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Fire Lake Festival Review

 I first heard about the Fire Lake Fest from a friend who happens to be a huge Devo fan. He told me that Devo was playing a festival in the Gaffney, South Carolina area in August of 2005. I am somewhat familiar with this area. We once rode down there when we were teens to see this huge water tower that is in the shape of a peach. A few guys at school told us about this strange looking tower. They said that the tower looks like a huge ass. So after school a few of us got smoked up and went to visit this tower. They were correct; this tower looks very much like a massive ass in the sky. So here we are, a bunch of stoned kids standing in front of this tower laughing our butts off like Beavis and Butthead.

When my friend told me about the fest, I think my reply was,” What are they going to call it, Big Ass Fest?” After doing a little research on the show, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there would be 4 stages, 4 days, over 40 bands on 375+ acres. They also had camping, many vendors and even a small convenience store on the compound.

Being intrigued, I looked into the background of the venue. In 1954 the Caggiana family purchased Sunny Slopes Farms in Cherokee County, SC. Due to the growth of commercial farming, in cent years the family’s peach operations have been substantially reduced, and only small groves remain. This is where the vision of Fire Lake began. Fire Lake was wanting to restore the vitality of this beautiful property allowing others to come and delight in the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the beautiful peach orchards, and of course, it’s glistening lake.

After discovering this information, I contacted the promoters to obtain a few media passes. I work with a small group of friends in a production company entitled AntiStar Productions. We make short films, documentaries, music videos and other forms of media. Most of us are musicians so our work usually gravitates toward music-oriented projects. I was hoping to do a “rockumentary” on the festival. The good people at Fire Lake agreed and provided us with a few media passes. I was so eager to make the project; I failed to ask the other guys on the crew if they were available. To my dismay, a few of the key guys had other project commitments along with most of the equipment. This meant that we couldn’t make the “rockumentary” as I had so desired. But that didn’t stop us from attending the show and getting some footage with what little equipment we had here.

First we had to pick up our media passes at a hotel near the show. As we walked into the hotel the first person we bumped into was Jeremy Popoff from the band “Lit”. Trying not to act like a teenybopper, I just nodded my head as I walked past him. One thing my older brother taught me was to never act as though you were excited to meet a celebrity. That’s something I had to learn the hard way.

 In 1997 my brother managed to get me backstage at a Foo Fighters show. I had no credentials to be backstage as my brother did since his band had been playing on another stage. He told me to be cool and to act like I belonged there. But what did I do? As soon I as saw Dave Grohl (Lead man for the Foo Fighters and drummer for the legendary band Nirvana), I ran over to him and took his picture. I then began uttering cheesy statements to him like, “You rock, I freaking love you, man.” All the time I was contagiously shaking his hand. Dave looked at me and smiled, trying to remove his hand from my kung-fu like grip. He didn’t seem to be too annoyed. He was actually really cool with it. As soon as Dave walked away, security was asking me for my pass. Damnit, I was right there. If I would have kept my cool I could have hung out on the side stage to watch the entire show. But instead I was exiled to the massive crowd.

Arriving at the show, we walked though the gates to see an awesome sight. We were standing atop a large hill looking across this immense sea of grassy hills. Stages were spread out across the terrain and a small lake with a fountain was centrally located. As a veteran of hundreds of shows, I’d have to say that this was the most impressive venue that I have ever seen. Most venues are confined to a much smaller area but this place was immense. We first headed for the beer garden to quench our thirst from the long walk in the 90-degree heat. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the prices for refreshments were about half the price of most arena and pavilion shows. Price gouging has become a major problem for attendees of concerts, so seeing reasonably priced refreshments was a nice surprise.          

 We then walked down to check out “Green Lemon” playing on the nearest stage. The band was jamming out as a few bikini clad girls danced in front on the stage. We listened to their tunes for a while, and then decided to go to the other stage to see the band “Bockman”. The shortest distance to the other stage was through the backstage area. They had golf carts to shuttle media and others from stage to stage. So we hopped on a stretch limo style golf cart, along with some other guys, and proceeded toward the other stage. We were wearing a few 1988 Devo press passes that I had copied off of the Internet as a gag around our necks along with our valid passes. We weren’t trying to gain illegal access to anything. After all, we had valid passes. About halfway through our short journey, one of the guys sitting in front of us turned around and introduced himself. He was with one of the bands that had played before we got there. As I was looking down at my bogus Devo pass, the guy asked me who we were with. As a joke, I blurted out Devo, thinking he would laugh and ask, “No, really.” After all, we were toddlers when Devo released their first album. But this dude actually believed me. I just laughed when he said that he was a big fan and was looking forward to seeing us play. Thank God we were pulling up at the stage about that time.

The band Bockman had already began their set and were in full swing as we arrived. I was quite impressed with Bockman. They had a really unusual sound. Near the end of their set they did a noise/feedback thing which I thoroughly enjoyed since I’m a big Sonic Youth fan. After the set was over we started to stroll over toward the stage. As I looked around I noticed a lot of people staring at us. I thought, man this is strange, was my penis hanging out or something? Then a few people walked over to us. One guy asked, “Are you Devo?” We just smiled and denied it. As we walked away I heard him say, “No man, you are Devo.”  We had the same response after we went backstage to meet Bockman. I just played it off while my brother embraced it. He’s pretty much of a joker. I told Sean of Bockman the truth about our little facade and he found it quit amusing. I had about enough of all this attention, after all we are supposed to be “anti-stars”. We headed back to the other stage. Lit was up next.

As we pulled up to the rear of the stage, A.Jay and Jeremy Popoff from the band Lit where just hanging out waiting to go on. We talked with the guys about general topics along with the whole Devo charade and had a few beers that Jeremy was so kind to share with us. I noticed that  A.Jay and Jeremy Popoff seemed a little glum, but were still very hospitable. I attributed it to the grueling life of touring. I found out later that A.Jay and Jeremy’s parents were involved in a tragic motorcycle accident last month in which their stepfather was killed and mother critically injured. I wish would have known this because my family has also gone though a similar tragedy.

As far as their show, they were electric and a great crowd pleaser. I was very impressed by the band’s energy and presence. Jeremy was leaping around like a madman all the time never missing a lick on the guitar. A.Jay’s vocals sounded great. In-between songs he would take a sip from his Jagermeister bottle that he kept on the front of the drum riser.

During the show two girls managed to get onstage. I have no idea how they got up there. One minute, they were out in the crowd against the barrier and the next thing I knew they were dancing around the stage like drunken butterflies. After about five minutes of the girls running amuck on the stage, the stage manager pulled them off to the side stage. It didn’t take long for them to run back on the stage again and this time the stage manager wasn’t as kind as he was the first time. He ordered security to expel them from the backstage area. In the meantime, Lit had just ended one of their songs. Jeremy noticed what was going on and told the security guard that they could stay. The girls stayed on the side stage during the remaining show dancing their asses off.

Devo was up next, one of my childhood favorites. Just saying the name reminds me of skateboards and skinned knees. Devo was one of those quirky bands kind of like the B52s. This wasn’t the kind of music I normally listened to, but it had this strange quality that I found exciting. We were standing side stage along with the guys from Lit and a few other bands. You could just feel the excitement in the air as Devo entered the stage. They were wearing their trademark yellow jumpsuits and the red “power dome” hats. It looked so surreal to see them. Like a 20-year time warp into the past. The humid night air was filled with such songs as, Blockhead, Jocko Homo, Mongoloid, Whip It, Gut Feeling/Slap your Momma, Uncontrollable Urge, Freedom of Choice and many more. I wonder what the nearby residents were thinking as Devo shouted out the words “Are we not men?” to the crowds response,” We are Devo!” I could picture a befuddled elderly couple staring out into the dark summer night as the words echoed across this small farming community.

Near the end of their set, Devo ripped off their yellow jumpsuits to reveal black t-shirts and black shorts with the words “DEVO 2005” plastered across their rears. I never got a chance to meet the band but I was thoroughly pleased with their performance, as I’m sure the crowd was too. I’m sure that everyone got his or her money’s worth.

 I managed to retrieve one of Devo’s yellow jumpsuits off of the now vacant stage. I thought about sporting the jumpsuit as we left but I was entirely too exhausted to go through the misidentification process again.

 Photos from the show. 

Shady Blades

I can still vividly remember the moist grassy blades underneath my bare feet as I ran across the freshly mowed lawn. “Tag! You’re it,” one small child shouted as he tapped another child on the shoulder. Playing tag on warm summer nights is a fond memory from my childhood. I had a very happy childhood and was quite well adjusted.

As I grew older I began to notice how I had differences from the other children. It was nothing dramatic, just small things.  I was never as competitive as the other children seemed to be. I remember being forced to play softball in P.E. class. I couldn’t have cared less about the game. I’d usually sit down on the groomed field to investigate the small blades of grass. The blades had ridges that ran vertically from root to severed end. My fingertips also had ridges on them. This made me think…does grass have feelings?

            I could envision long blades of grass blowing in the wind, their anxiety swelling as the mover’s blades neared them. They were about to be conformed just as newly enlisted soldiers with shaven heads.  I’ve always had a problem with authority and society’s standards of compliance, so I could empathize.

A ball whizzes past my head interrupting my observations. The kids are all screaming for me to chase after the ball. Annoyingly I obey their pleas and retrieve it.

Another difference from my peers was my love of music. Music has always been a central part of my life. I could never understand why other children were not as interested in music as I was. I would spend countless hours listening to my mom’s classical albums. Lying on my bed I would let my imagination run wild while listening to Mozart, Beethoven and Gerswin. As I listened to the music, I would dream of aliens coming to take me back home to a planet at the far edge of the universe. They had come back for me, as I was one of them left behind on this planet by accident. It wasn’t that I failed to receive love from my family and friends. It was that my family and many of my friends were all extroverts. I, on the other hand, was the wallflower type, which made me feel like I didn’t fit in.

As time passed, I still had these same feelings about being disconnected with others. I learned to obey society’s standards and act as a “normal” teen. I treated life as a play and I was just a mere actor. This was all about to change when I discovered a new form of music and philosophy called alternative music. This style of music was the alternative to the mainstream as the name suggests. The genre of alternative has dramatically changed in the past decade. It originally had its roots in college radio and could only be found on independent labels. Today, the term, “alternative” has become an oxy-moron for which it is the mainstream. It’s homogenized form and can be heard on conventional radio and television.

To me, alternative music was all about not conforming to society’s rules and expectations. I found it very empowering not to be just another sheep following the same old path. This was a very profound period of my life. I still had the same friends and continued to keep up the façade of being a “normal” teen by partying and dating. After school I would leave the “normal” world and barricade myself in my bedroom spending this short period of time listening to my music and getting high. Being inspired by this new music genre; I would draw sketches, play my guitar and ponder the reason of life and then revert back to the real world as prompted by my parent’s arrival home.  I jokingly refer to this as my teenage renaissance period.

In the early 90’s, a traveling alternative music festival entitled “Lollapalooza” was coming to Raleigh.  My favorite band of this period was headlining the tour along with many more desirable acts. Webster defines “Lollapalooza” as, “an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.” Attending this show turned out to be far more extraordinary than Webster had defined. It was almost a religious experience for me. I felt that my alien family in which I had dreamed of as a child was having a family reunion. Thousands of people sharing similar views all brought together by the power of music. I could now relate to the hippies, that I once made fun of, about their Woodstock experience. At the time, it felt like the entire world was changing.

The world was changing and fantastic developments were happening. The Berlin Wall had fallen, Clinton was elected with promises of change, and the underground alternative movement was becoming a reality. No longer would I have to settle for a sterile life ruled by old conservative leadership, brain-dead jocks, and good old boy rednecks.  The meek have inherited the earth.

Toward the end of the show, I was standing atop a grassy hill with my bare toes entwined in the short grass blades as the charismatic singer’s vocals permeated the humid summer air. At that moment I had an epiphany. I realized that unlike the grass on which I stood, I would never be conformed.

I can still hear the echo of the band’s music…

Fell into a sea of grass
And disappeared among
The shady blades...
Children all
Ran over me
Screaming tag!
You are the one

Ransacking the Years  (The Train to Soul Hung Low)

by Tommy Byers

Ransacking the years,

lost memories slay the smiles.

Fractured photo album

that longs to kill the miles.

Time sinks in quicksand,

one leaf clover’s out of luck.

Force-fed one last bowl of frowns

on a dead, dry nipple you suck.

Ransacking the years,

searching for a pot of gold.

Somewhere the rainbows turned to lies,

pretty pictures crack and mold.

Down to the end of Lost Street,

she plays a fiddle with broken strings.

A blackbird falls to an early death,

‘cause he was born without wings.

Ransacking the years,

timeless beauty fading fast.

No second chances in a world

where nothing’s built to last.

The clock in the kitchen is an hour fast,

your watch an hour slow.

Midnight train departs right on time.

Destination: Seoul, Hung Lo (Soul Hung Low)

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Last modified: October 24, 2007