March 23 and 24 brought thousands of music lovers to congregate in Lake Placid, NY for snoe.down, an annual festival hosted by popular jam band, moe., for the second year in a row.
Both Friday and Saturday, band after band played impressive sets at both the Olympic Center and Whiteface Mountain, before the finale – a three-hour performance by moe.
A wide range of genres were satisfied by the performers, from Philly’s trans-fusion jam band Disco Biscuits, to New York City’s electronic samba, to Gordon Stone’s legendary combination of bluegrass and jazz, dosed with some Latin beats and funk. Even some of Burlington’s finest made appearances: The Casual Fiasco played Friday in their continuation of exploring new touring grounds.
Other bands included Little Feet, Tea Leaf Green, Peter Prince and Vorzca. Even Soulive’s saxophone star, Sam Kininger, made an appearance Friday night, and put on a stunning performance.
The Olympic Center was the perfect setting, where acoustics boomed around the building with the main stage enclosing the large dance pit in the center of the surrounding seats. Laser lights of neon colors mixed with strobe effects set the perfect mood for the die-hard fans dancing together throughout the festival.
Saturday started out early in the Cloudspin Lounge at Whiteface Mountain, where people hit the slopes, had a drink and enjoyed live music.
These few sets began with Hot Day at the Zoo, a northeast string band that blends bluegrass with folk and various areas of jazz. The four-man band put on an amazing show, and played an encore show later at the Olympic Center.
The night began at 5:30 p.m. with The SLIP, a modern rock trio from Boston who recently released one of their most melodic albums, “Eisenhower.”
Their performance promoting the new along with playing older songs was beautiful yet too slow-paced at times.
The intensity ceased at 7:00 p.m. for the enchanting and outrageous Brazilian Girls. A band with ironically only one woman, Sabina Sciubba, put on a buzzing set as she danced around and sang in five different languages to a combination of reggae and samba along with electronics that begged for dancing.
Then the Disco Biscuits, who never fail to put on more of a religious experience than a music show, stunned the crowds, opening with Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmere” and later covering the Pink Floyd classic, “Echoes.”
(I thought I could never see another performance by this trance-fusion band as beautiful as my last Bisco experience, but I was very wrong.)
The night ended with moe. and, while it was hard to imagine how even this band could follow the Disco Biscuits, they managed with almost three hours of amazing music. “I couldn’t have asked for much more,” UVM student and Disco Biscuit enthusiast Stephen Putnam gasped after it was all over. “The bands did spectacular jobs and I can’t wait to see what happens here next year.”
