“Don’t take too many mushrooms” was the soundbyte afforded me by the middle aged security guard as he patted me down on the last day of Langerado. It was a freezing cold morning, but the biting ants {see picture above} didn’t seem to mind one bit as they scavenged for pieces of foot on and around my flip flops. It’s no small wonder I didn’t contract a rare and incurable disease from the combination of soaking rain, freezing cold nights, and vicious ankle-biting attack ants. And although at times I felt like calling it quits and packing my life back home to the frozen north I knew in my heart of hearts that Langerado wouldn’t be complete without one last day of great music.
First for the day was Josh Ritter and he and his compatriots took the stage dressed as if they had just stepped off the set of a Hollywood spaghetti Western. Throughout his set, which included fan favorites from both Animal Years and The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, Josh had a peculiar stage presence that reminded me hauntingly of Ben Folds. Simply put they both genuinely appear to love preforming. Josh was all smiles, jokes, and laughter and he easily held me captivated for the full hour.
mp3 : Josh Ritter - To The Dogs or Whoever
I put this song up for two reasons. First of all he played it live and didn’t miss a word in the rapid fire lyrics. Secondly it serves to illustrate the point that he sounds more like Dylan than Dylan’s own son. I know everyone looks for the next Dylan like we look for the next Jordan, but there are eerie similarities betwixt these two singer/songwriter fellows. Also during their set Josh and band stopped a song before the final verse, let out a scream, and ran around the stage akin to a chinese fire drill, whereupon they randomly picked up other instruments and finished the song.
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After Josh was done I hustled over to catch the last half of Shout Out Louds. They’re just a classic foreign band. They look like they’re European, they play music which sounds like it could have originated in California or New York, but for some reason you can just tell that it comes from some nether region of this earth. At once familiar and yet somehow fresh, new, and invigorating, Shout Out Louds tooled through a playful set and kept hearts happy, feet tapping, and heads bobbing.
mp3 : Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have to Leave It
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After both of these fun shows I was forced to sit through Grace Potter and then Government Mule. Both are easily passable in a live setting {unless maybe you’re on strong hallucinogenics, but in which case I reckon watching the latest Keanu Reeves movie would be great}. After these two abysmal sets it was on to see Minus the Bear whom I first wrote off as simply minus the talent. It’s possible I was bitter due to the lack of fun I’d had for the previous hour or so, but it was hard to listen to a set where it wasn’t possible to tell the end of one track from the beginning of the next. I must confess that over time they began to grow on me a bit and I would say they sound far better when they slow life down and let the vocals shine through the wall of fuzz and allow their bass and guitar to duel through dance rock riffs.
Next up was Ani DiFranco and I’ll admit I was going to her show full of skepticism and dread. I’ve never been a huge fan of her style of music which probably has something to do with being force fed some of her discs during my college years. However cautious I was she stripped me immidately of all my tension and took the stage full of positive energy, a wildly infectious laugh, and an easy manner of relating to the crowd that had us all agreeing with her no matter what she said.
mp3 : Ani DiFranco - As Is
She played a lot of classic DiFranco songs as well as peppering her set a bit with new songs she’s been working on in her new town, New Orleans, with her new baby. She claims she’s trying to escape the white person songwriting dillema of always whining about life, but try as she might to write happy songs there’s still a twinge of melancholy that runs through her work. One of her newer songs contained a lot of imagery about toxic mold, flooding, and the devastation of New Orleans as well as reference to a man with a monkey for a face circling above in his air conditioned helicopter whistling Dixie and pretending everything was ok {I’ll let you decipher who she was referencing}.
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After DiFranco’s encore I had just enough time to get to the Of Montreal show for the last twenty minutes or so and I’m slightly disappointed I missed seeing their entire set. I caught the last few minutes of some random buzzing guitar work before the band launched into a massive rendition of the etheral soundscape that is The Past is a Grotesque Animal. They began to play as Kevin Barnes disappeared off the stage only to emerge a full six minutes later inside of a shaving cream filled coffin. I had always heard a show by Of Montreal was a spectacle, but this went beyond even my wildest dreams. After emerging from the white goo he proceeded to sing his way through the remainder of the song before thrashing around on the stage, spraying the immediate area like a splash from Shamu, before jumping off the stage and hugging his die hard fans in the front row.
mp3 : Of Montreal - The Past is a Grotesque Animal
Although the studio version of this song is almost a full beefy twelve minutes in the live setting the took this song to epic proportions letting it romp out a lengthy sixteen distortion and fuzz filled dance/pop/rock minutes.
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Last up for my festival tour was The National on the Chickee Hut stage. Although a festival often allows people to discover new bands and catch a slice of their live set there are times when the strict hour long performance time can feel like it’s limiting a band a bit too much. This was especially true of The National. Even though they were the last band to preform on that particular stage they weren’t even afforded an encore. An encore I must say they were well due. The ripped through favorites from both Alligator as well as The Boxer and they proved beyond a doubt that Paste Magazine was justified in choosing these boys as having created the best album of 2007.
mp3 : The National - Fake Empire
mp3 : The National - Mistaken for Strangers
Although they played on a smaller stage to a smaller audience than some of the more seasoned acts at the festival I would put the performance by The National on par with veterans such as Ben Folds or R.E.M. There was a sense of passion on the stage that night that isn’t always found in the midst of a hectic touring schedule. I would definitely see them play again live and would recommend it to anyone reading this little blog. Their studio albums are solid from start to end, but their live set takes their talent and passion to a different level entirely; it is simply a show that must be seen.
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Langerado was a wonderful festival filled with chance encounters, stranger than life occurrences, and some solid music from day one to the closing acts. It is a great festival that I would be more than willing to attend again and would recommend whole heartedly to anyone who can catch it next year. Maybe I’ll see you there. In other news I met some folks down there that I thought I would mention. First of all I hung out with some bloggers/workers from a new online music retailer called Grooveshark. Secondly I met a blogger who was there with her husband {who made his bachelor party buddies go with him to SXSW last year to catch Arcade Fire instead of going to Vegas for stippers like they wanted} who works for a blog called Melody Makers {which might be found here, but I’m not entirely sure where the blog actually is located}. And finally I had a chance to talk to a Paste Magazine intern and I thought I would mention, again, that they are still the best music magazine currently in publication.
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