How can one describe in words an experience like a musical festival? I believe it would be akin to asking a new father to describe the joy of having a healthy baby or putting a microphone in front of a person watching a sunset unfold and forcing them to describe the event for thousands of people millions of miles away. This is the feat that I am struggling with. How can I accurately describe something that truly needs to be experienced; how can I convey the thrill of a festival through mere words? Whether I find a muse to guide me through this four day blogathon or not will be for you to decide. Remember this as you read, these are simply words, to know how much fun it is to experience Langerado you’ll have to attend it yourself next March.
{the following consists of excerpts taken from my journal during Langerado 2008}
Who agreed to drive twenty plus hours just to go to a music festival? I know we somehow scored free media passes to this event, but this drive is brutal. I’ve just driven, pretty much all at once, from northern Indiana to the southern side of Atlanta. For those of you who live outside the glories of middle America that’s roughly twelve straight hours behind the wheel. At least I had the music of Cloud Cult to keep me company as my traveling buddy desperately tried to get some rest on the passenger side. When at last my turn to sleep came I jumped in the back seat of our rented car and died for about four hours. Even in the cramped quarters of a Chevy Malibu sleep still felt like a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer’s day.
After twenty odd hours on the road we arrived at our first destination on this little road trip. I’m not sure who’s idea it was originally, but staying in a hotel the night before the festival began might have been the best idea of the entire trip. Some booze, some ice cream, some excellent smokehouse bar-b-que from Jack’s, and a few hours spent watching Discovery before passing out for the night was just what I needed.
The next morning we attempted a trip to the beach only to arrive at the same time as a wicked amount of semi-tropical rain. Not to be dissuaded we sat in the lobby of a hotel watching the rain and reading back issues of Paste Magazine. After watching the rain fail to abate for the better part of two hours we decided it was time to head toward food and toward the festival grounds. Little did we know that we would end up at a scrumptious Gutamalen Eatery on a random side street in the south of Fort Lauderdale. We watched divorce court en Espanol and listened to a man from Honduras regale us with stories of his massive road trips to cities roughly a few hours away. I’m sure in his not-quite-lucid mind he was connecting with us as he flipped the bird to Jupiter Florida {for being so far away} and asked us if he should call his sister so we could get laid. Fortunately we had better things to do that day and on we trekked to the Big Cypress Reservation deep in the middle of the Everglades.
We grabbed our media wristbands and a parking pass for the Chevy before setting up our tent and heading into the festival. The first night was a bit slow for the music schedule so I decided I’d mill about and catch what acts I could, leave the shows I didn’t like, and hopefully find a few gems to share. I dropped by the press tent and met a few fellow grown up kids who, like me, aren’t really making any money writing about music but are doing it nonetheless. Afterward it was off to peruse the five stages of Langerado in the pursuit of entertainment.
First stop was the winner of the Sonicbids voting for who would open the festival. Palominos played a tight set that consisted of entertaining southern rock and they gave me a free CD after the show {which is always an easy way to win over the press. From there it was time to see if Golem were half as entertaining as the Tolkien character which shares their name. Unfortunately I feel as if I would rather listen to Smeagol sing the Songs of Middle Earth than have to sit through another set by Golem. It was that bad
Next it was on to see Les Claypool. I’ve known for awhile that I don’t really appreciate jam bands very much {ever since my freshman year roommate routinely rotated his four Phish albums with the sixteen Dave Matthews Band discs he had}, but Les took my simple dislike and blasted it off into full blown disdain. Honestly, how can anyone not on drugs like this music at all? And to be fair even the overweight and mostly naked guy tripping on acid didn’t seem to care much for the music either. Although he did have a penchant for yelling out clever one liners like “That’s why tits never went out of style, Ryan!” or the clever rejoinder of “I got my acid in 2012″ when someone asked where he had bought his little mind trip.
Fortunately there were two bands on the schedule which totally redeemed the evening and served to set the mood for the remainder of Langerado. And no, Dark Star Orchestra was not one of those bands. Did anyone honestly like The Grateful Dead to begin with?
The first surprise of the fest was a band from Miami called Awesome New Republic. They’re prone to referring to themselves as ANR and they played a great one hour set that contained a clever mix of dance pop and art rock. They had a very passionate local fanbase singing along with a lot of their songs as they played frenetically through songs that kept the entire crowd bouncing and dancing along. It’ll be interesting to hear if their live energy can transfer to a studio album, but if it can be chanelled long enough for a full LP I would say this band will come to be enjoyed by many.
mp3 : Awesome New Republic - Last Drop
mp3 : Awesome New Republic - Wheels No Engines
My favorite act of the night came in the form of the extremely awkward That 1 Guy. He plays a homemade instrument referred to as the Magic Pipe as well as an Electric Cowboy Boot. Although he’s quirky and definitely leaning toward the odd side of the spectrum he plays intense and insanely danceable songs that are filled with heavy beats and clever melodies. He sounds a bit like Beck, Weird Al, and Marilyn Manson rolled into a one man band and he pulls it all off with a straight facing singing songs about raining meat, the fact that the moon is made of cheese, or fruit. {You must listen to his song The Moon Is Disgusting all the way through. The last two minutes are simply gorgeous dance beats. He was also, easily, the one artist talked about the most in the press tent the following day}.
mp3 : That 1 Guy - It’s Raining Meat
mp3 : That 1 Guy - The Moon Is Disgusting
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Day 1 was over and it was time to return to a tent that had been soaked during the afternoon rainstorm. It didn’t matter though as we were sufficiently filled with the sonic feast we had enjoyed during the glorious Florida sunshine. There really is nothing like a festival, especially not words and pictures.
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