What better place to throw a music festival during Halloween weekend than Las Vegas. The weather is near perfect (bit chilly at night) and it’s always a great place to party.
The second annual Vegoose festival (Vegoose 2005 Review here) brought another lineup of artists that are great live. I only got to see a few bands but The Coup, Jamie Lidell, Band of Horses, Tom Petty, and The Roots were all groovy. There’s an excellent thrift store near where I pick up my ice cream in South Las Vegas and I’ve made it a habit of stopping by. I generally end up in the kids costume section and find a small version of what i’d like to be for Halloween. Last year it was a ladybug, this year…..a Care Bear. With Bessie full of cream and our ice cream crew in effect, we rolled in on Friday to secure our prime parking spot backstage.
The setup was a bit different this year. Due to slower than expected ticket sales they didn’t use the stadium and moved all the stages onto the large grass field behind it. I think they drew over 40,000 last year and this year was probably in the 25,000 range. My reasoning is that Tom Petty, the headliner the first night, had already headlined Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits, and Widespread Panic headlined Vegoose last year and also doesn’t generally draw that great on the west coast. Last year also had Arcade Fire, Beck, Shins and a few other gems that were tough to top. All that said, the quality of artists on board this year was quite impressive.
From the truck I could only really make out the Main Stage performers, which were mainly jam bands. One of the Main Stage bands that caught my attention was Black Crowes. I had yet to hear or see them and was pretty excited to sling cream and rock out at the same time. Occasionally I’d run over to the fence and try to get a view of what was going on with Chris and company.
The backstage area where we were parked was located directly behind Sam Boyd Stadium. Since the Main Stage wasn’t set up in the stadium this year, the traffic back there was considerably slower. Mochi Ice Cream and Guitar Center were helping us with all the ice cream and we had two freezers full of over two thousand pieces. The selection was prime and we were obviously loaded so we sent out new hire, Grace Sims(check out her music), with a bunch of cream to sling behind the other stages. It’s quite funny when you feel that you have to give away ice cream.
Thanks to Alex and Phil we have reviews of most of the artists that played. Craig and Pat did a great job of getting pics of just about all of them too. Thanks to my brother Brad for holding down the fort for a while as well. I’m down to rock Vegoose for Halloween every year. It’s one of my favorite festivals (yes…I do have many) and I love the eclectic mix of music they provide. Maybe somehow they can bring out Radiohead next year. As proved at Bonnaroo this summer, that’s a sure-fire way to pack a house.
