Champagne Champagne ::: photo by Josh Lovseth

Of all the sessions we planned, Champagne Champagne was the one where we didn’t know quite what to expect. On-stage Pearl and Thomas don’t simply rhyme, they’re fierce performers endowing their raps with real-time meaning that’s irreverent and fun but also dense with pop culture commentary. You bet these guys are trying to be the life of the party, and at Doe Bay Fest they succeeded completely. Following their Friday night mainstage headlining set, the universal call-and-response for the weekend became “Doe Bay! Doe Bay!” So for our picnic table session earlier that day, three acoustic guitars was obviously not what we expected at all. They’d done some alternative preparation. A lot of it.

While the Builders and the Butchers pounded it out in the crowd on the mainstage, we played host to possibly the mellowest Champagne Champagne renditions on record. And yet, it is still the dirtiest and wildest session we’ve filmed. These seated versions, joined by pup Linus, came out reflective of the playful but laid-back real-life personalities of Thomas and Pearl, who just as they had done with the rest of the fest, embraced our concept wholeheartedly. Before 2011, Champagne Champagne might have seemed stylistically outside of the box of a traditional Doe Bay artist, but after watching them freestyle with Bryan John Appleby late into the night, control an enrapt crowd, collaborate with Ravenna Woods and slay on our picnic table, no one will be saying that in 2012.

Champagne Champagne will be on a just announced a national tour with Macklemore throughout Autum 2011.