So Much Sun Day: Record-Breaking Lockn’ 2016 Concludes In Virginia – Photos & Review

Words by: Scott Bernstein

Images by: Ian Rawn

Lockn’ Festival :: 8.28.16 :: Oak Ridge Farm :: Arrington, VA

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

A four-day festival is a long haul, especially when the days are filled with real-feel temperatures in the 100s, which was the case at Lockn’. The Arrington, Virginia event came to a close on Sunday with one more full day of music. Visions of My Morning Jacket’s awe inspiring Saturday night set were still dancing in festivalgoers’ heads as they were treated to a more low-key finale that still had plenty of highlights from the Wailers, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Phil Lesh & Friends, Phish and more. Lockn’s impressive lineup did its job with organizers revealing on Sunday that this year’s record-breaking crowd of 30K+ topped attendance at the first three installments.

Virginia native Keller Williams continued a Lockn’ tradition by kicking off the music on Sunday with a gospel-oriented set at the Blue Ridge Bowl, this one of the Grateful variety. Williams, More Than A Little and guitarist John Kadlecik tackled a mix of emotion-laden Grateful Dead songs including “Ripple,” “Attics Of My Life” and “Eyes Of The World” with fitting tunes from the JGB repertoire such as “I’ll Be With Thee.” Another Virginia act, The Dharma Initiative were up on first on the main stage and the quartet kept the happy vibes and the crowd grooving.

Roger McNamee and Jason Crosby brought the latest iteration of their Doobie Decibel System to Lockn’ featuring an outstanding lineup of Pete Sears on bass, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz on guitar and Jay Lane on drums. The pair and their crew mixed originals with a strong batch of covers such as CSNY’s “Ohio” and The Beatles’ “For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite.” Vermont’s Twiddle then returned for their second set of the weekend and the band was in a particularly good mood as keyboardist Ryan Dempsey had just gotten engaged. The quartet worked through six songs that showed off the diversity of a sound that equally takes influence from Primus, Phish, DMB, Sublime and Frank Zappa. Twiddle started the set with one of their newest tunes, “Blunderbuss” and just under an hour later the set came to a close with one of Twiddle’s oldest tunes, “Frankenfoote.”

Reggae legends the Wailers rolled through one Marley classic after another as the temperatures peaked. Dwayne “Danglin” Anglin nailed Bob’s vocals on “Buffalo Soldier,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Lively Up Yourself” and the other Marley tunes that formed the Wailers’ 60-minute set. Chris Robinson is one of few Lockn’ four-timers having played the inaugural fest with The Black Crowes, returning with the Brotherhood in 2014 and guesting during the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tribute last year. Robinson and the Brotherhood did double duty on Sunday as they played a set of their own and backed Phil Lesh. The CRB continue to evolve with each passing studio album and gel with each passing tour. Robinson, Neal Casal and Adam MacDougall finish each other’s musical sentences at this point, while the band now has the strongest rhythm section of its 5+ year run. The best original material in the CRB set were the tunes from the new album, especially its first single “Narcissus Soaking Wet.” Chris and the band also delivered a blustery rendition of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” complete with wild synth work from MacDougall.

There wasn’t much in the way of interlocking sets and collaborations on Sunday. Even the CRB took a few minutes before returning to the stage with Phil Lesh. One collaboration that did happen was blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr. sitting-in on “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and “Wang Dang Doodle” during the Phil & Friends set. Clark Jr. shredded through both songs, leaving fans wanting more. With Robinson up front there was no sharing vocals. Outside of the Gary Clark Jr. collaboration, highlights from Sunday’s Phil set included a throbbing “New Speedway Boogie,” a pretty “The Wheel” and a smoking “Hard To Handle.” Clark Jr. then got to show off his band with a 74-minute set of his own. The Austin bluesman put a big focus on material from his 2012 album Blak & Blu despite releasing a new LP last September. Clark Jr. doesn’t have a huge stage presence, but he makes up for it in chops and sheer soul power.

Once again, there was a full hour break before Phish took the stage for two sets to close out Lockn’. This time I read the schedule in advance and appreciated having the hour to catch up with friends, grab a bite and stake out space for Phish. The foursome laid down a fairly vanilla first set outside of “Fuck Your Face,” but the “Light” as part of a seamless second set filled with heavy-hitters was a highlight of the entire festival. Why Phish didn’t embrace the collaborative spirit of Lockn’, I’ll never know. Head here for a full rundown on Sunday’s Phish sets.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but it will be extremely interesting to see what route Lockn’ organizers go when putting together next year’s lineup. Do they go back to the Widespread Panic/SCI/Dead members well? Will Neil Young finally play the sets he was scheduled to play in 2013 before an injury derailed his headlining performances? Time will tell.

On a final note, I couldn’t have been more impressed with the logistics. Getting in and out was a breeze. Despite the record crowd, there was still plenty of room to move around and I didn’t come across anyone who had a bad time. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to walk through the concert field about an hour after MMJ’s set and there was garbage everywhere. It was disgusting. When I returned the next morning the field was completely clean, I don’t even know how they had the time to get everything so spiffy so quickly. A job well done to the entire Lockn’ team.

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Phish Setlist