ROTHBURY 2009: Sunday in Review

The fourth and final day of the 2009 ROTHBURY Festival featured a slew of acts that I'd never caught live before, as well as a few favorites scattered in throughout the day. Top billing for the day belonged to legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, who closed The Odeum with a set full of hits. Other notable acts I caught on Sunday, July 5th include Willie Nelson, Yonder Mountain String Band, Toots & the Maytals, Ani DiFranco, The Hold Steady, Umphrey's McGee and a bunch more throughout the day.

Read all about Sunday's events after the jump

I headed up to the Broken Spoke at about 11:30 am to charge my computer, phone and camera battery (all three had died within five minutes of each other the night before), By Sunday, the Broken Spoke had become the most fun place to be in ROTHBURY, with everybody taking advantage of their last free drinks of the weekend and enjoying the shade on the hottest day of the festival. I was running on fumes, so my drinking was held to a minimum during the early afternoon hours, but I still enjoyed my surroundings immensely. I can't stress enough how wonderful the melding of our media area with the artist lounge was, and how much more pleasurable it made my weekend. Bumping elbows with some of my favorite artists, and being able to share a drink with my peers in the media made for such a different festival experience that I'm not sure could ever be topped (matched, maybe...). Please ROTHBURY, keep that idea alive for next year – you'll have nothing but glowing reviews from me if you do so.

All weekend, my partner-in-crime Karesa had been talking so much about about local Michigan band The Hard Lessons, that for me to miss their set would have been Earth shattering. I'm glad she was talking them up, because it turned out to be one of my favorite sets of the entire weekend. It's nice that ROTHBURY gives local area bands the opportunity to be showcased at the festival as it showers these bands with incredible exposure from people that would've never heard/heard of them. Made up of the husband (guitar) and wife (keys) duo of Augie and Korin Louise Visocchi as well as drummer Ryan Vandeberghe, the trio were unlike any other band performing all weekend. Their energetic set leaned heavily on indie-rock, almost at times sounding like a not-so-bluesy version of ROTHBURY veterans The Black Keys. Trading off vocal duties between husband and wife, the duo made a definite name for themselves with their short set. Augie thrashed all around the stage, climbing rafters and jumping into the crowd to hand out CD's (recession relief) throughout, while Korin Louise held up the stage with style and glamour. The definite highlight of the set came with a cover of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My" which the growing crowd seemed to eat right up. It was a unexpectedly great set of music to start the day off right.

The Hard Lessons

Next up was a brief stopover at The Odeum for legendary reggae group Toots & the Maytals. Led by vocalist Toots Hibbert, this classic group ran through a set of originals including "Pressure Drop," "Time Tough, "Sweet and Dandy" and "Monkey Man," as well as a dub version of "Louie Louie." Hibbert is getting up there in age, but he exerts an astounding amount of energy into every song he performs – almost like it was the first time playing any of his timeless numbers. I'm glad I finally had the chance to see such an electrifying artist, and hope that I have plenty more chances to catch him again in the future.

Toots Hibbert - Toots & the Maytals

Off and running again – this time to the Ranch Arena where Guster were just getting into their set. I've seen Guster once or twice before, and had always been entertained by their sets, but have never truly gotten into their studio material. In my life, I'm surrounded by people that love them, but their more popular songs like "Fa Fa" and "Airport Song" have never really pushed me into a love affair with the group. With that being said, I really enjoyed this brief time spent with them, but it was unfortunately not enough to keep me there as the idea of a tasty beverage was burning in the back of my mind. After leaving the pit, they busted into a brief cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper" that kept me there for a minute, but I was soon on my way back towards the Broken Spoke. I did find out that Guster filmed a video in the Sherwood Forest later in the day, which they are now using to promote their upcoming tour. Kinda cool to see that they appreciated the forest as much as the rest of us.

Guster

After securing a much needed thirst quencher, I made my way to The Odeum for one of my all time favorite groups, Yonder Mountain String Band. As usual, I took my time to photograph them, but after they jumped into my absolute favorite, "Traffic Jam," I shouldered the camera in favor of dancing my ass off. Thankfully the pit wasn't a busy one, because I was getting down all over the place. "Boatman" was another scorcher early in the set, with another highlight coming out of "Jesus On The Mainine" a few songs later. As per usual, a cover came next as they busted out an on-point version of The Beatles' "Only A Northern Song," followed by a stirring "Snow On The Pines" that radiated throughout the Sherwood Forest. I didn't feel like leaving, but I had to photograph a few other bands, so once again I found myself running away from a set I really wanted to see. Oh well, as my mom says "B before P."

Jeff Austin - Yonder Mountain String Band

I spent the next fifteen minutes at the Sherwood Court with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, who had started at the same time as Yonder Mountain had. Potter's soulful voice radiated over the field, and had the whole audience (well, at least the guys) at full attention. She is a true performer in every sense of the word, using both sensuality and raw talent to keep people coming back for more, and has developed quite a name for herself supporting bands like Gov't Mule as of late. I had just seen a huge performance by Potter & The Nocturnals at Bonnaroo, so I headed off in search of the next best thing.

Grace Potter - The Nocturnals

I made it down to the Ranch Arena, where The Hold Steady were set to perform an early evening set. Toast is a massive fan of this band, but I've never truly gotten into them. A few songs sound alright to me on their albums, but just like Guster earlier in the day, they just didn't do it for me. Toast adamantly swore that I'd be converted after witnessing a live performance of their's, so I made it a point to see their set. They were definitely loud, and very rowdy, and just like Toast led me to believe, I did like them much better live. They had a much smaller crowd than I'd expected, which allowed me to take the set in from up close. It was certainly raucous from start to finish, but it was frontman Craig Finn that really sold me. Finn puts so much in to his performance, that it'd be hard for anyone not to be enamored by his presence. I had a fun time during this set, not being my absolute favorite of the weekend, but also not being the worst. I definitely appreciate their contribution to music much more now after seeing them live, and would not pass up the opportunity to see them again if the situation would arise, but I still probably won't be listening to their records on the regular.

Craig Finn - The Hold Steady

Another hour, another show. This time, it was one of my most anticipated sets of the entire weekend. Classic country-music legend Willie Nelson took the stage at The Odeum to one of the largest crowds of the entire weekend. In all my musical travels I've somehow never experienced a live Willie Nelson show, and I'm really not sure why. Every time I have the chance to see him, something always comes up. I was not going to let myself miss Willie this time, though, so I made my way into the crowd as close as I could get. Not being able to photograph Willie from the pit was somewhat disappointing, but due to some diligent crowd maneuvering, I was able to get a few shots anyway. I was amazed at how good his voice sounded in a live format. It's impossible to sing along with him due to him constantly changing things up, but that's somewhat the beauty of his vocal approach. Nobody can repeat or recreate Willie Nelson – he's one-hundred percent original. Hits were aplenty, but my favorites from the set were a stunning "Crazy," a rowdy "Good Hearted Woman," a choice guest spot by Toots Hibbert on Johnny Cash's "I'm A Worried Man" and a crowd-approved "Whiskey River." I really would like to see him again to catch all of the classics, but this served as a perfect first time with one of country music's all-time greatest singers and songwriters.

Willie Nelson

I had to leave Willie a bit earlier than I'd hoped to catch the first few songs of Ani DiFranco, before Sherwood Court's photo pit closed for the weekend. I headed the back way, and arrived at the start of DiFranco's third song. She's been around the music world for quite some time, even being quoted as a major influence by one-man-jam-band Keller Williams (which was immediately evident upon first hearing her play). A large advocate for feminism, DiFranco's songs all weigh heavily on that subject matter, giving a popular voice to women's rights. She has an unmistakable guitar style that involves a whole lot of flatpicking, and a one-of-a-kind vocal that matches the manic sound of her strings. After a beer and pizza break, Karesa and I watched some more of DiFranco's set with Augie and Korin Louise from The Hard Lessons. Really, it was somewhat difficult to pay attention to her set, because Augie kept dropping his pizza on the ground. After losing and buying new three times in a row, he successfully managed to scarf down a full piece without it hitting the dirt. Fucking hilarious.

Ani DiFranco

Knowing that I was definitely not going to try and photograph the headliner, I headed back to camp to relieve myself of my gear. It's extremely nice to be able to take a night off from photography at a festival. After walking around with an extremely heavy camera bag full of equipment all weekend, this was the perfect opportunity to take a load off – literally. Feeling like a million bucks, I headed to catch the final set at The Odeum. Bob Dylan was already about half-way finished with his set when I walked up, making his way through a version of "Highway 61 Revisited." We pulled up a spot towards the back of the giant field that surrounds the main stage, and listened to the Bard mumble out some classics. His voice is getting ever-so-hard to understand these days, but sharing the same space with one of the best songwriters ever is enough to get me to any Dylan show. Many standards were played including a rollicking "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again," a set-ending "Like A Rolling Stone," and a powerful encore of "All Along The Watchtower" followed up by "Blowing In The Wind." While not the easiest musician to listen to, any true music fan would have no problem sitting through an entire Dylan set.

Bob Dylan - Photo by Andy Keil

ROTHBURY has a unique schedule in the fact that after the main headliner, they offer more music to those who decide to stick around. Both this and last year, they had a closing party at Tripolee featuring a host of DJ's and different collaborations lasting until around 1:00 am. About two weeks before the festival, the fine folks in the scheduling department decided to add a second set by Umphrey's McGee (maybe because they should have played last year, with the festival being so close to UM's home). I didn't get to see much of Umphrey's the night before, but what I did see was excellent. I had gone over four years since my last Umphrey's show, so I was especially excited for this set. They did not disappoint. Playing for a little over two hours straight with an encore, Umphrey's nailed this set of proggy jam rock filled with ridiculous guitar solos, solid drumming and amazing keyboard work. "Ja Junk" opened a set that eventually lied host to Matisyahu, who added an extended vocal jam to their usual "Jimmy Stewart" segment. "In The Kitchen" showed off Brendan Bayliss true vocal prowess, while a tight version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" lifted people to a much higher place. After "Numb," Umphrey's rocked for another thirty minutes including a short encore break. For those two-plus hours, Umphrey's McGee absolutely destroyed it. Unfortunately, time constraints limited Umphrey's to a 1:00 am curfew, but they definitely closed out the Ranch Arena in style. It was over – Not just Umphrey's show, but the festival as a whole had found its stopping point. What a way to finish it out.

ROTHBURY did many amazing things right this year, making sure to keep the same relaxed vibe left over from last year. While it was as near to perfection as any festival I've ever been to, a few areas also needed a bit of help. The only major problem that I could see was the massive cloud of dust that took over the grounds by Friday night. I'm not sure how much it'd rained over the past month, but the ground was severely dry, and made for a soft layer of soot that was soon being kicked around by thirty-five thousand people. It seemed as if on Sunday morning they'd sprayed down the grounds, but by early afternoon, it was just as dusty. Maybe an overall watering of the grounds major pathway's a few times a week for the month leading up to the festival could help alleviate that issue.

The only other problem I could think of is the random police officers walking through the crowd, especially at night. While I'm sure you have to accommodate the local and regional law, there shouldn't be two armed officers walking through the crowd during MSTRKRFT at 2:00 am. Let them have their fun in the afternoon when they can be seen. Last year, the only officers I saw were a pair trying to go "see what [Snoop Dogg] was all about," or the group anxiously awaiting the start of Dave Matthews Band's set in the photo pit. Those are the types of officers I like to see at ROTHBURY, not the ones that are looking to start trouble. Just something to keep in mind if you want to continue with the peaceful vibe that ROTHBURY has put out since the waking moments of the inaugural festival in 2008.

Now the good. Sherwood Forest was just as, or even more amazing than last year. Allowing the Circus & Theater acts to claim the confines of the woods as their home for the weekend was the perfect way to fix the awkward placement of their tent last year. The lighting was just as good, and would almost dictate the mood and feeling of the forest at any given time. The forest had a much different feel to it, but at the same time was completely welcoming, as if you'd just strolled into the door of your home after a really long vacation. The stages, while not as ornate as last year, still served as cornerstones for the massive grounds. Tripolee might have lost a little bit from it's original feel after replacing the geodesic domes that defined its space, but the lack of the domes also helped to increase the area for which to take in performances, Think Tank's or practice morning yoga.

On top of the amazing grounds, and the smorgasbord of incredible talent gracing the stages, ROTHBURY treated their members of the media like kings all weekend. Nothing could match witnessing ad-hock performances by Matisyahu and Broken Social Scene, special DJ sets by David Murphy of STS9 & the members of Pnuma, sharing drinks with Keller Williams, Billy Nershi, Brett Dennen and members of Toubab Krewe, Future Rock and Lotus, and hanging out with the coolest bunch of photographers, writers and bloggers I've ever met. They made it comfortable for us to work in, providing more than enough electric sockets for all (key!), couches to take a brief nap, tables to smash a meal or sift through pictures and a (mostly) stable internet connection the entire weekend. On top of that, perks like an open bar, an all-day shrimp and crawfish boil, extremely good deals on nice sunglasses, free kick-ass toothbrushes, a private American Spirit tent for the smokers, free ice cream and fruit bars all day from the Ice Cream Man, and the friendliest damn security guards that I've ever worked with at a festival made the weekend all that much greater. These perks are what pushed this festival above and beyond any other I've ever attended. Even if they were not included, it still would be the best festival I've been to, but there is no denying how comfortable ROTHBURY made us feel.

Thank you ROTHBURY for setting the bar so far above your Bonnaroo's, Lollapalooza's and Coachella's of the World. You have brought us a diverse line-up matched by the perfect venue in the most temperate climate ever – what could get better than that? I will never miss a ROTHBURY as long as it continues to exist.

A+++

Special thanks to the amazing trio of Megan McFann, Carrie Lombardi and Claire Tonelson from Madison House Publicity for taking care of us all weekend long. Cheers ladies!

-Eggs