Vegoose Festival: Day 1
Sam Boyd Stadium and Star Nursery Field
Filter Grade: 95%
by Audrey Hendrickson | 01.01.2007

Las Vegas is crazy enough as it is, but throw Halloween and two non-stop days of music into the mix and it becomes certifiably insane. Last weekend was the second annual Vegoose festival, in which an eclectic group of musicians assemble on four stages to entertain the masses in the picturesque desert a mere nine miles from The Strip. As it takes place the weekend before Halloween, there are tons of attendees dressed in festive garb, from a couple Team Zissous and a fleet of Clockwork Orange droogs to an overwhelming number of Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland-themed costumes.

Since the fest has a jam-band slant, I started the day off at the Snake Eyes stage with Toubab Krewe, a six-piece out of Asheville, North Carolina, who have a decidedly West African feel. What gives them cred---and what saves them from being yet another group of white guys co-opting black music---is the inclusion of Lamine Soumano, a guitar virtuoso from the country of Mali. Soumano made his first U.S. appearance at Vegoose, and he was clearly excited to be performing in the States. As to the band’s music, it was a unique hodgepodge of influences: American rock with just a hint of surf music, mixed with distinctly African sounds, often due to the band’s use of some freaky-looking traditional instruments (the ngori and kora, amongst others).

I moved on to the Jokers Wild stage for the English indie rock of Gomez. The band themselves started out their set with a promise that our asses would be rocked off. Afterwards, my ass was intact, but I had definitely enjoyed their playful, energetic set. The three singers traded off lead vocalist duties, and on “Ruff Stuff” every member of the band got his chance to yell out the “Come back!” in the chorus.

Next up was Cat Power. While Chan Marshall is not as unstable as she once was, she is still by no means normal. Her backing musicians, the Memphis Rhythm Band, did a James Brown-style opening, where they played for a few minutes before introducing Chan and segueing into the title track from her latest album The Greatest. And that’s when the weirdness started: While she sang, Chan did a little shadowboxing, jigged, and the chicken dance. It was the most disorganized set I saw at the fest, with long pauses between songs as Chan consulted with the band. Still, despite all the oddities, the music was good. Chan’s voice, though weak and without the projection needed for an outdoor venue, was lovely and breathy, and the Memphis Rhythm Band added a nice bluesy element to old songs like “Naked If I Want To” and her cover of The Stones’ “Satisfaction,” which, in this incarnation, even included the chorus once.

From there, it was into the Cabaret Clubs tent, which resembled a circus big top, for the sex-filled hip hop of Kool Keith, performing on this day under the moniker Dr. Octagon. Keith emerged wearing a long-sleeve polo, jeans, shades, a backwards ballcap, chains, and a full-length silver cape. Some of his performance quickly got old, like when he played “Blue Flowers,” which was immediately followed by a remix of the very same song. Or the constant call-and-response of “Is Las Vegas in the house? Hell yeah!” That’s not to say that Keith’s not entertaining. He performed crowd favorite “Black Elvis” and a lot of his lewder songs, so there were chants of “Freaks get naked!” and “G-spot!” To top it all off, before he launched into “Girl, Let Me Touch You There,” he threw several pairs of panties into the crowd. Later on in the day, I’d see a girl dressed as a unicorn with one of Keith’s thongs hanging off of her horn.

Then it was out of the big top and back into the sunshine for The Raconteurs, who took the stage clad in all black to the sound of some seriously heavy organ. The band tore threw most of their debut album, with lots of electric guitar care of Jack White. Jack, pasty as always, would refer to himself as an “old goth queen” in need of sunscreen. He and bandmate Brendan Benson had great chemistry, often sharing the mic, and on one occasion Jack placed his hand on Benson’s head during the latter’s guitar solo. Way cute.

I then encountered an extremely polite, chill crowd seeing Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley. Bob’s youngest son stays in the same vein as his daddy without ripping him off; Damian could easily just play his father’s songs all night and get away with it. However, while he did perform the classic “Could You Be Loved,” he stuck to most of his own material, which is political but not too overtly. He had songs about avoiding negativity, searching for unconditional love, taking responsibility for one’s actions, and the importance of health over wealth. Still, Damian never forgets that he’s there to entertain. To this end, he features two female back-up singers who broke out some great dance moves and a man whose only job is to wave a Rastafarian flag for the entirety of the show---impressive, considering the set was over an hour long. As an added bonus, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 made a guest appearance toward the end of the set on “Road to Zion.”

After a brief respite for some food, I hit several acts in short succession. First, I stopped by the Double Down mainstage for the Black Crowes, who had a large-scale production and promised to deliver some “Saturday night hard cosmic boogie.” Then it was on to Jurassic 5 for a couple songs in the completely packed, now hotboxed Cabaret Clubs tent. They were mostly performing tracks off their new album, though I did catch oldie-but-goodie “Quality Control.” But those were brief stops, as I had to see the full set of hometown boys The Killers. In the past, I had seen them in tiny venues, but now that they’re huge, they had the set-up and the crowd to prove it. The stage was decorated with Christmas lights on the amps, and sequins and rhinestones bedecked the keyboards. The band, sharply dressed as always, kicked things off with the new album Sam’s Town title track. Over the course of the next hour and a half, they’d play nearly every song off that album, plus most of debut Hot Fuss, in addition to the U.K.-only track “Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll.” This was the most clean-cut crowd I’d encounter at all of Vegoose - lots of parents with kids and some middle-aged women present - but everybody ate up the band’s over-the-top rock star performance. Brandon Flowers has grown into a properly charismatic frontman. While singing, he covers the entirety of the stage, sharing his presence with every portion of the crowd, standing on top of the monitors, dramatically acting out lines from songs, and generally remaining the center of attention at all times. Truly, The Killers put on the best set of the day.

I closed out Day One back at the mainstage for Tom Petty, who was dressed almost as a caricature of himself in a brown fringed suede jacket. As a performer, Petty could have it easy, in that he could choose not to sing his songs and just allow the enthusiastic crowd to provide the vocals. Petty was unwaveringly gracious and polite, thanking the crowd for singing along and letting them know “you sound really good.” His set was nearly a greatest hits album, including “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “I Won’t Back Down,” and “Free Falling.”

Exhausted and sore from standing all day, I made my way to the shuttle back to the hotels. One twelve-hour day of music down, one to go.