There was quite a buzz in the air at The Tabernacle on Sunday night, with a packed house of Raconteurs fans very excited that the band chose Atlanta for the last stop on their incredibly brief tour (Nashville, New Orleans, Orlando, Atlanta). The band says that as of now they have no plans to record new material or tour again in the near future, so as far as we know this was their last show. I doubt it…but who knows. I caught them in Nashville on the first show of the tour, and honestly I thought they sounded a little rusty. They clearly messed up on a couple of songs. It wasn’t surprising, but I was hoping for a better show this time around.
Wow, they definitely gave me what I was looking for. Jack White & co. came out absolutely on fire, opening with the usual “Consolers of the Lonely,” followed by two favorites off of their first album, “Hands” and “Level,” the latter being when I first felt like we were in for a special show. Jack and Brendan improvised quite a bit on the playful intro, and were hitting every note. Jack went on to absolutely crush what’s probably the most iconic solo in the band’s catalog. If you’ve ever seen The Raconteurs live, you know that the band really feeds off of Jack White’s energy, and by the end of “Level” it was obvious that he was on that night. READ MORE
The Voodoo Experience is now in the rearview and the relentless fall concert schedule is starting to slow down (although one could easily keep themselves busy on the live circuit until NYE) and therefore it’s time to start speculating about the 2012 Jazz Fest lineup. Hard to say who will be at the top of the bill when the lineup is announced but since we’ve probably got a over a month until the lineup release (or two months if released on last year’s timetable), here’s a handful of artists (however unlikely some may be) who could conceivably be at the Fairgrounds come Spring time. READ MORE
The Original Meters – 6:15 p.m. – Le Flambeau WWOZ Stage
The announcement that the Meters would be re-forming for an extra special set at Bonnaroo alongside Dr. John (where they performed his classic album Desitively Bonnaroo) got me hoping that the quintessential funk quartet would have enough fun to get together for a few shows and possibly be in the mix at Jazz Fest. It turns out we wouldn’t have to wait ’til May to see these guys return to their hometown. The Meters performance on Sunday is definitely one of the biggest pieces of live music news to hit the Big Easy music scene all year and this will mark the band’s 3rd festival appearance this year (Bonnaroo, Outside Lands and now Voodoo) in City Park in late-October. The seminal NOLA funk band haven’t appeared in New Orleans since headlining Jazz Fest in back-to-back years in 2005-06, so a big applause to Voodoo for making this happen. Just hoping the WWOZ Stage area is big enough to handle what should be a very large Sunday crowd.
For this week’s contest, you must comb through this photo gallery (< -- Click link) and e-mail us @ lmbnolacontests@gmail.com with the Subject line (“Voodoo Photo Hunt”) and list any (2) artists appearing in the gallery that are also performing at this year’s Voodoo Experience for your chance to win.
Regardless of your thoughts on this year’s lineup, to the festival’s credit, the Voodoo Experience always does a bang-up job of compiling one of the most unique, wholly eccentric and random yearly lineups of any American festival. No one outside of the Rehage camp could’ve envisioned this sorta lineup and I’m actually kind of excited about it after having been to Bonnaroo and ACL this year (two great festivals, but two with a great deal of crossover acts). Doubt I’ll get another chance to see Soundgarden, Blink-182, Fatboy Slim, Peelander Z and Snoop in the same weekend.
