Festival Previews: 2009
Spring is in the air. For most folks, that brings up visions of yard work, annual maintenance, and whatnot. To any serious music head, it begins the annual tradition of watching and waiting for the year's crops of festivals to start announcing lineups.
Music forums become clogged with posts speculating who will be playing where, what dates they will be, which ones will overlap (causing the hardcores many nightmares of having to pick between two, heaven forbid), and in light of recent economic times, which of them one can actually afford to attend.
Many an animated debate have taken place between the staff here, with just as much (and some of us would argue moreso) anticipation as to how the 2009 festival season will shape up.
Well now, with the majority of the festivals having posted at least preliminary lineups, we've decided to survey the landscape to see what's out there.
In this first of a series, we'll take a look at the "Big" Jam scene festies for 2009:
Langerado
Over the past several years, Langerado has traditionally been the first "big" festie of the season. A preliminary lineup was announced on Dec. 9 of last year, and while many of the Jam scene "regulars" were on the list, a clear cut list of headliners wasn't present.
Even more surprising was the announcement sometime later that the venue had changed from the traditional location to downtown Miami. This became the source of a great deal of debate, as to how that would work exactly. Miami is not exactly a "camping" friendly location, meaning festival goers would have to add some rather pricy hotels to the ticket at precisely a time when the economy was going South in a big way. Additionally, there was a fair bit of question as to how the event would "feel" to attend. Most multi day Jam genre festivals are based around the notion of camping, and the idea of trudging (or cabbing) back to a hotel at 4AM doesn't have nearly the same feel as making a short hike back to one's tent and talking about the days events with your new neighbors.
As a result, on May 8 when it was announced that Langerado was cancelled, few were really surprised. While Langerado's official statement put some of the blame on lack of corporate sponsorship, many have speculated that it really had more to do with the change of venue than anything else.
With one of the "Big Three" down, all hopes turned to Bonnaroo and Rothbury, at least in terms of the "Big" festies.
Bonnaroo
Bonnaroo. The mere mention of the word quickens the pulse of many a Jam band aficionado. As much an endurance trial as a festival, for many years Bonnaroo has been the 700 pound gorilla of Jam festivals. It's legendary lineups, plethora of stages, and thermal environment that's closer to Burning Man than a music festival have firmly won it a place in many festival goers hearts.
In recent years, Bonnaroo has began to branch out from it's Jam Band beginnings, sometimes to mixed results. Bringing in Kanye West last year, with a very delayed start (which bumped Phil Lesh and Friends off an hour early, much to the chagrin of the sizable Deadhead contingent present), and an arguably marginal performance to boot left some wondering what Superfly was thinking.
When the preliminary lineup was announced on Feb 3, Bonnaroo once again had a mix of Jam scene favorites and mainstream heavyweights. With Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on the bill and the accompanying draw Bruce brings, the mainstream attraction is unquestionably secured. However the inclusion of Phish (with 2 shows, no less) and moe. definitely bolstered the lineup to the Jam scene faithful. Mix in sets by Elvis Costello, NIN, Wilco, David Byrne, Snoop Dog, The Beastie Boys and Ben Harper and Bonnaroo's "something for everyone" approach is firmly in the bag.
As usual a good cross section of smaller Jam scene favorites pepper the list, with Gov't Mule, Gomez, Citizen Cope, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Galactic and many others.
Pros:
Huge lineupSeveral great mainstream acts
First class PA's. Bonnaroo's larger stages always have immaculate audio quality. Alcons line arrays rule. Period.
The sheer size of the event (for those who love massive crowds).
The festival world's best named stages, due to it's effect on hammered first timers.
Cons:
The sheer size of the event (for those who don't). Expect to spend quite some time just getting onto the grounds.The legendary heat and humidity that turns Bonnaroo into a marathon event. Forget even trying to sleep in past 7:30am, because your tent is already a sauna.
Having to budget a sizable portion of the admission price just to keep your cooler's iced with bags that end up half melted in the process of carrying them back to camp.
Having to dump your camelback on entering the venue so they can maximize the profits from bottled water sales in a dangerously hot environment. In our opinion, this is just irresponsible. There's WAY too many cases of heat exhaustion and heatstroke that occur at 'Roo every year.
Rothbury
Last year, Rothbury came out of nowhere as a first time festie, with a lineup to die for. On the merit's of it's lineup alone, it was a no brainer decision to go. If it had just been the lineup alone, Rothbury would have been a success, but this newcomer festie came packing a degree of organization and thought to it that few would have suspected for a first year venture. The grounds were a delight (particularly the whole Sherwood Forest, which was just fantastic, particularly at night). Like Bonnaroo, the grounds had a number of interesting attractions outside of the bands, but what made it all the more special is that the various sculptures and whatnot were comprised of entirely recycled materials gathered from on the grounds.
Shortly after Rothbury concluded as a great success last year, the physical property it was held on fell into financial hardship, raising the question of if the event would make it to year two, or if it did, where would it be held? It was with great relief that in February the Rothbury folks announced that Rothbury 2009 would indeed take place, and even better still, on the same magic site that made it so special last year. The big question then became, what would the lineup be?
By mid March, the preliminary lineup was up. And what a lineup it was. With The Dead (in it's only summer performance, no less), Bob Dylan, SCI (in it's only performance of the year), Gov't Mule and The Black Crowes, Rothbury 2009 again is a no brainer for the Jam scene faithful. Add in Willie Nelson, FLAF alum Jackie Greene, and Zappa Plays Zappa for seasoning, and a whole slug of Jam scene hitters like YMSB, Les Claypool, STS9, The Disco Biscuits, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Railroad Earth, and Lotus and you have the makings of yet another unforgettable festie just from a lineup standpoint.
When you factor in things like Rothbury not just talking the talk, but REALLY walking the walk in terms of their truly impressive implementation of Green initiatives that truly work (for more on this, see our review from last year here) and Rothbury gets our nod for THE big festie of 2009 to attend. If you can only hit one festival this season, this is the one.
Pros:
The Dead. 'nuf said. After covering 10 shows from spring tour, we can safely say that the boys are back, firing on all cylinders, and a MUST see.Dylan. What could go better with The Dead than Dylan.
Everything you love about Bonnaroo, minus the heat, and only 2/3 of the crowd.
An absolutely superb atmosphere. Really, trust us, it's beyond cool. The entire site is just a delight to explore.
A Green program that didn't just raise the bar for the other festies, it knocked it completely the hell out of the park.
Free water INSIDE the venue. That is just incredibly responsible.
Cons:
Not as huge as Bonnaroo (if you're into insanely large crowds).A bit pricier than last year.
The same dates as NLQP's Gratefulfest 10. Serious bummer, as Greatfulfest has quite possibly the coolest environment and just the most incredibly laid back vibe of any festival going. If you can't make Rothbury, and live anywhere near Cleveland, that would be our place to be for 4th of July weekend. Fortunately for our readers, we'll be covering both.