Life is Music™

So it seems 2010 is not going to be a great year for music festivals, or at least not in the upper Midwest. First, in December, Minnesota’s annual 10,000 Lakes Music Festival was cancelled indefinitely due to financial issues. Now the real dagger has just been announced. Rothbury Festival will not be back in 2010. Although rumors swirled in December that this festival too was having money problems, according to their website, Rothbury 2010 has been canceled due to the fact that they cannot put together a “cutting edge roster that everyone has come to expect from ROTHBURY”. This news will undoubtedly hit many music fans in the Midwest and all across the country hard, but if things go well, Rothbury should be back in 2011.

Here is the statement published on their website, www.rothburyfestival.com.

“During the past three years, all of us involved with ROTHBURY have greatly appreciated the tremendous outpouring of support for the future of the festival. For 2010, we have had to make the tough decision to postpone our efforts. A contributing factor in our decision is that, due to various artists’ recording and touring schedules, we now believe that timing will not allow for us to assemble the cutting edge roster that everyone has come to expect from ROTHBURY. The result for this year is that we are not able to move forward with the integrity and high standards that we demand from ourselves and for the festival.

Despite the 2010 postponement, we intend to move toward continuing ROTHBURY in 2011. This event is something very special, and we are unwilling to potentially tarnish what ROTHBURY is, and can become, by working under conditions that will produce anything less than a magical experience.

ROTHBURY is more than a festival. It is a mission intended to discover strength in community, and what it means to be a large-scale sustainable event in these times. Our efforts are certainly not coming to an end.

It is important for us to thank the people of Michigan, Oceana County, The Village of Rothbury, Grant Township, and the Double JJ Resort. Also, we thank our team members, volunteers, creative contributors, media partners, and sponsors. We have made many friendships that will last a lifetime.

To all who attended the first two years of ROTHBURY we thank you for the soul you gave the event. Those times entered rarified air because of your energy.

We hope you have a fantastic July 4th this summer.”

In 2008 and 2009, this nearly sustainable music festival held near the west central Michigan town of Rothbury has had the following musicians (to name a few) grace its stages: The Dead, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews Band, Umphrey’s McGee, Sting Cheese Incident, Widespread Panic, Snoop Dogg, The Black Crowes, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, The Hold Steady, 311, Trey Anastasio, Primus, Michael Franti & Spearhead, The Black Keys, Drive-by Truckers.

10,000 Lakes Music Festival will not be back in 2010.  Announced today, the wonderful midwestern music festival held for the past seven years in Detroit Lakes, MN will be on an indefinite hiatus due to financial issues.  Minnesota Public Radio reported on their website that promoter Rand Levy said the costs involved were so large the event can’t pay for itself, and that only two of the seven festivals broke even.  Levy says he wants to take a year off and rethink, and the event may come back in another form in future years. 

“We want you to know we have heard your voices as community and the 10,000 Lakes Festival wants to deeply thank all of our fans, artists and attendees for seven amazing years at Soo Pass Ranch,” festival promoter Rand Levy said in a statement.

2009 brought in headliners Wilco, Widespread Panic and Dave Matthews Band.  Approximately 17,000 fans attended the 2009 festival, yet according to the Detroit Lakes Tribune, promoters were expecting a much larger attendance. 

Despite adding a more mainstream headliner, Dave Matthews, fans didn’t turn out in 2009 as organizers had hoped. Levy said before the event he expected 10,000 to 15,000 people to buy single-day tickets for the Matthews finale, in addition to those with full festival passes. Shortly before the July 25 headlining set, an organizer estimated overall festival attendance around 17,000.

10,000 Lakes Music Festival has hosted a mix of national touring acts and north country favorites since 2003. Past performers include: Dave Matthews Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Phil Lesh & Friends, Bob Weir & RatDog, Trey Anastasio Band, John Mayer, 311, Mike Gordon, Wilco, O.A.R., String Cheese Incident, the Disco Biscuits, Umphrey’s McGee, moe., Galactic, MMW, Leftover Salmon, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and The Roots.

10,000 Lakes Festival 2009

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 

Gomez – Gomez rules.  This was one of the bands I was really excited to see at the festival.  The crowd was relatively slim and while most were quite chatty with first-day festival energy, Gomez put on a very fine rockin’ performance.

Widespread Panic – With the day #1 crowd finally packing full the concert floor and most of the lawn, Widespread Panic headlined the night.  Their first set was nothing to write home about, but their second set brought the energy.  Still I have a hard time getting too excited over this band.  Jimmie Herring is a damn impressive guitarist though.

Kinetix - This Denver, CO rock band is led by a hip-hop singer and funky ass rhthym section.  These guys were a nice small stage treat after Widespread Panic.  I didn’t see it all, but what I saw was good and a whole lotta fun.

Pretty Lights - This set kicked butt.  Onstage was dj Derek Vincent Smith and drummer, Cory Eberhard.  Together they shook the entire concert bowl with electro-driven rhythyms and great mixes.  I was impressed.  

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

Railroad Earth - Over the years I’ve heard a lot of good things about this band.  This was my first opportunity to see them and they were excellent band to bounce around to in the mid-day sun.  Rootsy Americana tunes is their game and they play it very well.

Mason Jennings - Umm, boring.  We’re talking a major yawner here.  And I waited through the entire set to ensure I had a good spot for Wilco.

Wilco - This was the best show of the festival and it wasn’t due to “the Price is Right” intro.  I talked to a lot of people up front who had never even heard of Wilco before, and once the music progressed I watched these same people rock their asses off.  The band opened with “Wilco (the song)” and ended with “Hoodoo Voodoo”.  In between was a lot of recent tunes with “One Wing”, “Bull Black Nova” and “Country Disappeared” sounding phenomenal from the new album.  The band was on all night and most of the crowd appreciated it.  Of course there were a few dipshits trying to ruin the party for everyone.  For every glow stick that hit that stage some little girl’s puppy died.  You stupid punks who were throwing those should truly be ashamed. 

Wilco will love you baby

Nels & Glenn of Wilco

Atmosphere – As soon as I got to the stage sprinkles came down.  I don’t know a lot about this hip-hop band but the section of their set I hung around for was fantastic.  The crowd was rocking as much as I had seen all weekend.  When the first downpour came, I tucked my camera under my arm and ran like Adrian Peterson.  I give props to those who tried to stay it out.  In the end a big set was cut way short due to thunderstorms.

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Tea Leaf Green – My first time seeing them and I wasn’t overly impressed.

Steve Kimock’s Crazy Engine – The band was ripping it!  I only caught a few tunes on my way to the main stage to hold down a front row spot for Trampled by Turtles but these guys were great.  Thankfully I heard the rest of their set from afar while waiting for TBT.

Trampled by Turtles – The boys from Duluth have grown up to the Main Stage!  I’m thinking the Field Stage would have been a better fit as this huge stage dwarfed the band but the crowd was out in groves and it was great.  They started off with a few jitters (can’t blame them), but as things warmed up their hardcore fanbase and new listeners gave them the support they deserved.  It was great seeing one of Minnesota’s finest treasures letting it fly up there on the big stage and it seemed to end far too soon.

Dave Simonett & Tim Saxhaug

Ryan Young & Dave Carroll

Erik Berry & his son

Widespread Panic - Hey promoters, why the hell didn’t Umphrey’s McGee have this headlining spot?  Seriously though, are you people friggin’ crazy?  Midwest represent!!  Although I’ve had some great times at Widespread shows in the past, their unchanging tempos, stale drumming and similar song structure is boring.  This set was just OK in my book, which ain’t saying much of anything at all.

Wookiefoot – This show was a load of fun and one of the highlights of the festival.  Although their music has never captured me, the stage show is the brilliance behind this band.  Everything from the lights, to the fire dancers, to the back-up singers, to the alien bugs on stilts makes this an impressively theatrical show.  The band pushes the creative envelope and delivers a positive message which in the end will always make me smile.

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Umphrey’s McGee - My love for the music these guys create is definitely not unknown, but I had a hard time getting into this set.  They seemed to be on a mission to destroy everything in front of them with some very heavy jams.  They played as well as they always do but it wasn’t the most festival friendly set in my opinion.  The sun was incredibly hot which didn’t help at all.  These guys need to be seen at night to truly appreciate, and put them in a rock club and it’s prog-rocking heaven.  They have one of the best light shows out there and that arsenal wasn’t even touched.  Hey 10KLF, main stage headlining with two sets next time OK?  Thanks!

Umphrey's McGee

Dave Matthews Band - My love for this band faded the day I realized quality beer was not available in 30 packs.  That didn’t stop me from checking them out though and I’m glad I did.  I had just as much fun watching their hardcore (and large) fan base enjoy themselves as I did watching the actual show.  Their “Burning Down the House” cover was excellent.  Even though I felt they cut it short (why not 2 sets?), this show was good fun.  It was also another gorgeous night for tunes and a fine way to end my 10KLF 2009.

With beautiful people everywhere, near perfect weather, friendly security and staff, this ranks very high in my 10,000 Lakes Festival experiences.  My only gripe was with the scheduling but one cannot control everything.  Next time make Umphrey’s McGee a headliner for the sake of everything good in music.  Then I shall return.

On Wednesday, January 21st, 2009, the people at 10,000 Lakes Festival unveiled their “biggest announcement ever”.  Being a fan of the festival, I waited patiently for the news to come across the wire and when it did it left me scratching my head.  The biggest announcement ever was that Dave Matthews Band, Wilco and Widepread Panic were to headline the 7th annual festival held at Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes, MN from July 22-25. 

In the past this festival has ebbed and flowed with its artist selections and it’s been my experience that the closer the genres, the better the festival.  Take for example the 2004 festival which mixed powerhouse jambands like String Cheese Incident with MTV faces John Mayer and Maroon 5.  This festival was a disaster and it’s no wonder the gods rained on us for three straight days in the middle of July!  In 2005 the festival seemed to have learned a lesson and booked Trey Anastasio, Widespread Panic, the Black Crowes, Les Claypool creating a much more fluid festival.  In 2006 and 2007 they stuck to that notion which resulted in even better festivals.  Those festivals were a blast!  Unfortunately the lineup for the 2008 festival slipped again when they mixed as headliners the artsy space rockers the Flaming Lips with political hip-hop musician Michael Franti & Spearhead.  The attendance was way down and I sat this one out for the first time.

So that brings us to 2009 and the “biggest announcement ever”.  Obviously the festival is banking on the fact that Dave Matthews Band has a huge following and has never played the festival, but I believe they didn’t look past that to the fact that Widespread Panic has an equally devoted following who for the most part are Dave Matthews Band haters.  Oh snap!

When I first read that Dave Matthews Band would headline a night, I envisioned thousands of bros slapping high-fives, giving chest bumps and chugging beer cans while thousands of Widespread Panic fans gritted their teeth with suspicion.  It’s been my experience that most (not all) hardcore DMB fans have a hard time seeing past the pedestal they have put this band on and have relatively closed minds to other musicians.  This is unfortunate for a smaller festival like 10,000 Lakes Festival whose crowds in 2009 will certainly be dominated by DMB fans.  I’ll be one of few sitting on the fence with one of the best rock bands in America, Wilco.

The super-awesome band Guster gave a great first-hand example of a Dave Matthews Band concert.  In the summer of 2004 Guster opened for Dave Matthews Band during a string of ampitheatre performances and in their road journal as written by drummer Brian Rosenworcel, they documented their experience at Alpine Valley ampitheatre in East Troy, WI.

“After our performance on Sunday, I needed to know some answers. Who were these people blowing off our 43-minute set, and what were they doing that was so much better than watching me beat my hands to a bloody pulp for their amusement? Two beers and one golf cart acquisition later, me and Joe and Chris set out to find out.

The parking lot is all gravel and grass. There’s a section full of chartered busses, a section full of limousines and their bored-as-shit drivers, and endless cars parked in a vaguely linear fashion (but not linear enough that there weren’t a few near-disasters on the cart).  There are people in the parking lot during Dave’s set. Not just limousine and bus drivers, but people like you and me, only drunker. There was no chance of being recognized as a member of Guster out there. Afterall, these people not only blew off our set to hang out in the parking lot, they blew off Dave’s set to hang out in the parking lot. Two girls who flagged us down for a ride (not into the concert, mind you, but to another part of the parking lot) asked “where’d you snag the cart?” The assumption, because we were doing donuts in the parking lot with a golf cart, was that we were not super-official, but thieves. Even when they noticed the credentials hanging around our necks, all they could think to ask was “where’d you snag the laminates?”

The grounds were in pretty bad shape… they looked not unlike the Hatch Shell after The Last Dispatch concert, not unlike some parts of Afghanistan, and not unlike our Earth Day Concert in 2000. There were bottles and crushed cans everywhere. It wasn’t easy to navigate around these obstacles, and a few times I had to use the brake. But as we were making our way into the corner of the lot, by a fence near the woods, things began to look uglier and uglier. Ridiculous amounts of bottles and cans. The quality of the beer was getting worse too. Did someone actually drink thirty cans of Keystone Light!? There were the remnants of ripped up lawn-chairs obscuring our path and random spatulas strewn about. It was darker in this corner than in other areas of the parking lot. I slowed down. Chris said “this is where you buy the crack.”

For someone that’s been on the road for nine years, I’ve been on the wrong side of the tracks a few times. Chicago, East St. Louis, Washington DC. Once I got chased by a kid with a baseball bat while riding my bike through a neighborhood I probably shouldn’t have been in in Des Moines, Iowa. So at this point, I am 31 years old, and I think I have my street instincts pretty well intact. I put the golf cart in reverse, and I drove us the hell out of there.”

With an eclectic mix of big-name talent this year’s festival will probably have its largest attendance yet.  I will be there with as much optimism as I can possibly muster and hopefully I’ll make it out without repeating the lyric that Kurt Cobain once sang: “Take a look at where you are, it’s pretty scary!”. 

The complete initial list of 2009 10,000 Lakes Festival performers can be found here.