NEW ORLEANS (Voodoo
Music Experience Website) - Nearly 90,000 paid $27-$40 to see 23 acts attempt to work magic in New Orleans' City Park Saturday (Nov. 2) at the fourth annual Voodoo
Music Experience.
While rains initially delayed site erection, by Saturday two stages, a DJ tent, and vendors were on three muddy, but manageable voodoo pole-dotted fields. As festivalgoers filed through the gates, Jesus freaks' oversized signs greeted them asking for the repenting of sins.
To one end local DJ El Angel shimmied, mixing progressive house, while to the other, the Blind Boys of Alabama opened what would be overheard referred to as the "Bonnaroo stage," as the Blind Boys, North Mississippi All Stars, Galactic, Jack Johnson, and Jurassic 5 had appeared at both festivals.
The main stage, meanwhile, ran late. Seemed your average festival, save for the fact that you could buy Venetian masks alongside hemp necklaces, band stickers, and "tobacco" pipes, and crawfish outnumbered hot dogs and hamburgers. Also, a wide selection of Daiquiris added New Orleans "magic."
As the day progressed, the talent warmed up. (hed) p.e. previewed its growling March release Blackout, Sum 41 launched Green Day-isms and new tracks from the upcoming Does This Look Infected?, and hip-hop sextet Nappy Roots received the key to the city for promoting higher education. The crowd, however, seemed under a calming spell, very likely the result of cold weather: six-to-eight degrees below average.
The overcast clouds held steady until Garbage's set at dusk. Lending some credence to voodoo, it began drizzling just as the band launched into "Only Happy When It Rains." As the sky sprinkled, Garbage peppered its set with "Special," "Push It," "'Til the Day I Die," "I Think I'm Paranoid," and some other straight-ahead stompers, while Shirley Manson stalked the stage wailing, her platinum pompadour wagging.
Over at the DJ tent it smelled of hay and weed, as what seemed like the cast of the turntablist documentary Scratch gathered. Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark, along with DJ Z-Trip, all flanked the stage to watch three of the X-ecutioners perform routines introduced by DJ Boogie Blind. The crowd threw up their X's for scratching, juggling, behind-the-back and back-and-forth switching, among other DMC title-winning delicacies.
Across the lagoon, even though "Hella Good" threatens to be hella overplayed (it was featured in two DJ sets), No Doubt still kicked it off into high gear, playing from all four albums to a crowd whose most enthusiastic surfers were women. It was during "Don't Speak," however, that the crowd carried more than bodies, carrying the entire first verse, threatening to drown out Gwen Stefani on the second. Then, as the climax to "Just a Girl" built, Stefani showed girl power, scaling stage scaffolding to elicit girls' chants from high above. The band then thrashed through "Spiderwebs," making way for the stage's other rock steady rockers, 311.
311 played a mixed set of favorites and brand new material that didn't steer far from its two-person choruses and power chords formula. Across the bridge, a thick liquid sky hung above those left to hear the Crystal Method's DJ set. While the visuals were at a full, the crowd was half of its hip-hop high peaking for Cut Chemist & Z-Trip. Those left seemed to enthusiastically soak up the squelchy breaks, electro and Chicago house that continued until shutdown by the 11 p.m. curfew.
Though Voodoo didn't last 'till the witching hour, the crowd appeared bewitched.
