The good folks at Langerado were kind enough to send me a press pass to the festival so that I could report on its greenness, or lack thereof.  And while I wasn't overly impressed with the sustainability angle, the festival deserves props for a mostly stellar lineup and some truly spectacular performances.

Like all festivals, there was good and bad at Langerado.  I'll start with the bad--it often felt like a disorganized mess.  The traffic was a mess, the water situation was disgraceful (no free water in the festival grounds, inadequate water in the camping area), and the portolets were badly located and only rarely clean.  The festival food was neither affordable nor tasty, press conferences were non-existent, and security failed to notice multiple tent break-ins and a bunch of hippies climbing into the one (empty) water tank.  And in a move that disgusted about 500 hardcore Dan Deacon fans, management botched his show and had him on a stage a mile away and an hour earlier than his scheduled performance.  I don't think I've ever seen so many truly angry people at a music show as I did when the roadie on stage let us know that we'd all been hanging around the wrong stage while he played somewhere else.

But minor logistics aside, the festival generally shone.  With the exception of the gaping wound in the lineup that was R.E.M., the bands were a great mix of crowd-pleasers.  The stages, although a bit too spread out for comfort, had fantastic acoustics and thanks to the distances involved there was no crossover of the music in most spots.  The vendors were generally good--there was a fun emphasis on art, complete with paintings by local artist Lebo during sets--and the outside attractions included alligator wrestling and hippie watching.

The most important part of a festival, of course, is the music, and this is where Langerado really delivered.  On Friday and Saturday I was treated to perhaps the finest sequence of live music I've ever seen.  Every band brought their A-game--the performances were generally 5-stars across the board.  On Friday alone, I saw jaw-dropping sets by

• the Dynamites (the real deal of soul music)
• the Beastie Boys (who knew they would be THIS good?  it's just not natural)

• G. Love and Special Sauce
• and a special reunion set at the Chickee Hut by Phix, who really do sound just like Phish.  There was even a full-on glowstick war.  This group is so talented, I think everyone in the audience was wondering when they were going to start writing their own songs
• and lesser (but still good) performances by Ozomatli, Sam Bush, the Spam Allstars, and Umphree's McGee

Moving into Saturday, the day again started out incredibly strong and kept going from there:

• The Bad Plus drew a big--and appreciative--crowd for a virtuoso performance
• The Wood Brothers (with Chris Wood from MMW) lived up to their growing hype with a growling, bluesy set
• New Mastersound, a band that played a fill-in set on Friday to replace a late drop-out, played a second stunner on Saturday
• Antibalas kept things grooving late in the afternoon
• Thievery Corporation blew us all away with a non-stop dancefest
• and pleasant surprise/stupid fun band of the weekend Ghostland Observatory drew a couple of thousand jamband burnouts down to the far reaches of the Chickee Hut with its implausibly fun laser light show and bizarre antics.  If you get the chance to see this act, grab a handful of recreational chemicals and go!

Unfortunately, the organizers dropped us off from our high of Ghostland Observatory into a big pile of whininess with R.E.M.  Given the choice of Michael Stipe or nothing, we left in droves--when I walked out to the campground, I observed in passing that it doesn't look good for your band when there's a 5 minute wait to get OUT of the festival and not one person in line to get IN, something that drew rueful agreement from my fellow refugees.  Temperatures dropped into the low 50's at about the same time, and the whole scene took on a bizarrely depressed mood.  As I walked around the campground looking for a party, ordinarily easy to find at a festival like this, I found myself alone.  Everyone had bundled up into their tents or cars and the whole place was eerily silent, save for the distorted wail of Mr. Stipe in the distance.

After R.E.M. wrapped up, about half the festival came back in, but Saturday night's late-night lineup wasn't looking too good. There was the Disco Biscuits, the Dan Deacon Show, or gospel act the Lee Boys.  You're either a Disco Biscuits fan or you're not, and those of us not snorting mollie went looking for a good time somewhere else, only to find that the Dan Deacon show had been rearranged.  By midnight, the place was surprisingly empty and I was dejectedly walking back to my campsite when I swung past the Lee Boys. 

"Sounds like warmed over Robert Randolph," I thought to myself, but I decided to give it a shot.  Before I knew it, I'd been sucked in to a spot right in the front row and was having the most fun I'd have all weekend, dancing like a maniac with complete strangers, making eye contact with the bands' families, and throwing my hands up in the air in praise of the lord.  At one point, I recall thinking that if a band of large black bible-bangers could get a group of white college jamband fans this excited about gospel and the blues, they could probably resolve tensions between Israel and Palestine.  My notes from the show say "can this be the band that brings America together?"  I think they just might be able to do it.  This is what a live show should be--a unifying, uplifting experience, no drugs required. 

We got an encore out of the Lee Boys just in time for daylight savings time to push the clocks to 4 AM and I made my way back to my tent, where I lay shivering for the rest of the night.  Sunday morning brought warmth, so I stayed in my tent until after noon.  After being denied cleanliness yet again by the lack of water I went back in for the final day, unfortunately too late to catch Josh Ritter.  The music stayed strong, although perhaps not quite as strong as the first two days:

• Grace Potter and the Nocturnals tore it up, culminating in a heart-stopping drum performance that had everyone in the band pounding on the kit at the same time
• The Funky Meters lived up to their name
• Gov't Mule played a surprisingly mellow first few songs
• The National, a band I decided to see at the last minute and the last act of the festival for me, blew me away with a heartfelt set that alternated between lullabies and tormented screams.  There's a good reason that this band was given Paste's album of the year.

Overall, it was a great festival, despite logistical issues including an almost game-killing lack of water.  The overall feel was very reminiscent of Bonnaroo, so much so that of Montreal called the festival "Langeroo" and then "Bonnerado."  The stages were top-notch.  I'm especially fond of the distant Chickee Hut, which the organizers made worth the trek by stocking with the kind of great bands you've always wanted to hear but never got around to.  It's possibly my favorite venue, ever, especially with memories of Ghostland Observatory's lasers bouncing off the pine trees.  The other hidden gem of the festival was the small but stalwart Greenerado stage, also loaded up with great bands that you won't see in such a small space again anytime soon.  If the folks running the show can fix some organizational issues and keep the quality of performances up, this festival will soon be as well-regarded as its bigger cousin in Manchester.

My report card for Langerado:

Overall:  B, thanks to logistical screwups and the deathly pall that R.E.M. cast over us on Saturday night

Music (Lineup):  B, thanks to Michael Stipe and back-to-back late night performances by raver-friendly Disco Biscuits and STS9

Music (Performances):  A, thanks to solid efforts by just about everybody.  The artists brought it this weekend!

Logistics:  C-, thanks to traffic hassles, screwed up artist schedules, lackadaisical organization, and really terrible water management

Greening:  C.  They're trying, but they're not there yet.

Venue:  A-, great stages, big enough to spread out, and a fun backwoods spot but a bit hard to get to