Cops, park rangers, protesters, cameras, peer pressure, and our collective conscience could not stop the festival love.

This shot should be called Fake Shrimp.

Although you see Fossil Fool, Thao, Fiddle Fantastic, IJ and KC going for it on the river side, not all is as it seems. Many in the community protested our having the party at the river. Even more protested the idea of our MTV film crew being there. But many supported us too, and ultimately the show went on. More later on the controversy. For now, lemme just tell you a bit about the ‘Fest and why these shrimp be fakin’ it.

We finally made it through the cops and blockades to arrive at the river before sundown, went for a quick swim and then picked up our instruments to play a couple songs for the camera. In reality (that word has become harder to use lately), the show didn’t begin until after dark. People started rolling and walking in as the light went away. We broke out the chinese lanterns and the gathered musicians started jamming. I was happy that the music finally started in earnest, but it wasn’t at all how co-conspirator Moss and I had envisioned it. Earlier we had talked about the pros and cons of having a PA system at the river. One of the reasons Moss really wanted to was so that individual acts would have the stage in discreet little blocks, rather than the whole night being a free-form hippie jam. We decided to move ahead with the PA plan, but it got shut down amid all the protesting and commotion. So it was gonna be acoustic after all.

As Fiddle Fantastic and I watched the jam get going, I had the idea that the original idea was still rescuable: all we needed was an MC to keep the party in line. Moss was the obvious candidate, but he declined on account of the hard day working against some forces of the universe. Then it seemed appropriate that I do it, and maybe not even play. Felt like a humble way to lead the fest after days of railroading it along.

No better way to gather some wild river crowd energy into focus than with a powerful spoken word, and no one better to do it than Grace T (you’ll be hearing about her). She rocked the non-mic and set the stage for a beautiful night of totally unplugged performances.

Then Isaac literally blew people away with a once-on-a-lifetime rendition of his piece “Beats Flowing.” This is him thanking the crowd.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2005 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Music, Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.