Langerado Day One | Greetings from Sunny Florida!

Greetings from sunny Sunrise, Florida where the Langerado Music Festival is up and running in style!

So far, we’ve already seen great “Lebo” art…

Some fun characters…

(Unfortunately, no Banana Man sightings just yet!?! But, we’ll keep an eye out)

And, of course, we’ve seen a bunch of great bands rip up some killer sets!

Here’s a little photo round-up of what went down (after the jump)…

Full Flecktones:

I hadn’t seen these guys since maybe 2001-2002, and had sort of forgotten the shear, raw talent on stage.

Victor Wooten laid down some of his usual meaty bass lines (wowing all the front-row folks)…

…Futureman tapped out a solid “drum” solo, and Bela is always stellar on banjo:

They touted their recent Grammy winning album by playing one its key tunes, and finished off a really nice late-afternoon set. There’s something about the Flecktones and the sunset that’s a pretty perfect match.

But as it got darker and people got drunker, moe. was another nicely timed set.

moe. was just moe. As always, plain and simple, they played a great rock show. Their set featured plenty of dual-guitar madness and some great banter and singing from Rob Derhak. The keyboardists from Assembly of Dust joined them for a few tunes, including one that nicely channeled the Allmans Brothers:

I always enjoy moe’s music, but am still on the fence a little bit. Their sound just doesn’t really challenge the ear and often tends to drag on with endless guitar wankery. It’s usually decent guitar wankery, but I sometimes feel that moe tunes/jams lack some sort of progression, and tend to meld together a bit. But it’s probably just me, because the crowd was digging them…

We then decided to head over to catch the opening notes of Mr. Ernest G. Anastasio III and the latest incarnation of the TAB…

Trey honestly looked and sounded very fresh (…not bad for a guy getting over drug issues and a recent legal troubles for said drugs). “Alive Again” perfectly captured that sentiment and was really solid way to get the crowd going.

The rest of the setlist is a bit of a blur right now, but Trey’s set featured some of his patent chicken-neck funk and rock, and a man that seemed focused and determined to push on past the recent messiness:

(photo sidenote:
pardon my lack of photo skills. I’m still getting used to the camera in terms of dark lighting and lots of motion, but I think I still managed a few solid shots).

After checking out Trey for a bit, we ventured over to catch Sector 9’s set…

STS9’s set at the “Swamp Tent” was probably the highlight of the night for me. As always, their visuals are quite stunning and somehow perfectly capture the dark, trippy electronic fusion these guys bring to the table:

Sound Tribe hit on some pretty cool themes and Zach Velmer exhibited his always-impressive D’n’B drum-work. I particularly liked their use of laptops and additional samples to mix things up:

These guys have really come a long way since I first caught them in the Spring of 2000. They’re very patient in the way they build up energy, but have an even cooler way to unleash it on the crowd — a crowd which definitely seemed to be in full dance-craze by the middle of the set…

All in all, the first day’s music was impressive. But, honestly, it is also the vibe, the weather, the people, and even the food, that add up to make this festival that much better. We ended our night with some tasty ribs and a little late-night clowning around the festival’s main sign…