The 2015 Annual XPoNential Music Festival graced the banks of the Delaware River for three outstanding days of music. The festival exemplifies what can occur when you have a highly symbiotic relationship between two like-minded entities all working towards a common goal. These types of relationships happen elsewhere at High Sierra, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and even Jazz Fest. The real magic isn’t just in the music or location, but how the fans and event communicate and react. Plus, having attendees with years and years of experience watching live music helps add to the grand result.
If you toured around the fields at Wiggins Park for the first time you’d find a wonderful flow happening between the two stages. Those fans seasoned in the ways of this almost two-decades-old festival know how to navigate it for maximum enjoyment at minimum effort (even if they still can’t walk without slipping down the grassy hills.) The sea of blankets that coated the Marina stage and River stage hills wasn’t intrusive. It meant mobility and a sense of security in where you’d land each set. Bands that had graced the WXPN airwaves in Philadelphia for years like The Word energized us. Robert Randolph wore his support for the station in the iconic “I Heart XPN” buttons on his shirt. Those same badges of musical conquests covered the crowds and staff alike, who had each plastered their love on just about anything they could.
Friday was perhaps one of the most beautiful evenings most of us had ever seen at this festival as a crown of a sunset settled in over Philadelphia. JD McPherson turned up our live jukebox and simply poured out his rock ‘n’ roll soul. The Oklahoma native’s smooth style touched upon a legacy left by Chuck Berry and Little Richard. McPherson and his band sifted through cuts from his two albums starting with the title track off his latest release, Let the Good Times Roll. The crowd didn’t stop moving until things slowed down during a cover of Nick Lowe’s “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day.”
The Word was one of the best performances all weekend. As supergroups go these guys are about as big as they come in the jam world. With Robert Randolph leading the way on pedal steel guitar, John Medeski on keys and the North Mississippi All Stars on guitar, drums and bass we shouted our applause as their set began. What made this performance electric? Perhaps it was Randolph back in his home state of New Jersey. Or perhaps it was the connection between Luther Dickinson and Medeski who clearly fed off each other all evening. Their set list was stacked with new tracks fueled by their latest release Soul Food. By the third song they dropped the foot-stomping grand time that was “Come by Here.” Randolph’s pedal steel directed them away from the new album into “Blood on That Rock” > “Waiting on My Wings.” It was here that Cody Dickinson donned the washboard as Randolph replaced him on drums. From the background emerged Duane Betts, son of former The Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, who joined in on guitar. The jamming between Medeski, Dickinson and Betts offered some fiery moments before they all seamlessly swapped back to their original spots.
For the past two years Dawes’ sets have been plagued with rain, only to be fully redeemed this year with one of their best nights yet. Taylor Goldsmith attacked the opportunity with some gusto to his playing and rightly so since it was also the Los Angeles-based group’s first time headlining the festival. The band played a set that was a hodgepodge of new and old hits with Dawes’ new guitarist Duane Betts adding yet another layer of guitar into an already well-oiled group of musicians. Betts’ sort of Philly debut was punctuated by his scorching guitar-work during a cover of The Waterboy’s “Fisherman’s Blues.” Perhaps the largest surprise of the set came during the encore as Griffin Goldsmith nailed the vocals on the cover of “Big Shot” by Billy Joel.
Saturday started slowly for us with local musician Son Little, who offered up glimpses of blues rock greatness. His slow hand guitar picking style and soulful voice during the “The River” kept our growing numbers at ease in the hot sun. The Swedish folk singing sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, known as First Aid Kit, let their voices shine as they offered a set filled with harmonies, playfulness and several tracks off of their recent album Stay Gold. Their mom even made a special appearance to help fix a wardrobe issue Johanna faced between the well-received “My Silver Lining” and a cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “America.”
Between stages homemade limeade from the juice booth offered relief. It was hot and the Nashville rockers Fly Golden Eagle were dripping in sweat by the time their set started. They served up a midday bunch of tracks that despite the heat, had the crowd up and ass-shaking in front of the stage. Between passionate renditions of “Horses Mouth” and “Stepping Stone” singer Richard Harper announced “Thanks for all the love, means a lot.” Lord Huron has gained significant popularity since they last graced the XPoNential Music Fest two years ago. Besides a new album, Ben Schneider and the band added a giant Strange Trails sign to their stage décor. As we watched them open with a shimmering “Until the Night Turns,” we were reminded why Lord Huron is a musical force to be reckoned with not unlike, Iron & Wine or The Decemberists. I wondered if this band could write a bad song. They kept the crowd riled with fan favorite “She Lit a Fire” before playing a fantastic new and jammed out version of “Fool for Love.” Before we moved over to the night shows we caught Gina Chavez as she shut down the Marina Stage with her Austin-meets-Latin style and a spicy cover of “I Will Survive.”
Saturday evening was a real treat for guitar fans from both sides of the musical spectrum as Annie Clark and St. Vincent juxtaposed with Jim James and My Morning Jacket closed Saturday evening down in an amazing show of guitar and songwriting prowess. Both bands are firmly rooted in a vision that places music at the helm of their strong performances. Clark let her fingers tease the guitar strings on tracks like “Actor Out of Work” and “Prince Johnny” and gave Philly local heroes Ben Franklin and Ahmir Questlove Thompson a shout out before going into a freak-flag flying version of “Marrow.”
The My Morning Jacket set was as most are: absolutely rocking, filled with stage antics, tons of guitar, a technicolor coat, a fantastic opening anthem “Off the Record,” and one of my new favorite Jim James tales about 30 minutes into set. It seems, as James tells it, that they had spent the afternoon at Camden’s Aquarium where he had an encounter with a hippo, “I stood face to face with it and looked death in the eye,” James said as he hammed it up a bit. ”We stood face to face as it opened its mouth and it was like staring into the eyes of all life.” This tale lead nicely into the meandering intro to The Waterfall‘s “Spring (Among the Living).” Much of the latter half of this set stayed in some fairly dark territory including the 16-minute “Dondante” featuring a host of ups and downs all winding into Carl Broemel playing some spacey sax. The band ended with a four song encore with one of the funkiest versions of “Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Pt. 2” heard to date.
Sunday at the XPN Festival was a bit unhinged genre speaking, but it was quite fun to bounce between the indie pop opening of Philadelphia’s own Cheerleader directly into Buckwheat Zydeco. Right before Buckwheat Zydeco walked out on stage, I heard a mustached sporting fellow announce loudly to the group around him. “There may be some dancing going on round here.” With a rowdy crowd filling up the bowl of the River Stage, the legendary Buckwheat Zydeco treated Wiggins Park to a 30- minute set of Cajun music. Stanley Dural and his band brought out the enthusiasm and inner-creole dancers in everyone. Dural ended his short set by trading the traditional accordion for an organ to sit at and play “Peace, Love Happiness,” to help further lift the already elated spirits in the venue.
The Lone Bellow’s set peaked with the crowd favorite “You Never Need Nobody” before a massive migration over to Bombino on the Marina Stage. Several of us had seen the Northern Africa-natives a few years ago at the Blockley. For those who hadn’t, Tuareg guitarist Omara Moctar rocked people’s worlds while he blended rock and blues with traditional Saharan music. Moctar’s chants and singing were hypnotic , and maybe it was just Sunday’s heat, but it made for one of the most surreal trance induced moments I’ve ever had at the XPN Festival. As Moctar & Co. walked us through upbeat versions of “Her Tenere” and “Assouf-Jaguar” we let their rhythmic singing and playing carry us to distant lands.
Australian rocker Courtney Barnett captivated the crowd on the River Stage. Barnett’s voice casually assaulted us as she and her bandmates - drummer Dave Mudie and bassist Bones Sloane - opened with “Elevator Operator.: It’s pretty evident that Barnett is a WXPN faithful darling as she produced one of the loudest sing-alongs while playing her crowd favorite “Avant Gardener.”
The XPN Festival once again raised my expectations of this local hero of a radio station and the annual festival they so expertly produce.
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