Recap FRZN Fest at High Noon Saloon

January. It’s the month when the dedicated have emptied the self-help section at the bookstore and pack the gym in hopes of bettering themselves in 2012. Those who resolved to expand their musical repertoire had a little help from True Endeavor’s inaugural FRZN Fest. The two-night music festival brought 10 talented bands to the shores of lakes Mendota and Monona to play Friday and Saturday at the High Noon Saloon.

Madison trio Squarewave led off Friday night combining elements of chillwave with more traditional jam instrumentation, setting the stage for one of the most anticipated acts of the festival: Poliça.

After debuting its music online in 2011, Poliça became arguably one of the most-catching buzz bands from the Twin Cities in recent years, opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and boasting collaborations with Mike Noyce of Bon Iver (“Lay Your Cards Out” and “Wandering Star.”) Whether FRZN attendees were anxiously awaiting the group’s first album proper to drop (Give You The Ghost due Feb. 14) or trying to pronounce the band’s name (po-lisa), they converged on the stage at the first ethereal echoes of Channy Leaneagh’s voice. Drew Christopherson and Ben Ivascu lent a march-like quality to the percussion line of “Wandering Star” that can only come from the intensity of two drummers. Leaneagh captivated the audience with her fluid and theatrical stage presence, narrating the songs with her movement.

As one audience member remarked, “Oh my God, this whole thing is blowing my mind.” That about captured it.

Class Actress followed and cast a power-pop trance over the crowd. In “Weekend” and “Keep You,” synth hits ricocheted through the air like light in a ’90s arcade game. Lead vocalist Elizabeth Harper emphasized the club appeal of the band’s music, sinking to the ground as if worshiping the beat and asking the audience if it was “ready for the big drop”—leaping fans signaled a resounding yes.

Dom’s surfer/slacker rock and tight instrumental lines marked a departure from the ambient song structures used by many of the other bands playing FRZN. “Living In America,” off its 2010 EP, Sun Bronzed Greek Gods, closed its set with a celebration of fuzzed-out Americana.

Chairlift rounded out the night with a flurry of castanets and carnivalesque synth lines drawing from material off its sophomore album, Something, due out Jan. 24.

The frozen temps that provided the festival’s namesake may have tempted many fans to forgo the second night of talent for tea and a wool blanket. Milwaukee five-piece Juniper Tar played to an intimate room but found the perfect balance between song and soulful bellow. For those who missed the rustic powerhouse, file them near Palomino-era Trampled By Turtles.

One-man band Carter Tanton followed. From drum machine beats to swirling effects, Tanton mobilized looping samples as if Radiohead took the psychedelic plunge and began dancing with the boys of MGMT in a lucid dream.

Caveman continued the heavy percussion and sampling trend of FRZN and energized the crowd for Peter Wolf Crier’s set.

Peter Wolf Crier delivered one of the best performances of the festival, complete with cymbals that crashed like waves during “Beach” and clear folk vocals that radiated through the tambourine and bursting percussion of “Settling It Off.” The Minneapolis trio even threw in an impromptu INXS tune, “Never Tear Us Apart,” for the ’80s rock fan in all of us.

The truly committed stuck around to experience the complexity and elegance of S. Carey, founded by Sean Carey, known as drummer for Bon Iver. S. Carey expanded what has become the quintessentially “Eau Claire” musical style: shimmering instrumentals, sonorous strings, and harmonies that rose and fell like a breeze across the prairie. The marimba, upright bass, and violin differentiated S. Carey from the many more electronically driven acts at FRZN. For the few that remained until the final notes, the reverb and raw power were well worth the chill.