John’s Crawlspace

We left the Philly area for Rothbury, Michigan on Wednesday night around 9:30. We would have left earlier, but ended up driving around for an hour or so looking for tubing – The trip just wouldn’t have been the same without a beer bong. We ended up going to a Home Depot, and the girl at the register asked what we were making. I told her that we were making a beer bong, and she had no idea what it was. She actually thought that two people put the hose in their mouths and spit beer back and forth, or something ridiculous like that. When I explained it to her, she asked if we were “in a sorority or something”. It was just my friend Nick and I at this point too, so I thought that was pretty funny.

Anyway, we thought it would take us about 10 hours to get there, but it ended up taking around 13. We weren’t in a big rush though; the music didn’t start until 6:30 pm. We split up the driving between the 5 of us, and I ended up with the final 100 miles or so, which wasn’t bad at all, since I got to sleep for most of the trip.

When we finally arrived, I was amazed by how quickly we got in. There was almost no line to speak of, there were maybe 4 cars in front of us before we were given our bracelets, and the “security check” was pretty much non-existant. Some lady looked at me for a second and then asked if I had any glass bottles, drugs, or weapons – I said ‘no’ to each (wasn’t lying, unless you count the guillotine that I disassembled and hid strategically throughout the car before we left) and she marked an ‘X’ on the windshield.

Apparently it rained (and hailed?) a lot before we got there, so the area was pretty muddy. I saw a bunch of cars stuck in the mud throughout the campgrounds, but we managed to avoid that somehow. We found a non-muddy spot to setup our campsite, and we were all set up within half an hour.

Some people nearby were stuck in the mud, waiting for a tow truck or something, so I walked over and offered them a beer pong, but they weren’t having it. Oh well, I tried.

After a few games of beer pong, we headed into the main festival area to check out some of Perpetual Groove. In order to get to the stage where they were playing, we had to walk through Sherwood Forest, which was one of the coolest parts of this festival. It was still bright out at this point, so we weren’t able to fully appreciate the way that they “decorated” the forest. We stayed at Perpetual Groove for about half an hour, and they played the only song that I know by them, so that was kinda cool.

Next up was Lotus, and while I did want to check out their set, I think we split up, and some of us headed back to the camp site for more booze (or something along those lines). A 6 oz flask is barely enough for one person, so splitting it between 5 people doesn’t work out too well.

We rushed back to the festival grounds and got there just in time for the beginning of Zappa Plays Zappa, which I was really looking forward to… And they didn’t disappoint. I think I only recognized one song that they played, but it didn’t matter. A lot of Frank Zappa’s music isn’t exactly accessible, especially for a casual music listener, but this was a really fun set. Everyone around me was clearly enjoying themselves. I would love to see these guys again.

After Zappa Plays Zappa, we wandered around for a bit, and checked out Sherwood Forest again. It was dark out at this point, and there was some crazy stuff going on in that forest. After wandering around in there for a bit, we made our way over to the stage where The Disco Biscuits were playing.

I’ve seen The Disco Biscuits a few times before and was never really able to get into them, but this time I really enjoyed the music. Apparently I had a short attention span though, and after half an hour or so, we decided to go wander around some more. I guess it was probably about 1 am at this point, and people in our party started to head back to go to sleep. I checked out some of EOTO but it really didn’t do a whole lot for me, so I ended up heading back to the campsite shortly after everyone else.

I woke up around 8 am Friday morning and went for a run. It was a nice way to check out areas of the camping grounds that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. I was hoping someone would hand me a beer or something as I ran by – I know if I was drinking and someone ran by I would try and get them to drink a beer, but I guess it was a little early for that. Unlike Bonnaroo, Rothbury doesn’t have scorching hot sun that makes it impossible to sleep after 7:30 am, so some people were still asleep.

When I got back from my run we started playing beer pong. For the most part it was just me and one other person playing, but it was still pretty fun. Normal beer pong soon became 10 cup, full cup beer pong, with no concern for our longevity and the fact that we had a days worth of music ahead of us. It didn’t take long before I was pretty drunk. I ended up missing Tea Leaf Green and The Wailers, but I wasn’t too upset about that.

Cortney and I made the 20-30 minute walk from our tents to the main stage to see about 10 minutes of Snoop Doggs set. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, but we ended up leaving after like 10 minutes – I’m actually not sure why. We somehow managed to miss 311, but I caught about half an hour of Yonder Mountain String Band before heading to see Modest Mouse. These were overlapping sets, and we probably would have been better off just seeing one of the bands instead of trying to see both, since we only caught the last 2 songs of Modest Mouse’s set.

Widespread Panic was the first “big act” of the weekend, so they were the first ones to play on the main stage. I’ve seen them before, and while I’m not crazy about them, they always put on a good show. I recognized 3 or 4 of the songs that they played too, so that was cool.

During Widespread Panic’s setbreak, we walked back through Sherwood Forest and made our way to the stage where Of Montreal was about to start playing. Apparently I saw them once before at Langerado, but I don’t remember that.

Anyway, Of Montreal put on an awesome set, one of my favorites of the weekend. They played all of the songs that I knew by them, and there was some much weird stuff going on while they played… Midgets running around in weird costumes, and some really strange visuals on the screen above them. I definitely have a newfound appreciation for this band after seeing them live.

After Of Montreal, we headed back to catch the rest of Widespread Panic’s second set. When they finished, there was a pretty cool 4th of July fireworks display. It’s probably worth mentioning that I really slacked on taking pictures of this festival… I could have gotten some amazing pictures of the fireworks if I tried, but I just wasn’t motivated at all – Imagine that?

We decided to skip Thievery Corporation to see Primus, which was a no-brainer for me.

Primus was pretty cool, and I knew the majority of the songs that they played, but for some reason I wasn’t as into it as I thought I’d be. I definitely enjoyed it, but I found myself looking around and checking what time it was and stuff while they played. That may have to do with the fact that there were so many different things going on, which made it hard to stay in one place for an extended period of time. After Primus, we checked out a little bit of Bassnectar (he doesn’t get a link). I couldn’t get into his music at all, and I’m pretty sure you’d have to be on at least 13 different drugs to like that crap. That’s just me though, a lot of people seem to really like him – To each his own. After Assnectar (see what I did there?), we headed over to the Tripolee Dome stage where Pnuma Trio started playing at 2:15. We stuck around for half an hour or so, and decided to head back. In retrospect it seems kind of lame to skip music and go to bed, but when you’re on your feet all day in the sun (and steadily drinking alcohol since you woke up) you tend to get pretty exhausted.

I woke up and ran again on Saturday. When I got back, someone stopped by our campsite selling mason jars of moonshine.

I immediately bought 2 of them, and then we decided it would be a good idea to play beer pong with bloody marys mixed with moonshine. It was fun while it lasted, but unfortunately once again this (combined with a half hour or so of flip cup with our neighbors) resulted in missing a few bands… The Black Keys and Medeski Martin and Wood, but I wasn’t too upset about that. We headed into the festival grounds around 4:30 to see Yard Dogs Road Show. I’ve seen these guys before, and they’re a lot of fun. It’s not so much a band as it is a traveling cabaret, which includes a burlesque show, sword swallowing, and much more… Very entertaining. They performed several times at Rothbury, but this was the only time slot that was convenient for me.

After Yard Dogs Road Show, we decided to go back and drink some more. When we walked out of the tent that they had performed in, there were 2 girls doing some ridiculous motorcycle stunts. I don’t think this was scheduled or anything, it just happened to be going on when we left the tent, so that was pretty awesome.

After we went back to the campsite for a bit, we headed back into the festival grounds. We passed by the stage where Busdriver was performing, and caught the last couple songs of his set. I definitely like his music, but I wasn’t expecting it too be all that great live, since it’s pretty weird to begin with. He put on a pretty good show though, and his music sounds better live than I thought it would.

I’ve never been a big fan of Dave Matthews Band, but they were one of the headliners, which means that no one else plays during their performance. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know some of their songs, and it was kind of cool to hear them live. We got a nice spot up on the hill and just relaxed while they played. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would too. When the DMB set was over, we headed over to the stage where STS9 was about to play.

I like STS9 a lot, but usually when I’m listening to them it’s because its nice “background music”. It’s pretty relaxing and it doesn’t have any vocals, so I find myself listening to them at work a lot. Anyway, I was excited to see them live again, and they put on a pretty good show. They played a lot of stuff from the new album, “Peaceblaster” (which is the worst album title every by the way). Their light show was pretty cool, and people were launching mortars and roman candles out of the crowd… Which is actually pretty dangerous, but I was far enough away from that to enjoy it while not being worried about getting hit.

fter about an hour or so of STS9, my attention span ran out, and I decided to go check out some of The Crystal Methods set on my own. Right before they started, they said “alright everybody, I hope all the drugs have kicked in”. I guess that makes sense, since it is electronic music. I was just sitting there with my flask waiting for them to start, and as soon as they did, people rushed the stage and started dancing. The music was alright for half an hour or so, but it got to be a little repetitive. This may or may not have had something to do with the fact that, once again, I wasn’t on drugs. One of the songs had a voice track saying over and over something along the lines of “little white pill, feels so good but it puts holes in your brain”. I got a kick out of this, since the majority of the people in attendance were most likely on one form or another of MDMA, and here they were dancing to music that was explaining the damage that the drugs were doing to their bodies. Whats that like?

I met back up with my friends and we stayed at Crystal Method for 45 minutes or so, and then we headed to “The Establishment” tent where “Project Jenny, Project Jan” was about to start. I had no idea what this was, but we decided to check it out anyway. I still don’t know what the hell it was, but it was awful. It was like some sort of twisted karoake/lounge act. We stayed for 2 or 3 songs and I couldn’t take it anymore. I like to think I have a pretty open mind when it comes to the arts, but in my opinion this was pretty terrible… Decided to call it a night after that.

I slept in until 11 or so on Sunday. We got another game of flip cup going with our neighbors which was pretty fun, albeit short-lived. After we were drunk we decided it would be a good idea to pack up all of our stuff, since we planned on leaving that night.

We headed into the festival grounds and caught the tail end of Rodrigo y Gabriela‘s set. Soon after, Trey Anastasio came on. I was pretty much neutral about this – I’ve never seen Phish before, but I thought it would be worth checking out, especially since he hasn’t performed for a while. I actually recognized a few of the (Phish) songs that he played, which was cool, but we left before it was over. Took a nap in the woods (unfortunately all of the hammocks were occupied) while Gov’t Mule played, and woke up in time to listen to most of Atmosphere and Brother Ali‘s set. We headed back over to the main stage to see Phil Lesh & Friends, which was entertaining. I’m not a huge Grateful Dead fan though, so I don’t know many of the songs, but it’s nice music to relax to. After that, we checked out a few other things, and decided to go back and finish packing. We left around 1:30 am on Monday morning, and made it back to Philly around 2 or 3 that afternoon.

I’ve been meaning to write about this since I got back, but the first few days I was still pretty exhausted from the festival, and since then I just haven’t had a chance. All in all, Rothbury was the best festival I’ve been to. I have seen better music at other festivals, but this one had so many different things going on. I forgot to mention the swinging apes (video), didn’t I? I’m not sure how many of you do the whole festival thing, but if you’re interested in checking one out, I would definitely look into Rothbury next year, if they do in fact make this an annual festival.

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