School of Wak (Soggy Edition)

By April Fleming

Friday, June 6, 2008

Sunday, 9:30pm

My timing wasn't so hot today. I left just in time to get stuck in some minor traffic - a van had caught/been set on fire just outside the entrance.

Then about 30 minutes later, the electricity was again cut off to the stages due to the lightning in the area. It started to rain soon after. I avoided the crowded main tent and headed over to one of the two smaller ones and despite the pouring, sometimes sideways rain, plus hail and lightning, the party animals in my tent were not discouraged. They even had a round of the Rock Chalk Chant and later broke into a clapping/dancing circle.

The rain did let up though, and I was able to see most of the David Grisman Quartet and the Avett Brothers' shows - unfortunately I think all of the other stages were closed up. Between the two sets some girls wrestled in the mud just outside of the tent. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture because I'd seen the girls who were participating earlier in the day before they were covered in dirt and they were about 16 years old at best. Also, at the sight of this something seemed to click over in the brains of a lot of the guys standing around that brought out some super inner-sleaze so I went and got a taco (which was delicious) rather than stick around.

That's it for me, though - like last year, I had a better time than expected and overall despite the weather the whole thing seemed to go really well. My favorite sets were the Flaming Lips on Friday, Dr. Dog yesterday and the Avett Brothers tonight - I'll try to find a good way to get some of these and other mp3s out in the next couple of days for anyone who wants to take a listen. Hopefully we'll have another to go to next year!

Sunday, 2:03pm

I'm not back out there yet - but Phil is, and he let me know that Emmylou Harris is sick and isn't expected to perform tonight. Argh. But there's still some Avett Brothers, Zappa plays Zappa & Split Lip Rayfield..

I'm also keeping an eye on weather.com. Hm.

Saturday, 11:43pm

Come hang out! To get in free on Sunday, find yourself a copy of the Journal-World, locate the full-page Wakarusa ad and bring as well your ID or some other kind of proof of Lawrence residency and you should be good to go. It's supposed to be a kind of thank-you to Lawrence for hosting the festival and "being good ambassadors", whatever that means. Some of the best acts are tomorrow, so good deal. I'm hoping that the storms that are being forecasted take a turn, but in any circumstances it's seeming wise to bring an umbrella and some Wellies.

The media organizer came by a couple of hours ago to tell Buckethead fan guy from Friday and I that Ben Folds isn't talking to the media (fine with me), but will say that (in her recollection) "Yes, it's about abortion, and two members were kidnapped in Europe and the others were eaten by dingoes." On the offense, I see. Then she tells us that Sound Tribe Sector 9 wants so little to do with any media that they're shutting down the media tent early (by the way, calling it a "media tent" or "media relations area" is pretty generous - you mean the covered ten sqaure feet with 1994-speed internet?). This is also completly fine with me.

I don't mean to be complaining about our treatment (so you're telling me I can't update my blog right now?), but I just wonder if it's necessary. Any press people I've seen lately are pretty wilted from the heat and humidity, tired/hungover and/or sunbured. Not an intimidating lot.

Saturday, 9:37pm

Seems a little more sedate today. The word is that the camping areas are the places to watch what drug show there might be. I have been offered a couple of things by strangers (which has always seemed really odd to me), but it's definitley not a big freakout by any means. The police seem to be pretty hands off. I've seen four cops all day today - apparently there have been a few arrests, but as far as I know it's been pretty mellow.

Dr. Dog wasn't well-attended, almost criminally, but they were amazing. I recorded a good part of it, but I suppose I'll just post my mp3s tomorrow.

Tomorrow is probably what I'm most looking forward to - especially to see both the Avett Brothers and Emmylou Harris. Some relatively big news though is that if you are a Lawrence resident you will be able to get in for free. There will be a full-page ad in the Journal-World for the festival, and if you bring that ad and an ID or some form of proof that you live in Lawrence you'll be let in.

Saturday, 6:05pm

Really late start today. Heat makes me a whiny baby. On the way here I saw a guy on a motorcycle with a segway strapped to the bike and to him. Segways are for cops and airport personnel. Not a few minutes after I got here he cruises by on the thing with a kid on his back. I am kind of hoping to see it stuck in the mud a little later.

Tonight I'll probably try to catch the Old '97s, Dr. Dog and Ben Folds, plus a few of the bands on the small stages.

Saturday, 1:45am

Ok, I officially hate beach balls. I think the practice of passing them around crowds should be totally banned. Surprisingly, the only really muddy spots are under the tents. So when the beach ball hits the ground and gets mud on it, someone picks it up, it bounces around the crowd, then inevitably hits me somewhere on the head or face.

Cake apparently had some flight issues, but was really lively considering the band went on four or five hours after it was supposed to. They are obsessed with their Vibraslap. You have no idea how long it took me to find out what it was called. Try describing one of those things.

Friday, 11:14pm

Our wishes have been more than fulfilled. GraTUItous nudity onstage throughout the Flaming Lips' cover of "The Song Remains the Same" (I think). Check Gavon and Ailecia's photos for the lewd (hopefully uploaded tomorrow). Yowza. Our poor colleague Tim brought his nine-year-old (?) to stand in the photo pit for the first few songs. After the song that poor kid just looked like he was on the verge of bursting into tears - I'm not sure he'll be quite the same after tonight. I know I'd be scarred for life if my mom took me to a concert at that age and out of nowhere came several nude adult men.

The Lips are responsible for the death of many a tree with all this confetti, but if I could walk out of my front door every day in the morning to this nothing would go wrong.

Friday, 9:17pm

About 30 people just climbed into a trailer behind the main stage to dress up for the Flaming Lips show that's supposed to start in about 45 minutes. So far I see construction workers in reflective orange, and a variety of what appears to be teletubbies. Those costumes must really smell awful. Wayne Coyne can't seem to stray too far from the stage - he came out onstage about an hour ago sporting some Michel Gondry-like giant hands and pawed the side curtains for a few minutes before heading backstage again.

Gavon and I are not really jam people, we're not terribly surprised to learn. Also, there has also been a disappointing lack of nudity so far. Maybe tomorrow when the two-day drunk has set in.

Friday, 7:15pm

Sorry about the title. Not feeling punny enough yet. From that temporary little town of outsiders at Clinton Lake I bring you Liveblog #2.

File under 'Ways to Humiliate Your Children'

There are a lot of sweaty people here, and a fair amount of pretty brutal sunburns for this essentially being the first day of the festival. I'm glad that the apocalypse-that-wasn't from last night didn't further interrupt the business here. Unfortunately, I already am cursing myself for not bringing some deet, I'm already getting eaten fucking alive right now.

Anyway, I'll be uploading pictures over the weekend, as well as some audio clips from some of the bands playing. I'd record something for you now, but on the main stage is Buckethead, which I'm less than thrilled about. Don't talk to the dude next to me about Buckethead though - he and his friend are from some video company that makes festival videos (I guess I could have assumed someone would be into something like that) and he is apparently quite offended that I'm not a fan of the uh, guy that wears a bucket on his head and plays guitar. I suppose he's good and all (I can only sort of see, but he seems to be playing some kind of giant theremin which is kinda cool I guess). For the most part though, this is kind of like watching someone with a funny hat play guitar hero.

I don't get it.

Like last year, there are some fun things to look at... for example, I find this confusing, but don't really want to know what goes on in the condom igloo.

The sign says 'Scream Machine'. Yikes.

I'm losing hope that mp3s will be postable throughout the day. The internet is bloody slow and it's even taking pictures way too long to load. I'll keep trying. If for no other reason than in the fly-infested media tent is a dude with a sequinned santa suit on. I will try my patience uploading the pic later.

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Posted by alm77 (anonymous) on June 7, 2008 at 8:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)

We watched the Lips live streaming video last night from the comfort of our couch in the A/C for FREE! (YaY! for cheap and cheesy) and I must say we are glad we didn't take our kids this year. When we did take them the first year the Lips were here, we were quite a way from the stage. Wayne didn't swear hardly at all and there was very little nudity (just an artsy video during Yoshimi that the kids couldn't really see from where we were anyway). Big difference from this year. I was kind of disappointed.

Posted by OtherJoel (anonymous) on June 7, 2008 at 10:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)

The Flaming Lips do Zeppelin? With nudity?

Suddenly Wakarusa sounds much more appealing.

Posted by leslie (Leslie vonHolten) on June 7, 2008 at 1:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)

A report on our 9-year-old: He was pretty shell shocked ("You're not supposed to get naked in public!" he kept yelling on the way home), but this morning is laughing about it. The moral structure of a kid is black-and-white at this age.

Myself, I have a few questions:

1. Since when is it de rigeur for hippie-ish festival girls to have $100 Brazilians?

2. Wasn't Wayne Coyne (for whom I've sported a decades-long crush on) phoning it in, or what?? I mean, we've heard those word-for-word bits about Cliff Spurlock at least 3 times now. What we'd REALLY like to see, Wayne, is Cliff in the press photos and, oh, treated like he really is in the band.

That said, except for last night's hiccup, we've taken our kids to Wakarusa every year, and they always have a great time. I'm generally not a festival type either, but the vibe out there is very cool. (And the kids got to witness a kid on a baaaaad trip getting cuffed by the cops, which does more drug education than any Red Ribbon Week the public schools can give.)

Posted by smerdyakov (anonymous) on June 7, 2008 at 3:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Amen to Kliphord being in the press pics. Paw was a highlight for me yesterday... will have to write more about when I get reliable service out here. This festival would surely grow a lot faster if organizers would do more than pay lip service to WiFi access. Even the, say, 50% of the time I can get a signal, it's no better than dial-up. So much for viral promo.

Posted by OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) on June 8, 2008 at 3:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

glad i'm not the only one annoyed by Coyne. I guess if you can't find time to change your suit how can we expect him to change his script.

"This is what's it's all about! Channel this energy! Make a difference, by CHEERING FOR MY BAND!!"

Posted by leslie (Leslie vonHolten) on June 8, 2008 at 10:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)

My love for the Flaming Lips isn't faded. Coyne is a genius, an absolutely incredible artist. In many years and many shows, Friday's was the first that let me down. Maybe he was off his game, I dunno.

Posted by stephenj (anonymous) on June 9, 2008 at 10:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Yeah the lips were very similar to the show a couple years ago, but it was still the highlight of the fest for me music-wise...They could have played 5 more songs at least if they didn't make us re-sing every song after it was over! Thankfully, I saw zero naked dudes.

Posted by ailecia (anonymous) on June 9, 2008 at 11:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a music snob. I've never gotten into The Flaming Lips because everyone else got into them. So really I never gave them a fair chance. But, I have to say that their show totally blew me away. Granted, it was the first time I experienced it, but it totally blew me away. Their lights and stage props and costumes were a photographer's dream come true.

(Check my photos over in party pics--gorgeous I must say--for example, check the difference between the photos I took of Del tha Funky Homosapien and the photos I took of the Flaming Lips... same equipment, but different lighting made all the difference in the world. Why don't all bands cater to the photographers lens? In many cases the visual culture of a band travels quicker than the band's actual music... I saw the gigantic hamster ball that Coyne walks through the crowd in years and years before I ever heard their music. Photographs matter. Bands need to quit playing in dumb low lighting.)

Also, I found the optimism of Coyne was pretty contagious. It instantly put me in a good mood. I ended up texting my friend in Alabama who's a big Lips fan: "Currently watching the flaming lips. Now I understand. Wow." So I guess the verdict is that the flaming lips put on a good show, but if you have a decent memory, don't bother seeing it twice, it'll feel like a re-run.

Posted by smerdyakov (anonymous) on June 9, 2008 at 11:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Good stuff. Nice live blog here, too: http://www.ktka.com/blogs/i_heart_local_...

School of Wak (Soggy Edition)

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