Summer Camp (Part II)

The second day, Saturday, started early around 10 am-ish. The sun was beating down super hot on our tent and I could stay asleep any longer. SVG and I woke up and pretty much went right to Jess' tent to cool our asses off. After putzing around all morning, I headed to the Port-O-John and, like a moth to a flame, I was distracted by the funky jams coming from the Sunshine Stage. I zombie-like walked over there and stood and listened to a good 35 minutes of a band the Family Groove Company. It was so funky and awesome. I was immediately a fan. The second song I saw them play was The Beatles' "Blackbird." It was awesome. Later they brought out Allie Kral from Cornmeal and played "Bennie and the Jets." It rocked. I didn't know anything else by them, but I loved every minute of it. The next band on the stage was Cornmeal so I stuck around. It was pretty decent and very folky rock. SVG and I lost some interest in it and went to meeet Jess and Zach over at the Campfire Stage to see Brainchild. They were killer. They had an early, unpolished UM feel to them. Apparently, they cover UM songs from time to time, whcih is unheard to me! The had this hilarious song, "Moon Party Dance Party." Some lyrics were: 'You have Keith Moon, we have Keith Earth. You have Looney Tunes, we have lunar tunes.' And in the middle of the song they played the Sesame Street theme and the Fraggle Rock (!) theme. Sweet new band. After that set, we shot over to U-Melt who was also very good. Their cover was Zappa's "Dancing Fool." I can definitely see myself listening to more of them. We only caught a mere one or two songs of Les Claypool before we went to wait for Umphrey's. Slight disappointment. But oh well.

The main event: Umphrey's began playing around 7 pm. The first set was pretty good. There was a nice sit in from Claypool himself in a monkey mask on Mulche's Odyssey on the whamola (it's like a stand up bass, kinda, look it up).

But the second set was the effin shit. The set break was quiet as everyone went to go see moe. play. Fuck that. We smizzed a bizz with some dude in front of us. This guy literally pass out from exhaustion during BOTH UM shows. And I was right by him both times. Scary shit. I thought he died. As the sun set by the stage, anticipation crept in. I started to get super antzy. We met this awesome girl who gave us glowsticks and a pot caramel. Delicious and sticky. There was also some awesome dude with a milk carton mask who was just my same sense of humor. Good dude. Did I mention I was tripping my balls off the entire time? Anyways, the music began with a sick 1348 (or was it 3x? hehe) followed by Triple Wide (really) and a The Floor that was off the charts. Felix Pastorious came out and dazzled the whole crowd with his boss bass during Bright Lights. A huge hightlight of this set was the fact that fire works were going off during 1348, Miss Tinkle's, and Wizard Burial Ground. It was sick!

After that sick shit happened, we went to moe. for a few songs and wandered and hung out with Jess for a bit, only to eventually catch the last part of moe.'s set which was pretty good. They are no UM though. Here is the whole set, if you care:

Set One
2nd Self, Spires > JaJunk, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft > Red Tape, Mulche's Odyssey^

Set Two
1348$, The Triple Wide, The Floor, Bright Lights^^, Sad But True / Clint Eastwood, Miss Tinkle's Overture$

Encore
Cemetery Walk > Wizard Burial Ground$

Notes
Sunshine Stage
^ with Les Claypool on whamola
$ with fireworks
^^ with Felix Pastorious replacing Ryan on bass

(Sweet wax covered shopping carts at night)

Well, one day left.

GOERG out.