Double festival weekend

Thursday was actually the start of the Herndon Festival – we’d decided on a quick Indian meal, so I got that ready before Jill got home, then headed over to catch the rest of Ruthie Foster as the rain had stopped. She had a smokin’ blues vibe going, but soon she was done and the fireworks were going off.

Friday Jill managed to get done with stuff early and we headed over to the Cafe Stage to see Luke Brindley – he was solo and it was rainy, but still got things going. Then we headed over to Mediterranean Breeze to get some dinner – a gyro for me and a Greek salad for Jill. We ate them as Lenka delivered a solid set of piano pop, then headed home.

Saturday the lure of ’80s hair metal won, so I drove up to Columbia for the M3 Rock Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion. I got there in time to see Slaughter, but that didn’t turn out to be such a good idea, the vocals were terrible (don’t know if that’s the way it is or they were having a bad day). Jani Lane (ex-Warrant was up next), and his voice was fine, just didn’t care as much for his attitude. I’ve never cared that much for Dokken, so I caught a bit of their set as I went to see Steel Panther on the side stage. They didn’t live up to the hype, so I headed back to the main stage.

One of the bands I was looking forwards to seeing was Kix. Certainly the premier hard rock band from the area, they’ve always drawn huge hometown crowds and Saturday was no exception. I saw them a couple times back in the ’90s, and I was pleased to note that it was like that band had time travelled to today – a great show. Frontman Steve Whiteman is still in good shape, and funny as hell.

After Kix finished, I caught some of L.A. Guns at the side stage, pretty good sounding, but I couldn’t stay for too long as my boys were playing next. Extreme played all their hits, a couple new ones (but not the single oddly) – a shortened version of their show from last year, but still a lot of fun. After they finished I headed out for more festival fun.

I made it back to Herndon in time to catch Glen Burtnik‘s second set, and that was good, solo stuff along with Beatles and Police covers, as well as the big hit he wrote. We watched the fireworks from where we stood, then headed back.

We got up very early for a Sunday, as Jill had been training to run in the 5K (which started at 7:40), and I decided on Friday to run it with her. That may have been a mistake – I did get through it ok, but I’m feeling it now.

I wasn’t planning on going to the festival today, but after we got home I went online and decided to check out the schedule. First up on the Cafe Stage this morning was Kristina and Dan Furey, remarkable since I know them from working with Dan. So I scooted over and grabbed a seat just after they started. I’ve had their CD for a couple years, but they’re just getting started playing gigs, but they sounded pretty good for that. I also ran into another former coworker and caught up a bit after the show.

In the afternoon I lazed around, mostly reading, though I did start another set of auctions. Jill made lunch and got dinner ready, which we took with us to our first free show at Wolf Trap (thanks,
94.7 Fresh). Also our first show there of the summer season, tonight’s show was Three Girls and Their Buddy, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, and Shawn Colvin with Buddy Miller.

It was a summer song swap type of evening – we’d seen a similar show when Patty Griffin and Shawn Colvin toured with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Dar Williams a couple years back (in addition to all the song swaps at FRFF). The show was good – Patty harmonized on Emmylou’s “Red Dirt Girl” and did “Heavenly Day”, also Shawn did “Shotgun Down the Avalanche”. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for the whole show as Jill’s working a 12 tomorrow, but we did hear was pretty good, plus the weather was outstanding.