Over the course of two cold November nights in the Florida swamp, psychedelic funk super group Lettuce provided the soundtrack for an epic multi-night rage. Keeping the crowd in their palm with “classic” Lettuce tunes and busting out several new ones, the band was as fresh as ever, and primed to hit the recording studio just a few weeks later. The performance at these sets was so spot on that I’ve heard rumblings of a possible live release bonus disc to coincide with their forthcoming new album.
Here I bring you 74 minutes of video culled from both nights, including sit-ins by George Porter Jr. and Nigel Hall. This should get everyone primed for Bowlive III this week. Enjoy!
Lettuce
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 2) Blast Off, Ziggowatt, Sam Huff’s Flying Ragin’ Machine:
Lettuce
Sunday, November 13, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 2) Need To Understand (w/ George Porter Jr), Nyack, Break Out > Relax:
Lettuce
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(1 of 2) Madison Square, By Any Shmeeans Necessary, Jack Flask:
Lettuce (w/ Nigel Hall)
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ Bear Creek Music Festival
(2 of 2) Move On Up (after this video ends, they go into Joy & Pain, a Maze tune, then back into Move On Up to conclude an epic 18 minute Move On Up):
Big thanks to JB @ microcosmologist blog for sharing some of his up close Krasno footage, and thanks to Bob Adamek for the top photo.
Bear Creek Music Festival was undoubtedly a funk fest, but there was a sprinkling of hip hop; and it was all live band hip hip, my favorite type.
Early Friday evening as dusk rolled in, Chali 2na and his band, The House of Vibe, locked shit down to a steadily growing crowd. Smiles were everywhere as the crowd anticipated a mind-blowing weekend. I shot a good 17 minutes of footage with my monopod held high.
This video is mainly tunes from Chali’s one and only solo album, 2009’s excellent and long awaited Fish Outta Water. Later in the set, Corey Glover, vocalist for Living Colour and more recently Galactic, joined for an old Jurassic 5 tune, Freedom. Unfortunately I only captured the 2nd half of this one. I guess I was too busy getting my party on and getting amped for the rest of the lineup that night at the Purple Hat stage, which included Garage A Trois, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Galactic.
Chali 2na & The House of Vibe Band 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
Get Focused > International, Comin’ Thru > Don’t Stop, Guns Up, Freedom (w/ Corey Glover):
(Download the full audio of Chali 2na’s set here.)
Later that night, as the temperatures began to drop into the 30’s, we headed to the heated indoor SOS Music Hall. The Coup was set up and ready to play, albeit to a very sparse crowd. After a heavy rock instrumental intro, Boots Riley busted out, spinning around in a leather tasseled overcoat. Pimp hand strong. Next, they busted out some classics before bringing out their secret weapon, Silk-E. If you don’t know, just press play.
The Coup 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
5 Millions Ways To Kill A CEO:
The Coup 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
Bullets & Love > Everythang > We Are The Ones:
I totally wanted to enjoy The Coup’s set longer, but I had to run back to the Purple Hat Stage so as not to miss the beginning of Medeski, Martin & Wood (videos coming soon).
After MMW’s set, I caught some of Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe covering The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album (quite a let down and not very funky, IMO). I also caught a bit of KRAZ’s DJ set (that’s Eric Krasno of Soulive, Lettuce, and Chapter 2) in the silent disco. He was spinning Funkify Your Life by The Meters and tastefully tweaking some effects on top before getting into a mix of current hip hop.
At the same time, now well on the other side of midnight, Galactic was rocking the Purple Hat stage. As the temperature continued to drop into the low 30’s and everyone could see their own breath, dancing was the only way to stay warm. At this point, Galactic brought out Chali 2na and Boots Riley to perform From The Corner To The Block. Unfortunately, Boots stumbled a few times with his verse as his voice got raspy and started to go out, likely due to having just finished a 75 minute set with his own band. Chali, however, kept things on point with a live version of his collab with Galactic, Think Back. There are many more things I could say about the Galactic set as it was truly one of the most enjoyable sets of the weekend, but I digress. (Peep the full audio download of Galactic’s set here.)
Also, keep in mind that when Galactic finished at 1:30am, the night wasn’t over, we still had Dr. Klaw from 2 to 3:30am and I shot that entire set (videos coming soon of course). And Dr. Klaw was followed by Mike Dillon’s Hairy Apes BMX from 3:30 to 5am. (I only caught one song before calling it a night and crashing in my rugged and freezing tent.)
The following videos where not shot by me. (I didn’t get any videos of Galactic for some stupid reason. I think maybe my hands were too cold!). But these videos do showcase Chali’s appearance with Galactic, as well as the end portion of Chali 2na and his band’s set, featuring solos from each band member.
Galactic with Chali 2na 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
Think Back:
Galactic with Chali 2na & Boots Riley 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
From The Corner To The Block:
Chali 2na 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
Freedom (w/ Corey Glover), Quality Control, One More Chance:
Chali 2na 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
What’s Golden:
Chali 2na 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival
Lock Shit Down, Rock Lobster, & band solos:
Continuing the Bear Creek Music Festival video flood, we have 1 video of Skerik with Freekbass in the Silent Disco, 2 videos of Skerik with Garage A Trois, and 3 videos of Skerik with Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey. How’s that for a christmas gift?
The Silent Disco is a new concept at music festivals, where everyone in the audience wears wireless headphones with a direct feed to the music. I caught a couple of DJs in the Silent Disco and it was really neat to take your headphones off and listen to the sounds people make.
Skerik & Freekbass, though, took it to another level. The sounds this duo made in my ears were stirring, exhilarating, and unique. Unfortunately these sounds will probably never be heard again, as I didn’t bring an audio recorder to get a SBD patch (fingers crossed that the soundguy or someone affiliated with the festival recorded it). You can check out this video, but you definitely won’t get the full experience. I guess I could have held the headphones up to my video camera’s external microphone and picked up some of it, but I didn’t think of it at the time…
Skerik & Freekbass in the Silent Disco 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
Next up, two Garage A Trois videos. Just take Skerik, Mike Dillon, Stanton Moore, and Marco Benevento, put them in jumpsuits in 30 degree weather in the Florida swamp, and this is what happens.
Garage A Trois – Earl Harvin 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
Garage A Trois – Rescue Spreaders 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
Finally, we have Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey with a horn section of Skerik, Mark Southerland, Chris Noonan, & Jonathan Lloyd, performing the first 2 tracks from The Race Riot Suite.
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Black Wall Street 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – Black Wall Street (cont.) 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey – The Burning 11/11/11 Bear Creek Music Festival:
