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.)

Thursday, August 2, 2018

2018 XPoNential Music Festival, July 27-29, Wiggins Park (Camden NJ)


Friday wound up being unattractive due to parking and weather issues. The “neutral” (i.e. not from the always-optimistic WXPN folks) weather forecasts from Weather.com and KYW called for a strong probability of storms mid-evening. The frequently-changing info from the XPNFest web site indicated that only one lot south of the Ben Franklin Bridge would be available prior to 6pm. The RiverLine light rail, which I used before, was not particularly useful, since the last train left the XPNFest neighborhood around 9:30. So Plan A was to get to Camden around 2:30 and (hopefully) park. As it turned out, after circling around several times I was completely unable to find the promised “Lot 6”, and decided to just catch the Wiggins Park performances on the radio. As it turned out, the skies opened up between 7:00 and 7:30, forcing the cancellation of the planned Lone Bellow set. They also wound up closing the XPNFest section of the RiverLine due to flooding, and one couple I talked to while waiting in line Sunday said they wound up parking in a chop shop Friday. In other words, no regrets.
 
Saturday was hot and humid, but with only a slight chance of rain, so I got there before the gates opened, had no problem parking and stayed for the duration of the Wiggins Park sets. Sunday was better weather-wise, with mid-80s temperatures and nominally low humidity, but it was still really hot in the sun. The crowd seemed like one of the largest I’ve run into, making it difficult to catch the Marina Stage performances if you were set up by the main stage. I found myself running out of gas several hours in, and decided to leave around 5:15.
 
Two sets were particularly noteworthy, both on Saturday.
 
I wasn’t especially familiar with Mondo Cozmo, but they took the River Stage midway through the afternoon and absolutely crushed it, winning ovations not only from the up-front standees (a crowd which ultimately extended almost halfway back the main walkway) but also from those of us sitting on the lawn. Frontman (and Bucks County native) Joshua Ostrander got things off on the right foot by sporting a blue Joel Embiid jersey, with the band’s opening “Come With Me” bringing to mind U2 in their prime. Other highlights included “Shine”, “Automatic”, “Tonight Tonight”, and a special, family-friendly edited version of the title track from their latest EP.
 
A few hours later, Margo Price ended the Wiggins Park portion of Saturday’s festivities on a high note. While I suppose she can properly be classified as “country” – her lyrics definitely fit the mold, and a couple of her songs did feature pedal steel – her top-notch band nevertheless rocked as hard as anyone else who took the stage during the festival. (This includes Price herself, who in addition to her work on rhythm guitar took her place behind the drum kit on two numbers.) Their set featured mostly original material, most notably “A Little Pain”, but they also changed things up by throwing in three well-chosen covers: “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, “Casey Jones”, and the closing “Proud Mary”.
 
Quick notes on some of the other performances are below. More detailed recaps are available from WXPN’s “The Key”; some include setlists and/or links to the audio of the performances.
 
The National Reserve (Friday) – on my target list, reminded me of the Bodeans, bought the last available copy of their CD from the merch booth on Saturday
 
Katie Frank (Saturday) – reminded me of Paramore, but definitely old Paramore, not the “Ain’t It Fun” lighter sound
 
Hurry (Saturday) – excellent sense of humor, brought to mind Fountains of Wayne
 
&More (Saturday) – promising local hip-hop duo, who get bonus points for building their final song “War” on a sample from “The World Is A Ghetto
 
Natalie Prass (Saturday) – had a real neo-soul vibe, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting
 
Lo Moon (Sunday) – Broken Bells, anyone?
 
Hiss Golden Messenger (Sunday) – possibly the chattiest set of the weekend, but in a good way

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