Tempe Music Festival Saturday Concert Review 04.04.2009

by Melanie Nelson, www.FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

I made it through the gate in time for Mute Math on Saturday at the Tempe Music Festival.  Their very electronic style rock was a welcome addition to a healthy dinner of Ben and Jerry’s and cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.   It was still relatively early Saturday evening, but a healthy crowd had already gathered and were in already dancing and partying. 
Today was the day of superfans.  I had an opportunity to meet very devoted dad, Larry Norton.  Larry’s son Wyatt had been a huge fan of the All American Rejects, for five years and was here to hopefully get a poster signed.  Once the band had completed their Tempe Music Fest TV interview and signed the sofa for charity, they began heading past our area back to their bus.  While their wrangler was keeping everyone back stating “no signing”, Tyson did stop for Larry to sign Wyatt’s poster.  As he stated, ‘You can’t resist a dad getting something for his son’.  Wyatt got even luckier later with dad getting his pass signed by 3 Doors Down.
Tom Morello: The NightWatchman was up after Mute Math and while I’m not a Guitar Hero player, I can see why he reached guitar god status.  His songs (I’m thinking particularly of “Shake my Shit”) had everyone dancing, beach bouncing in the crowd and even those sitting at tables were coming up with creative shoulder bobbing.  As an extra treat, it really did seem as if Tom was on stage much longer than the listed one hour.   His cover (uncensored) of “This Land is My Land” on the acoustic guitar was also one of many memorable moments.
The crowd had swelled to a massive sea of people by the time All American Rejects took the stage.  Starting off with some familiar crowd favorites ‘Dirty Little Secret’, they had everyone singing along in one of the best singing crowd moments I’ve ever heard.  Instead of the vague mumbling that precedes and follows the choruses everyone knows, this was clearly a group of fans who all knew their stuff perfectly.  The new waving lighter of the ages, a lit cell phone, was apparent in everyone’s hands in beat to the music and Tyson had the crowd eating out of his hands with his magic trick (though apparently it’s the only one he knows).
Between the bands that evening, winning High School and College garage bands were invited to play and both were excellent and talented additions that easily kept the crowd engaged.  Congratulations to both SRP prize winners.
By the time 10:30 rolled around, the event was a blend of the hard core 3 Doors Down fans, the hard core partiers, the hard core posers and the simply exhausted.  The latter group was determined to hold out as long as we all could as everyone huddled together for warmth and to keep one another upright.  Now IF I had any energy left, 3 Doors Down would have been a great band to stay to the very end for, but after a hugely long day we had to call it quits after their first six songs.  From that six though, I can say that lead singer, Brad Arnold has a voice that translates as brilliantly clear as if you were listening and rocking out at home.
All in all, a great event – I was exhausted, full of Mentos and ice cream, had several new songs to seek out and download at home and fully intend on returning to the Tempe Town Music Fest next year where I’ll definitely be springing for that VIP ticket.

Tempe Music Festival – Friday Concert Review 04.03.2009

by Melanie Nelson, FromTheCrowd.com Contributor

I was definitely looking forward to this year’s Tempe Town Music Fest. Having never attended before, I fully intended on enjoying all the bands and making the most of the people watching available (and it was extensive). So was the extreme variety in dress code. I have to admit the attending an outdoor lawn concert dressed in a three inch skirt, tube tops and stilettos never occurred to me, but at least she didn’t have clothing to flap annoyingly in the breeze.

The high winds on .Friday did little to deter the multiple vendors. We’d arrived early enough to enjoy checking out the grounds as well as prime restroom locations. The Mentos folks were out in numbers forcing fresh breath upon everyone they met (I’m a renegade and stuck with my preferred fruit flavor). For all of those seeking out free shwag, they were certainly in luck with Dr. Pepper, College Times, Ben & Jerry’s, Barefoot Wine, Scion and many others on hand with their assortment of giveaways and tastings. I’d had a terrible Hitchcock flashback moment until I realized that the birds hurtling towards the earth were actually free T-shirts for the crowd.

But on to the music! This year’s Friday line up brought such groups as Cowboy Mouth, The Outlaws, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers and Kid Rock.

Friday’s official reviewing day started with Cowboy Mouth, a departure from their usual Saturday listing. The bands energy, especially that of lead singer and drummer Fred was great. He worked hard to get the crowds energy up, but the post work Friday crowd didn’t really build that night until about 8:00p.m. though it was reportedly higher than in previous years.

I had the benefit of sitting back and enjoying the music with some serious hard core fans behind me. Rhonda, Wendy and Mitch had specifically come for Kid Rock and Cowboy Mouth and were at home fans; this was their first live concert for Cowboy Mouth and they were happily trying to keep the noise and energy level of the crowd up on their own. It was a great set of songs, though I was personally fond of the cover of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall and Tell her You’re Sorry. Fred kindly also sang a Happy Birthday tribute to lead guitarist John along with the whole crowd (who may have feared not participating at this point).

As the wind in the evening picked up, there was surprisingly little concern over the swaying tons of suspended speakers. From our convenient location, we had a great view of them. Speaking of tickets, should you ever be pondering the relative value of a VIP ticket compared to the basic ticket, between covering food and drink costs, the ability to have a set of designated restrooms and the stage side viewing area totally make the extra cost entirely worth it.
The Outlaws were a pleasant surprise of songs that everyone has heard and enjoyed, but hadn’t quite realized who performed them.  Having been a band since the ‘60’s, their fan base had a very wide range of people.  John and Mike, a pair of twenty something fans sporting Outlaw tees were simply there to “hear some live shit”.  But huddling in the warmth of the charity Circle K, I found an interesting story with Barb Fisher.  Barb and her boyfriend were given a set of VIP tickets by Paul Henry.  Paul and her boyfriend Bill Morey had grown up together in Northern Florida and hung out playing music together in high school.  Bill even remembered when “Green Grass and High Tide” was written.  At the time though, Bill had to inform Paul that while he could certainly play music, he couldn’t sing worth a damn.  This may have been a last laugh type of moment. 
Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers were on next to a crowd that had caught on to all the bands spirit and were happily waving their Mentos in time to the beat and I was tickled to see a member of The Outlaws hiding at the edge of the stage foot tapping along.  I did leave early at this point and missed Kid, but his fans were certainly pouring through the gates in a partying state of mind. Saturday should prove to be even bigger than Friday…