Waka, Day 3: Gin, Juice and No Depression

Above: Alejandro Escovedo (and drummer Hector Munoz) gave the crowd under the Revival Tent a taste of country via Texas and Mexico and Iggy Pop. Photos by Timothy Finn/The Star

LAWRENCE -- The epicenter of the local music scene shifted to the east on Saturday, where Rockfest and the Stone Temple Pilots drew around 50,000 fans to Liberty Memorial Park. Things were quieter at Wakarusa. You could say Kansas City burned while Lawrence fiddled.

Saturday was more of the same: More chances for music fans to boogie and spin to jam bands like Ozomatli, Leftover Salmon and Sound Tribe Sector  9, the three big acts at the large Sun Down Stage, and Keller Williams and Ozric Tentacles, who closed the Revival Tent.

Waka is a feast for hippies and  groove addicts, but on Saturday it offered something for music fans , whose tastes are a little less cosmic and more down-to-earth,. For about eight hours Saturday, the Revival Tent was unofficially alt-country headquarters, as in country that will never find its way on commercial country radio. A rundown of Day 3:

Above: Kevin Russell of the Gourds, who can take a Snoop Dogg song and make it better.

I missed Ryan Bingham (I'll catch him Sunday) to watch a few songs by a local band, the Garrett Nordstrom Situation at the Prairie Stage, where the wind was strong enough to knock the beer buzz out of guy's brain. GNS play several variations of the blues: rock, soul, gospel and what they call alt-R&B. It's good stuff.

After that I hit the Revival Tent to see the Gourds, a road-hard hippie-redneck country-blues band from Texas. A good sized crowd showed up, and the Gourds had them dancing. Live they evoke the  sound of the Band, the Drive-By Truckers, the '70s Stones and Beausoleil. The highlight of their set: Kevin Russell's classic cover of Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice," which included snippets of Sam Cooke's "Cupid" and Cheap Trick's "Surrender."

Above: Carrie Rodriguez prettys-up the stage during Alejandro Escovedo's set. She's a real good fiddler and singer, too.

Alejandro Escovedo followed the Gourds, and his crowd was smaller, but most of it was just as enthusiastic. The rest of the crowd looked a little surprised (unprepared) for some of Escovedo's louder tunes, especially the Iggy cover. He opened with "Always a Friend," the first of several tracks from his upcoming album, "Real Animal." He would also play material from "Bourbonitis Blues" ("I Was Drunk") and "From the Hand of the Father" ("Rosalie") and the explosive "Castanets."  Not everybody recognized her (or they thought she was Julianna Margolies), but the Waka crowd was lucky: We got guest violinist Carrie Rodriguez, who is sitting in with Escovedo's band briefly before going out on her own tour this summer. She made the show better.

About the time Escovedo stopped (he quit about 20 minutes early), Ozomatli took over the Sundown Stage. I'm convinced that bands like this one and Galactic and Leftover Salmon are one significant reason the jazz industry is having so much trouble recruiting lots of new, young fans. Maybe if the Blue Room let patrons bring in bongs, bubbles, hacky-sacks and hula-hoops, the place would be full every night.

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Saturday's shows presented a lesson in the viscosity of mud.  All the heavy business in the Revival Tent on Friday (from Del tha Funky Homosapien to Cake) solved the mud problem there. The floor of the tent felt more like a rubber yoga mat. At the Sun Up Stage, however, the grounds still looked like  top of a freshly iced chocolate cake.  Even the 30 mph winds couldn't dry the stuff.

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After a set by Papa Mali, the Old 97's brought the Revival Tent back into the No Depression-era. They're another Texas outfit, born a year before Bloodshot Records. They had to deal with some sound issues early; at one point lead singer Rhett Miller ran off stage to discuss those problems (monitor, it looked like) with the sound crew.

The set list bounced around from stalwarts like "Stoned," "Victoria," "Barrier Reef," "Rollerskate Skinny" and the perfect closer, "Timebomb" to songs from the band's new album, "Blame It On Gravity." The new stuff mixed in just fine with the old, and the crowd generally had a great time, but Miller seemed a bit off-center. Maybe the sound problems annoyed him too much. Or maybe he didn't feel well. The last note of "Timebomb" was still hanging in the air when he waved and bolted from stage, like the Ammodium AD was wearing off.

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Above: Why bother with the real thing when you can get the fake/virtual version?

There is no better evidence that humans are creatures of necessity more than creatures of comfort than a long line leading up to a portable toilet that hasn't been emptied in 18 hours. At least we men don't have to sit down in those things. Women are braver.

There is no better evidence that humans are creatures of habit than the steady line of folks at the Guitar Hero Tent -- at a music fest. And people sat and watched/listened.

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For every Old 97's who left the Revival Tent, two Ben Folds fans entered. He had to deal with some sound issues, too, mostly with his piano. Thus he started about 15 minutes late. The  wait seemed to make his fans more enthusiastic. He opened with "Bitches Ain't S***" then "Gone" and "You To Thank." He also explained how he hammered some weird percussive sounds from his piano using empty Altoid tins, the top of a cookie tin, two shakers and a distortion pedal. The crowd was  into it all, singing/shouting along to "All U Can Eat" and "Bastard." I wondered how many recognize the debt he owes to old farts they'd probably make fun of, like Billy Joel and Elton John.

As he was finishing, Cornmeal was kicking up the muck in the Sun Up Tent. They're from Chicago, but they sound like the Elders, the Dead and, occasionally, Charlie Daniels all in one. That mud could get muddier on Sunday, when more storms are expected. Hope they stay away until after Emmylou plays. It'd be too bad to miss her and Bettye LaVette twice in four days.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[Chuck]

LESS people stayed for Alejandro Escovedo? Man, people & priorities. Wish I could have seen Al's band with Carrie Rodriguez in it - she's amazing! Her solo album from a few years ago (? hello new record coming?) is still in heavy rotation in my life. Sounds like heaven re-located to Lawrence for a day...