Camp Bisco Day Three: Daytime at the festival, Ween and lightning strikes

The Camp Bisco hashtag was more active today than ever, filled with people declaring their need for recovery after the weekend. Taking that into consideration, this Day Three recap is downright early:

• Hanging around at the festival during the day is a completely different experience. To start, the choice of bands is a bit lesser. Take traditional, preachy jamband Soja who played to small but appreciative crowd during their set. The music was perfectly fine, but without the lure the evening acts had (and plus the sunshine and open fields) the music became background rather than the focus. The stage area turned into a place for hackeysacks, hula-hoops, frisbees and anything else folks could think of. Even the number of credentialed photographers dwindled to just three at points (compared to when Ween took the stage and you needed to jockey for position with 10 others). Maybe things would've been different if Break Science showed and fans got some Talib Kweli, but the afternoon's marquee act was MIA without much explanation.




• Speaking of Ween, they probably had the set of the day. It happened to be the only scheduled 2-hour set of the festival and I had my doubts immediately when they took the stage. Older bands getting top billings like this (evening set, last day of the festival) make me wonder if they can bring it or if the scheduling simply pays homage to a past that isn't there anymore. Shellac at ATP NY was a case of the latter, but Ween can still thrill a crowd. Gene Ween and company maintained high energy throughout a set filled with edgy, hard rock. It provided a nice departure from the dance, jam and electronica that filled the rest of the festival. It was a great last impression even if I didn't know it'd be my last full set of the night at the time.




• The reason Ween became my closer was a nearby lightning storm that caused several delays to the festival. The set caused Brothers Past to setup, leave the stage, return for two songs and then ultimately get cancelled all together around 8:30 p.m. Their set was ended by a festival representitive telling the crowd, "Please return to your cars, we're not kidding," several times. Initially this caused loads of groans but, once in the parking lot, folks were ooo'ing and ahh'ing to a legitimately intense lightning show. I was so sure it wouldn't let up that I decided to play it safe and drive home (and I didn't escape the storm until Exit 30 while heading west on Interstate 90. Bisco was off Exit 24). A frustratingly small amount of info is available about what happened from there. There are virtually no tweets about the delay and the official Camp Bisco feed just continued their updates as if nothing happened (or as if the feed was automated previously). They sent out a tweet that Girl Talk was about to take the stage at 9:30pm which clearly wasn't the case (I left at 10pm without any music restarts). A Flickr and Google search for "[the late night acts]+ Camp Bisco" returns nothing but there is one video on YouTube of Girl Talk performing with a small crowd on stage. The caption reads, "Quick clip of girl talk at camp bisco at 1:30 a.m."  He was originally scheduled for a 10:30 p.m. set.       




• To end on a more positive note, a second rendition of some crowd quotes from Camp Bisco (ala Overheard in NYC):

"My friend is a chef and he brought whip creme so we could do a few. Otherwise man, there is no nitrus here."

"[To a fellow security guard] Come here, they're bathing again."

Finally, to me as I was having my car checked and the guard discovered the bowling ball I keep in my trunk: "You should play on the grass with some cups. Chicks will hook up with you, just have to make sure you have condoms."

Check out coverage of Camp Bisco Day One, Day Two and follow along on Twitter (or read the #Camp Bisco hashtag)