Sunday, September 23, 2012

Concert Review: Farm Aid 2012 - Hershey, Pennsylvania

I wanted to get here early, but was not feeling too well these last few days. Not sure if it was allergies, stress, sickness, or perhaps some combination, but I ended up accidentally napping for hours, and felt worse for the wear after so doing. There was one point, I swear, I looked at the clock and it said it was right around noon. It felt like I blinked a couple of times, then I looked at the clock again, and it said 1:00. It was just one of those days.

Funny thing was, the morning got off to a good start. I wrote and added two entries to this blog, then went hiking in the cool morning hours. Those are two things that have a bit of a streak going and, heading back to the apartment, I felt good. Strong, even.

So, it seemed like I had a good hour or two of downtime to relax a bit before departing for the concert, right? Wrong. I lay next to my girlfriend on the couch, and promptly fell asleep. Again, upon waking, I felt worse then I had before. It felt as though i could easily have slept another two or three hours, at least, and this after a night off that saw me sleep for maybe seven or eight hours. Also frightening: my arms and legs felt so tired, they were shaky. I get those feelings sometimes, but they are never joyous, and all the more so when about to start the day. If such fatigue was going to happen, why would it not happen right after the physical toil of hiking, anyway?

But anyway, I digress...

We got to Hershey rather late, unfortunately, and had already missed a sizable chunk of the show. Still, what we saw certainly did not disappoint!

Among the artists that were yet to perform once we got there were the high energy band from Vermont, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, followed by Jack Johnson, the phenomenally popular Kenney Chesney, and the main four acts, which included Dave Matthews and the three founding members of Farm Aid - John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson.

Grace Potter was incredibly energetic, and my girlfriend & I were very impressed with her. She was bouncing around the stage and got the crowd pumped.

Jack Johnson has an impressive number of hits, and he performed quite a few of them during his set (although he forgot to do my personal favorite of his, You and Your Heart, but that's okay). He seemed so laid back about the whole thing, which was perhaps befitting a man from Hawaii.

The crowd was downright raucous when Kenney Chseney took the stage. This is a phenomenally popular act, although I am, admittedly, not all that familiar with his work. He was there the only other time I had ever attended a Farm Aid, and he received a similar reaction then. In the introduction, it was stated that he had enjoyed the hottest tour of any artist during the past summer, although I did not hear anything to either confirm or refute this, one way or the other. He lent his high octane presence and a very clear and powerful voice to the concert, as well as apparently melting the hearts of all the women in attendance, judging from the reaction.

Chesney and Jack Johnson served as the bridge from the lesser known acts to the well-established acts that have a stake in Farm Aid and, thus, are the annual performers. The first among these was Dave Matthews, who came out with his fellow band mate Tim Reynolds, and did an incredible set! my personal favorite is "Don't Drink the Water", which they usually seem to perform to open a show. They did not open with it this time, although they performed it nonetheless. it sounded unbelievable in the stripped down acoustic. Obviously, Matthews is wildly popular as well, and the crowd reacted very well to his appearance and appreciated his set list, as well as the wit that he generously showed in between songs.

Finally, there were the three founding members of Farm Aid. Mellencamp came out with his entourage and did his thing. Some people around me expressed their shock at how old he was getting, and his voice was rather rough, perhaps recording some of the excesses of his self-described "sins" during his life. But he can still rock the house, as he did this time. So did Neil Young, this time performing with his band Crazy Horse (he had done a solo act on electric guitar back in 2010 in Milwaukee), and finally, the elder statesman of the popular music industry, if you will, Willie Nelson.

The idea behind Farm Aid was to promote awareness for the troubling trend of family farms being lost and unable to compete against huge corporate farms. Farm Aid encourages a grass roots approach, allowing small farmers a bit more of a forum to express their ideas and inventions at the show, in the "Farm Aid Village", which includes all sorts of educational tables and expositions. There were even courses available, if you were so inclined. And while I personally did not take any of the courses, some of them really were intriguing enough to catch my attention, such as Composting 101, and how to cook home grown food on a budget, among others.

Of course, there was fresh food available, particularly Home Grown (you can log into Farm Aid's own community, HOMEGROWN.org, for more information), and the type of fresh food that you can see at the local farmer's market. One thing that caught my attention (although I missed the name of the speaker), was a bill that was being promoted that would allow food stamps to count double in value at the local farmer's market, in order to promote local farmers and their produce, as well as better health for the disadvantaged).

I personally love Farm Aid, both the idea of it, as well as the actual concert and events surrounding it! It is always such a pleasure, and even, yes, an education. It tends to travel around quite a bit, and this was the first time in a few years that it had been to the east coast. If it travels anywhere near you one of these days, I would recommend giving it a shot, at least for a day. If nothing else, you are guaranteed a full day and evening of great music and, if you want it, some great food. Plus, if you're willing to open yourself up to it, you just might learn something, as well! That's always a plus in my book.

Here are some early printed reviews of the show that it seemed would be good to share:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/09/diversity_of_styles_music_clot.html

http://news.yahoo.com/farm-aid-2012-people-want-good-food-family-160000912.html

Here's a link to an article that further details the good works that Farm Aid does in helping farmers:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120920/us-farm-aid/

Here's the link to Farm Aid itself:

http://www.farmaid.org

Also, being the modern, hip, technologically advanced young lad that I am, here are some pictures from the show:













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