Dead on the Mountain 2010 Recap and Review

October 22-24th, marked the dubious return of the Dead on the Mountain Festival in Wrightwood, CA.  A brand new location for the DOTM crew, located on Bud Pharm, provided a mountain surrounded gathering place to camp, dance and hear some So. Cal jambands!  Produced by Howard Freiberg Presents, the Dead on the Mountain Festival’s revival brought out a collection of those who remember, those who’ve forgotten and a healthy handful of brand new faces.

Thanks to Widespread Panic I missed the Friday night/Saturday morning bands at DOTM.  Luckily, Saturday night was jam packed with three great bands, Quactus,

Delta Nove and The Maykers.  Quactus kicked off at just after 4pm as the sun was dipping into the Western horizon.  Quactus came out of the gates with a killer set opening Might Be You>Poinephobe and closing the night with a Halloween preview theme from Ghostbusters!  They pulled out Better Days and Fearless off the new album.

Quactus Setlist:

Might Be You>Poinephobe, Fearless, The Journey, One Track Mind, Have a Cigar (Pink Floyd), Esprit D’escalier, Better Days, The Ocean, Valley of the Ends, Ghostbusters (Ray Parker, Jr.)

Delta Nove rolled onto the stage around 6:00pm with the evening fog as the temperatures began to drop up there at 5000 feet.  Mother Nature provided a healthy dose of fog machine as Delta Nove funked up the DOTM crowd.  By the time the Maykers took the stage, it was getting really pretty cold.  Donned with parkas, hoodies, gloves and layer upon layer of warm clothing, the Maykers closed out the night with a nice fat set of Jerry Garcia Band songs wrapping it all up around 10:40pm.

Did it end there?  Heck no.  Local band, Salvia, rocked out inside the building on site till after midnight when Quactus drummers Matthew McDuffee and Keith Erickson led a fire-pit drum circle complete with full drum kit.  They capped the evening off nicely around 2pm sending everyone off to bed with soothing drum beats.

Sunday morning came around with a performance by Spidergawd featuring the talented Charlie Hornsby (yep, he’s Bruce Hornsby’s cousin).  With special guest guitarist, Jason O’Hare from the, recently defunct, The Zone, Spidergawd woke everyone up with some Grateful Dead music.  Thanks to the SG for inviting ME to play some songs with them.  I sat in on Tangled Up in Blue, Jack Straw, Scarlet Begonias>Fire on The Mountain and Bertha.

Howard Presents promises more DOTM shows…keep your eyes peeled for future events at www.howardpresents.com.

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