McDowell Mountain Music Festival (M3F) 2020

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McDowell Mountain Music Festival (M3F)
Margaret T. Hance Park, Phoenix, Ariz. March 6-9, 2020
by Mary Andrews

The McDowell Mountain Music Festival (M3F) has returned to downtown Phoenix for the 17th year providing three days of a mixed bag of musical genre. The festival had many great moments over the weekend and a few moments that need some improvement. However, it was a beautiful weekend that was filled with a lot of fun and tons of music.

The most important thing about the festival is that this is a charity event. The festival has raised more than two million dollars for local charities. This year, proceeds will be split between the Arizona Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital, whose music therapy program has been funded 100% by M3F for the past three years.

The day before the festival started, it was announced that Sunday’s headliner, Stick Figure, cancelled. Rumor on social media was that the lead singer was ill. Sunday’s schedule was changed to list Greensky Bluegrass to headline scheduled at a later hour. There was not enough time to add another act.

Unrated was there on the first day and here are some of the highlights.

Jawny aka Johnny Utah (credit: Mary Andrews)

Jawny aka Johnny Utah performed early in the day. He has over 70 thousand Instagram followers. His set consisted of his peppy pop-dance music. He has released several singles including “Honeypie,” “Anything You Want,” and “Really Meant” and all were performed during the set.

Toubab Krewe gave an engaging performance early in the day of West African Music fused with rock ‘n roll, reggae, and funk. There were two types of West African harp-lutes and African percussion in the band along with rock drums, guitar, and electric bass. They performed some West African traditional harvest music at the end of the set.

LA indie band, Local Natives, made a return visit to Phoenix. They have been on the scene since 2005. They eased into the set with “Vogue,” the track that opens last year’s record, Violet Street.

Other highlights included “I Saw You Close Your Eyes,” “Cafe Amarillo,” “Dark Days” and “When Am I Gonna Lose You.” The day’s big political statement was a message of peace, love and understanding.

Neal Francis was a pleasant surprise as he proved to be a force of nature leading his bandmates in a cool funk and soul revue that effortlessly built the set with rock music.

Francis threw himself into the set from behind his keyboard rig, a Hohner D6 Clavinet with a whammy bar attached perched atop his Hammond organ.

The set was a mixture of original songs and a handful of great covers. Their take on the Meters song “You’ve Got to Change,” with a scorching guitar lead and drums.

They followed the heavy psychedelic funk of Shuggie Otis’ “Strawberry Letter 23” with an impromptu addition to the setlist, John Lennon’s “Cold Turkey.”

The young foursome LANY, led by singer Paul Jason Klein, delivered the kind of adult alternative pop that seemed to be connecting with a young demographic, judging by the strong group of girls in the front rows screaming their heads off. And when Klein pointed his mike in their direction, they inserted whatever line he wasn’t singing. They knew the words better than he did.
LANY was playing to a field of a few thousand fans dancing in place. The band’s dreamy pop sound and Klein’s dancing kept the positive energy going. Fans gifted Klein bouquets of red roses (which is on the cover of their first album). After a few uptempo numbers, things settled into a midtempo mode. That found Klein seated at the keyboards with a single spotlight falling on him. It was a surprisingly fun set.

The Infamous Stringdusters (credit: Mary Andrews)

The Infamous Stringdusters offered relief from the pop and EDM fantasies of the festival with their energetic, expertly crafted bluegrass presence. The Grammy Award winning band managed to compete with the loud EDM music at another stage across the field. The Bluegrass jam-band flowed from traditional bluegrass originals to cover songs with the utmost ease. Multi-part harmonies were as sweet as the they could possibly be.

Bon Iver was the last set and the headlining set of the night. The set was filled with music from their new album. Justin Vernon even apologized at the end of the set for so much new music. There was no acoustic music played, but instead, it seemed to be an EDM gala.

The music was on a more experimental, electronic realm, often filtering his vocals through a vocoder and other digital effects. That also included the neon lighting effects of geometrical triangles filling the stage. Vernon tapped into the peace-and-love vibe of the festival itself in more explicit ways than any other act, sending fans on their way with a message of “spread love now where you go.” It is a very necessary sentiment these days.

Things that need improvement included the sound bleed coming from the different stages. If you were at one stage, one could hear the sound from another stage quite well.

The acts were scheduled at the competing times. There were three stages and two stages usually started at the same time. For instance, the night’s headliners, Bon Iver and MOE, should have been staggered so that fans would have an opportunity to catch some of both acts. Also, some sets did not end until after another set had started.

There was plenty of food vendors available for fans to indulge. Even better, we noticed plenty of hand sanitizer particularly in the food areas for everyone to use and none of them were empty. They were also place along the most traveled trails on the grounds. This was a huge plus in a time when festivals are threatening to cancel due to the Corona Virus scare.
For more information: https://www.m3ffest.com/