Buzzardfest, Cleveland, Ohio
My friend Larry picked me up from San Antonio Texas, which is about five
hours from me. We drove to Ohio, straight through (21 hours). We got
there Friday afternoon and couldn't wait to see the Holy Barbarians at the
Buzzard fest. We heard Brother Fights on the radio and they said
the Holy Barbarians were scheduled to come on at 6:45. We get to the road
that leads to the Blossom music center and we were greeted by three miles
of cars that were not even budging. It was about 3:30 and we moved 10
feet every 30 minutes. I thought we were going to Woodstock. Here is
where the story gets interesting. There were two rented vans in front of
the car in front of us and they had pulled off to the side. White van in
front of a black van. A guy hops out of the white van. wearing a white
shirt and white pants and a couple of tags around his neck. he walked up
to a cop who was next to us directing traffic. He said to the cop "I'm
with one of the bands that's playing tonight, and we're running late is
there any way we can get an escort through this traffic?" The cop replied
"You can call this number ???-????, but it may take a while, you might be
able to squezz through on the shoulder" At this time Larry and I are
thinking how cool it would be if these guys were from the Holy
Barbarians. Then Larry said he saw one of the tags on his neck that said
Holy Barbarians. Of course I didn't believe him, but I did keep asking
him "are you sure?" Then the guy in the white pants and shirt walks up to
the driver in the black van and starts to tell him they are going to have
to squeeze by all the traffic. At this point I'm thinking what are the
odds of us actually being this close to Ian Astbury on the road to see
his band. Then a guy hops out of the white van and it's the drummer Scott
Garrett. I freaked out "That's the drummer Scott Garrett!" Larry keeps
saying "Are you sure?" Scott was listening in on the conversation between
the guy in white pants and the driver of the black van. Meanwhile I'm
tearing the car apart trying to find my disposable Kodak camera. By the
time I find the camera and stick my head out the window, Both vans are a
half mile down the road. They were actually driving over peoples lawns to
get there. The shoulder was about 2 inches wide. I still can't figure out
how they got past people's mailboxes. If they were not in such a rush I
would have walked up to the van, tap on the window and explain to Ian that
my friend and I drove from San Antonio Texas to see you guys. I'm sure
Ian would be cool and let us take a few pictures with him.
We arrived at the Blossom Music Center about 5:00. The atmosphere
was super cool. Everyone just had a positive vibe. There were two stages
16 bands. Eight on the main stage and 8 on the smaller stage. The way it
works is one band finishes on one stage and then the next band begins on
the other stage, with no waiting. Well 6:45 rolls around and the man in
white pants and a couple of other guys are mulling around the stage
hooking up P.A.s and laying down mic cables. This was a bad sign. We were
thinking they might only get to play 30 minutes as opposed to 45 minutes
which is what they were alotted. By 7:05 they were still doing mic checks
and I was feeling severe depression. The thought of them actually not
being able to play crossed my mind a few times. The other thing that
was going through my mind was 22 hours. OK finally the Jazz music starts
playing and I got back into concert mode. The band walks out and starts
playing along with the Jazz music which was sounding pretty fine. Then
Ian Astbury (God of all rock voices) comes strutting out with a book in
his hand. He started reading from it, I assumed it was Ginsberg and
Kerouac poems. Which turns out to be true. I couldn't make out any of the
words since they were inside a covered pavillion and I was just outside
it. It was very inaudible. After he threw the book out in the audience I
felt I had been robbed, whoever caught that book probably has no idea who
Ian Astbury is. The band kicked into Blind sounded great at first
until I noticed I couldn't here the guitar. I quickly had to accept the
fact there wasn't going to be any guitar sound that evening. When I heard
"It's the ass end of today" I was much more relieved. At least the vocals
came out loud and clear. The band sounded great considering I could
barely hear the guitar. You Are There really hit the spot for me. I
think over all, my two favorite songs of the evening were Bodhisattva
and The Witch. I thought the crowd was very unreceptive. It looked like
a sea of people at a Pink Floyd concert. I was cheering, singing along
having a great time. During The Witch some guy about 41-47 years old
came up to me and asked what band this was. I proudly said "The Holy
Barbarians" he said "Who?" I replied "The Holy Barbarians."
During Dolly Bird some 12 year old kid asked me who the band
was. I started feeling like a spokesperson for the group. Helter
Skelter sounded good,but would have sounded a lot better with the guitar
turned up. During You Are There which is such a cool song, Ian walked
into the lifeless dead of a crowd and just mulled around, it looked like
he was dancing with some girls. Many people were taking pictures. The low
point of the show was when the band on stage 2 started playing in the
middle of the Holy Barbarians set. It was pretty distracting, but only on
the last 3 songs. It got very annoying during Magick Christian because
it starts out quiet. Another point of interest, up until the Holy
Barbarians came on the bands were like clockwork, one band ends then the
other band comes on. The rest of the night the bands on stage 2 blended in
to the bands on the main stage. One group called Poe, which were great,
did wait until The Tragically Hip ended. I'm looking
forward to seeing them in June (Houston, Dallas) It should be a lot better
being in a club.
On the way back to Texas we got in a major car wreck. A
U.P.S. truck pulled off to the shoulder, and as we tried to pass she
turned left with no blinkers into someones driveway. The speed limit
was 70 mph which is what we were doing when we slammed into her
BAAMMMM!!!!. We actually tipped a U.P.S. truck over. Larry's car was
totalled. I might have a cracked rib, but it's probably just a bruise.
The driver of the U.P.S truck was not injured. Larry got banged up
pretty good. But we're still surviving. If I could do this trip again
with the same results I would.
Mike MacLelland - Z_maclellanm@TITAN.SFASU.edu
Set List
Blind
Dolly Bird
The Witch
Brother Fights
Space Junkie
You Are There
Magick Christian
Bodhisattva
Helter Skelter