 |
 |
|
by Rob Johnson photos by Ian Rawn | |
The timing was conspicuously auspicious. Mere days before the first annual Echo Project, a new music festival with an emphasis on protecting the environment, Al Gore won the Nobel Prize for his work on global climate change. Both events signify the human race's growing awareness that we need to live in harmony with our planet. Let's just hope we got the message soon enough to do something about it.Speaking of harmony, there was plenty of glorious noise to be heard over the course of the weekend. There was a Solar Stage powered completely by solar panels, with the other stages being powered by biodiesel, and there were constant reminders of the environmental theme, but for most attendees the focus was squarely on the music.  After a very brief set by Butch Walker, Stephen Marley really started the festival in earnest on Friday. With all respect to Ziggy, Stephen is the true inheritor of the Marley legacy. He has the old man's charisma, and there seems to be an unbroken chain of continuity between their respective music. The man they call "Jr. Gong" played many of his father's songs, including classics like "Could You Be Loved?" and "Buffalo Soldier," but his own material didn't sound weak in comparison, which is saying a lot. "Mind Control" was a particularly strong piece of contemporary conscious reggae, with themes that echo Bob's classic lines, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."  No music festival in Atlanta would be complete without local legend Col. Bruce Hampton, who played on the Solar Stage with his latest band, the Quark Alliance. When they kicked into a funky version of "Earth," it was obvious that this group has an earthier sensibility than many of Bruce's more "out there" projects. While there is still a healthy dose of Zambi weirdness in this band, it's also a very accessible dance party funk combo. The rock solid rhythm section of drummer Mark Letalien and hard-hitting bassist Kris Dale makes sure of that. Chris Wood (of Medeski, Martin and Wood) and his brother Oliver (of King Johnson) could be seen in the wings during this show, digging what the Quark Alliance was laying down. The Colonel always has had the respect of his fellow musicians, and it was cool to see the Wood Brothers taking some time to enjoy the music. "Perfect Canadian" was probably the high point of the set, a great piece of Bruceness with traces of the lineage of other classic Bruce jams like "Time Is Free." Guitarist Jeff Caldwell also got room to shine, singing his own songs like "Lovechild" and the powerful jam vehicle "Take Me There." This band has come a long way in a short time, and I guess it's official: Bruce is back.  Medeski, Martin and Wood started their show somewhere on Neptune and gradually moved closer to Earth orbit. I like "out" jazz as much as the next guy, but it always seems that I enjoy MMW better when they are in funky groove mode – they just seem noisy when they do the more avant-garde stuff. Of course it doesn't help when you have Cypress Hill thumping away with mega-loud hip-hop bass on the stage next door, merely a few hundred yards away. Hopefully the organizers will fix the sound overlap between these stages next year. MOFRO's signature brand of swampy Southern soul benefited from the intimate tent setting of the Eclipse Stage. As usual, the soulful vocals of JJ Grey were front and center, with JJ belting out tunes like "Woman" and "The Sun Is Shining" with passion and conviction. Their newly acquired horn section gives MOFRO another layer of funky soul, and the finished product is like a modern-day version of the classic Stax sound. This is music that matters. I've never been a Flaming Lips fan, so I called it a night after hearing a little bit of Les Claypool's trademark funky slap bass. I only heard a little of his set, but I always prefer my Les with plenty of badass bass solos and a minimum of wacky antics, and this set sounded just right to my ears. Saturday: 
After Louis IV, the Echo Stage featured Son Volt, whose feedback-drenched alt-country brought up unavoidable comparisons to Wilco. Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy may have gone their separate ways, but despite any personal animosity between them, they are still kindred spirits musically, drawing from the same rich well of American music that they worked when they were in Uncle Tupelo together. Both bands frequently remind me of Neil Young, both in his acoustic and Crazy Horse guises, but a less obvious touchstone for Son Volt is REM. People forget that REM is a Southern band, but they are, or at least they were. With Farrar's dreamy vocals evoking Michael Stipe, and the band's gauzy haze of feedback recalling the sound of classic albums like Murmur and Reckoning, the similarity occurred to me repeatedly. This is sprawling Southern Gothic music, the sound of decaying, abandoned plantations covered in kudzu, the soundtrack to the South of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Toubab Krewe seems to get better every time I see them. Anchored by a solid foundation of African grooves, their tightness and energy gives their shows a celebratory feel. I don't know the names to all of their songs – not yet, anyway – but one tune with a surf-guitar edge captured my attention. It was like King Sunny Ade meets the Ventures. They brought a good-sized crowd to the Solar Stage, considering the 3:15 slot, and the sea of dancing bodies, all bobbing in unison to the beat, was evidence of the sheer rhythmic power of their music. This is a group with a bright future, and we should expect a lot of great music from them.  There was an instant charge that ran through the crowd when Tea Leaf Green launced into "Sex in the '70s" to begin their set. The band hit an early peak during an exuberant Josh Green guitar solo, and the song's funky groove got everybody up and dancing. This may have been the strongest opener of any band all weekend. Nothing fancy, just good old-fashioned rock and roll, delivered with energy and conviction. An extended instrumental jam midway through the set gave Trevor Garrod a chance to shine on keys, playing with a variety of sounds and tones. In a scene that is dominated by guitar players, having a keyboard player as your main singer/songwriter gives TLG a different wrinkle, and Garrod is undeniably talented. Even so, guitarist Josh Clark showed up with his "A" Game at this show, and during "The Devil's Pay" he once again blew the roof off the tent with a series of thrilling climaxes. If Tea Leaf Green has a weakness, it's that their jams seem to follow that same pattern in most songs, your basic "build and explode" methodology. That may be true, but it's a very tested musical formula, and judging from the crowd's reaction, it was getting the job done.  The afternoon always seems like an odd time to see a "late night" oriented band like the Disco Biscuits, but I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed their set on Saturday. In particular, they debuted an arrangement of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" at this festival that was powerful, tight and sounded great. Besides displaying a great deal of musical skill, the music was filled with a wonderful sense of joy and playfulness. This was a different side of the group, and I'd like to hear more of it. They seemed more relaxed and less frantic that they normally do – a kinder, gentler Bisco, if you will. The result was more focus on their intricate compositions and top-level chops, and less emphasis on repetitive dance jams that only sound good after dark with the proper chemical assistance. This was the most accessible and interesting Biscuits show I've seen, and I walked away with new respect for them, plus a deeper understanding of why they are one of the hottest bands around. When moe. hit the stage just before midnight, they faced one of the biggest crowds of the festival, and they delivered a great show. "Crab Eyes" came out of the gate rocking, a maelstrom of swirling guitar leads and pounding rock beats. One thing that distinguishes moe. from other jam bands is their heaviness, and this in-your-face opener showed the band came to rock. If moe. has a weakness, it's probably vocals, and they seemed sluggish to start, but picked up with a strong version of "Happy Hour Hero." A vocoder solo straight out of Frampton Comes Alive took the jam to some unusual places, before shifting into a sweetly melodic guitar solo that built to a nice peak, then a tight ending. You sensed that the band was warmed up, no easy feat when it's 40 degrees outside. Then again, moe. are hardy north country boys, so they were up to the challenge.  The sinister, metal-ish riff of "It" eventually led into a stately guitar jam that reminded me of CCR's "Effigy" before transitioning into a radiant, starlit "St. Augustine" that showcased all that is good about moe., music and life in general. This provided the first real peak of the show, complete with some tasty, Southern-fried slide guitar work. Yeah, I thought, these guys are pretty good. The end of the set was an unadulterated jamfest, with "Brent Black" topping 25 minutes of consistently inventive improvisation and "Skrunk" and "Plane Crash" both exceeding 15 minutes. The transition between "Skrunk" and "Brent Black" was a great piece of jamming. Burning with energy and ideas, the band showed why they have lasted 17 years. Nobody could accuse the band of holding back, and they did true justice to the coveted Saturday late night slot. Sunday: Former HTN cover boy Marc Ford kicked Sunday off with a band, and his straight-ahead guitar rock was the perfect wake-up call, hangover remedy, and all-purpose health tonic. The former Black Crowes guitarist can burn up a fretboard with the best of them, and his playing carried echoes (pun intended) of everyone from Neil Young to Jimi Hendrix. It's just a shame that he had such an early slot, and more people weren't there to enjoy it. Besides being a hotshot guitarist, Ford has obviously matured as a singer/songwriter/frontman, and he deserves a wider audience.  "Sometimes I feel so alive inside," Michael Franti sang at one point during his set on Sunday afternoon, and I believe him. When Franti performs, his joyful life force radiates from him in waves, and it's hard to listen to him without smiling. In the words of the great Bob Marley, he has a positive vibration, and this was a very high-energy set, even by Franti standards. The globe-trotting musician, who has traveled to Iraq to play on the streets of Baghdad, brings a lot of influences to the table. Many songs have a reggae vibe, but there was also an energetic samba-flavored tune in the mix. "Get Up, Stand Up" showed the connection to Marley's political side, while a hip-hop take on "Stir It Up" confirmed him as an ambassador of the feel-good party vibe that is the yin to the political yang. "All the freaky people make the beauty of the world," he sang at one point, and his music is devoted to inclusion and community. Other songs like "Everyone Deserves Music" and "I Know I'm Not Alone" carry this same message of peace and unity. When it comes to using music as a force for positive social change, nobody carries that banner more proudly than Michael Franti. After Franti's soul-stirring set, Umphrey's McGee was something of a letdown. Occasional moments of lyrical guitar beauty from Jake Cinninger were too few and far between for me to really enjoy the show. The band is phenomenally tight, to the extent that their breathing is probably synchronized by now. This allows them to pull off death-defying segues and transitions, and Cinninger and Brendan Bayliss can play intricate unison lines as if they share one mind. However impressive their guitar pyrotechnics can be, unfortunately Umphrey's often comes off as the very definition of noodling, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. Bayliss' pedestrian vocals don't help much, and few of their songs have memorable melodies that you'll be humming in the shower.  Even so, sometimes you just have to admire their technical skill, and the time and energy they put into their music comes through loud and clear. However, Umphrey's doesn't hit me on the spiritual level the way my favorite music does, especially after Franti's heartfelt set. Speaking of music that hits me on a spiritual level, how about a big hand for Phil Lesh! 67 years young, he rose to the occasion of closing out the festival with one of the best shows of Dead-related music I've seen since Jerry died. His new band sounded sharp as a knife, with young Jackie Greene standing out as a star of the future. More so than at any festival I've been to recently, the Phil and Friends set dominated the weekend, towering over the other music like a mighty redwood. Part of it was that they had a four-hour slot, generous by festival standards and longer than any other band at Echo Project. That was just part of the equation; it's also that the Dead songbook is so rich and varied, not to mention the incredibly high level of musicianship displayed by Phil and the gang. I'd heard that this outfit was twangier and more countrified than Phil's other bands, and the opening jam into "Friend of the Devil" laid it out in plain terms. Larry Campbell's down-home fiddle sounded right at home on the song – how did this song ever get by without it? The multi-talented Campbell was a star on every instrument he picked up on this night, from fiddle to pedal steel to six-string electric guitar. The jam out of FOTD had an "I Know You Rider" vibe, but they detoured into "Pride of Cucamonga" instead, with Phil's creaky vocals leading the way. This deep cut from the Dead catalog was one of several obscure nuggets that the band dusted off, and wound its way through several jams, including a crunchy rock and roll power chord jam and a deep John Lee Hooker groove. When the band returned to the song, Campbell was right on point with bursts of gleaming pedal steel. Greene stepped up to sing "Loose Lucy," another one from the Mars Hotel album, and his raucous vocals summed up the party spirit of the song. "Thank you for a real good time" he sang, and considering the great weekend of music we had seen, it seemed like an appropriate sentiment. "We're just getting here today," Phil said at one point, "but it seems like this has been a pretty fun festival."  "Deep Elem Blues" is another Dead standard that fits right into Jackie Greene's style of singing and playing, and it was followed with one of Greene's songs, "Tell Me Mama, Tell Me Right." When they launched into "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" I was in danger of twang overload, but the band saved me with a double dose of "Althea" and "Alabama Getaway," both of which were tightly played and provoked strong crowd response from the Deadheads in attendance. Overall, the first set started very strong for me, lost me a little in the middle, then ended on a promising note. The setlist wasn't totally to my liking, but I immediately grasped the power and potential of this lineup of Friends, and I was confident they would really deliver the goods in the second set, as was the case with most Dead shows. When the band dropped a massive bomb to open the second set with "Shakedown Street," my hopes were confirmed. This was where Steve Molitz shined brightest on keyboards, adding a Particle-ized synth sound that perfectly fit the song, which was the ultimate "Disco Dead" tune to begin with. To his credit, Molitz matched his playing to the music for most of the show, but this was one time he cut loose and got down. Funky and energetic, this got the second set off to a very good start. The crowd-pleasing "Casey Jones" followed, with the band doing a very effective acceleration jam during the "Casey Jones you better watch your speed" refrain. Get it? "Midnight Rider" was a welcome dose of Allman Brothers, and showed just how far Greene has shifted Phil's musical palette. After hearing it as a tight three-minute song so many times, it was interesting to hear it jam open-ended into a deep jam space before transitioning into "New Speedway Boogie," another underrated classic from the Dead catalog. This version was nothing short of revelatory, with the song's world-weary lyrics and bouncy groove getting the attention they deserve. I like the fact that the song is so dark and cynical, but still ends on a hopeful note. Considering events in the world today, "This darkness has got to give" rings true. "Loan Me a Dime" was another song with Allman connections, seeing as Duane Allman played on the Boz Scaggs version. Jackie Greene really showed his chops as a blues singer on this one, reaching deep inside for a gutsy performance. If there was any doubt left in my mind, there wasn't after this song. Greene is the real deal.  That was all just prelude to the real meat of the show, a powerful sequence that went "Fire On the Mountain>China Cat Sunflower>St. Stephen>Franklin's Tower." Four of the most beloved Dead tunes, welded together into an amazing 48 minutes of music, the kind of fun that Deadheads would attend several shows in hopes of seeing once. Phil's voice was less than melodious on "Fire" but it's hard to argue that he has a right to sing that song if he wants to, and his bass playing really stepped up during this jam, driving the band through several powerful peaks and into new territory. Greene sang "China Cat," but the real fireworks began after the verses were over, with Campbell and Greene building to a euphoric peak of dual guitar madness that showed that the new guy could hang with the man Phil calls "The Master." Following the peak, the band moved into a long exploratory jam that ended in a dark ambient space. This is the kind of jamming that the Dead made popular, and Phil is still unparalleled at leading these expeditions into uncharted territory. "St. Stephen" was another welcome Dead classic, provoking a strong crowd reaction, and the jam in the middle was red hot. However, the energy level in the crowd spiked when they went directly from the last line of "St. Stephen" into "Franklin's Tower," a truly great transition. This was a tight, up-tempo jam that makes any post-1991 Dead sound downright sleepy, and I was grinning in admiration at the fact that four hours in, Phil could still keep up with his sprightly young band. After all these years, including Jerry's tragic death and a liver transplant, Phil can still bring the heat. Let's hope he keeps this version of Phil and Friends together long enough to really explore their potential, which at this point seems virtually unlimited. All in all, a great weekend of music, and for a worthy cause. At a time when Georgia is experiencing an unprecedented drought and Atlanta has serious concerns about our drinking water supply, the festival's setting on the banks of the Chattahoochee and emphasis on environmental themes was perfectly timed. The great challenge of the human race in the 21st Century is to live in harmony with our planet. That problem may not have been solved at the Echo Project, but I salute them for raising awareness of the issues, and at least the organizers are trying to lead the way to a better tomorrow. 
 |