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Starshine Stage
Saturday morning the crowds began to rise, but I’d been up for hours thanks to sunrise kickball (see my other post on that!). I spent the morning writing and posting photos in the Summer Camp offices in the church, and by 1pm I was on my way…
First I headed over to the Starshine stage and stumbled upon a game of capture the flag for Field Day. Being a proud member of team Red and seeing that they were short some players, I jumped in to help. Unfortunately, the Red team was eliminated pretty early on when the Yellow team crept into our home base to get the flag… we’ll get ya next year, Yellow.
A few more steps, and I was at my first show of the day, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound. Their bio lists them as a “post-punk soul band”, and I think that’s a really accurate description. JC Brooks himself has stage presence like nothing I’ve ever seen… in 90 degree heat and a full-on suit, he kept the crowds entertained and dancing – it was a great way to start the day!
Next up, I met up with some of my buddies at the VIP bar for burgers, margaritas, and playing some bags.
Gov’t Mule had a really solid set at Moonshine, and the dust was really raging with the dancing. I like Mule, but I love Umphrey’s, so I left a little early to get a good spot and be ready to rage. For me, I actually like the second set of Umphrey’s the most, and they’d pretty much stole my heart when I heard Rush’s Tom Sawyer start pelting through the field.
All day I’d been looking forward to Brain Damaged Eggmen late night in the Red Barn, and boy it did not disappoint. It was a non-stop dance party and such a happy crowd.
Walking home through the darkness, I stumbled upon this artist working on a mural outside of the Soulshine Tent, and was reminded once again why Summer Camp is the happiest place on earth…
After shaking off the night before with some wake and bacon and eggs my Friday opened with Keller Williams on the Moonshine Stage. Front row center I was able to finally witness the extraordinary one man band do his funky bass thang and was not disappointed. I’m not sure if Keller’s facial mannerisms signal anything to the other instruments onstage, but they amused the audience as they baked in the mid-afternoon sun.
Doing the funky velociraptor?
Keller came out with a black bandana draped over his mouth and moved between his three guitars and a mixing board as he started looping his masterpiece. His set highlights included a throwback gem in “Freaker by the Speaker” and bass infused covers of Cage The Elephant’s “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” and a baritone raspy version of Flight of the Concords “I Told You I was Freaky.” Keller is so tuned into the music he adapted to minor feedback issues in the monitor by simply moving it away from the speaker. Guess that’s what is to be expected considering he’s been working with the same sound guy for 15 years. For the last song special guest Al Schnier joined Keller onstage for Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild.”
It's a love embraced moe. down at the Moonshine
Our crew stepped on over to Starshine to drop by and investigate the legendary Weir, Robinson, Greene Acoustic Trio. Slinking along the VIP fence I cozied up to a patch of grass just in time to hear “Truckin” which was played beautifully as cloud cover brought a hazy calm over the crowd. “New Speedway Boogie” with Chris Robinson on vocals followed with a nice little harmonization to end the Grateful Dead classic.
The soulful southern Dead classic “Deep Elem Blues” followed with Bob on vocals and transitioned into Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” with Jackie Greene playing a mean mandolin. I left after “Uncle John’s Band” and headed towards the Campfire Stage which would be my home for the next three shows. I met up with my pals in Family Groove Company for the first course in The New Orleans Suspect. FGC went to school out in Los Angeles with one of their musicians who also plays in The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and it was a nice appetizer funk fest near the Red Barn before the main course in Elephant Revival and Cornmeal later that evening.
Colorado's Elephant Revival
I had missed the Thursday sets of Elephant Revival, the five piece folk ensemble out of Colorado, and was not going to let another chance pass me by as the buzz around this band has been high. After fiddling with the sound to get things just perfect they launched into a new tune opening with “Woodstock.” Wearing long white gloves and straddling a stomp box Bonnie Paine’s feathery lilting voice brought back memories of Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan. She wore a perma-smirk for nearly the entire set as she strummed her washboard to an celtic influenced sea shanty jig with Bridget Law starring on a few timely placed solos. Bridget plugged the bands release of a new song book before Sage Cook and Daniel Rodriguez provided background vocals and plucking prowess on banjo and guitar with Bonnie on lead for the water inspired “Drop.” The energy of the set was felt on a changing tempo “Old Oak River” which was played a cappella style and had a Johnny Cash type feel as the late night revelers swayed and clapped along. I’m very excited that this group is touring the summer festival circuit more extensively and will get a chance to see them again later this year at Shoe Fest.
Get down to some Cornmeal late night
Cornmeal’s first two sets for the pre-party I also missed out on due to schedule conflicts, but was Allie side for the annual acoustic Campfire Stage set. They brought out Elephant Revival for the first few songs. It was awesome to see Bridget and Allie smitten and smiling and showing their collective fiddle chops in addition to Wavy Dave and Sage keep the time on dueling banjos. Wavy Dave Burlingame once again had his annual Summer Camp birthday and joked around that he forgot his geritol…good thing a handle of Maker’s Mark was present to help him re-remember as he instructed “the cap be left off” to celebrate in fashion. Cornmeal brought out Giving Tree Band violinist Phil Zee for a few songs during the second half of their set. Allie and Phil chased each other taking turns on fiddle solo as Wavy and Kris kept everyone in high spirits with a menagerie of Cornmeal classics. A final special sit in occurred when Floodwood’s Jason Barady got on stage to play on mandolin. I sat there and was amazed as sandwiched between Kris and Wavy he furiously moved his fingers around the frets with ease.
Well i’m currently sitting in the Church listening to Umphrey’s McGee soundcheck for a special off the grid set for rockstar guests. I need to wrap things up so I can set up and experience my third crazy music filled day here at Summer Camp!
More pictures to come later on:
Gypsy, Celtic, Folk rock for your Friday late night at Campfire Stage...yes please!
Greene, Robinson, Weir show off their acoustic harmonies on Starshine.
Cornmeal & Elephant Revival
Holla Scampers!
Just want to give my experience as a first timer at Scamp and a recap of Thursday.
I must say that I love the layout of Scamp. I like how there is a large distance between the main stages, making the experience even more amazing when you can focus completely on the band that you’re seeing. I especially love how you can choose you’re camping spot, where at other festivals you are given a specific spot to camp. My friends and I choose to camp in Studio Tan (F area) along the tree line across from the Moonshine stage. It’s a fantastic spot since there plenty of shade and room to spread out. I definitely enjoyed the cheap fare for the Festy Cabs, this was a lifesaver for me when I was carrying my last heavy load of camping gear. And the free tractor shuttles are amazing; I’ve never seen that at a festival before! After setting up camp, I made friends with all of my neighbors who are totally awesome! I’ve never met so many friendly people at a festival before in ONE day. Everyone is amazing and super friendly at Scamp. Also my main man happened to mention my birthday yesterday out loud when we were walking around and the people walking next to us (Jen and Rob) over heard and wished me a happy bday and gave me a free hula hoop. Here’s a pic of Jen and Rob from Chicago who had a booth at Scamp of their hoop business called Hippie Hoops. If you need a hoop, definitely check these guys out, they do an fantastic job, and they’re amazing people!
Things like this would only happen at Summer Camp!
As for Thursday, I hit up some Infantree at the Campfire stage. These guys were really young, but they totally rocked it! Next I went to the Soulshine Tent and did some yoga. The instructor’s name was Tammy and since there were only about 20 of us, she was able to walk around and help us do the yoga moves properly. Later I walked up to the Sunshine stage since I could see a band setting up, but I knew nothing was scheduled for the Sunshine stage, so I checked it out, and low and behold, I see Brendan Bayliss and the rest of Umphrey’s McGee. It was their sound check! And they played a couple songs…so amazing!
Next I saw some Cornmeal, I LOVE bluegrass and have seen them before, so they awesome as usual. Also they covered the Ted Nugent song Strange Hold. I did my best to stay out late Thursday by catching some Team Bayside High (a Chicago DJ duo) before heading to bed. They use a great mix of rock, movie themes, and modern hits. Allover, Thursday was a nice clam day with awesome surprises.
Catch ya later!
Love, hugs, and thugs,
-Mo