Sonic Bloom Festival In Pictures

Written by Michael Garfield Friday, 17 July 2009 19:55

From 26 to 28 June, in the mountains Northwest of Fort Collins, an intimate crew of live-electronic aficionados gathered to get down until sun up every night at Sonic Bloom, one of the nation's premier electronic arts events and a definite feather in the cap of the Colorado music scene.

This year marked my third invitation to CO band Zilla's homegrown freakout, and first year I could actually make it – releasing an enormous amount of expectation and excitement like a long-coiled spring.  As if rewarded for my patience, I was given the honor of attending as a billed visual arts performer on the website for my live painting, and along with fellow live painter Krystle Smith was entrusted to curate the festival's first-ever visionary art gallery.

I'll leave it to the other correspondents to tell you about the big acts like Zilla, EOTO, Bassnectar, Tipper, Random Rab, and Mochipet.  Here are a few pictures and stories from an amazing weekend at the incredibly beautiful but all-too-small-for-this-event Mishawaka Ampthitheatre...

Here's the view from next to my easel, placed prominently off to one side of the main stage (the two stages, set up only about thirty feet apart, ran alternating sets all weekend – so I didn't have to haul my equipment from one end of the festival to the other every two hours).  Zion Rock Godchaux (yes, Rock is his middle name – that's what you get for being a child of The Grateful Dead) of Boombox can be seen here with his ever-present feather boa and characteristic lackadaisical rock posture.  iClips.net was video-streaming the entire weekend but frustratingly decided to mount their cameras directly in front of the painters, making us invisible to the internet audience.  But they were very nice guys.  Off to either side, you can see some of the myriad miniature TV screens that were broadcasting tasty VJing every night...

This is what I saw every night when I turned around to scope the crowd.  In the background is Mishawaka's main building, a restaurant and indoor venue space where we had set up the visionary art gallery (see below).  Notice the large number of sunglasses at night...I can only imagine this is due to the over-the-top lightshows, and not because anybody thinks it looks cool.  But God knows.  You can also see the delicious arrays of flags and balloons that were set up everywhere and gave Sonic Bloom a very festive ambience a la the Shambhala Music Festival or Burning Man.

In an attempt to explain the overwheming majesty of this venue, let me start by saying that the above picture was taken FIVE FEET behind the main stage.  This is the Cache La Poudre River, and Mishawaka is twenty-five minutes up the Poudre River Canyon...making it both pleasantly remote and also kind of a struggle.  Previous drunk driving accidents and other intoxicated stupidity forced the Mish's staff to close camping on the island and road next to the venue itself and provide a free shuttle from the base of the canyon, which meant that there was a lame half hour between the campsites and the music.  But I slept in the art gallery, so this festival wins the award for Least Walking Around With A Bunch Of Heavy Art Supplies.  Anyway, look at those lovely cairns!  The running water kept the energy fresh and lively all weekend...simply amazing.

Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salzmann of Big Gigantic killing it during their early-evening set on Saturday.  These guys blew up overnight, playing at Rothbury and 10,000 Lakes Festivals this summer in addition to playing at Sound Tribe Sector Nine's major Red Rocks showing this summer...and they deserve every bit of it.  When was the last time you heard badass breakbeats with saxophone and live drums on top of the synths?

This is the consequence of putting the campgrounds half an hour away from the stages...a lot of people missed some fantastic music during the early evenings, because the on-the-hour buses couldn't ferry everyone up from their tent parties early enough.  A disappointment, I'm sure, for the excellent talent that got a somewhat dismal turnout.  But it contributed to the "family" vibe of the event, for sure.

This girl was walking around with highlighters and a blacklight doodling on herself.  She asked me to contribute a backpiece – hence the glowing bird on her shoulders.  Bodypainting on random people has become just another part of my job.  It's like people can smell my complicity from across the theatre...

In addition to five live painters, a scarcely-believable music line-up (see the website for more about that), VJs, digital live illustration, and fabric dancing, there was a permanent ring for fire dancers.  And they were a frequent distraction for me, as evidenced by this photo just off to the side of the mainstage opposite from my easel, where I was standing with my feet almost in the river.

Here we have Beats Antique making saturnalia happen on a Sunday night...that's my friend Dr. Natalie in the cow's head.  One of the weekend's more surreal moments.

And here is a shot of one corner of the visionary art gallery that took over the inside of Mishawaka's unused indoor venue.  Krystle and I, with a lot of help, set the couches up into a comfortable chillspace on the indoor stage and threw lights and paintings on every available surface (including the ceiling).  It was the place to be all weekend, if you needed a break from the dance pit but wanted to stay within earshot of the music.  Artists represented here:  Kayla Andreano, Zach Emmendorfer, Krystle Smith, Todd Shepherd, Dylan Brooks, Michael Garfield, Sarah Lowe, and Dana Raabe...all excellent and worth your time to hunt down and investigate.

Next year, festival organizer and Zilla's hammer dulcimer master Jamie Janover assures me, Sonic Bloom will be back at a much larger and more convenient venue.  Don't miss it...