Echo Festival 2007 – Day One

Call it Bonnaroo, Jr.

For three days, Bouckaert Farm, 350+ acres of land adjacent to the Chattahoochee River just south of metropolitan Atlanta, was home to the inaugural Echo Project music festival, which promised a solid mix of jam, rock, indie, hip-hop and electronica sure to please any sonic palette. Touting “Sounds of Progress,” the festival – in conjunction with Rivers Alive and Sustainable Waves – hoped to spread awareness through music, just as numerous musical festivals have done before. Besides an attempt to reduce the environmental footprint of the festival itself, the Echo Project also supported efforts to help clean up Atlanta’s infamously dirty Chattahoochee River.

While many chose to camp, some in various nooks and crannies of the beautiful and vast farm, the SSv crew voted in favor of showers and avoidance of “Happy Can” mishaps and never ending dust clouds. Here is how our commuter weekend went:

Day One

We rolled into the farm just shy of 10 a.m. and, after finally flagging down a mythical shuttle to the main compound area two miles from check in, flocked to the main stage to catch an early sound check from Friday night headliners The Flaming Lips. Fans were treated to a few numbers from the Lips and a few minutes of chit-chat with frontman Wayne Coyne, who filled the space of local Atlantian Butch Walker’s early cancellation.

In addition to music, festival attendees could find out more information about various local and national conservation initiatives – such as Sustainable Waves, Rock the Earth and the Dogwood Alliance – or catch a variety of programs in the Echo System tent. Looking to fill the gap in the day’s early schedule, many compound-wanderers migrated here for a brief lesson in lula hooping, thanks to the mind-boggling folks at SuperHooper.org.

Other Echo System events throughout the weekend included a showing of “Captain Planet” cartoons, conscious short films, instructions on how to start a non-profit, early afternoon yoga and guided meditation as well as a series of artist panels from Rock the Earth. While SSv was too busy rocking out to catch the remaining artist panels, the first one, featuring Matt McDonald (Perpetual Groove) and Adrian Zelski (Dubconscious) was a bit of a dud. Themed “social change through music” both artists spoke of their own work with more eco-friendly touring and their respective musical backgrounds rather than a real discussion on the power of change through music.

At 3 p.m., the Polyphonic Spree took over the Lunar stage for an hour and fifteen-minute set that marked our first musical venture of the weekend. After cutting a heart into a stage-length red banner, Tim Delaughter and his Fragile Army, sporting their mock-military black uniforms, let loose with tracks from their latest disc as well as fan favorite “Together We’re Heavy.” Noticeably absent was the groups’ modest hit and Scrubs-visit single “Light and Day,” but fans were hardly disappointed. The 25+ member Spree (which included the choreographed Spree choir) dwindled off stage throughout the echoing refrain of “The Championship” only to return in their traditional white robes for their rather unironic cover of Nirvana’s “Lithium,” a definite weekend highlight.

After an attempt to catch former SSv interviewees Snowden at the Eclipse stage (their set was also cancelled) we trekked over to catch 90s hip-hop stoners Cypress Hill as they pumped up the main stage. “Get ready to get high y’all,” an aging B Real, sporting a retro Atlanta Hawks jersey, said to an already sufficiently baked crowd. The group blew through their pervasive pop-culture hits (“Insane in the Brain,” “(Rock) Superstar”) and even if some songs seemed a bit contrary to the peaceful mood of the festival (“Shoot ‘em Up”) their set added flavor to the first dusty day at Echo.

Back at the Lunar stage, Primus mainman Les Claypool and his “Fancy Trio” drew in a large crowd for an hour-plus set in support of the recently released live DVD Fancy. The man who inked the themes to South Park and Robot Chicken was oddly at his least interesting–sans pig mask or other outlandish finery–but still at his most musically proficient, pleasing fans with Primus and solo songs alike.

Unlike many festivals, Echo steered clear of energy-hogging jumbotrons, choosing to unleash projector screens once the sun called it quits. While fans waited for the Flaming Lips to unleash their fanatical frenzy the pair of screens showed footage from Al Gore’s pet project Current.TV, including pieces on festival players Spoon and the Flaming Lips along with socially minded investigations like “Slaves in the Amazon.”

The Flaming Lips‘ spectacle began with a roll–literally. Leader Wayne Coyne took crowd-sufing to a new level with his human sized hamster ball, still cleanly attired in his kahki suit despite the dust cloud hanging over the farm. The two ensuing hours of colorful craziness included dancing santas, seductive aliens, anti-Bush rants, superhero stage crew and a plethora of audience sing alongs–basically everything one would expect from the veteran indie rockers.

The band was backed by a rainbow-shaped jumbotron as they ran through songs from their entire catalogue, making special note of the tenth anniversary of the group’s multiple-disc album Zaireeka with the song “Riding to Work in the Year 2025 (Your Invisible Now).” “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” and “Free Radicals” off of last year’s At War With the Mystics both lended themselves to the strongest, albeit prodded, audience sing alongs as the two-hour whirlwind of balloons and confetti strengthened the growing momentum and worked the crows into a frenzy. Coyne and his fellow Lips were perfectly on point to cap the first night, returning for a pair of encores, which included an ode of “Happy Birthday” to several fans who had announced that morning that they were celebrating milemarkers of their own. Early 90s grassroots hit “She Don’t Use Jelly” closed out the first encore. As the band closed our their set fans were left wondering what the hell just happened. It was the perfect ending to a well-rocked day.

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