The Intonation Music Festival, curated by New York-based independent label Vice Records, provided its Union Park audience Saturday with a somewhat effectively eclectic line-up of bands and artists, with acts ranging from heavy metal to British rap.

Oakland metal power-trio High on Fire got the crowd pumping their fists and putting up the horns with an aggressive Slayer-meets-Motorhead style that lead to an entertaining one man slam dance pit near the right side of the stage, with such song as “Cometh Down Hessian” and “Blessed Black Wings.”

Next, indie-pop band The Stills, supporting their new record “Logic Will Break Your Heart”, provided the audience with a much-needed period of relaxation after the longhaired, devil-worshipping sonic assault of High on Fire.

The Montreal-based Stills played a rather blase set of generic indie-pop, calling to mind almost every 80’s-influenced New York “it band” of the past few years, complete with a “The” name; one can only hear retreads of The Smiths and The Cure so many times.

Following The Stills was Roky Erikson, former singer/guitarist of 60’s psychedelic garage rock cult-band, The 13th Floor Elevators.

Erikson, performing with his backing band and a vicious mullet, entertained fans with a mix of his solo work and old songs from his previous band. However, Erikson seemed more than a bit past his prime as a performer; while his voice and guitar playing remained solid he rarely moved throughout his set.

As Erikson was finishing, many audience members relocated to the stage on the other side of the park in order to get a good place for a rare appearance by Japan’s premier experimental band, The Boredoms.

The band’s current live set-up features energetic front man Yamataka Eye adding heavily effected screaming and samples over a three-person drum circle simultaneously keeping remarkably tight, trance-inducing beats.

Eye began the set by holding two balls of light in his hands, which were programmed to trigger various levels of resonating guitar chords in accordance with how hard he threw his arms about as the drummers punctuated his introduction with heavy drum hits.

The band then launched into an hour-long polyrhythm as Eye relocated himself behind his station at the top of the drum circle, where he manipulated his voice and synth samples with various forms of effects.

Throughout the show, Eye moved to the center of the circle, composing the drummers with various barked vocal commands as he stood on top of two kick drums. Highlight from the set include an exceptional, jazzy solo by drummer Yo2ro and an uncharacteristically slow section featuring synth and vocals by Yoshimi, the group’s only female member.

After the brilliant weirdness of The Boredoms, veteran rapper Ghostface Killah began the hip-hop orientated block of the festival by performing songs that spanned old favorites from his days as a member of the highly influential Wu-Tang Clan to selections off of his new record, “Fishscale.”

Midway through his set, Ghostface paid tribute to late rapper ODB by having the crowd throw up their “W’s” and rhyme along to the deceased rapper’s hit “Shimmy Shimmy Ya.” He then got the audience’s approval by commenting on the recent controversy surrounding Ozzie Guillen by calling the White Sox manager his “brother.”

Ghostface closed his show by having a throng of teenaged girls dressed in uniform hot pants and skimpy shirts dance with him on stage.

Following up was pint-sized British rapper Lady Sovereign. The self-proclaimed “biggest midget in the game,” Sovereign played an infectiously danceable version of the British hip-hop sub-genre “grime,” a mix of fast-paced rhyming and hardcore techno-like beats, in support of her first American single “Blah Blah.”

Closing the festival was The Streets, the project of British rap artist Mike Skinner. The autobiographical accounts of the stress sudden fame can induce on a person presented on Skinner’s latest album, “The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living,” translated well onto the stage, with songs like “When You Wasn’t Famous” sounding even more frustrated than on record.

However, the mood of the performance was generally light, with Skinner repeatedly pointing out an over-excited fan and telling the audience they should all be jumping up and down like him. Some theatrics entered into The Streets’ set with Skinner’s sideman dressing up like a boxer for one number as a metaphor for dedication. Before taking his encore, Skinner joked with the audience by saying he must have not filled his contractual obligations, so he would play a few more, ending with songs off of “The Hardest Way.”

Rapper Mike Skinner of the Streets from Birmingham, England performs their single “Fit but Don’t You Know It” while pointing to a jumping fan in the front row.

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