Little Lies and Massive Dreams

My name is Bear. I play in a band called Talking About Commas and live and work in Providence, RI. I like music.
Free Hit Counter
Free Counter

Nov 2, 2006

Vegoose: Day 1


As I walked through the gates to the first day of the Vegoose festival, I heard the flutters of Cat Power’s "The Greatest" floating through the air. The queen of introverted performance and her Memphis Rhythm band (featuring members of Stax Records’ house band, Booker T and the MG’s) kicked off my festival in the early afternoon last Saturday. When I say "my festival", I mean just that. With over 40 bands and a plethora of shops, art exhibits, impersonators, costumes, chance run-ins and even carnival rides, there is no way any 2 people at Vegoose experienced the exact same event.

This year’s festival was held at the same location as last years, but the layout was slightly altered. Instead of using the Sam Boyd Stadium as the "Double Down" stage, this year all the stages were in the same field located behind the stadium. This allowed for more set time accuracy and a lot less walking between stages. However, this also caused a lot more audio bleeding between stages. Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch even quipped in between songs, "You guys hear that noise coming from the other stages, good, it’s part of our show."

After Cat Power’s amazing set, which drew heavily and sequentially from 2006's The Greatest, I walked all of 50 yards to see freak-jazz icons Medeski, Martin and Wood with special guest, saxophone legend Maceo Parker. Just one example of how my different musical worlds came within inches of colliding that weekend. The highlight of the afternoon sets, for me, came with the freight train with a hard blues engine and an indie-pop caboose known as the Raconteurs. Despite the intense heat bearing down (Jack White announced to that "An old goth queen like myself might melt if I don’t put on some sun screen.") the band raged through a set of songs from their only album, Broken Boy Soldiers. However, the Racs’ mixed things up by instilling new arrangements and feels into the songs and even switching vocal lines. For example, on the single "Steady As She Goes" Jack sang Brendan's lines on the record and vice versa.

Next cam the only reggae act of the festival, Damien "Jr. Gong" Marley and his huge stage entourage which included a flag waver. That’s right, one of his band members danced around the stage waving a Rasta flag the entire set. I want that man’s job. Marley ran through some hits from his latest Welcome to Jamrock album while mixing in some of his father’s classics like the outstanding version of "Concrete Jungle".

The Mars Volta played after Marley and about 30 seconds into their set I ran as far away as possible. I don’t know what people see in those guys. All of them seem to be in their own world just wanking away on their instruments (unimpressively I might add) without any band congruence whatsoever. Little did we know what a great choice we had made to ditch the Volta party. Our crew wandered in to the Clubs Tent without knowing what brilliance we were about to witness. The Yard Dogs Road Show is unlike anything I have ever seen. Their 10 plus members (all dressed in crazy outfits recalling the days of Vaudville) all played multiple instruments and had tremendous circus side show talents. Their act had swanky horn driven hooks mixed with comedy, magic tricks, sword swallowing and Burlesque style choreography. Check this group out, you will be blown away.

After hanging on the west side of the festival for the whole day, I ventured to the main stage to receive my dose of straight ahead rock and roll. First up, the Black Crowes. When the Black Crowes announced their break up in 2000, I figured I had missed the boat on perhaps my favorite Southern rock band of all time (Well maybe they're in second between Skynyrd (3) and the Allman Bros.(1)). But as you all know, band breakups are as successful as marriages these days. Sometimes when you're at a festival with 30,000 people the best moments come when you’re alone. While my friends were all at Jurassic 5, I indulged in the rock and roll that saved my highschool life. When the Crowes’ busted through hits like "Halfwhere to Everywhere", "High Head Blues", "Jealous Again" and "Remedy" I got down harder than the winner of a "pants-down dance-off".

The first day culminated with legends, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The crowd noticeably headed for the gates halfway through their set once Tom started to deviate from his uber-hits, but nothing would have stopped me from enjoying one of my 7th grade heros. Petty, dressed in a ruffled leather jacket and his standard yellow telecaster, sauntered around the stage with his hands high in the air as if he was recreating Russell’s "Golden God" scene from Almost Famous. Before playing the Bo Diddly penned "Mannish Boy" Petty stated that they had learned the song from the Yardbirds which proves just how long the Heartbreakers had been doing their thing. To close the show, Petty sent off the remainder of the crowd to the strip with an average run-through of his first hit, "American Girl", while echoes of "Oh yeahs" and "Alright"’s swam in our heads giving us Vegas folks some advice to try and "make it last all night".

Set lists of bands I knew well enough to take. A "?" indicates I’m not sure of the songs title.

Cat Power: intro -> The Greatest, Living Proof, Lived in Bars, Could We, Empty Shell, Willie, the Moon, Sweet Time?, Satisfaction, Where is My Love, Anything But Love*
* a cappella with her whole band lined up front stage chorus line style.

The Raconteurs: Intimate Secretary, Level, Steady as She Goes, Together, Store Bought Bones, It Ain’t Easy?, Broken Boy Soldiers, Blue Veins, Hands

The Black Crowes: Halfway to Everywhere, Sting Me, Gone, Seeing Things, High Head Blues, Up on Cripple Creek, The Seven Seas?, Soul Singing, Wiser Time, Cursed Diamond, Jealous Again, By Your Side?, Remedy

Tom Petty: Listen to Her Heart, Mary Jane’s Last Dance, I Won’t Back Down, Free Fallin’, Saving Grace, Mannish Boy, blues tune?, Good to Be King, blues tune?, Cabin Down Below, Don’t Come Around Here No More, Refugee, Runnin’ Down a Dream
E: You Wreck Me, Mystic Eyes, American Girl

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home