festival reviews

The final day of Voodoo Experience 2010 closed with a bang, with headliner My Morning Jacket enthralling the entire remaining festival crowd. I also had the good fortune to photograph sets from several others including Preservation Hall Jazz Band ft. Jim James & Patrick Hallahan, Voice of the Wetlands Allstars, Paul Oakenfold, MGMT and Deadmau5.

Check out my photos after the jump!

We partied pretty hard on Saturday night/Sunday morning, eventually stumbling back into our hotel room at 7 in the morning just in time for continental breakfast. Our goal was to try and make it early enough for Janelle Monae, but those were pipe dreams. Strolling into the festival at 3:30 with a serious Four Loko hangover, we headed to the closest music we could find.

Read all about the final day of the Voodoo Experience after the jump.

It's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks, but now with the upcoming holiday I'll be finishing up on our festival experiences from a few weeks ago. Saturday of Voodoo was much more lax, taking our time checking out both new and old acts we've mostly never seen before. I ended up catching sets from River City Extension, The Whigs, Cage The Elephant, Die Antwoord, Buckwheat Zydeco, Street Sweeper Social Club, Crystal Method, Eagles of Death Metal and Paul Van Dyk.

Check out my shots from Saturday, October 30th at the Voodoo Experience after the jump!

The 2010 edition of the Voodoo Experience featured an array of performers in all genre's of music and a heavy focus on the city that lays host to the festival, New Orleans. With headlining sets from Ozzy Osbourne, Muse and My Morning Jacket, and standout sets from the likes of Weezer, Hot Chip, Metric, Jonsi, Galactic and Rusko among others on Friday, Street Sweeper Social Club, Die Antwoord, Eagles of Death Metal, The Crystal Method, The Whigs and Boyz Noize on Saturday, and Paul Oakenfold, MGMT, Deadmau5 and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Jim James on Sunday.

Waking up after a 6:30 am bedtime found the group to be a bit tired and hungover, but after stepping up our game with some brunch-time Four Lokos, we were all set to take on day two of the festival. Read all about it after the jump.

As my recap from Friday, October 29th at the Voodoo Experience will tell you, we jumped around City Park in search of amazing musical experience. It didn't seem to be a problem as we caught sets from Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes, March Fourth Marching Band, Rusko, Stanton Moore Trio ft. Anders Osborne, Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves, Noisician Coalition, Dead Confederate, Kaskade, Jonsi, Metric, Weezer, Hot Chip, Galactic, Raphael Saadiq and Muse.

Check out all of my shots from the day after the jump!

From the 7th of October until the 7th of November, I have been running around Texas and Louisiana hitting three different music festivals and a slew of shows dotted in between. I'm sitting here still soaking everything in from Fun Fun Fun Fest this past weekend, Voodoo Experience the weekend before and ACL a few weeks prior. I've successfully eclipsed my goal of seeing 365 different bands this year, and let me tell ya, I'm tired. I'm ready to sit back and relax, and enjoy my city for a little while. With that being said, I have a ton of content from both Voodoo and FFFF to put up over the next week, so the work's not done yet.

The 2010 edition of the Voodoo Experience featured an array of performers in all genre's of music and a heavy focus on the music of the city that lays host to the festival, New Orleans. With headlining sets from Ozzy Osbourne, Muse and My Morning Jacket, and standout sets from the likes of Weezer, Hot Chip, Metric, Jonsi, Galactic and Rusko among others on Friday, Street Sweeper Social Club, Die Antwoord, Eagles of Death Metal, The Crystal Method, The Whigs and Boyz Noize on Saturday, and Paul Oakenfold, MGMT, Deadmau5 and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band featuring Jim James on Sunday.

With perfect temperatures, great music and plenty of booze to get us riled up, we headed into Friday with full steam and vigor, excited to take on the day. Read all about it after the jump.

Words and Photos by B "Café con Leche" Gutierrez.

The First Annual Fayetteville Roots Festival on August 29th was set to take place at Greenhouse Grille, but after a water main broke at Greenhouse Grille the festival was moved to George's Majestic Lounge. Hats off to the festival organizers and to George's management and staff, because the evening ran smoothly, as if everything that happened was part of the plan.

The music-filled evening went better than I expected. I left George's that night with a couple of new albums for my collection, after being blown away by some of the performances. I know I'm not alone when I say that this festival definitely has all the right components to become a Fayetteville classic; from the award-winning artists, to the welcoming audience, and a community coming together in case there's a water main that breaks at the very last minute.

Read on for more thoughts and photos about the festival after the jump.

The 2nd annual Free Press Summerfest has come and gone, leaving a fulfilled feeling throughout our fair city of Houston. As an avid festival attendee, who has traveled the globe in search of different musical experiences, it was a very nice change of pace to have such a great event right in my back yard. Despite some intense heat, and even more intense rain and mud, I still managed to have one of the best weekends I've had in some time. The Flaming Lips were the prize performers of the weekend, but the festival also included standout showings from national acts like Lucero, Stars, Ra Ra Riot, Mix Master Mike and Medeski, Martin & Wood as well as local fair from Buxton, listen!listen!, Eastern Sea, B L A C K I E, Grandfather Child and Elaine Greer among many others.

While I was busy running around taking pictures for the Houston Press, I still managed to also take quite a few for myself over the course of the two day festy. Check out my shots from the Sunday, June 6th after the jump!

The 2nd annual Free Press Summerfest has come and gone, leaving a fulfilled feeling throughout our fair city of Houston. As an avid festival attendee, who has traveled the globe in search of different musical experiences, it was a very nice change of pace to have such a great event right in my back yard. Despite some intense heat, and even more intense rain and mud, I still managed to have one of the best weekends I've had in some time. The Flaming Lips were the prize performers of the weekend, but the festival also included standout showings from national acts like Lucero, Stars, Ra Ra Riot, Mix Master Mike and Medeski, Martin & Wood as well as local fair from Buxton, listen!listen!, Eastern Sea, B L A C K I E, Grandfather Child and Elaine Greer among many others.

While I was busy running around taking pictures for the Houston Press, I still managed to also take quite a few for myself over the course of the two day festy. Check out my shots from the Saturday, June 5th after the jump!

In my final gallery from the Houston International Festival, I highlight the concluding day of the entire event. Closing out the festival were a host of bands that I'd yet to see before including Steel Pulse and Baaba Maal, as well as local and regional flair from the likes of Rebirth Brass Band, Wild Moccasins and Sideshow Tramps.

Check out the last pictures from iFest after the jump.