The first day of Vegoose this year was amazing in terms of the eclectic range of bands, from hip-hop (Public Enemy and Cypress Hill) to electronica (MIA and Daft Punk) to metal (Mastodon) to hipster indie bands (Blonde Redhead and the Shins) to the mind-blowing garage rock of Iggy and the Stooges.

Oh, and I left out the gypsy punk of Gogol Bordello.

 

Yesterday at Vegoose was more a traditional jam band crowd, ready for acts like Moe and Spearhead. 

But the main draw was the final powerful performance of the night from the reunited Rage Against the Machine.

The politically committed band's lyrics may cry for revolution, but nothing seemed further from the minds of the audience members who were there for the volume more than the message.

As if in mockery, next to the stage a giant Ferris wheel glowed and flashed against the communist red star backdrop of Rage's stage. But passion rules in music, and Rage Against the Machine delivered.

 

In all, it was a perfect moment in Vegas, watching as Rage jammed away under a nearly full moon with thousands of costumed kids dancing and shouting along to each song. The revolution turning into good, clean fun.

Daft Punk brings the flashy nightclub experience to the festival stage. Does that need to be done elsewhere? On disc, the music Daft Punk makes has a solid superiority to most club fare. But, I admit, I left long before they finished their performance at Vegoose. The reason: I live in Las Vegas. There is only so much time I can spend watching guys wearing spaceman suits entombed in a miniature Luxor. To me, Daft Punk's electronic performance falls somewhere between a night at Pure and a snippet from Blue Man. Regardless, in Las Vegas a Daft Punk concert is redundant. (Photo by Sarah Gerke)

It still blows my mind: Iggy Pop may look as beat up and spent as Keith Richards, but he has the moves and speed of a computer-generated super-character. The show opened with the Stooges blasting through classic disc "Fun House." Pop destroyed so many microphones that by the title track, he was on his knees trading howls into Steven Mackay's saxophone microphone. By then he had already humped an amplifier, tossed his body about the stage like a rag doll and wiggled almost entirely out of his jeans.

 

What came as an encore? Well, first Pop tried to join the audience, and then he invited the audience to join him on stage. It was wild. It was the Stooges.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

                           




MIA arrived heavily hyped and performed with a lot of spirit. But in this concert setting, despite a backup dancer/singer, turntables, loops and samples, she proved unable to fully re-create the musically rich environment of her latest disc, Kala.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

 

Natalie Portman's promise aside, indie rockers The Shins arrived in costume; and to this listener, the costumes were more interesting than the songs.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

Perhaps the saddest overlap on start times was for Cypress Hill and Public Enemy, who started on neighboring stages simultaneously. Chuck D. called out to Cypress on the next stage. But sadly, as an audience we had to choose where to stand. I mostly saw PE, while photographer Sarah Gerke watched Cypress Hill. But if you were ever a fan of Public Enemy, their latest tongue-twisting-titled disc, "How you sell soul to a souless people who sold their souls," is the band's best since the '90s. (Photos by Sarah Gerke)

On disc, Blonde Redhead makes ethereal music of great beauty. At Vegoose, however, many of their intricacies on songs like "Dr. Strangeluv" were hard to hear, seeming to dissipate in the huge outdoor field. This wasn't helped by metal monsters Mastodon on another stage in the same field.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

Vegoose opened with Gogol Bordello on Saturday. Usually, labels simplify a band's music too much, but the "gypsy punk" tag  that has been stuck on Gogol Bordello is a perfect fit. Their high energy performance was a fitting start to an outdoor festival. But afterward, percussionist/dancer  Pam Racine told me that having the opening honors was a little harder for the group. "I was hitting the stage with a breakfast fog. It was noon and we usually don't wake up until 2," she said. "The time clock was in reverse." And so, it is no surprise they made a late night of it, with some members of the band doing a DJ set at the Beauty Bar that lasted until after 3 a.m.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

This weekend is Vegoose, two days of outdoor shows around Sam Boyd Stadium with evening concerts and after parties all over the Strip.

Now in its third year, Vegoose has quickly become a favorite event for both locals and tourists by gathering together the sort of eclectic artists who rarely fit into the mold of Vegas middlebrow entertainment.

The headliners this year are the legendary Detroit proto-punkers the Stooges fronted by Iggy Pop on Saturday and on Sunday the reunited politically motivated rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine.

Political messages and alternative music, of course, are not usually associated with the Entertainment Capital of the World, and that perhaps is the major reason why in its short history Vegoose has developed such a strong following among both locals and the sort of tourists who usually don't consider Vegas as a vacation destination.

Michael Franti of Spearhead is a political activist in song and life who recently made a documentary of his travels to areas of conflict in the Middle East. So he approached performing at the first Vegoose festival in 2005 with some trepidation.

"I was really skeptical. Vegas is a fantasyland for adults. Our music is the opposite. We are about grounding, what is happening in the world and social issues. How is this going to work in Las Vegas? But it was a really cool experience and it is the only show my mother has been at in the mosh pit."

Spearhead returns to Vegoose this year. (They are performing a Saturday night Vegoose event show at the Hard Rock and a Sunday show at the festival.)

Franti notes that he has found his perspective on playing Vegas: "When I think about going to Vegas, I don't think I am going to change Vegas. I am instead becoming part of the celebration and, I hope, focusing it on other aspects of life."

With its trademark giant pumpkin, circus-like atmosphere and audience that comes costumed for Halloween, in essence Franti is also describing how Vegoose has managed to find its niche.

I hope to be blogging all weekend here live from Vegoose. So stay tuned.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)