Upwards of 20,000 or more concertgoers — along with West Michigan’s own Greensky Bluegrass — will descend on Double JJ Resort in tiny Rothbury for another edition of this singular music festival.
Psychedelically Stunning: Electric Forest at night. (Photo/Local Spins)
I hasten to say there’s nothing quite like Electric Forest … anywhere.
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Those who’ve attended, those who’ve performed, those who’ve worked there, know exactly what I mean.
As a seasoned veteran of both the Rothbury and Electric Forest music festivals, mandolinist Paul Hoffman of Kalamazoo’s Greensky Bluegrass knows, embracing the unusual vibe of the four-day event at Double JJ Resort not only as a warm homecoming for West Michigan band members but as a musical escape unlike any other.
Greensky Bluegrass
“It’s a late-night festival. It’s a party,” Hoffman says of the mammoth event that unfolds once again on a half-dozen stages in a remote location north of Whitehall over the weekend, led by jam-band kings The String Cheese Incident, aka “Cheese.”
“I like having fun and I like it when people have fun. It’s my passion to help people have fun and have people forget about the mundane of their work life and whatever they’re escaping. Electric Forest does a pretty good job of that.”
That it does.
Building on the colorful hippie vibe of the original Rothbury festival which took place on the site in 2008 and 2009, the smaller-but-just-as-hip Electric Forest has become a nirvana of sorts for 20,000 or so electronic dance music and jam-band fans who travel to these Michigan woods and fields north of Muskegon from every corner of the country. It all fires up again on Thursday.
THE FUN OF ELECTRIC FOREST’S ‘CULTURE SHOCK’
“If you aren’t used to the market, it can be quite the culture shock: hippies, ravers and a lot of neon,” conceded David Shirey, a tech for Grand Rapids’ On Stage Services, which provides instruments and gear for a majority of Electric Forest performers. “People-watching is very entertaining at Electric Forest.”
Electric Octopus: Fans during a String Cheese Incident performance in 2012.
I can certainly vouch for that.
As for the performances, mainstream music mavens might only recognize a handful of names in the robust lineup (I count more than 100 acts, including Pretty Lights, Passion Pit, Lotus and wonderfully named outfits such as Pigs on the Wing, Party Supplies, The Fungineers and Jessijem ’n the Infamous Crotch Kickers), but rest assured the lion’s share of Electric Forest devotees not only know the bands intimately but the names of all past and present members, who they’re sitting in with, and probably what they snacked on after last night’s show.
Not only are they passionate about their artists – spending hours gyrating in front of stages in sunshine and starlight – but they’re passionate about Electric Forest as a Woodstock-like anti-institution, about its laid-back milieu, about its “everything’s groovy, man” congeniality, about its camaraderie-building spiritual experience.
(Oh sure, a good part of that “experience” involves certain mind-altering substances which turn the psychedelically lighted, hammock-strewn Sherwood Forest art and music installation into an ethereal other-world, especially at night.)
Colorful Vibe: Electric Forest comes to life with late-night parties. (Photo/Local Spins)
A THRILLING HOMECOMING SHOW
Greensky Bluegrass – one of the only Michigan bands in this year’s lineup – played both Rothbury festivals and will make its second official Electric Forest appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday on the big Ranch Arena, after playing just a 12-minute set in 2011 due to an electrical storm that shut down their stage.
“It should be a really good homecoming for us because a lot of people were disappointed. Rain started coming down and they asked us to stop for safety. People just stood there and hollered in the rain for the whole 90 minutes. They were waiting and cheered and screamed for the whole time,” Hoffman recalled. “We’ll come back (this year) and we’ll open with the same song and test fate and see what happens.”
For Greensky Bluegrass – which has become a national touring powerhouse on the bluegrass scene, performing upwards of 175 concerts a year – the return to Electric Forest is another milestone event to pump up its devoted Michigan fan base. The quintet (Hoffman, Anders Beck, Dave Bruzza, Michael Arlen Bont and Mike Devol) was the first to open one of the Rothbury stages five years ago, and Hoffman attended Mona Shores High School, just a short drive from the Double JJ Resort. “It’s a nice neighborhood feel for me in a way. My parents live like 10 miles away,” he said.
The band also prides itself on being one of the few bluegrass ensembles playing the festival.
“We’re really thankful that the band can fit into so many different environments and that we cross so many genre boundaries. That’s flattering that we can fit in with an older crowd with that bluegrass thing and then go to this electronic music festival and be just as well received. We like being the token bluegrass band,” Hoffman said.
Sun and Hoops: Hoop girls not surprisingly are everywhere at Electric Forest.
“It’s a younger crowd certainly and that’s our future, so I find it really amazing when we’re in that environment. … They put us in this slot where we’re a unique thing. Everybody who’s into it is going to be out and we’re going to get a great response.”
Jamming with other bands is also part of the Electric Forest vibe: In the past, Hoffman has sat in with The String Cheese Incident and hopes to do so again this year; Beck is slated to play with Jeff Austin & Friends on Saturday.
Greensky Bluegrass, which plans to release a new studio album this fall, the follow-up to 2011’s “Handguns,” also loves flying the Michigan flag at a big festival like Electric Forest.
“There aren’t a lot of bands from Michigan that hit the pavement like we do, so we’re happy to be the Michigan team on the road,” he said, “and it’s nice to represent when we’re here in Michigan.”
View the entire Electric Forest schedule online here, along with information about ticket sales. Although full weekend tickets start at $259, the festival also has started offering Saturday-Sunday passes for $162.50. Details here.
ELECTRIC FOREST AS A SCHOOL MUSIC PROGRAM BOOSTER
In the spirit of supporting the local community, the Electric Forest Music in Schools program will again donate money to public school music programs.
Late-Night Stage Show (Photo/ElectricForest.com)
Festival publicist Helen Anda reports that Shelby High School Music Director Curt Isakson intends to use the donation toward building a piano lab at the school, with as many as 20 Yamaha/Casio electric pianos and a teacher control system. The lab could be used not only by students, but could be open to after=school programs and community education classes. Read more about that online here.
Look also for the Shelby High School Marching Band’s special appearance at this year’s Electric Forest. Last year, the festival donated $5,000 to Shelby HIgh School and the Montague High and Middle schools. Montague used its share to boost teaching personnel for music classes, while Shelby purchased percussion equipment.
DETROIT NIGHT AT ELECTRIC FOREST
Electric Forest and Movement, the Detroit festival of electronica music that happens over Memorial Day weekend, are cross-pollinating in a serious way this year, Gary Graff reports in the Oakland Press.
Electric Forest took over a Hart Plaza stage at Movement last month, bringing its neon woods vibe to the Motor City. Movement returns the favor by “curating” a show at E.F.’s Tripolee stage on Thursday’s opening night. Graff says Electric Forest producer Jeremy Stein said the two festivals “would rather build bridges and make each other better.”
Get the full scoop in the Oakland Press story online here.
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
