Langerado 2006

“Whelp, it looks to be just another shitty day in South Florida…” exclaimed one sarcastic festivalgoer, gazing into the blue sky filled with tiny dollops of fluffy white clouds. “…but I’ll take a shitty day down here over a great day up north any day.”

The Langerado Music Festival; South Florida’s premier destination for spring breakers and fesivarians alike did very little to disappoint once again this year. Now in its fourth incarnation, the event just keeps growing both in size and star power. Hosting just under 15,000 people and close to 40 bands, this year’s festival was a welcome start to festival season and the anticipation for the warmer weather to finally reach more northern points of the US.

The festival kicked off a day earlier this year with a diverse music sampling from bands such as The Duo, Buckethead, and Perpetual Groove on Friday afternoon’s soundcheck. This gave many of those arriving early to Markham Park the opportunity to warm up their festival stamina that has been dormant for much of the winter.

In addition to extending the festival by a half day, Langerado also grew by adding two additional stages which featured many of the more diverse acts of the weekend. The Florida native stage allowed the festival to feature local groups such as Heavy Pets, Suenalo Sound System, Legendary JC’s and the ever-popular Spam Allstars. The swamp tent gave shelter from the hot sun and hosted acts such as Lake Trout, Lyrics Born, and Secret Machines.

Day one of the festival seemed to be musically organized based on genres. The day started with livetronica bands as Lotus and Lake Trout. The afternoon brought about bands comprised of elements from various genres such as Spearhead, Umphrey’s McGee and Brazilian Girls. The day ended with some solid rock and roll from acts such as The Meters, Flaming Lips and Ben Harper.

Sunday’s lineup seemed to have no particular musical organization but rather had attendees jumping from stage to stage sampling the musical bouillabaisse that makes this event such a sought after destination on the festival circuit. Bands such as Florida’s own Mofro (the only band that’s been featured at all four years of the festival’s existence) competed for the crowd’s attention while Kid Koala got everyone dancing with his turntablistic styling. The horns and afrobeat rhythms of Antibalas shared a timeslot with the reigning king of the sacred steel pedal guitar, Robert Randolph. Langerado wound up its whirlwind of aural stimulation with an evening filled with such big name acts as Keller Williams, Wilco, and The Black Crowes.

Although the music ended at Markham Park daily at 9pm, Brown Coffee Productions, the festival’s promoters, ensured that those in attendance had music to see to fulfill their late night urges. Friday night brought the Disco Biscuits out to a beautiful open-aired venue (ahh, only in South Florida) called Revolution.

The following night several Bisco members stuck around to join Umphreys McGee for a few songs. Marc “Brownie” Brownstein replaced Ryan Stasik during Jazz Odyssey and remained on stage while fellow Bisco band mate, Jon “The Barber” Gutwillig replaced Brendan Bayliss for a jam following “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).”

As a wrap-up to all the late night festival-sponsored activities, the double bill of Brothers Past and Conspirator brought out many special guests including Joe Russo on drums for a chilling version of Pink Floyd’s “Fearless” and the other members of the Disco Bicuits showed up to the end the night, on it’s feet, with those in attendance dancing their asses off.

With the added luxuries of on-site camping and more music on more stages this year, the anticipation is high for next year’s festival in the sun. Unfortunately, we have to wait about 10 months before we hear any type of announcement for the 2007 lineup. Based on the improvements we saw this year, I can only assume that this festival will continue growing and I’ll be right there to enjoy it, every step of the way!

The Happiest Day of My Life

March 15th, 2006

Mr. Asshole Bossman
Bullshit Ignorance Organization
I Street, NW
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. Asshole Bossman:

I hereby tender my resignation from the Bullshit Ignorance Organization, effective March 29th, 2006. At that time, I will return the firm's property.

Sincerely,

Leah Sager

Fat Tuesday=Hungover Ash Wednesday

I don’t know when I will learn the lesson that I cannot and should not drink tequila. I often think that if said tequila is masked in a pretty little frozen drink, such as a margarita, it will not have the same horrible effect on me as taking shots of it. Yet, every time I test this little theory of mine, I am proven horribly, horribly wrong.

As some of you may know, yesterday was Fat Tuesday, which, correct me if I am wrong, is some pagan ritual where you over indulge one last time before you give up your sins on Ash Wednesday. I think the idea is to participate in whatever activity you are giving up in the most insane way. I am not catholic, and I do not participate in Ash Wednesday, but I may be pagan, and seem to have no issue in taking part in the debacle that tends to go down on Fat Tuesday. So, this leads me to tequila. The devils drink. The bane of my entire existence and this very moment in time.

After a particularly stressful day at work, a colleague of mine and I decided we would go to a local Mexican joint to indulge ourselves in some libations. At the time, a pitcher or two of margaritas seemed just the ticket to forgetting about our troubles for a while. And you know what? At the time, it really was. We drank and ate and talked about all sorts of pertinent world issues. And, minus the occasionally brain freeze from drinking something really cold way too quick, the night was going swimmingly. Then, I got up to go to the bathroom, and the tequila hit me. I realized that I was way more drunk than I thought I was. I returned from the bathroom and had a couple of more margaritas, and then knew it was time to go.

When I got home, I put on the stereo and passed out. When I awoke a few hours later, fully clothed, my mouth was drier than the Sahara. My head was pounding and I felt like I had been socked in the chest repeatedly. I stumbled to the kitchen and began rummaging around in the fridge to find something, anything, to quench my thirst. I chugged a bottle of water, but it brought me little relief. With no more water, and an imminent fear of DC tap water, I decided to chug the half a liter of Coke that was sitting in my fridge. BAD IDEA. Needless to say, with all of that caffeine surging through my body, my sleep for the rest of the night was somewhat less than restful. I tossed and turned and had to get up to pee what felt like a trillion times. Morning came, way sooner than I would have hoped, and luckily, I was awoken by the sunlight and not my horribly loud and annoying alarm. I laid in bed for a while debating whether or not to go to work (I am leaving my company in April, which has definitely changed my work ethic), but finally decided I wasn’t going to let the tequila beat me. So, I dragged my ass out of bed, got in the shower, ate a crapload of tums, and headed here, to the office, where I sit now writing this diatribe.

The thing is, every single time I drink tequila, it has similar effects on me. I can drink vodka, whisky, gin, rum, beer, wine, champagne (you get the idea) and none of those substances do to me the things that tequila does. Which is why, today, on Ash Wednesday, I am giving up tequila. I may not be a catholic, but I know a good idea when I see one.