Well Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and now it is time to look ahead to the summer. One of the best things about the upcoming months is there are a bunch of great live music festivals happening all over the country. Unfortunately I will not be attending any of the big ones, but I will be performing with Matisyahu on the Central Park Summerstage July 9th, and I HAVE TICKETS TO SEE THE BAND OF HORSES ACOUSTIC SHOW AT CARNEGIE HALL JUNE 11th WHICH IS GOING TO BE SICK!!! There are lots of other great events going down though, from Lollapalooza (which was the first festival I ever went to back when The Beastie Boys and A Tribe Called Quest were at Randall’s Island in 1994) to Bonnaroo (which I’ve never been to always wanted to go and my boy Nick Kroll is performing stand up comedy at this year) to the hip hop circus Rock The Bells (which I would love to be a part of one year) and everywhere in between. So if you love music, and you don’t have a hundred weddings to go to this summer like I do, hopefully you’ll have a chance to check one of them out.
Now I know this summer marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, but it also is the 39TH ANNIVERSARY of another famous festival, FESTIVAL EXPRESS. In 1970, a group of musicians and bands, most notable The Grateful Dead and Janice Joplin, took off west on a private train across Canada (see pic above), making stops along the way in all the major cities to play concerts. The best thing about it for us that weren’t even alive yet at the time is that the whole thing was documented. From the live shows to the jam sessions in the train’s bar car, it’s all in the excellent rock doc titled, you guessed it, FESTIVAL EXPRESS. I’m no dead head, and I certainly don’t own any Janice Joplin albums, but this movie is great, especially if you like music documentaries. The sing a long clips from the train remind me of my own friends hanging out together making music. That’s what we do on the reg. Here’s a live performance from the movie of The Grateful Dead singing an unreleased cut “Don’t Ease Me In” in Toronto…
If you can get to Chicago at the beginning of August, I would highly recommend checking out Lollapalooza this year. The lineup looks great. Check it out below. And when you get a chance, watch the Festival Express movie, the link to the official website is below. Peace and love.
Westcheddar 