Bonified Bonnaroo vs. languishing Langerado, and where Coachella stands in comparison

To give a little perspective to the Coachella lineup this year, let's take a quick look at two other big music festivals: Langerado and Bonnaroo.

Scheduled for March 6-8 this year in Miami, the Langerado Music Festival announced today was "cancelled due to sluggish ticket sales." Co-Promoter Ethan Schwartz said: "Langerado has always put the fan experience first. Unfortunately, during these difficult economic times, and facing a first year in a new venue, it's become apparent that we cannot execute a production that lives up to the high standards of our past events. Putting Langerado on hold was the toughest decision we have ever had to make. We are very grateful for the support of the greater-Miami community and the music community during this difficult time."

Too bad. The festival had some nice lineups over the years. This year's lineup was scheduled to include: Death Cab for Cutie, Snoop Dogg, Thievery Corporation, Slightly Stoopid, Ryan Adams and the Cardinals, Dashboard Confessional, The Pogues, Matisyahu, Flogging Molly, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Broken Social Scene, Café Tacuba, Umphrey's McGee, The Disco Biscuits, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Pepper, The Faint, Cold War Kids, Steel Pulse, Public Enemy, Gym Class Heroes, Tricky, Girl Talk, Chromeo, Mute Math, Bad Brains, Ozomatli, Against Me!, George Clinton & Parliament / Funkadelic, Tortoise, DeVotchKa, Black Kids, Grupo Fantasma, Holy F*ck, Budos Band, Tokyo Police Club, Lotus, The Virgins, The Gaslight Anthem, King Khan and the Shrines, Lucero, Murs, Ra Ra Riot, Tortured Soul, Rebelution, K'Naan, The Egg, Zac Brown Band, Tigercity, The Aggrolites, Cloud Cult, Spam Allstars, Rachel Goodrich, Blue King Brown, The Heavy Pets, Awesome New Republic, The Postmarks, Suenalo Sound System, Live Painting by LEBO, Modest Mouse, Gene Ween Band, Deerhunter, Alberta Cross.

That's a pretty nice lineup, but there's probably not the big name headliners to anchor the whole thing... Sound familiar?

On the other end of the spectrum lies Bonnaroo. The eighth annual four-day festival will be held June 11-14 on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., 60 miles south of Nashville. The lineup is slightly more rootsy and mainstream than Coachella, but Bonnaroo pulled off what the Southern California desert could not: nail down some bonafied headliners.

Check out the list of bands playing Bonnaroo this year:



Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Phish (2 Shows), Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, Wilco, Al Green, Snoop Dogg, Elvis Costello Solo, Erykah Badu, Paul Oakenfold, Ben Harper and Relentless7, The Mars Volta, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gov't Mule, Andrew Bird, Band of Horses, Merle Haggard, MGMT, moe., The Decemberists, Girl Talk, Bon Iver, Béla Fleck & Toumani Diabate, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Galactic, The Del McCoury Band, of Montreal, Allen Toussaint, Coheed and Cambria, Booker T & the DBTs, David Grisman Quintet, Lucinda Williams, Animal Collective, Gomez, Neko Case, Down, Jenny Lewis, Santogold, Robert Earl Keen, Citizen Cope, Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, The Ting Tings, Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Kaki King, Grizzly Bear, King Sunny Adé, Okkervil River, St. Vincent, Zac Brown Band, Raphael Saadiq, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Crystal Castles, Tift Merritt, Brett Dennen, Mike Farris and the Roseland Rhythm Revue, Toubab Krewe, People Under the Stairs, Alejandro Escovedo, Vieux Farka Touré, Elvis Perkins In Dearland, Cherryholmes, Yeasayer, Todd Snider, Chairlift, Portugal. The Man., The SteelDrivers, Midnite, The Knux, The Low Anthem, Delta Spirit, A.A. Bondy, The Lovell Sisters, Alberta Cross.

Pretty impressive. So you have one festival kicking some serious ass, booking the big names needed to sell tix, and then you have another festival closing its doors. The decision is yours Coachella: follow suit on the former (add a few more bands), or suffer the fate of the latter.

¡DEVOTCHKA!: 'Tuba dance party'

Arrange the uppercase letters anyway you want: Devotchka, or DeVotchKa ... but more like ¡DEVOTCHKA! The band and their excellent label ANTI- prefer DeVotchKa, so we'll defer to them (despite the extra key strokes).

The Denver-based quartet is coming to town for a show this Wednesday at the Belly Up, so I thought I'd get myself pumped by delving into their music a bit. I'll try to write a few words as a follow up to the live experience. They were one of my favorite bands at last year's Street Scene in downtown SD, so I'm excited to check them out in a smaller venue with a more focused eye and ear.

In the wake of the heralded "Little Miss Sunshine" soundtrack and signing with a major label, DeVotchKa released a shiny new album in 2008 "A Mad and Faithful Telling" with the help of Craig Schumacher at Wavelab Studios in Tuscon (see the cool video press release from ANTI- below). He's produced some of my favorite artists from recent years (Calexico, M. Ward, Richard Buckner and Neko Case to name a few), adding a desert-inspired, feverish shimmer to the record.

Sound
Sidestepping all the Eastern Euro-gypsy-mariachi-desert noir lingo, this is what I hear:

Sweeping strings sing and dual mariachi horns blare, like a wide angle sepia-toned photo of flat arid land as far as the eye can see...

... And then the sousaphone stomps into view on the tune "Twenty Six Temptations" like a hairy Hungarian strongman lifting a 300 dumbbell in one hand while grabbing the song by the scruff of the neck and tossing it to and fro with the other hand.

... And then the accordion sweeps you off you're feet in a song like "Strizzalo" with Parisian street busker flair.

But the real gem at the heart of DeVotchKa is the songwriting: sweet and sad and longing for a homeland that's anywhere but here. Flesh of my flesh/Soul of my soul/Come back home sings Nick Urata on "Dearly Departed" in his high-pitched plaintive voice.

One listen to Urata's voice and his crystal clear songwriting, and you're transported into his world of doe-eyed longing for the places you've been and a sense of wonder for the small things surrounding you now. DeVotchKa's music is about movement, not only the journey through the dizzying array of genres they inhabit, but the inherent feeling of missing places you've never seen.

Lineup

Nick Urata: Vocals, guitars, piano, Theremin, trumpet
Jeanie Schroder: acoustic bass, sousaphone, vocals
Shawn King: drums, percussion, trumpet
Tom Hagerman: violin, accordion, piano

Clips

Here's a live clip featuring the song "The Enemy Guns" from Twist & Shout, a record store in the band's hometown of Denver:



"Along the way" live at a SXSW showcase last year in a clip produced by their record label:



Another clip produced by the label, on the making of their last album: