On Saturday, there was a roundtable on energy for media and other such folks not open to the common rabble. I got there towards the end. One of the panelists was a friend of nearly twenty years, Mr. Peter Shapiro. He's kind of a big deal, and many moons ago interviewed me and included a clip from the interview in his film "Miles to Go Before I Sleep." He edited it in such a way that made me look like a stupid kid, but at the time the shoe fit a bit too well, so no hard feelings. He was the first interview of the day, and he's up to so many cool things that my role was basically nothing more complicated than making sure the mic was close enough to his mouth. One of the good eggs. Alec handled the next several interviews, including STS9, while I snuck off by myself to hear The Dresden Dolls. I had one of our photo passes, so I was able to get into the press pit.



They covered Pink Floyd, Fugazi, and Neutral Milk Hotel. They played a nice variety of their original material. This is a good band.



And yes, that is the drummer on guitar. I had to leave just before the end to make it back for my 4:30 interview: Michael Franti, the frontman of Spearhead. The guy hugged me before we started. I realized one thing from this interview: the world would be a much, much better place if Michael Franti were in charge of it. He is amazing on so many levels. I was a fan before the interview, and left a bigger one. Wow. Everything he said was head-shakingly right on. I can't remember what happened next, exactly. Maybe we ran to get food? I remember hearing a few seconds of The Black Keys, but since they were too busy to be interviewed by us, I scoffed. Plus I  had to go back to interview Alabama 3. I had set this one up, so was planning to do it, but was somewhat exhausted at this point, and handed it off to Alec. Kind of a mistake. We spoke with Larry Love and Devlin Love. These people are crazy, and I mean that as the highest compliment. Most people say they don't know who this band is, but when you say, "You know, the people that sing the song that plays during the opening credits of The Sopranos," they know. I had bought their latest album, but hadn't listened to it yet. (I have since, and love it - M.O.R.) (Somewhat confusingly, I think the album is called M.O.R, and I had to put the period at the end there to close the parenthetical. And now the comma makes it perhaps even more confusing. Moving on.) When the interview ended, much of Spearhead's set had passed, but we ran to hear what we could. I think I ran first - hmm. I think I have this slightly wrong. I think I went to hear some of their set by myself, went back for A3, then we went together to hear the end. Anyway, when I went first, I had the press pass still, and although they're only supposed to let you in the pit for the first three songs, and I guess it was past that, I talked my way in. I walked into the pit, looked up, and didn't see Monsieur Franti on stage, despite hearing him and the band going nuts. Then all of a sudden I notice: he's right in front of me! He'd jumped off the stage!



Crazy. The end of his set was an amazing, high energy moment, with tons of dancers on stage, concluding with some yoga by Michael. Wish I had seen more of this.  Backstage afterwards, Alec was interviewing a few of the lovely dancers when Evan's phone rang. At this point my work was nearly done. I had an interview with half (i.e. Ken) of The Crystal Method set up for Sunday, but plenty of time before Trey's set started Sunday. So I was feeling pretty good. Evan didn't recognize the number, and let it go to voicemail. Then the same number called my phone. That probably meant it was Rothbury-related, but I was too slow to pick it up. So Evan called back: it was Ken from The Crystal Method! They had to move their interview time because of a conflict with Sunday. They were negotiating a time, and finally settled on one that Evan sort of said out loud to make sure it was ok: 4:30 Sunday. The only time I was really conscious of all weekend had not occurred yet: 4:30 Sunday, when his holiness The Dalai Anastasio's set began. No! I said. So we set it up for that night at around 10pm or so. Whew. Right in the middle of The Dave Matthews Band, but what can you do. We saw some of Dave, but had to leave pretty early to set up the interview, the only band interview we did outside of the media tent. Because of the time change, we were able to talk to both Ken and Scott (after some drama trying to get backstage, and walking into the artist food lounge). They were both very humble, nice, and well spoken. One of my favorite interview moments of the weekend took place during this interview. We could hear Dave Matthews off in the distance. During the interview Dave started covering Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. I could see Ken sort of moving to the music as Scott was talking, and I was too. (I was feeling so loose, knowing this was my last interview of the weekend.) Ken jumped in and said, "Is Dave Matthews covering Sledgehammer? Cool." It was cool, but Ken from the Crystal Method finding it cool made it so much cooler. It was such a nice synthesis of the musical vibe.

After the interview we saw the end of Dave's set, which was fine. Poor Leroi wasn't there because of an accident. Send good health vibes his way. Then we went to see A3's set. Much of the weekend was running around, seeing bits of this band and bits of that band. But I got to see every second of this set, and can say it was without question one of the highlights of the weekend for me. They have a Flavor Flav-type character, some amazing musicians, great songs, and energy that comes from who knows where. Well, I know where, but it's illegal. This is a great live band. M.O.R is fun to listen to (you can tell what it's called there!), but does not do their show justice. Then on the same stage after A3 was The Crystal Method, who had me dancing as hard as I danced all weekend until they had the plug metaphorically pulled at 4am. Saturday night was alright. Not for fighting, Elton; I don't care if you have your own ice cream now. Only Sunday left to tell about. Here's an A3 pic.