to see The Machine at Wakarusa a few days ago!
My wife and I were staying at the same motel and had a chance to chat with Scott and say hi to Ryan. They were pretty cool and since we had been waiting for the shuttle up the mountain to Wakarusa and it was a half hour late I asked if I could just follow them.
Joe was driving the band and that cat drives like a bat out of hell!!! As an East-Coaster I'm sure he is used to curvier roads than this Peace Frog but that was a hell of an adventure. Ridiculous turns, inclines, no shoulders, steep dropoffs. Well they got in but the dude at the gate told me I had to turn around and go 3.5 miles back down the mountain to the overflow camp-grounds to get my wrist-band and parking pass. So after 1 hour and waiting through 3 bus waves we got a ride back up the mountain. This was really annoying especially after the show ended at 2:30am. We waited for 1.5 hours and 3 or 4 buses to get back down the mountain to our care and did not make it back to the motel till 4:30am!!! But thank you band for letting us follow you as I had no idea what I was in for up there.
Once there, I bought the "Live at the Orange Peel" CDR the band was selling at the merch table. It's pretty sweet...especially since Lucifer Sam is on there!
We caught the last 30 minutes of Railroad Earth which was pretty tight. Not my style of Jam Music as I am more into STS9, but it was enjoyable.
My wife and I camped out in front of the soundboard for the best view and sound! The show started around 12:20am and ended at about 2:30am. The setlist according to chazzyfingers of the machine forum the show went like this...
6/3/10
Wakarusa Festival
Ozark, AR
Shine On You Crazy Diamond 1-5
Speak To Me
Breathe
Time
Set the Controls For the Heart Of the Sun
Sorrow
Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Brick 2
The Gnome
Let There Be More Light
Money
Pigs On the Wing
Pigs
Echoes
Shine On You Crazy Diamond 6-8
Wish You Were Here
To be succinct, this show blew my friggan mind! If you like Pompeii era Floyd you NEED to see these guys! I requested they play a bunch of stuff and they did in fact play 2 that probably took up a quarter of the show...Gnome and Echoes! But as awesome as that is...that is not why I am going to spend the rest of this review raving about these guys.
Jamming! Hell yes!!! Lots of jamming went down at this show...just like Floyd of the early 70s! The most overplayed Floyd tune of all time...Money was in fact Money when these guys play it. Of the jamming...I definitely had a 3-mile smile when they dubbed it up reggae style and the light-dude actually made the stage lights cascade in the colors of the Jamaican flag and that was only like 30 seconds of the improv goin' down on that tune! The absolute most badass thing I think I have ever seen live was their version of Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. I went absolutely apeshit with the extra 5-10 minutes they added to that sucker!!!
Basically after finally seeing both Aussie Floyd (last september) and now The Machine I can honestly say they are both great and actually complement each other. I prefer the Machine for sure as they give me a more early(just 4 guys jamming and exploring) floyd feel. The aussies are more like Pulse...a bit overdone(more musicians just like the pulse era) less breathing room but more accurate to the cds.
I thought the visuals of Aussie Floyd were cute with the kangaroo and some of it was trippy but most of it is more light-hearted but I most definitely loved it. The machine uses the screen less, but when they do the footage is mostly much more trippy and darker in my opinion. None of this has any bearing on my rating. Nore did the fact that the Machine had Roger Waters laser company throwing down with some bitchin' lazers. This kinda stuff is just icing on the cake.
Aussies play Uptown Theater every year. I hope The Machine starts doing midwest tours and hits KC every year as well. I believe Wakarusa is the key for them doing this. The crowd loved them. It felt like a real show. When you go see Aussie Floyd its like seeing a blues show. Everybody is pretty quiet and just sits in their seat. Of course that is probably not fair as this is Wakarusa and a total hippy jamband crowd who incidentily went crazy when joe altered the lyrics to "smoke my bong beside the fire" for the darkside material!
Anyways, I highly recommend The Machine if you are a Floyd fan...especially love the early 70s more jamming Floyd!
