…for String Cheese Incident’s last scheduled show at Red Rocks two Sundays from now.

You could say that I’m excited.

I recently acquired the lil’ blue beauty you see pictured above as a direct result of totaling my old car on the way to Summer Camp a month ago.  The accident seems to be a mixed blessing.  One of the unexpected pros of the situation was learning to drive a stick.  A more pertinent “benefit” would be the truck’s stereo setup, or lack thereof.  Specifically, I am now cruising around with a Clarion cassette tape deck with no visible screen.  I may not be able to bump like I used to, but I am now faced with the forced opportunity to fall back in love with cassette tapes, whose usefulness to me was rather limited before the age of 10, when we got a CD player in our house.  But, a decade and a trip to the used record store later, I am the proud owner of three gently used classic cassettes:

That’s right.  The best of The Allman Brothers, Boston’s self-titled, and the Best of Grand Funk.  Classics, indeed.

At this point, I would like to ask anyone reading this who has some jammin’ Phish or Dead tapes to share if they would be willing to send ‘em over for some good ol’ fashioned blanks & postage.  Shoot me an email at kanejamison@burningoak.com, I’d greatly appreciate it, since I have a few upcoming road trips and the local shop has zero Grateful Dead or Phish tapes for sale.

Additionally, any classic albums I should be considering for road trips?  My next trip to the record shack will likely involve the purchase of some Little Feat, Rolling Stones, and taking a hint from a favorite character of mine, some Creedence.  This may be the start of a new obsession…

Update:  It should also be noted that I will only be accepting cassette submissions from bands and promoters from this point forth.  CD’s will be passed among friends or delegated as coasters.

I pulled back into Urbana this morning after an exciting weekend in Chillicothe, IL, at Summer Camp 2007. Despite some inclement weather throughout the weekend and an unfortunate car accident along the way, it was a great weekend of music living up to all of my expectations for Summer Camp in the past. There are already some torrents showing up which I will be tracking here, and some news coverage from the local Peoria newspaper, including a police report (there was some heavier police presence than previous SC’s), and some coverage of Les Claypool’s activity, the events surrounding Summer Camp almost not returning to Chillicothe, and a report on the festivalgoers.

In the meantime until I get some more coverage up, enjoy some photos. My full photos from the festival can be found at Flickr.

moe. Sunday Night 05/27/2007

Banana Man at Backyard Tire Fire

John in his Dashiki

moe. before sunset

Relaxing at Camp Clover

The guys of Camp Clover

Nina and Captain Good Times’ Sweaty Nipple

Future Rock on Thursday night

Family Groove Company

…But luckily I am fine and noone was injured. Hopefully this won’t set the mood for a good weekend at Summer Camp. Everyone else, be careful, traffic lights in Peoria change abruptly…

Friday night, firedancers to the left of the main stage were a big hit, and under the right settings, make for beautiful photographs. Click on the photos to see the entire weekend on flickr, with many more firedancer shots as well.

A very large hill takes you from the main camping area to the stage, and moments before catching your first glimpse of the stage, a sign welcomes you: “Hello! Waited over 1,000,000 years to see you.”

Moments after the sign, here you are. The stage is under the cave, and you can see the white tent where the sound booth is facing the stage. All in all a very beautiful scene both during the day and at night, with proper lighting of course.

More pictures and commentary after the jump…

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