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Jul 12, 1996 (28 years ago) Deer Creek Music Center Noblesville, Indiana, United States
HORDE Festival appealed to the senses MARC D. ALLAN Indianapolis Star 13 July 1996
Whatever else you might say about this year's HORDE Festival, it smelled terrific. On Friday at Deer Creek Music Center, the scents of teriyaki, burritos, falafel and cajun chicken melded together and wafted over the festivities throughout the day.
And an enjoyable day it was.
HORDE (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere), which offered three stages this year, provided a more relaxed atmosphere than other festivals. When the main stage was in use, no one was playing on the second stage or the "workshop" stage (where, at one point, Blues Traveler's John Popper jammed with Taj Mahal). So, it was possible to see every set on the main stage and everything on either the second or workshop stages. For those who felt like staying seated, the festival piped music from the second stage into the pavilion.
Meanwhile, you could browse through the usual (and unusual) assortment of booths selling halter tops, glass figurines and hippie jewelry.
More than 16,700 people showed up for the tour, which in past years has catapulted the Spin Doctors and Sheryl Crow to national prominence. The color of the day was tie-dye, and it wasn't unusual to see someone walk through the aisles blowing merrily into a small wooden flute or slapping a tambourine.
Blues Traveler (2 stars), who created HORDE and once again were the headliners, closed the show with a flurry, if not a flourish, of blues-rock played at an antic pace.
The band's songwriting skills are starting to catch up to its musical talent, as evidenced by its multimillion-selling disc, Four. But in concert, Blues Traveler depends too much on speed. Its hyperactive 90-minute set - with no breaks between songs - barreled along like a 33-rpm record playing at 45, with Popper scat singing and blurring notes on his harmonica.
For a short while, it was breathtaking. But after the opening run of Love and Greed, Crash Burn and Hook, the rush began to lose its lustre. Crystal Flame showed waves of musical textures and tempos changes, but then the band sped off for good.
Impressive playing? Yes, for a while. Then tiring. And, finally, redundant.
Lenny Kravitz (3 stars) told the crowd that HORDE is the most fun he's had in eight years of touring. It showed. Kravitz and his six- piece band rocked hard during their nine-song set. Kravitz's music is basically rewritten '60s rock and funk put together in an energetic though derivative way. His name-that-tune, hourlong set started with Tunnel Vision - a rewrite of Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music paired with horn parts from Chuck Brown's Bustin' Loose - and continued through Let Love Rule, in which Sly Stone meets the Beatles.
With only an hour to perform, Rusted Root (3 1/2 stars) passed up its tendency to jam and stretch out songs. Instead, the band delivered a tight, hard-charging set while the crowd danced the drowning polywog - a holdover from the Grateful Dead, where legs flail and arms push forward, usually but not always in time to the beat.
The nine songs included Virtual Reality from the movie Twister - it sounded like a peppy '60s protest song - a fiery version of Scattered and a pretty, mandolin-based new song called Baby Will Ram.
But Rusted Root's best moment came when Laugh At the Sun segued into Ecstasy with the entire band engaged in a full- force tribal battle of drums and percussion.
Natalie Merchant (2 1/2 stars) eased through her hourlong set, playing with some arrangements and generally taking a low-key approach. She went from slow and a bit seductive (Carnival) to light Latin (These Are Days) to melancholy and dreamy (I May Know the Words) to oddly happy (Jealousy). Of the seven songs she performed, only the hit Wonder was truly energetic.
As she typically does live, Merchant spent a fair amount of time dancing - sometimes doing gawky twirls, other times belly dancing as she felt the grooves. If she had been in the audience, where the sound was shrill and sometimes overbearing, she might not have danced so freely.
Copyright 1996 - Indianapolis Star - All Rights Reverved
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