We’re here at the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, LA that’s right boys and girls HMR has gone international, well maybe not international but out of Texas for a change of pace. I started day one off around 8am and made the 6 hour drive down to New Orleans and apparently there was a rain cloud that   had hitched itself to my bumper because it rained almost the entire trip here.  As I rolled in to town the weather started to clear a little so I made my way to City Park where the festival takes place to get press passes, afterward headed to the French Quarter checked in to my hotel and got my stuff together ready to go to Voodoo.

As soon as I parked my truck and started heading into the festival wouldn’t you know it that rain cloud that had followed me from Houston was back and this time it decided to unleash a drenching on us. By the time I made it in to Voodoo the grounds were a complete wash out. Most that were there were either desperately trying to stay somewhat dry. Or had just given in to the rain and walked around soaked and muddy.  So with the grounds being a mess and the rain still coming down I tried to check out what I could because there was supposedly more heavy rain to come later in the night and I didn’t want to get caught up in another storm.

First thing I noticed was the size of the festival, it takes over close to half of New Orleans City Park. I saw some of the art that had been set up all around the grounds which was very cool, some were small discreet displays like a hanging paper piñata and some were pretty immense that stood high above the crowd like the ladder display, it’s a metal ladder that stands suspended in mid air to what looked like well over 100ft in the air. Also managed to check out some of the art vendors booths, most seemed to be local and had some great looking stuff from drawings and painted works of art to wood carvings and sculpted metal work.

As far as the music from day 1 goes, I just got to see a little bit of a few acts as I walked from stage to stage catching the sounds of a few artists as they played their sets. I did see the last part of the Black keys set which sounded pretty sweet, hated that I missed a lot of their set. To close out the tonight’s show was to be Ween and also rap / hip hop artist Eminem, which I have never been a big fan of so decided to head out a little early since I hadn’t brought my camera out on this day with all the rain and the chance of more in the evening, so I decided to get some rest and be ready to hit Voodoo full on for tomorrows show. Sorry day 1 wasn’t a full day of coverage but I promise to make it up to you boys and girls with the rest of a weekend full of killer music reviews and photos.

Day 2: Saturday, Oct. 31st – Halloween

When you wake up in New Orleans on Halloween and began to get ready for your day, before you hit the streets you have to prepare your mind and just tell yourself “I’m going to see some wild shit tonight”.  Wild was probably an understatement as I got to the Voodoo grounds in the early afternoon as soon as I got the there you could see tons of fans all dressed up in costumes of all sorts, from the disturbing scary ones to the ones that barely covered much. There was also plenty of KISS faces running around I probably saw 50 Gene Simmons running around. But one group amongst all stood out the most and had the biggest following and that was the zombies.

Ah yes the ever so fun and popular zombies were everywhere at Voodoo, trying to break the Guinness world record for the largest gathering of zombies. Never did hear if they broke it or at least got close to breaking it, but never the less I wished our undead friends well and good luck. Now let’s get back to what Voodoo is all the about the music. I started my day off with a little bit of a band called Rotary Downs, they had a good sound to them from what I got to see and hear of them. Next up on my list and one of the reasons I came to Voodoo was Down, that’s right New Orleans own Phil Anselmo and the boys brought it hard and heavy to the home town fans.

Down unleashed their set with the song “Eyes of the South” with its slow opening musical build up that explodes in to the furious vocals of “God Damm” from Anselmo. The bingo parlor tent could barely contain the fans as I shot my photos we were supposed to do three songs, but by the middle of the second song “N.O.D” we were told to head out because security was worried the barricades weren’t going to hold the fans back. After I made my way out from stage front I watched a few more songs of Down’s set from outside the tent which was packed by that time and then made my way over to the Voodoo main stage to try to catch a little of Wolfmother.

By the time I made it to the main stage, Andrew Stockdale and Wolfmother were already rocking a packed crowd. I took a few shots from out in the crowd and watched as they did some songs off of their new album Cosmic Egg,that sounded awesome. Along with kicking out their hits “Woman”, “Colossal” a song which I F’n love it just has an awesome riff throughout it and the organ gives off some killer effects, and to close their set out was the sweet “Joker and the Thief”. I had been interested in seeing if anything would change with Wolfmother with the bands recent lineup change, but the guys pulled out a great set that had the same remarkable sounds that grabbed my ear when I had first heard of them.

Now a trip back to high school, well sort of. As I got ready to shoot photos of Jane’s Addiction a few of us Photographers got to talking and most of us had the same story. We all had been fans of Jane’s Addiction since high school days, and for a few of us this would be our first time to see them live. Not knowing what to expect I waited with anticipation as I saw Steven Perkins climb up on the drums with Dave Navarro and Eric Avery coming out with their guitars and just started jamming a little number called “Up the Beach”, Until Parry Farrell comes out in some type of very shiny, lacey and glittery costume and then very familiar opening bass line of “Mountain Song” could be heard and the crowd ate it up, masses of voices could be heard yelling the opening vocals “Coming down the mountain”.

Jane’s set was great, it really made me wised I had seen them back in the 90’s before all the break ups and in-fighting between band members. For the most part everyone seemed to be cool on stage, Farrell and Navarro stayed pretty close to one another during the set, with Navarro Leaning on Farrell during some guitar solos. Couldn’t tell if was just because of the stage set or maybe a personal thing but bassist Eric Avery seemed to keep off to himself during most of the set, Walking back and forth on the platform in front of the stage.  As I said before It did feel as if I had stepped back in to high school listening to the set that included “Stop”, “Been Caught Stealing”, “Whores” and was closed with “Jane Says”. During “Jane Says” the stage was filled with costumed fans who danced along with Jane’s Addiction and gave the show a great ending.

And now… you wanted the best, you got the best…
Sorry had to use the KISS line, seem like a lot of bands were using it over the course of the day. But yes to close out Halloween night at Voodoo was KISS. Going in to tonight I kind of had somewhat of an idea of what to expect from KISS, You know that there will be fire, blood and of course explosions. Still with knowing all that it’s a whole different story watching it all live. Yes this would be my first time to see KISS live, after watching them on TV for so many different shows I would get to see the god of thunder Gene Simmons in all his might and glory. Before the set started the stage was covered by a huge KISS Curtin and as the lights in City Park went down. The curtain fell and fireworks shot up from the top of the stage in to the dark night giving a red glow over the crowd.

The set was started with one of their newer songs I had never heard before called “Deuce”, but was quickly turned to fan favorites such as “Strutter”, “Hotter Than Hell”, “Dr Love” and “Rock and Roll all Nite”. During the set the expected sights of people flying and fire blowing up the stage even while expected was still pretty cool to watch.  The night was ended with Paul Stanley flying over the crowd to the center lighting platform to perform “Love Gun” and closed with nothing less but “Detroit Rock City” with was ended in a hail of fireworks. Now I’ve never been much of a KISS fan but I will give it to them I was entertained for the night and in a day and age where you don’t see bands who still have showmanship like that anymore, It’s pretty awesome when you do see it.

Day 3: Sunday, Nov. 1st

On this final day of Voodoo I arrived to the park around 1pm and walked straight to the main stage to catch Brand New. A band I had never even heard before until a little over two years ago, when I wanted to go see the band Thrice, they were opening for this band called Brand New. With no one to go with me I called my younger Brother and asked if he wanted to go, he was stoked to see Brand New, so we go and check them out and I end up liking a few cuts from their set. Now back to today I had recently just listen to a few tracks off of Brand New’s latest album ‘Daisy’ so this time around I was the one who was stoked to see them.

By the time I got to the stage they had already begun playing but I still caught a lot of their set and really dug hearing the new songs being played live. Some of their newer songs have a more melodic tone to them that’s both somber and eerie at the same time like the tracks “Daisy” and “You Stole”. Set also featured songs from pervious works such as “Jesus Christ” and “Quiet Things that No One Ever”  and was ended with yet another new one called “At the Bottom” a song that I have really taking a liking too, as well as liking most of the new album.

Next up was The Pogues, I’ll admit I had no idea who these guys were. I just thought let me go take a few shots of this band fixing to play. The guys come out and most are dressed in suits and I start to wonder what type of music these guys play. Out comes front man Shane MacGowan, and in some slurred speaking to the crowd all I hear is something about New Orleans and “Streets of Whiskey” so the guys start playing and its overwhelming in trying to describe The Pogues sound. To me it’s a mix of Irish Gaelic folk rock with a nice helping of UK punk, No matter what you call it or how you describe it… I liked it.

I watched for a while never fully being able to understand the words being sung, but really enjoying the music. The Pogues just seemed like some real old school cats that have been around and seen a lot in their days and would be awesome to sit back with and have a few drinks with and just listen to all of their stories. Since the festival a friend has turned me on to a few great Pogues songs in which I can school myself in, that way the next time I get to see the guys I might understand what the hell their saying.

After The Pogues I rolled over to the SoCo stage to catch a little bit of Shooter Jennings. I don’t listen to a lot of country or southern rock, but I have to admit Shooter is one I have always enjoying hearing. I saw him a few years back at a small club in Houston and enjoyed his style of rock. In the mist of all his Jamming out, Shooter sat behind a small piano and belted out this soft number called “This Could All Be Yours”  that I found to be a change of pace for him from his usual style but after listening to the song and its lyrics, I found myself really into it.

I made my way across the grounds to the Bingo Parlor tent where a burlesque group called Flor De Tease was performing. As I walked in a woman was onstage in little more than a G-string and some pasties to cover her nipples, along with two huge feathers that she danced with working them around her body giving the crowds little peaks here and there. The next girl came out and by this time I wasn’t really impressed by the act…until she takes out these metal skewer looking things and dips them in oil and next thing you know, fire.

Let it be known boys and girls, fire makes everything better. So at this point I actually took out my camera and got a few photos as she swirled and spun the flames around her body. Also during the Flor De Tease show, some of the members of the New Orleans Bingo Show would come out and do little comedy skits that were pretty funny. I wished I had gotten to see more of the Bingo Show, they seemed like they would put on a great performance.

About the time I was leaving the bingo tent, Widespread Panic began playing on the main stage and while I could hear them play I never really went to check them out. I’ve just never been big on the whole Grateful Dead style of hippie rock. About the only thing I do remember about the Widespread Panic set was it seems like they were playing forever. I went off got some grub and a drink, went and checked out a few more things around the vendors booths for about an hour and came back and they were still playing.

As the sun started to set on City Park it was time to see the Flaming Lips, This would be my first time to see the Lips live. I have listened to their music off and on again for many years but for some reason just never have made it out to see them live, It was a wait well worth it. The set starts off with a animated video of a naked woman who lays and her back and spreads her legs open to give birth to the band. As the camera gets closer and closer her womb starts to pulsate and you can feel the bass from the speakers.

Then in a flash of light and sound one by one the band members are born and take their places on stage. Then Wayne Coyne could be seen on stage in a huge hamster ball, as it was filled with air and grew larger and larger the crowds roar was deafening. With the hamster ball filled Coyne began stepping closer and closer to the crowd until he finally rolled on top of them and crawled around for a few minutes before returning to stage, where once out of the ball he led the Flaming Lips into the song “Race for the Prize”.

As soon as the song started it seemed as if it was a blitz of things happening on stage. Air cannons blew out huge amounts of confetti,  people in costumes came running out on stage and a flood of balloons was poured out in to the crowd, it felt like being at a birthday party that was being held at a rock show. As all of this was going on it was hard to keep focused on one thing for very long so I’m listening to the music watching the fans hit the balloons and I turn around to look back at the stage and there standing next to Wayne Coyne is a completely naked women.

Yep that’s right boys and girls full on nudity at Voodoo, Coyne seemed amused by it as he smiled and gave the women a hug and she was walked off stage. The Lips set touched on most fan favorites like “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, “Do You Realize” and the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song”. I can honestly say that The Flaming Lips probably had one of the best sets of Voodoo and was for sure, the band that I had the most fun photographing over the weekend. By the time the third song was played most of us in the Photo pit were playing with the balloons bouncing them back and forth with the fans.

And now to close out not just the night but Voodoo 2009 was none other Lenny Kravitz. I’ve been a Lenny fan for years and have always kind of taken him as a sort of Jimi Hendrix for my generation. I know what most will say, he’s no Jimi, cause lets face Jimi is a god in the world of rock and roll. But what I mean is Lenny brings that same sense of style to his music, a sweet mix of rock, funk, soul and blues that create a sound like no other.

As his band came out and began to play Lenny comes strolling out to massive cheers and he began singing “Freedom Train”. It didn’t take long for him to pick up a guitar a cut a few riffs before going in to the classics “It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over” and “Mr. Cab Driver”. Lenny touched on songs that spanned his musical career that included “Believe”, “Mama Said” and “Fly Away”. Watching him play with a full band and horn section just really gave off a complete sound to his songs and made hearing them live sound amazing.

Well that’s about it for HMR’s Voodoo review boys and girls, besides the rain on Friday it was a great festival and one I hope we get to cover for 2010. If you have the means, I would seriously recommend making the six hour drive from Houston to New Orleans for next year’s Voodoo Music Experience for a  weekend of great local foods, amazing  art and as always music.