Hampton Phish – 2009 Hampton, VA Phish Video and Audio Clips

Words by: Amy Ravit Korin | Images by: Chad Smith & Dave Vann

North Coast Music Festival :: 09.03.10-09.05.10 :: Union Park :: Chicago, IL

To see Dave Vann’s massive gallery pop over here.

To see Chad Smith’s massive gallery pop over here.

Pretty Lights by Dave Vann

Hippies, hipsters and hip-hop fans united in Chicago’s aptly named Union Park to celebrate Summer’s Last Stand over Labor Day weekend, making the inaugural North Coast Music Festival one of the most celebrated festivals of the summer.

Independently produced, the North Coast Music Festival featured an eclectic lineup of local and international talent, including hip-hop headliners De La Soul, Lupe Fiasco and distant relatives Nas & Damian Jr. Gong Marley, electronic artists The Chemical Brothers, Paul Van Dyk and Laidback Luke in addition to hometown jam bands Umphrey’s McGee and Philadelphia-based Disco Biscuits. The Red Bull Stage featured up and coming Chicago bands, while bigger Chicago comers like Future Rock, Van Ghost, Loyal Divide and Prob Cause also earned spots on the main stages.

From their use of social media to promote and execute the event, to the on-site live graffiti gallery and art installations, and the iClips live stream, North Coast Music Festival organizers plugged into music lovers’ hearts and minds and managed to find the sweet spot where hip-hop, electronica and jam bands overlap – both on and off line.

With options for every set of star-struck eyes, you’ll hear about different North Coast Festival highlights from every person you ask, but there is no denying that notable collaborations occurred around every corner. You can’t get much better than a Chicago skyline view, three sunny September days and spontaneous songs. But it did! Jay Electronica invited 50+ fans onto the North Stage during his set, dancing and dropping rhymes with them. On the Groupon Stage, De La Soul broke out hits “Me, Myself and I” and “Buddy” and then invited their hip-hop rapper buddy Dres from Black Sheep onstage for a guest performance of “The Choice Is Yours.” And to top Sunday off, Brendan Bayliss of Umphrey’s McGee joined The Disco Biscuits to close out the festival on the Coast Stage.

Behind the scenes, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Damian Marley held a Peace Summit, and finally the Sunday night after party at The Bottom Lounge served double duty as both a celebration of Chicago talent and one of the Festival’s swan songs. Joel Cummins and Brendan Bayliss from Umphrey’s McGee joined Van Ghost for “Mary Jane,” and later Umphrey’s McGee reunited with original drummer Mike Mirro to cover Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” Chicago was singing the blues when Mike Berg, Jennifer Hartswick and all of Van Ghost joined fellow Chicago rockers Umphrey’s McGee for a soulful rendition of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” ending the weekend on a perfect note!

“This weekend exceeded my expectations as both a promoter and as a performer,” says Berg. “Being part of North Coast’s launch team and having the honor to share the stage with some of my favorite electronic & rock and roll artists has been a once in a lifetime experience. Well, until we do it again next year!”

Grace Potter by Dave Vann

Fellow event organizer Mike Raspatello had lofty ambitions when he joined up with several other independent promoters to conceptualize and throw this three-day festival, and this weekend’s success surpassed them all. “I think it finally hit a few of us when we looked out into the crowd and saw all the hands in the air, and everyone dancing,” says Raspatello. “We created a festival for the likeminded and diverse fans of Chicago, and they rewarded us and themselves by showing up!” Best of all, Raspatello confirms, “Planning is underway for North Coast Music Festival 2011!”

With over 650 live tweets sent from @NorthCoastFest and a mid-festival Tweet-up held at 6 pm on Saturday, North Coast Fest engaged an estimated 50,000 festival attendees and the online audience in real time all weekend long. Besides communicating essential information, including vast schedule logistics (65 acts on four stages in 2 days), @NorthCoastFest shared funky fan photos, recruited volunteers in real time, and even went onstage to capture the crowd rocking out!

As North Coast Music Festival’s live tweeter, I ran from stage to stage (read: outlet to outlet) charging my iPhone4 and interacting with festival fans via live tweets and Facebook updates all weekend long, at all hours. As an avid concertgoer, and one who follows along on couch-tour when I can’t make a show, I wanted to give fans both onsite and at home a personalized and informative experience while engaging them in a way I know that bigger brands cannot. People love to get a shout out from brands and bands they care about, and I wanted to capture the palpable excitement in the air, connect and unite fans and build lasting relationships. [Check out Amy's handiwork at her site].

The weather cooperated, the talent brought the heat, and this first year festival made people feel warm and fuzzy by sharing the North Coast Fest excitement in real time. There is no question that North Coast Music Festival is now on the map.

Continue reading for Dave Vann’s massive gallery…

9/3/10 – 9/5/10 – North Coast Music Festival @ Union Park (Chicago, IL) View Photos

Continue reading for Chad Smith’s massive gallery…

9/3/10 – 9/5/10 – North Coast Music Festival @ Union Park (Chicago, IL) View Photos

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Shonen Knife

When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles
concert
- Kurt Cobain

Legendary Japanese pop-punk, all-girl band Shonen Knife kick off their U.S. tour on September 8 in Seattle, WA. The band has also
just announced that they will be playing mini sets and signing autographs at the Amoeba Records stores in San
Francisco (September 12 at 2pm) and Los Angeles (September 14 at 5pm). For more info visit: www.amoeba.com.

Wed 09/08 Seattle, WA Tractor Tavern

Thu 09/09 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret
Fri 09/10 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
Sat 09/11 Oakland, CA Uptown Night Club
Sun 09/12 San Francisco, CA Bottom Of The Hill

Mon 09/13 San Diego, CA The Casbah
Tue 09/14 Los Angeles, CA Spaceland
Fri 09/17 Austin, TX Red 7
Sat 09/18 Dallas, TX The Loft

Sun 09/19 Kansas City, MO The Record Bar

Mon 09/20 Northfield, MN The Cave
Tue 09/21 Chicago, IL Schubas Tavern
Wed 09/22 Kalamazoo, MI The Strutt
Thu 09/23 Cincinnati, OH Midpoint Music Festival Grounds
Fri 09/24 Pittsburgh, PA 31st Street Pub
Sat 09/25 New York, NY Asia Society
Sun 09/26 Washington, DC Rock And Roll Hotel

Tue 09/28 Brooklyn, NY Knitting Factory
Thu 09/30 Montreal, QC Le Cabaret Du Mile End

Fri 10/01 Toronto, ON The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern

Sat 10/02 Buffalo, NY Mohawk Place

Shonen Knife
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Words & Images by: L. Paul Mann

Smashing Pumpkins :: 09.04.10 :: Lobero Theatre :: Santa Barbara, CA

9/4/10 – Smashing Pumpkins & Bad City @ Lobero Theatre (Santa Barbara, CA) View Photos

There was surreal mash up of cultures at the historic Lobero Theatre last Saturday night. The tiny 680-seat theater is the oldest continuously operating performance hall in California. The venue was founded in 1873 and is a state landmark with a rich history of stage, screen, and musical performances. Today, the Lobero is run much the same way as it was 100 years ago, but by a non-profit organization. The usher staff is composed mostly of retired, well-dressed volunteers who maintain antiquated rules of etiquette. Patrons are personally seated only during breaks in a performance. The crowd is expected to stay in their rather small, stodgy old seats for the entire performance. Wealthy, mostly elderly patrons rewarded for their support of the non-profit theatre with season tickets seem to be happy with the old school etiquette. The system usually works for most types of performances booked at the theatre, like live jazz bands and folk singers, but every once in awhile a rock band is booked to play the intimate space and all hell breaks loose. My Morning Jacket played a marathon four concerts at the venue several years ago and fans were dancing in the aisles and on their seats all night long.

Bad City by L. Paul Mann

So, the announcement that Smashing Pumpkins would be playing the little venue came as a great surprise to most rock fans. The opening act for the September 4th show quickly established the mood of the evening and showed a readiness to unleash a rocking barrage of music on unsuspecting fans. Bad City, a young new band of rockers from Chicago with their first album released just a few weeks ago, exploded onstage. Handpicked by Head Pumpkin Billy Corgan to open the show, the group is composed of energetic teenage rockers with a collective old soul. Sounding like a veteran hair band from the 80s, the band launched a traditional rock assault on the audience. Led by charismatic lead singer Josh Serek, the band joked and laughed with the audience between songs. Serek, the last member to join the group, actually hails from Temecula, and his sleepy Southern California wine town seems to be spawning an inordinate amount of successful rockers of late. Other members of the band also bantered back and forth with the crowd. One guy asked “if the people sitting in the front were there for the Kenny G light jazz,” playing into the evening’s mash-up between irreverent rock and the world of old school manners. Bad City boasts a double guitar threat in Max Perenchio and Tom Schleiter battling in a six-string war on many songs. Most of the band members were solid back-up singers as well. Serek quipped on the last song of their solid set that as long as the band’s members are alive, rock and roll will never die. Considering how young they are that means rock has a good long road ahead.

Billy Corgan and his new Pumpkins sauntered onstage after intermission and continued the light banter about the restrictive, reticent atmosphere. Fresh from their performance, the Saturday before as headliners for the Sunset Strip Music Festival [see review & pics here] in front of over 30,000 people, the band looked surprisingly relaxed and engaged in the tiny venue. With most of their sound and lighting equipment crammed onto the small stage, the band immediately began to assault the audience with a wall of exploding audio and visual stimulation. The blinding lights and strobes of all shapes and sizes actually forced some fans to don sunglasses.

Billy Corgan by L. Paul Mann

In the lighting chaos, Corgan screamed and wailed in his trademark voice and attacked his guitar like a madman. The new Pumpkins, looking surprisingly like the old Pumpkins, followed his lead in a frenzy of sound. The new members include Jeff Schroeder on guitar, who gave Corgan a run for his money in guitar battle throughout the set. Nicole Fiorentino is a veteran rock bass player who has played with numerous bands including Veruca Salt. Young drumming prodigy Michael Byrne rounds out the new lineup.

Mixing old songs with new, the Pumpkins tore through a nearly two-hour set. Opening with a Middle Eastern tinged new song titled “Astral Plane,” the band quickly established that they could live up to their historic pedigree. Other new songs included “Freak,” “A Song for a Son” and “My Love Is Winter.” But it was the old classics that got the crowd excited and out of their tiny, wooden seats. “Today” had fans screaming with anticipation. An awkward moment came when the band played the classic “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” As he has done countless times, Corgan paused and pointed at the audience to sing the familiar chorus – “Despite all my rage/ I am still just a rat in a cage” – but a seemingly clueless Santa Barbara audience stood silent and bewildered like the proverbial deer in the Pumpkins’ headlights. The feisty Corgan, however, showing just how relaxed he was onstage, didn’t get flustered and sarcastically took a moment to teach the audience the lyrics. He began with an ironic, slow annunciation of the chorus, slowly speeding it up until he devolved into a guitar wailing and screaming frenzy.

By the time the band launched into the 1993 hit “Cherub,” the crowd had fully come alive, sensing their good fortune at being invited to Corgan’s little party at the Lobero. That classic song devolved into a salute to the sixties – a sound that Corgan has admired and incorporated into his recent side project Spirit in the Sky – first playing a Hendrix jam of the “Star Spangled Banner,” then morphing into the beginning of Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” This evolved into a classic drum solo, giving Byrne a chance to showcase his incredible talents. The band returned to play a searing encore to the main set. Finally, after three more tunes and more friendly chatter, Corgan thanked the crowd for attending the event and the sleepy ushers slowly drew back the exit curtains. It was truly a surreal scene perhaps only possible in Santa Barbara

Setlist
Astral Planes, Ava Adore, Drown, As Rome Burns, A Song for a Son, Today, Eye, Bullet With Butterfly Wings, United States (with Star Spangled Banner and Moby Dick interludes), My Love Is Winter Perfect, Cherub Rock, That’s the Way (My Love Is), Tonight, Tonight, Stand Inside Your Love, Tarantula
E: Disarm, Freak, Zero

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