The Whack ol Ladies began the summer music festival season at Soundset - the hip hop/rap extravaganza in late May. The ratio of youngsters to WOL was so much that we were simply invisible. Our invisibility may have been enhanced by their glassy eyed inebriation. However-if there had been a "name that tune" contest while the DJ's did their music sampling we would have crushed our younger opponents since most of the music sampled was from before all them were born.
Rock The Garden had a much better youngster to WOL ratio. It may have been influenced by the fact that the tickets sold out to public radio and Walker Museum members first. The rainy weather may have helped to keep the weak ones away. There was a little bit of mud but no one was ripping of their clothes and rolling around in it. Everyone was having a good time, getting a little wet, drinking a few beers and visiting. In the past I plunked my blanket down and hung out with my friends. This year since the ground was so wet, I decided to take it all in from the stage area.It was like one big backyard party with thousands of your closet buddies.
Although most of the shows at the Minnesota Zoo seemed to target older and less whack musical tastes (The Monkees, Dave Mason), we did get out to see hometown favorites Jeremy Messersmith and Rogue Valley. The snow monkeys were happy to have a few late night visitors and we all could have listened to the bands play on into the night. I have seen Jeremy Messersmith sing 3 times this year and by far the zoo concert was the most enjoyable by WOL standards: no drunken hecklers, lots of fans and a diversity of ages. Rupert the random dancing man helped to get even the stiffest grandpa to smile.
I am not sure that the Whack ol Ladies want to venture out to Bonnaroo or Coachella in the near future but the line ups are always so tempting. We may have to think about packing a tent for next year.
Peace man.
