This was Carter’s first time at XPN Fest. It’s held each year at Wiggins Park on the Camden Waterfront. The atmosphere is very laid-back. There are two stages – one along the river, with the Philadelphia skyline in the background, and one along the marina – and the schedule alternates between them. Since WXPN broadcasts the performances, nothing overlaps and you get to hear all the bands (more than 30 over the course of the three-day festival). Carter has picked his favorites from each day to tell you about.
FRIDAY
Marina Stage: Toy Soldiers, Dutch, Ben Arnold, Free Energy
River Stage: Alejandro Escovedo, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Big Head Todd & The Monsters
Carter: I loved Toy Soldiers. I already knew some of their music, so I was all set.
Mama: They were the first act of the whole festival, and we were already familiar with them because I’ve booked them before and reviewed their CD for Folktowne.com. It was cool to see how much the crowd got into them.
Toy Soldiers
Carter: I got a Toy Soldiers T-shirt. I needed an adult medium. WHY AM I SO TALL?!?!?
Mama: It’s just the way you are, Carter.
Carter: On the next day, I wore the Toy Soldiers shirt and saw some of the guys from the band while The Felice Brothers were playing and they noticed my shirt.
Mama: Your other favorite band on Friday was Free Energy, right?
Carter: Correct. I liked them because they sounded like a band that I would have liked if I knew them before we saw them.
Mama: I only knew two of their songs because XPN plays them. I really enjoyed them, too. We danced a lot during their set.
Carter: I love that song that goes, “Bang bang pop pop…”
Mama: Me too. The whole crowd was singing along. Bruce Warren [XPN program director] told us that the two bands he was most excited to book for the festival were Free Energy and Dawes.
Carter: They were two of my favorites. Especially Dawes.
SATURDAY
Marina Stage: Birdie Busch, Bobby Long, Joshua James, Diane Birch, Robert Francis, Ben Vaughn
River Stage: Harper Blynn, Nicole Atkins, The Walkmen, Yo La Tengo, Roseanne Cash, The Felice Brothers
Carter: One of my favorite artists on Saturday was someone we already saw before – Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea. So I was looking forward to seeing them.
Mama: Me too. I really enjoyed them when we saw them earlier this year at the Capitol in York.
Carter: I think the best song she has is “Brooklyn’s on Fire.” The crowd sings along and the lyrics are, “Fourth of Ju-ly! Brook-lyn’s on fire!” This was only a few weeks after the Fourth of July. It would have been funny if we saw her sing it on the Fourth of July in New York.
Mama: She’s such a rockstar. She has a great voice, and the band sounds great, and she’s also really fun to watch.
Carter: That night, one of my other favorite bands came out, The Felice Brothers. We were right up front for them, and I got to hit like three beach balls that were bouncing around the crowd.
Mama: It was a completely different experience to see The Felice Brothers from so close like that than it was to see them the week before from way in the back of the park. You were really into it.
Carter: I loved it. They’re one of my new favorite bands. One of my favorite songs is “Whiskey in my Whiskey.”
Mama: I like that one, too, because the keyboard player comes out front with an accordion and sings it. I think everyone in the band sang a song during their set, except maybe the drummer.
Carter: I like when the fiddle player plays the washboard and stands by the drummer and hits the washboard on the cymbals.
Mama: Yeah, those guys are crazy. They’re coming back to the Capitol for another CapLive show in October, so we’ll get to see them again soon.
SUNDAY
Marina Stage: The Great Unknown, Fool’s Gold, The Holmes Brothers, These United States, Amy Correia, Earl Greyhound
River Stage: Blood Feathers, Dawes, Cowboy Junkies, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Dr. Dog, Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Mama: The line-up on Sunday was awesome. I loved every performance we saw.
Carter: Dawes was awesome. The whole crowd sang along to “When My Time Comes.”
Mama: They were really good. We were up front for their set, too. Our friend Dave Simchock, one of the festival photographers, told us he was really excited for them, and it was really fun to see him and everyone else in the pit enjoying the show so much, especially during that song. The whole place went nuts.
Carter: They weren’t even taking pictures during that song!
Mama: I know. Can you imagine what it must feel like to be up onstage playing one of your songs and having everyone sing along like that?
Carter: It would mean you were a superstar!
Mama: One really great thing about XPN Fest is that if you’re a member, they give you a special wristband that gets you access to a members-only area. You get free drinks all weekend, so you can keep going back and filling up your reusable water bottles with cold drinks, and there’s also a meet & greet area. If you opt in, they’ll send you text messages to remind you when a meet & greet line opens.
Carter: The only band we waited in the meet & greet line for was Dawes. When we met Dawes, we gave them an I Love York City Sticker, because they were going to be playing the Capitol Theatre in a few weeks. When I met Dawes I almost flipped out because I was so excited. I got pictures taken with them.
Mama: They were very gracious, and we told them how much we were looking forward to seeing them at home.
Mama: I went back up front for Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, but Carter went to watch from a blanket on the lawn with some of our friends.
Carter: Michaela Mijoun [XPN Morning Show host] came out to introduce them and said that this was the most musicians onstage at a time during the whole festival. I was really excited.
Mama: They were SO MUCH FUN! I thought it was really cool how during Dawes, Edward Sharpe, and Dr. Dog, a lot of the people from the bands that weren’t playing would sit in the wings and watch the one that was.
Carter: I kind of didn’t want to stand in the front for Dr. Dog, just because I didn’t know them very well. I like their music, but it’s not really my favorite.
Mama: But did you enjoy it once you were up there and they were playing?
Carter: A little bit. My favorite part about standing up there was the cold necklaces we had.
Mama: We bought those there from one of the festival vendors. They were cotton necklaces filled with expanding icepack gel stuff. We put them in a bag of ice and they got cold and stayed cool for a pretty long time. It was so hot all weekend and we saw lots of other people who had bought them, too.
What was cool about Dr. Dog was the fact that they’re from Philly and the crowd was so supportive. I really enjoyed their set. I had seen them the month before at World Café Live (during the 2010 Non-COMM), and this was completely different, with such a big, enthusiastic crowd. I thought it was an awesome show.
Carter: The last band that played at the festival was, I think, the best one. It was Robert Randolph & The Family Band.
Mama: What I didn’t know until he said so onstage is that all the members of the band really are his relatives.
Carter: We sat far away at first, on the bleachers. But we left kind of near the end. When we were in the parking lot, we could still hear perfectly and they were playing Poker Face.
Mama: That was crazy! You were so excited!
Carter: I sang it in the parking lot and people started staring at me.
Mama: That was a great way to end our festival experience.
Check back soon for our reviews of these live shows: Dawes at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at Musikfest in Bethlehem, and Deer Tick at the Capitol Theatre, The Traveling Circus & Medicine Show at the Wellmont Theater, Hot August Blues in Cockeysville, MD, featuring Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Keb Mo, and Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, and Lee Harvey Osmond at Ourhouse in York, PA.
Fun to read...love Carter's shirt!!!
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