June 12, 2007

Wakarusa Festival Review & Photos - Day 4 - 06/10/07

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals are first on my agenda on the 4th day at Wakarusa. A Vermont-based band that is also performing at the Telluride Blues & Brew Festival in September that I will be attending, so I wanted to get a quick peek after a fellow festival goer said she put on a killer show at the Revival Tent last night.

Dressed in tight leather pants and a throng of men and boys hanging on the fence in front of the stage, she performed songs off her new album due out in August, This Is Somewhere. She is quite proficient on either the guitar or the Hammond B3 organ and sort of reminds me of bit of Joan Jett with her stage presence. But this young 24 year old has lots of old soul in her lyrics and will be looking forward to those vocals bouncing off the Rocky Mountains in the fall.

Grace Potter www.MusicRoadMan.com

Grace Potter www.MusicRoadMan.com

Grace, Scott Tournet / guitar, Matt Burr / drums www.MusicRoadMan.com

Little Feat followed and as long as this band has been around, this is my first time seeing them in the flesh. Having been around since the early 70’s, classic rock is their main choice with a little southern hospitality thrown in. Having done a lot of work raising money for Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region was mentioned several times during their set and Shaun Murphy did a great job on "Feels Like Rain". Bonnie Payne was brought out with the washboard for "Little Cajun Girl" while Michael Franti was standing on the sidelines admiring their work.

Sam Clayton/Little Feat www.MusicRoadMan.com

Fred Tackett & Bill Payne www.MusicRoadMan.com

Paul Barrere & Kenny Gradney www.MusicRoadMan.com

Fred Tackett & Bonnie Payne www.MusicRoadMan.com

Michael Franti www.MusicRoadMan.com

Medeski, Martin & Wood were up next and I was looking forward to catching them for the first time after missing them last month in New Orleans because I was…. out drinking too late with my buddies. So shame on me.

I did not listen to any of their music or read anything about them so I was showing up blind. As I approached the stage, I noticed a huge array of musical instruments behind the drums, which even included an assortment of rubber duckies. Very interesting……. 10 minutes into the set, I was completely floored by the instrumental, improv, experimental, funky, jazzy jam session in front of me and wondered why I have not seen these guys sooner. The drummer, Billy Martin, was fantastic as he went smoothly from playing drums, cowbells, changing drumsticks and even the infamous duckies and John Medeski handling so many keyboards and sound effects was phenomenal. Chris Wood playing the bass at center stage was the least active one of the bunch, but his musical abilities are not to be doubted as his eyes wondered back and forth between his cohorts. One of my favorite performances of the weekend, hands down…..

Look forward to John Medeski again in August at the Telluride Jazz Festival with another couple of buddies of his, John Scofield at guitar and Adam Deitch of Lettuce on the drums. Another sweet funky jam……………..

Medeski, Martin and Wood www.MusicRoadMan.com

Billy Martin www.MusicRoadMan.com

John Medeski www.MusicRoadMan.com

Chris Wood www.MusicRoadMan.com

I was only going to stay for a couple songs of Michael Franti’s set as I saw him last week at the Mountain Jam, but said "what the hell" and stayed for the whole thing anyway. Set list was basically the same as last week, but Michael had a new buddy climb on stage who was giving away free hugs and he was gracious enough to let her stay on stage for several minutes as the security guards were swarming off to the side.

Michael Franti & friend www.MusicRoadMan.com

Les Claypool closed out the weekend on the Main Stage and the set was shortened to about 40 minutes due to stage setup, shows running a bit long and some miscommunication on when the last show was supposed to end. This made for a VERY grumpy crowd and you could tell Les was not too happy about it either, but he made the best of it and put on a great shortened show. This was the first time I have seen him and was told by one of my guitar buddies that he plays a very mean bass and he was not kidding. He even had time to change into a Porky Pig mask and put on an Elvis toupee and glasses, which looked a bit strange with his beard. Unfortunately I did not get any photos that were worth showing on here, but fortunately I will see him again at the Gathering Of The Vibes Festival in August in Bridgeport, CT, so stay tuned.

It was a great festival, got very little sleep and made some new friends amongst the crowd, including the "Wakarooster" from Fort Worth……………..