The inaugural Evolution Festival, the two-day music, bourbon and BBQ fest in Forest Park, is in the books.
I took in the whole kit-and-kaboodle — every band, every bourbon, every booth — and here are 25 highlights, sights, sounds, tastes and observations from the big weekend.
- The weather, for the most part, cooperated. A few weeks ago, Evolution co-founder Steve Schankman predicted early-fall-like conditions for the festival. After a brutal heat wave heading into the weekend and a soggy Saturday morning, the rain held off the rest of the weekend and temperatures eased. Schankman got his wish: a comfy two days that avoided both thunderstorms and blazing sun.
2. The first-ever notes to be played live on an Evolution stage were a discordant cacophony of local alt-rockers Punk Lady Apple, a testament to main talent booker Jeff Jarrett’s gutsy tastemaking. However, PLA knows their way around melodies, too — infusing generous keytar into queer-love, punk-soul attitude.
3. Modern English took the stage late despite having an extra hour to prepare due to a rain delay. Regardless, the Mods were dapper in their desert-storm khakis with frontman Robbie Grey in an Evolution shirt. It was a short set, but they hit the biggies, ending, of course, with “I Melt With You,” complete with phantom keyboards. Naturally, the place was all smiles.
4. The Knuckles won Saturday’s Best Fashion prize. Decked out in matching red jumpsuits, Rockwell Knuckles laid down buttery, baritone syncopation underneath the dancing vocals of Aloha Misho (sporting helicoptering hydra-headed braids), complete with synchronized jumping and a hard-cutting DJ.
5. Cautious Clay is a southpaw on the guitar, and “Puffer” was his rocking closer, but he caressed the crowd earlier with his own saxophone tapestry and, especially, his capering flute, an instrumental versatility that made for one of Saturday’s grooviest, dreamiest sets.
6. With a giant bottle of bubbly, original member Master Gee’s delirious a capella flow, Evolution top dog Steve Schankman dancing in the wings and, of course, “Rapper’s Delight,” Sugar Hill Gang was Saturday’s hand-in-the-airing, just-not-caring party peak.
7. Brittany Howard, resplendent in a red-and-black muumuu, played the soul shouter, guitar hero and shape-shifting emotional testifier on tracks from 2019’s Jaime and debuted some scorching new material with two backup singers and three guitarists. Bonus: A galvanizing cover of Jackie Wilson’s “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher).”
8. Nikki Lane goes blonde and turns in the kind of crackerjack alt-country set that her fans have come to expect. The Highway Queen was in prime form with her slow-roasted alto, white cowboy hat, whiskey shots and short shorts, titillating a well-oiled crowd with fan favorites like “Denim & Diamonds” and a set-closing “Jackpot.”
9. The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson proved again why he is one of the best frontmen in rock history both with his pliable, whiskey-cured vocals and his timeless, tireless soul-mama dance moves. Plus, with just an hour on stage, it was all haymakers — ripsnorting versions of the songs “Jealous Again,” “Twice as Hard,” “Remedy,” etc. — the seasoned crowd knew by heart.
10. The Black Keys’ have the most generous audience in rock. Singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach does everything he can to carry the act, but Patrick Carney’s childlike, swingless bashing remains a serious liability to a confoundingly overestimated band. But you can’t blame festival organizers for having the Keys anchor Night 1. These guys are huge, and the place was crawling with Black Keys shirts all day.
11. If you sprang for the VIP area, you had access to a lovely expanse of loungers, bourbon tastings, flush toilets, strings of lights overhead, short lines and a lovely stage view from a bridge looking across a moonlit creek. And for all fans, a massive, light-adorned weeping willow provided the midway point between stages.
12. The food vendors, handsomely arrayed with uniform signage across the venue, offered some of the best in the area’s barbecue. Our favorites were Sugarfire’s burnt ends, which melted in your mouth, and Gobblestop’s smoked wings, which were seasoned to perfection and just the right amount of crispy and tender.
13. Halfway between stages stood the bourbon tent, where attendees could seek shelter and order expensive but excellent bourbon drinks from a dozen or so distillers. We most revisited the RallyPoint cocktails from Still 630 and the coffee whiskey on the rocks from Kentucky Coffee.
14. With countless first-year obstacles and weather issues in play, organizers had to make plenty of changes on the fly, and Day 2 came with some welcome adjustments. Stage times were precise, walking paths were added through the sea of lawn chairs for easier access, parking and main gate signage was improved and security was tightened in key areas.
15. Yard Eagle won over a gang of new fans early on Sunday with a tight set of guitar-slinging country-rock goodies highlighted by chief Eagle Jakob Baxter’s honeydew lead vocals and dangly-dice earrings. At set’s end, a fan hollered for more songs, after which second guitarist Matt Maher reminded everyone that they play locally all the time: “Come on out — we’ll play three hours for you."
16. Michigander, the nom de plume of Jason Singer, hit the main stage on Sunday, part of a four-pack of scruffy indie-rock acts that started the day. For Michigander’s part, Singer led a series of unlikely singalongs, including a set-closing “Let Down,” which would have sounded melancholy had the bourbon not been working.
17. Smidley, the side project from Foxing lead singer Conor Murphy, may have been the worst-dressed artist at Evolution on Sunday, wearing a teal beachwear shirt-and-shorts set and a cap advertising a real-estate company, but the music from Smidley’s 2022 album Here Comes the Devil was jangly and sweet, plus he played the weekend’s most surprising cover, a swirly version of Dave Matthews Band’s “Crash Into Me.”
18. Curt Kiser, lead dude of relaxed indie-rock quartet Carriers, found liminal spaces over on the Lindenwood Stage within chiming guitar tones and simple hooks delivered in a pinched Midwestern drawl. It was a warm sound on Sunday that paired well with the Ezra Brooks boulevardier.
19. Morgan Wade helped satisfy Evolution’s country requirement, playing hard-twang versions of her hits “Last Cigarette” and “‘80s Movie” and kept the ‘80s thing going not only with her Ice Cube t-shirt, worn in honor of the legend about to take the stage after her, but with a spot-on cover of the Outfield’s “Your Love” mixed with a little “Jessie’s Girl” for good measure.
20. To see thousands of middle-aged fans chanting “Gangsta Gangsta” turned out to be a strangely heartwarming affair, like seeing the lights of the Goodyear Blimp. After all, as Ice Cube reminded us, there ain’t no party like a Midwest party. The only Rock and Roll Hall of Famer at the festival this year, Cube has (slightly) softened his famous scowl, even smiling a few times and offering “nothing but love for Eazy-E.” He still played “No Vaseline” though. Some things never change, and Ice Cube is still cold runnin’ shit.
21. The Nude Party’s vocalist Patton Magee wore a Paul Dejong jersey for the band’s Sunday set, probably an inadvertent bit of irony from a band with a sense of humor, but one that also knows its way around killer hooks and sturdy throwback garage rock. Best moment: “Chevrolet Van,” an anthem for rock and roll true believers.
22. Shortly after the Nude Party ended their set with a cover of Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” Ben Harper on the main stage melded Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” into “Amen Omen.” It was a best-of-Ben set that worked reggae into blues into lap-steel jams, with highlights including standards (“Diamonds on the Inside”) and rarer selections (“Mama’s Trippin’”) all delivered with a tribute to the Greatest (a “Muhammad Ali 1975” shirt) and contrasting humility (“I’m the worst singer in this band!” Harper said at one point).
23. The technical production on both ends of the field was first rate, with a handsome stage design that featured stairstep borders on the stage structure and video screens as digital shooting stars streaked periodically across the top of the facade. Furthermore, the sound was uniformly excellent. Back by the soundbooth during Brandi Carlile and Ben Harper, the mix was like wearing headphones.
24. The crowds felt huge. Ahead of the fest, Schankman and co-founder Joe Litvag stressed that they wanted to avoid overcrowding, but 25,000 attendees packing most of Forest Park’s Langenberg Field made for a tricky maze to find your chairs and long lines for food. The good news: A well-attended first year points to a healthy Evolution 2024 forecast, and organizers have reserved an even bigger field for next year. By the way, folks looking to preserve the moment needed not selfie, thanks to roving party-pic providers: volunteers holding round tablets who took your picture, let you pick a filter and texted the photo to you seconds later.
25. Brandi Carlile was positively ecstatic about playing the first Evolution — she raved continually about the scene and the crowd and asked to be invited again next year. And why not? She had a lot to be happy about. A tree-lined park, a beautiful moon overhead, an adoring crowd, the miraculous Hanseroth twins, an incredible string quartet featuring SistaStrings and the return of pianist Shooter Jennings to the band. Given those variables, Brandi chose her prettiest, most harmony-rich songs for the setlist — “The Eye,” “This Time Tomorrow,” “Party of One,” etc. — making for a ravishing ending to the first of what we hope will be many Evolutions to come.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
