L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Eternal Chaos: Folklife 2009

May 25, 2009 on 1:52 pm | | In Backstage Pass, General Musing, Music

Various forces conspired to draw so many people to the Seattle Center this weekend that the fountain was in imminent danger of imploding into a singularity. One that would suck in every dread locked, tattooed, nose-pierced, guitar-playing, Keenes-shod, organic tie-dye-clad geezer into the hellish maw of the newly spawned black hole. And there were a shitload of them.

Folklife landed once more, and once more we played. It’s a zoo in a normal year, but in addition to being an irresistible magnet to every eccentric for hundreds of miles, this year the weather was perfection. Four transplendant, sun-drenched, breezy days. To that add an economic climate that has more than a few folks saying “Let’s stay home this year. Is there anything to do that’s free?” and you have a situation where you can’t turn around without hitting a teenage boy with fairy wings and a free hugs sign.

I blogged about Folklife last year with photos. This year I took video with my crappy little camera. But I think you can get a bit of the flavor, if not the sweat, garlic and patchouli-scented aroma.

Balkanarama played of course. We’ve been liberated from the annual Balkan Dance Party and found ourselves at the much cooler Vera stage, which was jammed with lines wrapped around the building. Not everyone who wanted to got in. More video later of the band.

Notes: the woman playing bass clarinet in the second to last clip is principal clarinetist with the Seattle Symphony and the belly dancer is Leslie Rialto, who dances with us regularly. I’m glad I waited until after the gig to get my fractured wrist seen to because I’ll be able to annoy people for years with tales of my incredible toughness.

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