Waka-Waka 2008
Stardeath and the White Dwarfs
Last weekend my roommates and I hit up the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival in Lawrence, Kansas. The campsite is only about ten minutes from my home, but we decided to camp this year. After driving three hours to get in Thursday afternoon, we arrived to warnings of the biggest storm since the mid-1970s (the year of seven tornadoes). Needless to say, we stopped in at the grounds and then headed back to my house to sleep. Back at the campgrounds, everyone was safe but may have had a flooded tent or have had to sleep in their cars. I felt a bit like a wimp for leaving, but I had no desire to sleep in a car.
Friday is when all the music that I was really excited to see went down. We saw Stardeath and the White Dwarfs (Wayne Coyne’s nephew’s band—they are in highschool, and are really good), Apollo Sunshine, Galactic, Flaming Lips, Built to Spill and Cake. Cake had a scheduling issue and ended up playing really late, but it was really cool to see them perform and play the songs that I listen to regularly. By far, the Flaming Lips put on the best show – Wayne Coyne certainly knows how to perform to a festival crowd. My roommate Kristin had seen them several times and was fairly unimpressed, but the combination of the songs, confetti and crazy dancing made it a great experience and not one that I will soon forget. When I hear “Do you Realize” I will now remember that moment dancing at Wakarusa to that song with my closest friends.
Flaming Lips
Saturday was a day full of mild exhaustion, dirt accumulated from camping and fun music. We headed to the music tents early to check out the bands — Ozomatli played last year, and are a mixture of Spanish, hip-hop, rap and salsa. The Old 97s played before Ben Folds and were a mixture of pop and rock-and-roll. I saw Ben Folds last year at Mizzou and it was fun in the festival crowd. It was too bad that he overlapped with STS9, that did amazing things with colored lights, smoke and 3D lasers. I lost the people that I came with to crazy crowd dancing. For me the night ended with Yard Dogs Road Show. It was a bit of vaudeville mixed with theatrics – there was even a knife eater (there is little that is more impressive in a performance than knife eating).
We packed up early Sunday, checked out Dr. Dog and the communal drum circle and headed out. For Wakarusa, I really enjoyed the bands that were not quite as “jam-bandy.” I like finality. I could dance forever to one song, but I like noticing the changes in songs. I also like lyrics. I think that Wakarusa did a good job this year of creating a mixture of jam-bands and more mainstream bands. I’m sad the weekend is over, but excited for the summer ahead.