Sweetwater 420 Festival.

COVER ALERT: we got some good'ns

beer

The annual festival on Earth Day weekend, or April 20th or 420 if that's your thing- put on by our beloved Sweetwater Brewery, has become something I look forward to every year.  This year I was especially excited for Papa Grows Funk- a Nola standard that's anything but standard, Anders Osborne- swiss born rocker that also calls the Big Easy home, and a new favorite- also from Nola, Honey Island Swamp Band.  Now, understand that none of these artists were headliners.  All three played to smaller crowds on a smaller stage during the middle of the afternoon.  Perfection.. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Also joining the party as headliners, and not anything to be missed: Friday- George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Saturday- Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears and to close out the weekend on Sunday- Robert Randolph & the Family Band.  Sweetwater knows how to throw a party that's for sure!

Day 1:   Festivities began on a cloudy, the sky's about to crash down kind of Friday.  So, the crowds were thin.  We enjoyed the no beer/portopotty lines while we could.  We knew Saturday was supposed to be beautiful.  Showing up to the funky improv set from another Nola band Earphunk, I was presently surprised.  They were killing it.  The lead guitarist came to be known as white Hendrix(he was wearing a Jimi shirt.)  They had the small crowd rocking with original tunes and some covers. Their sound is a bit like the New Mastersounds, Galactic etc. Funky rocking tunes that make you want to shake your hips and headbang at the same time. Many people were doing just that.  They closed their set with 2 covers that left the crowd wanting more. A quick raunchy version of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" & David Bowie's "Fame." Pretty sure they gained a whole set of fans that day.  That sent us over the hill to the second stage to see Papa Grows Funk.

Papa Grows has been around since 2000.  Go hang out on historic Frenchmen Street in New Orleans for a week or two, and you're bound to see them blowing the doors off some place.  Frequenting the Maple Leaf, Tipitina's and the Howlin Wolf and all across the country.  You can tell these guys love what they do.  You can tell they're proud of their music and the city they come from.  If you havent figured it out the city of New Orleans evokes and produces wondrous music that I've come to love more and more since the first time I visited.  Big ol' guy on keys(Papa), a heart thumping bass, blistering saxaphone, the ever important drums and an asian guy (June Yamagishi) on lead guitar that will leave you perplexed.  With songs like Pass It! and Stanky  these guys keep on funking the hell outta wherever they're invited. We were five feet from the edge of the stage and absolutely lovin' it. Who doesn't like a mid afternoon funk session? With cold Sweetwater broos? Yes please.  They covered The Meters' (another Nola funk staple) "Ain't No Use."  I was having a blast.  Kudos on a great set guys ATL loves ya'll. (football rivalries aside) (RISE UP)

On to the next one.  Oh yea, George Clinton and his gaggle of a band are tuning up.  If you've never seen a Parliament show get to it.  It's a helluva good time.  A P-Funk show is like an urban circus.  There's people hanging from the rafters and coming out of nowhere.  And they rock.  Maybe we were far from the stage but it looked like there were 25 people up there.  Among the calamity was a tall skinny man in a white fur suit.  White fur hat and boots and all, no instrument, solely on stage for entertainment.  I think this man was having as much fun as ANY festival goer. They played "Red Hot Mama" a song made one of my favorites by Widespread Panic, originally recorded by Parliament in '74.   The crowd was loving it.  They also played a funky good "Up for the Downstroke"  & of course another song that WSP covers, Maggot Brain.  George is getting up in years and I'm sure their shows back in the day were legendary.  It's awesome he's still kicking after all these years on the Mothership.

Anders melting faces

Day 2:  This is the show I was waiting for.  Anders. Small Stage. Right up front. 'Nuff said.  Clearly the beautiful weather opened the flood gates and Saturday was PACKED.  Had to wait in line for 25 minutes.  Someone said, "you know you can go right in if you don't want a wristband."    "No thanks I'll be drinking many many beers today."  I heard Anders start his set and started to get antsy.  No worries, we got in and I made a B Line to the front.  Saw my buddy Tyler whip his head around looking for us.  We had a solid crew of about 8-10 friends right up front. 'Laissez les bons temps rouler' as they like to say in Nola.  The first time I saw Anders was at Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam.  Instant huge fan at that show which was a once in a lifer--  Anders played an hour and a half set with Warren's bassist and drumz.  So awesome.  As expected Anders & co. freakin' delivered.  He lead us through a blazing set full of raw blues and rock n' roll that rocks you right down to your soul.  His solos are just nuts.  Kinda like Anders, you never know what he's going to do next.  I know he's had drug issues in the past, and I'm pretty sure he's sober now but, unlike many artists, sobriety doesn't affect his music.  He's on fire.  But his solo, just unreal. Raw is the perfect word for it.  I found out he rocks an open tuning set up. He said in an interview "Stuff ringin' all the time, just very sonicly pleasing to me."  His bassist had mid-back length brown hair and a Marlboro 100 just a hangin'.  They really fed off each other. It was awesome.  I couldn't get enough.  And the drummer was a black dude with dark sunglasses that had so much enthusiasm.  He beat those drums to death!  Their energy was just unmatched.  Crazy that three dudes on a small stage can put on such a good show.  I like them even more now than when I saw them in Asheville a few months back.  They played "Ya-Ya" a feel good Anders original we also heard in Asheville.  They covered "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Perfect. Relevant to my life. They played an Anders original, "Black Tar."  Fortunately I've never been involved with that.  But, shockingly, also relevant in my life.  I had a friend overdose recently, and THANK GOD, I was in the right place at the right time and brought him to the hospital and saved his life. If he reads this, Love you man! Anyway, I remain a HUGE Anders fan and will continue to see his shows whenever possible.  Thanks for a great set guys!

Day 3: Never miss a Sunday show!

We show up mid afternoon. Honey Island Swamp Band is one song into their set.  No line today. Gotta love Sundays at a festival.  We pursue the stage and make our way to the same spot we've been all weekend.  I only recently found out about this band and was extremely excited to see them.  Their style was unique from all the other Nola bands of this weekend.  They play slide-blues and swamp rock.  They use anything and everything as instruments.  The old country saloon style of keys just keeps the tunes rocking along.  We really loved the vibe they put off.  Great musicianship.  Great solos.  A lot of their lyrics seem to come from or are influenced by scripture.  Major cool.  Imagine the Allman Brothers if they were from New Orleans instead of Macon, GA. Slide riffs like these would make Duane turn over in his grave. (in a good way)  Check out Prodigal Son and you'll quickly see what I'm talking about.  These guys kill it.  I really hope they continue making albums. HUGE fan.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band had the stage to close out the awesome weekend.  I've seen them in multiple states (all in the south) They always put on a great show.  Randolph plays the pedal steel.  He learned to play growing up in church.  From Wikipedia: "The instrument is referred to in many African-American Pentecostal churches as Sacred Steel."  He can play the sacred steel all he wants.  He's incredible.

Robert & all the ladies 

As is customary for a RRTFB show, Robert invites the beautiful ladies from the audience up  onto stage for a little dancin'.  If you've never witnessed this, it's quite a site. Roberts starts picking a nasty rockin' blues riff.  Someone says "ZZ Top?" "Close! Shake Your Hips by Slim Harpo- covered by  the Rolling Stones."  Picture this: 50+ ladies jumping around stage while Robert and The Family shred through a song written nearly 50 years ago.  It makes for a great time.  I'll always be happy to see a RRTFB show.

HUGE thanks go out to all those hands that make weekends like this possible. We enjoy it more than ya'll will ever know.  Big thanks to Sweetwater, just another reason they remain my favorite brewery.  #HOMETEAM  See ya'll next year in Candler Park!

Written by: Tyler Addison Davis

Bonnaroo 2012

home sweet home

ROO CREW

 the ROO

A music festival with 80,000+ people, in Tennessee, in June?  I'll pass.  That's what I used to say when the idea of Bonaroo came up.  I had been to Wakarusa a few years prior.  While that is still a relatively large gathering of people, 25 maybe 30,000 in the cool Ozarks in Arkansas.  It's not almost 100k sweaty dirty people in field with no shade in sight.  There you have it, Bonnaroo described.  Oh, did I forget to mention that thousands of people come to break with reality and let it all hang out for a weekend down on some ol' Tennessee farmland.  A decision was made within our ranks to rent, travel and live in an RV for the weekend.  Never undertaken something such as this, but after seeing the 35 foot monster, I decided we'd be alright.  Of course, I was elected to drive this white beast to the fairgrounds from west of 

Birmingham.  Our trip began like any other, except I was captaining a 35 foot house on wheels complete with a fridge, stove top and crapper.  The drive began and at first the RV seemed a bit sketchy.  "Let's just get through this traffic," Missy says.  Fortunately, we had Ana Lampton and Griffin Smith following close behind in the truck.  Each RV is allowed one companion vehicle.  When the call came to "Pull over, I think ya'll have a flat," I knew it was too good to be true.  A weekend of fun, freedom, and music beginning on Thursday afternoon suddenly took a turn to negative town.  We pulled off the interstate in Warrior, AL into thank goodness what was a large enough service station to accomodate us and this great white RV.  I crawl up under the vehicle on the hot pavement to discover the inner tire on the right side had been successfully blown to shreds.  Great! Now what?  We call the office of El Monte RV rentals but they've been closed for 45 minutes by now.  Here we are, in the middle of Alabama, in a huge RV with a blown tire.  Some local bikers took a look and said, "yea, ya'll ain't gettin' far with that."  I decided to call the number painted across the back of the vehicle.  Finally, we got hooked up with a wrecker service that would come help us out.  Thank God the RV had a spare underneath it.  Some good ol' boys got there after about an hour and a half.  2 guys, probably not older than 18 fixed her up real nice for us, and it only cost 100 bucks.  After the fiasco we hit the road hard and kept truckin' all the way to Manchester.  We pulled in at about 1:30 at night, thinking we'd go right through the gates.  Griff had since switched to be my co-pilot.  So we have two middle aged dudes with beards in an RV at 1:30.. A sheriff deputy motioned us to go ahead and pull towards him, away from all the other lines.  The other lines that were manned by members of WET.  The Work Exchange Team.  Also known as volunteers that work to pay for their tickets.  Deputy Dog approached my window.  "Alright boys this here is how Bonnaroo works.  We're going to search your vehicle no matter what.  We're looking for drugs, fireworks, weapons, etc.  We'll give you a chance to tell us if you have anything illegal in the vehicle, and if its not a big deal, we'll let you go with a citation.  So what ya'll got in here?"  I said, "nothing sir, we're clean as a whistle."  I then was directed to stand infront of the RV like a damn criminal while 6 sheriff's deputies proceeded to enter the RV and rifle through it like we were suspected terrorists.  The most unnecessary, invasive, violating thing I've ever been through.  They ripped through our backpacks, undid hammocks, threw clothes on the ground, opened prescription medicine, smelled Nalgene bottles, and even put a lady sheriff on the vehicle to tear through the girls' bags.  It was quite ridiculous.  After disrespecting all of our belongings, they were displeased that they didn't find 1,000 lbs of marijuana or any Weapons of Mass Destruction, or roman candles, or bath salts.  I just stood with a huge smile on my face.  As he drew a star on the windshield, I asked, "is that our star of approval?" Deputy Dog responded with, "Have a good Bonnaroo."  HA.  We then pulled through the gates and received our wristbands for the weekend.  The volunteers said, "Ya'll are the first guys we've seen not get a citation for drugs."  High Five!  Upon entering we rolled into our campsite for the weekend, a giant field filled with other RVs of all shapes and sizes.  Dingy pop-up campers next to $300,000 tailgating monsters.  Friday morning came and the heat started early, about 7 a.m.   The thing I love about festivals is the camping.  You get to see a wide array of people from as far as New York to upstate Washington.  Dreads and deadheads and weirdos and people that just like to have a good time.  And surprisingly a lot of good looking ladies.  Some with armpit hair, but hey who am I to judge.  The first day of music was great.  The bands play on a schedule, but that's the other thing I like about a festival, you can do whatever you want.  Go see a band, go drink a beer, sit in a field, buy something, jam out, sleep, lay in a hammock, meet new people.  It's great.  We got to see The Infamous Stringdusters on Friday.  Saw them in Jackson, WY at the Pink Garter this winter.  Great live show presence.  They love to get the audience going.  Bluegrass. Banjos in your face.  I loved it.  The main stage played host to Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  Another favorite since seeing them at Double Decker in Oxford a few years ago.  Mostly soulful funky jams.  Great stuff.  Next up was quite unexpected.  But being from Atlanta I had to go see Ludacris at 4pm.  It was probably the wildest show of the weekend.  Never did I think I would see 40,000 people raging to "What's your Fantasy."  It was incredible.  They engaged the crowd like any of the best know festival bands would have.  Great light show as well, especially for a hip-hop show.  I am quite sad and ashamed to say that after a full day of music/driving/flat tires etc. we decided to take a nap, and in the process missed Radiohead.  I knew I would catch hell for this one.  Many friends of mine came to the Roo just to see Radiohead.  On a lighter note, we woke up to see Umphrey's Mcgee's set start at 2 a.m.  If you haven't seen them, I suggest it.  It's quite a production and their musicianship is unmatched.  Well, they started at 3 and played until 7:30.  Yes, that's a.m.  Absolutely awesome.  Saturday followed with Santigold.  Two girls butt-shaking like it's nobody's business.  Great for the main stage.  After a nap and some dinner.  (Hot dogs cooked over charcoal, pan fried scrambled eggs, mix in some black beans and salsa oh a perfectly assembled hippy-dinner.)  We left camp early to get a spot for the Chili Peppers.  Never seen them so I was excited as hell.  And they delivered.  Played a lot of old hits: Under The Bridge, Suck My Kiss, Give it Away,  as well as some stuff from Stadium Arcadium, which I enjoyed.  They had the audience's full attention.  Mine as well.  Sunday came, and with it came some welcomed cooler temperatures and light rain.  It wasn't enough to drive anyone away, just enough to keep you cool and damp all day.  Many left on Sunday, but that was counteracted with the surge of Phans coming in Sunday afternoon for Phish's 4 hour set to conclude the weekend.  Sunday was probably my favorite day.  We set up camp on some squishy foam mats we bought and just rode out the main stage most of the day.  The Beach Boys were awesome.  All the old people there during the weekend came out of the woodwork for the Beach Boys. Classics like Barbara Ann, Little Deuce Coupe, Surfin' USA, and Good Vibrations were songs that everyone could jam to, young and old alike.  It was wonderful.  Bon Iver followed.  Heard of them and heard their songs on the radio, and I really enjoyed it.  Perfect music to just kick back and enjoy the scenery.  Phish set the scene for the end to a perfect weekend.  More and more Phans descended on the main stage grounds to close it out with a bang.  Sometimes they play a lot of crowd pleasers but as a relatively new Phan, I was overjoyed.  Most of the songs they played: Possum, Tweezer, Rock & Roll, Rocky Top, The Moma Dance and Sample in a Jar were great for me.  Over the years I've heard these songs played by friends, seen them on a DVD, played in a bar etc.  They played like they meant it.  They knew everyone was there because all other bands sets were over so all eyes were on them and their final set to end the weekend.  All in all it was a wonderful weekend and I felt truly blessed to be able to be a part of it with the other 99,999 people that were there to enjoy the pure bliss that live music creates for the audience.  I HIGHLY suggest you add this to your bucket list.  Even if you're old.  A nice couple camped next to us, probably in their late 40's.  The husband was a doctor and his wife was an attorney.  Glad to have you folks.
td  

sunrise

sunset