Sometimes you just have to give up.
Saturday the arteries at Fair Grounds were badly clogged. I don’t know if it was a record crowd, but it was a crowd of people who couldn’t get out of each other’s way. There’s a kind of collective understanding that Jazz Festers have when things are working smoothly but it was not in operation Saturday. Whatever disassociation was happening in the crowd translated to some of the artists as well. Jonny Lang cancelled (replaced by John Mayall which was not a bad trade-off). Alpha Blondy was a half hour late starting and ended up getting the plug pulled on him. Rosie Ledet was a flat-out no show, much to the dismay of her legions of fans who were gathered at the Fais Do Do stage to finish the day.
The chair people fought a pitched battle with security at the Gentilly stage, eventually winning the war by the end of the day as Van Morrison drew a beyond-capacity crowd that spilled entirely onto the race track. If you weren’t already there before he started – and he started before his allotted time without introduction, like a racehorse beating the gate – you had ZERO chance of checking him out.
Other side of the field Pearl Jam had an even bigger crowd, helped out by the new grandstands, which make the Acura stage feel like an entirely different festival. The stands accommodate the masses in a way the rest of the stages can’t duplicate. Pearl Jam finished with a powerful pair of covers, a version of The Who’s “The Real Me” followed by Neil Young’s “Keep On Rockin’ In the Free World.”
Tab Benoit played a great set at the Gentilly stage before the chair wars took place during the pointless and distorted set by roots posers Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, who seem to think nobody has heard “Mama Told Me Not to Come” before. My biggest disappointment (aside from the OPP-approved crawfish bread) was missing Glen David Andrews at the Gospel Tent, which was impossible to get to at that moment.
But Jazz Fest always offers solace. Dr. Michael White’s Jelly Roll Morton tribute at Economy Hall was a grand slam, highlighted by an astonishing four handed piano turn from Henry Butler and Butch Thompson.
