Wakarusa's first day: A recap in words and photos
June 4th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Robert Randolph lets it go. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media
As Robert Randolph sang during his blistering, high-tempo, early evening set at Wakarusa Festival:
“When the music gets down in your soul, it makes you wanna loose control.”
And, he continues later in the song:
“There ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.”
He’s talking about moving to the groove, and thousands did just that, both to his music and that of the dozens of artists who also played Thursday (June 3).
Officials from Wakarusa, the four-day confluence of music and people that continues through Sunday, had indicated that a few thousand more fans would visit this year.
There was no doubt that more people came to Wakarusa, now celebrating its second year at Mulberry Mountain near Ozark after moving from Kansas.
Tickets sold out on the Wednesday evening leading up to the festival. Campsites were full early. Streams of traffic backed up on Arkansas 23, sometimes for a couple hours. A sea of tents now currently resides on what was a lush slope of green.
And what did the 20,000 some folks gathered here get to see on the first day of Wakarusa? A nonstop barrage of music that spanned every genre you can think of, every topic you can think of and was played on every instrument you can think of.
Click the ‘read the rest of this entry’ link below to see more on Wakarusa’s first day.
The festival had some growing pains, no doubt, deciding to move the box office to a field south of the festival grounds. The resulting flow of traffic and personnel into the festival grounds often backed up, and people waited some time to get into the festival in the midday hours, we understand.
The influx of people, which by some estimates might peak at 22,000 during the height of the festival, caused the mainstage camping areas to fill. Satellite camping areas had already been established before the festival started, and those were definitely utilized. That created another issue: shuttling people between their campgrounds and the festival grounds. School buses picked up and dropped off satellite campers nonstop, but lines were often long and the waits just as lengthy.
But… thousands of people have already invaded the festival grounds, and the execution onstage was enough to solve a lot of the headaches of congestions.
Some thoughts on those we saw:
Band of Heathens brought their blend of country rock and instrumentalism to the festival. Like the hundreds of other artists on the festival grounds, they like to jam out, extending the length of the nearly every song.
While they were playing, Florida jam rockers The Heavy Pets had a high-tempo, funky throwdown on the Outpost Stage, one of the smaller stages on the festival grounds. About 200 showed up to watch them, and, subsequently, dance.
Todd Snider
Folk poet Todd Snider was joined in his early evening set by the members of Great American Taxi, who added beef and musical muscle to his songs. A folk songwriter at heart, Snider’s songs of lost love and sly political stabs might have been lost at a festival without the added oomph from a backing band. With Great American Taxi, they came across as bluesy, folky and even important.
As can be imagined, his song mentioning “dirty hippies” drew a wild response.
Texan — and former Arkansas resident — Hayes Carll followed Snider. His show drew a disappointing number of fans. I didn’t catch much of his set, but he played one of his award-winning tunes while I was there: “Drunken Poet’s Dream,” a tune he co-wrote with fellow Texan Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Robert Randolph and The Family Band offered a tune called “Deliver Me,” but it was the Randolph who delivered. In a mainstage set as the sunset over the mountains, Randolph tore through tunes such as “Deliver Me,” “Homecoming” and more. With Randolph switching between pedal steel guitar and electric guitar, the vocalist and his Family Band jumped between funk, soul, gospel, blues and rock when they weren’t melting them together at the same time.
He closed his set with an instrumental version of “Yakety Yak,” while someone ran through the crowd with a lifesize inflatable shark. Anywhere other than a music festival, these things would have been weird.
Disco Biscuits
Philadelphia electro-rockers Disco Biscuits followed Randolph on the mainstage and drew a large crowd who spent the first part of the set tossing thousands of glow sticks high into the air.
Not long after the Disco Biscuits started, a Pink Floyd tribute act called The Machine took to a different stage. They too drew a large crowd, one that was intent on hearing the songs of the psychedelic British rockers. When they wanted to, The Machine matched them note for note, although, as can be expected, the vocals were close, but not quite those of Roger Waters and company.
And, when they wanted to, The Machine took a few of the songs for some sonic explorations. Their set lasted until at least 2 a.m., perhaps later.
It all starts again this morning, as music continues on the Satellite Stage and songwriters begin at the Outpost Stage at 11 a.m.