Lilith, Vibes Festivals Catered To Niche Musical Markets

By John Voket

Whether you enjoy the soulful crooning of some of the music industry’s top female artists, or you enjoy jumping and spinning to some of the world’s best jam bands, Connecticut was the place to be last weekend as Bridgeport hosted the 15th Annual Gathering of the Vibes, and Hartford welcomed songstress Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith tour.

From the intimate smaller stages to the main event of Lilith at The Comcast Theatre, each performer (except Cat Power) gave her all, and the crowds who floated around the grounds taking in the music while checking out everything from environmentally-friendly tableware to fair trade chocolate samples expressed their appreciation loudly at each turn.

Following Lilith’s local talent contest winners, For the Love of Sloane, one of McLachlan’s backing musicians Melissa McClelland turned heads with her sultry set on the Village Stage. McClelland was followed by an equally well-received Toby Lightman, who zipped through a breezy set strumming acoustic guitar and closing out her 30 minutes of Lilith fame that afternoon with her bluesy, soulful ballad, “My Sweet Song.”

British “folktronica” goddess Beth Orton admitted she came to the show with several new songs to showcase, but decided to stick to material that both she and her fans were familiar with. Orton did have the wherewithal to send good thoughts to Carly Simon during her set, thanking Simon for “turning her ankle,” and opening up a spot on the Lilith bill so she could join the tour, albeit for just a few dates.

Following her departure, Gomez’s main stage opening set was acquired by New Yorker Ingrid Michaelson, who like Gomez, gained a lot of career traction with songs that were first showcased on television, most notably Grey’s Anatomy, Scrubs and One Tree Hill. She drew a few youthful shrieks from the younger fans with her most popular number, “The Way I Am,” and showcased a poppy new tune called “Parachute.”

Sporting a jaunty chapeau, Sara Bareilles took the opportunity to tickle the keys of her mini grand piano conjuring up several new songs from her soon-to-be-released Kaleidoscope Heart. She switched to acoustic guitar for the fresh sounding debut of “Let The Rain,” and warned mothers about the mixed messages they send to their young daughters before closing with her new single, “King of Anything.”

The only person in the entire venue more disappointed with the ominous set from Cat Power was probably Chan Marshall herself. Except for a slightly upbeat cover of Jackson Browne’s “These Days,” Marshall prowled the stage, mostly with her back turned to the audience, occasionally pointing toward her monitors like something was horribly wrong.

That left the responsibility to Indigo Girls for breathing some life back into what could have been a disastrous mid point in the main stage set. But Emily Saliers and longtime partner Amy Ray rose to the occasion with the enthusiastic help of multi-instrumentalist Julie Wolf, whose accordion jamming on “Shame on You,” “Yield,” and an inspired “Chickenman/Bitterroot,” was just what the flagging audience needed.

McLachlan opened her set on an otherwise darkened stage with McClelland and bassist Butterfly Boucher lending sweet harmony to the monster hit, “Angel,” before McLachlan brought out the rest of her band and strapped on an acoustic guitar for “Building a Mystery” and new single “Loving You Is Easy.”

Her 50-minute set moved quickly but effectively, showcasing “World On Fire,” “I Will Remember You,” “Adia,” and an electrifying double shot of “Sweet Surrender” and “Take Your Breath Away.”

Her finale, or “dessert” as McLachlan described it, was the audience sing-along, “Ice Cream,” before she brought out most of the evening’s performers for the show closer, “Because the Night,”  paying tribute to veteran female punk Patti Smith.

Back To Bridgeport

A few days earlier, on July 29, the 15th annual Gathering of the Vibes opened at Bridgeport’s Seaside Park.

This year’s event enjoyed a long, lingering kiss from Mother Nature after two years plagued by intense rain and wind which soaked the crowds and campers, blew away tents and turned the grounds into a swampy smelling straw-covered mud bog.

Then the tribute to Jerry Garcia got going in earnest with his former backup singer Donna Jean Godchaux floating into the cavernous venue to the melody of the Grateful Dead’s “Fire on the Mountain.” Godchaux was the first of the Grateful Dead’s surviving members to grace the 2010 Vibes event.

Completing the line-up of Grateful Dead alum were Friday night headliners Further, with bassist Phil Lesh and guitarist Bob Weir, along with Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, the Grateful Dead’s two drummers appearing Saturday in their recently-revived ensemble, Rhythm Devils.

Weir donned a hot pink guitar for Further’s opening set taking control and leading the group through a memorable selection that included “Jack Straw,” “Ramble on Rose,” and a medley of “Estimated Prophet,” “Eyes of the World” and “Not Fade Away,” which washed across the ecstatic crowd like the cooling breeze blowing in from Long Island Sound.

Then, just when fans couldn’t imaging things getting any better, Further showcased the musically complex “Help On The Way,” “Slipknot!” “Franklin’s Tower,” to wrap the second set — then returned for a half-hour encore, performing the entire “Terrapin Suite,” from The Grateful Dead’s Terrapin Station album to close out the show.

The Rhythm Devils set the following evening was markedly different particularly in quality, although not entirely disappointing. Perched behind their newly-staffed ensemble featuring Keller Williams, Sikiru Adepoju on talking drum, Davy Knowles on guitar and vocals, and Andy Hess on bass, Hart and Kreutzmann flailed away for only about 90 minutes compared to the nearly three-hour Further set the night before.

Kicking the show off with a double dose of Dead, Rhythm Devils wound their way through “Cold Rain and Snow” and “Uncle John’s Band,” with Williams handling the Garcia vocal parts with ease. Then it was time for Knowles to step into the batter’s box and smack a few numbers out of the park, most notably Robert Hunter’s “So Many Roads” and the rollicking “Hey, Bo Diddley,” which got several thousand fans up and dancing across Seaside Park’s main field.

Anther notable 2010 Vibes performance was turned in by Robert Raldolph and the Family Band, showcasing possibly the best crossover pedal steel player on the planet. Randolph rolled out his own high-octane set of blues and covers, playing with the kind of effortless ease some of the old-timers remembered from another guitar god by the name of Jimi Hendrix.