I feel so fortunate, I have been able to go to Voodoo Fest for 2 years in a row now thanks to 106.3 Radio Lafayette. Last year I got to see Tool, Cage the Elephant, Saint Motel, Shakey Graves, Bob Moses, the Weeknd and more. I had an amazing weekend last year and I didn’t think things could get any better. I was very wrong, this year I got to see Mondo Cozmo, Marian Hill, Benjamin Booker, The Record Company, LCD Soundsystem, Prophets of Rage, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness and the band I’ve wanted to see for 20 years; Foo Fighters. It was a-mazing.
From the moment you walk in, the masses of music lovers, many in costume because it’s days before Halloween, they move around like a living thing. There’s so much to see and do, parades, haunted grounds, 4 different stages, beverage tents, viewing platforms, lots of available bathrooms, food and water stations.
In the midst of the amazing weekend, I did experience just a few moments of my own personal hell. I was able to get a handicap pass, I mostly grabbed it as a back-up for the regular bathrooms and sometimes the handicapped viewing area are great for photo ops. The handicapped bathrooms were large sized port-o-potties and they had a padlock on the outside and the combo was given to those who had passes. So Friday there was a line for the regular bathroom stalls, since it was still pretty early in the weekend so I decided to give the handicapped port-o-potty a shot. The bathroom attendant took off the padlock and I entered the bathroom, but I couldn’t get the door to lock, I fought with the latch for a while and finally the attendant said she’d make sure no one bothered me. I did my business and was finishing up when the door open a little and I screamed “NO!!”, the door shut again immediately, but opened again right after and a hand shot in and grabbed another latch that was hanging in the way, so the door finally shut completely with my dignity still somewhat intact, but then I heard the padlock latch outside. I finished what I needed to do and went and knocked on the door, then I banged on the door, then I banged louder and I finally heard the attendant begin to try the padlock, then I heard her restart trying the padlock, then I heard her restart again. At this point, locked inside the port-o-potty, I had a little freak out. I know my luck and it seemed like something that would happen to me; I get to go to Voodoo Fest, I get to go with my best friends, I finally get to see the Foo Fighters, but I have to enjoy the festival from the inside of this port-o-potty. Figures. But finally, after several tries, the door opens, the attendant apologizes a lot and my friend was waiting for me asking what took so long.
The shows were unbelievable;
Marian Hill performed on the main stage as we walked in. Samantha Gongol gave a lively performance, she really used every inch of the Altar stage, then after their performance my friend and I got to hang out near Samantha and Jeremy Lloyd in the media area.
Mondo Cozmo was great, they were all dressed in dresses, some great large fancy hats too. One of my favorite parts of Voodoo is how close Halloween is and you get to see the concert goers and the performers dress up. Last year, Bob Moses dressed up at members from Guns ‘n Roses and said they were Guns ‘n Moses.
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness performance was at the same time as Benjamin Booker on different stages. It made me sad that I had to divide my time between the two of them, AMitW surprised me with how much I enjoyed their performance. I knew I liked the band, but something about his live show made me not want to walk away, but I wanted too see Benjamin Booker. Most of the time, performers save their more famous work for last, but Benjamin Booker had done all but one of his songs that I like before I made it over to his stage. So that made me sad, but didn’t hurt my spirits.
LCD Soundsystem was on the main- Altar stage, it was during their performance that I had my bathroom lock-in. I was locked in the bathroom when the lead man for LCD SS was introducing the band members, when he announced the band member from Lafayette the crowd went wild and I did a little celebration too, inside the bathroom. I finally made it out and was able to enjoy the rest of LCD SS sans port-o-potty.
Last but not least on Friday, we got to check out Prophets of Rage. It was so cool to see the next best thing to seeing Rage Against the Machine. They played a lot of Rage’s greats, some Cypress Hill and they played only the music for Audioslave’s Like A Stone in memorium of Chris Cornell while the crowd sang. It was beautiful, and then they continued to rock.
Saturday was great too, we got there just in time for The Record Company and got to enjoy their set, but during their performance the lead man announced he had good news and bad news; the good news, they rocked so hard, they blew 2 speakers…the bad news, they rocked so hard, they blew 2 speakers. But it was still a rocking show.
LIVE was next and that was one fantastic performance. They announced that they hadn’t played together live in 7 years, and every song was a little reminder of so many high school moments. I forgot how many hits they had, seriously, I couldn’t believe I knew every song.
My buddy and I decided to take a break for a bit on top of the press lounge, that’s when that one video of me was taken.
Saturday night was the event I’d waited 20 years for. Foo Fighters were getting ready to play at 9:30, we got a place in the crowd that was pretty decent and at 9:29 my buddy asked me what time it was, I looked at my phone and just give my buddy a huge grin, and within moments the guitar riffs could be heard and Dave Grohl started screaming. It was one of the most awesome experiences in my life, the crowd was moving and jumping and screaming and Dave told us he wasn’t able to speak much because of time, but still managed to work in a great speech about how wonderful New Orleans is. He talked about how NOLA celebrates music unlike any other place in the world. That felt really special. They played a great mix of their old and new stuff, Everlong, My Hero, Walk, The Pretender, Run and Sky is a Neighborhood were the main ones that got me. The concert was not nearly as intimate as some of the dreams I’d had of that moment, but it was incredible nonetheless.
On Sunday I left my passes to friends that bought me tickets to see Modest Mouse a couple months back and left with my other friends for Mobile, AL to see Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats. The opening band was The UnderHill Family Orchestra with drummer Roy Durand from right here in Lafayette and both my friends and I really enjoyed their set. Really fun, folky and energetic. They’re on our Concert Connection, I recommend you check them out when they come by.
Then Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats came out and got right after it. We were so unbelievably close, I’m pretty sure we got Nightsweated on. Nathaniel Rateliff is not a small man, and he was getting down and boogying so hard, it was truly impressive. During every performance of NR&TNS I’ve seen video of, Nathaniel takes a tambourine and goes off with it and then throws it onto the floor, smashing it to pieces. Well he did not fail us for this performance. He shook the mess out of that tambourine and then threw it up and smashed it on the ceiling and it rained down pieces across the stage. Not many pieces were retrievable, it was mostly splinters, but a fairly large piece landed not far from us, but too far to grab without getting up on the audience fence. So I asked the nearby security guard to grab it for us. He looked at the tambourine piece, then back at me, then back at the piece, then he decided I was worthy, smiled and grabbed the piece for me. It turned out to be a shakable piece of the tambourine. We saved it and plan on putting it as part of our diorama commemorating the weekend.
Oct. 27-29, 2017 was one of the best weekends of my whole life. Full of unforgettable experiences and moments. I hope I get to go again next year, but even if I do, I don’t see the experience topping this year’s, but I said that last year. My friends are making plans to go next year, and if you have a chance to do that too, you totally should.
Check out the videos here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/1063RadioLafayette/videos/
And for more videos and photos:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10102863002716880.1073741835.47914329&type=1&l=4b65efc954
And you can watch the full Foo Fighters set here:
-Morgan@1063RL