Festival of Friends...

Friday night I went down to Gage Park for the 33rd annual Festival of Friends.  They changed it from an all-Canadian festival a couple years back, and this time the headliners were Allison Moorer and Steve Earle.  Now Steve has produced one of my choices for album of the year with his washington square serenade, and Allison has a hot new album called Mockingbird produced by Buddy Miller, so I had been looking forward to this for some time.  It has been raining, and thunderstorming almost every day for a few weeks  and sure enough, on Friday at suppertime it seemed like the Festival was doomed, but by the time 7pm rolled around the sun was shining and I decided to risk it.  Drove down, found a good free parking spot on Gage Ave. and went to the bandshell.  This bandshell was substantially expanded, with a big, covered stage attached to the front of it.  I used to come over on Sunday afternoons and play in the bandshell with Mil, singing our folksongs for the fun of it.  But Friday it was all-pro!  Danny Michel was finishing his set playing a shiny red Gibson 335 and looping solos over his rhythm work.  Then it was time for Allison Moorer.  Just Allison and a small bodied Martin with lots of sound.  She ran through some of the cover versions from Mockingbird, and a few of her own oldies too.  She has a great voice, plays adequate rhythm guitar (if a bit samey) and is "not hard on the eyes" as the guy sitting next to me noticed.   Husband Steve Earle came out to join her for a moving version of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" which they promised to keep singing til the war is over!  Steve left the stage and Allison finished her set.  Quite impressive for the 2,000 or so folks who watched.  

Then a 20 minute wait for the closer and 8,000 people came out of nowhere.  Steve Earle did not disappoint.  But some of those 8,000 people must have been drinking through the earlier music.  As Steve came on stage they started shouting immediately for "Copperhead Road".  "Do you think I'm not gonna sing that song?" Steve queried, "When I sing that one, I head for the #$%^' bus!" And still they called for it, again and again.  I was reminded of an earlier show, back in 1969 when some drunk yelled out at The Band, "PLAY 'CRIPPLE CREEK'!" after every tune.  And when they did eventually play it, he yelled, "PLAY IT AGAIN!"  Anyway, Steve played a lot of songs from his long career, switching from acoustic guitar to banjo ("I play banjo just well enough to scare sheep!"), bouzouki, mandolin, and Dobro.  And then it was time for the songs from the new album, accompanied by a DJ who provided rhythms, and harmony, Earle did almost the whole album.  It was superb.  When Allison came out to add harmony to a few, it was even better.  By then the losers in the mosh pit were drunk enough to be fighting with one another.  A girl with her hip-huggers riding low had her tongue down the throat of a couple different guys, and that led to fisticuffs.  Steve asked them to cool it a couple of times.  Somebody threw a lit joint up on-stage and hit Steve in the shoulder.  Steve finished the song, and picked up the butt, tossed it away and casually gave the culprit the finger.  You know which finger.  Then I turned away for a second, and heard Earle call someone "#$%^&*!"  The guy next to me told me, "Somebody threw a water bottle at him!"  Did the audience forget where they were?  Canada's oldest free festival?  Three days of peace, love and music, well...friendship anyway!  It seemed like the Festival of Friends has turned into the Festival of Frenzy.  I walked to the car past a couple more fights, some people swearing at each other, and I heard tell that the screaming and arguing went on through the night.  At half past midnight a friend of mine who lives across from the park was awakened to the sound of arguing and screaming.

It rained again Saturday night.  A set by Air Supply was all but rained out.  They played to only a handful of fans.  Woodstock night was a washout too.  Country Joe, John Sebastian and Canned Heat played as the thunder rolled and lightning flashed and the rain came down in buckets.  But Friday night could've been beautiful.  If only...