Filed under: American Idol: Season 5, Birmingham, AL, Brandi Carlile, Random shots, Taylor Hicks, city stages, people
City Stages is in the books, at least for me. After defying the discomfort gods for the first two days, the knees finally gave in early this evening. But not before making one last jaunt through the festival grounds, catching a few memorable performances along the way. Images of Taylor Hicks’ and Brandi Carlile’s performances have been added to the City Stages 2006 gallery on my Smugmug site. Check them out and let me know what you think.
The Little Memphis Blues Orchestra took to the Homegrown Stage as scheduled this afternoon, with a very well known former member in tow two songs into the set. Taylor Hicks played to what had to be the largest crowd yet at the stage for the festival (at least 1,500 in the vicinity). The appearance was only announced shortly before it happened. The performance was definitely exciting, though I still think the best performance I’ve seen them give was the one after Hicks’ win on American Idol last month. Here’s the link to the day after post.
We made a brief excursion over to the Coca Cola stage where The Grass Roots were completing their set. They were able to get a rather large crowd to sing along for a while, though many of them appeared to be already camping out to listen to the Beach Boys later on this evening.
The one performance that I was looking forward to this year was definitely worth the wait. I am a Paste Magazine addict (having finally become a friend on their MySpace page) and had been following Brandi Carlile’s music for a while since getting a chance to hear her on one of their sampler CDs. It was great to finally see her perform live at the mypeople.com stage. She’s definitely got a powerful presence in concert. She also provided the best way to end my City Stages this year with a great cover of Folsom Prison Blues.
A great festival overall, though the way this festival is set up, it is very hard for someone to not enjoy themselves. Several things have changed in the time since I’ve been attending: there are less stages and it is harder to stumble across a band by accident (it’s become a more deliberate festival in terms of knowing what you’re going to listen to beforehand). There is also a larger spectrum of musical styles represented and larger restaurants finally want to take part in the festival as evidenced by Zoë’s Kitchen and Full Moon BBQ setting up shop in the festival area. It will be interesting to see what additional changes are made to the festival for next year as well as how well this year’s festival did in terms of reducing the festival’s debt.
Enjoy the evening.
Cheers.
And Happy Father’s Day!
The urge to continue to sleep is strong, however so is the urge to finish up some work for the office. Or at least attempt to wake up at a relative hour today. Being as stubborn as I am, the idea of not going to City Stages because of the knee was unthinkable. I think its silly until I see others in worse shape than I trying to get to their favorite stage.
The smaller festival footprint (along with the buzz about Taylor Hicks making an appearance at the Miller Lite stage during Snoop Dogg’s performance) made for a much more “close knit” experience as the day went on. Standing over at the mypeople.com stage during the Los Lonely Boys one couldn’t help but realize the crowds as they left early to scout out their spot for one of the two big shows. I cannot speak for the Coca Cola Classic Stage, but the Miller Lite Stage was packed. The second video screen was definitely helpful for some, especially as some realized that the harmonica licks being heard through the night sky were from the mic of Taylor Hicks. I think I can now say I’ve seen everything in music: The American Idol playing harmonica for a live version of “Gin and Juice” with the crowd singing along the whole way. The crowd won out though; the idea of trying to find a spot to set up a chair in that area would have been crazy.
Other interesting finds and comments from during the day:
Rantings of Eva – probably the tightest sounding band I’ve heard at this year’s festival. They were on the Homegrown stage but they’re out of Atlanta. Here’s the link to their MySpace page.
Los Lonely Boys – Second time they’ve been at City Stages. They sounded better this time.
The drum line and the climbing wall were pretty busy yesterday afternoon. I doubt I’ll make it all the way through this evening. We’ll see if I can’t find some more pictures later.
So, if you’re a resident downtown= no ATM access - Interesting to note that as downtown’s residential base has grown, their needs have as well. The days of the second Southtrust ATM sitting on 2nd Avenue outside of the festival grounds are over, so with more than 3,000 people in the downtown area, why cut off access to their ATMs for the weekend? Just a thought if the guys from the festival read this.
More later.
Cheers.
P.S. The pictures are over here.
