Yesterday...
Was a bit more relaxed, and I had a bit of time to walk around and just sort of absorb the event.
And what a remarkable day it was.
I got quite a bit of stuff, and will try to just get you a feel of the event.
As the attendees had a day to sort of get their bearings (while I'm sure there are a LOT of returnees from last year, there are an awful lot of first timers here as well), the "flavor" of Rothbury 2009 began to emerge.
Meeting old friends (my buddy here shoots for a Canadian newspaper, and we shot Rothbury last year together, as well as running into each other on Dead tour). That part is really cool for me.
Words can't do justice, but those that come to mind include exuberance, joyous and by the end of the night, epic.
The Rothbury "educate while having fun" subtext that I so loved last year is still present everywhere. Here they had a human powered cell phone charging station. Elsewhere they had solar ones as well.
Denaz' spring tour shirts kept cropping up. To me, the "AARP Tour 2009" was really the best part.
But the crown of the evening was unquestionably SCI's "only performance of the year".
These guys haven't been out on the road for a while now. But you'd never know it. I didn't know what to expect, but they just blew the house down..
At some point I may be able to describe it, but at this point I can't find the right combination of words to do SCI's show justice. Suffice to say, that if these guys ever decide to tour again, it will be a must see for me. Some things you hear so much back and forth on, that it's best to hold judgement, experience it for yourself, and then call the ball. Last night, it was pretty apparent that the folks who had come to North Michigan had decided en masse, and for those of us fortunate enough to have been there, it was spectacular.
A friend of mine who was with me whose been listening to the Dead for a solid 30 years and had never seen SCI, was just stunned. File us amongst the "SCI owns" camp in a big way.
We caught a bit of STS9 who were in their favorite late night time slot, serving up their usual mass trance dance fest in fine fashion. We also caught a bit of Girl Talk, and they were cooking with steam as well.
However with a remarkably full shedule on tap for today, us old pharts called it quits for the evening to have some reserve left for tonights Dead show.
