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Sunday Nov. 2 nd
Up at 9
Breakfast at McDonalds.
Shuttle to Canal. Did My legs a favor and took a city bus down Canal instead
of walking. This particular bus didn't go all the way to City Park, but that
was fine.
The weather had mostly been
hot during the day, but cool and breezy during the night, especially on Canal,
so this time, while dressed for a hot summer day in shorts and whatnot , I also
brought along my pancho, which I carried on my arm.
I nearly got turned away due to a no blanket rule. How insane is that? You want
people to come to a park to enjoy themselves, but you force them to leave everything
at home in order to feed them to your vendors. Okay, it isn't insane, but it
ain't nice either. I explained and showed what it was, and they let me in on
the condition that I wear it until I got all the way in. It was 85 degrees at
that point so I looked a bit silly. Sillier than usual.
Sound Device. This was the first band I checked out today. They were over in the small indie section. It was afternoon, and the shade in that area was most welcome. The other bands, whoever they were, obviously weren't strong enough to persuade me to brave the sun, though the band at the Fuse stage, which wasn't that far away, was loud enough to be heard. This group was pretty good. I enjoyed the performance, though it didn't blow me away.
2:15 Quintron n Ms Pussycat - I'd confused Ms Pussycat with Miss Kitten. Definately not Miss Kitten. It was some sort of DJ/electronic music set, though. I don't remeber any of it except for bits of a long ass puppet show that preceeded the deal. The dance area was in a tent, and that meant shade. It wasn't very cool there. I probably would've been better off under the trees near the indie stage, but I didn't move. Not that the puppet show or music that followed was of any interest. They weren't. But I was a little tired (slept only a few hours the night before), so I converted my pancho into a blanket (Ha!) and caught a little shuteye until...
3:15 Cypress Hill
Spent ten bucks on a large chicken/black bean/tomato/rice/vegetable burito to
eat during the Cypress Hill performance. It was good, though. The burito, that
is. Cypress Hill were alright, but not great. The crowd loved them, though.
That I wasn't impressed was good, since I'd planned on abandoning them half
hour into their set to see Robert Randolf And The Family Band.
3:45 Robert Randolf And The Family Band
Could be wrong, but I believe they're a fairly new act. I'd seen a video on one of those aol discs, and then later on TV. The lead dude plays a lap steel guitar of some kind. Very bluesy, funky stuff. I was exited to find they were playing here. Great, Great, Great band. Amazing. If I had to compare him to anybody, it woud be Stevie Ray Vaughn. He doesn't actually sound like him, but he's got that kinda energy, except sitting down. Crowd started out small, but grew to be substantial over the course of their set. Before leaving the hotel, I'd bought a visor. I had shades, but they weren't enough to protect my eyes from the sun, so I figured this would help. And it did. Only thing was, like I said, there was a small crowd at the beginning of the set, so I went fairly close to the stage. Not all in front or anything, but close. Anyway, I'm relatively close to the stage. Got my visor on. No sun problem. There's a beach ball being tossed around, though. That's cool and everything, but because of the visor, I never see it coming and I get beaned a couple of times. So I reposition myself a bit farther back to where I could view both stage and screen, and sat/laid on my pancho and enjoyed the rest of the show, which included a good deal of interesting covers as well as their originals. Oddly enough, I still haven't gotten their CD. I was boycotting CDs for a while, but that's over for the time being. Since the boycott, I simply haven't bought CDs for no reason whatsoever. With dvds giving more bang for the buck, the motivation is rarely there, but I digress. I'm getting their CD. Eventually.
The String Cheese Incident - Seen the name before, but had no idea who they were, or what to expect. Apparently they get lumped into the jam band catagory, but I don't know if that's fair. There's a bit of genre bending, incorporating dance music with jazz and classical influences as well as rock and pop. I thought it was quite good. I'd definately see them again, and maybe check out a cd.
8:00 White Stripes - Now here was a show worth the hype. The White Stripes are like a modern day bluegrass band without the nostalgia. Jack White on vocals and guitar and his ex-wife and/or sister (I forget) on drums and sometimes vocals. Excellent performance, but waaaaaaay too short. About an hour I think. There might've been a guest on stage at one point, but I'm not sure, now. Kinda funny how both Jack White and Jack Black (actor, singer from Tenatious D) seemed to rocket to fame almost simultaneously. I wonder how many people think they're the same dude. You just KNOW that there's a number of those knuckleheads out there. The three of them should get together and form the Black & White Stripes (include the other Tenatious dude, too) and release one work; the Black & White album. Just an idea. Nothing to do with this show, though. Jack Black wasn't here, I was just sayin'. To use aint-it-cool-news hyperbole, this show kicked my ass, they were so good. Mr. Whites voice quivered a bit though. No big thing. I don't always believe that less is more, but comparing this to Marilyn Manson's performance the previous night, kinda pushes that arguement. All of Manson's props, computers, costume changes, rants about god or whatever the hell, or even a decent execution of the music from his CDs couldn't rock as hard as this one dude on guitar paired up with a girl on drums.
The Worms Union - After the Stripes show was over, people were filing out to leave. Musta been about ten-ish. There was still some sound over by the li'l indie stage so I checked it out. These guys were into some sort of Mumenshanz (sp?)/Blue man Group kinda vibe, but it was cool. Percussion on plastic pipes, synths, a girl on electric violin, I think. A Theremin in there somewhere? I dug it. More money in my pocket and I would'a bought a CD. Maybe I can track 'em online.
Walked back to the quarter/downtown area where I did my usual wandering thing, until about 2:30-3:00 am, now warmly cloaked in my pancho. At one point I was asked if I was dressed for halloween. Shuttled back to the hotel and went to sleep.
© 2004 George-Williams Isaacs
