This year's line up had Prince and 3rd Eye Girl as the event's finale, and tickets were sucked up at a record rate. Big crowds are one thing, but with masses of humanity packed into (relatively) small spaces it can cause kinks in the canvas, so to speak.
In their haste to insure a profit, the organizers took a tip from the airline industry. Shove as many people as you can into your music "plain," eliminate all possible extraneous seating to make watching the acts uncomfortable, at best, and then tell the customer to suck it up because they overbooked the flight.
I am not so naive to not know that bringing in an act with the pedigree of Prince takes a wheelbarrow of cash. I'm also aware that the previous permutations of summer music fests have lost money for the most part. However, organizers must remember that festivals fail, not just because of money, they also fail when they are lax on Gene's Event 4 Cs. They are:
Content - You have to book acts that will draw music fans over three days.
Communication - Your event needs to keep the music fan up to date with info. Things like gate opening and closing, changes in line-ups, etc. Most importantly, they need to communicate between the staff. I ran into a lot of the right hand not talking to the left. One staffer saying one thing, only to find that the reality was different, or had changed from one day to the other. In this day of SMS, Facebook and Twitter there is no excuse for dropping this ball.
Consistency - If you tell people they can't do something on the last day, then don't allow it to happen for the previous two. Many people were told on the last night they couldn't sit out on their blankets and cushions like they were ignored the previous two days, or earlier that afternoon.
Courtesy - You want to enforce regulations, or give directions, or explain how to exit, with patience and be polite. It's not the customer's fault that you've been working long hours for little or no money.
Following these simple steps will help create a vibe that keeps fans returning to your event during the lean years of the cyclical nature of act's tours and bad weather. Both are guaranteed to happen.
Now, to the music. The acts ranged from "What was that about…?" to nothing short of one of the best performances I have ever seen. I'll keep the reports to the each night's headliners.
On Friday night closing, one of the acts was Stockholm's First Aid Kit. A sister duo from a Stockholm suburb, Johanna and Klara proudly proclaimed themselves to be "08ers" which is the area code for the Stockholm area. They were discovered with their cover of the Fleet Foxes' "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song." Now, the duo has spread their wings to become a quasi- country band. In their stage patter, they said that June and Johnny Cash, Emmylou and Gram Parsons were their influences. During the ceremony when Patti Smith was given the Swedish Polar Prize, a Swedish honor for outstanding achievement in music, First Aid Kit gave a moving performance of "Dancing Barefoot" that brought tears to the recipient. The sisters can sing, believe me. Especially Klara, who has a clear and resonant voice that can belt them out, as well. She reminds me of a young Ann Wilson.
While they aspire to the wonderful artists they mentioned, unfortunately, there's a sameness to their sound. Whether it's the lyrics or just tonight's choice of their material, whether upbeat or slow with feeling, there is a sense of "Didn't I just hear that?" To be honest, I'm not familiar with their catalog and, maybe, there are some different musical ideas in there, but tonight they didn't expose them.
Friday closed with Regina Spektor from NYC. I enjoyed this set more than I thought I would. Surprisingly, she filled the large stage with a her piano and a small combo. The warm, clear summer night and her lighting made the show as intimate as a large club and Regina's between song banter was personable and her fans were loving and vocal. The rest of us gave her a warm Stockholm welcome. Covering most of her better known songs like "Ode to Divorce," "Don't Leave Me," "Eet," and "Samson," Regina left her fans well sated. For me, Spektor is not a closer for any festival. Her playing outdoors is fine, but Regina is not an act that a festival should make the last music that fans leave on.
Saturday was Sixto Rodriquez, the subject of the 2012 Academy Award winner, "Searching for Sugarman." While I was aware of the movie, I haven't seen it. From various sources I remembered that he was very popular in South Africa, so I was expecting a kind of Paul Simon "Graceland" thing; was I mistaken. Rodriquez originally hails from Detroit and in 1969 released an album called "Cold Fact," a psychedelic assessment of life for the drugged and downtrodden. This album and his follow up effort went nowhere in the States and he decided to quit music. Unbeknown to him, his albums became hits in Australia and South Africa. Now, after the movie's success, Rodriguez is on an almost constant tour to make up the for the lost success.
Like Chuck Berry, Rodriguez has back up bands everywhere, and he had a very qualified group of young Swedish guns that night. His appearance on stage was startling. Because he has to walk out with assistance, one assumed that he was a victim of 60s and 70s excesses, looking like Ozzy at home on the TV series. A friend thought he was drunk but he has advanced glaucoma and can barely see, causing the need for an escort and the slow shuffle walk. His band leader had to keep him up with the set list and, it seemed, he placed Sixto's hands in the proper chord a couple of times. Rodriquez talked slowly, painfully slow, and told some of the oldest and worst jokes. Like Mickey and Minnie in the divorce attorney's office and stupid. If you don't know the punchline, ask any 12 or 13 year old boy. They love that stuff.
His singing was fair, though he's not hitting the tough ones like I heard on the Cold Fact LP. However, his real problem is the material. He is sincere and his song's rhyme well, but there's something not universal enough for a wide audience to grasp to. The message is too personal to the artist. While good enough to make the final cut for Nuggets II, Sixto Rodriguez's music will be welcome in the States until all the movie fans, curious enough to see him live, dry up. Then, as he is 71 years old, he will tour Australia and South Africa for as long as he can. Another dud for a closing act.
The weather for the festival was incredibly nice for the entire weekend, with warm and sunny days and clear and balmy nights. Sunday, the closing day, was no exception. I went a little early to see Billy Bragg. I'm a fan of his, especially the two Woody albums with Wilco (duh!). Wilco wasn't with Billy this afternoon, but with him was a tight ensemble of very good players. Billy is very personable on stage, and his between song patter was laced with Stockholm references. Unlike a "Hello, Stockholm" or "we're glad to be here" (pick any city), you actually believe that Billy was at the places he referenced.
He still is passionate about the injustices caused by capitalism and racism, but he doesn't bludgeon you with the message, like his hero, Woody Guthrie. He turned Marley's "One Love" into a nice sing along about forgiving the African debt. He weaved in a lot of Guthrie songs and was also amusingly self depreciating about himself. He joked how it was a pleasure to share the same stage as the Stones at Glastonbury. "It was a pleasure to be one of the youngsters at the event," he said. "Believe me, that doesn't happen very often now." His personability, songs and heartfelt passion for his beliefs makes me want to go see him again.
The next act was Laura Mvula, a soul singer-songwriter from the UK. What makes one being black, beautiful and an ability to sing a soul singer? It would seem to me that the necessary ingredient would be some soul. Unfortunately, having a violin and acoustic bass can't make up for the fact that poor Laura doesn't have any.
The event sold out in hours (pre-sale) for one, and only one, reason. The festival was going to close with Prince Rogers Nelson.
I have never seen His Purpleness live, and I was looking forward to the experience. There are many songs in his catalogue that I love, especially from the New Power Generation era, like "Cream." Little did I know that Prince actually changed his sound to Cream - the band.
I have seen videos where Prince earns himself a Guitar Player Monster medal with clusters. You only need to remember how he owned "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the R&RHOF induction of George Harrison. He plays the nastiest "Red House" since Hendrix and he may just be the most versatile guitar artist of all time.
Thumbing his nose at courtesy, Prince pulled the diva act by starting over an hour late. Perhaps, it was waiting to make the lighting effects more vivid when night fell. On this night, he could have played by the glow of flashlights and it would not affected the performance one iota.
The 2013 Prince Tour is a full on, non-stop rock and roll show. At fifty-five years old, the artist maybe has aged enough to now consider his music legacy rather than his sexy persona. Whatever, the re-working of songs DEEP into his catalog, was extraordinary. Like the saying goes, he knows he can play, you know he can play and he knows that you know he can play. Truly, like he sang, he might love us but not like he loves his guitar.
Seemingly, to make up for being late, he did an encore and said good night. The crowd, standing elbow to elbow, wouldn't leave. He came out for encore #2, saying to the crowd, "You wanna make me work tonight, huh? All right, but I've got more songs than you have time," and proceeded to do twenty minutes of his hits. The group of women in front of me, who were somewhat into the show, with some head bobbing between texting, absolutely exploded into full dance club mode. It was amazing to witness this, seemingly, DNA release of movement.
Well, that was a pretty good way to end the night, but Prince was now into it. The THIRD encore brought out the roadies and back stage hangers on to the stage for spontaneous dancing, when the band leader signaled a down beat and said good night.
It was 2½ hours of unmitigated rock and roll and may be one of the best shows I have ever seen, and there's been a lot of them. A recent poll named Bruce as the best touring act in 2013. Prince was #2. From what I witnessed last night, it's a well earned accolade. Do not miss this:
http://www.wat.tv/video/prince-3rd-eye-girl-jimmy-5sgw1_2hztv_.html
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