There should be a special place in the Jazz Fest Hall of Shame for the chair people.
With rockin’ good sets from The Mavericks, The New Orleans Suspects and more, the cloudy first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was short on sun but long on music. Here are a few of the Mardi Gras Czar’s highlights:
Best New Feature
Acura Stage Extension. Jetting out across a half-filled Grand Marshal area, the stage extension brought the musicians closer to the fans, and vice versa. Everybody wins.
Best Use of The New Acura Stage Extension
Jon Batiste and Stay Human, whose full-band dance-off on the extension during « I Feel Good Today » got my fest on in a big way.
Best Funeral Set
The Pete Fountain Tribute Show the first Saturday in Economy Hall was a real treat. Songstress and entertainer Banu Gibson performed « After You’ve Gone » in honor of Pete, who helped her land one of her first performance gigs in New Orleans. Touching and jubilant.
Battle of The Network Bands
The Roots, the house band from « The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, » closed out the Congo Square Stage on Saturday with Usher, a few hours after Jon Batiste and Stay Human from « The Late Show with Stephen Colbert » elevated the crowd at the Acura Stage. Both bands seemed to understand the energy and music needed to command a Jazz Fest crowd. That’s expected from Batiste, a local. But I’m glad The Roots – and Usher – knew it, too. Golden glove sets from both of the network bands.
Best Throwback Food Item
This is what I remember about my first Jazz Fest in 1981: the cramped car ride there in the back of a ’70s hatchback and the delicious plate of red beans and rice I ate while waiting at the flagpole for my sister. On Saturday, I tried the red beans again for first time since. It won’t be my last. Spicy, creamy and warm was the perfect way to end a muddy Sunday. Check ’em out in Food 1.
Call the (Jazz Fest) cops on…
The chair people who purposely created a dangerous barrier, blocking vendors near a major stage from foot traffic and music fans from safely entering or exiting the no-chair zone. There should be a special place in the Jazz Fest Hall of Shame for this group, who lashed their chairs together along the internal perimeter and harassed pedestrians who tried to cross it.
Call the (music) cops on…
The Blues Tent. The fest does so many things right. Spectacularly right. But the Blues Tent isn’t one of them, at least not for us dancers. Its old news that The Blues Tent is a NO BOOGIE zone. Moved to your feet by the music? Tough. Take it outside.
Once each Jazz Fest, we embark on a protest stage rush in The Blues Tent, mostly because our favorite bands play there. Like John Mooney, Deacon John and Cyril Neville We know the annual protest stage rush will be short-lived. We know it will end in ejection. But we do it anyway. This year, our annual protest stage rush took place during The Honey Island Swamp Band’s 3: 55 p.m. set. We ran up the center aisle of The Blues Tent. The band smiled. We danced. Security responded. 45 seconds later, and we were back outside and headed to The Lagniappe Stage.
Boots On the Ground
The weather kept a lot of people away on Sunday, including Congo Square headliner Pitbull. While Sunday’s weather delay was bad news for vendors and ticket counters, the rain day-turned-mud fest was an experienced Jazz Fester’s delight. Rubber Boots + Low Attendance = ideal Tom Petty conditions.
Enough looking back. Second weekend is here. We got Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dog and Wilco.
We also got The Nightcrawlers, Shades of Praise and Germaine Bazzle.
So boot up. Hire the baby sitters. Activate your « out of office » email setting.
It’s time to get your Second Weekend groove on.
See you at da Fest!
