It’ll take an excess of positive mojo to erase the debacle of a certain Vermont music festival, but that state’s second most famous rock foursome is itchin’ to try. Come July 21-22, RAQ will welcome all comers to the second installment of the Lew-Au, the band’s very own festival on Hillcrest Farms in Newport, Vermont.
I’m not sure throwing a festival down the street from the Great Coventry Trainwreck of 2004 is the best way to draw a like-minded crowd, but if the rapidly growing, rabidly impassioned fanbase is any true indication of what’s in store, RAQ should have no problem expanding on the 600 attendees that braved a foul-weather weekend in August 2005 for the first Lew-Au.
The band made the initial Lew-Au II announcement at RAQ’s most recent trip to New York’s Bowery Ballroom, a truly raging part of last month’s otherwise lackluster Green Apple Music Festival. That night’s show displayed the immense kind of talent each individual band member possesses, and it’s always a genuine pleasure for me to watch a group of musicians so at ease on stage, having fun with each other and whipping the crowd into a total frenzy. I like a total frenzy.
Our resident blogger Ace Cowboy caught up with RAQ just before they went on stage that night, and was surprised by how level-headed and grounded they were.