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| Blogging the 2008 Tempe Music Festival | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| By Chris Hansen Orf and Chris Page Get Out |
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| March 29, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Saturday, March 29 - Jump to Friday- Get festival details More Ferg, and a wrap-up Twenty hours. That's how long we spent blogging at the Tempe Music Festival. It was a blast. We drank too many energy drinks, ran into old friends and listened to some pretty great tunes by, to name a few, Cowboy Mouth, Peachcake, My Chemical Romance, even the Fergster, a surprise hit for those of us assuming a pop princess would thud on a lineup otherwise chock full o' crunchy rockness. Hot off the e-presses, here's Chris Orf's verdict: "After six years of hit and miss events (due to rain and some lackluster past headliners), the Tempe Music Festival has arrived, growing into one of Arizonas biggest musical events. An estimated 25,000 fans packed Tempe Beach Park this year, making 2008 the best year of the fest to date." READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE.       Special thanks to fellow Get Outer Jess Harter for supplying some of the pics above, as well as several in today's slideshow. Awesome stuff. And thanks to Martin Cizmar for shooting lots of video, including the footage of Fergie. Chris Page, 4:09 a.m. EXCLUSIVE: First Fergie pics & vid published! She played "My Humps." She played "Clumsy." She strutted herself (and sang live!) in a smart white pants-and-vests outfit. And she declared herself absolutely not preggo.    Chris Page, 11:28 p.m. Crazy from the heat We're off to grab the Fergie stage action. Check back later for video of her, the Gin Blossoms, The Meat Puppets and, of course, Chris Orf's final verdict on the fest. Here's what I'll be sussing while I shoot photos in front of the stage during the Ferg-Ferg's first few songs: Lip-synch or not lip-synch? Chris Page, 10:18 p.m. Fergie, dutchess of heart So I was just about as close as you can get to Fergie while she did her interview with TMF TV, before she hit the stage. We're talking inches from her humps, so to speak. Getting close to her Fergaliciousness was pretty cool for me, but nowhere near as big a deal as it was for one woman I met backstage. Turns out this woman is from Akron, Ohio (my hometown), and is visiting her sister and brother-in-law. She's a big Fergie fan as was her son, who passed in a car accident last summer. I talked to her brother-in-law, who said they made a tribute video for him set to "Big Girls Don't Cry." "We all just bawled when we watched it," he said. "And we'll all be crying tonight when she plays that song." As the Duchess passed by, she signed a shirt the woman had featuring a photo of her late son. Really touching. Martin Cizmar, 10:12 p.m. Pups, Blossoms and Fergie in the house  I was hanging out by the Pizza Hut joint here at the TMF and I ran into Cris Kirkwood, Meat Puppets bassist I interviewed Cris for a feature for Get Out magazine this week in anticipation of the MP's first show in the Valley in more than a decade and today Cris was his usual hilarious self. He asked me if "this is the line to get Fergie's autograph." Hysterical. The Meat Puppets were incredible as always, playing classics from "Meat Puppets II" (1984), "Up on the Sun" (1985) and "Too High to Die" (1984). I spoke with Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms backstage (he's a big Puppets fan) and Robin was very excited to play the fest for the second year in a row in the town that made them famous. They used to play Long Wong's down on 7th and Mill in the early '90s before "New Miserable Experience" broke the band nationally in 1992. Later, during the Blossoms set, Fergie arrived and put security on their P's and Q's. it was like the Red Sea parting as she made her way to be interviewed by Thomas Bond on TMF TV. She seemed very cool though, and SPOILER she's not preggers!  Check in later tonight for my full concert review. Chris Hansen Orf, 9:56 p.m. Meet your Meat    Man, it was good to hear The Meat Puppets again. For the uninitiated: Curt Kirkwood (guitar/vocals) and brother Cris Kirkwood (bass/vocals), pictured. Chris Page, 8:51 p.m. A tribute to Fergaliciousness  Remember when I told you we'd be doing a hot bodies competition? Well, when it comes to hot bodies of dudes and dudettes, there are no losers. So here, a photo album. Chris Page, 7:48 p.m. Garage bands have feelings too  Breaking: The winner of the Tempe Music Fest garage band competition (OK, the 2008 COX ROX Ultimate Garage Band Competition) is ... Scottsdale's The Vigilantes. They'll go on tonight at 10:10, right before Fergie. Get your listen now. Chris Page, 6:55 p.m. Eve 6, Fun 0  What can you say about some-hit-wonders Eve 6? The band's finishing its set right now. And it's like they never played at all, for all the sonic impact they imparted. "We were a band, and then we weren't a band," bassist/vocalist Max Collins told the crowd. Why? "We were confused," he offered. Hm. Up next, The Meat Puppets! The band guys have been hovering around the festival, apparently. I'll let Orf tell you about that later. Chris Page, 6:08 p.m. 'Duffman can never die; only the actors who play him.' I think Captain Morgan sensed my disdain the moment I approached him.  My kickball pals Meghan Bingle and Grant Voss, in attendance, love the goateed rum mascot, so I went up to him to get their picture with him. He instructed them to raise one leg, as featured in the commercial."How'd you get to be a captain?" I asked, framing the photo. "I was always a captain," he replied, raising his leg. "There's no auditioning process?" "No, I was a baby captain." I sure would like some delicious Malibu right about now. Rants: 1. Cowboy Mouth was great, but it would have been nice to see them play a little later, to a bigger crowd. 2. You can't walk three feet in any direction without running into a costumed promo person; there is one Rockstar girl in pink sunglasses that is ridiculously hot, but other than that it's kinda Duffmanish. Raves: 1. I haven't yet been to Mill Avenue's The Big Bang piano bar, but they're putting on quite a show between acts on the main stage. I'll be there sometime this week. 2. Again, that Circle K store is awesome. Martin Cizmar, 5:34 p.m. In which I get utterly rocked. I just had my mind blown by Cowboy Mouth.  Plus, the bass player is kinda cute. Chris Page, 5:30 p.m. Family, ice cream, the vert ramp and Cowboy Mouth This the first year the I've covered the TMF when my wife and two boys, ages 7 and 5, came down to enjoy the festival experience. My boys got to hold those snakes I talked about earlier (like most kids, they were fearless in the face of a 14-foot python), got a caramel apple, ate a Dryer's ice cream bar and played with the beach balls that were punched aloft by the quickly growing crowd. I took them over to the vert ramp where pro skaters were catching some major air, then they got to sit on a Harley for the first time (they have the bug now, too). The Tempe Music Festival is a great place for families I've seen a ton of other kids with their parents enjoying the music and sunshine as well... New Orleans roots rockers Cowboy Mouth just wrapped their set on the mainstage, and just like last year, the band revved up a sun-drenched, sleepy crowd with their evangelical preachings from the Church of Rock 'N' Roll, converting the whole crowd in the process. What a great band Eve 6 is up next on the main stage, and they've got a heck of a tough act to follow. I met Channel 3's Brad Perry backstage Brad is a musician himself and hosts the "Untapped Unplugged" concert series locally (check out untappedunplugged.com). Brad might join Valley pop heroes The Loveblisters on the Emerging Artists Stage for a tune later this evening. It's not to late to get down here, gang good times and great music! Chris Hansen Orf, 4:43 p.m. Mmm, Squishee! So the TMF's promo row is mostly standard. Big ol' truck selling brats, a few flat screen TVs hooked up to Guitar Hero, girls in skimpy outfits promoting booze, et cetera, et cetera.  And then there's the Circle K tent. Your favorite gas station has a little minimart set up in a trailer, complete with their off-brand, slush-based drink, Funyuns (my favorite spherical, onion-flavored corn chip) and hot dogs on the usual rolling grill. They've also got beef jerky, Tums and the other assorted dry goods you'd need for a road trip. It even looks like a Circle K minus the weirdos and hobos loitering out front.And get this they're selling this stuff for, like, the same prices you'd pay at a regular Circle K. Not inflated concert prices. It's pretty awesome. Apparently the money goes to charity, so that's cool too. But, mostly, I'm just a fan of $1 bags of Funyans. And Jones Soda flavored slush-based drinks. Mmmmm. Martin Cizmar, 4:14 p.m. Say cheese Click here for a slideshow of Saturday's Tempe Music Fest.  Chris Page, 4:11 p.m. Nothing but a cool tat Drummers tend to have great tattoos. Y'know?  Chris Page, 3:12 p.m. Meat Puppets, pythons and Harleys I rolled down to day two of the Tempe Music Festival early today (I was here until midnight last night and got here at 11 a.m. this morning I should have just slept in Tempe Beach Park) and the first person I saw was Elmo Kirkwood of Valley band Kirkwood Dellinger. Elmo's dad Curt and uncle Cris make up two thirds of legendary Valley band Meat Puppets, who are playing on the main stage later this evening, their first show in their old hometown in over a decade. Curt rolled up in a chauffeured golf cart and I got to talk with him briefly (I've been a major MP fan since the '80s) very cool guy. I can't wait to see their set. Elmo told me the band is playing better than ever and that they will "melt (my) face off." Then I wandered over to where the Desert Wildlife Presentations area, where naturalist Philip J. Rakoci was hanging out with a variety of tortoises, bearded dragons and snakes (including an albino python and a 14 foot, 80 pound reticulated python). Snakes have never been my thing (ever since I confronted a rattler while motor-biking in the desert as a kid), but these snakes were so tame that I actually held a corn snake, the first time I've ever had my hands on a snake. Phil's a great guy and he's great with kids, letting them hold the pythons and the lizards. Very cool. Then I wandered over to the Harley-Davidson area, where you can sit on some of the new "Dark Customs" like the Nightster and a Lowrider. These bikes are flat black and bobbed out like '50s bikes. I want one, but they wouldn't give one to me... Musically things are kicking off great. Matthew Moon just got done on the main stage and I'm headed over to watch one of the greatest live bands I've ever seen, Cowboy Mouth. Hasta... Chris Hansen Orf, 2:45 p.m. The merch girl With every gust of wind, Elyse Rightmer's job gets harder. "AHHH!" "Oh My God!" Stickers fly off the table, and Rightmer who's working the merch booth on behalf of Three Ugly Guys, Saturday's second Emerging Artists band leaves her post to pick them up.  Rightmer, a 22-year-old Mesa Community College nursing student, has known these guys for years and been going to their shows since they formed, following them from cover band to original artist with a record pressed. About six month ago, they asked her to pimp merch at their shows."They were like, 'Hey, you're hot. Wanna sell stuff?'" So here she stands in front of a sparse, early afternoon crowd. Merch-pushing is Rightmer's hobby now. In February, she worked four or five shows for the band, always abiding by three simple rules: 1. Look good. 2. Be confident in your product. 3. Talk to all the drunk people. "It's all about being a sales person," she says. "I could be a dirty car salesman, I'm sure, I just chose to do this." Despite her salesmanship, the band's beer coozies are still hard to move, she admits. "Someone thought that was a really good idea." Martin Cizmar, 2:35 p.m. You take the good with the bad  Pity the opening bands. There's a group on stage now, Three Ugly Guys, that's a total Dave Matthews clone. (Even down to the acoustic-strumming frontman and sax-toting sideman. Violin? Nope. Alternate percussion.) And nobody seems to be paying attention. The singer makes note of it. He seems bitter. I bet they're playing for free. Again, I say, pity the opening bands.  On a more positive and hopeful note, I'd like to direct your attention to our newest contributor, Get Out writer Martin Cizmar (at left). Right now, he's chatting up a merch booth girl. Let's see what happens. Chris Page, 2:16 p.m. Breakfast of champions Morning, folks, and welcome to Day Two of the Tempe Music Fest, with headliners Fergie, Gin Blossoms and The Meat Puppets. Get Out will be on the scene all day, so keep an eye out! With temps hitting 86 degrees this afternoon, be sure to wear something light. And, perhaps, on the sexier side. In honor of Her Fergieness, we'll be on the lookout for the festival's hottest bods. Check back later for that.  Oh, and here are some handy tips. What to bring and not bring to the fest today, courtesy festival organizers. Smug comments, though, are solely mine:Yes: - Backpacks (will be searched, natch) - Sealed water containers/plastic bottles - Personal cameras (Impersonal cameras will be escorted out of the park.) Sorry, no: - Glass bottles - Containers, 'cept for water bottles - Weapons (Really? A dire need to bring your hatchet?) - Outside alcoholic beverages - Lawn chairs (This isn't a Marshall Tucker Band county fair gig.) - Bicycles (?!?! They'll be gone with the Schwinn.) - Pets (Wouldn't you expect Fergie to have a small chihuahua or something? She might get a pass.) - Weapons (In case you forgot since reading the start of this list.) - Professional cameras or recording devices (Unless you're like us, and have snazzy press passes.) Chris Page, 9:54 a.m. DAY ONE Friday, March 28 - Jump to Saturday- Get festival details Chemical fix  My Chemical Romance played to the biggest crowd on opening day in the Tempe Music Festivals six years. The New Jersey based band, led by lead singer Gerard Way, had the mostly black clad teen and early 20s crowd singing along from their opening tune, Im Not Okay (I Promise), a blast of the bands patented catchy power pop/punk that sounds like sped up Cheap Trick with brooding, emo-laced lyrics. READ THE FULL REVIEW. Chris Hansen Orf 2:08 a.m. In which I probably offend far too many teenagers  Good times, good times. Your faithful multimedia slave spent far too much time hunched over a laptop, near a reliable wifi connection, to spend the entire afternoon gawking at bands on stages. But I did experience some tasty highlights. Like seeing the wangdoodle kids of Peachcake setting up their show stuffed animals, a garbage can, pajamas and all. Total weirdness. Total, catchy weirdness. (Peachies pictured, at right.) I witnessed the crazy intensity that is Nonpoint surely the dreadlocked heir to the Bad Brains throne, even if they are a tad too nu-metal to sit there comfortably. On the "Emerging Artists Stage" (is that a little condescending for these pro-level dudes?) they gave mainstagers My Chemical Romance a run for their money.  Speaking of the Chemical bros. ... I can't be the only one to realize "Welcome to the Black Parade" is their version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Slow march, soaring vocals, then crushing segue to rockin' outro ... BISMILLAH, NO! (Sorry, carried away.) Anyway, "Bohemian" is Queen's "Stairway to Heaven," so at least there's lineage. From the first strains of Chemical's "Parade," people flocked to the audience like (slightly icky metaphor ahead) rats wooed by the Pied Piper. Which is always a cool moment, when a rock hit causes a palpable energy. (Still, I contend Chemical is a standard-issue arena rock act from the '70s, if arena rockers hung around a Hot Topic a bit too much.)All in all, a fun day. But really, it's just a warm-up for tomorrow. I'll be at the fest at noon. If you see a poor schlub, well, schlepping a video camera, digital camera, microphone and laptop around the festival grounds, be sure to say howdy. Chris Page, 11:33 p.m. Gerard Way
As soon as Thomas goes live with Gerard Way, I hear a literal stampede coming and all these teenaged girls dressed in black are clamoring to get a glimpse of him. You'd swear The Beatles were in the house, the squealing was so intense. I took an elbow to the chest as a girl jockeyed with her cell phone to get a picture of the Chemical singer. When the interview was over, I went backstage and talked to Thomas and my colleague, G.O. nightlife editor Kelly Wilson, was back there and Thomas said he wanted to interview us about covering the festival for Get Out magazine. My interview was not broadcast on the jumbotron, no girls screamed my name and after it was over I signed no autographs, which is one of the many differences between Gerard Way and myself. I've run into a bunch of my friends out here tonight (Dan O'Leary, owner of venerable Tempe nightclub Monkey Pants; Josh Kennedy, guitarist for Tempe band Violet Wild; Ken Koziol, founder of the Tempe Music Festival) and I've met a bunch of really cool people out here too. The Tempe Music Festival always has a great vibe, and this year is no exception. Check out my concert reviews tonight right here, where I'll go over the highlights of the first day of the festival, and check out my blogs on day two tomorrow. Adios! Chris Orf, 10:35 p.m. Bring on the pink stuff We're reporting the festival from, oddly enough, the "control center" trailer for the festival's organizers. (It's where the Internet's easiest to get.) Which means we're privy to some juicy stuff. Some, we can't tell. But we can share this bit of dirt: Fergie's giving everybody fits. Her plane didn't come in when it should have, and nobody knows now when, exactly, she'll be arriving. Should have been tonight. This, one must assume, is why promoters get paid to do this stuff. This, one must assume, is why promoters tend to consume lots of Pepto. Chris Page, 9:24 p.m. Viva technology! A video camera, a laptop, a wifi connection and a lot of loud music in the background. See what you missed on day one. Chris Page, 9:10 p.m. The Tram So when I got to the Tempe Music Festival, I had to park about a half mile away and catch a tram, which would drop me off at the media trailer. As I was sitting on the tram, two dudes sitting near me, both roped with tattoos and one guy had those huge earring studs, were wondering if the sun would be down by 6:15, and another dude came on the tram in an absolutely awesome blue and white cowboy shirt. Anyway, I wandered over the Emerging Artists Stage around 6 and the two dudes I saw on the tram were tuning up their guitars -- turns out they were in Drive By, a Jersey City based pop/punk band that is on tour with tonight's headliners, My Chemical Romance. I checked them out for a bit -- good stuff, melodic pop with crunchy punk guitars -- then went over to catch Tempe's Dear and The Headlights, who are one of the Valley's higher-profile acts on a national level (they have an indie label deal). As I walked over to the Main Stage I could hear the band's patented well-crafted pop, and as I got closer I could see that the dude singing was the guy in the awesome blue and white cowboy shirt from the tram. Maybe on the tram ride back to the lot tonight I'll be sitting with the My Chemical Romance dudes... Due up on the Emerging Artist Stage is one of my favorite Valley bands, Peachcake, and on the mainstage will be Puddle Of Mudd -- I'm off to check them both out... Chris Hansen Orf, 7:34 p.m. Photo development in about an hour  Click here for an updated slideshow from Day One. Chris Page, 7:25 p.m. Opening notes Valley music fans are beginning to stream into the Tempe Music Festival, and after being greeted by The Big Bang Dueling Pianos who play classic rock covers ("Lay Down Sally," "In the Midnight Hour") in between acts on the mainstage up and coming Valley band Dorsey kicked things off on the main stage. MIxing the heartland rock sounds of Seger and Mellencamp with elements of Americana stomp, the five piece band dropped in some clever shout outs to Springsteen (singing at one point "Tramps like us/baby we were born to run") and Pete Townshend ("Let my love open the door) in their own lyrics. A band to watch out for. On the Emerging Artist Stage, Age Of Evil, who last year were part of the SRP Garage Band competition (they didn't win) as high schoolers, have taken a big leap up from a year ago, with baby-faced shred assassin Jordan Ziff leading the band through a half our set of artful metal. Next up on the main stage was five piece Valley band The Summer Set, a melodic/rock pop band with sonic similarities to now-defunct AZ greats The Format. The Summer Set augments their sound with pre-recorded tracks on an iPod, which fleshes out the band's live sound, but the precision of having to sync up to the Apple device gave the band a stop/start moment when the band came in too late on a tune. No worries -- the band played an ultra-tight, crowd-pleasing set. Chris Hansen Orf, 6:05 p.m. Kick out the jams After some wifi nuttiness, we're live, and ready to rock. Chris Orf should be in shortly to dish on the opening acts, including mainstagers Dorsey and "emerging artist" act Age of Evil, whose teen guitarist looks like a pubescent stand-in for Megadeth's Dave Mustaine and has the chops to match. Here are some photos of the band's set.     Chris Page, 5:55 p.m. PRESHOW Thursday, March 27 Making plans Prepping for the fest, I've been giving a fresh listen to the bands on the weekend's bill. Here are the ones I'm eager to see: Scottsdale's Age of Evil, a band of shredding metal teens opening Friday's Emerging Artists stage. (But: Will Megadeth's Marty Friedman join 'em on stage?) Nothing opens a rock festival like crazy guitar whammery. Tempe's What Laura Says Thinks and Feels, whose "Illustrated Manual" is like Ben Folds meets Jellyfish meets the feeling you get waking up late on a lazy Sunday morning and stretching your legs under the covers. Mill Avenue's guilty pop pleasure, Gin Blossoms. The Meat Puppets, natch. (Reunited and it feels so good.) The wild card, of course, is Her Fergieness, heading up Saturday night. A buddy this morning alluded to the 2004 Reading Festival in England, when a bill with The Darkness and Green Day also included ... 50 Cent. Fiddy, turns out, got pelted with junk and booed off the stage. What fate awaits F-dawg's, er, lovely lady lumps? (All I can say now is her latest single, "Clumsy," a wannabe Mariah Carey b-side, makes blood wanna shoot out of my ears.) [Edit: OK, so now I'm hooked on Phoenix's Peachcake. How did I ignore them this long? Give their MySpace a listen, then wonder why they're not signed to Darla Records. AND, I'm hoping fellow locals The Summer Set make for a good live band. Their singer, from what I can hear, crutches a little too hard on autotuner in the studio.] Chris Page, 10:03 p.m. Soundcheck Its that time of year again, when the smell of fresh-cut Bermuda grass and orange blossoms herald the last whiff of nice weather before Mother Nature turns on the furnace. So that means its also time for the Sixth Annual Circle K Tempe Music Festival, a two day music fest at Tempe Beach Park featuring some fine local talent as well as headlining acts such as My Chemical Romance (Friday) and Fergie (Saturday). Keep tuned into our running blog to get the scoop on whats going down on this side of town, from the music to the people to the events (they have a vert ramp!) that make up the Tempe Music Festival. Chris Hansen Orf, 4:49 p.m. Contact Chris Hansen Orf by email, or phone (480) 898-5684. |
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Reader comments (2)
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A
You totally missed the two best acts of the entire music festival - Jed's a Millionaire and Seconds to Breathe! They were simply outstanding acts and deserved to be on the main stage, and they will someday!!! If Fergie can sound that bad and be on the main stage, then surely some real talent can get there too! Suggest removal of this commentMarch 31, 2008
Jeff
Dude you guys have to wrong idea about Three Ugly Guys. I've been to a ton of their shows and they never dissapoint. Also GO MEAT PUPPETS they rocked TMF!!! Suggest removal of this commentApril 1, 2008