With a rumors starting to spread around the festival that there was a cold front with a serious line of thunderstorms ahead of it, some festival goers were becoming more concerned about whether or not the sky would open up during the Beastie Boys.  The anticipation grew stronger and stronger as the wind became eerily calm and Mix Master Mike prepped the audience for what was to come.

AdRock, MCA and Mike D humbly strolled onto the stage and proceeded to blast everyone away, including me. MCA’s bass sounded so good vibrating my chest cavity, but Ad Rock was having some difficulties with what seemed like a chord shorting out. By the time they worked through it, they were attacking “Gratitude” in a way that made even more intense than the recorded version on “Check Your Head.”

After that, the rest of their set was smooth sailing on a journey through their past and a majority of the more eclectic hits. Well I suppose that’s hard not to do for the Beasties, but they will forever remain ahead of their time with the some of the most unique sonic experimentations in a live setting. 

Returning to the media tent to finish uploading images, typing, and trying to check the doppler radar to see when this aforementioned storm was expected to hit, I realized that we were under a tornado watch.  With 23,000 + in attendance everyday at this festival and a huge percentage of those people camping, there was no real safe shelter out here and some began preparing for the worst.

The clouds crept so low to the ground, if felt like you could reach out and touch them…even if you weren’t under the influence of every and/or everything floating around the grounds here. Just as I finished securing the tent, I heard a roar coming from the concert grounds that spread like a wave out through the entrance into our camp and it was no doubt from the deluge that was spreading from southwest to northeast.

Lightning started dancing across the sky as the rain let up for a bit and thankfully there weren’t too many obvious cloud to ground strikes, but it was the thunder was loud enough to remind everyone that they needed to get somewhere safe. Eventually the rain got stronger as the lighting retreated and I felt safe enough to jump outside of my car in my bikini and finally got to clean away the layers of sweat, sun block, bug spray and dirt that had been building up since we arrived Thursday night.

The storm finally calmed down somewhere around 4:30 or 5 in the morning and I retreated to my tent with a wet head to finally catch some zs. When I awoke, it wasn’t as hot as Friday morning, but still a steady 25 mph wind – this time coming from the northwest. I spent the morning re-staking my tent to withstand the high winds and got ready for another long day and night of Langarado.

After finally getting caught up with how we were posting photos and blogging, I caught Arrested Development on the Sunset stage.  It has been 15 years since I saw them at Lollapalooza ’93 and I can say that they sounded better than ever. Playing “Give a Man a Fish” at the beginning of their set drew everyone closer to the stage and by the time they played the big ‘90s hit “Tennessee” which was responsible for most of their major success back then, everyone was dancing, jumping and chanting along. Finishing up with other familiar hits like “Mr. Wendal” and “Everyday People” the sun started to set and a much colder wind started to kick in.  It became evident that tonight is going to be a chilly one and I’m now back at my campground bundling up as I write this. I hope Michael Stipe has a hat for his noggin, wish I did!

Now that I've officially been at Langerado for more than 24 hours, I can completely admit that I did not realize what I was in for with this festival.  After I wrapped up shooting groove-a-liscious sets by The New Deal & Perpetual Groove last night I slipped and slid through the ankle deep swamplands while my right ankle got attacked by fire ants as I walked down the scary path to where I had originally parked my car.

A very courteous vendor named Jason helped me find my car amongst the disorganized and now sparce RV's and I drove it through the festival grounds and crowds of people roaming aimlessly until I found the only friends I had connected with at the festival yet.  They helped me set up the tent that Jeremy (Afterglow Radio) lent me and finally I felt like I was in a safe place to start blogging from when I realized it was 4:30 a.m. and the sun would be coming up soon.

As I fell asleep, I could feel the bass of random car stereos thumping the ground through the night, not to mention the occasional fireworks and late-nighters hootin' and hollarin'.  I awoke to a very, very hot tent (that had turned into a sail of sorts with the 25 mph plus winds on my face) and realized it was time to get up and go!  There was meeting at noon that would decide our fate with photographing the Beastie Boys and I didn't want to miss that!

After the meeting I caught a little bit of the Dynamites set.  They were bustin' out some serious James Brown-esque tunes that just made you wanna "get on up", all while dressed in very nice suites.  I thought that they had to be dying from heat under there, but as I returned to camp to finish uploading and writing, I could hear them carry on for a good 45 minutes without missing a beat.

There have been a few computer/internet issues since I've been here and it doesn't help that the media tent is a good half mile from camp - so power is sparse and it takes a lot of it (and time) for me to upload images and blog, but I finally figured out a way and headed back in to the grounds to catch the tail end of Ozomatli.  They have always been a high-energy band  with some of the most original song structures I've ever heard, especially with the beautiful Latin influence, but this time the end of their set blew me out of the water...er...swamp.

Then it was off to catch The Wailers and then I realized how much the media has really jumped on the Langerado bandwagon.  There were too many other photographers to count between the band and stage, but that didn't play a role the connection everyone was feeling to the music.  Matisyahu joined The Wailers for an entirely goose-bump provoking rendition of "No Woman No Cry" and then I had to head back to the media tent to sign the waiver needed to shoot the Beastie Boys.

Once that was taken care of, G-Love was just going on stage as the sun started to creep a little bit closer to sunset.  Every time I've ever seen G-Love he has exuded this air of confidence and swagger that is just undeniably sexy.  He's a bad ass in a skinny body and boy can he make his version of blues infused funk and hip hop tasty!  I walked away from his set groovin' to "I Like Cold Beverages" and then it was time to be escorted into shoot 311.

The sun had just disappeared behind a cloud skimming the horizon and by the time 311 came out it was dusk.  These guys knew how to kick off the beginning of a great night because the roar of the crowd and the soundscapes they created as they dove head first into favorites like "All Mixed Up", "Amber", "Beautiful Disaster" and their version of the Cure's "Love Song" were completely infectious.

Now I'm charging everything up, I've got my waiver in my pocket and unfortunately am missing The Roots (who sound oh-so-good from back here) as I type this and media is slowly gathering to get escorted into the photo pit for the long awaited set from the Beastie Boys.  I'll back with you all on how that went as soon as possible!