10/26/07: Voodoo Music Experience (Part 1)

Wow. What a day. The Friday I had at the Voodoo Music Experience was pretty amazing. So amazing in fact that I'm cutting this review into two parts, mainly because they last band I saw was an experience unto its own.We (me and "bassguitarhero":http://www.mog.com/bassguitarhero) departed for the 7 hour drive at 4 AM. The drive actually wasn't that bad going there. We took turns picking albums and listening to them all the way through. Stopped at a Hardees for a quick breakfast. Neither one of us had been to Louisiana before, so it was cool looking around and stuff.Got to New Orleans a little after 11. We didn't really see much of the really devastated area because we got off right near City Park (the neighborhood on the east side of the park was pretty damaged, though, and the park wasn't in particularly good shape either). Once we found a good place to park, we entered the festival and walked around for a bit. Picked up our shirts. Lots of tents to browse around at. The cajun food they had was absolutely delicious as well.We made our way to the far end of the park. This band called Meriweather was in the middle of their set on the second stage (they were okay. I liked their sound but their singer annoyed me). The main and second stages were positioned right across from each other on this track, so when we went over to the main stage to get our first row spots you could clearly hear the bands across the way.Earl Greyhound came out on stage to a small crowd and rocked it. I've posted about them on here before, but I will recap. They are a band with a sound almost straight out of the early 70s, so if you dig that type of stuff you'll love them. They played most of the songs off of their album Soft Targets, and they were loud and fantastic the whole way. Their problem was that most of the people there didn't know who they were, but they completely ignored that. Their hippie-looking guitarist can make his way around the fretboard, and even did some Hendrix-esque moves with the amplifier behind him. Their bassist is the real personality of the band. She has a wicked 'fro and struts around to all the notes she is playing. And the drummer is pretty much a badass with shades (he has some huge arms), and is probably the best out of the three. They ended their set with "S.O.S." and "Fashion", which included a long jam/solo on the guitar in the middle. I'm a big fan of these guys, but you should really check them out if you get the chance.We were gonna leave afterwards and walk around the park so more, but it's a good thing we didn't for two reasons, the first being the next band that came on. We had never heard of them before, but they were awesome. Galactic is a group of 5 middle aged white guys from New Orleans that play with soul, blues, and a whole lotta funk.They got the whole crowd going with their grooves. And the sound booth turned the speakers up for them, so the beat was pretty much dictating my heartbeat. Their lead player is the saxophonist, who also does some harmonica duties as well. With them they had some MC's to do the vocal duties for different songs: Boots Riley, Lyrics Born, and a dude from Jurrasic 5 (and his brother). Boots Riley was our favorite. He was rocking a 'fro and sideburns and had the most energy on stage. Though all the bands we saw that day were really good, I was most suprisingly impressed with them. I definitely want to dive into their catalog to see what they have.Next was Black Rebel Motorcycle club. With them I can't name very many of their songs, but I have heard a lot of them and have liked pretty much everything I heard. They came out cool and cocky dressed in all black, but they had the rock to back it up. The speakers were even louder now, so everytime the bass drum was hit it felt like getting punched in the chest. They played "Weapon of Choice" pretty early in their set, and of course "Ain't No Easy Way" came a little later on. They threw a tamborine into the crowd like 6 feet away from me (that was actually a theme of the day. Seems like all the bands were throwing stuff into my general area, and yet it was just out of my reach.) I like the guy who plays bass for most of their songs. All three of them play almost expression-less, but he plays with the most feeling it seems. Kinda hard to describe. The set ended with "What Happened To Our Rock 'N' Roll". It was a good hour of pure unfiltered rock.Part 2 will be on its way. Pictures should be up on "bassguitarhero's":http://www.mog.com/bassguitarhero mog in a little bit.