C/D: Music festivals

> Unless it's hilarious shit like the "after the jump festival" which features appx zero bands anyone would want to see

> i've taken note of quite a few festivals like this ... except they're clueless about the fact that next to no one wants to see these bands/musicians.

Actually this is one of the few things I like about festivals - hearing some band that nobody's ever heard of that turns out to be great.

I lived in New Orleans so seeing the local bands play at Jazz Fest, either in the heat or the rain, was the absolute worst place to see them play. The big name national acts are always geared towards very boring, middle aged to elderly people. See: Robert Plant/Allison Krauss. I guess it's fine if you're in from out of town and you can't see those locals play at their usual haunts, but for a local, the vibe of their sets is all wrong when they play at Jazz Fest. They typically play in very small bars and I'm pretty sure you can appreciate the difference in vibe from a festival stage to a bar with <500 capacity.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a massive difference when you live in a city world-renowned for its music. I'm always just like a kid in a candy store in N.O., because a lot of those artists are never gonna tour to me. (Although many have and continue to.) I've been in a lot of the small bars (Benny's, Donna's, Vaughn's, Fred Kemp's, Lion's Den, Mother-in-Law Lounge) and they're awesome, especially during non-JF times, but I am also a non-smoker, and fond of the outdoors/sun/heat and the whole festival vibe. (And also middle-aged, but hopefully not boring.)

I saw some great Louisiana swamp pop one year at Jazz Fest, plus its great to be able to see all that New Orleans jazz,brass band, soul, gospel and zydeco and Cajun in one place. I didn't see it, but recently one year they had the Ponderosa Stomp people put together a set for one time in the fest. I bet that was great. Could it better sure. But so could All Tommorrow's Parties or whatever.

Could it be better, sure.

My home state's major summer festival, Taste of Minnesota, booked mostly washed-up dino rockers when it was a free event. Then they got some hipper bands, starting charging admission, and went broke.

I'm doing Winnipeg Folk Festival pretty much every year now; that's fun, but camping-centric. Other festivals I have enjoyed: Bumbershoot in Seattle (although queueing up to see the indoor shows is a hassle) and SXSW, although more queueing, cramped clubs.

this one looks like it was pretty awesome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Fair_and_Magic_Mountain_Music_Festival

I think that's the one where Beefheart freaked out and walked off of the edge of the stage and then Ry Cooder quit and they had to cancel their appearance at Monterey Pop!

Music Midtown/Live Nation promoter Peter Conlon, on annoying wannabe rockers

"People who pretend to be musicians who really aren't — especially local musicians. ... If you're working in a bar, and you're a bartender but you play in a band, you're a bartender. It's how you make your living. If you're making your living as a musician full time, you're a musician. This is a business of talent. People in this business seek talent out. If you're talented, someone's gonna find you and you're gonna get discovered. If you're still flailing around and you're in your late 20s or 40s, you probably don't have any talent and you should really look at plan B. A lot of people come to me and they're still waiting to get discovered, but look, it's hard to hide talent. In our business, people will find you and make you a star. When people claim to be musicians but they're working as bartenders or waiters, it's just not the same thing. It takes away from the people who really do have talent."

http://clatl.com/atlanta/music-issue-2012-atlanta-promoters-and-players-on-piss-poor-performance/Content?oid=5620412&storyPage=2

This caused a pretty big stir when it was published.

lol

lol x2

Fun to rip on DeRo, but I love it when he keeps his reporter hat firmly on and tilts at windmills, in this case another music festival, this one in DC:

http://www.wbez.org/blogs/jim-derogatis/2015-09/lollapalooza-gang-invades-national-mall-113058

In the future, the entire music industry will apparently be reduced to a series of big music festivals.

so ..
boomtown festival this year.
this happened

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-37083532

mk1 was there having driven in my car.

turns out that cars next to ours were burnt out, but ours survived !

Summer Sonic, a Japanese festival is running a live stream of last year's highlights, starting now.

As always with J festivals, a decent mix of Japanese and Western bands, Kraftwerk, MBV, The 1975, Metafive, Cornelius...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUaGX2j5OOI