It was on the third day at Rothbury that I knew I had settled in to a bit of a routine. I knew my favorite food vendor, I knew the fastest route to each stage, and I even had a port-o-john that seemed to be cleaner than the rest. I knew I could survive on very little sleep, I knew the importance of drinking lots of water, and I knew the benefits of Gold Bond.

This was also the day I had planned to see the most music. Three of my most anticipated sets would happen on Day 3 – Railroad Earth, The Dead, and Umphrey’s McGee. One was just as much fun as I figured it would be, one blew my mind, and one was a huge disappointment. Read on to see which was which…

After waking up early to go catch a shower (necessary and refreshing), I tried to catch up on my blogging, picture uploading, video uploading, and all the other things that would normally be more difficult because of our oversaturated media Internet access. Due to a tech glitch that was own dumb fault, I realized that the pictures going into our Flickr feed were going in twice. So, I took a few minutes (well, really 2 hours) to fix that mess. You can see those pics here, if you’re so inclined.

The first show on the Day 3 docket was a trio of local boys – Four Finger Five from Muskegon, MI hit the Ranch Arena stage at 1pm. While they didn’t do a lot of traditional “jamming”, 4F5 certainly seems to have the musical talent to stretch things out if they had the time. Since this was an abbreviated festival set, I imagine they were trying to give the audience a good sampling of what they were all about, rather than wow the crowd with 3 songs weighing in at 20 minutes a piece. I’m having trouble classifying their sound. They aren’t just playing rock. They aren’t really a straight-up jazz band. They remind me a little of O.A.R., only there isn’t a lot of that reggae-bop that O.A.R. presents. Joe Sturgill’s vocals have a bit of a John Mayer tone to them, slightly more pure in fact. So glad to know that (a) they have a new record on the way and (b) they’re from West Michigan. Yay for the home team! Make sure you give this clip from their set a listen: four-finger-five

Railroad Earth rolled around a couple hours later, and I was headed back to the Ranch. Bottom line, I love listening to these guys. Day 3 was the day the temps started to turn, and things started to get hot. All the running around I had already done throughout the morning had started to take it’s toll. I was tired, on my way to being wiped out, and I knew I had a long night ahead. Railroad Earth delivered the perfect mix of folk, bluegrass and acoustic rock – it was exactly what I needed at that point in the day. Something that I could listen to without much need for concentration – grab a portabello quesadilla (my fave food at the fest), find a spot in the shade, and just close my eyes and enjoy the sounds. A guest appearance by String Cheese’s Billy Nershi didn’t hurt either. If you’ve been following this blog, you saw my love for Railroad Earth a few weeks earlier. Needless to say, they lived up to my expectations.

John Butler took the Ranch stage following Railroad Earth. John Butler Trio’s 2 records (Sunrise Over Sea and Grand National) are 2 of my favorite records over the last few years. I expected the Australian singer/songwriter to wow me once he hit the stage. Sadly, he fell a little flat. He started out solo, and 3 songs in, I needed to head back to the media area to join the photo pit for The Dead. There were drums set up on the stage, so there is a chance the set turned from a John Butler solo set to a full-on Trio show… but I have no idea.

Which brings us to The Dead. This was the most disappointing show I saw during all 4 days. I’m not sure if it was my fault or the band’s fault. I had never seen the Dead, Grateful or otherwise, so I was really hoping to see something special. You can read my full review here and see what went wrong.

The fireworks were excellent, and gave The Dead’s “U.S. Blues” a great backdrop. However, The Dead had run pretty long, and I could hear Umphrey’s ripping in to one of my favorites (”All In Time”) from the Ranch, so that’s where we headed. It was now somewhere in the realm of 1am.

The Chicago-via-South Bend prog-rock sextet was lighting up the Ranch Arena stage when we finally arrived about 20 minutes later. Both the band and the crowd were already on fire. We walked in as the band started up “Hurt Bird Bath”, a rowdy guitar jam that would build and peak over and over, whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Next up, the soaring “Hajimemashite” that would segue into the spacey end of set-opener “Mantis”. Talking Head’s cover “Making Flippy Floppy” and the guitar-funk of “40’s Theme” were next, leading up to the electronic dance of set-closing “Cemetery Walk pt. 2″. At setbreak, the crowd was treated to a surprise DJ set by Pretty Lights – he spun for about 25 minutes, befoe Umphrey’s returned. Joel Cummins on the keys blended his sound into what Pretty Lights was spinning, and as the DJ dropped out, the band kicked in with the fan-favorite jam “Wappy Sprayberry” – a great tune that goes from dance to rock and back again. “Wappy” segued abruptly into the piano intro of “Cemetery Walk” from Umphrey’s current record “Mantis”.

It was late in the jam of the next tune “Ringo” that I realized I was hitting the wall. It had somehow become 3am. My mind had been blown, I had lost track of time, and reality had started to invade my brain again. I knew I had work to do in the morning. I knew how much I liked sleep. I knew how much I liked my routine. So I ended a mostly fantastic Day 3 with a long walk back to my car, jamming to the sounds of Umphrey’s McGee with every step.