As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Friday, August 1, 2014

2014 XPoNential Music Festival, July 25-27, Wiggins Park (Camden NJ)


Missed WXPN’s annual music festival in 2012 and 2013, but was able to make all three days this year (Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday). Weather held up pretty well – brief shower early Satuday afternoon, sun alternating with clouds Sunday with some threats but no actual rain. (The thunderstorm that would have really disrupted things didn’t come until around 1am Monday morning.) 

Best sets – 

1.  Lake Street Dive – I had been looking forward to this one ever since picking up their latest CD, and they did not disappoint. The crowd, particularly those of us who were standing right in front of the stage, was really into it. Highlights included “Bad Self Portraits” and “Use Me Up” (my current favorite) near the middle of their 45-minute set, and “You Go Down Smooth” at the end. Several of the songs featured notable, but not overly long, instrumental solos on upright bass, guitar, trumpet, and drums. Normally mid-afternoon festival sets don’t get encores, due to the need to stay on schedule, but those of us in front refused to leave, finally organizing a “one more song!” chant. They did reappear, and ended things on a high note with a singalong version of the Hall & Oates (this was Philly, after all) classic “Rich Girl”.
 

2.  Ingrid Michaelson – She’s certainly grown up some musically since I saw her at the festival several years ago; full band this time, which she used well. Had a nice mix of songs from her latest album, notably “Girls Chase Boys” and “Afterlife”, along with older classics such as “Way I Am” and “Be OK”. Great crowd rapport throughout, as well.
 

3.  Rodrigo y Gabriela – The visuals are a big part of the attraction with this acoustic guitar duo; if you ever go to see them, get as close as you can. (Pit seats at Wolf Trap might even be worth the hefty price.) Gabriela was the bouncier of the two, moving all over the stage and frequently jumping up and down while playing, while Rodrigo tended more to take up one stance for the duration of a song and let his fingers do the talking. Everything I had ever heard by them had been instrumental, so I was taken by surprise when during the second half of the set they proclaimed a “karaoke” portion of the show and Rodrigo led the crowd in singalong versions of rock classics by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd. Hopefully the fact that a few of the lyrics were not suitable for the live radio broadcast won’t prevent them from being invited back in the future.   ;-)
 

4.  Marah – I wandered over to the Marina Stage Sunday afternoon to see Marah, since they had been cult favorites around Philadelphia for a long time. Since I hadn’t kept up with them, I wasn’t aware of their latest project (Mountain Minstrelsy of Pennsylvania), which involved arranging, recording (in an old church) and performing old songs that had been collected in 1931 by folklorist Harry Shoemaker. Quite a different sound, featuring banjo and fiddle (and, on one song, bagpipes), along with guitar and keyboards. Also noteworthy was that the fiddle work and some cigar box guitar was performed by 10-year-old prodigy Gus Tritsch, probably the youngest band member in XPN Festival history (although his younger brother did join the band for the last couple of songs). Interestingly enough, the final Marina Stage act on Friday night featured 79-year-old blues harmonica player James Cotton.
 

5.  Dawes – Dawes performed at the 2012 festival (which I wasn’t able to attend), and were also at the 2013 festival (which I also didn’t attend), but got rained out. Those were also the first two years that WXPN (for financial reasons, apparently) partnered with the next-door Susquehanna Bank Center (formerly known as the Tweeter Center) on the evening portion of the festival. SBC schedules evening shows on Saturday and Sunday featuring WXPN-type artists, and festival attendees with “go-anywhere” tickets get lawn seats for the evening shows at SBC, as well as first crack at purchasing inside reserved-seat tickets. So, when I heard that Dawes would be on the Saturday night bill, along with Jenny Lewis and Ryan Adams, I decided to spring for an in-house ticket for Saturday.

Although I did finally get to see Dawes (more or less), the nearly $60 I spent on the ticket did not turn out to be a particularly good investment. For starters, when the full festival lineup was posted, I saw that Dawes was only getting a 30-minute set; I had figured the division of time among the three acts would be somewhat more equitable than that. I was also not particularly overwhelmed by the SBC experience (yes, I’m spoiled by Wolf Trap). The venue seems to exist primarily to sell beer and liquor (and also cigars). To give them some credit, there did seem to be plenty of tables outside where the beverages and food could be consumed. (Needless to say, you couldn’t bring anything in except water.) The final straw was when I got to my seat -- 104/C/17, in case anyone would like to avoid it in the future. The theater portion of SBC is extremely wide, with 104 being on the far left side, and 17 being the leftmost seat in that section. From that position, not only could I not see the drummer at all due to the stage monitors (and was also blocked for a portion of the show from seeing the keyboard player by someone doing video), but the sound was truly atrocious. Due to the brevity of the set, the band was limited to 5 songs, which meant that they did only one tune from Nothing Is Wrong, which is by far their best album. All of which means that next year I will probably vote with my credit card for the cheaper 3-day pass that does not include the SBC shows, and get more sleep to boot.

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