A friend from New Orleans recently explained his take on this great American city:
“In this place there is no room for mediocrity. It’s either heartbreaking and terrible or beautiful and full of life. The rest of America lives in that squishy, grey-ish, bland “middle” – yeah, it’s safe, yeah, it’s comfortable - not too bad but also not too great. Here in New Orleans we have the highest highs and the lowest lows but it makes for a very big life.”
From the Lower 9th Ward - New Orleans, LA
The VooDoo Experience, and trust me, is an experience. Imagine Austin City Limits Music Festival or Lollapolooza, combined with Mardi Gras and Halloween, all smashed together in a City Park that sat 12 feet under water few years ago. Having a major city situated below sea level presents a strange sense of tragic equality and social freedom. New Orleans is far, far, FAR from a social Utopia but as one local told me: “It doesn't matter who you are, rich or poor, black or white - Everyone here is six feet under.” What’s more fitting on all Hallow's Eve, the Day of the Dead?
The author stalking/meeting the Black Keys
This is a music festival, after all. So here’s what I am really excited to see: The Black Keys. I know that there are 99 other bands playing, and all of them are great, but this is my favorite band. Listen to the size of their sound, stand in awe, then wrap your head around the fact that this is a blues DUO. Two goofy white guys are making more sound that we thought possible with just a guitar and drums. They also go out of their way to honor their elders, paying tribute to blues greats like Junior Kimbrough and Muddy Waters.
I’m a sucker for the foundations of American music: blues (a.k.a. “race music”), bluegrass (a.k.a. “Hillbilly music”). Travel down the Mississippi from Chicago through Tennessee and you will find that these two indigenous music forms all spill into the Louisiana delta. The Black Keys don’t necessarily do bluegrass but they do play the blues with a unique aggressiveness that stems from a punk-like intensity. It is this speed and reckless abandon that comes from the backwoods of moonshine-fueled bluegrass. For this occasion, New Orleans is THE place to experience this music.
The Bingo! Parlor - creepy clown included with ticket purchase
2009 Headliners include Eminem, KISS and Lenny Kravitz
I love New Orleans. Period. I love the people, the place, the culture, the history, the triumph and the tragedy. About a year after the “storm”*I traveled to NOLA with a band on tour. I went for the gig, just to sell merch, but left profoundly changed, forever connected to this wonderfully-terrible place. Now I return whenever possible. Thank God I get the great opportunity to attend VooDoo for the last two years. This next weekend will certainly be another great chapter in a long love story.
* I’ve noticed that NOLA locals typically only mention the name “Katrina” when they are talking to tourists and visitors as if they don’t want to dignify it by saying its name, otherwise people say the “storm” or the “event”.
Jon is one of the co-founders of the South Side Sanctuary and was raised to throw parties for any and all occasions as a cultural mandate. If visiting New Orleans he recommends visiting the lower 9th ward (seriously), seeing music on Frenchman Street, staying away from the French Quarter and eating at Lola's on Esplanade.
Everyone is Six feet under – The VooDoo Experience
A friend from New Orleans recently explained his take on this great American city:
From the Lower 9th Ward - New Orleans, LA
The VooDoo Experience, and trust me, is an experience. Imagine Austin City Limits Music Festival or Lollapolooza, combined with Mardi Gras and Halloween, all smashed together in a City Park that sat 12 feet under water few years ago. Having a major city situated below sea level presents a strange sense of tragic equality and social freedom. New Orleans is far, far, FAR from a social Utopia but as one local told me: “It doesn't matter who you are, rich or poor, black or white - Everyone here is six feet under.” What’s more fitting on all Hallow's Eve, the Day of the Dead?
The author stalking/meeting the Black Keys
This is a music festival, after all. So here’s what I am really excited to see: The Black Keys. I know that there are 99 other bands playing, and all of them are great, but this is my favorite band. Listen to the size of their sound, stand in awe, then wrap your head around the fact that this is a blues DUO. Two goofy white guys are making more sound that we thought possible with just a guitar and drums. They also go out of their way to honor their elders, paying tribute to blues greats like Junior Kimbrough and Muddy Waters.
I’m a sucker for the foundations of American music: blues (a.k.a. “race music”), bluegrass (a.k.a. “Hillbilly music”). Travel down the Mississippi from Chicago through Tennessee and you will find that these two indigenous music forms all spill into the Louisiana delta. The Black Keys don’t necessarily do bluegrass but they do play the blues with a unique aggressiveness that stems from a punk-like intensity. It is this speed and reckless abandon that comes from the backwoods of moonshine-fueled bluegrass. For this occasion, New Orleans is THE place to experience this music.
The Bingo! Parlor - creepy clown included with ticket purchase
My other recommendation is to park your ass in the Bingo! Parlor tent every day and enjoy the show. Not just any large, white event canopy – the Bingo! Parlor is an actual big-top circus tent, walled in and all lit up. Day or night, the Bingo! Parlor feels like a really cool New Orleans Club. I am looking forward to Why Are We Building Such A Big Ship?, Rotary Downs, Zydepunks, Quintron & Miss Pussycat and Katey Red – Big Freedia – Sissy Nobby w/ DJ Papa.
2009 Headliners include Eminem, KISS and Lenny Kravitz
I love New Orleans. Period. I love the people, the place, the culture, the history, the triumph and the tragedy. About a year after the “storm”* I traveled to NOLA with a band on tour. I went for the gig, just to sell merch, but left profoundly changed, forever connected to this wonderfully-terrible place. Now I return whenever possible. Thank God I get the great opportunity to attend VooDoo for the last two years. This next weekend will certainly be another great chapter in a long love story.
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Jon is one of the co-founders of the South Side Sanctuary and was raised to throw parties for any and all occasions as a cultural mandate. If visiting New Orleans he recommends visiting the lower 9th ward (seriously), seeing music on Frenchman Street, staying away from the French Quarter and eating at Lola's on Esplanade.