10,000 Lakes Festival | Mini-Review

Enjoy a mini-review of 10KLF from reader David S and make sure you check out all of our 10KLF coverage so far by clicking here…

After picking up the essentials, and cracking open some beers, my buddies and I headed out to see Trampled By Turtles on Wednesday evening. They were astounding, it was a straight-up hoedown! To my surpise, they did a cover of Peggy-O(!!!) and Mad World! Great set, a lot of fun. On the same stage afterwards, The Samples came out. I’ve been a Samples fan for a very long time, but this was my first time hearing them live. They played some new songs, and turned a music stand around w/ lyrics so we could all sing along, very fun. Afterwards, because my buddies had met them at a previous show or two, we hung out with the band and drank some beers with them at their VIP campsite.

Thursday morning we wake up and catch Trampled by Turtles @ 2:00 PM. In my honest opinion, it was the best show at 10KLF. The sun was shining, we were all stomping, they did a cover of Cold Rain & Snow, oooh boy was it some good bluegrass. Because our skin was peeling from the beaming sun, we got free massages from our camping neighbour Tina and headed out to see String Cheese Incident. I’ve never been a really big SCI fan, but I did enjoy their second set a lot.

We woke up Friday, tired, hungover, sore, burnt, and excited for Phil! We saw Keller Williams Incident, which was fun, and Phil Lesh rocked the crowd. Also, I stand by my statement that “Joan Osbourne is the sexiest woman alive.” I wish you all could have seen her singing and dancing. Phil played a song called “Stars Go Blue(?)” It’s a cover, and was superb, definitely the highlight of my night, and I made sure to look up what track it was, so now I’m waiting for the tapers to up the show. Umphrey’s McGee was rocking everyone. I was really tired at this point, so I didn’t check out the whole show, but everyone was feeling it.

Wake up Saturday, can’t believe it’s Saturday, and start the drinking routine again. We checked out Keller Williams, he played a great show, and the crowd was really loving every bit of it. Trey’s second set was the highlight of that evening, but The Big Wu was really enjoyable to pass out to.

That’s it. We woke up early, packed up, said goodbye to our neighbours, and headed back to our homeland in Minneapolis. After a nice long shower, a nice long s***, and a nice long shave, I can’t wait to get back to the “real world” and start working and sleeping in my bed again. :D