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Sunday, 11.01
 Widespread Panic - Voodoo 09 by McCullough |
At 2:15 p.m., The Pogues' lead singer Shane MacGowan looked like he still hadn't turned in from Halloween night. Slurring, incomprehensible and unabashedly brash, MacGowan's drunkenness dragged down the rest of the band and had people in the crowd laughing and confused ("What's wrong with him?" "Is he okay?"). While they pressed on through such songs as "Thousands Are Sailing" and "If I Should Fall From Grace With God," MacGowan took about 10 cigarette breaks, sat down during and between songs, and looked about to incite an inter-band altercation at one point. The closer was appropriate and sadly autobiographical as MacGowan slurred the lyrics of "The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn," spitting out, "There's devils on each side of you, with bottles in their hands," before calling it a set.
Shortly after The Pogues finished, Widespread Panic picked up where they left off in Austin the previous two nights, playing the kind of to-the-point, no frills rock show fans have come to expect from the Georgia boys. This was not your typical, phone-it-in, jam band festival set, and the guys showed no signs of a post-Halloween letdown at any point. After finishing their marathon Halloween show in Austin a mere sixteen hours earlier and bussing it to NOLA, it would've been understandable if WSP showed weariness, but these guys are consummate professionals and no strangers to the road and festival circuit. Having seen Panic countless times around the country in various arenas, festivals, and theaters, it was extra special to see them playing a midday outdoor set on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. From the first notes of "Thought Sausage" it was clear that Panic was in their mid-tour stride. Songs like the lustrous "Blue Indian" were extra powerful in this setting as the sun beamed down on the band and Voodoo faithful.
 Tab Benoit's Swampland - Voodoo 09 by Perrucci |
Jimmy Herring added some extra muscle to the always epic Vic Chesnutt cover suite "Protein Drink/Sewing Machine." The overall blue ribbon for the day would have to go to keyboardist JoJo Hermann for tearing through "Greta" on the upper deck synthesizer and delivering a tasty "All Time Low." The final forty minutes or so of the show were particularly heated with a "Driving Song" > "Diner" > "Pilgrims" > "Driving Song" combo followed by a couple vintage Panic covers to close down a monster set. Playing an inspired and fresh-sounding cover is perhaps what Panic does best and their spin on Dr. John's "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" was another example of Panic killing someone else's song while making it all their own. Robert Randolph could be seen watching from the side of the stage towards the end and fans hoped he'd come sit-in for a tune. Also, one of the band crew's three-year-old son added extra entertainment value bobbin' up and down and spinning out of control during "North" in a way-oversized WSP shirt. Finally, the set closed with "Fixin' to Die" as the sun fell on the final day of Voodoo.
With Panic in the books and The Flaming Lips circus about to unfold across the lawn, we took the short walk across the field to the nearby Billboard Stage to see what Mr. Wayne Coyne had in store for us this time. As usual, Coyne floated around the crowd in his hamster ball underneath a full moon, and you could tell that for a large portion of the crowd this was their first Lips experience as evidenced by the sheer number of dropped jaws and "WTFs?!" being uttered around the grounds.
 The Flaming Lips - Voodoo 09 by McCullough |
Returning to stage, Coyne and the Lips blasted off into a particularly inspired "Race for the Prize," the crown jewel of the band's now-legendary 1999 album The Soft Bulletin as confetti rained throughout City Park for the second straight night. As he's done before, Coyne took a great deal of time to preach and talk to the crowd, whether trying to incite people to "go fucking crazy," sharing a story about chatting with Gene Simmons backstage (who he described as "not usually a very nice person") or continuing to lambaste the 43rd President about Katrina, the war, or whatever else was on his mind. New tune "Silver Trembling Hands" from the Lips' latest release, Embryonic, came shortly thereafter and one of the dancing wild thing chicks stripped down to her birthday suit to dance with Wayne for a moment. The slowed down sing-along "Fight Test" was a snoozer miss, and the same goes for "Yoshimi," as the weary Sunday crowd was not playing along for the most part. It was a shame to not hear the full effect of these two songs, and the stripped down versions just didn't do it for most. It was not until "Pompeii am Gotterdammerung" that the music finally fit in with the spectacle. Coyne genuinely looked moved to the verge of tears while graciously thanking the organizers of Voodoo for having them back. "Do You Realize" was a fitting closer and undoubtedly the most powerful moment of the 75-minute set.
Dog-tired, we walked out of the gates as Lenny Kravitz played a beautiful version of "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over." It would've been nice to stick around for Kravitz as his lights display was amazing and the band sounded great, but it was simply time to hit the dusty trail. Voodoo Experience was a like a three-day vacation in one of our nation's finest cities, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what's in store for 2010. The Big Easy was the place to be for Halloween, and the Voodoo organizers did an admirable job of assembling a wildly diverse, bizarre lineup that'll stick out in the ole memory bank for years to come as one of the zanier, most rockin' Halloweens ever.
More photos from Sunday at Voodoo available here.
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