This is the second in-person #XPNFest that’s been in
September rather than late July, and the first that I attended. (I actually bought
a 3-day pass last year, but decided not to go due to the prevalence of covid/delta
that fall.) Since there wasn’t anyone I was desperate
to see the first evening, and Friday parking/transportation had gotten
complicated over the years, I just went to the Saturday and Sunday sessions at Wiggins
Park. The weather could hardly have been better. There was no threat of rain,
and the somewhat higher-than-normal autumn temperatures were mitigated by low
humidity and some welcome breezes on Sunday.
The music was certainly worth it, although I missed some
things from earlier festivals. Most importantly, the Camden Children’s Garden “is
Still Recovering from Covid” – so good-bye to actual bathrooms and quiet, shady
benches. Cosmic Café, with its great wraps, didn’t have its usual stand,
although I did have good jambalaya on Saturday from the BBQ place and a great
chicken shawarma bowl on Sunday from newcomer Malooga. Absent from the sponsor list
were Turkey Hill (no free ice cream samples) and Main Street Music (no racks of
CDs to browse through).
As usual, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Mt. Laurel.
The breakfast buffet was well-stocked, and the wi-fi was fast and reliable once
they got it working around 9:00 Friday night.
I will try to forget the traffic on the way up and back.
Since the WXPN folks did a great job of writing up each act
and providing the set lists, I won’t go into a lot of detail here. Just follow
the links – with some of them, you can also stream the archived audio from
their sets.
Kathleen Edwards
-- best set from an expected source, who also killed
it three years ago. Edwards and her band were in fine form, both on the
rockers and the slower material. (While she primarily sticks to rhythm guitar,
she also rocked it up on a couple numbers.) If fellow Canadian Neil Young had
been born a woman, he
probably would have grown up sounding a lot like Kathleen Edwards.
The
Suffers – best set from someone I never particularly noticed before – they’ve
played the festival before, but for some reason I never connected with them until
this year. This was a great set from beginning to end – think Sly and the
Family Stone, War, and/or Rufus with Chaka Khan.
Lo
Moon – I mentioned them very briefly in 2018, comparing them to Broken
Bells. That still holds, although Death Cab For Cutie also comes to mind. They
did quite a nice set of “ethereal, moody indie-rock.”
Lucinda Williams
– Longtime favorite Lucinda Williams and her crack band certainly deserved their
spot as the final Wiggins Park act Saturday evening.
Valerie
June – I’ve seen Valerie June on two previous occasions as the opening act
for other artists. While her voice is still somewhat of an acquired taste, I mostly
enjoyed this performance, highlighted by “Call Me A Fool” and “Working Woman
Blues.”
Cosmic
Guilt – Tuneful local band with great harmony vocals.
Highnoon
– Another Philly area band, which (coincidentally or not) kicked off Saturday’s
performances promptly at 12:00.
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