Labor Day festival report from Johnny Gumbo.....

Beer at a festival? Oh, my Gawd!!!
The Gumbo took in his first PigOut in the Park here in Spokane over the weekend and it was great. Went a couple of days. Missed my sidekick, johnnyk, to critique the music but will offer my own rendition even tho it will lack the color and eloquence of the master blogger.

First of all, PigOut has been going on in Spokane for 29 years so it was pretty well organized (from an event coordinator's standpoint). Spokane is about the size of Hartford and has a really nice park along the Spokane River that goes right through the middle of the downtown area. PigOut started out as a food festival but now it's more of a music festival with food that goes on for 6 days. Lots of different foods (40+ booths) and plenty of it for the price, thus the name PigOut. I had some great catfish and slaw, "Rip" dogs with kraut, pulled pork, corn on the cob, and some great Thai food (not sure exactly what it was, maybe dog, but sure was good), and then some great desserts, best of all fresh strawberry shortcake. And....imagine this! A family festival with beer/wine tents. Well controlled in & out, had to pay a buck cover charge to get in, strategically located by the stages, lots of seating area with tables so you could take your food in, get some beverages, sit down and take in the music. Ahh...to be free of the closed minded!

The music ran the gambit from Hip Hop Ska (?) to country western. Local to regional and some big time acts. 75 in all over the 6 days and all free (once again, innovative thought - paid for by revenues from the beer/wine tents!). I managed to take in a handfull. Of course, the biggest was Lucinda Williams, first time to Spokane, who played to a huge crowd (biggest in PigOut history, according to organizers!) on Sunday night. Last time I saw her was at Toad's Place in New Haven about 5 years ago. She wasn't too happy that nite because they had a Red Sox/Yankees game on the tele that kept takin' the audience's attention away. I've always been a lukewarm Lucinda fan as I think she has a great voice and is a great story teller but is just to "downbeat" for me for a live venue. The Gumbo needs to be able to dance and Lucinda loves those ballads, especially dark ones. She played about a 90 minute set, had lots of tunes from her different albums (which she made sure she mentioned each time) and seemed to like the Spokane folks (no TV's around).

Others I saw.....Too Slim and the Taildraggers (blues and country rock, and yes the Gumbo did dance), my "favorite", Sammy Eubanks Band (four overweight,over-the hill rockers who played everything from CCR to Waylon Jennings to Sammy's own blues compositions), Big Mumbo Blues Band (catchy blues band with a great "big" soulful vocalist, kinda Ella Fitzgeraldy like), Handful of Luvin (four young, high energy kids playin' a combination of folk/rock/bluegrass/reggae music, mostly instrumental, terrific electric fiddle player), and Civilized Animal (program said "...high energy Hip Hop Ska Punkster Party band", not sure what that means, they were good but I still don't know what kind of music it was). And my big disappoint of the event, Ricochet. Had heard their music on the radio and liked it so was anxious to hear them as they are a big time country act. Got to the stage area around 8 PM, show was to start at 8:15, expected some delay as usual, as they had to redo the stage from the previous show that was over at 7:15. Heard a lot of tuning up and adjusting, but by 9 couldn't take it anymore and left. Don't have much tolerance for that kinda shit. Don't know what time they came on, but have shuffled Ricochet over into that category of bands that think more of themselves than their audience.

All in all, a great time. So if you ever want to come this way around Labor Day, let the Gumbo know and we'll go "PIGOUT" together.