By Rob Goald
rsgoald@comcast.net
 

 VEGOOSE 07 - ROASTED AND WRAPPED

The 3rd Annual Vegoose Music and Arts Festival wrapped the last hour of Sunday a week ago and the music is still ringing in my ears. Nearly 40,000 people made their way to Sam Boyd Stadium this year, slightly up from last year’s 37,000, but, way below the inaugural year crowd of 70,000. The Review-Journal has been openly speculating as to whether this was the swan song year for the event but I hope not. Vegoose brings to Las Vegas a whole plethora of music that otherwise would not play here such as art rock acts, hip- hop, political and anarchistic rock It was a successful artistic effort infused with an abundance of powerful music and good spirit. The festival even offered faux nuptials, an impersonator’ s lounge, and a whole makeshift village selling countercultural wares.

      
Photos by Acclaimed Rock Photographer Richard Nast

Saturday’s line-up and performances were extraordinary. Although there was a delay in getting the gates open, GUGOL BORDELLO made up for lost time with a great opening set. Combining elements of punk, gypsy music, and Brecht-ian cabaret, Gogol Bordello told the story of New York's immigrant Diaspora through debauchery, humor, and surreal costumes. Their music was nothing less than a hyper-kinetic explosion.

Vegoose had three active stages named in homage to the gambling environs of Vegas: Double Down Stage, Snake Eyes Stage and Jokers Wild Stage. Because of 3 stages with acts overlapping I sampled some performances and missed others altogether.

One scheduling faux paux was placing PUBLIC ENEMY (“F*ck George Bush”) and CYPRESS HILL on stage at the same time. Cypress was gracious enough to acknowledge Public Enemy while delivering their slow, rolling bass-and-drum loops that created the stoned funk they became famous for in '90s hip-hop. The audience was mesmerized by the band’s laid back style as they took “smoke” breaks to promote the legalization of “pot”.

Next up for me was M.I.A.and they were a revelation! The band, fronted by lead singer, Maya Arulpragasam, performed a bold, righteous amalgamation of hip-hop, electro, dancehall, grime, and baile funk and brought the crowd up on stage to dance to the “Bird Flu”, “Galang” and “Paper Planes”. The sounds of gunfire rocketed into the crowd creating what might be the first terrorist inspired music performance at a rock festival. We’ve come a long way from the 60’s when the Youngbloods called on “people to get together and love one another right now”

Iggy Pop (aka James Osterberg Jr.) and THE STOOGES rocketed onto the Snake Eyes Stage unleashing for the first time in 37 years a complete rendition of their classic 60’s album “Funhouse”. At 60 years old, Mr. Pop, still has a washboard stomach and the energy of a teenager “on speed”. Shirtless, howling at the Full Moon, spewing expletives, and wearing tight blue jeans, Iggy invited the crowd to “dance with the Stooges” and they gleefully obliged. Besides “Funhouse” the Stooges ripped through classics like “1969”, “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, and from Iggy’s solo career “Electric Chair”. The set lived up to my expectations and beyond.

Following Iggy for me was the special treat of DAFT PUNK. The combined talents of French DJs Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter in full robot regalia was a perfect nightcap for day one of Vegoose. The group's sound was a brazen, dance floor-oriented blend of progressive house, funk, electro, and techno, with sprinklings of hip-hop-styled break beats and excessive, crowd-firing samples, similar to other anthemic dance-fusion acts such as the Chemical Brothers and Monkey Mafia. Their computerized “pyramid of light” was awesome as it generated lighting patterns that were ingenious and intriguing and at one point placing the Frenchmen in their own cartoon

Saturday was so exhilarating that Sunday had more to live up to than it delivered. Although I like GHOSTFACE a lot his set with the Rhythm Root Allstars never seemed to take off. But Britain’s power trio MUSE generated an emotive, passionate sound with riffs that were large and powerful with a kick ass light show accompaniment

The one act that delighted me Sunday was UNKLE on its first ever “live tour”. They got into a blues jam that sounded so tight and together that just thinking about it brings a smile to my face. Guest vocalist Gavin Clark provided inspired renditions of songs from their latest release “War Stories”.

Wrapping up Vegoose 07 was RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, the powerhouse brand of head knocking and eardrum penetrating bombastic, fiercely polemical music, which brewed sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash. Zack de la Rocha’s vocals were polemical and poignant as he proclaimed “bullet in the head, bullet in the head, bullet in the f*cking head”. The crowd was angry and pumped, and when Rage stop playing late Sunday night another Vegoose was cooked and served to a thankful, but irreverent crowd.