One thing I've been wanting to blog about is our idea for our very own, tailored to us, summer concert festival. Last summer while taking a brief road trip to Leavenworth, we got onto a discussion about who we would invite if we could coordinate our very own music festival. Because I like these sort of things, since last summer it's taken on a life of it's own and we've thought of it often. We love discussing it with others to get their perspectives.
The rules are simple:
- 10 artists
- Artists must still be alive
- If artists are living, you can dictate the band structure (the reunited original lineup, etc.).
- You must have a format (one day with all bands performing for 1 hour, a full weekend, sequential weekend shoes, etc.)
- You must name a headliner (no one will come if you don't have a headliner)
- Optional: create the list with a friend or significant other. Does it change?
So, without further ado, Mr. and Mrs. Galore's Summer Concert Series (2 bands per night; 5 straight Saturdays) for 2009 was:
- Bon Iver
- Cloud Cult
- Gillian Welch
- Iron & Wine
- Josh Ritter
- The National
- Ryan Adams
- Okkervil River
- Wilco (headliner)
Creating this and discussing it was super fun and informative for a number of reasons. The liner notes:
- Because it was being planned together, we had to compromise on the artists we both really love. You'll notice, we still have one slot open and have yet to decide how to fill it. I lobbied hard for bands like Wolf Parade and Built to Spill to no success. Mrs. Galore wanted the Dixie Chicks, but I used the lamest stop motion tactic: "they're out of our budget!"
- You have to decide on a strategy. Do you invite people you've never heard? Your all time favorites? Artists you're really into at the time, but may be embarrassed about later? Our list contains only one artist we've never seen live (Bon Iver). It's a favorites list and a good sign that we actually get to the shows we want to see and it probably builds upon our appreciation for certain bands.
- We realized, unfortunately, how male-centric the whole music industry is. The only female that cracked our list is Gillian Welch. I even spent some time looking at lists of successful/influential female artists that we might add.
- It's not intentional, but we really realize how you and others we've asked are cautious to make this sort of list because its one way that someone can portray or represent themselves. If you tell us your list, we promise not to make fun unless it contains a band like Creed on it. (There, I just proved my point.)
- I realized how much better I thought a series of summer concerts would be than just to slam everyone in on one individual festival day or weekend.
So, we'd like to invite you to email, comment, whatever your list. We have a few others from our friends that I'll post soon and we're working on our 2010 list, which will hopefully be quite different.
