My Morning Jacket Steals The Show: Lockn’ Festival Continues On Saturday – Photos & Review

Words by: Scott Bernstein

Images by: Ian Rawn

Lockn’ Festival :: 8.27.16 :: Oak Ridge Farm :: Arrington, VA

Check out a gallery of Ian’s photos after Scotty’s review.

For those from out of the area there’s lots of expense involved with attending a major festival such as Lockn’, which continued on Saturday at Oak Ridge Farm in Arrington, Virginia. Between gas and travel costs, the food you’ll eat, the drinks you’ll drink and of course the ticket, it’s not cheap to hit a festival the size of say Lockn’, Bonnaroo or Outside Lands. We go for the promise of peak musical moments that can’t be experienced elsewhere and Saturday at Lockn’ was chock full of ’em. I caught a number of performances which will be forever burned into my memory, so I’d say it was an incredibly successful day.

The weather in Arrington was hot and humid once again, but didn’t reach the brutal level of the previous day. Clouds provided cover more often than not and festivalgoers had refined the best ways to keep cool over the first two days of the event. Coming into the day one of the big stories was Brandi Carlile canceling, which was met more with shrugs than anything else. With no time to find a replacement, set times were changed giving some acts more time than originally expected. Quite honestly, Carlile did us a favor in the respect that My Morning Jacket had an even longer headlining set than planned, lasting until nearly 1 a.m. And what a set it was. The Jacket stole the show at Lockn’, setting the bar so high that it’ll be nearly impossible to top what Jim James & Co. laid down on a swampy Saturday night in Virginia.

I made it on site to catch a large portion of Vermont jam quartet Twiddle’s set. Guitarist Mihali Savoulidis has a very distinctive and raspy voice in the same camp as Dave Matthews. Most people either love Twiddle or hate them and a lot of where you land has to do with your appreciation of Mihali’s voice. One thing that can’t be denied is how talented the foursome are. Their compositions are filled with impressive fugues and hard-to-pull-off twists and turns that will turn your head. Twiddle brought out Keller Williams, who performed a Grateful Grass set earlier in the day, for “Best Feeling.” The Vermonters had been covering “Best Feeling” since 2012, so it was no surprise the band members were all smiles as KDub led them through a top-notch version of his SCI collaboration from 1999’s Breathe, complete with a “Smooth Criminal” (Michael Jackson) jam.

You can always count on a set of hard-hitting NOLA-flavored funk from Galactic and their Lockn’ set was no exception. Harmonica wiz Lee Oskar was the group’s special guest along with frequent collaborator Erica Falls. Watching Stanton Moore in action was a treat as the drummer is a whirl of motion who plays powerful and deep in-the-pocket beats, seemingly on every song. Falls was out for most of the set, while Oskar only contributed to a handful of tunes. Highlights included “Hey Na Na” and “Dolla Diva” as well as Falls belting out a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.”

Next up was the Lockn’ debut of Hard Working Americans, a band fronted by singer-songwriter Todd Snider featuring Widespread Panic bassist and drummer Dave Schools and Duane Trucks, multi-instrumentalist Jesse Aycock, keyboardist Chad Staehly of Great American Taxi and guitarist Neal Casal of Chris Robinson Brotherhood. HWA is the perfect vehicle for the beloved Snider, who now has a true jam band that often goes off on adventurous excursions. Casal ripped one crushing solo after another throughout the set, while Aycock’s pedal steel was a revelation. “Stomp And Holler” was a particular stand out thanks to Snider’s emotional vocal delivery and the organ swirls and electric piano work provided by Staehly.

A long delay followed Hard Working Americans’ set before Phil Lesh & Friends’ performance began. The schedule went off the rails at this point and no one seemed to have any clue when the Grateful Dead bassist and his crew would take the stage. After what seemed like an hour, the rotating stage finally moved as Lesh and his band kicked into “Scarlet Begonias.” It was a goosebump inducing moment as the stage rotated to show off Phil’s massive ensemble. Not only was Lesh joined by The Infamous Stringdusters, but also Phish drummer and keyboardist Jon Fishman and Page McConnell, Furthur/JRAD drummer Joe Russo and guitarist Anders Osborne. This was a huge band that took up every inch of the stage. I can only imagine the number of electrical outlets needed to handle all the instruments. This version of Phil & Friends sounded like no other and considering it’s not likely we’ll ever see the lineup again I reveled in every moment.

I had a fantastic vantage point perched directly above Russo and Fishman. Russo led the drumming corp as he spent years as Lesh’s drummer with Furthur and it was particularly cool to watch Joe direct Fish. Page focused almost exclusively on piano and played so many beautiful fills throughout the set. Sure, he didn’t sing. Sure, there wasn’t too much in the way of jamming and sure, there were almost too many musicians on stage, but I took the set for what it was, not for what it wasn’t. One of the many elements the ‘Dusters added to the Phil set were about the best vocal harmonies ever found on a Lesh project stage. Their sweet harmonies on songs such as “Dire Wolf” and “Rosalie McFall” were just gorgeous. Stringdusters guitarist Andy Falco showed off his skills on electric throughout the set and more than held his own.

The musician count went up by two towards the end of the Phil set, when the husband-and-wife duo of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi emerged from the wings for a fierce “Mr. Charlie” and tender “Sugaree.” Trucks put his slide to great use during both, but “Mr. Charlie” stood out as high point of the set. Osborne had his turn in the spotlight on a loping “Shakedown Street.” The acoustic instruments most of the ‘Dusters played fit “Shakedown” better than I would’ve thought. Phil & Friends ended their set with a lengthy “Terrapin Station” sung by the Grateful Dead bassist. His voice was painful at times, but I was laser focused on what Fishman and Russo were doing. Fish utilized brushes and played fills, while Russo handled the heavy lifting. It was the pair’s most impressive song of the set and here’s hoping we get to see the Russo/Fishman pairing once more because it was sure a sight to behold.

Last year the Tedeschi Trucks Band led not only the highlight of Lockn’ ’15, but one of the best sets of the year in general with a glorious, guest-filled tribute to Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen. This time around the 12-piece went a completely different direction by treating festivalgoers to a guest-less set heavy on the jams. I’ve seen at least a dozen TTB shows and this was by far the most I’ve seen them jam. We’re not just talking solos, we’re talking full-fledged group improvisation with Trucks’ masterful guitar work at the heart of it all. As usual, the Tedeschi Trucks Band played plenty of covers from a wide range of original artists. Some of the best were Tedeschi singing “Had To Cry Today” by Blind Faith for the first time (David Hidalgo sang the cover when the TTB debuted it earlier this summer), a freak out on Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew” and what has turned into one of the group’s signature songs – Derek & The Dominos’ “Keep On Growing.”

After a fairly short break following the TTB’s set, My Morning Jacket took the stage for an 18-song, all-killer no-filler performance people will be talking about for years to come. Guitarist Carl Broemel showed the band knew what was up coming into Lockn’ during a chat with the Richmond Times-Dispatch when he said “You have to step it up because these people have been at it all day, hopefully drinking some water and God knows what else. And maybe they’re looking forward to seeing us at the end of the day. I think it’s more of a challenge to play at a festival in that respect. Everybody’s been hit over the head with so much music up to that point that you’ve really got to deliver.” Deliver is a huge understatement as they hit a grand slam to end the main stage action on Friday at Lockn’.

My Morning Jacket gave a relentless performance from the first anthemic notes of “Victory Dance” to the incredibly potent “One Big Holiday” closer. Included within were a selection of the best songs from their studio albums and a whopping four covers. After MMJ released The Waterfall last year, they barely played any covers. Jim James & Co. had plenty in store for Lockn’ as they debuted a passionate rendering of Burt Bacharach’s “What The World Needs Now Is Love” and a frenetic tribute to David Bowie in the form of “Rebel Rebel.” The quintet also dusted off a lively cover of Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved,” just the second time they’ve ever played it and first since the 2015 installment of their One Big Holiday destination festival. Then there was a breathtaking cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain” that had festivalgoers staring at the band in amazement with a sense of satisfaction that comes with seeing a set you know is a once-in-a-lifetime, special performance. Kudos to MMJ for stealing the show at Lockn’ and earning every penny they were paid.

I was absolutely exhausted at this point as we were three days into the fest with one more to go, but I had one more set to check out. SuperVIPs were treated to a performance dubbed “Steal Your Bass” featuring the three most iconic jam scene bassmen, Lesh, Schools and Mike Gordon of Phish, along with the Hard Working Americans. A crowd of maybe 100 witnessed the HWA play their own material for about 20 minutes before welcoming out Lesh and Gordon. The three bassists started off with a bass duel backed by just Duane Trucks on drums. In a Bass Player magazine interview, Lesh described a previous duet with had with Gordon and the description is just as apt for what went down with the trio, “I did a bass duet with Mike Gordon when I sat in with Phish. I generally abhor bass duets, but it was marvelous- it was actually beautiful. …we just played it by ear. He knows how to get out of my way, and I know how to get out of his. It was like two hippopotami humping!” Each bassist has such a different sound, but they blended together of so well.

When the bass trio came to a close, the three bassists and the HWA lit into “He’s Gone.” Mike did a beautiful job singing the tune and it was especially cool to hear the harmonies on the chorus from Phil and Dave. The ensemble took plenty of time making their way through what has to be one of the best versions of “He’s Gone” ever played. As if this all wasn’t magical enough, Susan Tedeschi emerged from side stage to sing the chorus as well. Following a quick romp through a HWA original, Phil and Mike vacated the stage. The three were only on stage together for about 20 minutes, but what a 20 minutes it was. It’s a shame everyone who paid for a ticket to Lockn’ couldn’t see it.

The 2016 installment of Lockn’ ends on Sunday with a full Phish show along with performances from the Wailers, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Gary Clark Jr., Phil Lesh & Friends and more. Head here for the many ways to watch or listen to the action live from Lockn’.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”355″ gal_title=”20160827 Lockn Ian Rawn”]