* Jose Conde Y Ola Fresca – Still waking up at that point, I spent a good while caffeinating so it’s anybody’s guess what I heard from this band in the Preservation Hall tent. A friend of a friend, who was in from Brazil, seemed to enjoy this show, so it must have been good. Ben Jaffe and I chatted for a bit about his post-Katrina/Flood endeavour, Preserve Our Music, which brings relief and support to hundreds of area musicians, no thanks at all to the federal government. Related: Gambit – The Jazz Rescuers
* Lez Zeppelin – Not to be confused with the original Led variety. Despite the overcrowded New Orleans Bingo! Parlour, which made its debut at VoodooFest, and its noisy audience, the lead singer of this LZ tribute band has a set of lungs on her and cut right past and through to the outside. Man, could she sustain some of those notes like Robert Plant never did!
* The New Orleans Bingo! Show – Once again, a stellar performance by Clint Maedgen and his troupe par excellence. Mike, visiting us from Chicago, won at Bingo, and Xn gave me the evil eye for it! PICTURES
* M.I.A. – Now there was some real Voodoo for a change; if only her audience had been more representative of New Orleans and its part-Afro-Caribbean roots. Girl freaked out the locals because half of them had never heard of her and the other half didn’t know where to source the extra kinetic energy requirement from. Remember, New Orleans, that’s Maya Arulpragasam and when she says “Dance,” stop doing the bleedin’ white-girl shimmy or whatever it is you do at the Goldmine on 80s night and throw your shoulders and hips into it with a tribal, possessed-by-spirits vigor.
* Rage Against The Machine – Quite unimpressive after all the buildup, hype and extra 30 minutes taken to make their show even louder. I believe there was a token shout-out to New Orleans somewhere in there, but the performance was most generic. Besides, it’s sad when you break up, re-form the group and rage against that which you have become. And sadder when people start laughing at you and wonder if the red star in the backdrop is part of your Heineken sponsorship.
This first photo is beautiful.
Bands who hate one another (Rage) should never reform. It comes out in the music.
M.I.A. is the sweetest shit out right now. I love her first album, I love her new album. I’m so sad I missed her at Voodoo but I’m waiting for an intimate venue where I can make her my wife.
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