GanJam 4886 Goes off with a Hitch
Overnight RF Concert marred by freakouts and chaosLuxon, Ananto
June 2, 4886
Chaos at the Festival briefly interrupts the show as House Lights brought up early in morningThe re-inaugurated GanJam will long be remembered for what it was and what it was not. Over 3 days, more than 60,000 music fans attended the concert, with the highest daily attendance going to Day 3, with a total of 42,620 visitors counted.
The festival, sponsored by KRTVN Radio 6 and ODEN-K got off to an excellent start with music entertainment featuring Rock and Hip Hop musicians. The First notes of the show were played by Show Openers Brown Paper Bag, who played to a already crowded Main Amphitheater. Their interesting blend of melodious dream pop and blistering guitar feedback, heavily pedaled shoegaze really brought the crowd in and gave them music to mosh to. "We want to put the roll back into rock and roll" declared bassist Tamara Stevens between songs. "Something you all can dance to."
The show openers did not disappoint, and on Day 1, a total of seven bands played sets which were on average of 45 minutes each, ranging for the normal Kalistani Style of Alternative Rock to hardcore and politically conscious hip hop. Rock veterans Salgo also played the show, in what was likely one of their final shows. "We are getting up there in age," said Salgo singer Janice Tarkington. "Our drummer is nearing 60. Its time to let the Kids take up the mantle." Nothing in Salgo's set suggested that they have lost any talent as they aged, and if this is to be their last major concert, they are definitely going out as the premier rock band of the last couple decades. The final band of the evening was Riot Crew, whose set criticized cops, and essentially declared war on commercial radio. "Blow up your Radio!" Declared lead singer M9. "Blow up that bulls--t."
Salgo ends their career on a high note, opening for Riot Act who headlined Night One of the GanJamSoon after Night 1 Headliners Riot Crew left the stage, and the stage dressing was changed for RF overnight, problems with the show began. "We think a lot of the problems were caused by the mixture of drugs and alcohol and the whole RF vibe," said Night Organizer Robert Young. "Since RF tends to be a rather insular culture, there was some tensions immediately that way, where the RF crowd wanted to move up front, and the other folks who were there really didn't want to yield." Fights, fueled by cocaine and hard alcohol soon began breaking out near the stage, but those early skirmishes were quelled by the arrival of Overnight Openers Dave and the Drugs, who played a show full of lasers, frenetic robotic dance moves to true RF Funk beats and rhythms, and smoke effects. The crowds seemed to really enjoy the next few Acts, which included a set by RF Diva Christina Shakespeare.
Soon after Shakespeare left the stage around 4:30 am, however, apparently a group of RF Fans thought that they should begin some sort of orgy in the middle of the crowd. At first, they were a mild annoyance for other concert goers, but when some non-RF attendee was pushed over a couple who was copulating on the ground, punches were thrown and then the crowd erupted into a general melee between electronica fans dressed in club clothes and RF guys in silver body paint and sequins or dressed as space overlords, and women wearing v neck bathing suits. The next act, Barbarella, had already taken the stage and pleaded for peace from the stage and soon the stage managers turned the house lights up to witness a swarming melee of people fighting and shoving. "It was like watching the Ocean during a storm... Seriously, all these naked gay space aliens fighting all these danceclub cokeheads, swelling and rolling like waves... It was wild!" said Barbarella Lead singer Jemaine Gregory. "I've never seen any crowd act like that."
Concert Security waded into the crowd to remove the most pugilistic offenders and it took nearly a half hour to calm the crowd down to the point where the concert could continue. From the Stage, Barbarella yelled, "Now y'all behave!" They played their set, and the mood of the crowd had changed, so that when Overnight Headliner Tonya X took the stage, the fans were finally having fun again, and danced until the sun rose around 7:40am. Lots of people were seen hugging and shaking hands and showing fraternity by the light of the early morning sun, and it was clear that the Festival was back on track.
Overnight Openers Dave and the Drugs, with the immensely popular hybrid RF Funk styleAs the ravers were sleeping off their wild night back at their campsites, the "Normal" crowd was waking up and checking out the Art Pavilions which were spread all across the outskirts of the Festival Grounds at the Global Music Hall of Fame. This year the Art Commission asked Artists to come up with artwork that showed off Kalistan's culture, with a special focus on leisure activities. Artists from across the nation submitted proposals and more than 50 artists were subsidized to create art work for the Festival, which was displayed in the various pavilions. The media ranged from painting to sculpture to performance, and artists from all corners of the Republic came to display their artwork.
Installations were open between RF Overnight and into Day 2, as well as before Day 3 music kicked off. More than 25,000 people visited at least one of the Art pavilions, and various contests and incentives took place just for the pavilions. In the Psychedelic Pavilion, all visitors were micro dosed with LSD and were made to sit through a 30 minute multimedia exhibition while the acid kicked in before they were welcomed to view the art.
"Dah Man on Day Off" by Oil painter Francesca del Valle
"Bicycle Day" by photomosaic artist Allen Hoffman, which features more than 10,000 individual pictures of people riding bicyclesThe Art Pavilions also had samples of Kalistani cuisine and featured some more unusual types of music which were not being featured in the main shows. It also had spoken word poetry,jazz exhibitions from around the Republic and performance art troupe Dahriel 5, whose performance piece called "The Cycle of Life" demonstrated birth growth, wisdom and finally death in a gripping kinetic style.
Day 2, the Kalistani Musica Egelian showcase featured KME artists. Franco Del Rey opened the show with his hit "La Corozon", which described the tension a person feels when they love someone that they know is not good for them. Del Rey's music set a nice tone for the entire afternoon which also featured such KME artists as La Mas Mala, who's firey hip hop song "86" burned the house down, as well as La Sol, who sang the Egelian version of the song she will be performing in Gaduridos at FOMAT "Cancion de Amor." La Sol showed why she was the undisputed queen of KME during her duet with Jenny Huerta, when she converted a well known opera Aria into Egelian and incorporated it into the Song "Asesina de mi Corozon."
Most importantly, on Night 2, three Gaduri bands played the show, which is a first for the GanJam. The fan favorites of the night were clearly Headliners Los Angeles Rojos, who were FOMAT IX winners, and have toured Kalistan extensively. "We just loved that cumbia," said concert goer Brit Smith. "The cumbia is so fun to dance to, and really is just a fun rhythm either way. And Los Angeles is such a great band anyway!" By the time Los Angeles Rojos took the stage, the tensions of the previous night were forgotten and crowds were thoroughally enjoying themselves. But crowds were equally enthusiastic about Sonara Explosion, whose set was nearly flawless, showing them to be true experts of their music stylings and pop and dance queen Chaparra, who gaving a sizzling performance that led to massive sales of her records being bought at the show and online.
"Wooo, Chaparra! She's my new favorite!" said a fan who called herself "Light Star". "I love all her music, and that dancing... oh my god, they need to get her up here to tour this country!" But what is far more likely is that LTD Records, who brought the Gaduri Bands up to play the Jam, are interested in signing one of singers from Los Angeles Rojos, Griselda Diaz to the label. "We realize that, one, she normally does indie and electronica music, and not Cumbia, and two, it would be a fantastic opportunity to get her and her band to create records for the Kalistani market as well," said Label A&R rep Horatio Valenzuela.
Kalistani Fans show mad love for Gaduri pop singer Chaparra at GanJam's Night 2Night 3 began around 2:30 PM and featured Reggae, Dub, and Funk, three main and long standing styles at the GanJam. The long tradition of Reggae Bands playing the Jam was kicked off with the Roots sounds of Small Axe, who paid tribute to the older mento and early ska influences in Reggae. "We aboslutely loved Small Axe," said punk fan French McAdams. "I mean, you get so much with that band!" 10 bands played Night 3, including the Funk 12-piece band Landmine, whose set was probably the funkiest of the entire concert.
"We are happy to report that ODEN K sold more of the National Product during Night 3 than any other night," said ODEN spokesperson Cathy DAngelo. "Over the whole show, we sold more than 25 tons of herb and more than half of this was sold on Night 3 in preparation for these bands. The smoke was so thick in the air at times it looked like a layer of fog had settled in over the concert, and thankfully, winds picked up a bit around 10 to kinda clear the air, literally."
Kali Ranks plays his first Jam among massive clouds of smoke created by the consumption of heroic amounts of the National ProductGoat's Beard rocked the Concert as well, and the Dancehall artist Kali Ranks blasted the audience with thick bass and blistering fast delivery, but the Show's Closer, Kaliburg Dub AllStars. who took the stage just after 2 am proved to be completely hypnotic. Their lush production, auditory tracers, and slow fade strobe effects treated the audience of 40,000 stoners and reggae fans to a visual and auditory alternate dimension. "The way they cut up all kinds of music to slip into their songs," said Travis Belson, who was at the show, "well, I mean, it was almost like they took live recordings of the other days and mixed them in." In true form, KDA did indeed use clips of audio from Night's 1 and 2 to mix and produce into dub versions. Probably the most amazing version they did was of the Los Angeles Rojos song "El Liston" which somehow separated out the vocal tracks, the bassline and the orchestra which accompanied the band, and flipped them around, stretched them out and added tracers to the soundtrack to produce a cumbia dub riddim which blew many minds.
The show finally closed at 3:36am. All in all, besides the "naked gay space alien" near riot on RF Overnight, the show was a fabulous success. It portends well for the future of GanJams in Kalistan. "If we can still pull of a 40K, 3-Day 40 band festival, and only have one incident, I'd say, given the amount of drugs that were sold at this show and used at this show, I'd say that is pretty good!" said D'Angelo. "It's our hope to once more make the Jam a regular thing, and maybe next time we will have more acts from other nations who are willing to come to Kalistan and play the Jam with our local bands!"