We’ve experienced heat, rain, and more heat … yeah, and more rain … at GRF, but this weekend’s heat and humidity has been from another world. Neither was the worst, but the two of them together just left you in a brain-dead fog if you weren’t constantly concentrating on how you were feeling and taking care of yourself. Maybe I’m getting older (no!), but there were times, as I said to Sarah, where I could have been in line at Walmart, just spacing out. You had to concentrate to feel the music sometimes instead of just letting it wash over you. And a big part of this was that the sun and the mugginess made your body droop and your face melt.
But whatever, it was Saturday morning at the GRF! I sucked it up, showered, and went downstairs for a nice breakfast with girls in softball uniforms walking around in a heightened state of tension and Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal battling it out in the fifth set at Wimbledon (Djokovic finally won). Possibly the biggest event of that morning, though was about to start…
It had been an excellent 2018 World Cup and the third place game, England and Belgium, was about to start. Back up in our room we could not find it on the TV but had brought an HDMI cable and were able to get logged into Fox Sports on my laptop and get it on the TV by the time it started. We texted the group and they all jammed into our large room, sprawled over the couch, furniture, chairs, and bed, and we had a great time watching the game! Belgium was the more inventive team that day and after England almost tied it but their best shot was swept off the line, Belgium scored again to seal the victory.
Wait, why the fuck weren’t we in line in the hot sun at the Festival by then? Well, it was because the Saturday lineup was kind of thin and there was no reason to grab great seats at the Main Stage. Our strategy was to hang out for the game, leave when it was over around noon, go directly to set up our chairs at the Dean’s Beans Stage instead of uphill, and basically to take a mellow approach (for us) to Saturday. Which was what we did.
Got packed up soon after the game was over and were on the road for the Massachusetts line by a few minutes after noon. The cars were backed up on College Road when we got there and the sun was blazing and the humidity was frying our brains. But Dave got out and headed in; they had smartly made a “bags” line and a “no bags” line and Dave went straight in with no bags and got our seats (alongside P&D) downhill.
In the meantime, Sarah and I waited in that long line of cars, got a parking space far from the entrance, and then waited in line for what seemed like an hour (it was) to just get in through the “bags” line. But the important thing is that we got in, dumped our stuff at the beachhead downhill, and then I took off for the upper stage. Though there were few great acts up on the Main Stage that day, one of the acts I most wanted to see had already begun! Here’s what I saw … I think:
The Mammals – I’ve loved Ruth Ungar’s and Mike Merenda’s band for years and had never seen them (I’ve seen Ruth with Sometymes Why). I think I have all The Mammals records and they’re *so much* in my personal sweet spot for uplifting humanist string music I can’t describe it. I tell other people to listen to them and they say huh? They’ve recently re-formed and put out perhaps their best record. When we finally got past the bag check, Ruth was singing the beautiful Stayin’ Up Late and I hated to run downhill. But I was soon back up and they were crooning the title track, Sunshiner. I hurried up front and their music ran all through me (it was early in the day and the humidity hadn’t worked its evil ways yet), as I swayed to Make It True, Culture War, Fork In the Road, and then they closed with perhaps one of the loveliest songs in recent memory, Maple Leaf. We all wanted to fly like maple leaves, and the day was just starting! I was so glad to hear the bulk of their set after waiting forever to get in.
Big Mean Sound Machine - I got some iced(!) coffee and slowly made my way back downhill after that, anticipating a band from Ithaca College (Dave's alma mater). Dave had seen them often in college and had gotten me psyched, he called them "Ithaca's answer to Rubblebucket ... without vocals." Dave and I got right in front of the horns and had a great time. The 8-person band was led by Angelo Peters on funky effects-laden bass and synth, and the funk permeated the two percussionists (one on ethereal congas), keys/synth player, guitarist, and trombonist (Alicia Aubin), trumpeter (Jack Storer), and saxophonist. They spun wonderful grooves and immediately had us all dancing to their long pieces. Aubin and Storer were particularly fascinating, playing long inventive, note-perfect brass solos ... didn't hurt that we were right in front of them.
But I tore myself away before the set ended because I could tell I needed water, food, and shade badly already. I got refreshed and then got some nutrition (beans, rice, and guacamole) from La Veracruzana and headed back down to the Parlor Room Stage (set up pretty much the same as last year) to find a shady spot to eat in. Caught the last few chords of Jack Broadbent's set but didn't see him. The tent was packed already and gave you claustrophobia just looking at the sweaty people struggling their way out of it. OK ... after a bit I was full, hydrated, and refreshed, and so headed on into the tent myself and grabbed an aisle seat for easy escape before it got really packed, and it sure did a few minutes after that. But I was bound to see a whole set of...
Birds Of Chicago - Though it had flaws, the Parlor Room Stage was exactly the right setting for this band at this moment. I was sitting down in the shade (though I had to get up like 20 times for people to enter and exit my row, this is not a successful "seating" situation) and I was able to concentrate on the music and on the wonderful vocals, flute, and banjo by Allison Russell, as well as the great musicianship of the rest of the band. They were playing mellow versions of their best songs, and they were smiling, giving way to each other, and just being brilliant in turn. Again, they didn't do Roisin Starchild, but they covered Love In Wartime, the really fun Baton Rouge, and the earnest Try from their new record.
Oh boy that was fun. I somehow made it out of that hot tent as soon as their set was over though, and wandered back to our seats over at the Dean's Beans Stage after running into friends playing soccer and frisbee and admiring the sky.
Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express - They were just starting up when I got over there, and they were ok IMO. Chuck's got some hot licks and they played some great SanFran and/or classic rock tunes ... and you know that's what I like. But they were a little cliched and the music often took a back seat to presentation. Which isn't the SanFran ethic I should say!
Anyway, wandered around at that point and saw a tune and a half from:
Yes Darling - This novelty act is Ryan Montbleau and Hayley Jane and they're really godawful. OK, there's lots of talent there but they're interested in duo acting rather than playing good music. They probably improvised a bit but had their pieces all ready to act out and Hayley knew just when to react to Ryan's guitar chords and Ryan knew just when to react to Hayley's innuendos. Perhaps entertaining, and the Parlor Room Stage was as packed as ever, but not what I was going to stand in the hot sun to watch.
So I went uphill and got more water (must have re-filled my water bottle 50 times over the course of the weekend) and...
Interjection here that they had a new stage at the GRF, alternately called the Green House Stage, the Pop-up Stage, or the Tiny House Stage. They set up a "tiny house" with a porch over in the shaded area between the porta-potties and the beer wagon and it was just marvelous, a very successful addition. The acts would rotate over there just before their appearance on the big stages, when they were already all kitted up/made up and looking fresh. They had several video cameras focussing on them with this "living room" backdrop and I'm sure the idea is to make promotional videos that will appear on YouTube or some other channel.
And the performances there were marvelous! The acts knew that this was their close-up for Mr. DeMille and they rose to the occasion, staring right into the camera and/or the small audience while doing three (this was apparently the limit) of their best songs. Sarah has some wonderful pictures of the Birds there and I was fortunate to see a song and a half from Chris Smither and most of I'm With Her's tiny set.
Another piece of the great GRF experience was their vendors and information providers. Had a wonderful (and persuasive?) talk with a guy from Green Mountain Energy and a fun talk with a woman selling Jay Blakesburg photos, that she'd enhanced and framed. I was captivated by one of a young looking Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, and realized while talking with her that it was from the first time we'd seen them, at Gathering Of the Vibes in 2011. She told me about her experience of seeing them there on that hot, hot day.
Chuck Prophet was still pontificating and so I kept wandering and was just in time to catch the Mardi Gras Parade uphill that they do every year but I've never seen up close, where kids get to march with the banners, sculptures, and costumes they've made at the Art Tent. This year's parade was led by the members of Big Mean Sound Machine in mufti, some with kazoos. And the stragglers in it were the aliens from Bella's Bartok. After that interlude, I was just in time to catch a bit of ...
Femi Kuti and the Positive Force - Kuti comes from a line of African leaders, both politically and musically, and he had a full band with him, some of the members in traditional costume. I only saw a few songs from them and have to say they were kind of boring. Perhaps if I'd stayed longer I would have been more receptive to their groove, but it was a lot of him yelling political lines at the crowd and smiling that they just didn't get how serious he was, and then him pointing at the horn players to lay down another riff. He also had backup singers who apparently had been told to shake their booties, and this itself was not politically appropriate. Whatever.
Timing was good then to cruise back to the Parlor Room Stage, where they'd thankfully folded up all the seats and left plenty of dancing room. This is how that stage should always be configured! I caught four or five tunes from...
The Revelers - This is an all-star Cajun/Zydeco band (no black members, so favor the former slash term) that lets it all hang out and is very much in my sweet spot of music. They had seven or eight or five or who knows guys on stage and they were all swapping instruments and a different guy did the lead on each song. And they did that great heart of the country thing of being swampy and steaming and tender and vulnerable all at the same time. None of them took the baton and shone with it, but they all took the baton in turn and let his heart shine. Loved it, but then it was time to get back for ...
OK, time to go settle down in our seats at the Dean's Beans Stage and enjoy the last acts of the night (by our schedule).
Bella's Bartok - Was just starting and they were a trip. They had a couple of horn players (one of whom took his shirt off straight-away), a couple of percussionists, a couple of guitar and bass players, one dynamic lead in Asher Putnam, and a lot of facial hair, most of it expressed in mustaches. Dave had seen them at GRF a few years back and was more than eager to experience them again, and I have to admit that this was really fun. They sang in Turkish, sang in unison, sang in nonsense syllables, did some cracker-jack riffs on all the above instruments, and did not faint (accidentally). The sun was just beginning to mellow out by then, though the humidity did not relent, and perhaps the most amazing thing about these very talented musicians' act was that they breezed on as if heat was the least of their problems. This was very entertaining stuff and very impressive stagemanship.
All of a sudden, it was again getting late on Saturday night at our favorite music festival and one of our favorite bands was about to come on. There was apparently some atmospheric je ne sais quoi going on that night, and so the balloons weren't really firing up, though they were desultorily lounging on the lower field while the sun was getting a little lower, then a little lower.
Dave and I were up at the rail immediately as soon as the previous act was done ... we weren't about to miss this opportunity to see Marco Benevento from up close. Scott also knew that this was one of the acts of the festival, and we were so glad when the whole Taylor entourage showed up at stage-front! The crowd filled in pretty well while Karina and Dave and Marco were doing their sound check. And then finally it was time for...
Marco Benevento - We've seen these guys several times, see earlier blog posts. And of course Marco is an essential part of JRAD. Dave had seen Marco delivering pizza and hanging out with his daughter during Bella's Bartok and that added a nice touch. But they were up on stage now and Marco had his super-cool super-funky cyberpunk green piano and Karina Reykman was looking fine and sounding finer and rocking the fuck out of the place with her white get-up and her excellent bass and her waves of sound, and Dave Butler was kicking the shit out of the atmosphere and egging on Marco and Karina. They played the first part of the Fred Short suite to start and then went on from there to say the least. They did an excellent cover of Dropkick and that was not all. They did a mashup of a Butthole Surfers song, a Pink Floyd song, and an Elton John song. Marco got the whole crowd singing along to Benny and the Jets.
No At the Show, but they couldn't do everything. Their stagecraft was as impeccable as always. Karina did her routine of running off stage and then dashing back on just in time to deliver a rip-the-world-apart bass chord. Marco twirled a bit for the crowd and ended up climbing up on top of his piano and jumping off, a feat more precarious than it sounds.
But the meat of it all was the runs Marco took on that piano. You'd notice him start to chord with his right hand and then that his left hand was scratching that itch and then pounding down into the nether regions, and then that the right hand was tinkling in ways that had never been tinkled before, and then that the two together were about to explode into the ionosphere. And then they would and then he'd take it from there, sometimes playing the most Shortnin' Bread kind of Jimmy Rogers riffs that had us all nodding, and then sometimes drawing baroque tapestries and sometimes bursting through gauzy curtains.
Well jeez, I could go on. The balloons were surging and alight, the crowd was thundering with applause when he stopped, and the stage announcer came out and urged us all on to an encore. We were certainly using time for fun.
Well it was finally over and we were done. It had been a long day and though Michael Franti was laying down a heavy (but poppy) beat on the upper field, it was time for us to exit stage left. Hung out at the seats a bit and did last porta-potty stops (they had turned off the lights and you never know how scary a porta-potty can be until you do it in the total dark). Then bundled up and found the car in the far reaches of the parking lots and slowly got rolling up to Brattleboro.
As it turned out, we were a little ahead of the others. We took turns in the shower to wash off dirt and sweat and sunscreen and grime and don't-ask and more sweat and crud. Finally we were presentable and rendezvoused with our friends downstairs. The girl's softball team and their hangers-on were rocking the lobby again ... we never found out where they were from or how they did in the tournament, but they were having a good time. We couldn't take the hip-hop music and we found the "Board Room," where we assembled and had an excellent time, showing PPTs to each other and eating chips late into the night!
Marco's crew was my GRF highlight! You wrote it like I felt it. Beautifully scribed memory there and what a great shot of him reaching through blue light for entertainment victory!
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