MTSU Sidelines

Issue date: 7/16/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: C. Taylor Crothers Rothbury guests escape the heat by taking a stroll through Sherwood Forest.

Media Credit: Michael Weintrob Fireworks light up Rothbury-goers watching Widespread Panic's performance.

Until Fourth of July weekend, the state of the American music festival had come into serious question.

Rampant arrests plagued the recent Bonnaroo festival. Thievery ran throughout the fairgrounds, and no less than ten vehicles were carjacked from 'Roo. And, of course who could forget the infamous Kanye West set, almost a day late and definitely a dollar short.

But in this Clear Channel-mandated industry, in which the bottom line calls the shots, such atrocities are surely par for the course. That is, until last weekend.

With the Rothbury Music Festival, Madison House Entertainment made a statement - one that was heard across the music festival industry. And that statement is patrons deserve much, much more from their festival experience.

Thanks to Rothbury, there is one that gives ticket buyers what they deserve.

"I've been to Langerado. I know what Madison House can do. But who could've predicted this?" expresses Corey Harbison, a Brentwood, Tenn. resident who made a ten-hour trek to Michigan. "This is absolute mayhem in the best way and I never want to leave."

Raising the bar for live productions, redefining the phrase "psychedelic bliss" and melting many-a-face along the way, Rothbury is what Bonnaroo wants to be when he, she or it grows up.

"Best Festival in History, bar none," adamantly claims Ben Anders, a veteran of other fests such as Bonnaroo and the Echo Project. "I'll definitely be back in '09."

U.S. festivals have a savior and Rothbury's is in an unsuspecting stretch of farmland basked in the ominous woodlands of Upper Michigan, otherwise known as the Double JJ Ranch.

One thing that makes the ranch so great is Sherwood Forest. By day, Sherwood is a run-of-the mill cluster of trees that offers patrons brief relief from the sun on their way to the various stages.

But by night, the scene shifts into what can only be described as a neon rave in a woodlands planetarium, complete with multi-colored searchlights that bathe trees in every color imaginable.

Glow-in-the-dark shapes dangle from the top of the tree line, turning slowly in the breeze, while actors in various guises mingle with passersby. One actor was a literal angel, spray-painted with gold, draped in angelic white robes and crowned with a shimmering halo.

Then comes the barrage of costumed fans. There was everyone from a skeleton man to Gumby to Gimli from Lord of the Rings.

And, of course, who could forget the music? With so much atmosphere, one could easily overlook the bands providing the soundtrack for this farmland utopia.

Take the Disco Biscuits, who kick-started the weekend with a cyclone of a set Thursday night. Old favorites like "Digital Buddha" and "Story of the World" peppered the playlist, but the real highlight came when David Murphy from Sound Tribe Sector 9 joined the Biscuits for a cover of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell."

With a cloud of smoke billowing from the stage, laser lights beaming in every direction from inside the creeping puff, the scene looked like a kaleidoscopic thunderstorm ready to burst forth with glow-stick rain.

"I've never been to a rave inside a cloud before," highlights Adam Cartwright, a student from Upper New York. "But after tonight, I can cross that off of my list"

Friday followed suit with a mid-afternoon visit from Snoop Dogg that came at just the right time. The "Doggfather" strolled onstage at exactly 4:20 p.m. with a Swisher Sweet in one hand and a microphone in the other.

With a quick light from his entourage, Snoop was off and blazing. And even though he kept asking the crowd "What up East Lansing, Michigan?" - a city that's actually two hours from Rothbury - it didn't matter. Fans of Snoop know that he isn't supposed to have a clue where he is; so long as he's floating on a cloud when he gets there.

Widespread Panic, the band that played a few hours after Snoop, has undergone a number of personnel changes over the years. The current incarnation, with Jimmy Herring, has to be my favorite lineup.

On the evening of Independence Day, Panic tore through a set of rarities such as "Arleen" and "Disco," along with new songs like "Sewing Machine." Fiddle-playing extraordinaire Anne Marie Calhoun came out late in the show, trading white-hot licks with Herring in an electronic duel of epic proportions.

Suffice it to say, Panic can still jam after all these years. As the show ended, a gratuitous display of fireworks blossomed in the night.

Primus, though, was number one on my attraction to Rothbury. The weekend marked their first group appearance in three years. When they took the stage at midnight, two 30-foot-tall spacemen, complete with neon visors, bookended their setup.

The band tore though '90s staples like "Winona's Big Brown Beaver" and "My Name is Mudd" with such growling ferocity that you wouldn't think they knew the words "extended hiatus."

At one point, lead singer Les Claypool joked, "Is this dark enough for ya?" before ripping into his bass like a kid tearing into wrapping paper on Christmas morning.

Saturday proved a slower day musically, but offered the perfect opportunity to visit the Double JJ Ranch's indoor water park. Plastic slides wound this way and that through a glorified cedar cabin, and for a little while, patrons forgot about the heat.

As festival-goers were refreshed from many-a-spin down the slide, nightfall came at just the right time. This was when Sound Tribe Sector Nine brought their jazz-tronica groove to the midnight stage featuring five vertical rows of multicolored LED lights that boggled more than a few minds.

But the highlight of the performance was when a friendly "Tribe-kid" strolled by, passing out thousands of 3-D glasses along her way. To see what I saw, imagine real life with an extra dimension complete with pop-up fractal art as torrents of glow sticks brush-stroke the night sky.

The most pivotal musical moment of the weekend came Sunday, with a quasi-Phish reunion that held major implications for the band's future. During Trey Anastastio's solo acoustic set, Phish bassist Mike Gordon joined him for two new songs, "Alaska" and "Backwards Down the Number Line." They closed the set with "Chalkdust Torture," a Phish staple that hadn't been played in four years.

Before making his exit, Trey quipped, "Now if we only had a keyboardist and drummer." His joke proved more of a prediction, for soon after roles reversed as Trey joined Gordon for his set on a nearby stage.

Drummer Jon Fishman, also of Phish fame, joined the duo for the song "Meat." They closed their performance with a cover of the Beatles "She Said, She Said." For the first time in quite a while, things move swimmingly in the world of Phish.

Phil Lesh and Friends should be allowed to closeout any festival they decide to grace - a point the band drove home Sunday night. The band's current lineup looks and sounds younger than ever, mainly thanks to Jackie Greene. Warren Haynes joined Lesh for a scorching first set of Grateful Dead tunes such as "Althea" and "Dire Wolf."

The second set spun like a greatest hits disc, punctuated by "Eyes of the World" and "Uncle John's Band."

And yes, there was a mind-boggling display of animated swinging monkeys at the festival, complete with strobe lights and a DJ booth underneath, which honestly, words cannot do justice. YouTube, however, comes close (try searching "Rothbury Monkeys").

Sadly, some things are too good to be true, and the future of Rothbury already seems uncertain.

"The Double JJ Ranch is in some serious debt from recent architectural additions, to the tune of $19 million," claims one anonymous Rothbury employee. "Hopefully, events like this can pull the ranch out of the red and into the black, as it'd be a shame to lose such a spectacle so soon after its conception."

Eclectic scenery, catatonic special effects and musical spectacle - call it the Rothbury motif. All this easily makes the festival the best I've ever been to. And no article will ever be able to give it justice.

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