Summer Camp Music Fest 2008: Funkified
Parliament Funkadelic and the Roots liven up the Chillicothe, Illinois jam band festival
By Genevieve Diesing
Published: May 28th, 2008 | 12:05pm
Day One
Friday, May 23
It was the first day of Summer Camp Music Festival and the 400-acre Three Sisters Park in Chillicothe, Illinois, is flooded with concertgoers, most of them planning on camping for the weekend. Through intermittent rain, thousands of folks pitched their tents to the sounds of such bands as the Chicago Afrobeat Project, Future Rock, the Lee Boys, and improvisational jam band moe., a heavy hitter this year with no less than five scheduled performances throughout the three day event.
Bluegrass pop trio the Avett Brothers — only two are actual brothers — hit the Sunshine stage at 5 p.m.; the arena reserved for the festival’s more prolific acts (where the Flaming Lips and Parliament Funkadelic will later play). Hailing from North Carolina, the group bursted into “Shame” from 2007's Emotionalism (Ramseur), and their light folk harmonies pulled a crowd to the stage despite the swampy underfoot.
By 7 p.m., it was sunny again and most campers have finished unpacking. They came out in droves for Girl Talk, where DJ Gregg Gillis tears into hits from 2006’s Night Ripper (Illegal Art) and his upcoming Wild Peace IV: Feed The Animals, Raise The Dead (Illegal Art). Within minutes, dozens of fans dancing were onstage, which seems to be turning into a tradition at Gillis’ shows. As the solo DJ act at a fest mostly comprised of jam bands, Gillis whipped the crowd into a frenzy of high energy not to be seen until the Roots took the same stage the next day. He reciprocated his warm reception by leaning over his monitor and high-kicking backwards in the air.
Just as Girl Talk was wrapping up, Umphrey’s McGee began the first of two sets for the night at the Moonshine stage at 8 p.m., which is set at the valley of a steep hill and rivals the Sunshine stage in size. Across the park, Moon Taxi also began. The psychedelic rock group played at the tiny Camping stage, which was nestled in the woods and surrounded by tents all of 10 feet away. The Nashville-based group turned out a tight set, distinguishing its increasingly familiar folky-jam sound with two competing electric guitars.
The arena probably would not have drawn much of a crowd after 9 p.m. anyway, because that’s when the Flaming Lips arrived at the Sunshine stage. The band was the only act playing for the first time all day, and definitely captured the overwhelmingly large audience’s attention: The stage offered so many diversions it was difficult to decide where to look. There was someone walking around onstage wearing a suit of two enormous hands, as well as a giant alien and several men dressed in red superhero costumes. Most captivating, however, was the enormous convex image of singer Wayne Coyne’s face that’s thrown from a camera near the microphone, reflecting on the audience.
The bizarre, other-worldish setting fit the Lips’ characteristic layered and spacey sounds. After a slowed, a cappella version of the 2002’s Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (Warner Bros.) title track, Coyne delved into political territory. “We’ve gotta get those fucking Republicans out of the White House,” he said to uproarious applause. “There are a bunch of people that should be here that are overseas fighting that fucking war.”
The band then plunged straight into “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” from 2006’s At War With The Mystics (Warner Bros.). “If you could blow up the world with a flick of a switch/would you do it?” Coyne sang. The audience cheered the chorus back in unison: “Yeah yeah yeah!”
The Lips’ 90-minute set became increasingly poignant as they revisited favorites from 1999’s The Soft Bulletin (Warner Bros.), like “Do You Realize?” As they played, enormous billows of confetti sprayed into the air and glitter under the stage lights. The effect was dazzling.
Umphrey’s McGee ended the night with a second performance on the Moonshine stage, finishing with a breathtaking cover of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” The song was the Indiana-based group’s encore, and by the time they played it (around midnight) many campers were listening from the comfort of their tents. The sextet is considered by some to be the ultimate jam group — it’s known for its onstage improvisation — but the drawn-out interludes seemed to have a lulling effect, especially after the Lips’ high-energy set. With a third and final performance for Saturday, however, they were far from done.
Day Two
Saturday, May 24
Saturday offered two things in abundance — continuously long jam sets and sun. The combination made for bright spirits and dedicated crowds at the Moonshine stage for Cornmeal at 2 p.m. The bluegrass quintet had the crowd tapping their feet to cheerful folk tunes, with fiddler Allie Kral stealing the spotlight.
Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band met its fans at the Starshine stage at 3:30 p.m. and burst into tunes from its recent collection of gospel covers and its previous album, Big Damn Nation (Family Owned Records). Fresh from a gig in Memphis, the rural blues band from Indiana came a long way to return to this year’s Summer Camp. Rev. Josh Peyton (ordained online), his wife Breezy Peyton (or “Washboard Breezy” for her signature instrument), and brother/drummer Jamye Peyton sold most of their belongings to go on the tour.
So it’s only fitting that the Big Damn Band’s performance conjured up similar feelings of passionate abandon in its audiences. Breezy ferociously attacked her washboard and bobbed her head as The Rev. hoisted his '30s-era Dobro into the air, picked at the strings, gritted his teeth, and curled his nose. The same freewheeling spirit that prompted the group to take a chance on a hitchhiker during last year’s tour (“It turned out to be the worst-case scenario”) was present in Saturday’s carefree, infectious, even humorous performance.
“I’m not religious, but there’s something about gospel songs that sound so good,” The Rev. declared. He charmed the crowd with his visceral performances and made tracks from gospel album sound feverishly unholy. The fast-paced “Your Cousin’s On Cops,” about Breezy seeing her relative on the reality show, was also a crowd pleaser.Backstage, Breezy confided that the group would finally have a short break from touring after its next gig in St. Louis, something “we don’t often get to do,” she said. Yet even as the Big Damn Band’s star climbs (the group just finished recording another album, The Big Fam Damily), the band still loves to tour. They are, after all, a family.
Fans crammed together to get down to G Love & Special Sauce at the Moonshine Stage at 6 p.m. Though they’ve visibly aged a little, their unmistakable, almost indefinable blues/hip-hop sound was still youthful and catchy. G Love kept a smile on his face as he turned out a steady, even groove, alternating from harmonica to microphone and guitar. Unfortunately, though the 75-minute set was upbeat and smooth, the vibe melted into the plethora of instrumental jams that began to overwhelm the tone of the festival.
Fans could not have been more ready for the Roots' arrival on the Sunshine stage at 7 p.m. The energy was electric when vocalist Black Thought began to rap. His crisp and clear delivery was a breath of fresh air from the hypnotic grooves that dominated the fest, and his fierce connection with the audience had everyone crunking. The Roots team was in prime form, performing tracks from their latest album, Rising Down (DefJam) that sounded almost better live. The albums’ political tone came to the forefront during the group’s chilling cover of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War”: “You put a gun in my hand/and you hide from my eyes/and you turn and run farther/when the fast bullets fly.” The rich set was peppered with old favorites like “My Seed” and a '90s medley that included Salt-N-Pepa and Wu-Tang Clan. The crowd tossed volleyballs back and forth as it swayed and danced.
After the show, insistent fans showered the group with applause and begged for an encore, and the group tossed drumsticks into the crowd. Black Thought even tore off his shirt and lassoed it into the audience.
O.A.R., described by a fan as “music you should see while holding hands with your girlfriend” followed the Roots on the Sunshine stage at 9 p.m. and eased the crowd back into a low-key mood with its melodic rock. The Maryland-based band, which formed in high school and is still churning out albums 12 years later, won over the evening crowd with its languid melodies, including a cover of Bob Marley’s “Trenchtown Rock.”
After an hour break from its 75-minute-long set at 8 p.m., moe. returned to the Moonshine stage at 10:15 p.m. to play for an hour and 45 minutes. The jam band deserved kudos for endurance, but not for excitement, as the group’s improvised guitar solos tended to drag on. Fortunately, the band’s penchant for spontaneity popped up in places besides instrumental experiments — this time in the form of surprise guest G Love. The Special Sauce singer was welcomed with warm applause, and helped the band cap off a long night.
Day Three
Sunday, May 25
On the last day of Summer Camp Music Festival, the bands played at the same fervent pace they had for the past two days. Concertgoers were out in full force to capture every last moment, and as the weather shifted from overcast to sweltering, fans were fully committed to getting their ticket’s worth. The arguably most anticipated act of the weekend, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, was set to play at 4 p.m., and excited rumblings circulated through the morning.
The bands that were lucky enough to play before, and not directly after Parliament put up stiff competition at their respective stages Sunday morning. Blues rock group Hot Buttered Rum played cheerfully to scattered crowds on the Moonshine stage, and across the park at the Starshine stage, the Macpodz turned out a slightly more flavorful set than their self described “electro jazz” genre might indicate. The Ann Arbor, Michigan, quintet layered a trumpet, bass, flute, bongos, and keyboards, into its Latin-tinged set.
Even more impressive was the surprise genius of hip hop/funk band the Uniphonics, hidden away at the Camping stage also at 2 p.m. Together for only a year, the little-known Iowa City group gave some of the festival’s more established entertainment a run for their money. The group featured a drummer who simultaneously rapped, all the while commanding an unswerving stage presence.
Though some may consider it unlucky to not only be a band that precedes one of the greatest funk bands of all time, Parliament Funkadelic, but to be competing in the same genre, Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk was still an apt opener for the legendary group. The New Orleans quintet is the real thing, and their performance Sunday proved it. The group’s classic '70s sound, slightly jammed and mellowed, provided a continuous groove that settled deep into the crowd.
People lined up immediately after Dumpstaphunk’s set at the Sunshine stage to wait for Parliament, and audience members were crammed up against the gates by the time the band appeared. The 20-piece group resembled a party onstage, with wild pimp costumes (as well as one member dressed in just a giant diaper), sexy dancers, and a dramatic opening sequence.
The 20-minute instrumental introduction featured a prologue narrated by one of the back-up singers: “We’re in a state of mental diarrhea, talking shit a mile a minute,” she said. “[This is] a musical and mental bowel movement, the prune juice of the mind.”
The cluster of onstage characters then segued into Cosmic Sloth, followed by a soulful and beautiful number by singer Belita Woods. Fifty minutes into the band’s set, George Clinton appeared onstage.
The crowd, which seemed to have been in a constant state of screams and applause from the onset, became uproarious when Clinton stepped out. The elderly performer, — who is credited, along with Parliament, with raising the bar for all funk and R&B performers in the ’70s — still had magnificent stage presence. He simply raised his arms and the audience screamed even louder.
Throughout the set, Clinton sang little, but paused to rap in his gravelly voice: “It would be ridiculous/to think we are new to this/ we do this/this is what we do,” he repeated. Marijuana wafted heavily through the crowd and joints were passed freely. Clinton picked up what could have been a marijuana cigarette that someone had tossed onstage and took a puff, to the crowd’s apparent ecstasy.
The two-hour-long set seemed to pass within minutes, thanks to the spontaneous stage antics (like a costumed “Pimp-off” and a torso-twisting gymnastic dancer) and the fluid mesh of music, glitz, and generally awe-inspiring star presence. The crowd begged unsuccessfully for an encore, and didn’t budge until stage hands started hauling the musical equipment away.
Although fans had an hour to recover before returning to the same stage to catch the New Pornographers, the Vancouver band stepped out to a virtually empty arena. “We would like to thank Parliament for opening for us,” singer Carl “A.C.” Newman joked. Though only the Pornographers’ skeleton crew was present and the grounds were littered with more garbage than fans, the group still churned out a flawless and energetic set. The group warmed up with “Use It” and the crowd slowly grew. After an unsuccessful attempt at covering the Violent Femmes’ “Blister in the Sun” (vocalist and keyboardist Kathryn Calder didn’t seem to be digging it) the group returned to hits from 2007’s Challengers (Madator). The evening wound down earlier than previous day’s with moe.’s last set at 8:30 p.m., as campers prepared to leave. After a weekend so rich and diverse, the only consolation for many departing concert-goers was the resolution to do it all again next year.
Issue #35
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