Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 9 Report

Day 9 was the final day of the Riverbend Festival and might I say it was one of the better days at Riverbend. I got there late but got to see most of Gaelic Storm and they were awesome. Some of the best drinking songs I've ever heard and they were making using of the drinking part of 'drinking songs' for sure. The whole group was very talented and several members of the group played multiple instruments. For instance, the guy that played the crazy handheld Irish drum thing (help me out here, you know what I'm talking about, right?) also played the didjeridoo. I don't know how I know what a didjeridoo is but I can't think of the name of that Irish drum. Oh well. After Gaelic Storm and played their encore my group split up with everybody going to see Pat Benatar except for me. I went to go see PaPa Mali. Papa Mali was quite good but I didn't stay for long because I remembered that I left my cell phone in the car and there was no way for me to regain contact with them. Luckily I found them before they had picked out a final destination in the middle of a very crowded lawn. On my way to find them I passed the child talent search stage and at first I thought I heard somebody playing the radio. I heard songs by Ozzy and Metallica but suddenly realized that it was 2 kids off to the side of the talent show stage rockn out. These kids must not have been more then 12 and yet he was soloing on the guitar better than several of the artist I had seen previously at Riverbend. This was followed by a drum solo that was equally as good. I was impressed but had to find my company so I didn't stay long here either. Pat Benatar was alright. Nothing to get too excited about, unless you absolutely love the 80's, in which case it was a dream come true. ;) The fireworks this year were pretty decent. I think perhaps they were better last year and they were about on par with the fireworks they had for the grand opening of the pier.
In conclusion to Blogging Riverbend Festival I must say that I had a good time, even though I got behind a little there at the end. I would have to say the best act that I the 9 days was Gaelic Storm followed closely by Phat Phunktion. Both of which were on the UnumProvident Stage. I hope you enjoyed reading the reports about Riverbend. If I feel like it, I'll probably blog Riverbend again next year. But for now I'm back to the exciting life of a college student that occasionally has something exciting happen to him. :)
more pictures

Chattanooga Riverbend Fireworks 2
Originally uploaded by mdunmore.


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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 6, 7 & 8 Report

I didn't get a chance to make it to Riverbend on Day 6 due to the fact that my car was in the shop overnight. However, I did manage to catch a ride to see Batman Begins. I must say it was incredible. Anyway, my car is now fixed and running better than ever, as it should be for the price I paid.
Day 7 was somewhat disappointing with nobody noteworthy at all. They only moderately exciting thing that happen is my interview with the classy miss Rue.
Riverbend Day 8 was much better with the highlight being Colin Hay from Men at Work. He was surprisingly good. I especially liked his new stuff. He brought his somewhat English speaking wife along with him and she danced crazy like on the stage the whole time. Motor City Josh played before Colin Hay. I only caught they tail end of their act but it was quite good with a lot of variety. Afterward I when to go see the old folks of the Cumberland Trio. The Trio had about 8 members... so I guess that makes sense. Anyway they played some good folk music and even had somebody dress up in a very huggable lion suit and sit down front with the little ones. After that it was off to the bluegrass sounds of the Biscuit Burners. They were a young group with a female lead singer. I enjoyed listening to them, but it was not enough to keep me awake so I had to go before the end of the set. I took lots of picture. Go check them out.

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laughing with Peggy "anne roth" Rue

This was suppose to be an interview but mostly its just laughing.

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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 5 Report

Day 5 was Family/Faith based night at Riverbend. What does that mean exactly? It means the Rock 105 closed their booth, but lots of churches where giving out free stuff. It means that the daily pass is only $5 but the bands are mostly crappy. It means that there are lots of and lots of little kids, but free Little Debbies. Over all it wasn't too bad. The only show I wanted to see was Newsboys, and as usual they put on a great show. They definitely had the crowed involved more than any other group that has play as of yet. Not having any particularly good bands to listen to I was left to take pictures and talk to friends mostly. I took a lot of pictures and I hope you enjoy some of them. The days interview was of Super Dave. He was super nervous and almost backed out on me, but I managed to sucker him into talking with me.

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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 4 Report

Day 4 of the Riverbend Festival was the Bessie Smith Strut. Its hot, crowded and free. Oh yeah... and there's usually good blues music too. This year was decent. I think it was just the mood that I was in, or perhaps it was the fact that I had eaten every little, but all good music seemed to be lounge blues. Not really having a good place too lounge while listening to lounge music just makes me what to lounge all the more. This, of course, left me wanting food in a nice sit down restaurant. We first tried going to BW3's but after not getting any service at all, we swung over to TGIF, which I must say was quite delicious.
I did manage to hear some of the groups before I left though. The Black Diamond Heavies were very good. However, they don't have a bass guitarist, and since I play bass guitar, and happen to really like blues bass guitar I found there music missing... bass. The lead singer/guitarist of the Black Diamond Heavies is a large man and can be rather scary at times too. So that was a little creepy. The Rockin' Jake Band was not so much Rockin' as I thought they'd be. Disappointing really :( They sounded like zydeco, but they too were missing something. Tinsley Ellis, on the other hand, was very good, but after listening to him only a little while I ran into the lounge dilemma mentioned above and left to find refreshment. Over all, it was a hot day at Riverbend.
See more pictures

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Interview with SuperDave at Riverbend

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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 3 Report

Day 3 was not too exciting music wise. Most of the bands were either country or not good. But there are other things to do at Riverbend than listen to music like sign up to win all kinds of stuff and eat really over priced food, which is exactly what I did. I finally broke down and bought some tokens, cause I was craving a corn dog. I like me a good corn dog. This particular corn dog was not exactly fantastic but it did sustain me enough to continue on my journey from one end of the festival to the other.
I didn't get to play my day out completely because the riverbend website was down and it takes me a while to compile all those audio links. It turns out that there really wasn't anybody that I wanted to hear until Michael McDonald with the CSO. We set up our chairs early on the front row of the non-VIP section. We had pretty good seat, but the way they have things arranged I still felt like I was half a mile away from the stage. I guess that's why they have the projection screens every where. The CSO opened with some music from Phantom of the Opera (I love that music). Michael McDonald was pretty good. He had a female drummer that could sing and play the drums very well. She was awesome. Michael McDonald played several Motown songs along with some Doobie Brothers songs. I was getting a little tired tired from signing my name to so many entry forms to win stuff and figured I should go check out Coalition for Peace before I left. Coalition was decent even though I was tired. Its just too bad they were on the Budweiser stage. It has the worst sound quality of any of the stages at Riverbend. On the way back to the cars I interviewed my good friend Anne.
I almost forgot. They're is a nice group of photographers at riverbend called JoePix. They'll take your picture for free and then you can go to their website and send the picture to friends or do whatever you want to do with it. Its cool, free, and today is their last day at Riverbend so if you haven't have you picture taken yet, look for the guys in the purple hats.
More Pictures from the day
Tonight it the BESSIE SMITH Strut down on MLK. Its free and always has great blues music. Even if you don't have a pin come on down.
Recommendations:

• Black Diamond Heavies - 5:45-7:00 PM They return for another great show. MP3 play whole song, hi-fi (broadband)

• The Rockin' Jake Band - 7:15-8:30 PM They have a great sound Baby What You Want Me To Do

• OR Tinsley Ellis - 7:30-8:30 PM listen in flash

black diamond heavies and The Rockin' Jake Band are both playing at the Miller Plaza. That's where I'll be hanging out all night, so come join me. On a side note I would strongly recommend that you leave then its over. Its been known to be not a great place to be after its over, but don't worry about anything while its going on there are police every where.

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Pictures from day 2 uploaded

While you're waiting for me to post about day 2 you can go look at the days pictures. By the way if you want to join me at Riverbend you can always look for the guy wearing this hat. I'll be wearing it everyday.

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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 2 Report

I got called a "Mother F@#$%*!", but I had a fun time so it wasn't so bad. Right before BOYZ II MEN when on this larger lady in a black tank top starts yelling and cursing at this elderly couple because the rain had become much lighter and they still had their umbrella up. Their umbrella was apparently blocking her view of the stage that nobody was playing on at the moment. I, for some slightly offended and felt compelled to stick up for the elderly couple. So, I politely suggested to the anger woman that she could stand up if she couldn't see. Well, that set her off. She started calling me, and anybody with in shouting distance, ugly names. She was obviously not a happy person and would probably have complained if I had just handed her a 20 dollar bill. I know I should have but she made me laugh a little bit to myself. I really wanted her to come to this site and leave me a comment telling me how she felt. Perhaps I'll make some business cards to pass out to people.
Well on to the music. I met a friend to see Sean Smith shortly after she had been attacked by a drunk man's umbrella (umbrellas just cause problems, go buy a rain jacket). Sean Smith was alright, however not fantastic. After he finished, nobody that was worth seeing was playing so I decided to go get some ice cream. I'm trying to go as long as possible without buying tokens (Riverbend uses tokens instead of money to help cut down on theft) so we went outside the gates to Ben and Jerry's for some fabulous ice cream. After that we went mark our territory for BOYZ II MEN. After the above mentioned fiasco and the group had started we noticed that a lot of excited looking people were walking into the VIP section. We quickly discovered that they were letting people with out $5 passes into the VIP section so we got in line. Anne got in before me and I made it in shortly thereafter. Apparently they had plenty of extra seats so they were letting people in for free. I feel a little sorry for the people that were standing next to me because they had just wasted $5 on a ticket but was rather pleased to get such good seats. I am a guy so I can't say that BOYZ II MEN was 'good' but I can say they were quite the showmen and not feel emasculated. They even through roses into the fans... 50 feet below them. I didn't really know any of their songs but was rather impressed by the show. The last show of the night was Up with the Jones. They were insane. The lead singer was wearing a gown from Erlanger hospital and did a very good job of looking unstable. Needless to say the rockers managed to keep my attention despite me being very tired. I definitely need to park closer next time.
Recommended list:

• Jessica Lynn Thommason - 5:00-5:30 PM She's the only one playing at this time so you should go see her.
• Noaxident - 6:15-7:30 PM
• Roger Alan Wade - 8:00-9:15 PM
• Michael McDonald with the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera - 9:30-11:00 PM
• Coalition for Peace - 11:00-12:00 AM

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event Festival 2005 Blogging

Interview with Anne Roth at Riverbend

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Riverbend Festival 2005 Day 1 Report

So yesterday was a great first day of Riverbend and as I predicted, Phat Phunktion was great. To start the day off I was going to meet some friends to get some food and to get my pin. I got downtown a good while before anybody else did. So I took a trole with my camera. Took some pictures of the contruction of the new park next to Coolidge park from Market Street bridge. I thought since I didn't have a pin yet I'd go to the nearest enterance to Riverbend and pick up a program so I wouldn't have to remember which bands where playing where. The nearest gate happend to be the new one beside the new aquarium and the water flowing over the stairs. The gate was completely unmanned. I was rather dissapointed that they didn't have a program but I got to walk right in without a pin so I thought I'd go to another gate and see if they had programs at a gate that was possibly staffed. The Am South gate, and the main gate were staffed but no programs. :( I've been walking a round for about 20mins now, right next to the gate people that are suppose to be looking for pins, and nobody has said a word. I walk out yet another gate and go eat with my friends. After supper we all, with our pins, went back in the new gate that I went in and it was still not staffed. We didn't get there in time to see Rhonda Vincent, like I had hoped but we did catch the end of Saphire's first act after a brief and somewhat painful stop at Roy Harper (the yodling cowboy). The woman of Saphire were very talented and knew there stuff. They're the type of band that doesn't bring a playlist with them they just play what ever comes to mind and the moment. They were a bit racy but I suppose that's to be expected from woman that play the blues. Nevertheless, they were quite good and we stuck around to watch most their 2nd after Phat Phunktion. Phat Phunktion was a full of energy and played some great funk of thier own as well as some of the classics. I love big groups bands and they had 8 members that jammed well together. If you missed it, I told you so...
So here's the recomended list for tonight, along with requested audio clips when I could find them. (I'll organize these later but for now I just wanted to publish this for yall before it gets too late) hopefully this will help some, sorry I didn't get my schedule worked out just yet.

• Sean Smith: "skillful artistry and musical style, Chatanooga-based (and UTC alumni) Sean Smith has captivated the ears and minds"
• Mint Condition: R Listen
• Freekbass: Really funky bass guitarist mp3 sample
• Radio Daze Big Band: Big band of course, not too bad Boogie Boogie Bugle Boy 3.4 MB
• Jonell Mosser: ok female contemporty/country vocalist Listen
• Rob Russell & The Sore Losers: "American Roots music that encompassed bluegrass, country, blues, swing, and punk"The Score well this song isn't too bad but not sure about the rest of them. Go see Boyz II Men instead.
• Jennifer Daniels: "earthy folk rock"Listen (you've probably hear this song) a staple at Riverbend and always worth seeing.
• Lauren Ellis: "multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, especially known for her slide guitar playing" listen
• Garret Tucker: guitarist that tries to hard website listen if flash
• Up With The Joneses: "Chattanooga’s straight ahead, hard driving Rock n’ Roll local favorites" Always a good show.
• Brad Passons: good local acoustic singer/song writter listen
• Rodney Crowell: "leader of the new traditionalist movement of the mid-'80s, his ambitions extended far beyond the movement's parameters." Don't Get Me Started I have no idea what that means, but it sounds mostly like country too me.
• Capt. Soularcat:" With their roots deeply embedded in Blues and Rock & Roll, Rome, Georgia's Capt. Soularcat combines the old and the new to create an incredibly unique sound." listen in flash funny name but sounds pretty decent
• BOYZ II MEN: you should know how this is. Listen

Tags: Chattanooga Riverbend
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event Festival 2005 Blogging

Blogging Riverbend Festival 2005

I will be blogging Riverbend Festival 2005. This will be my first attempt to blog a large social event and I think it will be fun and informative. For those of you that don't know, Riverbend is an annual music festival in Chattanooga, TN that goes on for 9 days and has 1 main stage, 4 side stages, and a kids music contest stage (I won't really be paying attention to is stage at all). I plan on being there every day and taking plenty of pictures each day. It starts tonight and since I've been to Riverbend a couple of times now and know my way around I feel I can give a pretty good account of what happened. I've also done some research on the bands playing tonight and will give you my recommendations.

• 5:00-5:30 PM - Brady Hughes: is the only one playing at this time so you mine as well see him. I won't be there till later.

• 6:15-7:30 PM - Mindy Smith: Good guitar but slow country worth checking out.
• OR 6:30-7:45 PM - Peacemakers: 'Chattanooga'’s best veteran Rock n Rollers'. I couldn't find anything else out about them. They might be decent.

• 7:45-9:00 PM - Rhonda Vincent: really good bluegrass mostly really fast bluegrass
• OR 8:00-9:15 PM - Saffire: blues trio that's all woman with funny lyrics

• Instead of Kid Rock at 9:30-10:45 PM - Phat Phunktion: in your face new sounding funk. I'm really looking forwardrd to this group
• OR 9:30-12:00 AM - Jon Cleary: gripping, intimate guitar with drums
  

• If you happen to stay late Saffire is playing again at11:00-12:00 AM
• OR 11:00-12:00 AM - BLAZE: classic heavy metal band

So that's what I think will be good tonight. Tomorrowow I'll give you a full report on the evenings events and give you recommendations for that day. I'll also have lots of pictures so don't forget to check them out. :)
See you there.

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