Small But Mighty Regional Music Festivals

By STEVEN ROSEN, Special Contributor

Dallas Morning News
Published 23 January 2011

Traveling to pop music festivals is like shopping for clothes. There are the department-storelike big outdoor festivals, such as Tennessee’s Bonnaroo or southern California’s Coachella, with endless talent lineups and even longer bathroom lines. A notch down are the smaller haberdasherlike specialists, some quite tony, that have a familiar brand name (blues, jazz, bluegrass, jam bands) and stick with it year after year.

But percolating up from below are smaller, boutique music festivals — sometimes funky and sometimes chic — that try to do something completely different. They can last for just a weekend, or take up semi-residencies in a city with events spread over weeks.

Their purpose may be to revive some forgotten style of music such as 1950s-era rockabilly (Viva Las Vegas, to be held April 21-24 in the city that never sleeps) or to celebrate obscure “unsung heroes of rock ’n’ roll,” as is the mission of New Orleans’ Ponderosa Stomp. Sometimes, too, they veer toward the avant-garde. And sometimes their purpose is just to obsess over something weird, like bringing together worldwide Beatles tribute bands for a weekend of communal “yeah, yeah, yeahs.”

Some fests even have daytime seminars or public discussions with performers. In that way, they’re like film festivals: rewarding even if you aren’t already a fan of the music they feature. Even a venerable high-end fine-arts festival such as Spoleto USA, a series of separate musical and theatrical performances in Charleston, S.C., (May 27 through June 12), now fits this “boutique” description as it modernizes with more diverse and youthful acts. Last year, for instance, two Australian comedians, impersonating a German punk-rock duo called Die Roten Punk, headlined a hilarious and rockin’ late-night show.

At a boutique music festival, you never quite know what to expect.

For example, MoogFest, an eclectic progressive-pop fest dedicated to the creative spirit of the late synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, is held over Halloween weekend in Asheville, N.C. (Moog lived there in his later years, and there’s an effort there to build a museum about his work.) Last year’s lineup ranged from Syrian vocalist Omar Souleyman, who sang his energetic, Middle Eastern dance music wearing a native headdress and shades, to a hip, hot British synth-pop band named Hot Chip.

En route between venues on Halloween night, I turned an isolated, dark corner and before me, walking quietly and intently, were a young woman dressed in a spectacular red outfit and a man wearing a wolf mask and a tux. We acknowledged each other and moved on.
Such is the spirit of Asheville — a youthful, mountain-town version of Austin — during MoogFest.

At Abbey Road on the River, which brings worldwide Beatles-tribute bands to attractive downtown Louisville, Ky., over Memorial Day weekend, you can relive every phase of the Fab Four’s career. (A second Abbey Road is held Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C.) It occurs at multiple venues both outdoors in a park along the Ohio River, and indoors at the adjacent Galt House hotel. At last year’s fest, a scruffy European band played the raucous rock ’n’ roll of the Beatles’ pre-fame Hamburg, Germany, period on one stage while a small orchestra, dressed in colorful band costumes with elaborate stage lighting, played the elaborately arranged “Sgt. Pepper”-era art rock elsewhere.

Boutique music festivals can have really big stars. Nashville’s Americana Music Festival & Conference, held at historic Ryman Auditorium and smaller settings, was started for music professionals with careers in this naturalistic blend of rock, country and folk. But it now is open to outsiders. Last year, it featured unannounced sets by such stars as Robert Plant , Lucinda Williams and Dierks Bentley. It occurs this year Oct. 12-15.

Bryce Dessner , a guitarist with the popular, Brooklyn-based rock band the National, curates the three-night MusicNow festival in his hometown, Cincinnati . It is tentatively set for May 14-16, with at least some shows in downtown’s Memorial Hall, a 102-year-old jewel box of an intimate auditorium. The festival mixes cutting-edge rock (Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear) with jazz (Bill Frisell ) and contemporary classical (Kronos Quartet). Last year, Dessner commissioned the brittle, edgy rock guitarist Annie Clark, who performs as St. Vincent, to write a classical-music piece in memory of a local murdered arts student. Vincent sat quietly in the balcony, moved, while the New York group yMusic performed her composition.

Ponderosa Stomp is a two-night New Orleans party dedicated to reviving the fortunes of “unsung heroes of rock ’n’ roll” and related music. Although it’s moving to a new location this year for its Sept. 16-17 fest, it had been at the crowded, sweaty House of Blues in the French Quarter. No rock fan with a sense of history has truly lived until seeing the original ? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians hold court at 3 a.m. with an extended version of their propulsive 1966 garage-rock classic “96 Tears,” as happened at P-Stomp in 2008. The years melted away, and they were again as big as the Rolling Stones in the eyes of everyone present.

Such unexpected magic can happen at boutique music festivals.

Steve Rosen is a freelance writer in Ohio.

Travel details
Prices can vary for boutique music festivals, depending on the size, scope and demand of the event. Ponderosa Stomp, where the multiartist evening shows featuring hard-to-see-live cult artists and occur in one club, has been $50 per night. The Abbey Road on the River festivals, which have multiple stages for concerts and booths selling Beatles collectibles, music, books and souvenirs as well as food and drinks, are $199.95 for the full four-day event or $129.95 for two-day packages, with early-purchase discounts. The prestigious Americana Music Festival & Conference, with its roster of big names, is selling early registration for $350.

Resources
All of these festivals have Websites with information, although some may not yet be updated for 2011. Some, such as Abbey Road on the River, Spoleto USA and Ponderosa Stomp, offer travel packages with agencies or hotels.
– Spoleto USA, www.spolettousa.org
– MusicNow, www.musicnowfestival.org
– Abbey Road on the River, www.abbeyroadon theriver.com
– Americana Music Festival and Conference, www.americanamusic.org
– Ponderosa Stomp, www.ponderosastomp.com
– MoogFest, www.moogfest.net
– Viva Las Vegas, www.vivalasvegas.net

(Photo of Sugar Pie DeSanto at Ponderosa Stomp, 2010, by Joe Rosen and courtesy of the festival.)