Musikfest

I wandered down to the fest to find my friends had gotten a prime location in the front row, directly in front of Angus. Unfortunately, due to the "dust" conditions in the tent, the Musikfest crew had to hose down the ground and asked us all to move, so we did. Due to a comedy of errors, we lost our good spots. We ended up about 3 or 4 people (tall people) back from the stage. Not the best spot ever, my pics turned out terribly, but thoroughly enjoyable for the show.

Brother was on and offstage, tuning up and getting ready. Roel has the reddish mohawk going on. He was wearing a brownish colored tank, I believe, with the pants thinger he wore in Vegas, which were blue and gold. Rick was wearing a tight, black, see-through, short sleeved shirt, and the fabric created a horizontal stripe pattern. He was wearing jeans, which had a shiny snakeskin pattern to them and a beaded necklace tight around his neck. His hair was stick straight for this show. For the show, Hamish was wearing an amazing tank. The top of the back was red and pink, with what looked to me like lettering, but didn't spell anything. The bottom was a grey stretch type fabric, which had different colors flecked throughout. The front was black at the top, and green at the bottom, kind of swirled. This description cannot come close to the actual looks of this shirt. Hamish was wearing the ever present (and which we have grown to love) green kilt/pants type thinger. Hamish's hair is a little redder, and looks just great. Angus, who appears to be a little blonder now, was also wearing green, a great tank with swirls of darker green and black throughout it. He was wearing the black leather kilt (yay!), and was back in shoes for this show, in his Harley boots. Alona really did a beautiful job, if she was the one who designed everything today, because the guys looked great!

During the sound check preparations, Angus was on the stage most of the time, playing around on his bass, and vocalizing into the mic. Excellent. The boys disappeared, and the show began just 5 minutes after the scheduled start time! After a bit of teasing, they went right into Bitch, which was amazing, full of power. Next was Crazy, after Roel teased us a few times with the intro. Next was River - this was a fast paced show with very little banter. River dissolved into thetimeisnow, which is extended and arranged differently vocally. It's harder, and has a hell of an impact. Hang on was a great song to follow this. It slowed everyone down, and was amazing.

All I know followed Hang on. It was again in the new arrangement, which you've got to hear to believe (sorry!). It's so powerful now, and Hash is great to watch with just the mic. Clumsy was next. The bagpipes brought out a great shout from the crowd, and Roel was definitely a "funky drummer" as Angus called him. I believe Angus said at this point - you have Rock and Roll, and now you have Rick and Roel. Crow was next. Again, the vocal lines have been rearranged, sounding just great. I love this song.

After Crow, Angus called someone up on stage. It was Oleg, from the Red Elvises. For those who know the Red Elvises, Oleg's hair is blonde now, not the shocking red it was the last time I saw them. Hamish referred to the Red Elvises at some point as their partners in crime... anyone else remember that Musikfest?? Angus reminded the crowd that it had been a year since they had played this song together. With that, they launched into a rousing version of Romp. Oleg did fabulously, and looked to be having a great time.

Roel had some very funny things recorded, which he played at random times. One I can remember was a line from the Wedding Singer - "all things that could have been brought to my attention, YESTERDAY!" It was silly. Hamish said that they were thinking of taking a short break, but, I think, they were having too much fun.

Angus picked up the green didg and began to play it alone into his mic. Very primal, and very powerful. Rick joined in after a while, on his black and white striped didg, and then Hamish joined with his. Nice to hear this little didg jam. After this, Hamish said they were going to play some new stuff, as they have been in LA recording lately. They began with Name, which had a great response from the audience. This was followed with 2 weeks, which Hamish introduced, by saying "two weeks is a very long time to be away from you". Again, this new song had a great reception. Rick, Angus and Hamish each do a verse, each very different, and it sounds very together. This was followed with Louie, which is definitely a crowd pleaser in these parts. Next, Fragile. Hamish said "Another new one" and crossed his fingers. It went off almost flawlessly, and sounded just great.

Hamish then said they were running out of time, so they'd play 1 and a half more. They launched into It's All Good, and I thought they'd close the show with that. Well, they surprised us once again. Angus called out for Oleg again, picked up his pipes, and started playing Amazing Grace. Great way to end the show. Rick's solo was excellent, and having Oleg on bass and the two bagpipes was great. The boys were cordial after the show as always, Hamish telling everyone they'd be over to sign anything about 10 minutes after the show.

The crowd at the merchandise table was huge, and they were standing around signing and taking pictures for almost an hour. The crowd to buy merchandise was huge, we couldn't even get over to say hello to Teri for a long while. I think they really do enjoy coming to Bethlehem, cause when the crowd responded, both Hamish and Angus broke out into great big smiles. And speaking of the crowd - it was huge! About 3,000 people, from what we heard. I was astounded in the crowd to hear so many people knowing the words and singing along. So, to sum up - it was an outstanding show.

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