High Sierra 2008: Friday

Big Light: rallied bigtime to catch some of this set. Good for them for rallying, too!!! With a 10:45a slot, who knew so many people would be up groovin'. And with good reason. One of my two favorite new bands of the fest. Go see them, if you can (pictured here at Shady Grove stage, snapped by Kevin Runde).

The Weather Underground: good stuff. Caught part of this set and it was what I was thinking it was: REALLY GOOD.

For most of the rest of the afternoon, I was cackling with my girls, laughing harder than I have in years, to the point of tears, several times. I couldn't even drag myself out to music, we had our own little entertainment going. I missed some really good music (Akron/Family, SMMD), but what I gained in the giggles, was...well...worth it.

Mike Gordon: finally pulled myself together, and walked out to the mainstage. GREAT GREAT sound from Mike. Seriously. I was mega impressed. Go MIKE!!!

The Mother Hips: cruised over to the Hips stage, then headed back to camp where we could hear their set, so I was dancing and listening, and loving it, of course.

BLVD and MC SoulEye: this is my other new favorite "band"/artist of the fest. I was dancing so hard to this, super unexpectedly. It's like electronic hip hop that flows better than anything I've ever heard. Think Sound Tribe Sector Nine meets a hippie version of eminem but BETTER! Love love love them.

James Hunter: I could hear this from where I was mingling, and it sounded great. Def a great groove.

What happened after the official sets were done for the day was a set of music by High Sierra favorites, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, which is The Slip featuring Nathan Moore. This late night set at Camp Harry was to turn into the highlight of the festival (for me), with a very special influence taking over the whole camp. The music was, well, pretty much amazing, and the faces and mingling, and dancing and groovin' had a soundtrack that included a couple precious covers, like the Violent Femmes Blister in the Sun, and the Jackson Five's ABC, not to mention the regular epic grooves of SMMD and The Slip. DAMN!!! If I could rewind time, I would pause and go slow-mo thru that night over and over and over. EPIC!!!

High Sierra 2008 recap: Thursday

Thought I would do a brief recap of my highlights of High Sierra Music Festival, which happened this last weekend in Quincy, CA. There were many (highlights), and some of them were totally unrelated to the tunes (the biggest one having my 17 year old Goddaughter/cousin with me from Belgium).

THURSDAY:



The Weather Underground: cool start (pictured above on Big Meadow Stage). It was before I set up my camp, so I was sorta preoccupied, but still, was curious about them and knew I would hear them again.

Langhorne Slim: I think I heard this from my camp. Didn't go to the stage, but pretty sure I heard this and thought it was good.

Built To Spill: I loved these guys at the Fillmore in SF, and wandered out to the main stage to catch their set. My crew was only mildly interested, and our attn span thinned after 3 or 4 songs. I would've stayed, but needed to stay with my girls, on my Goddaughter's first night at the "hippie" festival. She'd been to Euro/electronic/huge festivals, but I was just getting my bearings with wandering with her.

Emmitt-Nershi Band: I could hear this from my camp (again, did not go over to the stage), but it was sorta cute to hear some SCI songs. I'm sure people were stoked. Sounded all right to me.

The Slip: finally, one of the sets I was most looking forward to...this band has a really special thing going on. I'm just really into how they can make that big sound with just three dudes. Guess each of them just really packs a punch =)

The Mother Hips: again, another set I was super excited about. It was a late night show, so I caught a good bit of it after The Slip show. I just love the Mother Hips. Not much more to say about that.

I desperately need to wrap this up for now, but thought since it had been so long without a post, that I would rally to get this up. More to come for sure...