Somehow it seemed fitting that the headlines in national news carried the cancellation of the Woodstock 50th Anniversary Festival the day following the Do It Ourselves Festival (DIO) in Boulder Creek, California. In a world where big festivals are increasingly monetizing the live music experience with tiers of attendance and general admission tickets running for $450.00, it’s the little festivals that harken back to what is right with live music. DIO is the antidote of a big money festival. The festival’s organizers are proving, year after year, that the genuine festival experience is the combination of three basic but necessary ingredients: a turned on and socially active audience that is comfortable and grounded in nature, a solid line-up of bands and musicians eager to make every show or set they play special, and a sense of community – that we navigate these dark times our country plies together, high up on a mountain top with a bad ass soundtrack.
The thing about DIO, from the perspective of a participant, is that you always know what you’re going to get. It’s a simple music festival with few frills (save some KILLER food and beer, oh, and a pool). There’s a campfire to sit around late night, music that inspires you to dig deeper than your typical Spotify playlist, and many, MANY smiles and hugs. You know it cannot get bigger. A sellout for this festival hovers under a thousand lucky attendees which makes for an intimate few days that we can all hang together and face the coming year after having tucked our DIO vibes away for when we need them most. You know you won’t just be a name on a ticket list, you know you’ll find friends and build friendships that might last a lifetime. That cannot be monetized, what’s the point? You just buy your ticket and know it is going to be there and you smile.
This year’s musical line-up that took place April 26-28, 2019 was packed with bands many of us had heard but equally with those that we had yet to hear. The weekend started with a laid back, beautiful acoustic set of music by Nels Andrews who played his gentle Folk/Americana set as a way to ease into DIO Friday. The crowd stood respectful, listening as the Santa Cruz sun warmed them with a real spring day (it’s been a long, dark, and wet winter around these parts). The music drifted over the trees to the pool where attendees swam and laughed, happy to reunite in such a rad scene and apply sunscreen in healthy dollops. Boulder Creek musician, Ona Stewart followed over on the little amphitheater stage where a similarly attentive audience listened to his songs, tunes that he has honed as a solo artist outside of his raucous Bluegrass band, The Naked Bootleggers. It was, like Nels’ set up at the mainstage, a mellow start over at the amphitheater but all that was smashed into a thousand tiny pieces with the next set up at the big stage. Tornado Rider, a Jark Rock band comprised of Rushad Eggelston on cello and lead vocals, Graham Terry on bass and Scott Manke on drums absolutely destroyed that mountain top clearing. It was something akin to early Primus only weirder, maybe even louder and even less apologetic. Eggleston bounced around the stage, launched into the crowd, laid on his back playing his cello between his legs. Rushad has been a fixture at DIO over the years and this year was an exceptional performance. True to their name, the sound was tornadic and awesome. Rushad’s, “I Peed on A Bird” never sounded so cool.
All the while that this was going on, shuttle after shuttle wended its way up the hill unloading expectant festival goers and the unloading point was a constant flurry of high-fives, hugs and cheers as cases of beer, camping gear and people stumbled from the vans and buses.
In contrast to Tornado Rider, the uncompromising harmonies of Mapache began over at the amphitheater stage. The set was gorgeous in its simplicity: just two dudes, a steel and acoustic guitar and California songs that dripped with sunshine. This duo is reminiscent of Tim Bluhm and Greg Loiacono’s Ballpoint Bird era releases over a decade ago and are highly recommended if you like that simple singer/songwriter approach to beautiful music. Kaleb Clauder followed over at the mainstage with a country set that had the high lonesome sound of Bluegrass but the drum drive and shuffle of classic country. The music just did not let up and running between stages begged for some physical conditioning pre-fest as you move up and down a hill for what seems like a couple hundred trips. This is not to dissuade anyone, its good for you and balances the beer intake!
For all the unrelenting music, though, perhaps the set of the day was yet to come. Marty O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra from Santa Cruz followed Clauder over at the amphitheater stage. We knew things were going to be different when we saw the band set up forward of the stage and instruments waited where the crowd should normally be. This was Marty and the fellas’ return to DIO after last year’s absence when they were touring in Europe. Nothing could have prepared the audience for this explosive set. The centerpiece had to have been a jammed-out version of “Letters” that moved into territory they do not normally invade. This little fourpiece belies the size of the sound they can produce. The set was massive, and the crowd literally enveloped the band surrounding them on all sides and inspiring at least one eighteen-month-old baby to head bang as hard as any twenty-something punk rocker. This band is something truly special and not to be missed if you find yourself on the same festival grounds this summer or within a hundred miles of one of their shows (seriously).
The night went on with sets by The Mattson 2 and the first of the many later night sets started off by El Duo. Kyra Joseph kept heads spinning late night with a DJ set in the camp cafeteria that laid down infectious grooves that elicited cheers and booty bumps in the crowd. Saturday morning opened sunny with many returning to the pool, bloody marys and mimosas in hand. But then the clouds came, and the temperature fell just enough to bring a chill (classic Santa Cruz County spring weather) but not before Burning Pictures took the mainstage for the first set of the day. The performance was this band’s inaugural set under their new name. Joe Kaplow, Elliot Kay, Bobcat Rob Re Armenti, and Mikey Whelan have been playing together in various incarnations for years now, but now something is different – the intention is stronger. There is a settling happening in the best sense of the word. Burning Pictures holds both the sensibilities and concurrent Rock abandon of The Band, tempered with classic Soul and Country. Their songs are engaging exercises in harmony driven by guitar and keyboard while splashed with banjo. The players take turns on vocals and the talent here is undeniable. Whelan, for example, can sing with the poise of an old Soul singer that visually doesn’t make sense when you see that sound coming from an Irish kid. Their set was a triumph and this band will be gaining fans throughout the country as they continue their rise (they had a national tour, under a different name, last fall).
Another very notable set on Saturday was Jordan Smart. This was his final set of a tour that spanned a journey from his native Ohio to California. The tour was essentially a way to finance the move of his little family from Ohio back to Monterey County after living in the mid-west for a couple of years. Those in the audience that knew him loved the set not necessarily for what was played (the setlist was great), but more how it was played. Jordan attacked his songs vocally, using new phrasings, stylings and emphasis that made the songs even more impactful and lent even more strength than previously heard versions. His guitar playing was precise and biting. He pulled at his strings rather than strumming them, so much so that at least one was broken by the end of the set. And at the close he had the whole amphitheater up and dancing to his song “P.I.C.K.L.E.S.” so that the scene was far more rocking than a Folk musician might normally be able to whip up. Its good to have Jordan back “home” in Monterey County, focused on honing his craft and creating in a way that spiritually feeds him.
Following a subdued set by The Heligoats on the same stage Jordan had just played, Rudy De Anda played next. No one was ready for this music and its like has probably never been seen at DIO. It was avant garde and strange with thin guitar tones swirling keyboard, cowbell and weird singing. By all accounts it should not have worked but the weirdness actually made the set cohesive. Rudy, himself, ran through the crowd, sometimes sitting with them or charging around the hills that closed in the stage. By the end of the set the crowd was in a frenzy with wild cheers and begging for an encore that was not to be. “Leave them wanting more” was exactly Rudy’s tactic and it was well executed as the crowd refused to leave the stage for at least ten minutes after the final note dissipated.
This energy fed over to the mainstage where Kendra McKinley and her band was just getting going. No one was prepared for the level of production Kendra and her band brought to the stage. It was equal parts RAWK, choreography and imagination. It was like watching a rock opera unfold before your eyes. The way that Kendra glared out at the audience highlighted the strength and intention of her playing that evening. The harmonies, at times, were like some kind of Renaissance choir and the guitar was slaying and loud. By the halfway point of the set Kendra probably had the best attendance yet seen up at the mainstage. People were into it. Organizer Stevee Stubblefield broke in for just a moment to remind the crowd of why we were there on that mountain top as well as to highlight the strength of the female players on the lineup this year as well as all the ladies that put so much time into bring the festival to fruition. It was a classy and important move and lent even more edge to the rest of McKinley’s set.
And then it was time for Eric Johnson and Andy Cabic. These two prolific songwriters from Fruit Bats and Vetiver, respectively, ran through some twenty plus songs bouncing back and forth from Andy to Eric, each taking lead vocals for their individual songs. Early in the set Eric asked how the festival stoke level was doing? The response started with a cheer and then another three people joined in, then 10 more, then 30 more and soon the whole amphitheater was on fire with peeling cheers and excitement. Johnson laughed, “Well cool, you’re at a stoke level of about 110, DIO, and I’m going to need you to dial that back to about 98.” The songs were beautiful, soft and thought provoking. If the stoke level was so high, so was the level of respect the crowd had for the Andy and Eric because you could have heard a pin drop as they played.
The late-night stages began after Cabic and Johnson and boasted Long Beach’s own Tropa Magica that brewed up a psychedelic soup of trippy Cumbia that drove the crowd into the later late-night performances of Soul Funky and The Rainbow Girls. Sunday is always a mellow day at DIO with a “family set” over on the amphitheater stage followed by Debbie Neigher’s soulful solo project Lapel that consisted of swirling keyboard runs and sultry voice. Skyway Man followed Neigher offering more of the psychedelic soundscape music that works so well in that forest up on that mountain top.
DIO is special and its attendees know this. It’s a weekend that many hold sacred, willing to return year after year to gather the magic that will morph to memories that will elicit smiles for a long time to come. It is a festival that is truly the sum of its parts and a labor of love that we can all bring together and build year after year. If this festival has never seen your face, change that next year. Feel what it is to be a part of something unique and vibrant in music. Participate in that scene and make it the beautiful thing that it is. For this you will never be sorry. See you in April, 2020!
