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The Tao of Wu
by Jason Fladager - phlaash@aol.com - The Big WuTwo happy things to post for this month....
#1. We are so pleased to be embarking on our first EAST COAST summer tour! The bus leaves on Wednesday morning. Last year we made it to Berkfest, but then it rained HARDCORE so we got washed back home. We were fortunate enough to play a show in the basement of the Wetlands last summer and its for certain we'll be there again on this Thursday June 17th. If you feel like gettin a copy of our schedule for yourself you can just write me or go to thebigwu.com. Thanks to Ken Hays for giving us a shot at the Gathering of the Vibes. We'll be playing quite early on Saturday: 10a.m.. if you are interested. I'll bring the coffee... Thanks ahead of time for checking out the music and hope you all enjoy it! I'm so happy to see The Disco Biscuits are playing right after us...I get to say hello to my new friend Jon the Barber! More about him toward the bottom....
#2 The Big Wu Family Reunion was more than we ever hoped for. I've said it a few times and I'll say it again, this festival wasn't about The Big Wu, it was about something much greater. People respecting people, picking up trash, being conscious participants in a groovy weekend. Man....I can't tell ya how happy all of us felt after leaving that weekend. There were 2000+ people there and all I picked up late Monday afternoon was a grocery bags worth of ciggie butts! That to me is incredible. It really felt as though this weekend was a shining example of how to PARTY your ass off while at the same time being respectful of your neighbors. I'll give ya another example: It was prolly 3am and you could here kidz in the back of the park boiling up a great drumjam. Well...the lake carries that all over the place and we just couldn't have it at that hour, so we went back and asked if they could hold off til' next morning light before getting a full drum jam going. These kids are like "Hey man...no problem. See ya tomorrow!". WOW! Normally, that could have been a huge hassle and people would whine and complain and talk about how their freedom is being messed with but NO... a smile and a friendly word and thats all it took.
Friday Night started off with NASTY GOAT. There are a local Minneapolis Phatty Acid Jazz group that was the perfect way to start a near perfect weekend. I would compare them to MMW. I booked the Slip to play the Terminal Bar a while back and they said they knew each other well. I would go nuts to see a Slip/Nasty Goat show. After the Goat, we had Minneapolis favorite DEAN MACGRAW. Dean MacGraw is one of those precious secrets that every city has. He is probably the most versatile guitar player IN THE WORLD. I ain't lyin' folks...I would pay HEAVILY to see a Dean MacGraw/Trey Anastasio show. TREY LISTEN TO ME!....Harry Hood with guest Dean MacGraw would TEAR THE HOUSE DOWN! Dean did two sets with a trio and then a third set with The Big Wu. Believe me, its very much an honor for us to play with this extremely talented, magical person. Dean is the shit... Saturday's show started off with Cloudsplitter which consists of my bandmates Terry and Chris as well as a great lead vocalist named Kevin. Chris plays pedal steel as Terry plays drums with them. They are kinda country-bluegrass...and definitely very good. After that we had Bobby Llama, a band from Minneapolis that you can check out at this summer's July 4th High Sierra Music Festival. Be sure to pay attention to Ellis the lead singer and her powerful words. Tremendous songwriters that can get the groove on and take it out there; and, they also are from St. Olaf college like we are! David Nelson Band followed and got the place rockin' with great versions of The Wheel and Panama Red. We were so grateful they made the long trek out to perform for all of us...much thanks! Saturday night was the Big Wu and I'll let others comment on the show. I can tell you one thing, I got violently ill during that set of music...actually it was towards the end of the first set. I left halfway through a song called Dan Toe and yakked back behind the stage. I kept telling myself, "Now don't you go and yack on stage and make a fool of yerself!'" ...so I kept choking it down until it could be choked no more! Turns out it was the FLU and dehydration...for real too. Very uncool considering it was my 1 year Anniversary and my wife Cari and I wanted to party hard in celebration. I spent all of Saturday late night and Sunday in a Holiday Inn instead of with my friends and extended family. It was a bummer....thankfully I felt a little better the next day and Cari and I ended up gettin a little "whacky" so no worries. The next week was a bitch...anyway, back to the music! Sunday started with my favorite best kept secret from Ames IOWA, Medulla Oblongata. Again these kids are not wasting time in front of the Nintendo...they are writing some of the most original insane music out there right now. You MUST check them out if you can! The Disco Biscuits followed Medualla and put on my favorite performance of the weekend. I believe they played Vivaldi's Four Season's which was crimson...stellar set from the East Coast Boyz. I'm a huge fan now that I finally "got it". They were so impressive and now I'm sure have quite a fan base in this area. We love em! The Big Wu followed their set. THEN CAME...my highlight of the whole weekend. Everyone Sunday night was tweaked because the weekend was so successful. We had a second stage that The Jones Gang was running acoustically 24/7 all weekend, and Sunday late night it was: Jon the Barber from the Biscuits on Guitar, my good friend Stu Allen singing who packs the soul and emotion of Garcia in every breath (...now he don't SOUND like Garcia but he FEELS like it...truly beautiful voice and achingly wonderful!), Chris on Mandolin (..my good friend and bandmate), Leif and Lee from the Jones Gang on Drums and Bass, and some groovy cat from a local band Big Tasty, on small keys. The magic came during a cover of "I shall Be Released"
...I thought of the family that has grown up around us, the music, my own family, the energy, getting to know Jon the Barber who I think is ONE GROOVY CAT, and so forth and I just lost it. Such warm goodness and wonderfulness...I was blissed out.
This whole weekend was a culmination of seven years of writing music and working hard and playing hard ...and it couldn't have gone better. We are so grateful to the musicians and voluteers for their efforts in making this the most successful event of our careers thus far. Again, it wasn't about the music or the big wu or any one thing. There was a common sense of community and consciousness going through the park all weekend. It goes to show what can be accomplished when good Heads get together and stick with a common goal. Much praise to all. A happy one~!!!
See you all out East ...and please say hello if you get the chance. I'm more than anxious to put many faces to e-mail screen names!
Jason phlaash@aol.com
http://www.thebigwu.com
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