A big “hola” from day two of the Langerado Music Festival, where the sun continued to shine, the beer kept flowin’ like water, and the music got funky, jazzy, trancey, and definitely rocked. One thing’s for sure, the late PM sets in the Swamp Tent continue to turn the volume at this place up to eleven!
Photo round-up and commentary after the jump…
Langerado, Day Two:
(go here for my day one round-up and photos)
Day Two, started off similarly to day one, with a few minor delays on getting our sorry butts into the festival (hey, nobody said we’d catch everything. But once inside, we continued to enjoy the sun, the brew, and the never-ending tunes. We also ran into a few more interesting characters (but still no Banana Man!):
Hoola girls:
Wierd Skeleton Peeps:
Random “Head” guy:
On to the tunes…
Perpetual Groove really got things moving with some solid southern-tinged rock and upbeat (dare I say Phishy) grooves.
By the third song, the crowd was really getting into these guys and the Swamp Tent got all the more swampy and sweaty…
I really don’t know PGroove’s tunes that well, but this was a really perfect sonic backdrop to another beautiful Florida day.
On to the newly re-named J.J. Grey & Mofro. I guess putting JJ Grey up at the top of the band’s name makes sense, since their set seemed to be very focused on the band’s frontman. And for good reason: JJ’s has a really nice gritty vocal style that mixes nicely with the soulful southern grooves and full horn section.
JJ Grey & Mofro:
About halfway through the set, they dropped into a familiar “Lochloosa” — well, at least familiar to the crowd — which had folks singing along loudly. I really like Mofro’s sound…it’s definitely reminiscent of the Stax-era soul but with a lot more southern grit and growl. My only complaint is that it got a tad bit mellow for a crowd that seemed ready to dance.
So we decided to check out the opening notes of Medeski, Martin, and Wood:
Per usual, MMW layed down some deep funky grooves, with the always stellar rhythm section that is Martin and Wood:
The madman on the keys, Mr. Medeski, added his always-odd textures and layers to the rhythmic backdrop:
Something about MMW playing at dusk really brought out the wierdos during this set. Or maybe it was our spot on the side where the people go when they want space to dance, but it added a really fun element that made our day. We clowned around with some beachballs and some silly neighbors before heading back over to the Swamp Tent…
The Swamp Tent at night seems to be where the s*** really hits the fan and the energy at this festival gets turned way up. The Disco Biscuits set was definitely our highlight of the day and they perfectly got the crowd going wild by opening with their unique version of the Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere…”
But that was really just the warm-up. Now, I am a big Biscuits fan and have seen them a ton of times going back to 2001. But I just haven’t been all that swayed by their sound since bringing on their new drummer. I’ve also consistently been bummed by sub-par festival sets, but this set completely changed both of those complaints. It’s really nice to see these guys hitting a stride and I am now firmly a fan of Allen Aucoin, tDB’s new drummer.
The Barber:
Marc Brownstein:
Lebo, who does the art for the entire festival, also did an impromptu painting on-stage while the tDB boys were playing. Looks pretty cool so far…
Bisco-Lebo:
I constantly kept hearing people yell stuff like “this is sick!” and “holy s***!” because the Biscuits really have a way to manipulate the crowd and get people into a frenzy. Tonight they really showed their stuff…
A big highlight of the set was the stretched out version (even for Bisco standards) of “Little Shimmy in a Conga Line” which eventually dropped into a really deep reggae/dub jam, during which the band brought out the Hasidic Jewish reggae dude, Matisyahu, to flow and do his thing.
After being somewhat unimpressed with recent Biscuits shows over the past year, these guys really brought their A game tonight. I think they even made a few Southern converts, because we definitely weren’t the only ones dancing our tails off. Great way end to an awesome day!
Stay tuned for day three….
