Last night, or really early this morning, music came to an end around 4:30am. Umphrey’s McGee was the Late Night Headliner, and they were incredible. They played a mostly instrumental set with lots of funk and dance inspired grooves, of course still maintaining that “edge” that makes them “Umphrey’s”.
Further started off the Evening music as Friday’s Headlining act. The entire field was filling in as everyone in the crowd awaited the start of what many people were saying would be the highlight of the festival. The crowd began to get anxious as Further was almost an hour late coming on, but as soon as Phil Lesh and Bob Weir had led the rest of the band out from backstage to take their places, the crowd erupted!!
You could see every kind of glow stick, or glow anything for that matter all throughout the crowd and onto the hill. As the crowd at All Good was awaiting the second set from Further, a sea of glowing lanterns begin to rise from all throughout the crowd. Not as many as we had seen last year for Widespread Panic, But a valid attempt that was still pretty cool.
One of the performances I was most looking to seeing this weekend was Big Gigantic. I have played some of their music on “Stuck in The Jam” and have never had the chance to see them live. Well I went in with very high hopes and I was not disappointed in the least. Literally the moment Further finished playing their last notes, Dominic Lalli from “Big Gigantic” yelled from the Crane stage “Are you ready to get this late night party started All Good!!”
The music took off and blasted through the speakers as Fireworks began to do the same above the dragon stage where Further had just finished. The entire opening song from “Big Gigantic” was accompanied by an incredible fireworks display all starting around 2am this morning. Their entire set was stellar and so far the late night set from “Big Gigantic” has been the highlight of the festival for me.
So far today we have heard music from Marco Benevento, The Werks, Zach Deputy, Donna The Buffalo, J.J. Grey, and These United States. There was also a performance by Lubriphonic on the Grassroots stage out away from the main music area and close to “Shakedown Street”. As they finished their performance they loaded a couple amps in to the back of a golf cart and had a Second Line Parade march up to the main music area. Still on the way today is music from Yonder Mountain String Band, Moe., Orgone, Papadosio, and Primus in the Headlining spot, with Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe and Pretty Lights holding down the late night spots.
-Bug