Another amazing year full of magical musical goodness at Voodoo Music & Arts Experience has come and gone. Always bittersweet because it’s so much fun you never want it to end, but we made great memories that we can look back on.
Having gone to Voodoo for the last few years with good friends, we have rituals we practice, like chants over “sacrifices” made to make sure the Voodoo gods “see” them and grant us a good Voodoo. I’ll explain as we go.
Thankfully, on Friday we all had fair warning about how wet it was going to be. I came prepared with rain gear, but it was pretty warm and only drizzling, so I quickly lost the heavy gear and just stayed nice and cool and damp, but not soaked or cold, so we considered our dryness a small sacrifice and did our chant. The rain did end up costing us though, we sacrificed seeing Magic City Hippies so we could slow down and arrive alive. So we did our Voodoo chant and hoped our sacrifice was recognized.
We made it in time to see Moon Taxi, heard “Two High”, “Good As Gold” and more, then we walked over and saw Bishop Briggs. I had just seen her at Hangout Fest earlier this year, but because that performance was so good, she was one of the artists at Voodoo I was most looking forward to. And yeah, SHE WAS GREAT! She performed her new Halloween song “Jekyll & Hyde” and her greats like “River” and “Wild Horses”. Then our crew walked over to the main stage for Brandi Carlile, she was also great and hearing “The Joke” live made me ugly cry, in a good way.
Then it was over to Wisner stage for Interpol, they absolutely rocked, got to hear “all the Rage” and lots more. I walked by and saw a few minutes of Guns N’ Roses, even though Slash was with them again, it was not enough to hold my attention (sorry GNR fans) and off we went to Le Plur stage to see SNAILS and then Big Gigantic.
Saturday was more great fun and instead of our whole bodies being soaked, it was just our feet, soaked in Voodoo gradou. City Park was not surprisingly covered in serious mud. This has happened in previous years, so we were well prepared, however, after hours and hours of walking in muddy boots, trench foot becomes more than something suffered by WW1 soldiers. I still have a bruise under my big toenail. Another sacrifice, another chant.
So my crew hustled their butts off and we made it on time Saturday to see one of my Homegrown bands, Seratones. They’re from Shreveport and did a 106THREE In-Studio Session for us last Thursday (see that here), they’re also a Homegrown band that I wanted to get to know, so I spent some time with them Thursday and I got to see them perform live for the third time in 3 days at Voodoo. I even got a couple of points and nods of recognition from a band on the main stage at Voodoo, a great feeling. Btw, Seratones put on a fantastic show, all 3 times. They performed some old and some new songs, if you get a chance to see them live, do that.
Also saw SHAED, Elohim, Young the Giant, Japanese Breakfast, The National, Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, Beck and another Homegrown band in the House of Blues tent, Royal Teeth on Saturday.
Like previous years, the Food Court was full of delicious food options from all over, BBQ Shrimp Gumbo, Pulled Pork Nachos, desperately needed coffee, pizza, almost anything you craved, they had it, and lots of bars to stop by for more vodka and red bull or whatever your Voodoo fuel is.
Sunday was another fun day, though it was still pretty muddy. We started off the day with Mobley and Maggie Lindeman, then The Ghost of Paul Revere, Ashe and then the rest of the day, we happily spent in the House of Blues tent. HoB brought the local music this year with 3 of the 4 Homegrown bands at Voodoo performing in their tent.
New Orleans band Pet Fangs performed and they really rocked, it was so cool to finally see them live. As I’m watching one of my Homegrown bands, I see another Homegrown artist, Lane Mack nearby. He’s getting ready to perform soon and he’s chilling, supporting another local band, that’s one of the best things about these local artists btw, their support for one another. Lane points out that his drummer, who is the drummer for several Homegrown bands (like Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rodailleurs), Sean Bruce, is hanging out nearby. So I get to hang with him for a few. And then later during the set for LANE MACK & The Balladeers, I get to meet the drummer for another Homegrown band, Hunter Romero from The Iceman Special, (speaking of HG artists supporting each other). And of course, Lane was freaking great.
My MVP for this Voodoo this year goes to the House of Blues tent, for bringing the awesome local music, along with their great food and delicious drinks you couldn’t get anywhere else, like Hurricanes and Mobiles, all available for sale in the tent area. They also handed out cool bandanas they had printed up with Voodoo and HoB on them, an awesome free memory. I can’t wait to see what they bring together for next year. Here’s me, very tired, Sunday evening sporting the HoB bandana.
Unfortunately, I can’t share our Voodoo chant with you here, but if you are interested in something funny, and not easily offended by Cajun slang, ask me sometime when you see me at a Hot Stop of 106Three Session, or if you see me out at an event you won tickets to through us, like I’m so glad several of our fans this year at Voodoo did.
Thanks again Voodoo Music & Arts Experience for another great weekend of live music memories that will tide me over for another few months.
Check out the whole collection of pics and photos I got from Voodoo this year here.