2005-08-18 - 9:51 a.m.
We left for Wakarusa on Wednesday. We were scheduled to play on Friday but we wanted to be in position so we could get to the site early on in the day. We Priceline many of the hotels we stay in. One thing you can guarantee is that we’ll be staying in the nicest place; a Hilton or Sheraton with a jacuzzi and $3000 mattresses, when we have about 5 hours to stay!
It's really, really hot!! I can see I will be spending much of my time hiding from the sun. My wife was flying out early to meet us and check out the festival. One of her favorite bands was playing; Ozomatli. She has all their records but has never seen them live. One of my favorite bands was also on the bill; Wilco. We had the one play on Friday and then the rest of the weekend to enjoy the rest of the festival. Wakarusa is held in a state park just outside Lawrence, Kansas. There are two huge stages in adjacent fields and a huge tent with a stage. This is where we played. Before our play I sat in with Shanti Groove. They’re a great bunch of guys and I had fun playing with them. The crowd in the tent during our performance was the loudest I had ever heard! They sounded like a jet taking off! Amazing! When we were done, I met Martha over at the Sundown stage and danced to Ozomatli. They were fantastic! Particle was on later in the evening on the same stage we played on. Steve Molitz, my Phil and Friends cohort and Particle keyboardist, asked me to sit in on the Pink Floyd tune, “Any Colour You Like”. We had a great time with Steve conducting the interplay going on onstage. The crowd seemed to really dig it. Ozomatli closed the revival tent on Friday and when I say closed I mean they played ‘till 5 in the morning! Martha and I hung in ‘till close to 4. We danced our asses off. I love the mix of Latin and socially conscious rap that these guys play. Other musical highlights were Wilco, who might have been the best musical act I’d seen in... well ever. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little but they were really fucking good! Calexico was great; a strange and beautiful mix of alt-rock and Tex-Mex. Split Lip Hayfield was unbelievable. They’re on 11! Some of you old Star Trek fans might remember an episode where Kirk is whisked off the Enterprise to another dimension only to find himself still on the Enterprise but everyone else is moving so slow as to seem as if they’re not moving at all. Once there he meets other people who are moving at normal speed. To the Enterprise crew the people from the other dimension are moving so fast they can’t be seen. They can only hear what sounds like insects. Split Lip Rayfield is from that dimension! They have to be seen to be believed! Robert Bradley was great and very funny.
On Sunday I had a big kick playing with my good friends New Monsoon. I love these guys and Jeff and I dueled it out big time at the campground stage. The audience seemed to have a life of it’s own! 20 minutes later I was on with The Hot Buttered Rum String Band who were gracious enough to have a place for my stage rig all set up so I jumped in and did a few tunes with them. It was more fun than should be allowed!
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