McDowell Mountain Music Festival: Westworld, Scottsdale, AZ 4/24 & 4/25/09

When Flaming Lips front-man Wayne Coyne isn’t spending his stage time being passed around the crowd in a bubble or shooting confetti guns, the down-to-earth front-man is usually  letting his mouth run. Sure, his lengthy gabbering might erase a couple tunes from the set-list, but it makes for entertaining banter nonetheless.

“We’ve never tried to avoid Arizona, we really haven’t, in fact we stayed with the Meat Puppets here one time. We really do like it here,” acknowledged Coyne about his band’s infrequent Arizona visits. So after a long hiatus through the Grand Canyon State, the Oklahoma City rockers voyaged to Scottsdale via Washington D.C. to co-headline the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, perhaps the most prominent name in the festival’s history. 

"We have always focused on bringing a unique mixture of musical acts to the Valley,’” said John Largay, event founder of the MMMF. “This year is no different – we have the classic rock, reggae, bluegrass, and local band representation— and now we can add The Flaming Lips to our portfolio.”

Created, run and promoted by Wespac Construction, Inc, one hundred percent of MMMF proceeds benefit two local family-based  charities. Beneficiaries for 2009 include Phoenix Day and Golden Gate Community Center as last year $130,000 was split between the two charities.  With such a postive underlying mission, it’s been hard to elevate the status of the festival to national prominent due to it attracting bands that you wouldn’t necessarily hear on the radio or see at Coachella.  Instead MMMF has  kept it cozy and local at the Westworld polo grounds a few football fields in length hosting 13 bands over two days on the Main Stage and featuring an Artist’s Marketplace, Silent Auction, Kids Zone, Drum Circle and Creamy Radio Acoustic Stage.  Along with The Flaming Lips: Matisyahu, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Hot Tuna, Railroad Earth, Idigenous, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Assembly of Dust, Young Dubliners, Random Karma, Ten Dollar Outfit, Delcoa and Hayden James took to the main-stage.

Assembly of Dust, New Riders of the Purple Stage and Hot Tuna got the festival movin’ as the crowd traversed the festival grounds and indulged themselves in free tequila shots (courtesy of Cruz) and found creative ways to get their  festival freak faces on, as  the nearby corporate Airpark section of glitzy North Scottsdale nestled on the other side of the grounds. Friday night headliners Michael Franti and Spearhead threw down a more hip hop oriented set than past performances that got everyone out of their work week routine and into festival vibe and excited about Saturday.

The big surprise of Saturday afternoon was Idigenous, led by Mato Nanji who brought a Texas blues sensibility that channels Stevie Ray Vaughn and Traffic, incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques. Nanji’s guitar solos were both determined and spirited and gave a flash of good energy to a windy Saturday afternoon.

Railroad Earth brought a subdued mellow vibe that reached some epic proportions courtesy of the non-traditional rock instrumentation of violin, banjo, dobro, mandolin and flute.  Front-man Todd Sheaffer, always stoically composed, narrated his outdoorsy tales with ease, while they attracted a surprising amount of well-versed fans, who knew their song catalog first-hand.

Showing up right after sundown on the Saturday Sabbath, Matisyahu, sporting some long hair these days, brought robust energy to the stage for a set that lasted just around an hour.  His music appears to hold less religious leanings of late as his band carries a more profound rock vibe than reggae making recognizable hits songs like “Youth” sound more aggressive. Matisyahu wasn’t shy about working the stage, climbing on top of speakers and sporting some front-man worthy lanky dance moves. 

On the heels of being awarded Oklahoma’s official rock song for "Do You Realize", the Flaming Lips partied through their typical festive batch of originals mixed in with an oddball cover of Madonna’s “Borderline.” The celebratory opener “Race for the Prize,” followed by the likes of “Yoshimi,”  “She Don’t Use Jelly,” “Do You Realize” are old news by now for anyone who has seen a Lips show prior. For first timers, it’s always a revelation of sorts as some sort of ultimate concert experience and this performance witnessed a pink robot prop crowd surfing to the stage, which Coyne happily grabbed up as part of his band’s travelling stage set-up. Wasting no time, drummer Kliph Scurlock donned it during a percussion-less number.   The Flaming Lips wear the honor well as one of the most photogenic bands alive, as how can a white suited man in a bubble or a stage full of plushies not be captivating?

Thanks to the good guys at Wespac, they have given the Valley two days of much needed roots music. The past six years of the festival have attracted The Black Crowes, Ratdog, Bruce Hornsby, Solomon Burke, Gov’t Mule and Los Lobos to the mainstage.  Let us hope they keep attracting this kind of low-key talent  to safeguard the McDowell Mountain Music Festival as one of the better kept secrets on the festival scene.

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