Tag Archives for:
Summer Camp Music Festival 2012
After much anticipation throughout the year, Umphrey’s McGee just wrapped up an amazing weekend in Colorado with opener Railroad Earth. This past Friday evening, the boys convened at the holy grail of U.S. venues, Red Rocks Amphitheater, to bring the funk in the geological wonder that exists more than 6,000 feet above sea level. And bring the face-melting jammy goodness they did.
First set, they came out of the gates with guns blazing, serving up UM classic All In Time , plunging right into a mean”Jimmy Stewart”* then bringing it all back home after a few nasty bass lines and sexy guitar licks from Jake. They revved it up for one of their 2012 summer tour favorites Puppet String then burst into 2×2, slid into Miami Virtue and The Linear and ended on a high note with Weird Fishes/Arpeggi and The Floor. With a DVD/CD set being filmed straight from the show, they were on fire, whipping out intricately timed rifts and exquisitely tuned rhythms on every spectrum.They brought it all home and UM fans to their knees with their own unique twist on Zeppelin classic ‘Kashmir’ followed by their own intense rock ballad ’Jajunk.’
The next night, they did it all over again to a more intimate crowd sold out crowd at Boulder Theater. First face-melting session included the likes of Jekyll & Hyde followed by rare jam pulled out of the hat earlier this year in Charlotted, NC, White Man’s Moccasin. Jamming straight into the smooth feel good baby making tune Comma Later and diving head first into the funky goodness of Bridgeless. They teased Slacker and Crucial Taunt before bringing it back around in true UM style with Bridgeless, reminding you where that jam started hours ago.
Second set brought an interesting mix to the table, opening with the headbanging debauchery of ‘Wizard Burial Ground’ then sliding into August and another summer 2012 favorite ‘Deeper’. The crowd was in full force, banging their heads and moshing the floor when they pumped out ‘The Crooked One’ the jammy goodness of ’Andy’s Last Beer,’ closing it all out with first time lick Liberty Echo* and all-time classic ‘Miss Tinkle’s Overture’. Next stop: another sold-out show in Birmingham Alabama! UM ON! RAWK FACE!
Featuring an eclectic mix of jam-band gurus, hip hop heroes and electronic wizardry marching on the front lines of the inaugural Summer Set Music Festival party line, this weekend’s fest. should be a helluva throw down for Wisco (as my new Scamp friends from Wisconsin told me to enunciate their beloved home state). Aside from headliner’s Pretty Lights, Umphrey’s McGee, Big Gigantic, NAS, Blackstar and YelaWolf– the sure-fire hot commodities certain to raise a ruckus, the up-and-comers on the bill round this fest out nicely. With the added touch of a little reggae roots rock from John Brown’s Body and the electronic prowess of beat masters Bonobo and RJD2, this assorted grab bag of musical savvy is genius on the part of the festival organizers.
More and more, we’re seeing the blending of musical genres at what were once dubbed with inherently jam-band musical talents and it’sa true testament to our generation and the performers spreading their wings to see such a variety of performers share their craft at such a unique event. While electronic music has certainly been a part of the mix for sometime, the last year has truly brought the on-slaught of hip hop into the music festival scene. (and I like it!!) Mos Def & Talib Kweli after a nasty 2 hour UM set– yes please!
And yes, for their kick-off fest. Summer Set was able to snatch up long-time Summer Camp electronic-funk-jam gurus Umphrey’s McGee. The boys have been on fire this year (see my earlier post HERE), throwing down late night performances and into the morning sets at Bonnaroo, Hangout Music Festival and of course the sick nasty three-part performances at Summer Camp Music Festival this year. I can’t wait to hear what they have up their sleeves for Summer Set which will be followed by an East Coast run my way to play at one of our many hometown breweries Pisgah Brewing Company.
For all you Summer Set goers– enjoy the boogie and I’ll catch up with you after the boys throw down at Pisgah after! Onward and upward ~Tiffany
Yellow Team, OH YEA, Pac That!! Wo wo wo wo!
I thoroughly enjoyed having the option to participate and watch the Field Day events at Summer Camp. It was a great option to have a great time and make friends when I didn’t have any acts to catch. Summer Camp is the only festival that I’ve been to who offers these fun events. I really enjoyed being able to participate with the YELLOW TEAM not only because of the keg party at the end, but because I made many more great friends with not only my teammates, but with the other teams as well. But what really made the icing on the cake is when I heard that I won MVP of the females for Yellow Team! So awesome!
One of the events that I watched was Yellow Team’s match of tug-of-war against the Purple Team. I couldn’t participate since we had too many participants, but I made a great cheerleader, yellow pom poms and all!
Here’s a look at the Yellow Team looking all TOUGH at of tug-of-war
In the end, we lost to the Purple Team…
Next up was arm wrestling, and I participated in female arm wrestling (since I’m so buff and all)
I was the first one up against the participant of the Red Team…I’m not going to lie, I was a tad scared. Here’s some pics from my match
Here’s Red Team against Blue Team
And then Red Team’s final defeat against the Purple Team
Next up was the male wrestling match and the best moment for the Yellow Team! My main squeeze Adam volunteered to be our male participant.
The Red Team and Blue Team started it off. Here’s a look at the Red Team defeating the Blue Team.
And now the Yellow Team defeating the Red Team
And the win for the win! Yellow Team defeating the Purple Team
The Purple Team contestant didn’t believe that he lost, so he challenged our Yellow Team participant many times after it was over, but the Yellow Team won each time.
Next up was dodge ball! First our team played against the Red Team, we easily defeated them with 4 people still in the game on Yellow Team. Then we played against the ever-strong Purple Team for a chance at the win. We were doing fantastic at catching and dodging the Purple Team’s throws, but before I knew it, I the LAST one left of the Yellow Team! I’m not going to lie, I was frightened especially since I had 5 strong males starring me down like a piece of meat (just wish I had a picture of that!). I was dodging balls left and right, but eventually one of their teammates was able to catch one of my throws. Which lead to the win of dodge ball for the Purple Team.
Lastly, I watched the final field day contest, the PIZZA EATING contest. Each team needed a male and female contestant. The females had to eat 2 large slices (1/4th of a pizza) and the males had to consume 4 slice of the pizza (1/2 of a pizza).
Here’s a picture of our strong and hungry yellow team participants ready to CONQUER!
The Blue Team originally didn’t have a female participant, so I was the stand in for a while (I really just wanted some free pizza, plus who can pass up a free HOT meal at a festival?!….NO ONE!), but luckily, they found a girl standing nearby to be the female participant in for the Blue Team.
The way the pizza eating contest went was the female participants had to finish their slices first, and then the male participant on their team could start eating their slices. Once it began, the females were at neck and neck, but the Purple Team’s female participant pulled ahead easily with her strong determination. The Red Team wasn’t far behind, until we caught their participant putting hiding some of her pizza under the table, so Red Team was disqualified from the pizza eating contest. The female from the Purple Team was able to finish her pizza first, and then her male counterpart began to ravenously eat his pizza. Eventually we all were waiting around too long for the rest of the male opponents to start on their slices, so the refs just went ahead and gave the Yellow and Blue male participants the okay to start.
In the end, the Purple Team conquered. Leaving our Yellow Team with only win, which was in male arm wrestling. But at least we know we’re the “STONGEST” team there! Ha!
Then the next day was the 312 keg party! It was so much fun meeting back up with my fellow Yellow Teamers and reminiscing about all of the great memories we had of the events that we participated in. I also got to meet and have fun with the participants on the other teams. I had a blast being apart of Summer Camp’s field day events (especially since I won MVP female for yellow) and I can’t wait for next year! (When Yellow Team will conquer all!)
Love, hugs, & thugs,
-Mo
It was appropriate given it was Father’s Day this past Sunday that Bruce Hornsby was playing Park West. After all he’s a father of two and one of the guiding patriarchal figures of modern classical piano. The intimate venue located a stones throw from Lake Michigan created the perfect environment for he and the Noisemakers to collectively strut their stuff along side special guest Van Ghost whose been opening during this leg of the tour. Van Ghost, who hail from Chicago boasts a lively horn section with Jennifer Hartswick (vocals, trumpet) being featured prominently on most songs. “Simplify”, a new song, was a synch based ballad with a nicely positioned guitar solo to which the talented Trey Anastasio Band female vocalist enhanced a wonderfully composed piece. Van Ghost plays North Coast Music Festival later this summer.
Bruce Hornsby plays the dulcimer - 06/17/12 Park West – Chicago, IL
SETLIST: Great Divide, Stander on the Mountain, Circus on the Moon, This Too Shall Pass, Across the River, The Good Life*, Prairie Dog Town*, Jack Of Diamonds* > Valley Road*, Pete and Manny > Scarlet Begonias, Mandolin Rain > That Would Be Something, (Time Machine Sounds) > The Way It Is, Tango King, Big Rock Candy Mountain Run > Candy Mountain Run. Encore: Swan Song
* denotes on dulcimer.
Bruce started the evening with a quiet melodic freestyle piece that burst into “Great Divide” with the pianist trading solo’s with drummer Sonny Emory. Effortlessly in between songs Hornsby mused to the crowd about the Captain Beefheart tour days of keyboardist JT Thomas, as well as stories of songs he penned about his son’s youth. He is quite the weaver of words these days. He’ll scat warming up his vocal chords stretching to stand and admire a crowd that spans generations. In addition to touring life with the Noisemaker’s he’s involved with a number of projects including writing music for an upcoming Spike Lee movie Red Hook Summer, writing a theatrical soundtrack for a performance called Sick Bastard, and playing with old Grateful Dead friend Bob Weir at the All Good Music Festival. Bruce appears at ease on stage and like any good storyteller from those days takes the scenic route in explaining himself and giving the fans a unique listening experience. Reminiscing about the Grammy he won with Branford Marsalis for “Barcelona Mona” he jokes about how he won by default due to the powers that be “not wanting Kenny G to win.” He took turns on piano, dulcimer, and accordion at many points sitting just a nose away from the audience. He has mentioned he prefers venues with 1000-3000 seats as oppose to larger arenas on account the acoustics can be heard by all listeners instead of sound being lost to those in the back. Performance is paramount to Hornsby and though he is relaxed during his performance does not discount him being one of the best at performing razor sharp musicianship and playing to those present. He responds to fans in the audience with the coolness of a stand up comedian fielding a heckler. He spins one fans shout into every fans moment in a way some cannot achieve.
Hey Scamperinos!
Here’s a little recap of my Sunday at Summer Camp. I began my morning with watching a random dude take a morning streaking run. If you were camped along the tree line across from the Moonshine stage, you probably saw him too at 9am. Nothin’ like making you’re last morning at Scamp more memorable.
Once I felt more wide awake from that sight, I headed to the usual 10am yoga. Like I said before, I LOOOOVE that Summer Camp had yoga at 10am. Because then I was able to make all session except for one. I never made it to the yoga sessions at other festivals since they were at 7 or 8am.
After catching some lunch, I headed over to the Field Day keg party and had a great time celebrating and getting to know all of the other teams and my fellow Yellow Teamers. I also was told that I was named MVP of the females on the Yellow Team, Woo! If you caught dodgeball, I was the last person standing for yellow with 5 men from purple starring me down like a piece of meat. It was a scary moment but fun at the same time. I also found out that my main squeeze Adam got MVP out of the males on the Yellow Team from when he won the only event for the Yellow Team which was arm wrestling. With being a first timer to Scamp, I really enjoyed having the option of participating in field day events, and I met so many great people through it too!
Then I began my afternoon filled with lots of bluegrass by catching some Greensky Bluegrass at the Moonshine stage. I moved on over to the Sunshine stage and caught the Devil Make Three, I’ve never seen them before and they were a fantastic three some! I continued on to get my next bluegrass fix at the Moonshine stage by catching some Yonder. I LOOOOVE me some bluegrass, such a great afternoon. Next I ran over to Michael Franti & Spearhead at the Sunshine stage. He put on an AMAZING show. I nearly cried 3 times because of how sincere he is and with the way that he connects with his fans. There was a young girl who was about 7 years-old who was standing side stage who he brought out on stage and Michael played a song that she requested earlier. The little girl was in complete shock and sang the entire song by his side, it was incredible. Here’s a pic of them singing together.
Then I caught some Victor Wooten. I’ve seen him once before, but man, he really knows how to get a crowd groovin’. Once he was done, I headed straight to the Vibetent to catch the band that I had been waiting all weekend for…Rubblebucket! As I waited for them to set up, I watched as a group of about 10 people came in with decorated white masks that said “Rubblebucket” on them. Then I realized that they had to be awesome since they had their own streetteam/true fans that came to Summer Camp to dance and cheer them on. When Rubblebucket started playing, everyone started dancing and I was amazed to see that they had a total of 8 people playing in their band! Once I danced my booty off at Rubblebucket’s show, I headed over to the Summer Camp Counselor Maria’s camp to catch her private show which included members of moe. and Greensky Bluegrass. It was an amazing show and here’s a picture of it
It was hard to leave all of the amazing friends that I met, but then I headed on to my last show at Summer Camp which was Jane’s Addiction. I’ve seen Perry perform before twice, but to see him with his original band Jane’s Addiction was an amazing experience. They made my night by playing Just Because and ending their set with everyone’s favorite, Jane Says. If you were at their set, one thing is for sure, Perry does NOT like glowsticks. When it was over, my man and I picked up some homemade delicious ice cream and sadly headed out of Summer Camp saying goodbye to Three Sisters Park about 10 times before I made it off the premises.
Love, hugs, and thugs,
-Mo
Hey Summer Camp!
I cannot even begin to tell you that how much I wish I could start my Memorial Day weekend over and go back to Summer Camp. I had such a FANTASTIC-LY-GLORIOUS-ROCKIN-JAMMIN-BLUEGRASS-GYPSY-PUNKIN-GOOD-TIME at Scamp. There were a few acts that I missed and wished I had time to see at Scamp, but at the same time, I saw so many amazing acts and had so many great memories that will last a lifetime.
The highlights of my weekend include the following:
- Yoga yoga yoga yoga…and some more yoga
- Celebrating my birthday at Scamp on Thursday
- Thursday sound check of Umphrey’s McGee at the Sunshine Stage
- Cornmeal covering Ted Nugent
- Meeting and hanging out with fellow Scampers, friends and awesome neighbors (I seriously met someone everywhere I went!)
- Water water and more water!
- My fellow co-workers (the CITs and Camp Counselor)
- Making artwork out of my broken shade canopy
- Camping right by the Moonshine Stage
- Keller Williams playing “Freaker By the Speaker”
- Every minute of Gogol Bordello
- Primus playing “American Life” & “Tommy the Cat”
- Primus having 3 members of Gogol Bordello come out and play with them during their set! (truly a dream come true…) And Primus bringing out and playing with Bob Weir
- Seeing live at Scamp 2 songs that I put in my contest video for the Summer Camp Counselor position (CRAZY!)
- Wearing costumes!
- Umphrey’s Umphrey’s Umphrey’s Umphrey’s Umphrey’s
- Being a part of Yellow Team in the Field Day events (and winning MVP for Yellow Team)
- Hanging out with the founder of Food Patriot and volunteering my time with them by collecting signatures for their organization
- Friday and Saturday late night
- Someone singing to me the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes theme song when I was wearing my killer tomato costume (awesome!)
- Rockin’ out to some bluuues muuuzac with G. Love
- A streaker taking a morning jog through my campsite on Sunday
- Havin’ a bluegrass stompin good ol’ time with The Devil Makes Three
- Michael Franti’s incredible and touching set
- Rubblebucket’s dance party!
- Camp Counselor Maria’s campsite show with members of moe. and Greensky Bluegrass
- Jane’s Addiction’s amazing performance and Perry’s silly comments
- Ending summer camp with some of the best homemade ice cream I have ever had from one of the vendors at Scamp
- And of course, being your Counselor in Training at Summer Camp Music Festival 2012
The last day at Scamp of the Lone Pink Fuzzy Moustache…
These were only some of the highlights of what was an INCREDIBLE weekend. May our memories of Summer Camp 2012 live on forever…can’t wait to see everyone next year!
Now my challenge to YOU, the Scamper, is to see who can keep their Summer Camp 2012 braclet on the longest. I used to do this ALL the time with my friends after going to other music festivals. So far I’ve got a week down, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to take it off soon because of work, but I’ll try my best and you should too! Good luck!
P.S. Don’t forget to check back for my journey and reviews of shows in the St. Louis area throughout the rest of 2012 and into 2013! (If the world doesn’t end……hah, jk!)
Love, hugs, and thugs,
Your girl, Mo
"I am Tiki Totem & I came to get down"
I’ve been to festivals and seen the crowd swarming with colorful, intricately decorated comic book characters and childhood heroes, but Summer Camp really put the totem love on the map for me this year. As I grooved and moved my way through the masses, making my way from one show to the next, I stumbled upon one old friend after another- from tye-dye care bears and naked women made out of PBR (okay, that’s not an old childhood friend- really) to Pee-Wee Herman and Martians~ the Scamp crew representatives were in full force for Summer Camp 2012. Check out my totem spotting below:
Totem Love
Care Bear Staaaaare” (and the glorious little creature he’s walking to meet)
“Giraffe’s get down too, ya’ know, especially to BoomBox”
“Oh, hello there mate. Today, we’re going to sneak up on these friendly gators.” (Too much…too soon?)
“Face melt friends getting down to the UM sounds”
“Party on Scampers! Time to get your dancin’ partner ready for next year! Til’ then…”
Hey Scampers!
Here’s a little recap of my Saturday at Summer Camp. I began my day in the Soulshine tent checking out the Food Patriots and the Henhouse Prowlers. The Food Patriots are a movement who are encouraging others to purchase at least 10% of their food from local farmers, or to purchase organic or natural foods. I was able to speak with and interview Jennifer who helped start the Food Patriots movement. She even asked me to walk around while they spoke in the Soulshine tent and ask people if they wanted to sign up for updates and to join the movement. Here’s a glimpse of Jennifer and her partner speaking in Soulshine.
Then I ran over to the field day events and joined up with my fellow Yellow teamers. I watched us get beaten in tug-of-war. Then participated in some dodge ball, Yellow Team won the first round. But in the second round, I was the only Yellow teamer left standing and had to face 5 guys who were looking at me like a piece of meat. It was frightening, but eventually one of the guys caught a ball that I threw, and it was over. Next, we participated in arm wrestling; I was the Yellow Team’s female participant and lost very quickly to the Red team. Here is a great picture of my match and facial expression against the Red Team.
My main squeeze Adam was the Yellow Team’s male participant in arm wrestling, and he was able to give us the only win out of all of the events. Lastly, was the pizza eating contest. At first the purple team was in the lead, but then Blue Team pulled through for the win of the pizza eating contest. After all the events were over, the Purple Team ended up with the final win.
After field day was over, I took a much needed break, rehydrated myself and caught some Rebelution, and Common.
Then I grabbed some food and got ready for a long but amazing night of G. Love (who played songs like My Baby’s Got Sauce and Cold Beverage), Old Shoe, Gov’t Mule, moe., Midwest Hype, Umphrey’s McGee, more moe., and Brain Damaged Eggmen in the Redbarn (who did amazing covers of the Beatles and Pink Floyd). Overall, it was an amazing day with some blues music and LOTS of jam.
Love, hugs, and thugs,
-Mo
What up Scampers?!?!!
This weekend I got to see an amazing show, the Kyle Hollingsworth Band, SOLD OUT at Cervantes in Denver! I must admit, I am a casual fan of SCI at best and I paid little attention to their side projects. Kyle Hollingsworth, however, is AMAZING and has opened my eyes…I once was blind but now I see…please don’t hate a wretch like me…
Well, Kyle was super funky and way more synthesizer based than I anticipated. I don’t know the names of his songs, but Michael Kang came out for a bunch and they were some awesome jams. I was way too into it at the time to pull myself away and get any footage, and for that I am deeply sorry. In any case, you can look up some clips if you like but I am telling you, you don;t need to. If the Kyle Hollingsworth band comes anywhere near you, go see him!
The same can be said for some buddies of mine, Roster McCabe. Have you hear of them? Well you will now. Roster McCabe are a great group of guys and are a well traveled band. They were opening for Kyle Hollingsworth at this show and I got a chance to ask them a few questions…You can see that below. I also managed to grab a video of them doing Fame by David Bowie with Kyle Hollingsworth. Check out the video and then check out Roster McCabe. They believe you should have some music in your life regardless of what you got in your pockets so you can download ALL their music for FREE at www.rostermccabe.com/
THE INTERVIEW:
Jeff – Hey guys, so thanks a lot for answering some questions, let’s start off with the basics, where are you from, individually and as a band?
Roster McCabe – Jeff is from Grand Forks, ND; Alex is From Brooklyn Park, MN; Drew is from Bloomington, MN; Mike is from Oconomowoc, WI; Scott is from La Crosse, WI. We all met in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota.
J – Nice, I always like to ask, where did your band name come from, it’s usually a good story, no?
RM – It is a great story, yes, but it is also a secret.
J – Haha all right, playing a little hardball, this one should be easier, how long have you been playing together?
RM – Jeff solidified our lineup in January of 2008. We started full time touring in 2009, playing 150 shows in 2009; 175 in 2010; and this year we’ll get to about 180.
J – Cool, and what festivals have you played before?
RM – We’ve played a couple big ones but we’ve also played a lot of really cool smaller festies that are definitely worth mentioning. The full list is: Summerfest, Harvest Fest, Shangri-La, Bella Music Fest, Midwest Fest, Rock the Vine, Bandit, Co. Fair, Ifdakamp, Browntown, Jam-Boree, The Family Reunion, Great Aberdeen Pigout, Cosmic Railroad Family Gathering, Prairie Grass, Engelbrechts Homegrown Fest, Jam for Jam, and this year we’ll be doing Wookiefoot’s Snowball Festival in January.
J – Well hopefully this year you can add Summer Camp to the list…Including all those festivals, what would you say your biggest show has been so far?
RM – It’s a tie between opening for Stephen Marley at Summerfest, Matisyahu at Shangri-La Festival, and a show we did this past Saturday at Cervante’s Ballroom in Denver with The Kyle Hollingsworth Band and Michael Kang. Kyle sat in with us for a rendition of David Bowie’s fame. Definitely a show we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.
J – All right, let’s switch gears a little bit, because I like to know more about the inner workings of bands and to see how that all goes, so, I know it’s a rather vague question, but tell us a little about where you are at in your career as this band and what kinds of initiatives you are taking to continue moving forward…
RM – We’re still a growing and changing band because we’re still so young. This is only our third year being on the road full time and we’ve changed A LOT in that short time. I’d imagine we’ll continue to change and evolve as time goes on cause we get bored easily. We’re constantly writing and re writing our tunes to get them to a point where we’re happy with them and to get them to the point where we think they’re good enough to share with people. We’re also constantly introducing new instruments into the band as we evolve. A most recent introduction is the use of Ableton Live to get some of the new stuff sounding as close to a DJ as we can while still playing all the actual parts. We’re never satisfied with where we’re at. We always want to sound tighter. We always want to reach new highs with our performances. We always strive to be a better band in every way possible and I don’t think that we’ll ever stop doing that.
J – So, are you trying to get into Summer Camp? If so, what is that process like?
RM – Absolutely. Summer Camp has been on our list for sometime. We think it’s a great festival with awesome people so yeah, it’s definitely something we would like to do. Really we’re just trying to grow as much as possible in Chicago and the rest of the area as possible to ensure that we’ll bring people to the fest. We’ve been doing a good job of that recently, so hopefully they’ll take notice this year.
J – Anything you’d like to add to tell the fans of SC music festival?
RM – All of our music is available for free on our website at rostermccabe.com/downloads and we’ve got a bunch of live shows on the Live Music Archive. To get a good feel for what we’re doing now make sure to get a recent show because like I said before we’re always changing – even if you listen to something from 6 months ago it won’t sound how we sound now. And if you guys dig what you’re hearing make sure to let the people of Summercamp know!
THE VIDEO: David Bowie\’s Fame by Roster McCabe feat. Kyle Hollingsworth