Big Easy Express

Feb 9, 2012 by Eggs

Last spring, we packed up and headed west for a one of a kind show featuring the likes of Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show. Entitled the Railroad Revival Tour, the three bands took an old-fashioned train from Oakland to New Orleans, making six stops along the way to perform shows. While some bigger stops were closer to us on the tour, we headed all the way to far west Texas, to the small liberal town of Marfa to catch the tour at a really cool outdoor venue called El Cosmico. It was by far one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had, between my company, the venue, the ten-hour road trip and the bands involved, specifically the many collaborations throughout the show. After that magical performance, we all headed back to our real lives knowing that it would be quite some time before we could experience something just as cool as that.

Now, after almost a year, filmmaker Emmett Malloy will be debuting his take on the traveling festival with documentary featuring the entire week of the trip. The film will first screen next month at SXSW in Austin, TX, and while nothing has been announced about a widespread release, I have a good feeling you’ll be able to get your hands on it sometime soon. I can’t wait to check out all of the great footage that Malloy assuredly got along the way – between the many hours on the rails with nothing but their music, and the six incredible 3+ hour shows, I’m sure it will be stock full of gems. Check out the trailer.

In other news, the official website is quoted as saying, “We are currently planning the 2012 Railroad Revival Tour with a new lineup and some great surprises. Look for news about the second tour this coming January!” I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves for the 2012 edition. I highly doubt they can top last year, but I could also find myself very wrong once the line-up and train route comes out. Hopefully I’ll see you all there!

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Hangout Music Fest 2012

Feb 7, 2012 by Eggs

For the past two years, I’ve been telling myself that I need to make it down to Gulf Shores, Alabama for the Hangout Music Fest. Now in it’s 3rd year as a festival, Hangout has announced it’s initial artist roster for the 2012 event which takes place May 18-20, and boy is it a good one. If anything, they built this festival for me. Seriously, the talent is basically a nice little chunk of my iPod. Leading the dance card, you have festival main-stay Dave Matthews Band and the one and only Jack White bringing his solo project, with one more major headliner promised to be announced later this week. While the festival has always swayed towards jambands, like the early days of Bonnaroo, this year has a wide variety of all types of music. Jambands are still highly represented with The String Cheese Incident, Dispatch, STS9, Michael Franti & Spearhead and G. Love & Special Sauce hitting the stages. A nice conglomerate of indie rock is also included with Wilco, The Flaming Lips who will be performing the classic Pink Floyd Album Dark Side Of The Moon in it’s entirety, Young The Giant, Dr. Dog, Cage The Elephant and Dawes. Bringing in the older concert goers, both Steve Winwood of Traffic and Spencer Davis Group fame as well as famed singer songwriter Randy Newman will be making appearances. Also, a dance tent will be featured this year being headlined by the likes of Skrillex and Paul Oakenfold.

I think I might try to make this one – being on the beach and packed with this many of my favorite bands, how could I possibly miss it! Check out the full line-up after the jump.

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Main Street Block Party

Jan 26, 2012 by Eggs

The second annual Main Street Block Party is set to take place this Saturday, January 28, at what is informally known as “The Island.” Featuring a slew of bands playing across six different venues at Main and Alabama streets in Houston, Block Party will be the place to be all day. What Made Milwaukee Famous will make a rare Houston appearance, or rather a rare appearance for them at all these days. The rest of the line-up mainly consists of an upcoming wealth of Houston-based talent as well as some regional acts that’ve been gaining steam as of late. B L A C K I E, Tax The Wolf, Caddywhompus, Empress Hotel, The League Of Extraordinary G’s, The Handshake, Bang Bangz, The Prairie Cadets and The Literary Greats are all set to perform, as well as a ton of other great, upcoming bands.

I had the best of times at last year’s event which I was also shooting for the Houston Press. Check out my shots of the bands from 2011′s Block Party here and of the crowds here. Before that, though, check out the full line-up, including set times after the jump.

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Old Settler’s Music Festival 2012

Jan 20, 2012 by Eggs

Old Settler’s 2011 – photo by HashBrowns
Festival season is still a few months away, but now is the time of big decisions. Artist line-ups are dropping every single day, and with that we all have to figure out just where and when we’ll be traveling based on how good or bad the roster of bands are. Wakarusa just dropped their full list of bands, and it’s looking pretty nice, but another local festival was announced kind of under the radar. Old Settler’s Music Festival, which takes place south of Austin at the Salt Lick Pavilion, will feature a slew of great Rock, Americana and Bluegrass over the weekend of April 19-22. Headliners include indie folksters Iron & Wine, big-voiced singer songwriter Amos Lee, southern rockers Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit and newgrass champions Railroad Earth.

A bunch of other bands will also be making their way down to the 25th anniversary of the festival. Check out the full line-up after the jump.

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