Steel Bridge Songfest - Day 2

Posted by: Rob on 2009-07-01 00:44:31

Day Two - We get up late, due to the wonderful tree that we camped under. I made a little breakfast [campstove bacon and eggs] and we grabbed our bikes and proceeded to figure out how to get downtown. The ride is nice until you have to pass behind the sewage treatment plant, but we didn't have to travel on the highway which was cool. We grabbed a bloody mary at the Red Room, which just happens to be the best place in town to get a bloody. They were not serving food that day so we headed over to the Ladder House for some food. After that we rode back to camp [bikes were key] and relaxed until I had to work again.

Grabbed the bikes and hit the trail back to work again. We got to the Ladder House and it was a little early so we sat outside and Brenda caught up on her e-mail. At seven thirty we headed into the LH again and I had made it just in time for the music portion of the Dinner party. Just as we walked in  pat mAcdonald asked for a sound crew to come and get the music going, I walked up and said "I'm the sound crew, Mark is at the main board, let's go". Different groups of people got up and played songs that had been written at the festival. I happened to be to busy with techy things to keep track of all the musicians but I liked everything they played.

The first band of the night was The Form from Milwaukee. These guys were very tight and played a lot of straight up rock. The thing that set them apart was the great vocal harmonies. They were also nice guys to work with; I would go see them again.

Next on the stage was Elf Lettuce, these guys are one of my favorite Madison bands. It's always fun to work with them and they did not disappoint this time either. Their set was tight but left just enough room for the jam. I was dancing behind the soundboard.

Next up came Tony Brown and Chris Aarron with Paulie on percussion and a drummer whose name I did not catch. They came in and just Rocked that place with a four song set [Tony had to play somewhere else that night] that had everyone in the place up and moving. The crowd chanted for more but it was time for them to move on.

Next up was Ifkadar, who I have seen a few times before. They seemed to be adding a lot more techno to the mix since the last time I saw them. The crowd was all warmed up and the bodies didn't stop movin'. They ended with also sprach zarathustra that made my head spin.

Too finish off the evening was the Kim Manning Jam Factory featuring LMO. I moved to the front of house board, and Mark was on guitar and monitors. It was a mish mosh of different players and I spent most of my time trying to figure out who was playing into which mic? But the crowd didn't even seem to notice so I must have done alright. Then it was time to bike it back to camp and a little campfire drinking by the canal.

Stay tuned for day 3...
 

http://www.elflettuce.com/

http://ifdakar.com/

http://www.kimmanning.com/

Steel Bridge Songfest 2009 - Day 1

Posted by: Rob on 2009-06-16 09:10:39

This is my take on the Steel Bridge Songfest 2009. I rolled into town about four thirty on Thursday afternoon and headed straight to the Ladder House where I would be running sound for the weekend. I meet up with Mark from Little Marsh Overflow and got the rundown on how everything was configured and set up the remaining mics. Then it was off to find our camping spot and get setup for the weekend ahead. Wade from LMO and his wonderful parents let us camp at their place which ended up being a great deal of fun.

Well off to the venue to get everything ready for a night of live music. The first band of the night is Whiskey of the Damned from Milwaukee, well not so much of a band as a single member of the band. Seems they had a bad week, their van broke down, the accordion went to hell, and to top it all off the guy on stage, Eoin was knocked out at work. The music was enjoyable, with some soulful folk to some Irish sounding punk. I hope they have a better week.

Next up were the Grasshoppers from Madison who always put on a fun
Set of music. They broke out some Pink Floyd giving Bill the light guy a chance to test out all of his gear. They also played a Bob Marley tune and at some point I went up and played some djembe during a funk number. They put on a great show for a pretty excited crowd.

The third band of the evening was The Wandering Foolz from Green Bay who started with a funky blues number, then they brought out the rock and threw some solos back and forth, then they managed to throw in a great simpsons ending. I enjoyed catching them again as they get better everytime I see them.

Then it was the first surprise of the weekend, Kerry Rodriques (I could be wrong on the spelling) was brought up by pat mAcdonald to play a short set. I noticed that the drummer had cool tambourines that he could attach to his drum sticks and I liked them. They had a folk meets roots rock sound that they mixed with some soul-blues. They ended their set with a country rock number that was fun to hear.

Up next is The Red Herring Society brought out a mix of old and new punk to get warmed up. I found them mildly boring, and I didn't get what they were going for. That said I don't think I'm the focus of their musical efforts. They finished up with a funkier rock number that I found much more enjoyable.

And last but not least, Little Marsh Overflow took the stage and rocked a bunch of their new songs that will be coming out on a new album soon. They also pulled out some Kenny Logins and finished the night with Kai singing and pulling off a great drum solo. The crowd was having fun all night and didn't want to leave when they turned on the lights. Stay tuned for days 2 and 3….

Rob
BSR

Whiskey of the Damned - http://www.myspace.com/thewhiskeyofthedamned

The Grasshoppers - http://www.myspace.com/grasshoppersmusic

The Wandering Foolz - http://www.myspace.com/thewanderingfoolz

The Red Herring Society - http://www.myspace.com/redherringsocietymusic

Little Marsh Overflow - http://www.littlemarshoverflow.com/

Welcome to the new Blog Page!

Posted by: Jason on 2009-06-07 22:01:02

A while ago, the guys mentioned they would like a spot on the website where they could just rant about random things, so I built a blog page. Depending on the popularity, we may make the link into a nav menu item, but for now it's located on the "About Us" page which you can get to via the "Press" page.

For my contribution to the blog, I thought I'd try to field questions from everyone. So if you have a question you'd like to ask about the band, the website (many of you probably don't know I built and maintain the website) or anything else, email me at jason@baghdadscubareview.com and I'll try to answer your questions in posts to this blog.

Other than that, I'll probably just post about what I'm working on for the website.

Thanks for checking out our blog and our website. Happy reading, and don't forget, if you ever want to comment on anything written here, we'd love to hear your feedback, so Contact Us.

Rock On,

Jason