Wild At Heart
Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th Of July weekend. I started off at Cityfest on Wednesday and caught some cool local artists including the electronic dance pop group Love Meets Lust and folk singer Aran Ruth. Unfortunately, the main reason I went down was to see De La Soul and they got rained out which is the second time this year I have been to a festival where the weather was bad enough to shut down the place for a few hours. I wish these festivals could have a backup planned for weather events like this, esp considering the Fisher is right next door to the main stage. You would think they could set something up with notice. And if they know it is going to rain at 8:30PM, why couldn’t they bump up the local band and try to put De La on an hour earlier.
After that, I managed to head out to Rothbury for two days of the four day festival. It was the first festival and I must say that the grounds were beautiful. They had a wonderful spread which nicely set up stages and managed to keep all the bands on schedule (only 2 went on more than 10 minutes late). I had seen a number of the bands performing this year but managed to see 22 new bands. I tried to get some interviews but with the quick turnaround time (only got media pass approved 2 weeks before the event) and some changes which made some bands unavailable when I could be there, I got nothing at the event though I did get to meet the Dresden Dolls.
Of the bands I saw, most put on good shows but a few stood out. The best were (IMHO) were Crystal Method (one of the great electronic duos in the business and whose music is found on numerous movie soundtracks like Spawn, Gone In Sixty Seconds and Pirate of the Caribbean: At World’s End) who played a wonderful 2AM set after which I drove home, country techno artists A3 who are best known for their Sopranos theme, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi who fronted a great jam session, Dave Matthews Band whose 3 hour set covered a ton of great material (along with a cool cover of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”) and Jakob Dylan (is it me or is he better sounding than his dad). Among the other artists I enjoyed were Yonder Mountain String Band, Betty LaVette, 311, Widespread panic, Citizen Cope, STS9 and Primus.
The event was focused on being “green” so a lot of the vendors focused on recycled and organic products. They had a solar cell phone recharging system which helped a lot of people and some great organic food sellers. They had one table which was giving out prizes like shirts and CD’s for anyone who would bring them recyclable bottles and cans (which along with their volunteer recycling staff) keep the grounds remarkably clean which is always a plus. I picked up some XBOX 360 games for my efforts (anyone want Halo 3 and Ninja Gaigen II for a reasonable price, let me know at doramu13@yahoo.com).
The festival also had some nice art around the site. They had an area called Sherwood Forest which had various lights and sculptures which were beautifully lit at night and a giant can sculpture (which was made out of donated cans for charity) that was a sight to see and was an attempt for a Guinness World Record.
The site also had water refueling stations at some stages so if you brought a water bottle you could refill it for free which was a nice benefit. I also thank the makers of Clif Bars (organic food bars) for providing free samples so when I ran out of money I was still able to eat. I recommend the Chocolate Brownie!! I wish I remembered the name of who gave out the free organic yogurt samples (Mango/Pineapple/Passion Fruit flavored) but they were excellent and I don’t usually like yogurt.
Despite all the positives, there were some things they need to work on if it happens next year. They ran out of maps early Friday and it seems they didn’t get them restocked until Saturday. Of course, having people ask you to borrow your map is a great icebreaker for meeting people like the cool chick I met from Detroit (who unfortunately has a boyfriend) that was telling me about the drug dealers in the back camping area (who were caught and arrested at 6AM after a few hours of selling nitrous to the hippies). At a jam festival, you expect some pot usage but lay off the strong stuff people. The idea is to enjoy the shows and not end up in the hospital.
The biggest complaint I had was parking, mainly because at 11:30AM we were told to park somewhere and at 5PM they decided it was a fire lane and towed a ton of vehicles. One staff member told me they were supposed to have 74 people working the lots and due to lower than expected ticket sales cut that number to 24. Of course, I expect that fire lanes should be clearly marked so those mistakes don’t happen which I blame on the area fire marshal (whose boss is getting a nasty letter after typing my column) for not making sure that sometime that morning those areas were marked properly. I also wonder why none of the three pairs of marshals who passed by us when eating lunch at the car brought it up so we could of moved. A Rothbury member (notice the back-and-forth frustration) told us when we got our car back they couldn’t tell us where it is safe to park since the fire marshal keeps changing his mind. The worst thing to me was the total disorganization of not even being able to find out who authorized the car being towed despite talking to 6 members of the fire dept staff (I am still not pleased at the pair who faked a call and rode away 100 ft), 2 local cops, 2 state troopers and numerous members of the Rothbury staff. I was also displeased that the media contact while stating they were sorry wouldn’t help us in getting our car back or even offer to get us some sandwiches or something considering we didn’t have much cash at the event and used it all to get our car (which is why I lived on Clif Bars all day Saturday). Think outside the box people and make the media happy so we don’t have negative things to write aboutJ Thanks for listening to me vent.
So overall, the first Rothbury went well despite my incident with the parking people. The weather was pleasant, most everyone from the staff to the fans were extremely nice, the grounds were beautifully kept up and easy to access and the line-up was excellent. I’d give it a B+.
I only regret that despite getting back at 7AM Sunday, I overslept the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at Cityfest so I just crashed at the pool for the rest of the day, watched the last 2 ½ hours of the documentary “Shoah” and did some reading.
I will be out and around town this weekend. I will be at Cinematic Sunrise tonight at the Shelter, Alkaline Trio at Clutch Cargos on Tuesday, Van Morrison on Wednesday and having a big Friday with the APBA Hydroplane Races, the Crofoot Barbecue with lots of cool bands and Al Green that night at Freedom Hill. I hope to see people out and around. Say hi if you see me. I will also be interviewing singer Teddy Geiger (playing the Crofoot Tuesday and promoting the new movie “The Rocker”) and Robert Gossett who is in town for the new season of ‘The Closer’. Both those interviews will air Thursday 8-10AM on 88/3FM or www.wxou.org
Have a good week everyone