Day one: after an 89 minute (?!) drive I parked tentatively a block away (no pay box? no signs?) and arrived to a decidedly empty venue. Taylor Swift is playing nearby so I resisted the temptation to go see Taylor and I got a wonderful mango Kuma's Beer ($8, I drank 4 or 5 between 6pm and 10pm and then they ran out). The mango is aroma only. Music is Sinatra�s greatest hits.
...later.
I gotta love Reggie's - great venue, a warm and welcoming staff - and the food! I got the turkey BLT but those in the know will go to Reggie's just for the Reuben. The nice deadhead gentlemen (deadheads love our musics!) I talked to during the evening told me he is allowed two each evening and would go there for the Rueben's alone. My hero. Reggie's is a terrific venue for this music, little upstairs sitting area, and two rows of seating on one wall, which I require.
Things kicked off on schedule with Columbus OH's Pale Grey Lore - playing confidently to a sparsely populated venue. They have well crafted songs and all 3 of them sing! I returned home with their CD.
Wonderful Salt of the Earth recording artist Shadow Witch delivered an amazing set of their attractive music. They include lots of interesting flourishes, which my row mate commented 'I liked the ending of that one'. I saw them at NESD and was looking forward to seeing them again here. This is a band to watch as they ascend in their performances. Perhaps they play out a lot? Anyway, keep a look out for them - their wild-man singer performs barefoot and, in this case, wearing a Horehound t-shirt, which I complimented him for later in the evening, and I suspect he was gifted at the NESD fest.
By-gosh, ATTALLA is from Oshkosh Wisconsin. This band has a energetic set of heavy tunes played (sometimes) at a laid back tempo that set them apart from the genre a bit. I will type more but this is actually the last paragraph I tackled and I have run out of words. ATTALLA is terrific!
The band Black Road has a monster bassist, and I assume 3 additional members but standing in front of homeboy as I was, I mostly got a fine treat watching his springy playing. One of the pluses of seeing live bands is getting to watch a skilled musician up close. 'Chick singer' is the new N word, so, 'female vocalist'. Really fun and she was into it. As an aside, they were the only band to vend size M girls sleeveless shirts, which I have been assigned to bring back from these fests if I know what's good for me. If you see a Zumba mom in some heavy metal T-shirts, that's my work.
Led by Pabst Blue Ribbon addict and now-legionary reluctant stonerrock figurehead, our friend "dinger" Andy of the Black Pyramid performed a louder than everyone else, stomping performance. They have a lot of jaggity unexpected riffs. I haven't revisited the Black Pyramid material in quite a while and was pleasantly surprised.
Everyone's extra gloomy favorite and headliner Inter Arma brought the noise, normally not my cup of screaming hot tea but I do like their recorded matter and anyone that can fit a Theremin into the mix has got to know what they are doing. The quiet parts are nice. The front man is a show in himself, as is the giant viking man drummer. He carried in a big stick. Literally a stick. I liked it a lot and will view them enthusiastically in the future.
Then I drove home 19 mes in 1.75 hours, which is 10 MPH (?) some sort of event (Taylor Swift again?) was discharging drunken Chicagoan's onto the LSD at midnight. With the 4 lanes narrowing down to one up north. The fools! I got to listen to a lot of music and smoke cigarettes as a reward for cutting off beer at 10pm. I forgot to get a show poster on the way out cause I wanted to talk to Andy in person a bit. A coyote ran across the road nearer to my house!
I would rate day one of this fest... 5 Bongs!
