Rothbury | 07.02-07.05 | Michigan

Rothbury 2009 by Vann

The Macpodz

A boisterous blend of jazz, funk, Latin, rock and well, a whole bunch of other stuff, The Macpodz kicked off Friday with a bang. Charismatic frontman Nick Ayers switched from his percussion kit to a lulling, jazzy flute throughout the show, intermittently dropping all instruments to belt out smooth vocals. The crowd applauded his impressive efforts for simultaneously beat-boxing while playing the flute. When Ayers wasn't busting out a ridiculous flute solo, Ross Huff was on his squawking trumpet. Huff blew out high falsetto squeals that congealed into sweet-sounding melodies on top of Jesse Clayton's voluptuous piano and keyboards. The nice thing about sets early in the day is they offer a rare opportunity to get up close to the stage at Rothbury's normally packed shows. Their high energy set beckoned the festival gods to let the sun come out for the first time all weekend. The gods were pleased, as they seemed much obliged, letting the sun's magnificent rays finally shine through the overcast. (KS)

Brett Dennen

Back at the Ranch Arena, Brett Dennen and his live band continued a positive trend. Without much prior knowledge of this artist, it was their overall delivery that created the most allure. Dennen, with a profound head of red hair and matching lumberjack button down, displayed his very unique voice on "When You Feel It" and the overall sound of the group was reminiscent of a Paul Simon type from an alternate universe. The first true blue skies came down upon us during "The One Who Loves You Most," matching perfectly the gentle rhythms, humorous falsettos and eventual song-ending crowd sing-along that was sure to send many whistling on their way towards the next set. (JB)

Rachel Goodrich

Brett Dennen :: Rothbury 2009 by Vann

G. Love & Special Sauce

Running straight from Rachel Goodrich, I got my first glimpse of The Odeum (Rothbury's main stage) during G. Love & Special Sauce. I've heard mixed reviews about G. Love's live shows and for me the jury has written in its verdict – and it's a good one. Combining hip-hop with elements of funk and blues, G. Love, born Garrett Dutton III, is possibly the first white guy rapping while playing the guitar I've seen since the Beastie Boys. The Special Sauce's secret ingredient, apparently, was funk, as everything the band touched seemed to be smothered in it. Jeffrey Clemens (drums) laid down a tight, funky groove while G. Love switched off rapping and blowing into his blues harp. "This next one's called 'Booty Call'. You can hear the clean version or the dirty version." Evidently, we got the dirty version. After one of G. Love's loopy harmonica solos we landed in a stellar cover of The Beatles' "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?" (KS)

Rebelution

Back at the Sherwood Court stage, Santa Barbara's Rebelution brought their brand of reggae rock to the festival grounds. While the very soul of reggae is one based upon social consciousness and a peaceful lifestyle, it was challenging to think that Rebelution was adding anything new to the genre. Many of the cuts like "Running" and "Night Crawler," both off their 2007 self-titled album, ended up sounding uninspired over simplistic reggae guitar licks and literal rhyming schemes. The mood heightened from time to time as the main singer-guitarist would rip a mean solo, but all was kept on a tight leash within an all too familiar vibe. (JB)

Lotus

Rothbury 2009 by Vann

Broken Social Scene

An ever-changing collective of musicians, BSS's eclectic sound is hard to pin down. This Canadian indie outfit that has a whopping 19 rotating members is basically a musical amalgam between the styles of all of them, which they often describe as "baroque pop." Only a miniscule ten members were on hand for this particular gig. Troupes of musicians, including a four-piece horn section, frantically ran on and off the stage throughout the set. Members of the Montreal-based Stars joined the gang on stage for such songs as the tranquil "Anthems for a Seventeen-Year-Old Girl." Meanwhile, the members constantly seemed to be playing musical chairs with their instruments, constantly switching from bass to guitar to keyboards. "That was an Allman Brothers cover," joked frontman Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) after a slow love ballad. Their set reached its peak during "Almost Crimes," sending the crowd into a rambunctious shuffle. One of the great things about Broken Social Scene is that, unlike many in the indie genre where too many seem all too intent on controlling every minute detail of the music, these guys aren't afraid to groove a little bit on a catchy theme. BSS can teach the rest of the indie world the value of live improvisation and showmanship. (JB)

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley/Nas

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley :: Rothbury 2009 by Smith

On Marley's "Beautiful" the back-up band didn't seem quite capable of producing a big enough sound for this festival's largest stage during an evening set. There was some sort of disconnect between the transitions of each track, leaving some of the band members in an odd state of limbo while the hosts ad-libbed questionable hard-edged banter. After about a half hour, Nas exited the stage and allowed Jr. Gong a chance to hold the spotlight running through his father's catalogue with "No More Trouble" and "Exodus." While the pair sounded drastically more organic than the previous attempts at dance hall riddims, the somewhat historic moment between past and present was short lived. Nas reclaimed the spotlight with the catchy anthem "I Can" and "Made You Look" to wrap up the set, and although these tracks were authentic, the crowd seemed poised for something else. (JB)

Flogging Molly

Flogging Molly does one thing, but they do it really, really well. These Celtic-punk rockers unite the traditional sound of Irish folk tunes with the raunchy sound of distorted punk rock guitars and raucous drums. "The Sun Never Shines (on Closed Doors)" was a rare opportunity for Flogging Molly to slow things down, giving us a chance to hear all those acoustic folk instruments, such as Bob Schmidt's mandolin, in their full glory. (KS)

The String Cheese Incident

Michael Kang - SCI :: Rothbury 2009 by Vann

The opening licks of "Rollover" sent the crowd into a frenzy. Since Rothbury is located on the furthest edge of the Eastern Time Zone, most of Cheese's first set took place over the period of a long sunset. "Rollover" > "Can't Stop Now" acted as an easy warm-up for the band, which had not "officially" played publicly in over two years. Guitarist Bill Nershi could hardly keep a smile off his face, clearly in his element while making constant eye contact with audience members. The funk of "Mrs. Brown's Teahouse," although not the band's most potent version, brought back a familiar feeling left by the void of this band's short hiatus. Singing along with 30,000 strong to "Joyful Sound" and "This Must Be The Place," two tracks most of us knew were coming, it wasn't hard to come to the re-realization that SCI produces some of the happiest life music ever.

The audience's first taste of the second set spectacle to come happened during the rhythms of "Desert Dawn." Falling gracefully from the rafters, a small group of suspended dancers emerged above percussionist Jason Hann and drummer Michael Travis. Out in the middle of the crowd on raised platforms, golden hula-hoopers engaged in interpretive dance. Inflatable spheres nearing 15-feet in diameter created a mosh-pit effect as the audience engaged in a massive game of volleyball as mixtures of keys and drums painted twirling trance tempos. Evident by the number of biodegradable, corn-based beer cups littering the ground during set break, it was safe to assume that Cheese's second set was going to be rowdy fun.

The String Cheese Incident :: Rothbury 2009 by Smith

Inviting Keller Williams on stage for two-thirds of the encore brought String Cheese's set full circle. All seven musicians have been working tirelessly on various musical side projects over the past couple years. Through the effortless merging of musical libraries with "Best Feeling" > "Higher Ground" > "Restless Wind," it was comforting to reinforce the notion that these relationships will never cease to be, even as the future of String Cheese remains unknown. (JB)

07/03/09 :: Rothbury Festival :: Rothbury, MI
Set I: Rollover > Can't Stop Now, Miss Brown's Teahouse, Mouna Bowa, Love Is Like A Train, Rain > Daryl, Joyful Sound > This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) > Rollover
Set II: Outside and Inside > Desert Dawn, Black Clouds, Little Hands > Bumpin' Reel, Close Your Eyes, Way Back Home > Drums, Texas > Blackberry Blossom > Texas
Encore: Best Feeling^ > Higher Ground > Restless Wind
^ with Keller Williams

Sound Tribe Sector 9

There is something truly magical transfusing through the themes of an STS9 composition, and the creative organism of this tribe has been hitting a serious stride for some time now. Wordless and extremely powerful through simple actions, the soaring dialogues of "Beyond Right Now" and "Peoples" could represent a blueprint to living a life of simple symbiosis. Just passing through en-route to bed, I wondered if the late night crowd throwing down at the Ranch Arena was pondering similar thoughts. (JB)

Chromeo

Girl Talk :: Rothbury 2009 by Smith

Lipp Service

A long trek to the Tripoli stage brought me to a late night Lipp Service set. It's a simple equation really: Eliot Lipp DJing + Pnuma's Alex Botwin on bass and Lane Shaw on drums = awesome dance party. Psychedelic visuals displayed on the sprawling, wing-like screens were an affable mix with the ghostly synthetic sounds Lipp was manipulating. A sax and trombone player from the band Mishna came out to join the trio, adding a whole new funky element to the mix. Despite the stark contrast, the horns proved to be an ideal mix with Lipp's electronic goodness. (KS)

Girl Talk

Though I've never been a huge fan of his albums, I've heard nothing but fabulous things about Greg Gillis' live Girl Talk sets. All in all, however, Gillis just seemed to be pumping out mostly carbon copies of his studio work. While I'm sure the large mass of people writhing to his music would disagree with me, personally, I don't see what is so appealing about mashing-up one song I don't like with another song I don't like. Don't get me wrong, I love me a good mash-up DJ (Pretty Lights, Too Many DJ's and more), but Gillis' work is hardly as creative as some more fertile practitioners of this genre. When a sample I could get down on reared its head, it always seemed to be all too fleeting, only seeing the light of day for no more than thirty seconds or so. To me this is mostly a novelty act, and the novelty of hearing "War Pigs" mashed-up with "Move Bitch, Get out da Way" loses its charm rather quickly. I could see how Girl Talk would be loads of fun in a club-like setting, but in such a large space his music came off as very underwhelming. (KS)

Rothbury 2009 by Vann