Bow down to Bela!

Current mood: jammin'

I think my most overused phrase in the past few days has been, "Bela is a banjo god." Standard answer to, "Who is this BEELAH guy, and what is a Flecktone, anyway??" I've been talking about the concert enough that non-interested folks probably want to beat me with something pointy, but it would be worth it. This was probably my favorite concert this summer, similar to how Bela Fleck, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Staley Clarke in Trio! (which I fondly refer to as the the night of the three maestros plus little Jake, of the adorable ukelale) was my favorite concert last year.

In a nod to the seamless quality of jam band music, the performers played a neat trick so the music never had to stop. The stage was set up with all their instruments from the very beginning (which did make me wonder, why exactly do they need dueling drumkits?) and at each set change, the new performers would make their way onstage, joining in the playing already in progress, and the then the original performers would slowly drop out and casually leave the stage. Awesome. If you weren't watching, you would never notice the players had changed!!!

Marc Broussard has himself a hot voice! That scratchy, low, and soulful sound is perfectly suited to the booty music he favors (first song went something along the lines of, "shake your booty"). It was fun and entertaining, but was taken to a whole new level whenever Bela came out for a guest spot, and then -man! That's why people make bootlegs and go to live shows! Yeah!

Umphrey's McGee sound like a college band. Maybe not so much a band from the college scene as one that a lot of college-aged kids listen to. During this set I noticed an upspike in the sweet, sweet smoke drifting around the park. Deep inhale = noncontact high!

The best part was definitely towards the end, when all three bands were tooling away together, with Marc belting out Stevie Wonder songs for all his booty's worth. Four hours of nonstop, amazing music, wine and brownies, perfect weather, great company, lots of dancing, ah...bliss.