Electric Forest Festival Rothbury, MI June 30 – July 3, 2011

Although the Electric Forest Festival was held at the Double JJ Resort, home of the Rothbury Festivals in 2008 and 2009 put on by Madison House Presents (the promoter behind SCI), this year Madison partnered with Insomniac Productions (Tiesto’s promoter) to bring a host of electronic and dub step acts to the fest. The cross-promotional mash-up created a fan dynamic that I’m not sure I’ve seen over my last decade of festivals, add on to that the promoters’ self described “Saturday Afternoon Special” REO Speedwagon event-within-the-event... an interesting weekend indeed.

Thursday

The music began Thursday evening. The crowd was still thin as campers continued to pile in throughout the night, but the fans that were there were full of energy and ready to get the party started. While Electric Forest was scaled down from the Rothbury of years past (only 15,000 in attendance as opposed to the 30,000 plus previously) the venue still sported five stages: the Ranch Arena, Sherwood Court, Tripolee, the Forest Stage, and Wagon Wheel. The main acts would be performing in the Ranch Arena with other major acts filling in the Sherwood and Tripolee stages. The forest stage was really a glorified DJ stand, and the Wagon Wheel was basically an outhouse situated on the lovely Wildcat Lake (no swimming, not that you’d want to.)

The first act of the festival was Lynx. I originally saw Lynx performing with the Zilla (Michael Travis and Jamie Janover’s collaboration) at Horning’s Hideout in 2005. At the time she was just supplementing Zilla with her beat boxing, and I have to say at the time I had never seen a white girl beat box that well. These days she has evolved into her own full-fledged act; playing original compositions with every instrument from the banjo to the drum pad, and still dropping her killer vocal beats, she is definitely an act to check out. A female performer of this caliber on the electronic scene is a rare find.

Then it was time for my first Festival Dash of the weekend. For those of you who are not familiar, the Festival Dash is what happens when two acts you want to see overlap on two different stages. With a successful Festival Dash, you miss the second half of one act, but catch the second half of the other act. In a perfect world, you amazingly catch the most epic moments of both shows, although this rarely happens. Usually you show up at the second show to find out you just missed your favorite song. At this point in the weekend my energy was still high and I made it from Sherwood to the Ranch in great time, missing a minimal amount of the Emmitt-Nershi Band. The ENB is comprised of Drew Emmitt of Leftover Salmon on lead vocals and mandolin, Bill Nershi of String Cheese on guitar and vocals, the young Andy Thorn on banjo, and Johnny Grubb, formerly of Railroad Earth, on the bass. If not the first ever bluegrass super group, Emmitt-Nershi Band is certainly the only one of recent memory. I caught some classical bluegrass standards and some tracks off of their new album, “New Country Blues,” before dashing back to Sherwood to see the Kyle Hollingsworth Band.

However, I didn’t make it to the Sherwood stage. You see, to get from the Ranch to Sherwood, a person had to first pass through the festival’s namesake Electric Forest. At this time, the sun had not yet set all the way, so the forest was not quite the spectacle that it would become later on in the weekend, but one thing I could see in the twilight were dozens upon dozens of Eno hammocks strung up in the trees. I couldn’t resist; I just had to try one out.

A few hours later I awoke in my borrowed hammock a slight haze, and mistakenly headed back out of the forest in the direction I had entered. Bad decision. Upon reentering the Ranch Arena, I was assaulted by a force that someone identified as Excision. The definition of excision is “removal by cutting.” I quickly felt as if I needed to excise my ears. For the first, but not the last time of the festival, I cursed myself for not bringing earplugs, and quickly retreated back into the forest.

I know some of you must be saying, “You didn’t even give it a fair shake, man! To really appreciate dub step you need to let it sink in, immerse yourself in it and wait for the drop!!” Fair enough; you are correct; I did not wait around for the drop. However, I would have plenty of opportunity to listen to Excision later in the weekend.

I continued through the forest, back to Sherwood Court, where Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe was playing. My ears smiled. I have seen Karl many times, with the Greyboy Allstars, Tiny Universe, and recently with the Karl Denson Trio. I have to say, Tiny Universe is probably my favorite of his lineups, and they did not disappoint. Denson brought his sense of humor, covering the Cold War Kids “Hang Me Out To Dry” after a day filled with rain.

After Tiny Universe, I decided to skip Kaskade on the Ranch stage and catch all of Lotus’s set. Lotus is a band that plays electronic music, but unlike most of the music in the electric genre, Lotus consists of a full band of musicians playing their instruments live on stage. Nothing canned here, no one pushing play on a laptop. It was late, and I was tired, but the energy of Lotus kept me on my feet throughout the show. Lotus reminds me of the energy and improvisation I used to look for at STS9 shows, but stopped finding there. After the set, I trudged back to my campsite.

I was fortunate enough to be camped next to Excision and crew, who were blasting Excision on their car stereo until 4 a.m. Two questions came into my mind that I could not excuse: 1. What is the difference between the live Excision set, and the canned set being played through the car stereo? 2. What kind of a tool blasts his own music through the campground until 4a.m.?

Friday

Friday began overcast with intermittent rain throughout the day. I managed to get myself out of my cozy dry tent in time to catch the end of Reverend Payton’s Big Damn band on the Sherwood stage. The cool sounds of resonator guitar and washboard were a welcome relief from the grating dub step still bouncing around in my skull. After that I headed over to catch a solid set of southern soul from JJ Grey & Mofro. From there I grabbed a quick falafel wrap and headed back through the forest to Sherwood.

Let’s take a second to talk about the names of the stages at the festival: Ranch Arena, Sherwood Court, Tripolee, Forest Stage, and Wagon Wheel. Lots of festivals, in fact most festivals, have a theme to their naming convention. For example, Bonnaroo uses the theme of mass confusion when naming their What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, The Other Tent, and Another Tent. I agree that the mass confusion theme may be impossible to beat, but I think the promoters of Electric Forest could have put in a little more effort when trying to unify the festival thematically.

The next act on the Ranch stage was Stephen Marley. Before I talk about Mr. Marley’s performance, I feel compelled to discuss his tour bus. I have never seen anything like it. The double-decker bus is completely wrapped in Rasta imagery: everything from lions to the Jamaican flag, with “Stephen Marley” emblazoned in three-foot tall letters. Additionally there are the addresses of his facebook page and instructions on how to follow Stephen on twitter. I have absolutely no idea how this bus doesn’t get pulled over by every redneck cop from Poughkeepsie to Tuscaloosa. They might as well have a neon sign on the back that says, “We are smoking weed on this bus.” Maybe Stephen and his crew ride clean and they aren’t concerned with getting pulled over, but I doubt it. Stephen’s performance was great. Everything you come to a Marley show expecting. A full ensemble on stage, including some kids dancing and waving flags. Mostly a nostalgia act, but never the less, an extremely polished one.

Next up on Friday’s docket was the main event of the night. The act that brought the festival together, and likely drew the most fans from the greatest distances. In full disclosure, I myself would not have been in attendance were it not for three nights of the String Cheese Incident. If you are unfamiliar, String Cheese is a jam band formed in Colorado in 1993, consisting of Bill Nershi on acoustic and electric guitar and dobro, Michael Kang on acoustic and electric mandolin and fiddle, Kyle Hollingsworth on Hammonds organ, keys and accordion, Keith Moseley on bass, Michael Travis on the drum kit, and Jason Hann on percussion. String Cheese blends sounds from every type of music genre, literally: bluegrass, folk, jazz, blues, gospel, rock, funk, disco, country, hip-hop, electronic, and even dub step.

They opened up the set with Best Feelin, a Keller Williams tune, played into Can’t Stop Now, a New Grass Revival original. From there they played Pirates, a classic Cheese original instrumental, and definitely on e of the highlights of the set. Next they dropped Song in my Head, a newer Billy tune that honestly they could drop from the repertoire in my opinion. They followed that with a couple of Kyle songs, Pack It Up and Rain, and then closed the set with On the Road. An interesting side note, I have seen On the Road performed live more times than I have seen any song by any band performed, and while most people would probably have grown tired of it years ago, it still thrills me and gets me dancing.

I would be lying if I said I caught the entire second set. At set break a girl dressed as a peacock, in classic Cheese tradition, distracted me. (For years Cheese played a three-night event at Horning’s Hideout in North Plains, Oregon. The Hideout sported, among other things, a muster of peacocks, thus becoming immersed in the iconography of the band.) This sexy lady peacock had me chasing her all over the festival grounds before… well, I missed Eye Know Why and Cedar Laurels, but managed to make it back to the stage in time to see the end of Resume Man, one of my favorite songs with Keith on vocals. From there they went into San Jose, followed by Freedom Jazz Dance. Then the band dropped Shantytown. While the song was written at the Oregon County Fair years ago, the lyrics describing a tent city built in the trees and people running barefoot on the mossy ground is appropriate for any camping event, and always a fan favorite. They ended the set with a killer rendition of Rivertrance, an electronic take on the traditional form of Irish folk song, the Riverdance, played into one of Cheese’s classic covers, Tom Sawyer by Rush. The band came back out for the encore and played Just One Story, probably one of my favorite String Cheese songs, if not one of my favorite songs ever. They lyrics fly by so fast I honestly don’t know how Kang manages to rattle them off. (Additionally, it makes me wonder how he can manage to nail every one of these lyrics, but miffs the lyrics to Born On nine times out of ten.) I’m always sad to see the band walk off stage, but it was comforting to know that they would be back for two more nights.

And then there was Tiesto. Wow. He is probably the most recognizable name in the electronic music world. The fans were pumped. They assaulted the rail after the String Cheese set in preparation for their god. The front row looked like some sort of pokemon convention. If any artists were trying to come up with a new anime character, this was the place to find inspiration. Tiesto came on, the crowd went nuts… and I went back to my tent. I would have probably been more up for it if I had not had the nightmare of Excision keeping me up all night, but the electronic DJ stuff just doesn’t really do it for me, especially after a day filled with musicians wrapping themselves around organic instruments. Luckily for me, the dub crew camped next to me must have been at the Tiesto show and then at the late night sets at the Wagon Wheel, because I slept like a baby.

Saturday

Good morning, Saturday! Day two? Day three? Who’s counting? I got up feeling quite refreshed and headed out to see Keller on the Ranch stage. There are three types of people: those that have never heard of Keller Williams, those that think he is a novelty act, and those that think he is not only one of the greatest songwriters on the scene, but the best acoustic guitar player in the business. I happen to fall into the third camp. I saw Keller most recently at Summercamp with Kdubalicious, a three-piece ensemble featuring Keller on vocals and bass. I was extremely disappointed with that performance, and was thrilled to see the lineup on the stage of Keller on guitar and vocals, Michael Kang on fiddle, and Keith Moseley on bass. It was a great set; I never tire of hearing Freaker by the Speaker, or Kidney in a Cooler.

I stuck around the Ranch stage so that I wouldn’t miss any of the next act, the act the promoters were billing as the Saturday Afternoon Special: REO Speedwagon. As the show time grew closer I wondered where the rest of the fans were. As the band came on stage, I realized that the meager crowd in attendance was all that was going to arrive. I began to feel bad for the band; 15,000 in attendance and probably less than 3,000 were there to watch REO. Then I looked on stage, and it was pretty hard to keep feeling bad. These guys looked great. Sure, you can tell they aren’t in their 20’s or 30’s anymore, but when you realize that this band has been together since 1972, holy crap they look GOOD. They have the air of $400 t-shirts and $1000 jeans, not to mention epic salon haircuts and skin that I guess only money can buy, lots and lots of money! Theses guys must be loaded. I have to admit, I was not that familiar with REO’s catalogue, or at least I thought I wasn’t, but after nearly every song they played I found myself saying, “Oh, I didn’t know that this was REO Speedwagon.” Cant Fight This Feeling, Take It On the Run, Keep on Loving You, Roll with the Changes, Ridin’ the Storm Out… the list goes on and on, and I realized that this band probably still gets almost as much radio play as Led Zeppelin. And they can still play. Sure, there were no ten-minute guitar solos, and no crunchy psychedelic jams, but the music was solid, and Kevin Cronin’s vocals still sound as clear as they do on the records. There is a reason that REO Speedwagon has sold over 40 million albums around the world: they can rock.

After REO, I dashed back to Sherwood Court to catch the end of Lettuce. This band has a tight clean sound, but full of depth. I guess I may be a sucker for horns, but either way, this band rages, as their latest album RAGE! implies. I was sad that I only caught the last few minutes, but that’s life at a festival like this: you just can’t see all the acts. I only was able to see about a half an hour before I had to dash back to the Ranch for String Cheese’s sets.

The set began with a poem by Lester, an old friend of the band’s who has opened many magical nights of music with his poems. With the stage set, the band came out and opened with Colorado Bluebird Sky, a new bluegrass tune by Billy that they first played at Winter Carnival in Colorado earlier this year. I enjoy this tune; it is probably my favorite song that Billy has written in recent years. They followed with Rhum N’ Zouc, one of the band’s classic instrumentals, and the energy in the crowd started to rise. From there they played Little Hands into Dudley’s Kitchen, another classic coupling. The Keith song Sometimes a River followed that. (Sometimes a River is a favorite among my group of friends, as we sing our own lyrics and title it Sometimes Mike Miller due to an incident at Horning’s 2005 involving a passed out wookie.) Betray the dark came after that, and the band closed the set by playing they Kyle song Close Your Eyes into a cover of King Crimson’s 21st Century Schizoid Man, played previously at the Hampton Halloween run, apparently now in the regular rotation.

The second set began with an unfinished Desert Dawn, right into Kashmir. Who doesn’t love a Zeppelin cover? I probably would have preferred Ramble On, but I’ll take what I can get. The Band followed Kashmir with Lands End, a Tim O’Brien tune that most people would probably attribute to Cheese as an original. After that it was Piece Of Mine, and then a Born On The Wrong Planet into Restless Wind to close the set. (Surprise! Kang remembered all the words!) The encore began with Tore Up Over You, by Chuck Berry, which was first covered at Winter Carnival earlier this year and now also appears to be in the regular rotation. Finally they closed by wrapping up Desert Dawn. Again I had mixed emotions as the band walked off the stage: another night of Cheese had come to a close, but the energy was much higher than it had been the night before, leaving me to wonder and hope that the band would take it even higher on Sunday.

After the Cheese sets the only act remaining for the night on the Ranch stage was Bassnectar, which in my opinion if you’ve seen once you’ve probably seen enough, so I headed over to Sherwood to see Big Gigantic, featuring Dominic Lalli from the Motet on saxophone. I have seen them a few times this summer, and they did not disappoint that night with a very high-energy show. Shpongle presents the Shpongletron closed out the night… I don’t even know what to say about Shpongle, you should just go see it at least once if you never had. If you take drugs, you should take them before you go, although I have to say I’m glad I didn’t or I probably would have had some epic nightmares that night.

Sunday

Sunday began with Railroad Earth. I like bluegrass and I still think they band sucks. Todd Sheaffer has come a long way in recent years, but he is still the worst guitar player that actually gets paid money to play his guitar on stage. Sure, he plays better than I do, but I’ve never had one lesson, and I don’t get paid to do it. The only redeeming feature of this band is the virtuoso fiddle playing of Tim Carbone, who should really go solo. Luckily for Electric Forest, what happened next made me forget that Railroad Earth even existed.

Who is Edward Sharpe, you ask? Where did he come from, and how did he get to the Electric Forest? I’m not sure. I would ask Edwarde Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros front man, Alex Ebert, but Ebert is one of those personalities that even if I were to ever be in a position to ask him questions, I would probably just stare, mouth agape, basking in his awesomeness. I know, I sound like some thirteen year old school girl talking about Justin Beber, but honestly, this band is that cool. They make hipsters look lame; they make hippies look corporate. If you’re not standing next to the person you love, their music will make you miss her, and if you are standing next to her, you won’t be able to help looking in her eyes and singing along. They took the stage late, but as soon as they started playing, no one seemed to care. Ebert began by talking about how he was sorry they were late, but they’d been up all night partying, and it was hot but not sunny this afternoon, which he thought was weird. Then he told the crowd that the band was trying to procure a piece of equipment called a China 8000 or something, that cost about 90 grand, and if anyone was interested they should talk to him later.

After a couple of songs, Ebert decided to show off his new wireless mic, and in a move reminiscent of Jim Morrison, he jumped off stage, climbed over the railing and started working his way through the crowd. He greeted fans, stopping to hug or shake hands with anyone who was interested, all while the band continued to play on stage. He path took him feet away from me, the couple in front of me offered him a joint, of which he happily partook. The next person in line offered him a baggie full of foil wrapped mushroom chocolates, which he smiled and pocketed. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t get tingles down my spine as he walked by me in the crowd, Ebert has a presence and a genuineness of spirit that shines from his eyes. About fifteen minutes later he had made his way through the crowd back to the stage, where, by audience request, the band broke into Home. “Alabama Arkansas, I do love my ma and pa, but not the way I do love you.” If you don’t like it, you probably have no soul, which is OK, there is plenty of room on the dub step scene for people with no souls. For the rest of humanity, go see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and bring a date.

The first of the final String Cheese sets began with Chili Dawg, a David Grisman instrumental that Cheese hadn’t played since 2007. They followed with Up The Canyon, a Nershi/Moseley tune that also hadn’t been played since 2007. Next began a bluegrass session with several guests sitting in from the Infamous String Dusters and Greensky Bluegrass. The highlights from the pick were Sittin’ On Top Of The World, and the Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses. Cheese Finished out the first set with Way Back Home, and then Looking Glass into Jessica. The anticipation grew as the crowd discussed the set during the break; everyone agreed that it was the best set of the weekend so far, and hoped that the energy would continue to rise during the final set of the weekend.

The band came back on stage and started off with Rhythm Of The Road. Following that came almost thirty minutes of non-stop playing featuring Naïve Melody, the Talking Heads tune that in my opinion, and the opinion of many others, is better played by Cheese than by the Talking Heads, (I have heard many fans joke that they love it when David Byrne covers This Must Be The Place,) into a lengthy jam, segued into Valley of the Jig, the second of String Cheese’s rethinking of traditional Irish music. (The third being Bumpin’ Reel, which was not played over the weekend.) Next up was Cottonmouth, a Nershi tune that Keith sings. They had played this during winter carnival, and many fans are happy to see this song in the regular rotation. After Cottonmouth came Howard, probably my personal favorite, they could play it every show as far as I’m concerned, and yes, I do know all the words by heart. They closed the set with Jellyfish into Dirk. OK, maybe Jellyfish is my favorite… do I have to choose? The band came back out and played Shakin’ The Tree, by Peter Gabriel, for the encore. Pretty weak if you ask me, I’m mean Kang singing, “It’s a woman’s day!” just begs mockery, but after the totally awesome second set that had been dropped, I really didn’t care about the lame encore.

Again, sad to see the boys walk off stage, but I would go home happy having seen three incidents that lived up to the memories of tours past. I spent the next few hours walking around with my friends, discussing the sets we had seen over the festival. We watched some Pretty Lights and some EOTO, and even danced a little to some Dub Step before going back to camp and beginning to pack our stuff. The real reason I am always sad to see String Cheese walk off the stage isn’t really because I’m going to miss the band, I can always download the sets and listen to them on loop in my car as I drive the endless miles to destinations unknown. No, the reason I’m sad is because I know the end of the show means that I will soon have to say goodbye to my friends. It’s OK though, even if Cheese never plays another show we will find some excuse to converge on some city, or lake or mountain top, some band that we convince each other is worth traveling thousands of miles to see… who knows, maybe next year we’ll all go on Excision tour!

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