AllGood Festival 2k8

21Jul08

I-68 East for 100 some odd miles dropped me off with barely enough time to set up my tent before sundown on the side of Marvin’s Mountaintop in the great state of West Virginia. Why is WV great? Well, they have Sheetz…?

This was AllGood’s 12th Anniversary held in the same exact location with the same basic premise. They’ve only slightly veered away from the strictly Jam-Band scene, and as we all know, if you don’t change, you’re bound to stay stuck in the past. Sadly, this festival seems like it has gone by the wayside. It’s no surprise that the Jam culture is primarily neo-hippies who consider themselves as such only because they smoke boatloads of weed despite causing SOOO much litter. I’m all in favor of these people, good job. My problem lies in only that this festival has become more about the drugs and the drug culture surrounding the music than the actual music and performances. That isn’t to say there weren’t any great performances, but I doubt most people there would remember them. This is due to, at least partly, the familiarity of the festival, the comfortable rut it’s dug for itself. Every festival, especially jam oriented, will be about drugs. There’s no denying it. They go everywhere together, just like music and drugs always have. But when everyone there couldn’t be more excited for the arrival of Phil Lesh’s set without knowing what instrument he plays, there’s something wrong. (Before anyone asks: Bass. Phil Lesh plays the bass guitar.)

It’s become a specter of what it wanted to become, a black market weekend and nothing more. Clearly I was too idealist once as a teenager to believe in the Jam scene, believed it to be that difference in music I was yearning for. (And just to clarify, I was a completely sober teenager). For years, it helped me, captivated me as moe. and Phish and Keller rose to fame with lengthy, exciting, and interesting takes on music. I don’t know when it happened, but the genre on whole became the same regurgitated nonsense. Talent is obviously not the problem. Perpetual Groove’s set proved that on the Early Arrival day as the night was just beginning to set in. They had a massive endurance to the set, and every member was on top of their game. Really, this should be held as one of the best performances of the festival. The combination of precision with the glorious smoke screens and unplanned fireworks lighting up sky behind the stage from wasted patrons made it an amazing performance, but that it was too early for most people to get drugged up made it feel more a performance than a loud side-show, which is really what the rest of the weekend consisted of. The Brazilian Girls were next, and despite the lead singer’s obnoxious speaking voice, she captivated with her multicolored-backlit white puffy dress and “Pussy Pussy Pussy Marijuana,” an inside joke for the rest of the weekend. For my money, the drummer, guitarist, bassist and singer are the band. That keyboardist is really just there as some modernist confusion, something to set them apart but more often hinders than helps. But this set was made much much MUCH more enjoyable by the super hot lesbians that were making out right next to me. I take back what I said about the keyboardist; if the band can get that hot of girls to dance like that virtually on top of me, I’ll buy all their albums.

Last set of the early arrival night was so upsetting. The Join (Shields and Shearer from The New Deal with the Benevento Russo Duo) was supposed to be awesome! For the second year in a row, the Duo was robbed, put on a hapless set through no fault of their own. Last year, for those not in the know, Bob Weir ran into their 45 minute set at least 15 minutes when he came out for an encore while the Duo had already started playing. Imagine the Duo playing on stage, and then the sound guys cutting them off for Weir to come back on stage and perform an encore. So this year, AllGood gave them a great late night spot where no other shows could disrupt them and all eyes would be on them. Performance aside for a moment, the sound guy fucked them. For at least 30 minutes if it was a second, all four members of The Join sat on stage with their thumbs up there ass, just ready to play and no sound would come out. If the set could have a hand motion assigned it, it would be the index finger up for “TURN UP THE FUCKING SOUND!!!” Russo was clearly pissed, and as he should have been. It was embarrassing for the festival. Finally when they got the sound basically working…the performance fell short. The formula of a drummer and keyboardist is amazing because of what both bands do with so little. The sounds and songs that the bands can make with only two people is amazing. If you put the two drummers and two keyboardists together, it’s significantly less amazing that they can come up with all these sounds. It just ends up sounding like a mush when it should sound like a mileu. Really, I’d pay four times as much to see any of these artists perform solo than to see them all bounce and improv between two chords for an hour. To exacerbate, there was this incredibly morbid fog that fell upon the crowd in the beginning of the set. I was second row and I still couldn’t see anything. Add to this the confusion with the sound guy, how anyone knew there was a show going on without any audio or visual is beyond me.

I made sure to be front row for the Avett Brothers. Their performance at Bonnaroo was one of the breakthrough performances of that festival, and certainly they would not disappoint. They began with the only song that had drums for the performance, the lead singer on the drums. As far as I can tell, the two actual brothers (unless the asian cellist is adopted) are primarily on the banjo/lead vocals and guitar, but all four members contribute to the overall commitment to the tunes, and if there is anything this band has an overabundance of, it’s commitment. Every ballad written only to swoon unsuspecting girls was ached through in impeccable olde time garb. Every dance number, upbeat stringed jambaroo made the stage sound like the pouncing of WWE with the help of the guitarists conveniently placed hi-hat. Because of the intensity of the four instrumentalists on cello, banjo, upright bass and guitar, they hired a man whose sole job was to change strings, and he had a very busy day. Over-under, he changed about 700 strings in the course of an hour. Now, I wouldn’t consider buying a record of there’s probably ever. The combination of bluegrass instrumentation with quaint themes and albeit clever lyrics lends well to 20-something girls, and shows no real excitement for my particular market. That aside, I would pay to see them live any day of the week. Aside from the bare bones but brilliant stage show, there should be a whole bunch of 20-something girls at their shows.

Just touching on the highest of highs, the most notable of concert experiences, one simply must stand in awe of Phil Lesh (he plays the bass you know.) The Grateful Dead were an amazing band for 30 some odd years. Though they only had one top ten hit, and if I’m correct barely at that, they had a massive influence on the audience/band relationship as well as a huge influence in underground music and drug cultures. They’ve been cited as basically founding “jam” music. And Phil Lesh was one of the founding members, playing the bass guitar for decades until the unexpected death of lead singer and four-fingered front-man Jerry Garcia (apparently drugs are bad). So you have to treat Lesh as some kind of rock royalty even if you don’t care. It was nice for the families, it was nice for the old ass hippies, and the younger drugged out kids didn’t seem unhappy in the slightest. Unfortunately, it was boring. It was a perpetually slow drag that didn’t sound like songs, just hours of noodling at best. At worst, or times between the jam being on point, just noise like several players practicing at the same time.

Right after their set was SOJA. Those guys can write a catchy tune. With the vocalist sounding like Michael Jackson and there being an onslaught of dreadlocks (even on a white guy which never looks right to me), they had the best possible spot for their music. They were right between everyone watching Phil Lesh and the headliner, Gov’t Mule. Really, it’s hard to describe, but they really did put on a great show even for someone not familiar with their stuff or ever having seen them before.

Keller Williams played with Moseley, Droll and Sipe, all of which may be new Pokemon characters. Keller Williams has such a cosmic dilemma. On one hand, the man is awesome. He is an awesome instrumentalist, great guitarist in virtually every incarnation of the instrument, and an entertaining performer to boot. He can do so much by himself and 13 instruments, who needs other performers? For years he’s made his own albums and toured with little else than himself and his gear (including his looping gear). NOW ON THE OTHER HAND, after a solid 10 years at least, it gets a little old. The performance becomes more of a novelty how great and difficult the material is. Solution: Add some equally awesome performers. Well, now the whole point of Keller being such a great solo artist is lost on these other people, and the entire looping schtick is lost. It’s like one of those at home funnel cakes; funnel cakes are awesome, but if you’re eating one while watching Desperate Housewives instead of in-front of a ferris wheel, you’re just a fatass.

Widespread Panic was good, and sounded much more like a cohesive unit, but for whatever reason I think of him right next to Phil Lesh, right in the same snug category. It was a lot better to dance to than Lesh’s set, which at best had people sway more than dance, and the Trucks, Derek and Susan Tedeschi came out to jam along for a few songs.

Bonerama was a lot of fun for those who stayed for Sunday despite the disenchanting and hellish rain storm. The New Orleans brass band seemed well constructed, and utilized to the best of their potential. They started with a bunch of covers, the national anthem with lead boner effecting the sound so it sounded like a guitar, and then a cover of War Pigs from Black Sabbath

Alright, that’s enough of that. Allgood is fun. It’s a festival, you have to try to not have fun to not have fun, that is unless you get dehydrated (it was hot as a motherfucker.) There are so many festivals out nowadays its hard to believe you couldn’t find one on its way up than one that’s on its way out, unless you know the difference between sour diesel and northern lights.

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