Fowlerfest 2015. Steve Fowler, you must be one pretty cool dude to not only have a night dedicated to you at Zanzabar, but to have Frederick the Younger, Spirit Animal, and Kaleidico all play for you. We haven’t actually met you yet in person, but when we do, we’re hoping we can absorb some of that coolness. We caught the second half of Louisville’s own Frederick the Younger. Jenni Cochran has a beautiful voice that stands out and makes a lasting impact.
We’ve become acquainted with Jecory Arthur, better known as 1200, and were pleasantly surprised to see him join Frederick the Younger on stage for a song. He has collaborations popping up everywhere recently, in addition to his own gigs. In other words, expect to see him around more and more.
Kaleidico ended the night with a psychedelic electronic indie vibe that helped the audience keep the party going. There were a lot of different sounds and things to look at when they were on stage, which was a good thing at the end of a long day. I don’t think they’ve been doing a whole lot of shows around Louisville recently, so I was glad we could catch them at Zanzabar. I liked some of their new songs and I’m hoping to see more of them soon.
For us, though, the stars of Fowlerfest were the guys from Spirit Animal. This was only the second time we’d heard of Spirit Animal coming to town, and I’m not sure how we missed them when they’ve been here before, but I can guarantee we’ll be at their future shows in Louisville. I’m sure this was mentioned in our last post about them at Haymarket, but they have some of the best stage presence of any band I’ve seen. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the crowd or what the atmosphere is – the guys of Spirit Animal go hard every time (which makes it hard to take good pictures of y’all, by the way). Hell, they drove all the way from Brooklyn to Louisville just to play for Fowlerfest. Some may call that crazy, but we love it.
Talking with lead singer Steve Cooper after the show shed some light on their relationship with the River City. We had no idea that aside from cities they’ve been based in, Louisville has been one of the most frequented cities on their tours. Looking back through their tour posters, Spirit Animal has been to the New Vintage, Haymarket, and Zanzabar, totaling at least 4 times since 2013. And they have plans to come back again this summer. Recently, these smaller venues have been our preferred stomping grounds as well, especially since they allow us to see an up close and personal show, and have conversations with the bands afterward. With the high caliber of bands passing through as of late, we’ll definitely be sticking around for a while.
-Brittany
Live Music Louisville 
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