2018 Pot of Gold Festival

2018 Pot of Gold Festival’s Highlights

Rawhide Center, Chandler, AZ USA, March 16-18, 2018

By M. F. Andrews

Festival season is in full swing in Arizona these days. This is primarily due to the mild temperatures in March and April. The weather did not disappoint music fans for the Pot of Gold Festival on March 16-18. This was the fourth year for the festival and there were many ups and downs during the festival. The best part of the weekend was the entertainment and it was plentiful and stellar. There were two stages, one indoor and one larger stage outside. The good news for fans was that one did not have to walk very far to maneuver between the stages.

The first day was primarily hip-hop day with Russ as the headlining act. One major incident happened early during

Russ’ set that started when an apparently dehydrated fan passed out in the packed crowd and had to be taken to the medics. Russ and his peeps stepped up and they started passing water out to the crowd. An unidentified attendee threw a bottle back to the stage and hit Russ in the abdomen. Russ asked the perpetrator to identify himself, but no one did. Russ said, “Yeah, you won’t come up here, but you’ll go home and talk shit about it on Twitter.” The show went on without further incident. Other entertainers for the day included Dej Loaf, PNB Rock, They., Lil Skies and many more.

Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and the fans were dressed for the occasion in the green garb, top hats and face painting. The beer flowed freely for the older crowd. The music of the day was Americana, rock and blues. Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band were the headlining act. Lesh is one of the founding members of the Grateful Dead and has been celebrating greater than 50 years performing over the last couple of years. He also celebrated his 78th birthday last week.

The Terrapin Family members for this show included Grahame Lesh on guitar and vocals. Grahame is Phil’s son. Elliott Peck was the powerful female vocalist for the night. Both Lesh and Peck are core members of the band, Midnight North that played a set earlier in the day. Jason Crosby on keyboards, Ross James on guitar and Alex Kofort on drums rounded out the band. Everyone added vocals during the set. Phil had been battling the flu the week before the show, so his vocals were absent most of the set. The jams were plentiful throughout the 2½ hour set. The set consisted mostly of Grateful Dead material with a few CSNY cover songs including “Ohio.”

Earlier in the day, there were special bands that included The Infamous Stringdusters. This five-piece Americana

band was as talented and as tight as they come. Their energy was infectious as they were ‘jamgrassed’ through their set.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones brought their revivalist set to the indoor stage. The band is lead by Paul Janeway who trained to be a preacher in Alabama. However, he ‘flew the religion coupe’ and became a ‘soul’ singer instead. The set started rather slow, but it became more intense as it moved along. It got rowdy when Janeway kicked his shoes of the stage and got into a real revival groove.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters gave a respectable blues set during the day but had sound problems mid-set. The guys continued like nothing happened even though there were technical difficulties. Guitarist and vocalist Todd Mohr announced that this was their thirtieth year together. Their jams on Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and Hendrix’s “Hey Joe” were highlights of the set.

Country singer Cody Jinks drew a large crowd prior to Phil Lesh’s set. Jinks’ songs have all the elements of love, loss, and drinking that have made Texas songwriters famous. Jinks is getting ready to release a new album and he performed some of the new material. “Hippies and Cowboys” was by far the crowd’s favorite song of the night.
Sunday’s entertainment was a mix of genre from hip-hop, Americana, rock and jam music.

Donovan Frankenreiter is touted to be a professional surfer and a singer/songwriter. His alt-pop/rock music has the

same vibe as Jack Johnson. He hit the stage looking like a cross between Kit Carson and General George Custer instead of the surfer dude we were expecting. Frankenreiter and his three-piece band delivered a superlative set. Frankenreiter stuck around to sit in with his pals G. Love and Special Sauce for a couple of songs.

G. Love and Special Sauce delivered a superlative set of soulful and raucous music. Love’s harmonica was the centerpiece of the set. That said, the rest of the band gave powerhouse performances as well. The highlight of the set was Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

Hip-hop lovers were treated to sets by O.T. Genasis, Felly, and Dirty Heads. The adoring fans packed in the outdoor stage area for all three acts during the day. Felly was the most charismatic performer of the day. But Dirty Heads gave fans the most energetic set. Duddy B and Dirty J alternated singing and rapping. The fans knew all the words to their hit songs and reciprocated by singing along. It was an engaging set with lots motion that included a light show.

It was the perfect intro for the headliners, Rebelution.

Rebelution returned to Pot of Gold Festival after their first appearance in 2015. Their heavy dub reggae sounds brought their fans out in force wearing their tye dye duds left over from Saturday’s Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family set. The music was sweet reggae all the way.

The festival environment best features were the clean bathrooms and the VIP areas. The festival needs to improve the selection of the food venders. It was expensive carnival food all the way and not good carnival food. Everything was fried, and the oil was changed way too seldom. Who fries waffles? The music was really what the festival was about. Anyway, that’s my story.

 

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Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band Set List:
Set 1
2. The Music Never Stopped- (Grateful Dead cover)
3. Bertha- (Grateful Dead cover)
4. Friend of the Devil- (Grateful Dead cover)
5. Mr. Charlie- (Grateful Dead cover)
6. Loser-(Jerry Garcia cover)
7. Scarlet Begonias- (Grateful Dead cover)
8. Sunshine Daydream- (Grateful Dead cover)
9. New Minglewood Blues -(Grateful Dead cover)
Set 2
11.Born Cross-Eyed- (Grateful Dead cover)
12.Cream Puff War- (Grateful Dead cover)
13.Shakedown Street- (Grateful Dead cover)
14.Get Off Your Ass and Jam- (Funkadelic cover)
15.Playing in the Band- (Bob Weir cover)
16.Ohio- (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover)
17.The Wheel- (Jerry Garcia cover)
18.Lady With a Fan- (Grateful Dead cover)
19.Terrapin Station- (Grateful Dead cover)
20.Playing in the Band- (Bob Weir cover) (reprise)
Encore:
22.Love the One You’re With- (Stephen Stills cover)