Edgefest 5: The good, the bad and the muddy

Jon Bream / Star Tribune

 

SOMERSET, WIS. -- Nearly 22 hours of music from 28

bands over two days. A day of ideal weather, then

morning rain and plenty of mud. Not enough sleep, too

much beer. More than 31,000 people, sending at least

$45,000 to a dozen Minnesota charities. And just how

was Edgefest 5?

 

Here's a look back at the good, the bad and the muddy

of the two-day rock festival, which ended Sunday.

The sign that read "No body surfing/No slam dancing" didn't stop anyone in

front of the stage at Edgefest.

Expect the unexpected: Pop singer Alana Davis, a

veteran of Lilith Fair who is scheduled for the

H.O.R.D.E. fest this summer, and sideman Drew Zing

injected some jazzy guitar work into Edgefest early

Sunday -- a welcome relief after 11 hours of

testosterone rock Saturday. Sister Hazel did a

Southern-fried cover of -- go figure -- Fleetwood Mac's

"Gold Dust Woman," and Green Day did an Ozzy Osbourne

song. Oh, every guitar-dominated rock band has probably

done an Ozzy song at one time or another.

 

Festival Behavior 101: On Sunday, both Cornershop, a

stoic British band, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, a

frenetic Boston group, counseled the festivalgoers

about their behavior. "If there's no decorum," said

Cornershop singer Tjinder Singh, "there's no show." A

Frisbee had been aimed at one of the seated sitar

players. Later, in midsong, Singh had to dodge a roll

of toilet paper tossed at him. Bosstones singer Dicky

Barrett confronted the revelers after his first song.

"If I get hurt, you get hurt," he said. "So throw all

your toilet paper at once. I need this at home." Well,

at least no one hurled mud at the stage.

(Law-enforcement authorities reported Sunday night that

scores of concertgoers did suffer injuries through the

weekend, but all were minor.)

Ska special: The juxtaposition of the Specials and the

Bosstones gave Edgefest-goers an education in Ska. The

Specials were part of a British ska movement, starting

in 1979, mixing punk with Jamaican reggae. The

Bosstones are part of a late-'90s U.S. ska explosion,

along with such hitmakers as No Doubt and Save Ferris.

The Boss tones were more urgent and frenzied but no

more -- or less -- fun than the Specials.

 

Drummer wanted: Stabbing Westward's drummer, Andy

Kubiszewski, broke his collarbone roller-blading

Thursday night, and the band had to pull out of its

Saturday Edgefest slot. Soul Asylum used drummer

Charlie Quintana, formerly with Bob Dylan and Joan

Osborne, Wednesday on "The Late Show with David

Letterman." On Sunday at Edgefest, the Minneapolis

group used British drummer Ian Moshington, who has been

on board for a half-dozen gigs and appears destined for

the permanent slot.

Not your flavor of the month: Except for Green Day and

Soul Asylum , most of the nationally known Edgefest

bands were pretty much of the flavor-of-the-month

variety. Forget about these one-hit wonders; it was the

veterans who gave the most galvanizing performances.

Like Beck's show at Edgefest 4, Green Day's

over-the-top set Saturday may rank as the most

unforgettable rock performance of the year. And Soul

Asylum , mixing new material with such old radio

favorites as "Black Gold," "Somebody to Shove" and

"Misery," reminded the hometown folks how to put punch

in pop and to rock with spirit and abandon (a cover of

Wyclef Jean's "Gone Till November" and the unreleased

"Candy from a Stranger," a falsetto-funk meets muscular

metal).

 

Try a new flavor: After opening with "Tumble in the

Rough" by the Stone Temple Pilots (his old band), Scott

Weiland adopted a bug-eyed, exaggerated Bowiesque

persona to play some glam-rock with his new group, the

Action Girls, featuring the slashing guitar of Daniel

Lanois, producer extraordinaire. Then Crystal Method, a

duo from Las Vegas, introduced Edgefesters to

pulsating, pulverizing electronica, accompanied by a

spectacular light show -- dance music for a new

generation.

 

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