weezy Posted August 5, 2002 Report Share Posted August 5, 2002 Just came back from the Kaleidoscope Festival held somewhere far far to the north. The "3.5 hour drive" was actually 5.5 hours due to the NASTY road up and down a mountain w/ switchbacks and jagged rocks - it was eventually littered with mufflers and assorted car parts. The Friday evening had The Wassabi Collective and Funkshun followed by DJ's - Wassabi attracted quite a few people and blew away everyone with their tribal jungle drum craziness - BTW the sound was phenomenal and the sound guy was excellent for the whole fest. I missed Funkshun, but heard great things. The audience was sparse on Friday, but it was a filthy drunk sparse crowd - perhaps because we were at 4000 feet. Saturday's show started with the Bitchen Whino's - described as cow-punk. whatever. Then Slammin' Jack came out ready to bust-out jams with Jeffrey from Burt Neilson on the congas. These guys put on a great show with heady covers and memorable originals - unfortunately, the sky opened up and dumped a freak hail-storm on everyone. The band played-on, though, into a long funky jam while the hail pelted the dancing people. The stage wasn't sheltered, an unfortunate oversight, and their gear got SOAKED. Scott was literally pouring water out of his keyboards. This was the first outdoor festival put on by xzyzx productions and it was no doubt a learning experience for them. A few hours later, things dried-up and Themasses took the stage. We played for about 2 hours - there was dancing and lots of 420 action as always. There had been no entertainment for the past few hours, so people were ready for some music and were grateful for the funk. Next, Raespoon came-out (pardon the pun). She is a solo singer/songwriter/guitarist/banjo player with a purple mohawk and an amazingly powerful voice. Her presence reminds me a lot of Ani DiFranco, no doubt a big influence. She put on a fantastic performance. Finally, Recipe From A Small Planet feat. Jeff K. came out and WENT OFF for 3 hours. They were all on E and kept referring to eachother as "happy little girls" That keyboardist blew my mind - they are possibly Canada's best jamband - wow. Afterwards, there was a fire spinning show which freaked-out all the wasted folks. The night was REALLY COLD - I think it went below zero - even after dancing to Recipe all night, I was still freezing - then it POURED RAIN all night and gave the stage another soakin' (by then, they had a little tarp over the stage) Spirits were a bit low, but things were picking-up just as I was leaving this morning. Today was the reggae day featuring Strugglah and many others - there was a fair-sized gang of people there, but it was cold and wet, not the iriest of conditions... Despite the cold, wet weather, long, treacherous drive and somewhat disappointing turnout, everyone managed to destroy an heroic amount of brain cells in debotcherous celebration. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted August 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 whoa, Is there anyone out there who was there? Just curious about hearing a different perspective. - considering the crazy feedback on upstream entertainment's message board. quote from u.e. message board: "The most poorly produced musical event in the history of live music in BC. Shitty directions,shitty spot to camp, shitty spot for stage ! I could go on for hours ! 2.5 hours from Pemberton (not 1 hour). Almost ran out of gas. Had a flat on the way up......" it's getting pretty funny, actually... upstream entertainment - click on 'message board' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backbacon Posted August 7, 2002 Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 So you play in 'The Masses'? 'Trevors' review. (from that message board): Who the fuck said it was 1 hour from Pemberton ? LIAR ! Who the fuck said Lift was on thew Bill ? LIAR ! REVIEW OF KALEIDOSCOPE : YIKES ! HIGHLIGHTS: THE MASSES, the sun coming up Saturday morning (BURR), Sunday morning departure ! .................. Sounds like a great bunch of music. THe organizers need to take everyone's feedback into consideration. The weather wasn't the only fiasco! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weezy Posted August 7, 2002 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2002 definately not, When it came time for us to be paid, he only had $600 left, and he hadn't paid Recipe or any security guards yet - I knew at that point there was gonna be trouble. too bad. the promoter is a friend of mine, so it's hard for me to be too nasty with the criticisms, the upstream board seems to have that covered anyways. big problems: location - 60 kms on a rugged dirt road going over a mountain - definately no place for my poor Jetta. (she made it, though) The location of the stage in relation to the camping could have been much better as well. information - even before the event, people were complaining there wasn't any solid info out there regarding camping details, location etc. Plus, the ads said it was 3.5 hours from Vancouver - try 5.5! And of course, no-one knew about the car-killing road - I definately wouldn't have driven my car if I had known.. weather - can't be controlled, but it sucked. obvious oversights - not covering the stage with tarps - a whole shitload of food (for the volunteers) went missing ($1500 worth)(?!) and not having the foresight to have enough $$ to pay all the performers and security at the end. I'd hate to be him right now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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