Rothblog: Day 1 Review
July 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am by The Rothblog under Entertainment
Nothing ever goes quite as planned. Our crew of four has been jumping hurdles and changing our strategies since we arrived. But, with this many people in one place, you can’t help but roll with the changes. I’ll save you the sob stories from backstage, only to say that 25+ media folks all sharing the same Internet stream makes things slow…
My first goal of the day was to make my way to Keller Williams over at the Ranch. You can check out that review right here, and even listen to an audio clip from the show.
We got to the stage early enough to catch the very end of Toubab Krewe. Sadly, it’s hard to tell you much about their style – the only song we caught was a full band drum and percussion jam. Don’t get me wrong, it was awesome, and the crowd was very much into it, dancing frenetically to the pulsing, tribl beats that were being laid down – I just have no idea if that is reminiscent of their “normal” sound, or if it was just a cool way to cap off their set.
Keller followed Toubab at the Ranch. His set was great, but hopefully you’ve already clicked that link above and know that. We headed back to the media tent, dealt with some frustrations there, and tried to relax a bit before heading out to the Disco Biscuits.
Now, I will make my confession right here – I have never been into the Disco Biscuits. I have sampled their studio records, made the attempt to really listen, and have been mostly unimpressed. Thursday night (Friday morning, really) my mind was changed. These guys are first and foremost a live band. I’m sure any fan of tDB could have told me that, but I was never interested in listening. Sorry about that.
They started with solid rock. Electric guitars blazing, drums hitting hard – the crowd was into it. But I learned that the more the tempo picks up and the more the songs turn from rock into dance into electronic, the more glowing objects get thrown into the air. The more glowing things in the air, the more the crowd goes nuts. The more the crowd goes nuts, the more the band gets into it, and pushes themselves to play harder. Its keeps going on like this until the set ends or the crowd passes out.
About 45 minutes into the Disco Biscuits set, I noticed a message from the Rothbury Twitter account – there would be a secret show at the Speak EZ stage in the middle of the Sherwood Forest. We arrived around 1:30, as a Burlesque show was wrapping up on the stage – not my cup of tea, but to each their own. People filtered in slowly, in groups of 3 or 4, as word spread that something was going down in the Forest. About 2am, Dominic Lalli from Big Gigantic came to the stage for a DJ set – he mixed his own beats, and once he got a good groove going, he played sax over the tune.
To think that this would end up being a “light” day as far as things to do and see (music didn’t start until 6:00pm) was an overwhelming thought. Sleeping in my car never felt so good.