I left the big city mid Thursday afternoon to make the 90 mile trek south to Harmony Park, a magical haven of hundreds of huge hundreds-of-years-old oak trees, and was not surprised to find that hundreds of people were already there setting up for the long weekend, despite the festival not officially starting until Friday afternoon. Thursday night's big draw was, aside from securing a decent camping spot near friends and this hula tree girl, the fantastic Chicago based Cornmeal.
I was pleased to learn that they were recently awarded the "New Groove Jammy", which has recognized such brilliant one time newcomers as the Colorado's Yonder Mountain String Band, the blazin steel guitar work of Robert Randolph & The Family Band, the Anastasio/Gordon collaborators the Benevento/Russo Duo, and the lovely and talented Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.
Although the entire band is incredibly gifted, Cornmeal's stage presence is dominated by one Allie Kral, a young, smiling fiddler who could give that devil down in Georgia a run for his money. Thursday night's Cornmeal set was unexpectedly quiet, with local laws stipulating that there could be no amplification after 10 or 11 pm or some bullshit like that. This proved to be a disappointment throughout the weekend, as people craving some late night tunes each night discovered a tent stage that had far more crowd noise than it did beautiful sounds coming from the stage. Of course I always appreciate hearing some acoustic jams, but it was just too damn quiet in that tent.
Fortunately for the throngs of Cornmeal fans, they played again on The Main Stage the next evening, and proceeded to get the feet stomping and the people jumping. A couple of my favorite moments from that set were the opening number "When the World's Got You Down", an uplifting high energy Cornmeal original, and "Walk and Don't Look Back", a brilliantly covered Mick Jagger/Peter Tosh song.
Also earning honorable mention from Friday's schedule were Dance Band, the Minneapolis based "geekfunk" troupe who are known for their funkiness coupled with their...well, geekiness. right. i guess that's why they describe it as "geekfunk".
Down Lo put on a great show Friday night, and they had guest emcee Deploi of L.A.'s House of Vibe Allstars, who happened to be backing the previous act, Chali 2na.
Chali 2na is what I was most looking forward to all weekend. The guy just fucking rocks. Known for being a founding member of the hip hop phenom Jurassic Five, 2na came on stage after the House of Vibe Allstars, led by Deploi, warmed up the crowd with their funky R&B sounds. Much to the delight of the crowd, Chali 2na and his sidekick Laid Law whipped through a number of J5 tracks as well as a bunch of his own strong solo material. 2na's lyrics are sharp, quick witted, masterfully rhymed, and delivered with his trademark one of a kind deep smooth voice.
Pnuma Trio put on an excellent late night spacefunk synth show, complete with lights that could be seen far into the campgrounds.
Saturday's musical highlights included Desdamona rockin the mic in the early afternoon, God Johnson, who had this dude grooving so hard his arm fell off, or rather popped out of the goddamn socket, Pert Near Sandstone, with guest mandolinist Eric Berry of Trampled by Turtles, and Heatbox, the Minneapolis performer who does all sorts of crazy shit with his voice - beatboxing, rapping, singing, and a really cool looping thing. I really enjoyed the song that says about a million times and is incredibly catchy, "Thank you for the Jack and Coke".
Saturday night's headliners, That One Guy and Buckethead, unfortunately did not do a whole lot for me. That 1 Guy's 'Magic Pipe' is a fascinating piece of musical machinery, and he is a very talented Guy, but I think he would be better off just playing the damn thing and losing most of the schtick. The zany lyrics and oddball humor would be perfect for a company picnic, but we are highly developed music fanatics at a freaky festival, not office drones enjoying a wine cooler at the park.
Buckethead and his backing tape were equally lackluster. As one of my friends remarked after we had watched him for no more than two minutes, "Sure, the guy shreds, but so what?" I think he really hit the nail on the head there. Watching a dude with an upside-down KFC bucket on his head and wearing a spooky white mask to hide his face play manic heavy metal riffs by himself on stage for an hour and a half sounds like a great time, but it just wasn't all it's cracked up to be. The one part I did really enjoy was when That 1 Guy joined forces with Buckethead for a song or two at the end of the show. Both very unique and talented dudes, to be sure.
Sunday was the single most fabulous day of music I have seen in quite a long time.
One of the shows I was most looking forward to all weekend was The Big Wu, who have for years epitomized our unique and communal music scene. Seeing Jason Fladager joining his former bandmates on stage for the duration of their set only added to the special atmosphere of the mid afternoon set, with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new and old school Wusters shaking their asses to classics like "Make Believer", "S.O.S." "Texas Fireball", "House of Wu", and "Red Sky". I have probably seen The Big Wu play more times than any other band on this lovely planet, and I simply do not get to see them as much these days. It was an exciting and somehow soothing set of music, and they had the place rocking as if it was midnight.
Scheduled for a late afternoon set before JGB was Simmonett and Young, the former being the brilliant singer/songwriter/guitar picker of Trampled by Turtles, and the latter having recently been officially and permanently inducted into Trampled by Turtles. Ryan Young and his fiddle make a spectacular addition to the band. Simmonett and Young generally put on a relatively low key, acoustic show, which would have been great on its owm, but today we were in luck. Banjo Dave Carroll was on the premises to play with his other band, Two Many Banjos. Eric Berry had already made an appearance with Pert Near, and Tim Sauxhaug had been seen around the campgrounds. Rumors quickly circulated-could it be?? Indeed it could. The guys decided to treat us to just about the best surprise performance imaginable. That made my weekend, again.
Melvin Seals and the Jerry Garcia Band were simply phenomenal. A nice "Cats Under the Stars" opener, then "After Midnight > Elenore Rigby > After Midnight" was absolutely dynamite, and suddenly the show was over. It had flown by way too fast.
Moonalice played a lovely nonstop set with a beautiful "Stella Blue" right in the middle, and they had these awesome posters they were giving away.
As if the day just had not sufficiently rocked already, the White Iron Band was next. Lead singer Matt Pudas affectionately teased his younger brother Mark who joined the band onstage about his appearance after he had his ear ripped off in what I can only imagine was a wicked bar room brawl at Mayslacks a few weeks back. Chants of "Log Jam" "Log Jam" "Log Jam" erupted from the both the crowd and the stage throughout the set, and WIB played a few chords of Phish's "Fluffhead" with a chant of "Gauze-head" for the younger Pudas. White Iron's set included foot stompers like "Borderline" "Willie Nelson Ruined my Life" and "Minnesota Song". Unfortunately they didn't even play "Whiskey River" once, just teased it at the close of the show. I remember back in the days when they would do it three or four times a night. Nonetheless it was, as always, a high energy rocking good time with the White Iron band.
North Mississippi Allstars, power trio of funk/swamp blues was a fantastic show of Southern rock force, and the first few songs featured Melvin Seals sitting in on keys.
Two Many Banjos closed out the night in the quiet tent stage.
We were also lucky to have Chuck Hues, the very talented Rochester artist who has worked for 10K and the Grateful Dead, at teh festival all weekend working on this gorgeous sunny mural next to the stage:
There was another fella, Chuck U, painting on the other side of the Main stage, as well. There were hundreds of young children around, from less than one year old to young teenagers, who all had a good time running around and playing, enjoying the music and swings and toys and people. It was a mighty windy weekend, but we only got a little bit of rain here and there, and Sunday turned out to be a day of Sun. It was a wonderful weekend overall with unbelievably great music throughout the weekend, plenty of old and new friends, and that Magical Harmony Park atmosphere.
I see that planning has already begun for next year's Bella Madre Festival, and you can count on seeing me there.
I miss these trees already.
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