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On March 9th, 2008 I awoke baking in the hot sun that was pummelling down onto my little solo tent, set up as it was at the Langerado Festival in the middle of the Florida Everglades. I yawned and stretched and found a coffee somewhere and started my day nice and slow (it’s not that I remember doing any of this, it’s just that it’s basically impossible to imagine that I didn’t).
It had been a pretty great festival thus far, I was camped with a crew of friends from southern Ontario and we had been having a good time seeing a slew of great music together over the last couple of days, including REM, The Beastie Boys, Ben Folds, Umphree’s Magee and a bunch more. The weather had been cooperating all weekend, everyone I met onsite seemed to be in pretty high spirits, the mounted tribal police had scared the nitrous mafia away from our campsite, and the final day of the festival promised more of the same.
Cruising the multiple stages I managed to catch sets by Keller Williams (who isn’t my kind of ‘loopy’), Blind Melon (on their reunion tour without the long-dead Shannon Hoon), and Gov’t Mule*, which might have been the first time I had seen them since the death of bass player Allen Woody eight years previous.
I don’t actually remember much of the Gov’t Mule set – and this should be no reflection whatsoever on the bass player on the gig that day, which I believe might have been Andy Hess – but let me just take a moment to say how much I used to love watching Allen Woody play the bass:
Gosh, I loved watching Allen Woody play the bass. Sigh.
But you know who I love to watch playing the bass even more? C’mon, you know you know. That’s right, it’s gotta be…the headliner of the whole darn Langerado Festival…ladies and gentlemen, how ‘bout that…
Phil Lesh!
Phil and Friends were the last act of the weekend for me, and I couldn’t have been more excited. Ever since I became aware of Phil Lesh he has sat atop my list of favourite rock bass players and I was, am, and will always be very honoured to share air with the guy when he’s playing music.
For this show his friends included the wonderful Larry Campbell on guitar (who played with Bob Dylan for years before becoming Levon Helm’s musical director) alongside the highly respected Jackie Greene, John Molo on drums and Steve Molitz on keys. The setlist was a dreamy hit parade of Grateful gold from the Sugar Mags opener through songs like The Wheel, Uncle John’s Band, Cumberland Blues, Help/Slip/Franklin’s, China Cat, I Know You Rider, New Speedway, Unbroken Chain, and Viola Lee Blues right up to the Casey Jones encore. They even did Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, a song I’m sure Mr. Campbell had no trouble getting through.
Overall it was a great capper to a fun festival in the ‘Glades. It’s a shame that after a six-year run this would turn out to be the final year of Langerado. Unfortunately for the organizers, the best thing about this festival was that they clearly paid lots of money for top-notch bands and didn’t get enough people onsite to pay for it. Good music + small crowds makes for a great festival but it sure isn’t sustainable.
Bottom line is if Langerado were still happening I would still be going.
*Curiously, I had seen Gov’t Mule for the first time exactly ten years before this show, on March 9th, 1998 in Montreal. I even met Warren outside before the concert that night, though I never did get a chance to meet Allen Woody.
Todd Man Out 