A few
highlights of this year’s three-day extravaganza are noted below. Note that the
WXPN folks do a fine job of covering and archiving the festival – the artist
links below contain more information, including photos and set lists, and
complete audio archives for the Indigo Girls and JD McPherson.
Dawes
(closing act Friday night) – On the festival schedule for the fourth straight
year (almost certainly a record), the guys finally got to do a full set
uninterrupted by rain, and they didn’t disappoint. Although a little shorter
than their Warner Theatre show in June, the energy level was even higher.
(Standing in a throng of other rabid fans right in front of the stage probably
didn’t hurt.) “Somewhere Along The Way” was again an early standout, as were
their three big hits from Nothing Is
Wrong (“Time Spent In Los Angeles”, “If I Wanted Someone”, and “A Little
Bit Of Everything”), and of course the iconic “When My Time Comes.” The festival
organizers seemed to be discouraging encores this year in order to stay on
schedule, but as the last band of the day Dawes was able to come back, giving
the fans a special treat with Griffin doing the vocal honors on Billy Joel’s “Big
Shot”, prior to closing with “From A Windowseat.”
Indigo Girls
(final act on the River Stage, Sunday afternoon) – The Indigo Girls were a late
but welcome addition to the festival schedule; they wound up playing a set from
5:30-6:30, starting at the same time as Rayland Baxter was going on at
Susquehanna Bank Center, and ending just as the Wailers were scheduled to start
over there. (Perhaps to make amends for the competition, WXPN invited Baxter
onto the morning show to perform a couple songs on Monday.) Backed by a 4-piece
band (drums, keyboards, bass, violin), their short but memorable set started
out with crowd favorites “Shame On You” and “Get Out The Map”, and ended with
the usual “Galileo”. Since they had allowed for encores, they then returned to
do “Land Of Canaan” and of course “Closer To Fine”. “Least Complicated” and “Go”
were also standouts, as well as “Happy In The Sorrow Key”, one of 4 tracks from
their recently-released One Lost Day
album.
JD McPherson
(Friday evening) – I found it interesting that Delta Rae, an XPN-type act that’s
not exactly a household word, headlined Rockville’s annual Hometown Holidays
this May, and also played at XPNFest this summer. The Rockville folks might do
well to consider McPherson for next year’s Memorial Day weekend festivities, as
his high-energy neo-rockabilly should play well even with audiences who are
unfamiliar with his work. McPherson’s 45-minute set kept the crowd rocking,
despite leaving out a couple of his best-known songs (“Let The Good Times Roll”
and “North Side Gal”). Highlights included “Head Over Heels” (his current
single), “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day” (a great Nick Lowe cover), and “You Must
Have Met Little Caroline”.
The Lone Bellow (Sunday afternoon) – Great vocal work and harmonies from this Brooklyn
trio, especially on “You Never Need Nobody” (which had previously found its way
into my iTunes library), “Watch Over Us”, and the title track from their latest
CD, “Then Came The Morning”.
First Aid Kit (Saturday afternoon) – While the roster of acts at Wiggins Park on Saturday
wasn’t quite as strong as on the other two days of the festival, this pair of
sisters from Sweden (along with their two bandmates from Scotland and England)
provided a nice highlight for the afternoon, as the pedal-steel work throughout
and their choice of a closing song (“Emmylou”, in honor of Emmylou Harris, Gram
Parsons, Johnny Cash, and June Carter) proudly showed off their country music
influences. Their singles “My Silver Lining” and “Stay Gold” were both warmly
received, but the most notable reaction was to their cover version of Simon and
Garfunkel’s “America”, which hushed the normally-talkative crowd on the lawn
for one of the few times during the weekend.
It was hard
to complain about the weather – warm, as could be expected, but with relatively
low humidity on Friday and Saturday, and the extra humidity on Sunday was
somewhat offset by stronger breezes, with rain holding off until early Monday
morning. Traffic on Friday both coming and going (especially exiting the
parking garage) was much worse than usual, due to a sold-out Florida Georgia
Line show at the Susquehanna Bank Center next door. Saturday and Sunday was not
a problem, although parts of Federal Street were closed both days, requiring
some improvisation (and GPS help on Sunday) to get out of Camden. I did notice
that people seem to be arriving earlier than in past years; I got there an hour
before the gates opened on both Saturday and Sunday, and the line already
extended well beyond the Children’s Garden entrance.
