My experience on day one of Voodoo Fest, in a word? Sweaty.
Well, okay. It was a lot more than that. But the one feeling that stuck with me for the longest was the anticipation of the shower I would get to take at the end of the day. Thankfully by the time the sun had gone down and the lights on the carnival rides had gone up, I had settled into the grass before the main stage to watch The Avett Brothers and the temperature had dropped into the sixties.
I can’t complain, though, because it was a beautiful day for a music festival. I weaved my way past dubious parking patrollers deep into City Park and left my car somewhere that I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be, but a police officer told me I’d be fine, so I went with it. Parking around Voodoo isn’t as much of a nightmare as I expected, which was a good start.
The scene at Voodoo was as colorful as ever. Half of the concertgoers had come dressed in full Halloween costumes, while the other half had thrown together the most eccentric pieces of their wardrobes. People milled about, trying the array of foods and testing out the Ferris wheel and dancing to the music. One girl rigged up a hammock between two palm trees and camped out for the day, which is a level of dedication to which casual attendees can only aspire.
I made it through the gates by about 2 p.m. and found the press area after a lot of searching. My first order of business for the day was meeting up with Australian duo NERVO for a quick Q&A. The Nervo twins are a pop electronic duo from Australia who have written songs for Kesha and Kylie Minogue, toured with Britney Spears and co-wrote a David Guetta single that won a Grammy. Mim called me from her personal cell phone to tell me, “We’re almost there! We’re in a buggy!” as she and her sister Liv pulled up near the press area and hurried to meet me. We kept it brief because they had to run to prepare for their set, but they were incredibly friendly and deeply fabulous.
After my interview with NERVO, I headed over the Red Bulletin stage to catch their set. Southern spinner Beverley Skillz was finishing up her set, a solid mix of beats and a lot of mainstream rap from what I caught. NERVO came on next and slayed it. Every shirtless bro in a hundred yard radius was getting down. Not only is their music genuinely good, but they appeared to be having the time of their lives being on stage and interacting with the crowd.
I had to leave halfway through the set because I wanted to catch the second half of Delta Rae’s set, which was happening at the same time on the other side of the park. Sadly I must have missed their performance of “Bottom of the River,” a song with vocals that absolutely kill, but the part of the set I did get to see was great. Their stompy, bluesy brand of folk works well in a festival setting, and their closing number “Dancing in the Cemetery” will be stuck in my head for a little while.
Next was Die Antwoord, whose set was so bizarre that the deep fried Oreos I sampled on the way seemed mundane. I knew going into the show that Die Antwoord would bring the weirdness, but Yolandi Nisser’s high-pitched baby voice spitting out raps and squealing into the microphone was a bit too much for me. They do at least put on a high energy show, but they’re even harder to take live than they are in recorded format. I will admit to nodding along to the chorus of “Baby’s on Fire,” though.
Midway through Die Antwoord’s set I left to get some dinner from the smorgasbord of New Orleans food there was to choose from. I ended up with a chicken shawarma sandwich and a bowl of crawfish hush puppies, both of which were delicious, and then headed back to the main stage for the rest of Gary Clark Jr.’s set. I’ll admit I wasn’t terribly familiar with his work before hearing him at Voodoo, but his voice is striking and his guitar carried all the way across the park.
There was a lull after Gary Clark Jr. cleared out, and the field in front of the main stage started to fill up as the crew prepped for The Avett Brothers to take over. For the first time all day, I saw every type of person at the festival all in the same place — frat guys, high school kids, oddballs, parents with children, middle aged lesbians, attractive guys with questionable tattoos, chicks dressed like Marina Diamandis and everyone in between. It seems The Avett Brothers must have universal appeal.
Around this time the lasers came on, causing many a drunk festival patron to start shouting about it to their nearest friend, and The Avett Brothers began to take the stage. I’ve tried to get into The Avett Brothers several times to no avail, but their involving stage show combined with an earnest performance and powerful vocals managed to hold my attention much better than their albums ever did. “Distraction #74” in particular had people dancing circles around me.
I left to head back to Baton Rouge after The Avett Brothers, grabbing a nutella and bacon crepe on my way out because, in the immortal words of Drake, YOLO. Overall, it was a busy day full of strong performances, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow when there will be even more big names on the bill.
