Electric Forest’s opening day sizzles with electronic trippiness, jam fervor, hippie vibe

From the wild, fan-involving antics of Andy Frasco to the throbbing beats of Green Velvet and Keys N Krates to the lengthy jams of String Cheese, it was a memorable opening day in Rothbury. (Photos, video)

 

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Having attended every Electric Forest and the two Rothbury festivals that preceded it – 10 musical celebrations amid the Michigan woods in all – it’s difficult to completely elucidate the range of emotions, sensory assaults and upbeat vibes associated with this universally admired affair.

Strolling through those impressive entrance gates with long queues of rainbow-bedecked festivalgoers and the thumping bass of the towering Tripolee Stage just beyond the checkpoint, there’s a real sense of stepping into some alternate reality, aka, leaving the “real” world behind – something reflected in a fair number of signs, T-shirts and totem poles flaunted by Forest attendees.

There’s certainly the excitement of once again getting reacquainted with that unique, youth-driven Electric Forest experience, along with the trepidation of knowing I’ll be putting my Fitbit through thousands of paces crisscrossing the dusty and sometimes muddy landscape to catch acts on several different stages while dodging crazily clad concertgoers to avoid getting impaled by one of the aforementioned, often bizarre totems.

PART CIRCUS, PART CARNIVAL, PART MUSIC FESTIVAL

Sure, it’s part circus and part carnival, with oddly and wildly garbed folks on stilts, people dressed as animals and turn-of-the-century damsels (we’re talking 1900 turn-of-the-century here), goofy forest games, sculptures of elephants, etc.

The scents – a mix of pine needles, sweat, wood chips, pot smoke and more sweat – are familiar; the sounds – a blend of DJ-propelled, electronic beats, jam-band meandering and the occasional horn-infused soulfulness – are, well, Foresty; and the attitude — a mingling of we’re-all-together-in-this camaraderie, non-political laid-back grooviness and we’re-just-here-to-party exuberance – is plain infectious.

It all sort of makes an older guy feel like a young hippie, which hey, is completely OK in the Forest.

Of course, the sights are nonpareiled, with Electric Forest 2018 adding all manner of eye-catching adornments to its massive, artistically fetching stages, shifting venues to include new spaces such as the Carousel Club that extends the sprawling Hangar area, and enhancing the always-enchanting Sherwood Forest with fresh, resplendent sculptures and artwork.

Overall, Day 1 didn’t seem as congested and as teeming as in past years — with 45,000 or so usually attending the first weekend — though crowds did grow late into the evening and the overall layout was more spaced out (pun intended).

DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS

With all that in mind, here are some highlights from Thursday’s Day 1 in The Forest:

• Carousel Club – Entering this new venue at the back of The Hangar is an immersive experience all on its own. Late Thursday afternoon, New York City’s unusual jazz band Too Many Zooz literally packed the club from stem to stern with festival-goers who sweated and boogied and cheered the sax-trumpet-drums spectacle. My prediction: This is going to be a VERY popular hangout for many Foresters.

• Hiss Golden Messenger – Playing the Observatory Stage on Thursday afternoon, the energetic set by this North Carolina folk/blues/rock outfit was probably my favorite performance of the day, even though the audience was thin compared to stages hosting DJs and such. Maybe it was because the music stood out from the rest of the lineup; maybe it’s because frontman MC Taylor and his crew were just that damn good.

• Daily Bread – This electronic hip hop artist/DJ from Atlanta had an ebullient crowd literally eating out of his hand during an afternoon set on the Forest Stage, finishing things off with a remix of Fleetwood Mac that had even this Forest veteran bopping to the beat.

• Andy Frasco & The U.N. – The party-up wildman rocker from California did everything from crowd surf to sink baskets (yes) to imbibe various offerings from fans during this band’s raucous and often amusing set on the Observatory Stage.

• The String Cheese Incident – Yes, the Colorado jam band with a home-court advantage as “host” of Electric Forest plays four 3-1/2- to 4-hour sets over two weekends here — which thrills diehards but makes it one of those I’ll-catch-part-of-it-at-some-point for others — still brings it instrumentally and hit a real crowd-pleasing crescendo late in its Thursday night set with mesmerizing, psychedelic magic.

PHOTO GALLERY: Electric Forest 2018, Day 1
Photos by Anthony Norkus and Anna Sink

VIDEO TOUR: Electric Forest 2018 (6/21/18)

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