If Black Dub is the vehicle that has broadened listeners’ ears to the darker interpretation of untraditional dub, then Daniel Lanois is steady in the driver’s seat with lead singer Trixie Whitley as the co-pilot.
Tonight we’re going to break all the rules”. And with that simple statement the Mothership known as Bootsy Collins & The Funk University landed in Uptown to spread the gospel according to funk on a very ready New Orleans packed-house crowd inside Tipitina’s, a legend among legendary music haunts in the Crescent City.
It was early April when Prince called-in to George Lopez’s late night talk show and announced that he would be playing a 21-night run in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and over the course of the next month and a half, the region would be under what you could only call a “Purple Reign.”
Whereas in a two or three day festival (like Newport Folk, Treasure Island or Outside Lands) one may feel more an observer, when a festival enters into the fourth day of music, the attendee becomes more than a participant, but rather part of the fabric of suspended reality. Such was the sentiment surrounding Monday at Sasquatch.
It has been an awesome ride since The Belle Brigade's Monday night residencies at the venue formally known as Spaceland. Regardless of venue name change, the folks in the hipster neighborhood of Silverlake and the greater Los Angeles area filled the room with an appreciation that was twofold. Surrounded by old friends and new fans, being at this Belle Brigade show was like being part of a very large and delightful family.
By all accounts, Sunday was the softest of the SASQUATCH! lineups when matched with Saturday and Monday; however, it contained the most surprises and exuberant sets of the weekend. Campers began to fall into the rhythm and routine of partying, wandering the campgrounds and taking in the concerts, but Sunday also brought a large contingent of day visitors, who tended towards the younger, budding hipster adolescent variety.
Born from an Inuk mother, a Newfoundland, French Canadian father, and adopted at birth by an Inuit family and raised in the isolated, Arctic, indigenous community of Salliuit, Nunavik, Canada – the Great North– singer, composer and filmmaker Elisapie Isaac has one of the most unique backgrounds I think most music fans will ever encounter.
If Thursday night at Bonnaroo has moved past its former status as a festival prelude, Sunday has certainly maintained its rightful place as the event’s mellow epilogue. The music certainly isn’t mellow, but the atmosphere tends to be just that. Sunday night’s headliner usually draws a smaller crowd, and campers begin leaving in droves. This mass exodus makes for a full, pleasurable day for the dedicated fans, and Sunday at Bonnaroo 2011 was one of the finest yet.
Crowds at Bonnaroo swelled to capacity on a typically over-the-top Saturday that saw some of the music world’s most popular live acts perform. The teeming horde that filled the What stage field for Eminem’s headlining set rivals any assemblage of humanity in the event’s history, and the masses made for tight quarters at many of the shows.
2011 marked the 10th anniversary of the Sasquatch! Music Festival, one of the most beloved and well-attended of its kind in America. Held at the breathtaking Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, Sasquatch mixed indie rock, folk, punk, hip-hop and experimental music over the course of four full days. Selling out all 25,000 daily tickets in a mere couple of days, the popularity of the festival is only eclipsed by the consistent strength of its annual lineups. This year, headliners the Foo Fighters, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse and Wilco in no way embody the flashy, the opulent or the minimal; however, their solid rock-based performances were heartfelt, powerful and undeniably compelling.
