My Summercamp experience

[trapper]

Hi kids,

I haven't been to a festival since 2007. The AllGood festival in West Virginia was my last one. Since then, a lot of crap happened to me. But I marched forward. Things are good. So I wanted to share with all three of you my experiences at Summercamp this year.

I decided to take the early day off and leave for Chillicothe on Thursday morning. The Thursday day pass was an additional 20 bucks. I didn't care since I was flying solo. I packed my shit and headed North.

I got to the site around 2 and set up my camp. Since I was one of the first people there, I got a pretty good spot. Here's a shot of my tent in respect to the second "main" stage, or as I call it the "UM" stage.



After I set up camp, I wandered around to find the good porta-johns. I was at Summercamp in 2005, so not much changed since then. The setup was pretty much the same. But I still made my rounds through the areas to check out the territory. All of the stages were in the same place as the last time I was there. Here's a pic of the main stage before anyone played there:



There were about 20 bands that played on Thursday for the pre-festival stuff. I caught a few of them. More remarkable was that Umphrey's McGee came out on their stage to do a soundcheck. They ended up playing for about an hour. I happened to snap a few pics of them during their warmup. I'll share a few:


OK. Maybe one. It was nice to get in front for the first show. Since nobody was playing on that stage for the day, they had it for the day. After they were done, I just wandered around for the day. I caught a few other bands, but nothing worth talking about. Most of the bands that played on Thursday played through the week anyway. Some of the bands that I heard through the day were The Bridge, Backyard Tire Fire, and Family Groove Company. On the camping stage, I also watched Slippy Larue and The Stone Sugar Shakedown. Not too impressive.

As night fell, I got a bit bored. I decided to make a trek down to the main (moe.) stage. It just so happened that moe. was just starting their soundcheck for Friday. Fortunately, I was one of about 50 people to catch their soundcheck. They played for about an hour. They practiced 4 or 5 of their new songs. People were screaming requests to them like it was an actual show. Dumb people. Anyway, here are a few pics from their soundcheck:








Al announced that moe. would be the on the cover of Relix in August. The photographer was there taking pics during the weekend. Here's a pic of Al announcing their Relix cover:


They were supposed to be photographed in the front of the stage with the crowd behind them. So they ran through the process on Thursday. Saturday night was supposed to be the real thing. I took this pic on Thurs.


There weren't many people there for the soundcheck since the main stage was a good distance away from all of the activity. I was fortunate to catch both Umphrey's and moe. on Thursday. Here's how many people watched the moe. soundcheck:


I decided to call it an early night since I had a long day on Thursday. I went to sleep early. Friday was the beginning of a good weekend. I'll post more later this weekend.

[tymm]

Those are some pretty awesome pics, Trapper. Glad to hear you had a good time. Makes me think I should get out of the house more.

I remember seeing flyers for Backyard Tire Fire in Springfield many years ago. Besides Moe & UM, that's the only band I'd even heard of.

Too bad about the Canadiens. Who are you rooting for now?

[trapper]

Friday 05/28/10

I couldn't sleep too long in the tent with the sun beating down. It was like an oven. I rolled out of the tent around 8am. The music didn't start until 11. I tried to rehydrate from the sweat loss. The first water I grabbed out of the cooler was the lucky water bottle that I had emptied and refilled with rum. I took two huge chugs before realizing that it wasn't water. That was a good way to start the morning.

People started rolling in on Friday morning. My tent area filled up quite rapidly. The people around me seemed pretty nice. I talked to a few people, letting them know that if they saw someone else in my tent, kick them out.

I figured that the crowds would be pretty tough to get more good pictures from up close. But going solo has its benefits. I slid through the crowd pretty easily, getting some good pics throughout the weekend.

The first band I caught at 11 was The Ragbirds. They played on the Starshine stage, which was the 3rd stage. The other two little stages were near the campfire area, and the other was in the woods--the Camping Stage. I didn't watch much on those two stages. Here's a pic of the singer from the Ragbirds:


At 1pm, moe. played one set. They were also scheduled for the late night show on Friday. They played for an hour and a half.






After the show, I donated some money to some charities for raffle tickets. They were giving tons of stuff away. I'm lucky. So I decided that I would have a good chance at winning some stuff over the weekend's festivities. Umphrey's McGee has a charity called USTORM, which funds schools with musical instruments. I stopped by the tent. Ryan Stasik was signing his hats for a donation.


I walked back to the main stage and caught a couple songs from Cornmeal.


They weren't my kind of music. So I walked over to the camping stage to catch a band called Midwest Hype. They are a bit of a ska band. I was really impressed. I stayed for the whole set. I bought a disc and had the guys sign it. They're from Iowa, winning a battle of the bands for the slot to play at Summercamp. Midwest Hype was definitely the best band I heard for the first time. I was hoping to find something new. They played from 6 to 7pm.

Umphrey's McGee started their 1st set of the day at 8pm. They were on fire. Full of energy.






Around 9pm, I walked over to the main stage to catch Gov't Mule. It's always nice to catch Warren Haynes. He's a fantastic guitarist. But the Mule set usually has the same core songs. I normally wouldn't care, but I was really looking forward to the 2nd set of Umphrey's. Mule sounded great, but I wasn't in the mood. It was the first time seeing their new bass player. I can't remember his name.


The second set of Umphrey's was probably the best set of the weekend. The first half of the second set was awesome. Maybe it had to do with my viewing position. Normally, I'm up close. I don't get the full effect of the lights. But standing at a distance, the light show really enhanced the experience.




It's really hard to get good pics from far away at night. I tried my best.

I passed out after the show, which was around midnight. I didn't make it to the late night show. Too tired.

Saturday is next.

[trapper]

Saturday, May 29th

I slept really well Friday night. But the heat of the sun got me out of the tent by 8am. I was smart enough to drink a regular water when I woke up. I hit the john's after the cleaning crew did their job. I knew Saturday was going to be a busy day. And I was still feeling pretty fresh. I probably didn't smell the same by then. I hadn't showered for a couple days, cleaning myself with paper towels and water from the melted ice in the cooler. So refreshing. By Saturday, I think I started smelling like the rest of the people in attendance. In the morning, I noticed that most of my neighbors started to show the wear of the festival without moderation. I guess that's where age and experience is an advantage.

As 11am rolled around, I headed over to the third stage to catch a few songs from The Station.


They were OK. The guitarist was pretty good. Nothing too special. I got a live disc from one of the guys walking through the crowd. I actually stayed for quite a few songs.

I then went over to the Soulshine tent, which was the area where all of the charity/activism people were. At noon, there was a clothing swap. Drop off an item of clothing and take something in return. It was part of the "green team" events. If a person participated in a green event during each day, you were given a raffle ticket for prizes which were given at 6pm. The only catch was that you had to be present to win. So I donated three pairs of pants that I outgrew. I received my green raffle ticket for the day. The girl who was running the tent was kinda pretty, so I talked to her a few times. Unfortunately, I didn't catch her name. She's from Urbana. She was a coordinator for the volunteer/green team.

After unloading my pants at the tent, I went to the main stage to watch a not-so-good band called Rebelution. They were sort of a raggae band composed of a bunch of white guys. I stuck around for maybe two songs and headed back to the Soulshine tent.


1pm. The Ragbirds were playing at the tent. So I stuck around for a few songs. I kinda liked the violin player. She was a cutie.


1:30ish. I then walked over to the second stage and caught a few songs from Backyard Tire Fire. They played on Thursday, too. I heard a few repeats.


At 2:15 Chuck Garvey and "friends" were supposed to play for an hour in the Soulshine tent. So I made my way back. Chuck and Danny Barnes played a whopping three songs in an hour. It was "sponsored" by WhyHunger. The girl from the organization talked for most of the hour. But the songs were really good. Two from Danny's new album-Pizza Box, and Shoot First from Wormwood.




I got behind the guys to snap a few pics. I thought they were pretty cool shots.

Victor Wooten and his band started at 3pm. It was one of the highlights of the weekend. The guy is a bass god. Simply amazing. But more amazing was his 9 year old son who came out and beat on Vic's bass while Vic played rhythm. Unbelievable. Then the kid got behind the kit and didn't miss a beat. I was so impressed.






After that impressive show, I walked back to the main stage and caught a few songs from ALO at 4:30ish.


I went back to camp and relaxed for a bit before the big evening events started. UM and moe. were scheduled to play two sets each. I was filling up on jerky and beer for fuel.

The second half of Saturday is coming next...

[trapper]

Saturday afternoon May 29th

My "green team" drawing was at the Soulshine tent at 6pm sharp. I headed over there to add my name to the pot. There weren't a whole lot of people who showed up. I figured that I had a pretty good chance at winning something. And I did. I ended up winning an autographed frisbee from Umphrey's McGee. Nice score. That reminded me about the USTORM raffle for the day. So I walked over to the USTORM stand to check the raffle numbers. Of my 5 tickets I purchased, I won some autographed pictures of Cornmeal. So I did pretty well with my charity/green efforts for the day. On Friday, I donated 10 cans of food to the Conscience Alliance and received a nice Summercamp poster. I was planning on getting that signed by as many people as I could. But I kept wimping out when I had a chance to ask guys to sign it. So I grew some balls for the rest of the weekend.

After I gathered up my "winnings" for the day, I sat down in the Soulshine tent to watch Al play with the Hot Buttered Rum band. They played a bunch of bluegrass tunes. Hot Buttered Rum is from the Left Coast. I was talking to the guys before they played. We were talking about one of my other favorite bands, New Monsoon. I was told that one of the guys just had a kid. And while I was accepting my frisbee, I asked Al to sign my Summercamp poster. After the acoustic show, I had some of the guys from Hot Buttered Rum sign it.


Around 6:30, I rushed to the main stage to catch Keller Williams, who started at 6pm. The crowd was pretty large.


I didn't think I could make it close to the stage for good pics. I was wrong. It's the benefit of flying solo.


I really enjoy Keller's music. He just came out with a new album with Larry Keel and Larry's wife called Thief. It's a bluegrassy album full of covers which include stuff from Cracker, Amy Winehouse, Presidents of USA, Butthole Surfers...I like it. I saw Keller perform in January at the Pageant. I went with my brother. He even liked it.

I didn't stick around too long for Keller's show since Umphrey's McGee was going to start at 7pm.

The crowd was huge for Umphrey's. I still managed to slide up close for a bit.


Saturday night was game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Blackhawks were playing the Flyers in Chicago. UM are all big sports fans. Andy wore his Hawks jersey.


I was cheering for the Flyers. After the game started, they announced scores of the game. Each time, Joel would sound the horn. It kinda made me sick. At least I knew what the score was. Warren also texted me with the final score.




moe. was set to perform at 8pm on the main stage. UM played their first set until 8:15. So I went to my tent for a breather before heading to the main stage.


Somehow, I managed to work my way up front for moe. for the first set. I knew it would be impossible to stay there for the whole night. And I wanted to catch UM's second set which started at 9pm. moe. debuted about 5 new songs throughout the weekend. Fortunately, I heard all of them on Thursday night during their soundcheck. They sounded pretty good with a real crowd. Not all of them were scorchers. But it's always nice to hear new tunes from them.






After moe. finished their first set at 9:15, I walked back to the second stage to catch UM's second set. By this time, I was too tired to even try to make it to the front. So I sat back and listened to the music while enjoying the light show. These guys just rock, pure and simple.


I really can't remember too much about the second set. I know I went back to my tent and had a few beverages before heading back to moe.'s second set on the main stage. Once again, I was too tired to battle the crowd to get up front. I got as close as I wanted to and sat down for the evening. The light show was crazy. I couldn't believe my eyes. It's really hard to capture a light show in a picture, but I tried. On Saturday night, juggling Umphrey's with moe., it was a wonderful time. I was having a really great time.


I knew I was on the brink of passing out from hunger/heat/beer, so I wandered near the exit area to catch the remaining songs of moe.'s set. Actually, I can't remember if I stayed the whole time. I did take a few pics.


moe. finished at midnight. And I was cashed, too. I knew I had another huge day ahead of me. Plus, sleeping in was not an option in the oven tent. I skipped the late night campfire jam with Hot Buttered Rum. And I had no intentions to try to get into the barn for the late night show with Pretty Lights and STS9. Sleep was needed.

At 4am, I heard a siren. I couldn't figure out what it was, or where I was. Then I realized that it was the late night crowd exiting the barn from the late night shows. I'm getting too old for that late night stuff. There's enough good music at festivals during the day. Although, I do regret not getting a late night pass for Friday's show, which was The New Mastersounds and moe. If you haven't heard The New Mastersounds yet, try them. Most of their music is instrumental 70's style funk/bluesy stuff. They were scheduled to perform on Sunday. When they were announced to play at Summercamp, I bought my ticket.

Overall, Saturday was full of great music. I walked a ton of miles and got blisters on my toes. The weather was great and I was hoping for a repeat for Sunday.

Looking at the schedule for Sunday, I was really looking forward to the second stage acts. I was going to have a chance to catch The New Mastersounds, along with Zappa plays Zappa, G. Love, and more Umphrey's. That's worth admission right there.

[trapper]

Sunday May 30th

Sunday morning started just like the other days, hot. I woke up early. By Sunday, most of my camping neighbors looked like zombies. People were packing up, getting ready to leave after the long, hot day. I drank a water for breakfast, and was ready to rock. I also needed a shower. Badly.

I started the morning by buying some more raffle tickets for the USTORM charity. I was told that the drawing was at 5:30pm, and I had to be there to claim my prizes. I made a note of it. My next goal was to get a green raffle ticket for the day. I wasn't sure how I was going to pull that off. I really wanted to win some more crap to hang on my wall at home.

11am started the music on the 3rd stage. I caught a few tunes from Grooveatron. I heard their music before. They were at Summercamp '05, the last time I was there (with the ex).


I did a lot more walking through the day, trying to gather autographs, buying stuff for the kids, eating, and things like that.

At noon, I watched several songs from That 1 Guy. He had some kind of pipe that he made music from. It was interesting. It would have been better to see him perform in a smaller setting. But he was very entertaining.


I went back to my tent for a while. My neighbors were packing their stuff. They couldn't haul all of their stuff in one trip, so I stayed by their stuff while they made their trek back to their car. That was an hour of my day gone. Fortunately, I didn't miss anything. And I would have appreciated it if I needed someone to watch my stuff while I walked back to my car. It worked out well.

They picked up their last batch of camping stuff just in time for me to catch the day set for Umphrey's at 2pm.




By now, you're probably wondering if anyone else was there, since most of my pics are close to the stage. Well, here's a pic of the UM crowd as I walked away:


There were quite a few people there.

Umphrey's left the stage around 3:15pm. The New Mastersounds hit the stage around 4pm. I caught almost all of their show. So good. I had to miss a few songs because I was in a raffle to win an autographed guitar at the Soulshine tent. With my luck, I couldn't miss the drawing. The New Mastersounds are awesome.




They were the only band that I was front center for most of the show. Usually, I stand to the side of the stage so I can easily exit.


Unfortunately, I had to exit early from the New Mastersounds to catch my raffle drawing for the guitar. When I got to the Soulshine tent, Hot Buttered Rum was getting ready to play. It was announced that the drawing would happen after they performed. So I walked back to the New Mastersounds set.

I caught the end of Hot Buttered Rum in the tent, making it back just in time for the raffle drawing.


As I was listening to the band play, a guy next to me was involved with the green team. He had raffle tickets for the 6pm drawings. I asked him if I could have one, and he gave one to me. So I was set to win something. I knew it.

I didn't win the autographed guitar. That didn't matter. That drawing finished just in time to walk to the USTORM tent for my 5:30 raffle. I had 10 tickets for the raffle. They had tons of prizes. I won 3. That raffle lasted until 6pm, which was just in time to do the green raffle. There were only 13 people who showed up for the drawing, and they had about 30 prizes. They drew a bunch of names and then announced that the grand prize for the night would be two passes to sit on the main stage for moe.'s second set. Well...
Although there were still tons of prizes to give away, they went to the grand prize since there was only one name left in the hat. Yep, I won.
I sat on the stage for moe.'s second set on Sunday night.

When they first told me that I won, they said that it was for the first set. After working it out with some of the people, I figured on the second set. I was pumped.

While all of this was happening, I missed Zappa plays Zappa. I guess that's the price I had to pay. Then, I ended up missing the first set of moe.

While I was waiting for my golf cart ride backstage for the second set, I decided to sneak in a few songs from G Love and Special Sauce. I like these guys.


I saw the cute girl from scene 27 and asked her if she would like to go with me to watch the show from the stage. She said that she had to work. 4 days without a shower...I couldn't do too much to convince her to go.

Anyway...I got my golf cart ride through the festival grounds to the backstage area. I asked my "escort" what I was allowed to do. She said that there was a beer tent, air conditioned bathrooms, and food that was available. She also said that she would be with me for the evening to make sure that I didn't get out of hand. It just so happened that when we got out of the golf cart, I saw one of my old friends from Asheville talking with Al, sitting on a couch. So I walked up to them and started in on a conversation. My "escort" sort of vanished.

When it was time to walk up the steps to the stage, I had to point to my escort for the security guard. After that, it was cake. I enjoyed the second set of the last night of Summercamp on the stage with my favorite band.

I couldn't have written a story any better. Luckily, I was able to live it.














The End.

[trapper]

So after the show, I was hanging out backstage. At Summercamp, it's more like "backwoods". I got to talk to my hero Chuck for about 20 minutes. I told him that I had won a raffle to sit on the stage for the second set. He said that he was happy that someone could actually take advantage of their winnings. He told me about the charity auction that moe. had in which the winner was able to spend an afternoon at Summercamp with Al. Golf cart rides, checking out music, just hanging out--whatever. A couple days before Summercamp, the moe. organization received a phone call from the winner's parents. The kid was unable to make it to Summercamp, and they were wondering if they could get their money back. The kid ended up getting arrested and went to jail, so he couldn't make it to Summercamp. Instead, he got a free ride in the wagon.

Chuck didn't know if there was a second runner up to take the kid's place. And he wasn't sure if they received their money back.

The beer tent ran out of free beer. So I used the nice, air conditioned john for the last time and decided to walk up to the red barn to see if there was some way I could get in for the late night Umphrey's show. The Ragbirds were playing (again) at the campfire stage. I tried to get behind the gates to have the violinist to sign my poster. But the security people told me that I couldn't go past the gate without a ticket to the late show. Then, one of the security girls asked me if I wanted to talk to the girl from The Ragbirds. I told the security person that I wanted her to sign my poster. The security person told the girl that I wanted to talk to her. So the Ragbird girl came over to me and signed my poster.

I didn't get in for the Umphrey's show. I stayed for a few Ragbirds songs and went back to my tent. I was starting to feel the effects of the stout I was drinking backstage.

I woke up around 7am on Monday. I made two trips to my car to load it. By the time I woke up, the second stage was already gone. I guess they worked all night to take it down. A lot of people left Sunday night. But fighting the crowd on Monday morning was nothing.

About 6 miles down the road, it started raining. Hard. I really lucked out, getting all of my gear packed before the rain hit.

When I pulled into the driveway at home, it was raining. I emptied my pockets in the garage and stood in the rain. It was my first shower in 4 days. There were white stripes down my legs where the water was running down. I guess I was pretty dirty.

About 2 hours after I unpacked my car, my three kids were dropped off at my house. I get them for the summer.

[tymm]

Good Lord, Trapper! I want your autograph! You're the Hunter S. Thompson of the mtscally boards. Except you're a photojournalist as well. And a damn fine one. Great pictures!

Just when I was thinking that I wouldn't want you rooting for my favourite sports teams you went and one the stage pass. Good for you for joining the Green Team too. I guess one good turn really does deserve another.

Sounds like Keller Williams has an eclectic taste for covers. I really want to hear The New Mastersounds now. Did moe. start dressing like OPW after they broke up?

[trapper]

I'm glad you like the pics. I have a shitload of concert pics. The sad part is that I'm usually the only person who looks at them. I knew that some of you guys would enjoy them.

The downside of taking pics at shows is that I sometimes don't focus too much on the music. At the time, it sucks. But when I pull out one of my older photo albums, I realize that it's worth it.

When I get some time, I'll go through my files and pull some other crap out and post it here. I should have plenty of good pics on my computer.

I was really surprised at how many pictures came out clear. I took over 1000 pics on an 8 gig memory card. Festivals are great sources to get good pics, since a lot of the performances are during the day. I have some good AllGood pics on here somewhere.
It took me years to get a good dark picture with blue or red lights. Now I realize that it's just luck. I don't have a top of the line camera. My most recent camera is a Fuji Finepix S1500, 10 megapixels with a 12x zoom. My previous camera was a Fuji Finepix S700, 7.1 megapixel with a 10x zoom.

Warren, sorry I didn't go into detail about the music on my story. Good music is subjective. I had high hopes for The New Mastersounds, since I had never seen them. They delivered. I really like Umphrey's most of the time. They didn't disappoint. The second set of Friday's show was probably the highlight of the weekend. I can't explain why. I had a conversation with one of my supervisors about music earlier this week. I mentioned to him about listening to the same song at different times. Sometimes your mood and emotions reflect through the music that is playing at the time. One day, the song is the best song ever. The next day, it's crap. Perhaps Umphrey's played the perfect set of songs to reflect my mood at the time. David Fricke wrote some of the liner notes in the Nirvana album about the Unplugged show. He said that he never watched it because he was there. I'm sure that his mood at the time of the performance was so strong that he doesn't want to ruin that experience by re-living it through video. His mood may be different the second time. I'm trying to make a relevant connection, but I lost my train of thought. Maybe you know what I'm trying to say.