2019/7/27 Peach Fest – Saturday
I love that festivals give me the option to make informed decisions. Grids and apps with set times that are updated-to-the-minute and, more importantly, accurate, allow me to see exactly what I want when I want and maximize my time. Yesterday, I set an aggressive schedule for myself and chose to miss the first or last 15 minutes of 3 or 4 sets in order to see another 60 minutes of another. Today, I went for chill and for the most part settled in to the main stage apart from…
Ghost Light – 2:00 – 3:22 (0 steps)
From the comfy confines of an adirondack chair submerged in the wave pool, I got cozy for a beautiful set on the Mushroom Stage in the hot afternoon sun. Fully aware that today was set to be a loooong day with JRAD scheduled from 12 – 2 am, I embraced the “marathon not a sprint” theory and barely moved for 82 minutes. To reiterate Friday’s review, tucking a music festival into a water park and onto the shores of a wave pool is heady stuff. Enjoyed the hell out of this set (and the fatty that kept me glued to my seat).
Lettuce – 3:48 – 5:14 (7,643 steps / 86 min = 89 steps/min)
The funk coming from the Peach stage was at times hypnotic and trancelike and others wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am rattle your bones. Well, I love all varieties of funk so this suited me just fine. At the :30 minute mark they exploded and woke me the hell up. Game on! Love their new cover of Everybody Wants to Rule the World as well as the ripping cover of Fire on the Bayou by the Meters.
Greensky Bluegrass – 5:51 – 7:12 (3,281 steps / 81 minutes = 41 steps/min)
I was super excited to see these guys. Not that I was disappointed but I didn’t find their set to be energizing. Was it me or them? I don’t know. Could’ve been general malaise on my part after Friday’s rager but, as a general rule, when you put rocking music in front of me, well, I rock. The set was fine, but if I had to rate bluegrass sets on the weekend, they’d fall behind both Kitchen Dwellers and the Infamous Stringdusters. I did, however, love their peachy cover of Ain’t Wasting Time No More – strong vibes there. About an hour into the set, unless I completely missed the next 10 minutes, I thought they announced Trey as a special guest but he never actually played. Maybe I misheard the announcement, or maybe my eyes couldn’t make out Trey and my ears couldn’t hear his guitar, but I could swear he was announced and never played. Half of my 3,200 steps came from a water and bathroom break.
I am 100% certain that I did not move at all between 7:12 and 8:02 when TAB started, yet somehow accumulated 13 mystery steps during the break. I literally didn’t move a muscle and may have taken a 20 minute nap until…
Trey Anastasio Band – 8:02 – 9:08 (6,276 steps / 66 min = 95 steps/min)
From the first notes of Set Your Soul Free, I realized that every song, set, and act until know was just a warmup for the next 3 sets and I would’ve paid the same price and made the same effort if TAB and JRAD were the only offers on tap. Not that I would’ve traded or given up any of those sets but here was the payoff!
Just a phenomenal, high energy, grooving set. I danced all over the place, up and down the aisles, having literally the time of my life. I loved the Carribean feel to the beginning of this set, just like night one at the Bowl a few months back. James Casey gave me my first goosies of the day during Cayman Review. Magilla is one of my favorite songs period. No need to go song by song but the set was rife with Trey solos amidst a backdrop of horns and keys and Cyro. Jibboo to close was freaking money.
Set One: Set Your Soul Free, Alive Again, Cayman Review, Money, Love and Change, Magilla, Curlew’s Call, Everything’s Right, Dark and Down, Gotta Jibboo
TAB Set 2 – 9:41 – 11:12 (6,992 steps / 91 min = 77 steps/min)
Not formerly familiar with Night Speaks to a Woman, dare I say that this song rips! Trey was firing on all cylinders for this one, followed by Mozambique for which my notes so eloquently say “Holy shit!” Sand also has several exclamation points in my notes. I could no longer hold my bathroom urge so wandered through the venue for Rise/Come Together and back for Blaze On. I don’t normally move around much other than to dance during a set, it’s as if I feel like I’m going to miss something. That being said, it’s been a while since I raged the aisles and pathways during a set like that and I had a blast boogeying to the bathroom and back and enjoying different sightlines and dancing with hundreds of people along the way. I’ve come to like Life Beyond the Dream very much, a simple yet profound message, “Don’t give up hope. Keep dreaming.” It goes without saying that First Tube brought the house down as set closer. WOW. I figured at this point the set was over but the crowd would not let up from its thunderous ovation and Trey came back with horns and an acoustic guitar for Brief Time before the full band joined for the final song, Push on Til the Day.
Set Two: Night Speaks to a Woman, Mozambique, Sand, Shine, Rise/Come Together, Blaze On > Simple Twist Up Dave, A Life Beyond The Dream, Valentine, Tuesday, First Tube. Encore: Brief Time, Push On ‘Til the Day
Trey and his band blew the roof (or permanent tent-like structure) clear off the Peach. I was positively exhausted. My bones were tired. My emotions were spent. And I had a full two-hour set of JRAD ahead. Good lord.
(Almost) Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – 12:02 – 1:29 (7,410 steps / 87 min = 85 steps/min)
Mazel Tov Joe! ‘Nuff said on that. Congrats to Evan and Ben who filled in quite admirably. Explosive Shakedown to open and all questions about what the band would look like without Joe were answered to my immense satisfaction. IMHO, Tom had the night of all nights, driving the band further and further with every solo and never-ending peak. He and Scott had some playful back and forth on the edge of the stage. I thought Metzger’s first “look at me” moment was during Eyes and, it seemed to me, Perowsky was the one to lead the band into Music. Franklin’s is always a favorite and Althea gave Hamilton the forum to keep flexing his guitar muscles and popped my goosies big time. Side detail, Althea was my first favorite dead song and I remember listening to it on repeat and memorizing every word off Without a Net when I was in 6th grade. At 1:29 a drum solo ensued and I figured it would be a good time to beat 20,000 people off the mountain as I had an hour drive back to camp and 31 more minutes of music wasn’t worth an hour or more waiting for a shuttle. I know I missed some goodies but my plate was full, my cup had runneth over.
All in all, over 2 days, I saw 11 bands play 13 sets for 16+ hours of livemusic’n and a whopping 86,766 steps. Google tells me that the average marathon is 55,374. Yep, that’s about right.