Words of Wisdom

Nights Like These: Music Fest, Day 2 May 3, 2011

Saturday, the second day of Music Fest, always makes for a long one because you can literally see live music for 12 straight hours if you choose to do so and, of course, that’s what we generally choose to do. My friend James called me the day before and let me know of his intent to attend on that day, so I made plans to go with him and meet up with my other friends later at the park.

We arrived around 2:00 and meandered down a crowded Beale Street for a little while before heading into the Park. We met up with friends Dan, Chris, Berry, and Meredith at the Lotus show and we stayed until it was over, soaking in the funky electronic rhythms as we mentally prepared ourselves for the coming day. I had also been in contact with Beth, an old friend from Beebe who I’ve known seemingly forever, so James and I made our way over to her when the Lotus show concluded. It was another beautiful, albeit more cloudy, day, but there was more mud present than on Friday, so we carefully traversed the now-grassless earth to the next stage over. Beth and her friend were watching the Sick Puppies, a decent, if somewhat pedestrian hard rock band. We visited with them for a bit and watched the remainder of the show. It was great to see her and, once the set was finished, we promised to keep in touch before James and I moved on. Next we meandered down to the third stage on the river to catch part of blues-rock artist Paul Thorn’s set. Thorn is definitely a good guitarist and his vocals work well within the style, but we did poke some fun at his Forrest Gump-like manner of speaking in between songs. Nevertheless, it was a fun show and certainly worth the minutes we stood watching it.

At this point, it was after 5:00 and nearing time for my first must-see show of the day: The New Pornographers. If you are not familiar with them, The New Pornographers are sort of an indie supergroup, consisting of Dan Bejar (who records under the name The Destroyer), AC Newman, and one of my personal favorites, Neko Case (or as she’s known in my house, “The Other Woman”), yet unlike other music collaborations of this sort, TNG has released several albums and tour together fairly regularly in addition to their solo duties. Neko stood to one side, her red hair flaming in the sunshine and tambourine in hand, Bejar held his guitar in the center, and Newman took the other side, with assorted other musicians spread about behind them. Though I’ve enjoyed the albums from TNG, I tend to like the individual parts more than the whole, and this show again confirmed that for me. Make no mistake, I enjoyed it, but I would much rather see Neko Case do her superior solo work than see her share the stage. They kicked the set off with the opening track from their latest album, “Moves,” before playing a nice mix of tunes from their releases. I recall hearing songs like “Crash Years,” “Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk,” “My Rights Versus Yours,” and “Myriad Harbors.” Again, it was nothing terribly exciting or surprising, but certainly good in its own right.

Following that, we again walked to the other end of the park, this time to see another band I had circled on my schedule some two months ago, folk group Mumford & Sons. We arrived at the stage just in time to catch the end of Jerry Lee Lewis’s set and see his 75 year old self rocking out to “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On.” Once he and the band took their bows and exited the stage, we worked our way into a good spot on the ground and settled in for the coming show. I’ve liked M&S’s sound ever since I first heard them, but I must admit that I was a little wary about how their easy, folk sound would come across in concert. Needless to say, once they did hit the stage, all of my misgivings were pushed aside. Though they kept their soft side mostly intact, it quickly became apparent that Mumford had no problem turning it up when the situation called for it. Their set consisted of both songs from their excellent debut album (“Sigh No More”, “Roll Away Your Stone”, “Little Lion Man”, etc.) and some great sounding tunes that will be on their new release later this year. They closed the show out with the hugely popular single, “The Cave” and everything was right for the moment. I think the large crowd gathered around the stage agreed as well, particularly the hordes of young ladies looking on with eyes of adoration.

Next on the schedule was Lucinda Williams, who I like a great deal and have seen in the past, but James was interested in moving one stage over for the Ludacris show, so being a fan of hip hop as well, I readily went with him. The area around Ludacris’s performance was jam-packed with young people and, at the best available vantage point we could barely see the stage. The music was fine, but it reminded me again why I don’t generally care for rap music in concert. It just doesn’t translate nearly as well in my eyes. Probably the most entertaining part of the show was watching all of the dancing white kids that had been drinking most of the day, but even that got old after a few songs. Soon we moved back over to Lucinda and were able to catch the last half of her excellent show. Between the swampy music and her voice, which sounded as heartbreakingly wonderful as ever, it turned out to be a much better experience. As usual, she sounded great as she tore through a few newer songs as well as some old favorites, and when she was finished, we were pretty much spent.

James and I weren’t particularly interested in the headliners for Saturday (John Mellencamp, Ke$ha) so we left the park a little early and hung out on Beale for a while before retreating back to his Memphis home. We watched zombies on TV for a while and hung out until the early hours of the morning, when I made the trip back to my house and crawled into bed, exhausted from the day.