Day One of the Planet Caravan fest was last night, and a fest it was indeed, though I could see why they cut ticket prices as the go date drew closer. Even as the evening wore on and it got more crowded, there was still plenty of milling-about room. The bands ruled: highlights were Burst‘s set (despite technical problems), Bison B.C. doing “These are My Dress Clothes” over at Mo Daddy’s next to The Orange Peel, Clutch (of course) and Kylesa riffing out “Running Red” and sounding more massive than I’ve ever heard them. Last time I caught a set of theirs was in Austin, TX, a couple years ago and their two drummers played on an open trailer while the rest of the band stood on a back yard. That was cool, this was better.

Sourvein canceled, which was a shitter since they were kind of the sludge representatives for the day. Zoroaster are doomy, don’t get me wrong, but I was looking forward to seeing T-Roy and Co. tear it up in their native habitat. My sorrows I drowned in beer. Finally met Ben Hogg, who didn’t realize he knew me, toasted Ben Ward from Orange Goblin, whom I’m supposed to be interviewing in a scant couple hours, and fists with the guitarist from Zoroaster, whose set I missed entirely. Classy.

The plan for today: Shower shortly, go back to the Early Girl Eatery for another black bean and cheddar cheese omelet (holy shit that was good), kill a couple hours by any means necessary, then meet up with the Pentagram dudes for a sitdown interview. Then a beer with Ben Orange Goblin and probably finish with that in time to catch Taddy Porter about whom I know absolutely nothing. My mission for the show tonight is to make it through Pentagram‘s set. Hardly lofty aspirations, but I’m old and lame. Need better pacing on the hooch intake. First night’s always the roughest.

Tags: Asheville, North Carolina, Planet Caravan

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under Reviews, Whathaveyou. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.