[Dixielandjazz] A Music Festival For Kids

[Steve Barbone]

Interesting read about a Music Festival that make both kids and parents feel
welcome. Note about halfway through, the reference to  "Dr. Madd Vibe¹s
Medicine Cabinet", a band comprised of members older than some parents with
an "odd 'freestyle' mix of sound, which blends DIXIELAND JAZZ,
beat-generation percussion and rap ‹ kind of a Sly Stone gone, well, mad."

Perhaps they might be booked by an OKOM Festival or two, for a "kids" tent
where Dixieland parents/grand parents bring their teenage kids/grandkids?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


B-Sides: Warped Tour can be fun ‹ with help of parents¹ tent
By Mark Bennett - The Tribune-Star - Terre Haute Indiana

Picture a fortysomething woman crocheting and watching ³Blazing Saddles²
inside a tent, while a band called The Casualties plays ³Blitzkrieg Bop² a
few hundred yards away. Welcome to the Vans Warped Tour.

Sure, most of the 12,000 people who attended this annual punk-rock show at
Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville last Thursday were teenagers.
But some were adults ‹ brave adults who summoned the strength (or drew the
short straw) to chaperone their kids through a marathon of 84 groups such as
AFI, NOFX and The Living End that some of these parents probably thought
would never end. Yet after nine hours it did.

And some found the musical generation gap was not a bottomless pit. (The
mosh pit, though, was another matter.)

Yes, a multi-stage event full of growling singers, buzzing guitars and
drummers with tattoos the size of Tattoo of ³Fantasy Island² had several
silver linings for adults. One was an oasis called ³the parents¹ tent.²

³Thank God for the parents¹ tent,² said my fearless wife, who accompanied
our 16-year-old son and his friends to the Warped Tour extravaganza.
That¹s where she saw the lady crocheting. Not everyone spent their parents¹
tent time making textiles, though. Others gulped free bottled water. And if
the sounds of ensembles such as Zebrahead and Forever in Effigy tightened
the nerves of the over-20 crowd, they could find relief in one of four
mechanical massage chairs beneath that canopy. Some sat in the folding
lounge chairs, also provided by the Warped Tour folks, as they watched
³Blazing Saddles,² ³Bruce Almighty² and other movies. Headphones allowed
them to hear the dialogue (and escape the sound outside). Best of all, the
parents¹ tent had air conditioning.

Kevin Lyman founded the Warped Tour in 1995 and hatched the parents¹ tent
idea a few years later. ³At some of the shows, I¹d see parents leaning up
against a fence, reading a book,² he said, speaking from his cellphone
Wednesday morning. Thus, the tent became a place ³where parents can come to
feel comfortable.² . . .

Yet Steve, in his forties, makes those trips to Verizon to take his son
David and his teenage friends to the all-day show, where several bands play
half-hour gigs simultaneously on stages set up around the music center, and
then sign autographs, CDs and T-shirts in tents ‹ all for the relatively
cheap ticket price of $28. Some of the performers use a salty vocabulary and
rant about society a bit. (Sounds like a morning coffee klatch at Hardee¹s.)
But they put on a sea of unshackled music that encompasses rock, heavy
metal, British ska, hip-hop and Gothic. And the kids like it, even if nobody
else does. (At this point, try to imagine yourself at a KISS concert in 1978
with your mom or dad alongside you.)

Amid this punk smorgasbord, Steve actually came upon a band he liked. And it
wasn¹t just because a few members of Dr. Madd Vibe¹s Medicine Cabinet were
actually older than him. No, Steve liked their odd ³freestyle² mix of sound,
which blends DIXIELAND JAZZ, beat-generation percussion and rap ‹ kind of a
Sly Stone gone, well, mad.

³It was fantastic,² Steve said. ³I sat on the grass and just listened for 30
minutes. That was worth the whole day in the sun.²

And the sun was an issue. Keeping kids cool in last Thursday¹s 95-degree
heat was the prime concern for Warped Tour organizers and officials at
Verizon, not misbehavior. The bands¹ spiked hair, tattoos and black T-shirts
might worry some adults that dangerous activities are looming at the show.
But Lyman, a 45-year-old, insisted, ³They¹re probably remembering Woodstock
or the concerts they went to in the ¹70s,² referring to the drinking, drugs
and wildness associated with those days. ³These kids are socializing and
having a good time.²

³It was amazing how good the crowd was ‹ kids that age. There weren¹t any
problems,² Steve Haughn said, before adding with a chuckle, ³of course I
didn¹t go to the mosh.²

Ah, moshing. Think of it as a rugby scrum set to loud music. Lyman said
moshing is not encouraged, but it happens and typically is safe. Less safe
is crowd surfing, in which fans hoist others over their heads and let them
ride across their outstretched hands. (If this sounds too subversive,
remember that college kids do something similar after touchdowns at the
Purdue football games.) This too is discouraged, but the young concertgoers
³get caught up in the moment,² Lyman said. So the music center crew tries to
monitor the crowds and bring surfers down safely.

All of this non-stop rotation of bands and tents and face-to-face
interaction between the musicians and their young fans ³feels more like a
big, back-yard party than a concert,² Lyman said. ³And the kids feel like
they belong to something.²

Most of the performers are known only within the 12-to-19 age group the
Warped Tour targets. But current chart-toppers such as Green Day, Kid Rock
and Eminem toured with Warped in previous years. ³We launched a lot of
bands,² Lyman said.

The event¹s popularity seems to be growing, too. ³Years ago, we¹d be lucky
if we saw six- or seven-thousand fans here,² said Andrew Newport, director
of operations at the Verizon Wireless Music Center. Last week¹s show drew
more than 12,000.

The atmosphere may not quite fit inside a Norman Rockwell painting. But the
Warped Tour¹s Noblesville stop has managed to show kids a good time, even
with a parental chaperone nearby.

³For a lot of these kids who come to the Warped Tour, it¹s their first
concert,² Newport said. ³And that¹s a lot of fun.²

Just like a good Mel Brooks movie.
Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett at tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.