The ADD Guide to Summer Camp 2009

This year, music started at noon on Thursday going all the way to Monday morning’s sunrise. John Scofield, Los Lobos, Willie Nelson, Method Man and Redman played their first Summer Camp sets. Longtime stalwarts, moe., Umphrey’s McGee, Cornmeal and Family Groove Company returned flexing stronger muscles. Between that and clinics, seminars on green living, DJ sets, fireworks and a hot air balloon ride, it was a sonic and visual cluster fuck for 90 straight hours over four days. If anyone was bored this year at Summer Camp, it was his or her own fault.

In honor of the festival that grew exponentially but still feels much the same as it did when only a couple thousand people gathered around two stages, I offer an ADD guide to Summer Camp 2009. These are three videos of clips (shot mostly with a Canon Powershot) strung together to show a wash of what happened. It isn’t meant to be all encompassing. There was a time when it was possible to miss nothing throughout the weekend, but that was six years and three fewer stages ago.

Thursday, May 21 and Friday, May 22

The beginning: These were the slowly speeding up climb up a roller coaster of the weekend. 56 Hope Road starts off with popping bass and drums behind a tenor sax solo. Steez follows with a synth landen dance progression. Artist Max Kauffman offers tips on warming up the hands.

This Must be The Band bears an eerie resemblance to the Talking Heads, and tears through Crosseyed and Painless. Jaik Willis gives a beatbox treatment to Yoshimi, and shows the world that a Flying V acoustic guitar is right in so many ways. Buckethead shreds his way through his Guitar Hero-infamous Jordan.

The Hue stretches out a new lengthy, melodic piece called Bipolar Pride. Girl Talk smashes Michael Jackson with Tone Loc for a second. Method Man and Redman call out for the fellas and ladies, and Umphrey’s McGee burns through 40’s Theme.

Saturday, May 23

With the cannonball off the side of the pool done, it was time for the high dive. Saturday was the part of the festival that leaves one exhausted, sore in at least half of one’s muscles, dirty as hell and content with the overall feeling.

Hill Country Revue starts off the day with bayou boogie, thick guitar and the echoed scratches of Cody Dickinson’s electric washboard. Family Groove Company follows playing the funky ending of Tutear. Brainchild shows their growth from simple funk grooves to bigger rock composition with vocals. Cornmeal brings the combined feel of old bluegrass and new improv as they toss around solos.

Les Claypool gets strange with his band sounding like a gritty swamp caberet, featuring tweaked cellist Sam Bass, longtime utility man percussionist Mike Dillon and lashing drums by Paulo Baldi. Claypool then adds Whamola to Umphrey’s first set.

To some, the sandwiched UM and moe. sets on Saturday was like throwing a nine-volt battery soaked in kerosene into the bonfire of useless debate between allied fans about who is entitled to “own” the festival. Folks, it’s not a competition. Never has, nor will be. To others, it was a chance to choose one’s own adventure. See all of UM, all of moe. or both. Both bands have brought a growing array of people year after year to the fest. No quarrel here.

Umphrey’s second set featured a fireworks display shown here at the end of Wizard Burial Ground. moe. plays through a fiery rendition of Pink Floyd’s too-often overlooked slide guitar-led One Of These Days. Family Groove Company returns for their costumed Big Lebowski tribute with the Spanish version of Hotel California, and Matthias Blank as “Jesus.” DJ Wade “Wyllys” Wilby closes out the night with his house set up in the VIP.

An ADD Guide To Summer Camp 2009 Part II from Benji Feldheim.

Sunday, May 24

Sunday was a little more peaceful than the rest, with occasional furious sparks.

With the night sky overhead, The Wood Brothers, Oliver and Chris, play haunting and soothing country blues with upright bass and slide guitar. Kris Myers shows attendees at the drum clinic in the park chapel that simple rhythms make backbones for adventurous solos. The French prog trio of tricksters named Morglbl stole the entire fest. Somehow this guitar, bass and drums trio managed to play technically strong and thrashing rock, with some jazz-style soloing, but still keep a sense of humor with self-effacing banter.

UM’s acoustic guitar-led set had a mix of warm melodies, including That’s The Way with Mike Racky on pedal steel adding an extra color array. Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood move together as an aware unit even through atonal duels during Miles Behind. Los Lobos follow with their dual roadhouse rockabilly and classic Latino arrangements, without even a glimmer of burnout that accompanies many other bands who’ve been at it for over 30 years and less.

In another rare feat of graceful aging, Willie Nelson’s voice sounded crisp and clear as it did on recordings from forty years ago, especially during Mama Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys. The festival concluded for this recorder with moe.’s Plane Crash, serving as their second set’s beginning and end.

Special thanks to Vanessa Robinson, Mike Armintrout, Alison Holmes, Lindsey Lehman and Scott Bernstein. This review and videos are dedicated to Veronica Pelozo-Goldberg.

An ADD Guide to Summer Camp 2009 Part III from Benji Feldheim

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