There were
Turtles, Crows, a
Bird, Rabbit,
Elephant, and even a
Bugg… but no
horses at this year’s
Festival Palomino, which nevertheless successfully pulled off a near last-minute venue change and provided a full platter of varied musical goodness at one of our favorite events of the year.
The third annual
Trampled By Turtles-curated
American Roots Festival found itself moved to historic Hall’s Island, near downtown Minneapolis only a few weeks before the show date, the result of “major storms and flooding which delayed construction”. With its usual location inside the horse track at suburban
Canterbury Park unavailable,
lemonade was made from
lemons and the
First Avenue/Rose Presents crews once again expertly executed the nine-hour/seventeen band event, with only a few minor hiccups.
The festival grounds featured food trucks, traditional and specialty food vendors, local beer and wine and merchandise stands which sold clothing, shoes, and handicrafts. Although the festival was more centrally located,
Lyft offered service to and from the grounds, and this year’s lineup proved more musically diverse and included an added third stage (hey,
maybe they saw and heeded our previous recommendations here:
W♥M: Festival Palomino 2014).
Like last year, the two main stages (nicknamed ‘Stars’ and ‘Satellites’) were set up next to each other, with a cordoned-off VIP section in the middle, for a double-barreled look, which also saved the organizers an additional separate set up crew, speaker stack, and front of house board set up. The third (‘Blue Sky’) stage unfortunately was set up a little too close in earshot to the main stages (the result of settling for the smaller overall venue), but a short delay and some speaker re-alignment, helped fix the issue somewhat.
With many in
W♥M’s coverage team committed elsewhere &/or out of town, we unfortunately didn’t get to see much of the new stage, which featured
Devil’s Flying Machine feat. Charlie Parr,
Murder of Crows, Aubrie Sellers, and
Elephant Revival among others, who closed that stage with a stirring cover of
Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit’.
The music of the main stages began with
Mandolin Orange, a Chapel Hill, NC folk duo (Andrew Marlin- vocals, mandolin, guitar, banjo) and Emily Frantz- vocals, violin, guitar) previewing tracks from their upcoming
Blindfaller (Yep Roc Records).
Local favorites
The Cactus Blossoms were next (brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum), drawing a large early afternoon crowd, in support of the
JD McPherson-produced
You’re Dreaming (Red House Records) and knee-slapping hit, ‘Stoplight Kisses’ then California singer-songwriter
Margaret Glaspy charmed the crowd with a short set featuring songs from her debut album
Emotions and Math (ATO Records) and raspy vocal blend of folk, rock, and touch of soul.
3:05pm Frightened Rabbit (45 min)
The rising Scottish band played a raucous too-short and too-early set that turned the amp volumes up starting with the opening ‘Get Out’ from latest album
Painting of a Panic Attack (Atlantic Records) and found singer Scott Hutchison is a friendly and chatty mood. The band undoubtedly gained new fans as a result of their early slot and songs like ‘Old Old Fashioned’ seemed tailor fit to this type of festival. ‘The Woodpile’ remains a sonic tour-de-force and the band closed with 2010’s somewhat somber, ‘The Loneliness and the Scream’.
3:55pm Houndmouth (50 min)
The Indiana alt-country band anchored by core members Matt Myers (guitar, vocals), Zak Appleby (bass, vocals), and Shane Cody (drums) took a break from prepping their next album (after 2015’s
Little Neon Limelight) to add some Midwest roots rock to the bill and were joined on stage by keyboardist Caleb Hickman and dual sax players. ’15 Years’ had echoes of ‘50s rock, ‘Say It’ was prefaced by a story of Myers getting booted from an online poker site for
saying it like he meant it, and ‘For No One’, ached with Myers’ vocal describing bizarre imagery. Radio hit ’Sedona’ perked up the crowd, with the band ending with ‘My Cousin Greg’ and its cautionary chorus, “If you wanna live the good life, well you better stay away from the limelight”.
4:45pm Jake Bugg (40 min)
The Nottingham, UK singer-songwriter is a music veteran at the ripe old age of 22, having played the massive
Glastonbury five years prior, so was no stranger to outdoor festivals. In support of third full-length,
On My One (Island Records), Bugg and three-piece band roared through a short but charged set of revved up rockabilly tinged indie folk. Bugg mostly let the music do the talking, breaking rank only occasionally, to mention ‘Trouble Town’ was about his own hometown, and to thank everyone. Most uptempo songs featured his distinctive rapid fire vocals, but ‘Simple Pleasures’ stood out not only as a slower song, but one that he and the band could stretch out on, musically as well.
6:00pm Andrew Bird (50 min)
The crowd gathered in anticipation and other musicians lined the side stage areas, as Bird and band entered some twenty-five minutes late, but delivered one of the most powerful sets of the day in support of April’s
Are You Serious (Loma Vista Records), starting with the opening ‘Capsized’. The Illinois native has always had a strong local following and Bird and his three-piece band added an elegant sheen to the day; he moving between violin and guitar, whistling (of course) and ending their set with a gorgeous and sweeping ‘Plasticities’.
7:10pm The Arcs (48 min)
Dan Auerbach’s psych-soul garage rock band takes his
Black Keys roots into ‘60s and ‘70s album radio and comes out the other side with a unique blend of yesterday and today that somehow all fits together seamlessly. The other five members (Leon Michels, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, Richard Swift, and Kenny Vaughan) define a tight but loose style, earmarked by two thunderous drummers to support Auerbach’s guitar gymnastics, in support of last fall’s
Yours, Dreamily (Nonesuch Records).
‘Put a Flower in Your Pocket’ evokes the gentleness of the peace and love culture, ‘The Arc’ barrels along like a vintage muscle car down a desert road, and ‘Outta My Mind’ brings back the psychedelic garage that
13th Floor Elevators and others made so famous; all of it fitting neatly and sounding like an early ‘70s movie soundtrack.
8:30pm Trampled by Turtles (78 min)
The Duluth favorites took to the stage, in a haze of dim lighting and smoke, with the slight bite of a fall chill in the air, bright moon in the sky, and perfect view of the city skyline, opening appropriately with ‘Wait So Long’ which morphed into the hyper-speed bluegrass the band has come to be known for. “All right, I think we’re all warmed up” singer Dave Simonett would say after.
Frankie Lee was brought over from the
Blue Sky stage to join TBT for one song, ‘Alone’ remains an incredibly moving lyric, and the harmonies on their cover of
John Lennon’s ‘Oh Yoko!’ were exemplary. As stage lights turned purple, bassist Tim Saxhaug took the vocal lead over for a simple but effective version of
Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares to You’, sounding equally inspired by the more famous
Sinead O’Connor version.
"Thank you from the bottom of our little frozen hearts- you've been amazing!", Simonett said and the band finished close to the city curfew time, with a fitting ‘Again’ and its chorus “Will I see you, will I see you again”- maybe a subtle invitation to ask you to return next year and from their 2010 album,
Palomino, …so everything did come full circle, and
Festival Palomino remains one of the best area shows (and best cost-per-band values) of the year.
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