Category: Uncategorized

Mostly a placeholder entry before I can catch up with music from 2024 and 2023. 

I also plan to have entries based especially on my post-COVID experiences about what kind of music venues and festival environments I prefer, how I prepare for a festival, and who I would like to see and where I would like to go.

I have knocked some venues off of my “bucket list” in the past couple of years, including The Greek in LA, The Greek in Berkeley, The Warfield and The Fillmore in San Francisco, The Ardmore Music Hall in Philadelphia, Legend Valley in Thornville (Ohio), Tipitina’s in New Orleans, and the Frost Amphitheater in Stanford.

More to come…

The 2021 music festival season was a halting restart from the pandemic, with many festivals choosing to cancel for a second consecutive year and others scaling way back. For example, the Lockn Farm “experiment”, which appears to have been the end of Lockn. Despite the weather issues and the low attendance, I had a great time at the two Lockn Farm weekends I attended – JRAD and Tedeschi Trucks. I probably should have gone to the Fred Festival weekend but that was just too much driving in such a short period of time. But I did see Goose three times in 2022 and I’m on pace to see them six times this year (starting with Daze Between), plus one performance by Orebolo (Northlands, their first festival performance since the Fred according to Peter A.).

The 2022 music festival season was more complete but also included make-up dates, for example, Oysterhead fulfilling 2020/2021 commitments to Sweetwater 420 (and to The Peach in 2021). Perhaps the most extreme example was the many acts who played both The Peach and High Sierra over the same weekend (JRAD, Goose, Andy Frasco, Samantha Fish, etc.). Travel arrangements must have been a nightmare since neither Scranton (The Peach) nor Quincy (High Sierra) are near major airports.

The 2023 music festival season appears to be a transition from the pre-pandemic to the post-pandemic environment. Some festivals did not come back (Sacred Rose), some are taking at least this year off (FloydFest), some are ending this year (Resonance, which was rescheduled from last October), some took place but said they will be changing their format in the future (Summer Camp), and at least one new festival launched with great fanfare but canceled within a few weeks of the lineup announcement (Echoland). But others are staying the course, such as Bonnaroo, The Peach, High Sierra, ACL, Hulaween, etc.

The artist tug of war between corporate (LiveNation) and private festivals is still an issue. I certainly hope that the private festivals such as High Sierra survive; LiveNation appears to be trying to cripple that festival by moving The Peach from mid-July to the same Fourth of July weekend as High Sierra.

As I mentioned in a previous post, festivals in Atlanta are still working their way around the threat of lawsuits over allowing guns in public parks, even at private events. Sweetwater 420 scaled way back from a four-day festival in Centennial Park to a two-day festival at the brewery (private property), and Candler Park announced it would no longer continue. However, Shaky Knees was held in Central Park in May with no guns allowed and Music Midtown is scheduled to resume in Piedmont Park in September, also with no guns allowed, after canceling at the last minute in 2022. No lawsuits so far against these festivals. So maybe Sweetwater 420 can return to Centennial Park in 2024.

The surprising announcement of the cancellation of the Music Midtown festival in Atlanta scheduled for September should prompt the Georgia legislature to address the reason for the cancellation as soon as possible during their next session starting in January.

A ruling this summer in a lawsuit concerning the current Georgia gun carry law and public property has festival promoters concerned about potential lawsuits if they try to ban guns from their events.

The lawsuit challenged the right of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to ban guns since the Gardens are in Piedmont Park. The ruling allowed the Gardens to continue banning guns because of their long-term lease but did not address the issue of “temporary” events in public spaces such as music festivals, which in Atlanta are typically held in public parks (Piedmont, Central, Centennial, Candler, etc.).

The organizers of Music Midtown in Piedmont Park did not want to risk a lawsuit. They also expressed concern that artists would refuse to play at the festival if a weapons ban could not be enforced.

My hope and expectation is that the legislature will amend the gun carry law to allow bans for these type of “temporary” events, especially events with restricted access (I’m not even sure how a free event with no barriers could enforce a weapons ban). Someone with a personal firearm strolling through Piedmont Park is quite different from someone with a firearm at a music fest crammed with 20,000 people.

If the law is not amended I anticipate that all future festivals will either avoid public parks or just not take place, unless some festival promoter wants to challenge the law by banning guns and fighting a lawsuit.

After Sweetwater 420 (SW420), Candler Park, and the High Sierra Music Festival (HSMF), my festival season is probably over for 2022.

I was expecting a full Lockn’ Festival in Virginia in August of 2022 after the “special” Lockn’ Farm weekends in August of 2021 (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Goose, and Tedeschi Trucks Band), but it appears that the next event won’t be until next year – “See you on the Farm in 2023” is currently posted on their main page.

The Queen City Jam Session festival in Charlotte in mid-August has a great line-up, especially with a chance to see Oteil and Friends after they had to cancel from the SW420 festival. But mid-August in downtown Charlotte could be very warm. I remember Music Midtown in Atlanta having stages on various downtown vacant lots in the late 1990’s with no shade and very hot pavement, with little relief from the heat even after the sun went down.

The new Sacred Rose festival in Chicago at the end of August appears to be a superset of jam band festival artists (for example, including The War On Drugs, Khruanbgin, etc.). I’m concerned about the potential heat factor at that time of year combined with the main stage being in a bowl-like stadium with limited (or no) shade and freedom of movement. Maybe I’ll check that out next year.

The Resonance festival in Charleston in mid-September has some excellent artists, especially Goose, Umphrey’s McGee, and Eggy, but I’m not sure about the weather and mosquito situation in what sounds like a wetlands in the low country of South Carolina. Again, maybe next year.

The new FORMAT festival in Arkansas in late September has an interesting music lineup but the price seems a bit high, probably because of the combination of music and arts in one festival. As with Sacred Rose I’m inclined to give them a chance to work out the kinks in the first year and check out the schedule for year two.

The Austin City Limits festival in October is more interesting and remains an outside possibility. As of this date it looks like only single-day GA tickets are available. An interesting concept – most of the bands are playing on the same days on two different weekends, for example, The War on Drugs on Saturday the 8th and Saturday the 15th, Spoon and Goose on Sunday the 9th and Sunday the 16th

Sweetwater 420 (SW420) Festival 2022 (Atlanta, GA) – April 28-May 1

Finally! I attended all four days of the festival. I’ll post separate entries about the music for each day of the festival but here are some general comments.

In summary, this was a terrific festival, with perfect weather and great music and it was well organized and executed by the promoters, the stagehands, the soundboard operators, the support staff, the vendors, etc. The main hiccup I noticed during the festival was the frequent failure of the vendor payment system via the wristbands – I had to switch to a credit card several times.

The promoters did have to scramble multiple times to adjust the line-up for Thursday (see the daily recap for more details) but amazingly none of the festival bands had to withdraw due to positive COVID tests.

The majority of the fans were there for the music, as opposed to my experience at some other venues (both indoors and outdoors) where too many people spend their time socializing and trying to talk over the music. My opinion is that if you want to talk you should stay in the back of the crowd so the people closer to the front can enjoy the show.

I would say that the only people I know who enjoy this type of music and experience are the people at these festivals, and I don’t know any of those people. But I can enjoy the freedom of attending these festivals by myself, selecting the schedule and the viewing location and having the option to switch stages. I also meet some nice people every time.

Centennial Olympic Park is a bit too “open” for my taste but it’s a trade-off for a festival of this size. I generally prefer the festival parks with more available shade, such as Central Park (Shaky Knees), Candler Park (Candler Park Music Festival), Piedmont Park (Music Midtown), and Grant Park (Summer Shade Festival).

Speaking of Shaky Knees, it was unfortunate that the SW420 and Shaky Knees festivals were scheduled for the same weekend this year. SW420 is usually held around 4/20 and Shaky Knees is usually held around mid-May but for some reason the festivals competed this year. Perhaps that was due to the schedule for the bands and other festivals. I have noticed this spring that many of these performers play festival A in city A on Friday, then festival B in city B on Saturday, and festival C in city C on Sunday.

After the COVID cancellations in 2020 and 2021 I know that the bands that have persevered have to make up for all the lost revenue.

Sometimes these festivals are within driving distance, for example, the Candler Park Festival in Atlanta and the Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga.

The most extreme example might be the large number of bands that will be traveling between the Peach Festival in Scranton, PA, and the High Sierra Festival in Quincy, CA during the pre-Independence Day holiday weekend (June 30 – July 3). It might be worthwhile for the festivals to have a daily charter flight between Scranton and Reno (probably the closest major airport to Quincy).

I don’t know if the festivals have changed as much as my musical tastes, but as the years have passed I have shifted from attending Music Midtown to Shaky Knees to SW420. There were some performers I wanted to see at Shaky Knees this year, especially Spoon, Kurt Vile, and Khruangbin. Of course, those acts all played on separate days but there is also the curse of overlapping schedules for any multi-stage festival, for example, if on Saturday Spoon played from 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM on stage A while Kurt Vile played from 5:15 PM – 6:15 PM on stage C. Maybe next year I will get to attend both SW420 and Shaky Knees.

A final plug (pun intended), for Earasers ear plugs. I’ve been using them for several years now and they really make a difference. Using Earasers and standing or sitting between 20 and 50 yards from the stage seems to provide the best experience for me (the ideal distance depends on just how loud the speakers are). I know there is some loss of the full musical spectrum but I also know that I have hearing loss anyway due to older age but also due to the concerts I attended in my younger days. Coming out of those shows with muffled hearing was considered a sign of a great show rather than a precursor of permanent hearing loss, sort of like how my generation would use suntan oil to enhance getting a tan at the pool or the beach instead of a sunscreen lotion to protect against the UVA and UVB rays and skin cancer. Plus the Earasers help to drown out any local conversations while still allowing most of the music to pass through. Recommended.

So, Atlanta has two major outdoor music festivals in the spring – SweetWater 420 and Shaky Knees.  SW420 is usually held on the weekend around April 20^th while SK is usually held two to three weeks later in early May.

But in 2022 both festivals will occur over the same weekend, April 29 – May 1.  Why?  SW420 should have been April 22-24 and SK should have been May 6-8 or May 13-15.

This seems like an “unforced error” on the part of SK since SW420 announced their 2022 dates over a month before SK announced their dates, and even before the delayed SK 2021 festival took place in late October; SW420 was cancelled for both 2020 and 2021.

The festivals are in different locations and there isn’t much overlap in the performers, especially in recent years as SW420 has become the “jam bands” festival and SK has drifted away from the “indie band” focus of earlier years to a more mainstream lineup, at least in my opinion.

But having the festivals on the same weekend doesn’t seem fair to the fans who might want to attend both and also to the vendors who might want to participate in both events.  Plus the traffic, the subway, and the rideshare services are going to be twice as bad.  Maybe someone will set up a shuttle service between the festivals so you can watch Spafford at SW420, shuttle over to SK to watch Spoon, then back to SW420 to watch Umphrey’s McGee, for example.

I’m looking forward to my first SW420 in 2022 after missing the 2019 festival and getting cancelled out of 2020 and 2021.  I did go to the SweetWater anniversary party at the brewery in February of 2019 to see Anders Osborne and Samantha Fish.

I have enjoyed SK in the past.  The 2015 Saturday show featured The Avett Brothers, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Real Estate, and ZZ Ward.  The 2018 Friday show featured Jack White, David Byrne (performing American Utopia), Courtney Barnett, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, The Ghost Of Paul Revere, and The War And Treaty.

There wasn’t much of interest to me in the 2021 SK festival and based on a quick glance at the 2022 lineup the only performers I will miss will be Spoon and Kurt Vile.  Maybe they will come back to town on a later stop of their tours.  Maybe even Music Midtown in September?

Congratulations to Jon Batiste on the 11 Grammy award nominations. 

I went to the Tedeschi Trucks Band weekend at Lockn’ Farm in August and saw that Jon and his band would be performing on late Sunday afternoon before the final TTB show that evening.  Up until then I only knew him as the bandleader on Colbert.

What a superb show – I highly recommend seeing him if you can.  He exemplifies the best of live performances – great music, great energy, great showmanship, great connection with the audience.

This is one of things I like best about festival-style concerts, where in addition seeing to performers you already know, you can “sample” performers you might not have been inclined to go see at a solo concert.  A bit like streaming music from new artists before buying an album.

Other recent similar festival performances were The War And Treaty and David Byrne performing American Utopia.

In fits and starts, though.

Lockn’ was reduced to three weekends with one stage, no screens, and only a few bands, but the JRAD/Slip/Medeski+Martin (and Surprise Me Mr. Davis when Nathan Moore joined in with The Slip and Marco Benevento) shows were excellent even though the weather played havoc with the schedule. JRAD made up most of the missed performances on Friday and Saturday nights with daytime shows on Saturday and Sunday (including Pink Floyd and Allman Brothers sets) and finally got a full 3-hour show in on Sunday night. Ironically Sunday was supposed to be the stormiest day of the weekend but there was hardly any rain at all.

The Lockn’ folks graciously made it up to the JRAD attendees by allowing us to return for either the Goose weekend or the Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB) weekend for free. A long drive again but worth it to see Tedeschi Trucks (full band including the horn section), Marcus King, Gabe Dixon, and Jon Batiste; Lettuce had to cancel due to a positive COVID test. The TTB show on Saturday night was cut short by thunderstorms. The Sunday night show would also have been cut short but it started an hour earlier than on Saturday so they got the full show in about 15 minutes before the lightning and thunder and rain rolled in.

Bonnaroo was cancelled not due to COVID but due to rain from Hurricane Ida.

New Orleans Jazz Fest was cancelled due to COVID but it looks like some clubs shows will still take place.

SweetWater 420 Festival is going to try again next April after having cancelled for both 2020 and 2021. Many of the acts for 2020/2021 played the Peach Festival in Pennsylvania this summer but that was a bit too far for me to travel. Fortunately many of the bands are scheduled again for SW420 for next year, including Oysterhead, Trey Anastasio Band, JRAD, plus String Cheese Incident, Umphrey’s McGee, Spafford, moe., Goose, Oteil and Friends, Turkuaz/Jerry Harrison/Adrian Belew, etc.

Also really enjoyed the four-night online club performances by the Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue in April, featuring the DSO “reunion” of Rob Eaton and John Kadlecik, plus Skip Vangelas, Rob Barraco, Jay Lane, and Jake Wolf. About 90 songs over the four nights. Just saw that the same lineup is performing again over Halloween weekend with Melvin Seals joining in, but no streaming option as of mid-October.

I support COVID vaccines and masks if you want (hey, I don’t want to catch COVID even in the likely event that I would recover), and I understand the requirements for COVID vaccinations or negative tests for indoor shows but I’m not sure why they are necessary for outdoor shows. Especially since other recent large outdoor events (for example, Lollapalooza, college and pro football, etc.) have not resulted in COVID spikes. I understand those requirements for the bands and the crews and staff but they don’t really come into close contact with most of the attendees. Ah, well, better safe than sorry, I guess.

And there was a Phish Live Bait Vol. 17 in July. Plus a new Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon album.

Will outdoor festivals and indoor concerts return by this fall? The Sweetwater 420 Festival originally scheduled for April of 2020 was rescheduled to April of 2021 and has now been canceled. The only major outdoor festival that is still happening this year may be the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, rescheduled to October.

Indoor concerts and performances have also been postponed, to 2022 in many cases. Some indoor music venues are open but with limited seating and mostly local or “tribute band” acts. Maybe “herd immunity” will be declared by the end of the summer and things can start getting back to normal.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. 30 Days of Dead 2020 nearing the end. Will there be a Phish Live Bait Vol. 17 this year or will the Dinner And A Movie series be the 2020 version?

I’m still hoping for a return to outdoor festivals in the Spring, starting with the Sweetwater 420 Festival in late April, and I’m hoping that I will still be here to enjoy them. Stay safe.