Review & Photos | All Good Music Festival 2015 | Summit Point
By Team JamBase Jul 14, 2015 • 9:00 am PDT
Images by: Suzy Perler
Read Frank’s review below Suzy’s gallery.
After a brief absence and a few venue changes, the All Good Music Festival returned with a vengeance in 2015 at the Berry Hill Farm in Summit Point, West Virginia. With a lineup that was chock full of can’t-miss acts from top to bottom, the buzz about this weekend has been steadily rising for months. Indeed, my biggest challenge this weekend was trying to figure time to eat and sleep as there were almost no dead-spots or throw-away moments for three solid days. The festival was so well balanced, with a healthy dose of jam-rock: moe., Primus; bluegrass: Yonder Mountain String Band, Cabinet, Greensky Bluegrass; funk: Lettuce, Motet, Turkuaz; and late night electronica: STS9, Thievery Corporation, Lotus. There was something for everyone.
A giant Buddha statue sat smiling on the hill above the side by side Dragon and Crane stages, invoking the notion of karma that makes these events work. The mostly under-30 crowd was well behaved and warm and friendly. Smiles all around were the rule of the weekend. The Bunk Police were set up on the walkway leading into the venue, helping to keep people as safe as possible by offering free testing of whatever supplements the patrons chose to add to their music experience. The real police were a visible, but mostly low-key presence, seemingly more concerned with safety than hassling, although there were a handful of arrests, mostly of people who cluelessly flouted the rules. The weather was cooperative, perhaps even too nice as sunburns were the norm while the music was spectacular.
Thursday
Thursday began with a mercifully brief and not at all unwelcome rain storm that cleared just before Twiddle officially opened All Good 2015. OK. I gotta say it: Twiddle seems to be an easy target for certain music snobs who dismiss the band as lightweight. But I’ve seen them a few times now, and have never understood the sentiment. Yeah, Mihali Savoulidis’ vocals, might charitably be described as high tenor, and can occasionally grate, but his guitar skills are top notch, and Ryan Dempsey’s piano is a perfect compliment. Twiddle plays some very lovely, melodic music that invites the listener to close their eyes and sway. Their “Syncopated Healing” set closer was a Top 10 All Good Moment nominee.
Cabinet gets an award for instantly raising the energy level of the crowd with their insanely high tempo bluegrass set. Maybe they realized that they were only playing a 45-minute set and tried to squeeze two hours of music into the space, but it was a fun to watch and the crowd dug it, with exuberant dancers taking advantage of the space afforded by the sparse crowd.
After Cabinet’s quick set, John Butler Trio was the first heavy-hitter of the weekend. Wow. That almost sums it up. I’d never seen him, but was fully aware of his reputation and he lived up to it with an impressive tour-de-force performance. He switches among a variety of stringed instruments from song to song while demonstrating a mastery of each. Following “Ocean,” one of his signature solo songs that shoves his talent right in your face, he proceeded to melt faces off with “Blame it on Me.” I could not help but think I’d been transported to Monterey in 1967, his Hendrix channeling is that good.
The Motet brought the funk with a set that borrowed from the 1970s with tastes of David Bowie, The Commodores, Cameo, KC & The Sunshine Band, Average White Band and even a snatch of The Godfather of Soul. The “Play that Funky Music/Jungle Boogie” meld to close their set was a highlight.
Thursday’s headliner was moe. who played a typical festival set, rife with best-known songs. The set began with a bit of a surprise in “Brent Black,” a song rarely found in that slot. The best part of moe.’s evening performance came from the band’s back-line of drummer Vinnie Amico and percussionist Jim Loughlin. Loughlin played a dazzling xylophone solo as “The Pit” ended. The rest of the band left the stage and Amico took over for a full 10 minutes. One by one, the guys came back on stage and reprised the “Brent Black” opener, bringing the song to a frantic conclusion.
After Greensky Bluegrass played a raging late bluegrass set, the night was capped with a much talked about performance by STS9. STS9 has recently changed bassists and Alana Rocklin is a very welcome addition. She doesn’t say a word, but her guitar speaks loud and clear, laying the throbbing foundation that had the crowd dancing under the stars until 3 a.m. Late night festival sets tap that trippy, EDM, colored lights, white-powder-enhanced festival vibe, and STS9, with their stellar light show and dance beat fit perfectly. I told myself that I’d catch the first half-hour and then try to sleep, but the scene was so hypnotically groovy, I held out to the climatic end.
Friday
All Good Friday was a musical juggernaut. Shane McFarland, covering the festival for Live for Live Music told me in the media tent, “I feel like a hostage.” I know exactly what he meant. From noon until 3 a.m. there was not a point that I felt comfortable walking away from the venue. The afternoon stretch from Turkuaz to Everyone Orchestra, was a solid block of intense and sometimes inane jam music that reminded me of how fortunate we are to have this entire scene and the music it has given birth to.
Turkuaz, a nonet from Brooklyn, tore it up with their high-power jazz/funk, in a performance that was a force of nature. Their take on Dave Mason’s classic “Feelin’ Alright” was a Top 10 All Good nominee, with Josh Schwartz, the baritone-sax player screaming out his vocals.
The Bridge describes their music with a single word: Baltimore. For those like me, born without the gift of insight, that translates to a bridge between bluegrass and funk, although they’re not bounded by genre. They boast string and brass sections, as well as the usual rock suspects. Baltimore was well represented this weekend, boasting four of the bands in the fest’s lineup, as duly pointed out by Bridge front man, Chris Jacobs. If I had to cite the jam of the weekend, I’d go with The Bridge and their take on “Sanctuary.” The song is a slight departure from their usual music, being more along the lines of Stevie Ray Vaughan inspired blues rock, but if The Bridge wanted to make a living playing nothing but that, they’d never lack for work.
I’m not sure that I’d sleep well at night if I was Everyone Orchestra conductor Matt Butler, knowing that I’d have to try and coax brilliance out of a new group of musicians every time I took the stage. Oh yeah, did I mention that they’d never played together before and that none of them really knows who is going to play what, where and when? It is pure improvisation, right down to the vocals, made up on the spot. Given that every one of these players is a professional, you can expect competence (and never be disappointed). But what truly is amazing is how many times brilliance is achieved, like when one of the musicians gets subversive, and does something unexpected. Matt has to scramble and try to keep Everyone on the same page. But he does it gracefully and seemingly without effort. It is pure fun and truly impressive. This incarnation’s lineup was rife with EO virgins, culled from the bands playing at All Good, including Turkuaz with five members.
If there is the equivalent of a jam band supergroup, is has to be The Word. The musicians are a who’s-who of jam music excellence: The North Mississippi Allstars, Robert Randolph and John Medeski. Their music is inspired and impressive, and their Friday afternoon performance was arresting. Randolph plays his pedal steel with such incredible reverence that it easy to recognize his gospel roots. But what amazes is his mastery of rock and the blues, given that until being discovered by the jam world at large, he rarely branched out beyond the church.
Antibalas brought their Afro-beat craziness in the late afternoon, and provided one of the funniest moments of the weekend (and a real reminder of how old I am). When the band broke into a high energy cover of “Crosseyed & Painless,” at least least five of the kids around me said “Wow. I can’t believe they’re covering Phish!” I began another one of my pedantic explanations, but the blank looks I encountered made me think better of it.
Without doubt, the weekend’s best attended performance was Primus. If anyone was still in their tent Friday night, they were holding on to their air mattress for dear life. With the possible exception of Keller Williams, there is no-one in the music business who has more fun doing what he does than Les Claypool, and it is reflected his performance. A Primus show is part stand-up comedy (he refers to Trey as Trey Antipasto), part theater, and all kick-ass rock ‘n roll. Maybe the only man who can match Les for pure craziness is guitarist Larry LaLonde. Les has a wonderful self-deprecating sense of humor, donning a pig’s head mask for a song or two. At one point he said “I saw my music described as alt-metal funk. If somebody had told me that I’d be playing alt-metal funk, I’d’ve stuck a pistol in my mouth and blown my brains out.” But play it he does, and thank the gods. A Top 10 All Good moment was another Les story. It seems some woman killed her TV; literally took out a gun and shot the thing as her kids sat enchanted before it – watching Primus videos. In an ironic twist that could sum up our post-millennial culture, Nancy Grace of Fox news, found fault not in the act of violence, but with Primus, for proffering a song as deplorable as “My Name is Mud,” which Primus immediately launched into, to the overwhelming delight of the crowd.
Lettuce played a late night set that was thoughtfully crafted for the time slot. I saw Lettuce a couple of weeks ago and the music they played was significantly different from Friday night. The All Good set was much more danceable with a strong synth and effect-laden guitar presence.
Thievery Corporation was one of the most anticipated acts of the weekend, and up until they took the stage, nobody knew whether the show was going to be just Eric Hilton and Rob Garza in a DJ set, or the full compliment of a band performance. All Good got the full spa treatment. Thievery plays such a huge variety of music that they can sound like five different bands in a five song stretch. The set began with a typical Eastern inspired piece with sitar accompaniment, moved into a sultry Brazilian bossa nova, jumped into hip-hop, and took off from there, showcasing the musical diversity and versatility that has garnered a devoted following and a solid reputation.
Saturday
Under a blistering sun, All Good headed down the home stretch. As we were preparing breakfast, I suddenly became aware of the music being played on the Believe in Music stage, set up close to the camping area. I had to shut off the grill and walk over to see who was playing such good music at the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. The band was Second Self, and listening to them made me regret that I hadn’t spent more time checking out this tertiary stage. Who needs to sleep when there’s great music to be heard?
I’m ashamed to admit that I had set aside the hour from 2 to 3 p.m. to get some rest. I’d not heard of Elephant Revival, and were it not for a conversation with a neighbor, who insisted I that I see them, I’d still know nothing of them. Thankfully, I took the young woman’s advice. Quite simply, Elephant Revival played the most beautiful, most moving music of the weekend. The festival guide described their music as “transcendent folk,” and transcendent is an appropriate word. Bonnie Paine sings in a tremulous voice that is almost haunting. Bridget Law plays her violin with a serenity and dignity that is beautiful to watch and blissful to hear. The song, “Stolen” actually brought tears to my eyes, and still stirs something in me days later. West Virginia was an appropriate place to hear this band, you can imagine music like this being played in the hollers and on the hilltops of the state one hundred years ago.
Keller Williams may be somewhat of a goof (an image he makes no effort to dispel), but never forget that the man is a craftsman, constructing complex, multi-instrumental songs all alone on stage, one loop at a time. K-Dub has embraced the jam music festival scene like no one else. From his “Porta-potty Song” to “Celebrate Your Youth” he seeks to gently remind folks that we’re all here to enjoy this fun and vibrant scene, and we need to savor it.
Dark Star Orchestra played the penultimate set of the weekend, with an elective show that featured some of the greatest songs in the Dead’s catalog. There are nearly as many Grateful Dead fans who know more about the music from DSO as there are who saw actual Dead performances. DSO so faithfully reproduces not only the music, but the spirit of the Grateful Dead it is sometimes uncanny. I, for one, feel lucky that they do. Hell, I saw the Dead 20+ times and never got to hear “St. Stephen,” but DSO played it Saturday night. In one amazing stretch, that went on for almost an hour, they played “St. Stephen” into “The Other One” back to ”St. Stephen” into”The Eleven” into “Turn On Your Lovelight.” Throw in an “Easy Wind” and a “Viola Lee Blues” and you’ve got a set to remember.
Lotus brought All Good 2015 to a throbbing, pulsing close that proved even after three solid jam-packed days, the festival refused to go gentle into that good night. Frankly, I was amazed that the crowd was still capable of such an expenditure of energy, but Lotus’ relentlessly rising tempo drags you along, no matter how tired you are, and you must obey the command to dance. Lotus has perfected the art of making live dance music with ground-shaking beats, deft pauses, expertly timed tempo changes and trippy synth and guitar riffs.
It is impossible to do justice to every band that played at All Good, there was simply too much great music for one reviewer to listen to, let alone write about. Omission of any band from this review is assuredly not due to the quality of performance. In truth, there was not a single set by any of the three dozen artists who played All Good that was not of high merit. If you were there and want to relive these fabulous moments, or your interest has been piqued by what you’ve read here, Digital Sound Board was recording nearly every artist of the weekend. They were offering CD’s on site, but also are making digital recordings available for download. I plan to purchase several myself. Additionally, there was a good sized contingent of audience tapers all weekend. Check out the Internet Archive to see what’s been posted.
Sunday morning, with the sun a huge red ball hanging above the horizon, we packed up to head back to reality. Of course, after charging cell phones and playing the stereo for three days, the car battery was dead. News of our troubles spread in a circle around our camp site, and before you could say ‘good neighbors’ there were 10 people standing around the vehicle offering their assistance. I’d sworn that I wouldn’t write this, but after that experience, I had to admit that everything was indeed, All Good.
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