A Casual Vibe with Serious Production Value: Casual Campout Festival Review
A Casual Vibe with Serious Production Value: Casual Campout Festival Review
by Jason Jones
May 16, 2024
Casual Campout 2024 was a top flight festival through and through. With beautiful grounds, a lakeside stage, impressive production, outstanding amenities, comfortable camping, ideal weather, assorted vendors, delicious food trucks, an incredible lineup of artists, and only around 500 people in attendance, this small festival packed a wallop. From arrival to departure, Life is Art Studios delivered a high-end product.
Entry at the Lakeside Retreats gates was smooth, allowing us quick access to an open-field camping spot. We set up at the edge of a neighborhood of tents nestled against a shady forested area, which happened to be convenient to many of the vendors and amenities, e.g. the bounce house, the cold plunge, the sound bath, and the silent disco; not to mention, only a short walk to the main stage and lake. One giant advantage of a small festival is not having to hoof it literally miles back and forth in the sun and humidity or pay for taxis. Plus, your new friends are always nearby. With Darby Downy on the mic all weekend, hyping up campers, spreading joy, and instilling camaraderie every step of the way, spirits remained high from morning til…morning.
I’m getting older all the time and don’t burn the midnight oil like I once did, especially after driving and setting up camp for the first time this festival season; but I still caught three full shows on Friday, starting with Electrolust out of Asheville, NC, featuring Isaac Hadden sitting in on guitar. In matching gold-lined tiger-print jogging suits, and led by the soul-stirring Mary Frances on keyboards, Electrolust brought the perfect energy for the late afternoon set. Their blazing horn section matched with synth, percussion, keys, and blistering guitar made for a saucy start to my lake country soirée.
Coming in hot after a short break, Consider the Source, a peerless trio featuring Gabriel Marin on double-neck guitar, John Ferrara on bass, and drummer Jeff Mann, conducted the show from light to dark, with the audience riding their tumbling, heavy Middle Eastern bluesy waves out to sea, only to see them crash brilliantly back to shore. I can think of scarcely few musicians other than Gabriel Marin with the range, dexterity, brimstone, and vision to slay with a double-neck guitar and not parody themselves in the limelight. The closer “Enemies of Magick” topped off a soaring performance.
Another powerhouse trio, Lespecial, followed with a moody set of doom ‘n dance—discometal if you will. Lespecial makes riffy, mashed-up, thunderous rave music and the people responded accordingly on Friday night, breaking out into a setlong dance party. While most of the crowd stayed up for Late Night Radio and the silent disco, I turned in early with a big day planned on Saturday.
Our neighbors who had stayed up for the late night festivities, gave positive reviews of the party hour shows: Late Night Radio, Brennan Fowler, and Ranford Almond. Saturday afternoon’s music led off with The Settlement. The Huntington, WV quintet wasted no time jumping from the high dive, with the big splash coming at the outset, as the band unleashed a 17-minute “Riff Destroyer” opener. Artist-at-large Natalie Brooke joined on keytar to close out the set. After the show, we had the pleasure of interviewing Colten Settle about Casual Campout and the coming year for The Settlement.
Saturday’s pace was brisk, with a stacked deck of all-stars, one after the next. As we wrapped the weekend’s first interview, The Keith Allen Circus was slipping into the opening notes of their cosmic clown show. With ringleader Keith Allen dressed in a top hat and red jacket, the other band members donned clownish wigs to complete the look. Despite having seen Allen front The Mantras dozens of times in the past, this was my first experience hearing this new project. I had high expectations coming into it and was satisfied. The highlight for me was “Fountain’s Funk,” a bluesy tribute to Allen’s late friend and weird-music plug Jeremy Fountain. The tune did all my favorite things a good song is capable of: told a soulful story, captured the voice of a unique artist, and jammed like hell. Keith Allen also invited us in for an interview in the hospitality yurt following the show. The interview and an exclusive acoustic performance will be available soon.
I watched enough of The Talisman’s show to hear them introduce Isaac Hadden, whom they had only met that day. While Hadden once again found himself sitting in on guitar for a band in need, I took the opportunity to indulge in an invigorating roxy yoga session under the silent disco dome. The Life is Art team left no stone unturned when it came to the roster of wellness activities, including plenty of yoga, breath work, cold plunge, and sound bath sessions.
After yoga, it was right back to the main stage for our good friends LITZ. Typically known for their late night jamtronica sets, Austin Litz and company took the late afternoon set by storm. The four-piece delivered a raucous set of jamming funk. The band is a well oiled machine and I’m sucked-in time and time again by Austin’s octopus-like grasp of the music: he’s constantly shifting from keys to synth to saxophone to flute to vocals, always at the pivotal moment, and with subtlety and finesse.
Toubab Krewe was up next on Saturday night. Jam scene mainstays for nearly two decades, Toubab is one of the most unique bands running the roads, regardless of genre or style. With an assortment of instruments at their fingertips, whether it’s the standard stuff, like guitar, bass, and drums, or a worldly combination including a slew of West African implements such as ngoni, kora, and djembe, Toubab Krewe bathed the entire dancing crowd in a wash of mystical delights. Their all encompassing performance made way for Sunsquabi’s headlining set on Saturday night.
Sunsquabi, the massively popular trio from Denver, CO, brought barrels of energy to the lakeside stage. Whiplashing through fast-paced improv and liquified electronic grooves, Sunsquabi kept the crowd bouncing from the first note to the final. Nearly the whole festival was on hand and packed tight on the dance floor for the length of the show. Sunsquabi had the potion mixed properly, dosing attendees with sultry guitar attacks interspersed with seductive electronic layering, all laid across booty moving drums n’ bass.
Our neighbors awoke us with a home cooked breakfast and filled us in on the skunk hour shows. There was much ado around camp about the Sneezy and Casual Commander sets. Plus, we got another rave review of the early morning set, which saw Austin Litz turn it up with his solo EDM project, Crypto Wave Radio.
Sunday morning ushered in Mother’s Day at Lakeside Retreats, which featured a trio of showstopping acts. The fun started with Natalie Brooke orchestrating a midday dance party. After sitting in with a half dozen or more acts over the weekend, Brooke brought her 1980s inspired look and jiving four piece band to everyone’s attention. It’s clear that Brooke either brought or made a bunch of fans over the weekend, as the crowd packed in tight to the front of the stage to dance in the direct sun. With striking vocals, huge stage presence, and electrifying keyboard antics, all of the group’s talents were on full display.
We had the great fortune of finding a shady spot for our camp chairs next to Derek and Nancy Hadden, just as their college-aged son Isaac took the stage for the Isaac Hadden Organ Trio’s Casual Campout debut. I have seen IHOT numerous times previously, each with Iajhi Hampden on drums, but Sunday’s show offered a twist, as the legendary Jeff Sipe (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phil & Friends, Leftover Salmon) sat in on drums in place of Hampden. With a bevy of North Carolina based musicians making up the backbone of the Casual Campout lineup, it’s refreshing to find so many of them on good terms and working in collaboration with one another. While it’s a treat to see one of the jam and jazz scenes’ finest drummers cutting loose on a simple four-piece drum kit, it’s even cooler to see Jeff Sipe situated between the young maestro Isaac Hadden on guitar and the infamous Bill Stevens on keyboards. The trio tore through a vibrant set that left fans wanting more of Hadden’s illustrious guitar and high energy stage show. Jeff Sipe granted us a hair-raising interview following the show. Please tune in for the full video, which includes some unbelievable first-hand Col. Bruce Hampton stories. In another nod to the collaborative spirit, in each of our three interviews, Bill Stevens was mentioned unsolicited, proving what a fixture he and his Ovation Sound studios have become in the region.
As Casey & The Comrades soundchecked, we headed back to camp to fit in a quick healing session. A cold plunge followed by a sound bath is just what the body needs after a long weekend of rocking out in the sun. Coming out of it rejuvenated and ready, we hit the main stage for the weekend’s final performance. Casey Cranford, better known as the horn player for Big Something, brought together his Comrades project for the first time in over two years. Pulling out all stops, a number of showstoppers were brought on stage to participate, including Isaac Hadden, Bill Stevens, and Keith Allen. Per usual Cranford dazzled on both saxophone and the custom electric wind instrument (EWI) that he’s known for. As the set drew to a close, Casey tried pushing the time limits to play more music, but it wasn’t in the cards. Instead, Bill Stevens instigated a huge crowd photo to be taken from the stage, which gave everyone in attendance a reason to pack in close one last time before sending one another back into the real world again.
For my money, I could not have hoped for a better jump on festival season 2024. Big shout out to Stephen "Soup" Williamson, Daniel "TeBo" Thibault, and Darby Downy, the sound and light techs, medical staff, and everyone else who made Casual Campout a seriously fantastic time for all of us in attendance. If you’re into badass music played at a gorgeous venue, meeting amazing new people, taking care of your mind and body, then be sure to sign up for Casual Campout, Ramble Fest, The Big What? and anything else Life is Art Studios puts on. <>
Photo credit: Jason Jones