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For several years now I have seen Baltimore’s Artscape come and go, never being able to make it.  This year I was determined as ever to catch “the largest free outdoor art festival” in the country.  Every year they get hundreds of artists together and close several city blocks for all the booths and stages.  Not only do they have traditional artists, but dance troops and what I was mostly interested in the local and national musicians together as well for free concerts on several different stages.  This years artists included Cake and Robert Randolph.  With Cake making an appearance it didn’t take any arm twisting to get Jeremy to come with me.  For the first time in years I was finally getting to Artscape.

Jeremy and I got together in the early afternoon to start our trek to Baltimore.  I had never been to Artscape nor the part of town it was located in.  Needless to say we were going to be winging it, just like so many adventures from our youth.  When we got close to the festival we found a garage that was only a couple blocks from the festival and followed the throngs of people towards the festival grounds.  When we arrived it was a giant mass of people walking down the closed streets.  I just couldn’t get over how many people were there.  But I guess being right in the middle of a large city and a free event, brings out the people.

Our first priority was bathroom, drink,  and food, in that order.  We hit one of the “food courts” to grab some grub and found huge lines of people waiting.  It was nice to have all the food in one spot, lots to choose from, but everyone had to go to the same spot to eat.  Instead of picking what we wanted, we settled for the shortest line, a Greek place.  After waiting only 15 minutes or so we placed our order with the lady and promptly got our food.  For some reason she couldn’t take our money and told us to see the guy next to her.  So we cut in line and paid.  He told us $23 for the food and drinks for which we quickly gathered our money and got $2 change.  While looking for some napkins the lady start yelling at us to pay, saying we owed her $20 for the food.  The guy starts yelling at us asking for more money, so we just walked away.  We paid in full and apparently got ripped off for doing so.  Food vendors can be some shady people.  With food and drink secured we found a nice shady spot under a tree and joined the hundreds of other festival goers in eating some food.  For being over charged it was rather good too.

After lunch Jeremy and I parted company.  Jeremy took the recording gear and headed to the pit to secure a spot.  I headed to one of the other stages to catch Higher Hands for a few songs before meeting back up with Jeremy.  On the way to and from the Festival Stage I stopped by many of the booths to check out the art work.  I was very impressed by what I saw from most of the vendors.  I would have actually bought some of the pieces but the prices were to steep for my pockets, so instead I just marveled at what I saw.  I have always been impressed with artists, of all kinds.  I have always been a little jealous of artists actually.  The fact that these people create something and display it for the world to see has been something I wish I could do.  I wish I could create something beautiful the way these people do.  The closes I come right now is with my photography.  What I do might be called creative, but I think of it mostly as being at the right place at the right time.  Nature has done all the work by creating the world around me, I just take the pictures.

Cake copyright: Kathleen Hill

Higher Hands was not finished with their set before I needed to head over to the main stage for Cake.  When  I arrived the tiny amphitheatre was packed with people.  Jeremy said he was down in the pit near the stage right corner, now I just needed to find one man in a crowd of thousands.  When I got to the pit I quickly ran into a wall of people that made it near impossible to get to him.  He was about 20′ from me but because he was taping I was unable to get his attention, yelling would have been a bad idea.  And besides even if he knew I was there I couldn’t get any closer.  So I took up my spot and just enjoyed the show, only missing two songs of the set.  From my vantage point I could barely see the stage, but I certainly could hear them play.  The photo to the right is a good approximation of my limited view of the stage.

As the set progressed Cake played many of their hit songs, which I recognized, and even a song from their as yet unreleased album.  John McCrea said there is no official release date and they would release it when they wanted.  They currently don’t have a major record label and are taking their new found freedom from “the man” to its fullest, which seems to suit them very well.  Every now and then I would see John poke his head out.  With my limited view of the stage it allowed me to do a lot of people watching which I love to do.  Quite a diverse group of fans made it to see them play.

Once the set was over the crowd quickly dissipated which allowed Jeremy and I to take up a much better position on the hill.  We managed to snag a spot about half way up the hill just left of center, right next to the tapers.  Up next was Robert Randolph and the Family Band.  A rockin’ soul/funk/fusion band that is hard to describe, you just have to see them.  The band does a good job of getting the crowd into the music and their shows are always a party.

Robert Randolph copyright: Jeff Quinton

They came out and rocked the house with their brand of funk and the audience ate it up.  They played a ton of covers, two from Michael Jackson who recently passed away, Man in the Mirror and Billie Jean.  For Billie Jean a young kid, maybe 10 or 11, came on stage and stole the show with his break dancing skills.  The whole show was like this……good.  By the time the band walked off stage at the end of the set it was almost 10pm.  But you see the guys milling around next to the FOH board deciding what they are going to play and a few minutes later come out for an encore.  With the clock marching towards 10pm there was not much time to squeeze in the two song encore.  As they played on I saw coming up the stage stairs a police or fire chief and he looked pissed.  The sound guy and he talk real quick and the sound man gets a panic look on his face.  The city takes their curfew very seriously but Robert didn’t care about any curfew, he just wanted to play.  The crowd was digging the music and he wanted to give them everything he had.  Eventually the band members slowly walk off stage leaving Robert playing a melody on his guitar.  Slowly he walks off stage, still playing, and has a pow wow with the chief.  Then just stops playing, there was no more show.  I definitely thought the power would have been cut mid-song or the chief walking on stage and pulling the cord from Robert’s guitar, something like that.  But I was glad to see them playing as long as they did.

After the show we filtered out with the rest of the crowd.  It was great seeing variety of people that attended the festival as we walked back to the car.  When we got back it was off to Sabatino’s for some midnight grub.  I for one was hungry and thirsty.  I had visions of tiramisu and cappuccino dancing in my head.  When ever I am in Baltimore I stop by Sabatino’s for some late night eats, usually to sober up too.  When we arrived I was hungrier than I thought and ordered a bowl of mussels along with my usual.  Everything was so good, what a way to cap off the night.  After food and a little time to rest we headed back home to Virginia.

CAKE
1. Stickshift and Safetybelts
2. War Pigs
3. Ruby Sees All
4. Love You Madly
5. Frank Sinatra
6. Wheels
7. Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle
8. Sheep Go to Heaven
9. Daria
10. Short Skirt/Long Jacket
11. Comfort Eagle
12. Untitled*
13. Mexico
14. Never There

Note:
* – John McCrea said Cake may or may not release a new album with this song on it.

Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Start time 8:32pm
1. Sunshine Of Your Love jam
2. Deliver Me
3. I Need More Love >
4. Wanna Be Starting Something jam >
5. I Need More Love
6. The March
7. jam >
8. Man In The Mirror
9. Shake Your Hips
10. Jesus Is Just Alright
11. Gilligan
12. Billie Jean
13. I Don’t Know What You Come To Do

encore:
14. Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That
15. Thrill Of It

walked off stage 10:02pm

Friday was the second straight show of Medeski, Martin and Wood I was going to see.  Of the two this was definitely the one I was most looking forward to.  Yeah the Lewis Ginter was a new venue for me, but the last time I saw MMW at Rams Head Live it totally kicked ass.  Plus it was a Friday in Baltimore so that was it’s own fun right there.  For this show I planned on doing a little drinking and there is always Sabatino’s for some after show dessert and coffee.

Medeski, Martin and Wood

Unlike last nights show, this one started at a more reasonable hour.  The doors didn’t open until 7 where as with the Lewis Ginter show, by 7 MMW was getting ready to take the stage.  The extra time allowed me to put in a full day of work with plenty of travel time before the show started.  I couldn’t leave work till 6pm but even at this late hour traffic was not an issue and I was in Baltimore just after 8.  When I got into the venue The Wood Brothers were already on stage, but only a couple of songs into their set.   Not my favorite band.  They play really well and it was certainly different just having a due on stage.  I like to call it hard core bluegrass, it was mostly time to get drinks and mingle with the other fans.

Trying to find other fans turned into a little bit of an issue as NO ONE showed up!  That is not entirely true, probably 400-500 people showed up for the show.  The last time I saw them at the Rams Head Live back in 2005 the placed was packed and I was hoping for the same amount of people.  Baltimore has got a great scene when it comes to live music and I was expecting the hoards of people to flood into the inner harbor and support the band.  Even on a Friday night and still no one showed up.  So as showtime approached I was a little apprehensive on how good the show was going to be.

Another beer and it was time to find my permanent spot on the floor to enjoy the show.  Because of the low turnout the upstairs area was closed off, so I took  a spot dead center about 20′ away.  There I meet two really cool people from Annapolis, Gretchen and Michal.  A couple of young people who were well traveled when it came to seeing concerts.  We all reminisced about various concerts we had been to and the upcoming Phish shows we were going to see.  When the lights went down the fun was about to begin.

Rams Head Live!

The quick and dirty is that the show was 10,000 times better than last nights.  Having such a small crowd did not diminish the vibe.  The boys were on fire this night performing many of their new songs from Radiolarians II.  They also threw in some new new stuff that should appear on the third installment of this series.  The energy during the entire show was well maintained throughout.  Reliquary starts off the first set and had this building quality to it.  It sounds as if at any moment they are just going to breakout into this crazy bizarre jam without limits.  Riffin’ Ed continued in the same way.  When they got to the third song, a new one, they changed direction into something a little mellower that flowed right into Junkyard and back into an uptempo beat.  For the set closer it was all energy with two more songs from their recent album, ijiji > Flat Tires.  This left the crowd on a high and me wanting more, that second set couldn’t get here fast enough.

One last run to the bar for beer, I am responsible you know so no more drinking once the second set starts, and then to procure more real estate.  This time I was able to get within a few feet of the stage, everyone else was not as quick at getting the last beer like I was.  While waiting for the second set I meet Jennifer, now what I am about to say sounds straight out of a porno, but it is not.  She is a airline stewardess out of Detroit who was in Baltimore for the night just to see the show.  A real lovely woman to talk to and a true music fan like myself.  I don’t know many people that will travel such a great distance just to see a band.  When the lights went out and MMW stepped onto the stage it was time for my attention to shift.

copyright Tim

The second set was a little more adventurous in it’s tone and arrangement.  Set highlights included three new songs, including one for the encore and another great version of Amber Gris which I have been really digging from their new album.  Right in the middle of the set they change temp and pull out Baby Let Me Follow You Down.  Not sure why when they were rocking hard they felt the need to slow things waaaaay down.  Fortunately once it was over it was time to get back to the funk and boogie.  When the set ended the crowd was pretty tired and I doubted they would be able to pull the guys out for an encore.  Fortunately we didn’t have to wait long for them to bust out a new funky jam to leave us all on a high.

At the close of the show it was not exactly time for me to drive home.  I was hungry for some dessert and besides, I needed to sober up a little.  On my way to Sabatino’s I ran across this woman throwing an orange around and I just had to ask what she was doing.  Being the gentleman I am I couldn’t just let her walk alone in the city this late at night.  When we reached Sabatino’s however we parted ways, she headed home and I was headed for tiramisu and a cappuccino.  I don’t know what it is about this combination, but it totally kicks ass and is but one reason I like coming to Baltimore for concerts.

Sober from the evenings concerts and still jamming to the tunes in my head it was time for the long drive home to my nice comfortable bed.

Set 1 9:38
Reliquary
Riffin’ Ed
unknown >
Junkyard >
ijiji > Flat Tires

set ends at 10:41

Set 2 11:13
Sweet Pea Dreams
unknown
Amber Gris
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Amish Pintxos
unknown

encore 12:03
unknown

show ends at 12:11

One of my favorite bands, Soulive, was coming to the area.  These guys are one of the best soul/funk bands around and I have been seeing them since December 2001.  Not only were they playing a Saturday show, but it was at Rams Head Live! which is one of the best places around to see live music.  The venue itself is very spacious with many bars.  If you want to just chill and not be bothers you can, want a seat, they are available, you can get a good view from the balcony, or get down to it on the floors right in front.

Since the show was on a Saturday August 16th I decided to make a day of it in Baltimore.  I got there early in the afternoon to eat some food, do some shopping, reading and walking around.  When I arrived I got a parking spot in a garage near little Italy.  I was hungry so I got some food at Sabatino’s.  It came recommend by two Italian customers and if anyone will know good Italian food it would be these two guys.  I must say I was impressed with the place.  It is definitely a small family run place.  The food was simple stick to your gut goodness.  One thing I quickly noticed was the waitresses.  It was very professional and attentive, but none of them were lookers.  Everyone working there could have been my mother, but it added to the charm.

Baltimore's Italian Festival

When I was finished my waitress asked if I want dessert and coffee.  I told her no, which seemed to break her heart, but she then suggested something.  She suggest I check out the Italian festival happening a couple blocks a way and then come back for some tiramisu, they even closed at 3am.  That last part I took note of, 3am is pretty darn late.

After paying the bill I walked and found the Italian festival like she said.  It took over several city blocks and was a great little festival.  There was music, food, beer(!), and even some bocce ball.  One thing I did notice was all the gambinos around, never had I seen so many in one place before.  Lots of tight shirts and slick back hair.

The Players

Once I couldn’t stand the smell of pasta I walked to the inner harbor.  This is what Baltimore is best known for.  There is so much to do there that every weekend it is packed with visitors.  I decided to take a seat on a bench and watch the world go buy.  After that got boring I finished the book I was reading, Dangerous Days of Daniel X.  After watching the sun set it was time to start making my way to the concert venue.  On the way over I found a free concert from The Players, a local Baltimore ska band and decided to stick around for them.  Glad I did as they rocked the house!  Come to find out every weekend there was another band playing in the common area between the two shopping centers in the inner harbor.  It was great to see such a diverse crowd gather to watch.

Finally I got to the venue and was getting ready for the show.  I ditched my back pack and was lean and mean for a long night of rockin.  Soulive is always a funky band that loves to play, they would play all night if the venue let them so I was getting ready for a long night.  The only disappointing thing about the show was the number of people attending.  There were so few tickets sold the second level was closed and only the main bar was open.  Despite all this the crowd showed much love to Soulive that night.  About the time the band should have come on was the exact moment Michal Phelps was going for his eight and final gold medal in the Olympics.  Fortunately the venue showed it on the tvs around the venue.  I am pretty sure that the band was watching as well, 30 seconds after he won the medal the band comes walking out on stage.

The band did not disappoint with the set list.  This was a classic show from back in the day.  Filled with a groove and a funk that was infectious in the crowd.  For just over two hours I was dancing and grooving to the tunes.  I was so happy I didn’t miss this show.  The last few times I have seen the band they were changing up the sound.  They added vocals with Reggie Watts (of Maktub) and Tosan (spelling?) after that.  It was….ok, not the stuff I liked best.  Soulive was still there, they were just muted, under the surface in my opinion.  But not this night, they rocked the house and I couldn’t get enough, disappointing when the show was over….but not the night.

takes the stage about 11:18pm

Set 1:
Elron
Stepin’
1 in 7
Bobby Bird
Flurries
Reverb
Tuesday Night Squad
Lenny
Dig

encore:
Tighten Up
Do It Again

show ends about 1:12am

After the show I headed over to Sabatino’s for some tiramisu and some much needed coffee.  You see during the show I had a few beers and I was still a little drunk.  To drunk to start driving home.  Since the restaurant didn’t close till 3am on Saturday I knew I had a place to go and sober up a little.  The tiramisu they have was delicious and the capacino I had went perfectly.  After about 30 minutes I could feel the life coming back to me, with the help of the coffee of course, and hit the road.  Just to make sure I could get home I took a capacino for the road, it would go well with the cigar I had for the drive home.

After getting to my truck I started the 1:30 hour drive home.  I had some good music playing, a nice cigar and the excellent capacino from Sabatino’s to nurse me home.  It was just after three o’clock in the morning when I got home and I promptly crashed hard.  The next morning I was headed to Fredericksburg to visit my mom for lunch and I was not looking forward to getting up.

All in all that was one of the best days I had had in a long time.  Most of it was un-planned and it turned out pretty darn well.