Balkan Beat Box finishing up their set. Photo by Alexandria ConradOn Friday I attended McDowell Mountain Music Festival with fellow State Presser (Pressist?) Kylie Gumpert, and it was possibly the coolest thing I have ever covered in my time as a (wannabe) journalist.
This festival has been running for about 10 years, but has only been held at Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix for a few of those years. According to the MMMF website, the event was started “as an endeavor to bring real music back to Arizona while getting the community together for a greater cause.” The cause is Arizona’s children, who the festival supports by donating 100 percent of the proceeds to three youth-based local charities: Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Ear Candy Charity and UMOM.
Aside from this festival benefitting local charities and being widely volunteer based, it included some amazing performances.
On Friday I got to see Balkan Beat Box, Ladylike, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and The Shins. Here are the three highlights:
1. The voice of Tomer Yosef, lead singer of Balkan Beat Box. The band began playing, and I didn’t expect much since I hadn’t heard anything of theirs before, and at first, it wasn’t much. However, once Tomer picked up the microphone and began singing and beat boxing, I was blown away. Balkan Beat Box has a hip-hoppy reggae sound, and best of all, understandable lyrics. In most reggae or hip hop songs I usually struggle to understand over half of what the singers are saying, but Balkan Beat Box was the opposite. Being able to hear the words adds a level of enjoyment to listening since you aren’t concerned with trying to figure out what “mrrmhhhbrrrm blarrrmbad” actually means.
Balkan Beat Box livening up the stage with their sound and enthusiasm. Photo by Alexandria Conrad2. Muddy in the pedal-board box. Ladylike’s “band mascot” is the bassist’s dog, a Rottweiler I think, named Muddy. During their half hour set opening for Edward Sharpe, the lead singer paused between songs to let the audience know that Muddy, a rather large dog, was curled up inside the case to his pedal board, a rather small space. The band went on to playing their (amazing) music . . . (seriously check them out), with occasional glances back to see how Muddy was doing.
3. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ entire performance. This. Band. Is. Remarkable. But I’m sure you knew that already. When I got to the stage, lead singer Alex Ebert had climbed onto the speakers between the stage and the fans and was serenading every member of the audience individually. OK, maybe not, but if you ask the fans I’m sure that’s the story you would get. Ebert also did this a few more times throughout the set.
After a few songs, the band took a break and decided to take a press photo with the audience. This entailed each of the 10 band members jumping off the stage, climbing over the fence into the audience, then maneuvering their way a few rows back through the packed crowd. Ebert went first, and while everyone was waiting for, or eagerly jumping to assist, each band member to make it out, he sang “Lean On Me” with the audience. Then, once everyone was out, the crowd sat down for the photo op with Edward Sharpe.
During one of their last and most popular songs, “Home,” there is a pause in the middle in which the band usually tells stories. On Friday, Ebert and fellow lead singer Jade Castrinos told their stories, then Ebert asked the audience if they had any stories and proceeded to hand the microphone out to a fan who told the story of five friends who lived in Oklahoma and took a nine-day road trip over spring break to come see Edward Sharpe.
Alex, stop making everyone swoon. We get it, you’re awesome. Photo by Alexandria ConradThe story was very nice, and stuck with the theme. The next fan to grab the microphone followed the theme more loosely, but was still enthusiastic when talking about how loving this crowd was. However, the third fan to grab the microphone, after Alex specifically said not to hijack it, began his story by saying he wanted to talk about a very important issue. This kid then proceeded to try to talk about Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Yeah we get it, this is a hot-button issue in Arizona especially. I mean, I get asked every single day about the sheriff. Even standing in line to get into the festival I was asked to sign three different petitions concerning Arpaio, but I think there is a time and place to talk about this man. That place is literally ANYWHERE other than the audience at an Edward Sharpe, and that time is literally ANY TIME other than when the lead singer of a popular band hands the microphone out to the audience — with the specific instructions NOT to take it over — so fans can tell stories of peace, love and all things good . . . or whatever.
Sorry for getting so emotional. That part made me a little angry, in case you couldn’t tell.
Anyway, you may have noticed that my highlights didn’t include The Shins, and for all of you hardcore Shins fans out there, I’m sorry. Their performance, showmanship-wise, was underwhelming. I loved the music of course; they have such a unique and wonderful sound. But the show just didn’t live up to what I had expected after seeing the other main stage performances. Balkan Beat Box jumped all over the stage and was consistently lively throughout their performance, and Edward Sharpe was, well . . . see highlight number three.
So, let me emphasize that this is my opinion, and I don’t know if it was because The Shins had the incredibly hard task of following Edward Sharpe, but watching their set was rather boring. Don’t get me wrong though, their music sounded better than ever!
This festival is an annual event, so if you missed it this year, don’t worry. You’ve now got all year to plan for next year’s.
If you’d like to reach me with comments, concerns or suggestions, you can email me at anconrad13@gmail.com or tweet me @alliectersely
