-A.S. Detroit Lakes, MN
Andy Shore: Do you enjoy the festival scene?
JJ Grey: Oh yeah, love it. It’s great. Anytime I go to a festival and see as much music as I can, which I want to do anyways whether I know the acts or not, it’s a good festival.
JJ Grey & Mofro came out a half hour late at 10k, but they drew a decent crowd.

AS: How does your festival show compare to your regular show?
JJ: It only differs in what that moment and day presents. Both can be high energy or mellow. We played one time during the day at Bonnaroo had more energy and craziness and excitement than at a club show and it was just as much fun. A show is like an evening with friends, it can be the crazy drunken bender when everyone got shitfaced or a chill evening.

AS: Is there one summer music festival you guys are playing at this summer that you are most looking forward to?
JJ: I don’t think there’s a festival we’re playing that I’m not looking forward to. Location is everything, the right spot. It can either take away the good feeling and the music and the fans or it can add to it and take it to another level.Throwing back a PBR at 10k, apparently going for more of a drunken bender of a show.

AS: Where did the name MOFRO come from?
JJ: I worked in a lumberyard for 10+ years, and my buddies and me used to say it all the time at work. Like what’s up Mofro? It sounds like southern slang and didn’t mean anything.

AS: If you could pick one person to collaborate with for the new album, who would it be?
JJ: I’d have to go with Derek Trucks. He’s one of my favorite players.

-A.S. Detroit Lakes, MNThe Everyone Orchestra is 10k’s version of the Bonnaroo popularized SuperJam. The line up this year included Steve Kimock (above) and Allie Kral of Cornmeal (bottom right) and Kim Manning of Parliament Funkadelic (bottom left).

I didn’t anyone could ever out goofy me, but Adam of Kinetix may be right on my level.

Just listen to him describe people he ran into at shows last night.

Adam: I kept running into Mario.
Zack: Like video game Mario?
Adam: Yeah, but he didn’t have a moustache. He was really skinny. He was freeballing. Actually, I don’t know if he was free balling.

“So this is what it’s like to be backstage,” Josh of Kinetix says. “Wookie Foot has their own trailer back here. They all do.”

The awe of a young band. Still playing the smaller stage at a smaller festival. Camping out. Acting like fans. Looking forward to Medeski and Lotus. Adam thought George Clinton was gonna die last night. We all did.

Zack: Last year you had fans crawling through the window, packing the room. How are you going to replicate that success?
Eric: Make sure everyone coming in with a smile, leaves with one.
Josh: threaten people who don’t come.

Zack: Tell me about the frisbee’s you guys gave out with your name and info on them.
Eric: Usually we hand out live sampler CD’s. This time we gave out 300 Frisbees. It promotes physical fitness.
Jordan: When you throw these out, you open up dialogue with people. They see the Frisbee, be like oh hell yeah.

Andy: Are you guys 1oklF veterans at this point?
Jordan: We will be when they let us play at big stage. No, this is our favorite festival b/c they respect us. We remember the strage crew, feels like home.

Zack: What covers you got for us tonight? Adam: We’re gonna “bust out some Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of.”
Eric: we like songs people can sing or scream along to.

Andy: Do you like playing festivals more than regular gigs?
Jordan- It’s a great opportunity to get to new ears.
Adam: Everyone’s on a trip.
Andy: You included?
Adam: Not today.

Zack: How do you feel the afternoon before a show? Nervous? Sad you can’t be messed up?
Jordan- Every show I see makes me want to grab my own guitar.

Adam: Anxious.

Josh: I’m ready to rock. I want to rock now. All day and night. Ill be feeling real good right before we play.

Adam: happy to play any fucking stage at this festival.

Josh: on a technical note, they got a new, much better PA.

Plans for after summer tour:

Jordan: some short two and three week tours throughout fall. When on road, hard to get good rehearsing down.

Andy: Any plans on when a new album would be ready?
Josh: 14-15 months down the road. Maybe. Ambitious.

Jordan: we felt rushed for our first two. Want to make sure we’re ready for the next one.

Adam: Last night I kept running into Mario. But he didn’t have a moustache. He was really skinny. He was freeballing. Actually, I don’t know if he was free balling.

Pictured from top to bottom: Eric Blumenfeld, Adam Lufkin, Josh Fairman, Jordan Linit and Jack Gargan.

~Z.T.~ Detroit Lakes, Minn. I started making a red bull and OJ and said “It’s kinda like a Mimosa.” Andy replied: “It’s kind of like a “dumbassa.” He was right.

~Z.T.~ Detroit Lakes, Minn. I’m slapping a James Brown theory on George Clinton. In the two months since we saw him at Summer Camp, his voice has really gone downhill. Dude’s voice sounds like Ron Santo in the 12th inning of a west coast game. The kind of night where Pat says “Ronnie- get some sleep. We’ll see you tomorrow night.”
I’m putting the over-under on George Clinton’s death at 12/31 2009. Not to be morbid, but the grandfather of funk looks and sounds worse than James Brown when we saw him three months before his death. Though, to be fair, he’s looked pretty bad for a decade.

I knew he wouldn’t go on for an hour, so I represented at The Hue for the first forty five minutes. Even if George sounds like a death rattle, it’s hard to play those songs and not have me entertained. They played a mean “Dog Catcher” which Snoop has sampled to death, but still sounds funked out.

George bellowed “Shit. God Damn. Get off your ass and jam!” over and over until it sounded like someone had an egg beater turned on in his throat. Just like at Summer Camp, he seemed to get a kick out of saying “From the window to the wall. Till the sweat drip down my ball. Oh skeet skeet mother fucker. Oh skeet skeet god damn.” Get a new song, bro.
George just looks dazed as can be. When you look worse than a man in a diaper, you know you’ve got problems. photo by Rich Anderson

It was still fun to hear all-time classic funk lines like “Free your mind and your ass will follow. All that’s good is nasty,” and “Welcome to the mothership.”

There’s something unique about hearing your facebook “about me” chanted by a crowd of thousands. “Make my funk the p-funk. I want my funk funked up.” George’s voice was so bad, it’s time for a new about me.

-A.S. Detroit Lakes, MN We spent the better part of Mickey Hart Band’s set listening from our campsite. After about 11 hours of driving, we were wiped out. From there we could clearly hear them do “Eyes of the World.”

George Porter Jr. thumping his bass at Rothbury.

After picking up our credentials we heard most of “Scarlet Begonias” from the backstage area. It segued nicely into “Fire on the Mountain” just as we were meeting up with the whole Blumenfeld clan. The set closed with a rocking “Going Down the Road Feeling Bad.” An encore of “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” was a great way to end our first show at 10k.

-A.S. Detroit Lakes, MNThe Hue definitely freaked out some hippies, but kids got down.

It’s hard to rock your hardest when you know that your set is competing with George Clinton & the Parliament Funkadelic and EOTO. Despite a thin crowd to start due to Michael Franti & Spearhead running late, the Hue came out of the gate rolling. People began to flow in as the awesome rock of the Hue hit its peaks.
Jared Rabin and Geoff Shell showing the crowd how to play some prog rock.

Bass player Geoff Shell is very animated on stage and the shredding guitars of Marcus Rezak and Jared Rabin pulled the crowd in. By the time they were playing “Sky Runner” the crowd grew. By the time they played “Don Johnson,” the Hue were on top of their game in front of the now decent crowd. They may have had a bigger crowd at Summer Camp, but how often does a band get a late night slot their first year at a festival like they did here at 1ok? Good work boys, and great show.

~Z.T.~ Detroit Lakes, Minn. The soundtrack to a long car ride is the most crucial aspect to making it successful. That’s why I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. burning CD’s even though I left my house before 5.

The Who- Live at Leeds: Andy said “The Who at 6:30 am?!” But it’s Tommy.

Paul McCartney Back in The U.S.: Quite possibly the best recording of live Beatles songs that exists. I can’t believe this isn’t a staple of every music fans collection.

Vampire Mix: Centered around a couple Vampire Weekend tracks, it has “Gumboots” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Big Me” “Nine in The Afternoon,” etc.

Shore’s mix: A fantastic 40+ song mix with everything from “Dear Mr. Fantasy” to “Mother” to “Aint Too Proud to Beg” Only one veto: “Hotel California.” The Eagles suck.

The Name of This Band is The Talking Heads, Beck’s Modern Guilt

I’d been driving about 9 hours and Andy was drifting off to sleep again. I decided to test him. I put in a beginner’s Ween mix, seeing if he’d complain. He didn’t say one word. We both knew that if he said a word about what I put on, he’d have to start driving. So I got to listen to Ween.

Then my instructions were “just play songs we can sing a long to. “Another Piece of My Heart” was probably the funniest one. We both do a mean Janis. I really need to do Karaoke on stage as soon as I get home.

~Z.T.~ Detroit Lakes, Minn. It was a matter of pride. I made that cocky “I’ll drive the whole way” post, so I had to back it up. And I’m glad I did. I can’t remember the last time I drove from a full tank to an empty one without stopping. It felt almost as good as Tom Chiarella said it would in the last Esquire. We left Shore’s at 6 a.m. and pulled in to camp around 5:30 p.m., going 630 miles in just a shade under 12 hours.
I learned about “Cow I win,” a game where the first person to see a cow that day says “Cow I win” and they are the winner for the day. I was hoping there would be more intricate rules and a prize, but cow I win is a simple man’s game.

We paid $3.69 for gas, which was a solid 50 cents better than we paid earlier that day. We struggled not to stop at Camp Chi and Mall of America, stopping only to get McDonalds after an unsuccessful attempt to find a Panera. I got fries and nuggets because “I felt like dipping stuff.” It went by pretty quickly for a nearly 12-hour drive, but for the last two hours I was barely functioning.