Bluesfest, July 15, Wilco

So Wilco is about halfway through their set as I type this. Not bad at all. Before them was Rosanne Cash. I like that I can add another Grammy winner to my bio, the daughter of the Man in Black no less, but it’s not always fun having the manager stand behind you and tell you what he thinks should be in the monitors. But, whatever, I get paid, wasn’t so bad.

 

Before Rosanne was a man named Martin Sexton, who was actually quite talented. Great music, but his “guitar tech” pissed me off, so I didn’t really enjoy the show all that much. To anyone reading this, please NEVER put your hand over the top of a microphone when checking it, or at anytime in general really. No one is dumb enough to do that during a show, so trying to simulate feedback like that is pointless, frustrating, unprofessional and offensive. I know how to do my gig, you should stick to yours. And, if for some reason you insist on doing that, make sure your 4 yr. old daughter isn’t standing there getting blasts of feedback at 100db in her face. That’s a great way to make her deaf.

 

And you think I’m ranting now? Let’s talk about catering. Today they offered options. One of those options was chicken stir fry. This sounded good. Then they took off the lid to the tray. The three of us standing there had the most perfectly choreographed, natural and pure jaw-drop ever. It looked like roadkill mixed with puke from some unknown exotic animal. I took pictures, don’t worry. They’ll be up soon. We couldn’t believe that someone thought that was suitable to serve to humans. We were in shock for about an hour. Back to the hibachi tomorrow (it was just too hot to cook today). We were so revolted by the whole thing that we skipped dinner altogether.

 

On the brighter side, The New Amsterdams were a pleasant surprise today, as were The M’s, who are from Chicago. I had a cool talk with their drummer after about life in the city I’ve grown quite attached to over the last year or so. I can’t wait to get back and talking about it almost made me homesick, even though it’s really not my home…. Anyways, all was good today. Especially the fact we finally got a permanent wireless internet connection. So it was 8 days too late… better late than never…

 

Tomorrow will be the last night of the festival, including a look-alike contest for the disco bands. We’ll see what that brings….