Costello, Further, Dr John—

Hotter Than Ever Gathering Of The Vibes Offered Diverse Line-Up

By John Voket

BRIDGEPORT – The term “hot tunes” took on a whole new meaning as the 16th Annual Gathering of the Vibes descended along with searing record temperatures at Seaside Park July 21-24.

While there was plenty of deep funk, blues, jazz and reggae in the mix, this year’s four-day festival — a yearly tribute to the late Grateful Dead co-founder and spiritual leader Jerry Garcia — continued in its apparent mission to diversify its lineup of acts.

Sure, there were Garcia’s Grateful Dead bandmates Phil Lesh and Bob Weir fronting Further late into the evening on Friday, and the Dead’s percolating drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart sharing the Sunday stage with Rhythm Devil’s support from Keller Williams, Reed Mathis and Steve Kimock. But like last year’s insertion of Primus into an otherwise typical jam band lineup, Vibes founder Ken Hays upped the ante this year with a genius move of booking Elvis Costello back-to-back with Jane’s Addiction, which closed out Saturday’s festivities.

The festival’s second stage, referred to as the Green Vibes showcase, was humming along with great local, regional and up and coming acts, some of which will undoubtedly aspire to make it onto the main stage, perhaps even as soon as next year. This year, Vibes also pushed harder than ever to make the event family friendly, offering Sunday admission specials for teens and youngsters along with a very special place for the kids to play.

The Vibes partnership with the School of Rock provided not only a dedicated stage where some of the school’s most talented “All-Stars” got to show off their skills, but also invited fledgling and even inexperienced musicians to try out various instruments, or to sit beside some of the main stage and Green Vibes artists for impromptu jam sessions and planned workshops.

Although chatter around the concert site and the adjacent camping areas buzzed about many of the satisfying performances, the main subject of conversation last weekend was the temps. With the heat index having reached 110 degrees at the height of the afternoon Friday, and flirting with 100 degrees Saturday, the occasional breezes off the water felt more like a dank steamy blast instead of invigorating refreshment.

But that may have not been a bad thing for many who made a weekend out of it. The constant mantras of “hydrate...hydrate” seemed to temper somewhat the audience’s tendency to overindulge. Or maybe everybody was just watching out for each other and dialing back the urge to keep pouring on the alcohol.

Kicking It Off

Thursday’s Vibes opening performance was provided by Darlingside, a string-rock quintet that held nothing back as they showcased their sometimes quirky but seamless and exhilarating sound. The Northampton, Mass., ensemble was selected from nearly 2,000 Sonicbids contenders to appear on the Main Stage on the festival’s opening day.

A couple of hours later, The Infamous Stringdusters hit the stage with their own brand of kaleidoscopic bluegrass. Combining guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo and squeezebox, the group went from a foot-tapping, up-tempo “Deep Elm Blues,” to a slow and trippy cover of The Police’s “Walking on the Moon” much to the delight of the whirling early birds who still had plenty of room on the main stage field for their interpretive dance routines.

The heat came on early Friday, but it was just like home for New Orleans-based Big Sam’s Funky Nation who hit the sage promptly at 11 am. And by the time the thermometer dial nudged up to 100, it was time for the Taj Mahal Trio, who seemed to want to defy the energy-sapping sun by jamming through an energetic set of bluesy material.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band followed up in lockstep with their own brand of rock and blues. “Midnight in Harlem” was a refreshing break from some of the more intense power slide playing dealt out by Allman Brothers alum Derek Trucks.

Tedeschi was in top form as well, working it along with their horn section — Maurice Brown on trumpet, saxophonist Kebbi Williams and trombonist Saunders Sermons — laying down the Motown groove with a cover of Stevie Wonders “Uptight (Everything’s Alright).”

Levon Helm mixed up some o’dat Cajun spice with his own capable horn section during his Friday set, bringing out Bob Weir to jam with multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire Larry Campbell on a couple of numbers including what may have been the best song of the entire weekend, a sweet and almost tear-jerking rendition of the Grateful Dead’s “Attics of My Life.”

Of course Helm couldn’t leave without paying necessary tribute to The Band, so he left the crowd singing to one of that group’s most popular and timeless hits, “The Weight.”

As twilight began melting into sweltering Friday darkness, Further hit the Vibes stage bringing what some said was the largest crowd ever seen at the Seaside Park festival. Opening with a funky “New Minglewood Blues,” the group kept all the Deadheads happy.

Keyboardist Jeff Chimenti was featured frequently and he obliged with a number of well crafted solos beginning with some tantalizing riffs during “Friend of the Devil,” and later during “Sugaree,” and a smoking version of Garcia’s “Deal.”

Following an insufferably long intermission, Further returned for Set 2, culling favor with the crowd by opening with a bombastic “Saint Steven.” The set continued with a nod to Lennon and McCartney on a brief but well-played “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight,” before melting into a soulful “Stella Blue.”

Further wrapped their 2011 appearance at the Vibes with another of Garcia’s mainstay tunes, closing the show with “Ripple.”

Another Hot One

Saturday’s line-up featured the atmospheric noodling of Assembly of Dust, followed by the 40th Anniversary celebration of Max Creek who got the joint jumping with a progressive sounding “Who Do You Love.” Deep Banana Blackout arrived with all the subtlety of a late night talk show house band, rousing the crowd with its horn-fired funk and the wailing vocals of Jen Durkin.

After the swirling jams and articulate counterpoint of moe., the audience was ready for Elvis Costello who made his way to the front of the stage looking sharp in his vest and jaunty straw hat, and launching into a Farfisa-fed “I Hope You’re Happy Now.”

Costello kept things flowing efficiently moving seamlessly from one tune to the next, including crowd pleasers like “Radio, Radio,” “Everyday I Write the Book,” and an exceptional take on “Watching the Detectives.”

Not without his own brief tribute to Jerry Garcia, Costello’s version of “It Must Have Been the Roses,” was another highpoint of the show, perhaps contributing to the best set of the weekend.

Precisely at 11 pm, Jane’s Addiction burst out from behind a black curtain with leather-clad trapeze artists flying around above the band as Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro darted around the huge set playing off each other for 90 minutes of madness, with only the somewhat downtempo encore of “Jane Says” giving the crowd any room to catch its collective breath.

The balance of the Jane’s Addiction set included the obligatory “Been Caught Stealing” which whipped the crowd into a frenzy, as did the band’s other big single “Mountain Song.” The set also featured two cool covers — The Who’s “Sparks” and Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh” — which could have been a nod to Primus, who performed that same number one year earlier during the same Vibes time slot.

As the temperature finally came down into the mid-90s, Sunday’s family day at the Vibes hosted the colorful reggae of Toots & the Maytals, a bubbly gumbo-fed set with Dr John and the Lower 911, and the aforementioned Rhythm Devils, who left all the hard-core fans of the Grateful Dead with a few more memories as they tore through a drum-heavy set that included a breezy “Eyes of the World” and a great cover of the Kink’s “Apeman.”

The final act of the 16th Annual Gathering of the Vibes was the John Butler Trio, who projected some great bluesy accompaniment as the thousands of festivalgoers began packing up and setting their sights on a long trip back towards home and the reality of a new but hopefully cooler work week ahead.

See additional images from the Vibes at NewtownBee.com.