Here’s to Voodoo
Another year, another Voodoo Music Experience. Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, this year’s VMX was scaled down to say the least. It went from 5 stages and an estimated attendance of 80,000 last year to 3 stages with no more than 20,000 people in attendance this year. To control the crowd, TCB Events, the Memphis promoter/organizer, decided to sell two types of tickets. One ticket would let you get up close and personal (ie. pit ticket) and the other ticket limited fans to the stadium’s general admission seating. As fans trapped in the stands soon realized, a baseball stadium is not build to be acoustically pleasing. It is built to bounce noise around (like screaming fans). Most of the sets that I watched from the stands down right sucked. The audio was bad and you could not see a thing from that vantage point. There were a few advantages to being trapped in the stands, however. You got a chair to sit down on, non Port-A-Potty restrooms, and close proximity to food. Unlike Voodoos past, there were no Creole cuisine booths set up near the stage. Red Beans and Rice were replaced with nachos and hot dogs.
Here we go!
Hey gang! I’m in Memphis getting ready for Voodoo ‘05. Only one hour until the gates open and I’m ready to get in there and see what Rehage has conjured up this year! Yesterday I hung out on Beale Street, which has the feel of the tame block of Bourbon Street. It only took about 30 minutes to see everything there was to see on Beale Street and I moved on to other attractions in the entertainment district of Memphis. I did manage to sneak halfway into Autozone Park last night and get a tiny preview. The stages are set up in the outfield and I did manage to see a Mardi Gras colored Voodoo banner draping the stage. Be sure to check out all of the pictures that I shot in Memphis yesterday. Click here to see them. Check back later today for the Audblogs!! Here we go!
I’ve broken down and done it…
Well I’ve succumbedto temptation and finally downloaded iTunes. If you must know, the first song that I bought was Toy Soldiers by Martika. I was listening to American Top 40 this morning and Ryan Seacrest (in an effort to be more like Rick Dees) gave some history behind Eminem’s new song Like Toy Soldiers. Seacrest said that Eminem had sampled Martika’s Toy Soldiers in the song and that was really the only part of the song that I liked. It’s a pretty nifty little song, give it a listen. I’ve credited$25 to my account and we’ll see where it takes me. I still have plans to buy an iPod as soon as they release an 80gb version. I currently have 65gb of mp3s which is more than any iPod currently on the market can hold.
Here’s to Voodoo!
T minus two days and counting! If you’ve been keeping up with me, you’ll know that I’m all set to attend the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans this weekend. I attended the festival last year for the first year as a credentialed member of the media. This year I will be back and give even more coverage than last year!
My coverage website is now online and can be accessed at http://www.brendanonline.com/voodoo/.
There have been some changes to the Voodoo 04 lineup and this is affecting my coverage for this year. That being said, here is the most accurate list of bands that I will cover this year:
Saturday
The Killers - interview, stage and candid photos
Green Day - interview, stage and candid photos
Beastie Boys - interview, stage and candid photos
*The Polyphonic Spree - stage photos
*Snow Patrol - stage photos
Pixies - stage photos
Sunday
*Supagroup - stage photos
Shinedown - stage photos
*Cowboy Mouth - stage photos
Alter Bridge - interview, stage and candid photos
BT - stage photos
Velvet Revolver - stage photos
Kid Rock - stage photos
At this time, I still haven’t gotten an interview schedule for the weekend and probably will not until I get on-site. This may affect my coverage as well. Artists that are starred indicate that this artist is subject to less coverage if there is a conflict.
I’ll be leaving for New Orleans Friday morning. Friday afternoon I will be touring the festival site and will post some pictures on my moblog of that. Friday night I’ll be at the VIP kickoff party (moblog pics). Then Saturday my coverage will begin at 11am CST. The stage is set, the details have been ironed out, and I’m ready to go! It may take me a week or so to go through the nearly 3GB of pictures I expect to take over the weekend so don’t expect a wrap-up until at least the 24th.
The stage is set!
With less than 2 weeks until the 6th Annual Voodoo Music Experience, I’m getting everything ready for another exciting year of Voodoo coverage. Even though this year’s festival has been shortened from 3 days down to 2, it is bigger than ever. There are 4 stages this year (1 more than last, including the Playstation tent). Due to this, I’m not able to cover EVER artist performing at this year’s Voodoo Music Experience. One thing you can count on is up-to-the-minute audblogging like last year. New this year is the moblog. I will be mobloging throughout both days of the festival. Give me about a week after I return to get the pictures online. I plan on taking at least 1000 pictures over 2 days so I will have a lot to sift through. And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for....these are the bands that I will cover this year. I will also go after these artists for interviews:
Saturday:
Dropping Daylight
Ambulance LTD
The Polyphonic Spree
Snow Patrol
The Killers
New Found Glory
Pixies
Beastie Boys
Green Day
Sunday:
Supagroup
Metric
Shinedown
Cowboy Mouth
BT
Alter Bridge
Velvet Revolver
Tommy Lee feat. DJ Aero
Kid Rock
See ya at the show!
