Wakarusa 2009: Saturday & Sunday in Review

The final full day of the 2009 Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival finished strong with several of the weekend's largest acts gracing the stages and tents. The main event was a two-plus hour headlining set from 90's alt-rock gods, The Black Crowes, that found a majority of the festival attendees rocking along to their classic hits. They were by no means the only band playing, though, with all four stages constantly rotating sets.

Read about Saturday at the Wakarusa Music & Camping Festival after the jump

We always have grand plans to get up early and catch the coffee sets of the day, but after late nights and annoying hangovers, noon is just too early to catch a set. I'm pissed too, because I really wanted to see Moonalice at the main stage after skipping their set the day before, but missed them again due to my festival alcoholism.

Our first set finally came around two, when we hit up the main stage for one of the best New Monsoon sets I've witnessed with their current line-up. If I had the opportunity to write the setlist, it would have turned out just like the one they played. Included in the set were my five favorites – "On The Sun," "Trust In Me," "Blue Queen," "Alaska," and "Water Vein" – a mean cover of the Talking Heads "Slippery People" and an intense set-ending version of their own banjo-fueled "Daddy Longlegs" that found the crowd noodling along as best as they could. It was a nice throwback set from the San Francisco quintet, and served as a great way to start off the day.

New Monsoon

While a group of our friends headed towards the Revival Village to scope the scene over there, we headed the opposite way to the Backwoods Stage in favor of some shaded bluegrass. Old School Freight Train started a fun set with an impressive grassed-up version of The Grateful Dead-popularized "I Know You Rider," and eventually played through a few of their newgrass originals. Another standout of the set was a cover of John Lennon's "Instant Karma" that had them asking the audience to sing along prior to the start of the song. It as a nice way to spend an hour, which saw Toast truly utilizing the break by taking a quick weed nap.

Old School Freight Train

Next up on the main stage was Florida swamp-rockers JJ Grey & Mofro. I was extremely impressed with these guys the first time I caught them in 2005, but after a few more shows, I soon began to lose my love for them. Not that they are a bad band – It's that their songs sound extremely similar, and their live shows start off exciting, but eventually fade out towards the end. If they played half-hour sets, I'd probably love them, hour sets and I'd most likely dig them, but after an hour-and-a-half you're left bored as can be. After several years, their live show just hasn't improved. JJ Grey should join Galactic full time as a singer instead of this Mofro gig. Then his sets would constantly kick ass.

JJ Grey & Mofro

Bacon was very excited to catch Galactic since he'd just barely missed them the night before. We headed down to the main stage, where they were just starting their afternoon set. Just like the night before, they started their set with the triple horn attack while performing a few classic cuts like "Tiger Roll" and "Shibuya." We left early in favor of other musical offerings, but Bacon decided to stay, and was glad he did. JJ Grey joined Galactic for a run of songs that included The Rolling Stones' "Sympathy For The Devil," and they finished their set with – as Bacon descirbed – "the heat."

Galactic

Toast and I decided to take a walk up to the Revival Tent to see what Lucero had to offer. They've made it through Houston on several occasions, but I've never actually seen them live before this set. I'm glad I finally did, though, as they turned out to be quite good. Frontman Ben Nichols led the group through gritty country and alternative garage rock, which was quite the departure from the happy-go-lucky bluegrass and jamrock we'd been hearing all weekend. While they weren't nearly as drunk as usual, they still brought enough of the pub with them during the hour-plus performance. The set-closing "Nobody's Darlings" served as one of the best songs I heard the entire weekend. I rank this among the best of the weekend right up there with Langhorne Slim from the day before.

Lucero

After Lucero finished up their set, we headed back to camp to make some delicious burgers and down a couple beers before heading back out. We soon started to hear some music coming from the Main Stage which was our call to head on down. G. Love & Special Sauce had played through a few new songs before we entered, but it was the track "Honor & Harmony" that found us walking in. for the next hour or so, G. Love led a newer version of his long-time backing band, Special Sauce, through a smattering of hits from his last five albums. Midway through the set, GLaSS invited Black Crowes/North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson to the stage for an incredibly bluesy version of "Basketball" that quickly led into "Booty Call" and a cover of The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road." Sending out a homage to everybody's favorite herbal remedy, GLaSS performed "Who's Got The Weed?" followed closely by Peter Tosh's "Legalize It." Standing the test of time, "Cold Beverages" closed out the solid set, and found G. Love leaving the stage for a manic trip through the VIP's in front.

G. Love & Luther Dickinson

Another beer run, and we headed back to the Main Stage for the headlining set from Chris and Rich Robinson's Black Crowes. I've only seen the Crowes once, and enjoyed the hour-and-a-half I spent with them before, so I had high hopes for this set. They were definitely rocking, and were a fitting act to take the top spot at Wakarusa, but I just couldn't really get into them this time. While they threw out some hits like "Jealous Again," "Soul Singing" and a set-closing "Remedy," they mainly stuck to newer material that had more of a jam focus. Unlike the last time I caught them, they stretched out their songs, and played what they wanted to, rather what they thought the crowd would like to hear. They play at Rothbury this weekend, but I'm just not too sure if I'm going to stay much longer than the three songs I get to photograph them. We shall see.

The Black Crowes

Our true headlining set of the night came just after midnight at the Backwoods Stage. We geared up with a full cooler of beer, and a handle of rum, and headed towards the bluegrass hoe-down that had just started. Split Lip Rayfield brought the rowdy folks out for a thirty-song set of nasty speed-grass that featured tunes like "Crazy," "Little More Cocaine" and an even better take on "Biscuits" than the one we heard during their first set on Thursday. During this set, I found that people are somewhat afraid of someone that's offering free shots from a random bottle of liquor. Many people said no, but then again, many people also said yes. I had more fun at this set than any other all weekend. It served as an amazing way to cap off an incredible three days of music, and the perfect start to our three week run of shows and festivals.

Wakarusa continued the next day with about ten sets from many of the bands that played throughout the weekend, and a "headlining" set from British alt-rock group Gomez. We decided to spend Sunday traveling the festival grounds, including a great trip down to the parks waterfall before Gomez took the stage. It was an intense voyage, that ended with me nearly having a heart attack on the way back up. Deep breathing and plenty of water breaks helped out a lot. We made it back to camp a few hours before Gomez's set, and decided to pack up our gear and Priceline a last minute hotel in Little Rock so we could have a nice shower and bed. After cramming everything in our rental Impala (coined "Gimpy the Impaler" by the end of Wakarusa), we met up with Mr. and Mrs. Bacon for one last set of music. Gomez took the stage in front of a meager crowd at best. I was not too sure why Gomez were chosen to play such a slot, but they still played to what seemed to be a diehard bunch of Gomez fans. I have a feeling that many of the people that remained on Sunday were there just to see these guys. While they had a good live sound, we left half-way through, tired and somewhat unimpressed. They weren't bad, but we had just had enough. I had hit the point where I wanted more comfortable living situations, so we took early to get to the hotel.

Gomez

Wakarusa's move to Mulberry Mountain was the best decision the promoters could've made. The festival went down without a hitch, and had high praises from everyone I talked to throughout the weekend. On Thursday, the most commonly uttered phrase was "this venue is much better than the last place" – and for good reason. The natural aspect of Wakarusa has continued with the new venue by offering numerous non-musical activities such as fishing, hiking and swimming that served to boost the overall experience.

My only gripe is the genre-specific line-up. Last year, the promoters decided to move outside of the box by inviting such groups as Built to Spill, The Flaming Lips, Blackalicious, Apollo Sunshine, Dr. Dog, Mates of State, Del the Funky Homosapien, Cake and Arrested Development that did a good job of diversifying the overall line-up. With diversification, it allows you to experience many different types of music instead of getting sick of similar sounding bands by the end of the weekend. That is an easy thing to fix, without completely losing the rootsy vibe Wakarusa has established throughout the years.

Overall, though, good job Wakarusa, I think you found the winning formula you've been looking for with the move to Mulberry Mountain. I can't wait to see how you expand upon the greatness that was Wakarusa 2009, and make it even better in 2010.

Until next year's Waka,

-Eggs