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Late NIght
Last night I got the chance to see an amazing show…
It started with a local Denver band called Tiger Party. This band is like a funky electronic future disco, and I like it. With members of the bands The Malah, Octopus Nebulah, and Signal Path, you should know that these guys know that they know what they are doing. Check em out when you get a chance.
The headliner for the night though was Pigs on the Wing…My camera is busted so I’ll include a video of a past performance, but you have got to see this band live.
Featuring Dave Murphy of STS9, this is the best Pink Floyd cover band I have ever seen. In order to capture the layers heard in Pink Floyd recordings there were sometimes 8 people on stage including Dom from Big Gigantic. Sometimes there would be only 1 or 2 people on stage during the ambient portions. Whatever song they did though, they truly brought to life. We’ve seen something like this before at Summer Camp, wouldn’t it be great to see something like it again this year?
Living out in the Western parts of this country I get a chance to see a lot of bands that haven’t made a presence in the midwest yet. One of my favorites is the Oak Creek band out of Sedonah, Arizona, now living in Denver. I’m sure some of you haven’t ever heard them so I am telling you, check out this band. I’ve attached a video here:
This was the opener of there last show at Cervantes in Denver. A great way to start the night. I wish I hand;t had so many soda pops…the sugar got to me and I was not able to record the highlight of the night, a four on the floor, funked out, danced up version of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby.
These guys just came through Martyr’s in Chicago and I am sure they’ll be back through that way soon. Take my word for it and do not miss these guys. In the meantime check them out through the google machine.
Well, it took a week, but I am fully recovered. It took about 4 days physically and another 2 or 3 emotionally to readjust. There is just something about going to place as special as Summer Camp and then having to re-acclimate to life’s responsibilities. Overall, this was one of my best Summer Camp experiences. I met new people, heard new songs, found new bands I like and so much more. The weather could have cooperated a little more, but you don’t love the dry ones without getting muddy at the wet ones.
I really want to say how impressed I am with the Summer Camp staff. This year was the biggest and best I have seen the festival in terms of stage, sound, and light set ups, the attendance, and the lineup. The additional late night options were awesome and I can’t wait to hit up the 312 Vibe Tent late night next year…what a great stage to have access to. I was also digging the movement of the campfire stage to the bottom of the hill and a bigger stage with better audio equipment. It makes sense to put it where it was and I love that we got to see some “bigger” acts playing late into the night without requiring an additional ticket.
Speaking of late nights, there was a little shadiness this year, no? I saw kids with wristbands on that they had paid for being denied access to the red barn…Was it oversold? Did the security guards take bribes? Were people entering and peeling their wristbands off? I heard a lot of reasons and rumors, but hopefully it is something that can get worked out for the future…maybe free late nights??? I heard Wakarusa had mainstage sets going until 5am, wouldn’t that be lovely? Basically the request here is this, Summer Camp, MORE MUSIC MORE OF THE TIME!!!! Please and Thank You.
Moving on, I’d like to change the subject and talk a little bit about mustaches…A dying art, I decided to document some of the mustaches at Summer Camp. Maybe you met Parker with a walrus on his lip, or perhaps you saw Brainchild and Roy Ponce’s mustache. What people don’t know is that growing a mustache is a lot like living life. Patience and time to see it through, a vision of a future not yet seen, stray hairs getting in your mouth (metaphorically in life), growing a mustache is tough. I thought these people needed to be shown for their courage and efforts in the field of mustachery. So, for an overview of some of the nicest staches you’ll ever see in Chillicothe, check out my pics on the Summer Camp page…theres a little mustache expose on there.
Anyway, I want to take an opportunity to let you all know how privileged I felt to be a Summer Camp CIT. It was an honor to be selected as a fan worthy of covering the festival and showing you all how I like to do my thing in the amazing land of Summer Camp. We all have our styles at the festivals, from the mud lovers to the peeps who get hotels in Peoria, but we are all brought together by our common love of the music. Whether you were there to see one band or see them all, I hope you all enjoyed yourself as much as I did. I know I’ll be back next year, so if you see me, come say hello!
Cheers everyone.
Peace, Love, Summer Camp, Gold Bond,
Jeff Greenswag
Counselor In Training
Sunday, the technical last day of the fest and I feel like I didn’t get my fix. This was the day to go all out and enjoy everything for what it’s worth. But not today, we woke up to a rain/thunderstorm which sucked but was sweet at the same time. It’s really cool to be that close to thunderstorms because you are so much more connected in a tent then you are in a house you know what I mean, but the rain turned all the mud into soup which caused me to retire the one and only pair of shoes I brought. I ended up going barefoot the rest of the fest but so was about 50% of everyone else so I felt I fit in pretty well. The rain also created a pretty sweet mud slide about 75 feet away from our campsite. Two ballsy people where mud sliding in their skivvies. On my way to a meeting I had I happened to line up right next to the guy right as he was belly flopping in the mud and got sprayed a little more than I wanted to but oh well. It’s not like I hadn’t had any mud on me at all throughout the weekend.
The mud not only created fun but a little bit of sorrow as well, it stalled the music. The set I was looking forward to the most was the Umphrey’s McGee and Huey Lewis set and it got a bit postponed. I was pretty bummed out about that but the set was everything you could ever hope for. Starting off with an All In Time and then followed by songs such as Women Wine and Song, Up on Cripple Creek, and I’m pretty sure I remember hearing some of the Ghost Busters theme song. I was pretty disappointed I still have never seen a live Front Porch and was hoping this would be the year but they say patience is a virtue ( I have no patience). This was a pretty big day for the Dubstep/Electronica shows. All the biggies played like Skrillex, Bassnectar, Eoto, Chalice Dubs Masquerade, not to mention Sound Tribe playing the late night. Im not real big into that style of music but I can still appreciate it. Bassnectar was absolutely epic, he played at the Moonshine stage and everyone went crazy. SOOOOOO MANY PEOPLE, it was a great turn out.
By the time the end of the night came I was absolutely pooped but that didn’t stop me from staying up a bit longer to enjoy the people of the fest. I ended up sitting at the end of our little lighted trial with a blinking light bubble gun. Yeah, it is a frickin sweet gun. So I sat at the end of the trail and bammed people, it was fun. Now if you have never been bammed by someone or bammed someone all you have to do is have a super sweet light or glow stick of some sort. You then take that stick or light and point it at someone and yell BAM!!!!! You then explain that they were bammed by the best and go on your merry may. It might sound lame or childish but hey when you catch people off guard it’s soo funny. I actually sat and did that for a good hour or more and personally I thought it was great. Now to sleep and prepare for the pack and haul back in the early morning, a sat night to come but he had to come eventually right.
Natalie Fletcher
Counselor In Training
Sunday, the saddest day of the festival…the last one. Back to the real world, I suppose. But this Sunday would be a great one. It started off with a little breakfast, I think I got the vegan breakfast in a cup which had yogurt and granola and juice all blended together. Very good, very refreshing. Due to the Umphrey’s and Cornmeal set time flip flop, I had an opportunity to catch one of my favorite bands, The New Mastersounds. Super tight British Funk that we are lucky to have. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the guys in New Mastersounds and they are super nice and fun to party with. If you live in CO come out and see them open for Umphrey’s at Red Rocks on the 3rd of July.
After the New Mastersounds we got to see Huey Lewis and the rUMors. The set was awesome. Some Huey tunes, some Umph tunes, some covers. A great time was had by all and it was really cool to get to see someone like Huey Lewis take the stage. We stuck around to see some Bruce Hornsby. A real treat there included seeing Bruce, Bela Fleck, and Jimmy Herring all play together. I’ve never seen those guys on stage together and I feel like that won’t happen too often. If you saw it, sweet. If not, check out my video of it on the Summer Camp page.
After a little moe. and some dinner we headed out to see Widespread Panic. What an awesome show! Amazing background with the LED walls interspersed with bright white lights. They played for 2 straight hours and the entire time the intensity only increased. After Widespread it was on to see Karl Denson. I know most of you went to see Bassnectar on the big stage, but I could just not pass up the chance to see one of the best musicians at the festival do his thing. Super upbeat and funky, Karl Denson always delivers no matter which of his many projects he is playing in.
With a late night ticket, I made my way to see EOTO and STS9…it was SO HOT in the barn on Sunday night I couldn’t bare it…the wolfpack was to retire to the den. When we got there everyone was pretty ravaged from the last 4 days. Most kids went to sleep but I tried to tell them to stay up and come out. The last night is the weirdest, and the best. I grabbed a carton of goldfish and set out with my buddy, Zemel…we encountered a 30 foot long hopscotch game made of glowsticks, we fed people goldfish, saw some band just set up and raging it in the forest, Indigo Sun, I believe was there name. Looks like they were really determined to play Summer Camp. We walked around the grounds and stopped at the general store where a quick game of baseball was taken up. A girl behind the counter had a waffle bat so I tried to throw goldfish past her swing and into her friend’s mouth. With a full count, I wound up and faked the pitch drawing her swing, I threw the goldfish behind my back, and right into the guy’s
mouth…the no hitter was kept in tact.
As the sun started to come up, I realized that I had to drive back to Colorado. So instead of getting some sleep, I broke down my site and packed up my car, just to be prepared in case my CO crew was gonna bounce by 6am as we had discussed. Let’s just say we ended up getting a late start. I decided to head over to the VIP tent, which, upon sunrise was still RAGING. Members of UM, The New Mastersounds and more were still partying hard. With all the booze basically being up for grabs I had a couple shots and beers and just really enjoyed the morning sunrise. I met (finally) Allie Komessar. If you don’t know who she is, you should. She works for 312 and basically ran the Field Day events. She is a great person to have be a part of our festival and I look forward to an encounter next Scamp.
After one last session of partying I got in touch with my peeps and we hit the road. Finally leaving Chillicothe at 10 am, we drove real hard and made it back to Denver around midnight. The journey was complete. I was exhausted when I finally pulled up to my place but it was the good kind of exhaustion that makes me say, damn, I can’t wait to go back. Only 361 more days til Summer Camp 2012…see you there.
Jeff Greenswag
Counselor In Training
By Saturday Morning I was into my routine at Summer Camp 2011. I planned to rendezvous with my P-Town friends at Yoga around 10 AM This meant that I only got about five hours of rough sleep, which was intermittently, interrupted by the DJ at the next campsite. I will say that he played on tiny speakers so it was actually fairly enjoyable despite the fact that I kept waking up to it. I rose around 9 a.m. and let Amy sleep in while I got cleaned up at the Barn. I headed over to the Soulshine Tent around 10 a.m. and started taking some photos. There was actually a decent-sized crowd in attendance. The instructor talked about balance and structure with your body’s dance and movements. I tried to take that to heart for the rest of the weekend. I met up with Joe and Angie and headed to their RV to charge my Flip Camera.
Afterwards I made my way over to Ben and Erin’s Bus to copy off my cards and clear up some space. They graciously let me borrow their macbook so I could get that accomplished. Thanks guys. I hit up the press meeting around 12:30 and took the extra time to upload my content to Holly. It was only Saturday morning and I had already taken over 2000 photos and a ton of video.
I found out later in the day that Amy went and caught Gaelic Storm; she let me know they were a very interesting act. While doing research I learned that this is the same band that is featured in the Titantic steerage party scene. In addition to coving Paul Simon’s Cecilia they combined elements of traditional Irish/Celtic music with elements of rock, pop, and world I will definitely have to catch them next time they come to Colorado.
I ended up hanging out with the CITs for a few minutes before heading over to the Field Day activities going on at the 312 Vibe Tent. Red Team was definitely in attendance. I met up with my Purple brethren that included Chief, Will, and our captain Mike among others. I will say that purple was a small presence and I was not too happy about that. Obviously events were spread out through the day and some logistical issues caused some of the competitons to be rescheduled, but overall I was very impressed with this element of Summer Camp and how it was run. It was a fun distraction from the festival and a good way to get a little exercise. I arrived as they were getting set for Capture The Flag. They were a man short so I jumped in, I was tagged out in the first round but Purple won and moved onto the finals. We faced the Red Team but by trying to out maneuver and patiently wait for our spot we forced a sudden death. Will grabbed the flag and ran it over the line for the win. It was literally a millisecond before the Red player, but it was enough for the victory. I got set for tug-o-war next. I was the anchor but having lost a few pounds I guess I was not the giant stone that I once was. We were simply shredded by the Yellow team. It was a good time and with a record of 1-1 for the Field Day I made my way over to Euforquestra’s set.
Heis, Euforquestra’s manager and long time Summer Camp coordinator and I conspired to have me introduce the boys from Iowa for their 3rd time playing the festival. You can see that video here.
It was definitely cool but not nearly as intimidating as giving the intro for moe. the day prior. As the video points out I have a little biased towards Euforquestra having been in school at U of I while they were there as well. I was just lucky enough that the band decided to make a move to Colorado so I get to see them a ton and it’s always a great show. Within the last couple years they have revamped their rhythm section moving Grasso to drums and putting Ben Soltau on bass. It took them a second but they are playing so tight now it’s disgusting. They are a great foundation on which the rest of the band blends blues, reggae, funk, Afro-Cuban, and world music. They opened with a sick Cause A Reaction as soon as I finished my introduction. A massive version the Zalatel penned Free into their now classic ode to grandma’s cooking; Soup. Throw in a little Talking Heads and we have a pretty great set of music. Thanks Euforquesta.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY3gqOM1qi8&feature=related
I walked by Wiz Khalifa on my way to Slightly Stoopid. The kids seemed be having fun but I was looking for a different brand of hip-hop infused goodness. I have listened to a number of Stoopid recordings and just never really got it, well I have to say that SS is best ingested in a live setting. They have a serious ability to interact with the crowd and as the sun poked out for minute I got a chance to see them shine. It was a bouncy set with elements of punk, hip-hop, and straight rock. You can see a recording I did of Baby I Like It, here.
After Slightly Stoopid we walked towards Girl Talk and noticed a ton of people on stage and what looked like rolls of toilet paper spewing into the photo pit and onto the crowd. I headed to the camp and listened from there. We went back to the Moonshine Stage for Kdubalicious featuring Keller Williams.
Keller is a Summer Camp veteran if there ever was one. Having performed at 9 out of the 11 total, for me he will always be indelibly linked to this Midwest festival. This year was special in the sense that he was playing with his newly formed band Kdubalicions with Keller on bass, Jay Starling on keyboards, and Mark D on drums. I thought it was interesting to have Keller on bass which added an almost lounge-y feel so some of his classic songs. From the Feel Like a Stranger Kdubalicion played with Al to the Tell Me Something Good with Chuck Garvey, they began to feel more like a house band with rotating guitarists than their own entity. You can see the video I caught of Freeker into Golden Road into Freeker here.
I found the funky reggae-infused stylings of Kdubalicious to be exactly what my Saturday evening needed. I ended at the top of the hill between Keller and Umphrey’s watching for them to take the stage.
On the docket was a double-decker moe. and Umprhey’s sandwich that I was ready to take a big bite out of. Umphrey’s came out with Jazz Odyssey and given the fact that they kept going back into it throughout the entire weekend it almost felt like their theme song at Summer Camp 2011. That Jazz Odyssey really tied the room together did it not? … I digress. Here is the setlist from Phantasy Tour.
SET I: Jazz Odyssey> 40’s Theme, Conduit> Jimmy Stewart> Conduit, Divisions, Go To Hell, Puppet String*, JaJunk
SET II: Jazz Odyssey> Bridgeless> No Comment> Bridgeless, Forks*, Plunger> Glory> Hajimemashite> Plunger, Hurt Bird
ENCORE: Booth Love**, Live and Let Die***
*First Time Played (Original)
**with Mad Dog’s Filthy Little Secret Horns
***First Time Played (Paul McCartney & Wings)
You can hear the audience recording from Archive.
Thanks to tonedeaf for the post.
The two sets Umprhey’s McGee played on Saturday night were high water marks for the weekend. The musicianship of these guys never ceases to amaze me. They are perhaps the most technically proficient jamband touring today. They can stop on a dime and pick it up and put it in the meter. Jake got gritty on 40’s Theme and a busted Conduit with Jimmy Stewart in the middle was my highlight of the first set. Divisions was just too big, clocking in at over twenty minutes and Bayliss’s prog was showing. It’s songs like Go To Hell when I feel that the Death Metal moniker for UM is appropriate. I mean sure it’s laced with delicate playing as well but that song gets scary. You can see what Kris Myers had to say about that question here.
I was just getting used to the Flip so it’s a little shaky but the questions are still good. Moving on.
So as not to confuse subjects I will stick to my UM review then get to moe. Second set on from UM on Saturday was just exceptional. Once again Jazz Odyssey reared its head to open but went for an extended journey through Bridgeless to Not Comment and back into Bridgeless again. Showing their musical dexterity in that run the No Comment was just plain sick. Forks was a new song and it was okay, I feel like this song needs some more road testing before it really will blow the crowd away. The Plunger bookended Glory into Hajimemashite was the peak of the show as far as I’m concerned. Hurt Bird closed the second set nicely.
They encored with an unbelievable Booth Love featuring Mad Dog’s Filthy Little Secret Horns and the brass meshed with this song incredibly well. They rounded out their show with a cover of Paul McCartney & Wings’ Live And Let Die. This just was a giant punctuation mark to the night. I was totally happy with how UM handled their second night at Summer Camp. Well played gentlemen.
Rewinding to moe. The first set of on Saturday was my second of three onstage sets. So I got to watch from the side of the stage with the rest of the moe.ron elite. The boys came out and gently eased everyone in by opening with Wind It Up. I thought that was an appropriate opener, here is the rest of the setlist from PT.
SET I: Wind It Up, Tubing The River Styx> The Pit, Understand, Smoke*, Sensory Deprivation Bank, Waiting For The Punchline> Haze
SET II: Crab Eyes**, Buster, Skrunk> Lazarus> McBain> Recreation Chemistry
You can download the audience recording on Archive.
Thanks to Bean again, for posting.
The Pit was huge with a solid extended jam to begin with, and Understand was pretty straight. You can watch it from the stage and synced up the audience recording here.
Smoke was a new song debuted at Summer Camp and I have to say I liked it quite a bit. It has a carnival-inspired springiness, but the juxtaposition of the referentially serious lyrics with the music is pretty powerful. Nice work Al. Sensory Deprivation was my highlight of set one mainly because of Rob’s funky bass. They finished up with Punchline into Haze, which pumped up the crowd before they exited.
For their second set all five members of moe. came back onstage to small music stands and stood at the front . I was baffled as to what was happening but when the first notes of Crab Eyes floated out over the crowd it was obvious that moe. was making a statement. I like to think it’s a little nod to the other electronic acts almost as if to say, “See we can play on computers too.” The most eye-opening aspect of this is that on the recording other than a few slower transitions the Crab Eyes is spot on. They went into a fantastic Buster that lasted almost 15 minutes. I love this song and every time I hear “Pig Can Fly” I smile. The Skrunk> Lazarus> McBain> Recreation Chemistry section is the reason I see moe. It was jaw-dropping; I caught the beginning of that run on video from the crowd, which you can watch here.
That Lazarus was sublime but the Rec Chem was absolutely enormous. moe. came back to encore with a crowd-rumbling Captain America. Great choice and I remember the two brahs behind me arguing whether the encore would be Plane Crash or Captain America. Brah number one was correct.
After catching moe. late night in the barn on Friday I was pretty sleepy so I handed off my pass to CIT Jeff Greenswag, who went in to see Big Gigantic and Lotus at the Red Barn. Keep on eye on his posts for some detailed electronic coverage. I watched a bit of Cornmeal on the Campfire Stage before heading back down the trail to my tent. I had one more day as the first ever Summer Camp Counselor and Sunday would prove to be a non-stop adventure. Stay tuned.
You can see all of my photos from Saturday at Summer Camp here.
Nick Stock
Camp Counselor
Ok so the thing that sucks about being up all night is the waking up late part. Man did that suck, but I am glad I had a meeting at 1:45 every day so I had a reason to wake up( besides the music of course). Not going to lie either, at this point in the weekend I was absolutely sick and tired of all the mud. You see I came prepared to Summer Camp with sundresses and one pair of shoes, very stupid on my part. I was hoping the weather would have been similar to last years with the scorching sun and a nice tan. NOPE, silly me brought nothing and I was pretty jealous of all those who had pants and rain boots. I would have given and arm and maybe my boyfriend for a pair of those rain boots (kidding about the boyfriend part). I had this day to make me happy though. You see today we all woke up to sunlight and man was it beautiful. We had almost a full day of sun and it was much needed, I mean I needed to get some color on this face for my interview with Stasik today . I will get into that more later. For now lets talk about the absolutely amazing line up that day. I think I should start another paragraph for this one.
Ok so I will just start in order, Family Groove Company missed it but I’m sure it was awesome, Two Fresh and Euforquestra were pretty sweet. I have never seen either of them or really listened to much of their music but I enjoyed both shows. I didn’t necessarily go to Gaelic Storm but when walking the grounds I caught a bit of the show and it made me giggle because they were talking about how awesome WI is for their drinking and partying and it felt good to represent. Now I was pretty impressed with Wiz Khalifa. You see I’m not a big rap fan but these guys knew how to throw down and put on a show. I wouldn’t have even gone to the show but I had to be at that stage when the show was over so I could get my interview I was and am super pumped about, but I was really glad I caught a good chunk of the show. I was pretty bummed that I missed out on Slightly Stoopid but I was interviewing Stasik at the time . Girl Talk rocked my world, I know I’m not a big rap fan but hey at one point in my life I was and Girl Talk really took me back with some oldies but goodies. I got down with my girlies which was a lot of fun. Oh so many shows, one of my favorites of the day was Keller’s Kdubalicious set. Al and Chuck from moe. Joined him on stage which made for a pretty sweet show considering those are all pretty sweet people. Umphrey’s, moe., Umphrey’s, moe., oh my oh my so much awesomeness, just oh so much. Umphrey’s added an amazing horn section to the second set and did an awesome rendition of Live and Let Die, while moe. made me really happy with a Captain America encore that was saweet. So much goodness. At this point I am exhausted from all the walking and getting down then remember I have a late night ticket. We all made a point in our group to get Saturday late night tickets, all except one….my boyfriend. He was real bummed he wasn’t going to make the late night at all and I felt super bad. You see I actually had Saturday and Sunday late night tickets and I only needed to go to one to satisfy my soul so I gave him my Saturday night so he could at least go to one. I know I am awesome.
So I am going to back track here to finally tell you about my interview I was SOOOOOOO PUMPED FOR. One of my top 5 favorite bands is Umphrey’s McGee. Oh do I love them and their music and their energy and their spunk (spunk is a big deal in my book). Anywho, the amazing Holly Brinkman hooked me up with an interview with the bass guitarist Ryan Stasik. I was looking forward to this all weekend long and the time was finally there. Yeah I didn’t realize how nervous I was until I watched the video hahaha. It was really sweet though. I got the down low on the new album coming soon and about his fabulous rat tail. I can not thank Holly enough for that amazing opportunity, it really made the festival that much better for me. The first of many more interviews to come I hope.
All in all Saturday was probably my personal favorite music day. It EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Natalie Fletcher
Counselor In Training