From the moment the festival was announced and the
initial headliners were revealed, Jams Plus Media knew
it was a must to cover this event. When moe.,
Umphrey’s McGee, Trey Anastasio Band, and
The Avett Brothers flashed on the screen, the eyes
opened, the smile widened, and the anticipation of
greatness was born. Being a media outlet rooted in the
rock/jam band scene, we were smitten with envy, but when
factoring in the broad range of music from all over the
country that we cover, we could seriously identify with
the Summer Camp vibe. With 75 more acts in the
bluegrass, electronic, funk, indie, and reggae fields to
be added, Summer Camp was securing its place atop
the leader board of interest in summer festivals.
3 Sisters Park lives thirty minutes north of
Peoria, IL along Hwy 29 and Peoria Lake (just a couple
of hours southwest of Chicago) in a small town known as
Chillicothe, IL. The park originated as a farm within
the Cohen family estate and now plays home to numerous
event gatherings like weddings, haunted Halloween
exhibits, farming workshops, and, of course, the music
festival reveling in its 13th year. The lay
of the land is quite conducive to a gathering of nearly
20,000 people providing ample room for seven open or
tent based stages and an octagonal barn with indoor
stage. Food vending gave way to some of the expected
and usual fried food offerings but also had many unique
and scrumptious selections, many driven by a healthy
lifestyle. Typical festival camping takes place in
several tent zones (check out the “Forest” for eye
candy), electric and primitive RV camping, a “Quiet”
camping zone for families and those of the non-raging
variety, a Camp Traction spot for the clean and sober
community, and a VIP section complete with their own
parking area, food vending, and lounge. Other than RV
camping, all other sites are reached by foot, leaving
the vehicles out in a massive parking lot. This
provides its own set of challenges when needing to get
an entire four days’ worth of camping and personal gear
to a tent site at the end of a 2 mile walk. Have no
fear, Festie Cab is here and for a small fee they were
happily running festival goers and their supplies to and
from the parking lots.
Before embracing the music of the weekend, it’s
important to acknowledge the community of Summer Camp.
The overall vibe experienced is one of earthly and
brotherly love, fun, and open mindedness. An
experienced staff of volunteers; cart runners
(volunteers who drive artists to and from stages); Green
Team keeping the trash and recyclable waste
appropriately placed; a ride share program via
www.Rootless.me; a rockin’ official app for smart
phones; camp counselors and their blogging fury;
generators powered by bio-diesel; a host of non-profits
serving the community including Let Buffalo Roam, Camp
Traction, Conscious Alliance, Head Count, the Happy Hour
Heroes (a group of clean and sober moe. fans offering a
hangout spot and meetings), One, Rock The Earth, and
many more; daily yoga sessions; and even a treasure hunt
help to make this 4 day weekend a complete package of
dance, thought, and experience. Every year, more ideas
and organizations show up to take part in the festival
and there’s good reason why.
Keeping in line with the broad range of tunes available
for your eyes and ears, Mother Nature was not to be left
out. She made out a stellar set list of rain, sun,
cold, warm, thunder, dust, and mud encoring with a
repeat of the first and last. By Sunday night, outdoor
shows at the main stages were being cancelled.
Apparently, allowing fans to stand in nearly 3ft of
water at the front of several stages is a liability
issue and maybe the passing lightning storm played a
part in that too, and maybe the 12” trenches of superb
Illinois mud making foot travel almost nonexistent had a
hand in it as well. If you were a vendor with ponchos
and rain boots, you left the festival a happy camper.
Many surrendered the idea of footwear and took to the
mud in bare feet. Popular overheard conversations
included the mentioning of “Dude, it’s Summer Camp.
It’s either hot and dusty or muddy with possible
evacuation. Get over it!” Other responses included,
“Every year, I tell myself I’m getting a hotel or RV
next year.” Tow trucks were eagerly available snatching
cars out of the washed out parking lanes at the rate of
$20 each. Again, Summer Camp has numerous ways of
positively impacting the local Chillicothe economy.
Moving onward, we approach the music portion of this
guided tour. Of course, moe. and Umphrey’s McGee
crafted legendary scores of play. We’ll get to them in
a minute. Let’s talk about acts that not everyone
knows. The Campfire Stage was blessed with greatness
all weekend but on the opening day of Thursday, a trio
of bands got the party started right. Cosby Sweater
(Indianapolis, IN) brought their electronics, saxophone,
and drums threesome to lay down some really fun hip
shaking. Joel Cummins of Umphrey’s joined in
with his board of keys to make a great show. Next up
was New York City’s foot stompin’ love affair with
Spirit Family Reunion. Call it “down home” or
“Appalachian” or whatever you want. Bottom Line: This
group of six throws down with banjos, fiddles,
washboards, a stand-up bass, and a snare drum. From
electronic to folkgrass, Summer Camp was letting us know
what kind of weekend it would be. And, just to mix
things up a bit, the gypsy funk folk and swing rock of
Caravan of Thieves would take the stage next. A
fiddle, guitar, stand up bass, and guitarist/beat maker
lead by a wife/husband combo came out and thoroughly
wow’d the crowd.
While this greatness was occurring, other stages were
simultaneously keeping the crowd happy with Family
Groove Company, Digital Tape Machine, and Roster
McCabe. Cornmeal also started the fest off
with a Thursday night primetime set that held a strong
crowd. With the news coming out that the fiddle player,
Allie Kral, would be leaving the band after the
festival, an emotional and supportive gathering of fans
showed up to witness as much as they could. The real
heat came later on Thursday night when Cornmeal held
their “Summer Camp Ramble”, a mash up of jams
with members of Floodwood (Bluegrass band started
by Al and Vinnie of moe.), and Caravan of Thieves.
The blend and fire of this fine combo of musical talent
was pure genius that led on into the late night
(Chillicothe law said the main stages had to be sound
free by 1am but the tent and Barn shows could rage as
late as they wanted). If this wasn’t enough to send you
back to camp for a night’s sleep, Ultraviolet Hippo,
Dopapod, Rev. Payton’s Big Damn Band, Future Rock,
and Quixotic all played real late night sets for
the troopers and warriors.
Friday morning was cold. Like 36 degrees cold. Coffee
was gold and sunshine was platinum. Finding both
labeled you a Master and if you also made it to the 10
am Yoga class, you were a king. Those who didn’t relied
on Chicago’s Old Shoe and Keller Williams
to get the body moving. By 2pm the sun was shining and
many a woman would be topless and sporting body paint.
Perhaps this was the perfect welcoming to moe. who would
be making the first of 3 scheduled appearances of the
weekend. Suddenly, you’re reminded of why you came to
Summer Camp in the first place. A short, seven song
set encoring with “Okay Alright” on Moonshine Stage was
like an appetizer but well received. Fusion jazz
masters, MMW (Medeski, Martin, and Wood);
bluegrass ragers, Yonder Mountain String Band;
eye catching electronic, Zoogma; and more
electronic flare from Papadosio all made
appearances on Friday, leading up to Umphrey’s McGee’s
first of several performances.
UM took the Sunshine Stage and embraced a large,
dense, smiling crowd of glow sticks, bright colors,
thick smoke, and the ever annoying “rage sticks”. The
jury’s out and it’s been decided: Ban Them from
Festivals. Yes, we understand that in the midst of
chemical induced mind travel, you thought it was a grand
idea to attach a plastic gorilla to a worn out umbrella,
adorn it with all things bright and flashy, accessorize
it with a Simpsons doll, and fix it atop a 12ft. pole
and march arrogantly through the crowd to the front like
you own the place but…it’s not cool. Enough about these
entertainment-blocking, feel sorry for the crowd behind
them atrocities, Umphrey’s was onstage and ready to kill
it. Being a Midwest festival, one should expect this
band to command large energy and feed off of it they
did. The crowd was given a “There’s No Crying in
Mexico” opener, a not-so-often played “Eat” (15 times
since 2010), and a second set “Puppet String” sandwich
that fostered a “Plunger” sandwich and “All in Time”
reprise within it. “Bright Lights Big City” featured a
certain Dominic Lalli on saxophone.
If Umphrey’s wasn’t your flare, the Moonshine stage was
hosting an EOTO performance followed by a set of
STS9. The Starshine stage welcomed the double
bass New Orleans seasoned Dumpstaphunk, lead by a
pair of Neville’s that know late night funk
better than most. All was level 10 and grooving till
that crazy Victor Wooten walked onstage, adding
yet another bass guitar on the platform, and the level
of ridiculousness escalated to the point of actually
melting or overheating an amplifier. When Ivan
Neville stepped out from behind the keys and grabbed
a guitar himself to join the other 4 stringed warriors,
a sense of experiencing something truly special was
present. The Vibe tent kept a steady supply of
electronica with the likes of Beat Machine, Team
Bayside High, Protohype, and Milk and Cookies
and the Campfire stage welcomed Allie Kral and
Friends followed by a real late (early??) Wood
Brothers set to feed those needing to take it a
little further. The extra cost Red Barn shows on late
Friday night included another stellar performance by
moe. and Yonder Mountain String Band.
Saturday seemed to start off a little slow but had an
odd placed Conspirator set at 2pm. By 8pm, one
could have jammed another Cornmeal offering,
hooked up with Karl Denson, had their mind
completely opened up by Thievery Corporation or
Mike Dillon, and had their face melted off by
The Werks. If one was lucky enough to make it over
to the Vibe tent, they got down with a beats producer by
the name of J-Mac spinning under Manic Focus.
Starting at 8pm, Umphrey’s and moe. would
each play one hour sets that were offset by each other
by one hour, theoretically allowing fans to run back and
forth to catch both bands’ full shows. This proved to
be better on paper than in reality as the jaunt through
the crowd was slow moving and a decent distance to
traverse. This lasted till 1am and then gave the fans
the choice of catching The Ragbirds > Floodwood
at the Campfire stage, or a slew of DJ’s performing 30
and 60 minute sets at the Vibe tent, a STS9 > Big
Gigantic, Griz, and Gramatik throw
down at the Red Barn (if you were lucky enough to get
in), or Here Comes The Sun Stereo, a Beatles
cover band, at the Soulshine Tent.
Sunday morning it was wet. Sunday noon it was wet.
And, Sunday evening it was wet. Granted, Summer Camp
would cover their road ways with either paved asphalt
(big upgrade) or mulch, helping to eliminate the dust
that can be quite atrocious. However, this is only
helpful when it’s dry and 100 degrees like previous
years. When it dumps 4”-6” of rain in a couple of days
and thousands of people and tractors and golf carts hit
the path, the roadways turned into a system of canals.
Umphrey’s, moe., Taj Mahal, Avett Brothers, Lettuce,
North Mississippi Allstars, Big Boi, Future Rock, a
great up and coming band out of New York called Tauk,
and a host of electronic outfits would all get their
sets in before a long awaited and highly anticipated
Trey Anastasio Band appearance would attempt to
unfold on the “Lack of Sunshine Stage”. Trey made it
through a whole first set with classic TAB selections
such as “First Tube”, “Cayman Review”, “Push On Till The
Day”, and “Pigtail”. Opening the second set was a rash
of lightning, high winds, and torrential down pour to
accompany “Mr. Completely”. This would be the end of
TAB at this year’s Summer Camp as rest of the show was
immediately cancelled, along with all other outdoor
stage events.
While moe. sat patiently backstage at the
Moonshine Stage, mingling so graciously with those
sporting a Level 3 all access VIP badge, the screeching
EDM specialists, Zed’s Dead, would haphazardly
bring their set to an early finish. Within an hour, the
“amphitheatre” stage would have three feet of water in
front of it, barely tapering off all the way back to the
soundboard. While we’re on the subject, points awarded
with hat tips for the members of moe. and their
great attitude and interaction with their fans while
their supposed-to-be-epic closing of Summer Camp set was
cancelled.
The Red Barn would carry on business as usual Sunday
night. A soon to be legendary performance known as the
Everyone Orchestra featuring Victor Wooten, Al
Schnier, Joel Cummins, Vinnie Amico, Allie Kral, Mike
Dillon, Roosevelt Collier, and conductor Matt
Butler would prove to be the cat’s meow of Sunday
evening. With relatively low attendance due to special
ticket status and the weather, look for some recordings
of this show to cause big hype when surfacing.
Thievery Corporation and Zed’s Dead would
also lay it down in the ‘Barn till the early hours of
Monday morning turning this shindig into a five day
event.
Honorable Mention goes out to the workshops held at The
Church, home of all press, media, and camp counselor
activity. During the festival, keyboard workshops with
Joel Cummins, Ivan Neville, and Joe Hettinga;
bass workshops with Reed Mathis and Victor Wooten;
and string workshops with Allie Kral, the Henhouse
Prowlers, and Floodwood all provided a very
intimate, realistic point of view of what it takes to
create music on the fly and to watch musicians interact
with old and new friends.
Recommending a visit to Summer Camp based on our
experience goes without mentioning. Bottom Line:
Jay Goldberg and family and their team of right hand
and left hand women and men do a superb job of providing
incredible entertainment in a comfortable atmosphere and
Jams Plus Media is grateful to have been a part of the
experience.
TONS MORE PHOTOS
HERE
Written
By: Roger Patteson
Photos By: Keith Griner ~ Phierce
Photography
Edited By: Rosemary A.W. Roberts
