliar to most festivalgoers. In that spirit, here are a dozen reasons to beat the crowds and start your Evolution early on both days.
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In a bit of scheduling irony, L.A.–based garage rockers Sunday Mourners are not playing on Sunday; instead they are kicking off the whole shebang on Saturday. The Mourners, a co-ed quartet, combine Nuggets-style 1960s garage rock and proto-punk guitar punch. At times, the band replicates the art-rock racket of Television or the avant-pop drone of The Velvet Underground, all driven by the mischievous vocals of power-chord-loving lead singer Quinn A. Robinson.
Like Sunday Mourners, New Orleans indie-rockers Silver Synthetic will play the smaller third stage, situated near the beer tent halfway between the two larger stages. There, the four-piece will show off their hazy harmonies and throwback rock ‘n’ roll. Recording for Jack White’s Third Man Records, Silver Synthetic have refined their ‘70s-style T. Rex-ish, riff-driven boogie into a more Gram Parsonian cosmic Americana mixed with a bucolic Grateful Dead–like drift, as heard on their latest album, this year’s Rosalie.
Jimmy Griffin & the Incurables
St. Louisans have been loving local rocker Jimmy Griffin for decades, going back to the guitar slinger’s tenure in ‘80s glam-metal studs King of the Hill; roots-rock band Nadine (who reunited for Evolution last year); and tribute bands El Monstero, Celebration Day, Street Fighting Band, and Hard Promises. But his 2010s band the Incurables was Griffin at his most personal, a vehicle for not just his guitar heroics but also his own compositions and personality-packed tenor singing voice. Griffin has recently revived the Incurables and will lead a crack band on a pile of brand-new hook-heavy heartland rock tunes early on Saturday.
The Austin-based four-piece Gus Baldwin & the Sketch will kick things off on the main stage with their high-energy garage-punk blitz, specializing in cranked amps, fuzzy chords, and Gibson SG overdrive. In true back-to-basics DIY spirit, the band recorded this year’s The Sketch LP live to tape in one day. But as raw and punky as Baldwin and the boys are, they also incorporate golden-age and ‘60s rock melodies to the mix—think The Ramones covering Buddy Holly songs. Only louder.
Get this: The Velveteers are a rock trio with two drummers. Great names too—frontwoman Demi Demitro is a primal force on guitar and vocals while drumming dudes Baby Pottersmith and Jonny Fig bang and bash behind her. The Boulder, Colorado, band is as catchy as they are noisy, and they’re plenty of both. They caught the ear of Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, who produced both The Velveteers’ 2021 debut and this year’s alt-hard-rock gem A Million Knives. The ‘Teers will dial up the distortion on Saturday as part of the third stage’s day-long five-band garage-rock barrage.
If electric blues is more your speed, McKinley James has you covered. The Nashville-based James, with his father on drums, blends classic Texas blues with Motown melodies and roadhouse rhythms played with yesteryear’s gear and vintage guitar tones. James is a terrific singer, with a clear expressive tenor, and his debut album, Working Class Blues, showcases the 22-year-old’s R&B bonafides with winning songwriting that breathes fresh life into classic forms. This will be one of Saturday afternoon’s best sets to hoist a beer to.
One of five acts on the lineup this year with St. Louis roots, Still Animals will get the beer-tent stage going on Sunday with their straight-on, stripped-down, lo-fi indie rock ‘n’ roll. These guys are so old school that they released their 2021 album, Mind Water, on cassette only, pointing out that they recorded it in a “130-year-old limestone Mound City basement,” which tells you plenty about their sound. Plus, like The Who and Guided by Voices, two of their aesthetic antecedents, Still Animals are the rare indie-rock band these days whose lead singer wields only a handheld mic as his instrument.
Gird your loins: Glam-punk provocateur Dagger Polyester will be on the third stage on Sunday. That means it will be a feast for the senses, but not one you would likely feed to your grandmother. Combining Rocky Horror, Ziggy Stardust, Kenneth Anger, Patti Smith, and the Gimp, the L.A.–based Dagger Polyester revives ‘70s glam-rock androgyny with theatrical and often satirical costuming, makeup, and performance flair. The music and the messaging are no joke, however: Their debut album, this year’s Perversion for Profit, produced by Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, is a new-wave synth-punk blast. Sure to be one of the weekend’s most talked-about sets.
You might remember St. Louis native Lawrence Rothman back when they went by Lillian Berlin and fronted the garage-rock-revival brothers band Living Things. Rothman, who identifies as nonbinary and now records and performs under their real name, is impossible to pin down musically, swinging from synth-rock to Americana to gothy new wave to ambient-pop to spoken word to country. Rothman’s latest, last year’s The Plow That Broke the Plains, is the most recent testament to Rothman’s wide musical range, the richness of their distinctive baritone, and the beauty of their compositions. The Lawrence Rothman vs. Dagger Polyester conflict is one of the toughest scheduling choices of the weekend, so stage-hoppers will have to hotfoot it to see some of both sets.
GoldFord was born Jeffery Goldford and grew up here in St. Louis, but he now makes his home in L.A. (We know your question—the answer is Ladue Horton Watkins High School.) He’s been releasing mellifluous singer-songwriter records for more than a decade, but “Orange Blossoms” was a 2023 breakout hit, a track that exemplifies GoldFord’s organic, acoustic-guitar-based approach to contemporary soul music. The music—polished soul-pop with gospel undertones—is easy on the ears, often backed by lush live arrangements and highlighted by GoldFord’s unique voice, a light-rasp mix of headvoice and falsetto with a butterfly vibrato. It’s some of the prettiest music you’ll hear this weekend.
A family band out of San Antonio, Hacienda are the three Villanueva brothers—Abraham (keyboards), Rene (bass), and Jaime (drums)—along with their cousin Dante Schwebel on guitar. Another band discovered by the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who produced the first three Hacienda albums, the band blends garage rock, Tex-Mex, and ‘60s-and-‘70s-indebted retro pop. Their latest album, last year’s Oaxaca Sun, is the most mature document yet of the band’s knack for intricate harmonies, warm and layered arrangements, and memorable melodies. Another compelling reason to visit the beer tent on Sunday.
You don’t get a lot of rock bands these days built around an acoustic piano, but Low Cut Connie, led by frontman Adam Weiner, are setting the standard for fun, sweaty rock ‘n’ roll driven by rollicking boogie-woogie piano playing at center stage. During Low Cut Connie’s exuberant live shows, Weiner will climb on top of his piano like a modern Jerry Lee Lewis, play heartbreaking Elton John–style ballads, and spool out driving Springsteenian character-based narratives. (It’s no wonder that both Elton and Bruce are Low Cut Connie fans.) LCC albums are packed with killer songs, but their party-time, audience-involved live sets have made the band a cult favorite. Look for Weiner to make the most of a high-octane half-hour on the Evolution stage on Sunday.
