Got back late last night from New Orleans after chaperoning my son and his friend to the weekend long concert called Voodoofest. Yes, he's 19 but I ain't ready to let him loose in NOLA and the 5+ hour drive that goes along with it. Plus, I hadn't been to that area in about 20 years.
First, 90% of this event is for people a hell of a lot younger than myself. Meaning, just about everyone. Even though there were plenty of "old" peeps there, it was dominated by teens up to about 30 year olds. There were about 60 bands and I had actually heard of maybe 6 or 7 of them. The headliners for Friday, Saturday and Sunday were Guns-n-Roses, Beck and Post Malone respectively. The event is held at City Park and it's a massive set up with about 6 stages spread throughout the park. Well run. Lots of food/liquor and assorted vendors available with port-o-shitters a-plenty.
Being that it's called Voodoofest and right at Halloween, the theme is for everyone to dress up...or down....or not wear very much at all. Truth be told, there was a veritable cornucopia of exposed tits and bootay. I went as a 59 year old lawyer dressed casually with an Auburn cap. I was kind of a hit. But after seeing thousands of people garbed in just about anything and everything you can imagine, I came to a conclusion. I could go next year wearing a pink thong, cowboy boots, a bandana and a pair of Randy Macho Man Sunglasses and no one would bat an eye, which is hurtful because I have a really nice ass.
Musically, it was a bit of an eye opener. I like to think that I'm open to a lot of styles and genres, but I do tend to stay in my comfort zone. I saw a lot of bands I had never even heard of, but it was pretty enjoyable to be exposed to new music and artists. Of course Guns-n-Roses was well....Guns-n-Roses. Axl was a portly little sucker and certainly doesn't have the same pipes as he used to. His signature serpentine move is now more likened to a pregnant iguana having a seizure. But overall, he was solid. Slash? Another planet. He's just pure awesomeness. They played all the standards but the best song they played was Slither, a Velvet Revolver "cover", if you can call it that. I went full on Metallica head bang on Slither.
Like I said, it was fun hearing some artists I'd never heard, or had only heard bits and pieces of like Grandson, Hippo Campus, Brandi Carlisle (Not Belinda) Moon Taxi, The Ghost of Paul Revere (Recommend a listen for many of you on here) etc. However, I guess this was the get the hell off my lawn aspect of my personality. One thing I just didn't get was the DJ form of music. They had a massive stage set up for nothing but these famous DJ's. We walked over there and saw a few thousand people dancing their asses off to a girl in her DJ booth, about 20 feet up on a huge stage. She wasn't doing ANYTHING. It was just the same beat for 2 hours.
BOOMP BOOMP BOOMP WIPPA WIPPA BOOMP. She would whip her arms around and gesture like she was "spinning" something. She wasn't doing shit. It was all a recording. No lyrics. No real song. Just BOOMP BOOMP BOOMP WIPPA WIPPA BOOMP over and over. She'd stand up on the booth and talk to the crowd. Same BOOMP BOOMP BOOMP WIPPA WIPPA BOOMP going on. People going crazy. I asked my son and his friend, "Is this really a thing?" They said it wasn't theirs, but yes, it's a thing. I said I'm getting the hell off their lawn.
All in all, I had a great weekend and definitely some new experiences. I'll go back now that I kind of know the lay of the land. I'll probably take one of my tailgating chairs and set up camp in front of a stage or four. But it won't be at the DJ venue.
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