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.
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Nov 2, 2006

Vegoose: Day 2


You’d be surprised how hard it is to get somewhere in Las Vegas by noon (even when you gain an hour the night before). However, I did manage to make it to the festival for Band of Horses’ 12:20 set, and no I didn’t even have time to indulge in a tasty casino buffet beforehand. After last year, where I showed up at 3 or 4pm, I told myself I was going to see as much music as humanly possible this year.

So a little after noon with an overpriced festival smoothie in hand, I watched one of my favorite new bands with about 50 other champs who rallied to get out that early. I first shunned Band of Horses due to their similarity to the early My Morning Jacket sound but after giving them a chance, I soon fell in love with their only release, Everything All the Time . Thankfully, seeing who these guys were destroyed any lingering comparisons to MMJ. They started with the slow and sweet "Part One" about which the lead singer stated, "We thought we’d start you guys off with a boring song, so it can only get better from here." The band then marched through a set heavy on their album while tossing in a lackluster new tune and a decent Eels cover to close. One disappointment was that they only played for 35 minutes when their slot was for 45. I mean, what’s the world coming to when bands big enough to play the Fillmore can’t even play a 45 minute set?

After B of H, I ran over to the nearby "Snake Eyes" stage to see what I was really there for. Of all the bands playing this weekend, Built to Spill is my absolute favorite. I placed myself front and center and got ready to bask in the warm Nevada sun while BTS showered me with three-guitar soundscapes. What differs BTS from most 2 or 3 guitar bands is these guys barely play chords. They divvy up the melody and rhythm so well that everyone is playing something different on various parts of the neck while conveying the harmonic progression of each song perfectly. Trying to make up for B of H’s short set, BTS (you following my abbreviations clearly?, good) hit the stage 10 minutes early and started to jam out in A major (no I don’t have perfect pitch, I was so close I could see which frets they were playing, nice). Annoyingly, the stage manager was a hard ass and came out and told the band they couldn’t play loud until their scheduled start time. So BTS jammed super quietly and at 1:15 on the dot, they exploded with a storm of feedback, fuzz and reverb laden guitars. After 20 minutes since the start of the jam they found their way into the new hit "Traces". Unfortunately during "Traces", Doug Martsch’s effects rig fell off the bench next to him and seemingly broke as he was rewiring his gear mid-song. After another track from their new album, "Liar" (which was aborted and restarted), the band left You in Reverse completely and threw down a set of classics. The highlight for me came with the olde (you like that spelling miss j?) gem "Nowhere Nothing Fuckup" which I had heard on late nineties BTS bootlegs but had never seen. After the feedback frenzy at the end of "Randy Described Eternity", Doug threw his laminate out in the crowd and my friend Parker got it! He got to go backstage and Doug signed his costume (some O.R. scrubs) with his nickname (apparently), Dug. Nicely done Dug and Co., maybe one day people will give you guys some more credit and you’d be headlining festivals like this.

As the feedback from BTS lingered, I walked over to the Rhythm Devils and after a few standard issue Dead covers I headed back to see my second favorite female performer at the festival, the lovely, talented and extremely insane, Fiona Apple. Apple came out on fire while launching into the rocking "Get Him Back" and pouring every ounce of emotion she had into the microphone. After the painfully beautiful "Shadowboxer", Fiona announced that "You guys are my last audience, ever". Was she serious? Is this really it? I guess we’ll find out soon. At the end of her set she announced the band and again said "I love these guys so much, its hard to imagine never playing with them again." And to further my conspiracy theory, they let her play 2 encores, something no other band (except the stage headliners, which she was not) got to do the whole festival. If this is true, I’m so glad I caught her at Vegoose, because she absolutely blew my cape off.


From Fiona I sprinted to the "Clubs Tent" to see my favorite woman on this planet (of the ones I’ve never met, of course) Las Vegas’ own, Jenny Lewis. The Rilo Kiley front woman ran through an amazing revival-esque set complete with clap-alongs, costume changes and stomping renditions of new tunes and cuts from Rabbit Fur Coat alike. Along with Jenny, the Watson Twins shined with their concert hall quality vocal harmonies producing a sound much bigger than I thought Lewis’ band was capable of. However, in the middle of the set I was at a crossroads. While Miss Lewis was captivating the small tent audience, two jam band legends were combining efforts to make every Phish and Dead fan’s wet dream a reality. So as the last notes of Jenny’s closer "I was Born Secular" rang, I again strapped on my PF Flyers (yeah that’s a Sandlot reference, I’m not afraid) and booked it to the "Double Down" stage for Phil Lesh and Trey Anastasio.


I missed the first part of Phil and Trey’s set and walked in during the terrible Trey crap song, "Sleep Again". I guess I didn’t have to leave Jenny’s set so quickly after all. However, after a sloppy but energetic cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" (which in classic rock star Trey fashion, he stole the chorus’ tasty organ lick from the guy actually playing an organ, John Medeski) the band launched into the only Phish song of the set, "Back on the Train". Mike Gordon guested playing both banjo and Trey’s guitar for a little while. Yes, this would be the song I danced hardest to all weekend. Please Trey, stop playing your self indulgent jam pop and bring the boys back! Phil and Trey closed with the classic Dead sandwich of "Help > Slipknot > Franklin’s" and go at the Buddy Holly classic "Not fade Away" which took a while for me to accept Trey’s style of playing dead tunes. All I wanted was Jerry to come to life and teach Trey how to play his shit right.

After a brief check in with Jim James (the MMJ frontman played a set of solo acoustic tunes while very good, was way to slow for a festival atmosphere) my night ended with my first experience with hip-hoppers, The Roots. (Well I also saw some of Widespread Panic, but I'm mad at Vegoose about them. Although the addition of Jimmy Herring on guitar makes them sound a lot better. They headlined over Phil and Trey. Does that mean the good people at Vegoose think that WSP is better than the Dead and Phish combined!?! blasphemy!) If you haven’t seen the Roots, go! Now! They are the tightest hip-hop band I’ve ever seen, yes they are a band, not a turntable in sight. I didn’t recognize any tunes except for the hit, "You Got Me" which featured a stellar guitar solo but lacked a female vocalist for the hook. Then they closed with the best medley of covers I have ever heard. I kid you not, the Roots played tight, one minute versions of hits by Sly Stone, Michael Jackson, Talib Kweli, Snoop, Wu-Tang, Salt-n-Pepa, Kanye West, Tribe and even a stab at Blue Oyster Cult’s "Don’t Fear the Reaper" complete with the SNL "Cowbell" gag. Brilliant!

Alright, time to wrap it up. What can I say, if you are any self respecting music fan get out to a festival near you sometime. In two days I saw old favorites, new discoveries and was blown away by artists I love but never got to see, until now. From Jazz to Hip-hop to indie rock to Jambands to a full burlesque cabaret troupe, Vegoose had it all! Here are some bests of the festy (in my humble opinion, of course).
Best set: Built to Spill
Best cover: Ben Folds doing Dr. Dre’s "Bitches Ain’t Shit".
Best new discovery: The Yard Dogs Road Show
Best guest appearance: Blackalicious’ Gift of Gab sitting in with Galactic
Best opener: Phil and Trey raging "Ghost" to start their late night show.
Best closer: The Roots’ monster medley
Best encore: Fiona Apple’s "Crimial" and a solo version of "Parting Gift" that could be the last we hear from her.
Best costume: Keim Time’s Donkey!

Set Lists:
Band of Horses : Part One, Wicked Gill, The Funeral, new tune, The Great Salt Lake, Weed Party, Monsters, The Showdown?*
* The Eels cover

Built to Spill : Jam, Traces, Liar, Made-up Chairs, You Were Right, Nowhere Nothing Fuckup, Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, Carry the Zero, Randy Described Eternity

Fiona Apple: Get Him Back, To Your Love, Shadowboxer, The Way Things Are, Paper Bag, Sleep to Dream, Limp, Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song), Extraordinary Machine, On the Bound, Not About Love, Get Gone, Fast as You Can
E: Criminal, Parting Gift*
* Fiona at the piano, solo

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins: Run Devil Run, The Big Guns, You Are What You Love, Under the Charging Sky, Happy, band intros > See Fernando, Rise Up with Fists, new tune, Bye Bye Baby*, When Jack Killed Mom, I Was Born Secular
* Jenny and the Twins a cappella

Phil and Trey: Shakedown Street > Sweet Dreams Melinda > Row Jimmy, Let it Ride > Sleep Again, Like a Rolling Stone > Back on the Train* > Bird Song > Help on the Way > Slipknot > Franklins Tower, Not Fade Away
* w/ Mike Gordon on banjo and guitar

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