Treefort Report: The Northwest’s best kept secret

The five-hour drive on winding, mountainous Idaho road makes arriving in Boise feel simultaneously like surviving the Oregon Trail and seeing a mirage. The same can be said of the Treefort, a five-day, South-by-Southwest style music festival, held in the culturally-rich Boise downtown.

For those looking to experience the vastness of the Northwest music scene while avoiding the fabricated Coachella-esque trendiness of large-scale festivals, Treefort is the oasis in the middle of a corporate-fueled music festival drought.

After arriving in Boise just past 11 p.m., I dropped by the El Korah Shrine venue to pick up my press pass where the befuddling sounds of Syrian electronic artist Omar Souleyman blared from within. The Treefort volunteer I picked up my credentials from could barely stop dancing long enough to hand me my package.

Her infectious enthusiasm set the tone for the whole Treefort experience. Even in the last 20 minutes of Souleyman’s set, which featured an exuberant light show in a packed room, the crowd danced as hard to the Middle Eastern beats as the volunteer just outside the door.

The worthwhile late, late night Thursday show came courtesy of Australian soft-pop-rock band Twerps, whose casual socks and sandals sound and appearance (they were literally wearing socks and sandals) brought on a breezy, “cool dad” feel to their entire set. Afterward, as the band members unhurriedly tore down their gear, they happily took the time to stop and talk to fans and onlookers. It was one of those incredibly human moments in the midst of the festival bustle.

The dropping of the veil that generally separates the performers from the crowd became a common theme throughout the festival. The more shows I saw, the more venues and spaces I saw converted into organic performances, the more I saw genuine community between festival workers, festival goers and bands.

The 2015 Treefort lineup saw many returning bands, and it became clear that it was because the Treefort environment allowed them to honestly enjoy themselves.

Indie trailblazers Built to Spill were the closest thing to stardom at Treefort Friday night on the festival’s outdoor main stage. The band formed in Boise in the early ‘90s, and went on to become one of the defining bands of the Northwest indie rock sound. The band’s set was easily the best attended of the festival.

Among the weekend’s notable performances, critically acclaimed pop-punkers Joyce Manor were a standout act Friday night at the Boise Knitting Factory. In the sea of dreamy, electro-pop or folk-rock centric sound of Northwest indie bands, their distinct California-loud-rock flavor was a welcome change of pace and execution.

The Treefort lineup is consciously comprised of more guitar-centered bands, but the electronic music trend bled into the lineup this year, courtesy of back-to-back acts Budo and Beat Connection. While Budo brought soulful live trumpet and other live instrumentation over rhythm and blues-inspired tracks, Beat Connection doled out jungle-inspired beats (imagine Pharrell covering “I Can’t Wait To Be King” from “The Lion King”).

Multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells, a returning Treefort favorite, was undoubtedly a highlight of the festival. Wells gave an intensely meticulous and emotional performance on the main stage Sunday evening, unveiling new mixes and arrangements of much of her previously released material. Wells was also featured as a keynote speaker at the festival’s tech-counterpart, Hackfort. Her talk, highlighting the intersection of technology and music, was peppered with live demonstrations of her personal brand of live looping vocal, violin and synth tracks

“The crazy thing about this moment … is that everything that you’re seeing has only been in my imagination, basically, until this point,” Wells said to her adoring crowd. “I feel like I opened the door of my studio and there you all are, which is a beautiful sight.”

Treefort virtually extends to the entirety of downtown Boise. Non-festival-goers and attendees rub shoulders at free events put on by local restaurants and coffee shops and in line at the parade of food trucks. Live music mingles in the streets from the open doors of Treefort-affiliated venues and spontaneous sets elsewhere.

Where some industrial festivals get a bad rep for being disruptive to their community, Treefort breathes life into its surroundings, celebrating community as much as it supports it. The best moments of Treefort aren’t found in the planned moments of the festival, but the in-betweens, where the art and music achieve exactly what other festivals tend to alienate — togetherness.