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Are you Experienced? SoCo festival fit the bill

Katjusa Cisar  —  9/08/2008 1:53 pm

Southern Comfort scored another success Saturday with their second annual "SoCo Music Experience" on the Willow Island grounds at the Alliant Energy Center.

Sure, you're inundated with product placement and not-so-subliminal advertising from the minute you walk in the gate, but the eight-hour festival is free. And SoCo branded umbrellas make for a much-needed respite from the hot sun. (Hey, JJO Band Camp, please get someone to sponsor umbrellas for next year's gig. Hundreds of people in Dane County are probably still peeling burnt skin off their shoulders from that shade-less scorcher.)

There were many highlights throughout the day, including many of the day's early acts. Too bad so many people didn't show up until nightfall.

Mid-afternoon, Ha Ha Tonka kicked out a raucous set of serviceable and meaty southern-tinged indie rock led by a redheaded singer with a sunny temperament. The Springfield, Mo., foursome put on a high-energy show despite the small crowd. This is definitely the kind of band to see in a sweaty, cramped club and not spread out on a big outdoor stage.

Over on the local stage (sponsored by Triple M 105.5 FM), Mike Droho and the Compass Rose played a enjoyable set of music that meets at the unlikely junction of pop, beatboxing, string quartet and indie rock. Mike Droho, a former member of the Profits, led up the strong mix on vocals, with Scott Lamps on stand-up bass and Ida Pajunen on violin. Anthony Lamarr spit out all the beats with his percussive mouth and a microphone.

Missing sorely from the SoCo line-up were female artists: Ida Pajunan of the Compass Rose and Michelle Flood of the Roots Collective were the only women in the day's line-up. Southern Comfort should be applauded for putting together a high-caliber bunch of bands, but hopefully next time the women involved will be doing more than handing out schwag and working behind-the-scenes.

The Benevento/Russo Duo out of Brooklyn played an extra long set of spacey synth pop instrumentals that fit the lazy late afternoon sun-soaked atmosphere. The crowd started to fill out as red-and-white bedecked football fans filtered in from the Badgers game. Still, compared to the awesome debauchery and wild rocking of other recent shows at Willow Island, this was a tame crowd. Maybe, as Marco Benevento said between songs, "You haven't had enough SoCo."

By the time GZA took the stage, people were a lot more pumped up. The rapper's presentation was a little static and the subwoofer bass was so loud it canceled out the intelligibility of the words, but the mix had improved by the end when he did "Zero Percent Finance," a monotonic opus that was just getting into the meat of it when he had to cut it short to make time for the next act.

Over at the merch tables, an aging punk goofball named "Sputnik Slovenia" strummed dumb songs on his guitar between main acts. After finishing a country-folk cover of "Gin and Juice," he announced breezily, "Let's do a little Madonna/Dead Kennedys' medley." He was in on the joke and it made for a fun diversion between bands.

The Black Keys and the Roots topped the show off in style. The Black Keys' grungy blues-infused rock stole the show (at least until the Roots). With just guitar and drums, the Black Keys grabbed the crowd by the you-know-whats, and set everyone dancing. More rock acts should be this sweaty and dirty.

It's hard to compete with an act that comes stomping on stage in line formation, helmed by "Tuba Gooding, Jr.," a skanking sousaphone player with bullfrog cheeks. The Roots say they're "gonna drop the bomb" and that's what they did. They don't perform in the traditional sense. The ensemble plays off each other and dances together, inviting the audience to join them in the revelry. No shoe-gazing here.

The Roots ended with a free-form medley that included Guns 'n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and a spellbinding guitar solo from "Capt. Kirk."

Katjusa Cisar  —  9/08/2008 1:53 pm