Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival

I've been listening to Steve Van Zandt's radio program, Little Steven's Underground Garage, for quite some time now. I usually listen to it online because the local radio station that carries it broadcasts it at 8:00 AM on Sundays, so I'm glad that he archives the shows on his website. Little Steven is probably best known as a member of the E Street Band (and now as a cast member on The Sopranos), but his current passion is the preservation and promotion of garage rock, to which his radio program and the garage rock channel he programs for Sirius Satellite Radio are devoted. So when Little Steven announced the first Underground Garage Festival, to be held on August 14 at Randall's Island in New York City, we enthusiastically ordered tickets. It would be the perfect venue for our annual end-of-summer family celebration.

My original intention was to write a band-by-band review of the day-long show, from the perspective of someone who's probably a tad too old to spend the whole damn day at a festival, but that proved to be too ambitious an undertaking. So what follows is more of an anecdotal personal account of the day, along with some description of what, to me, were the highlights. Hey, I even bought a little notebook and took some notes.

We get up early, around 7:30 on Saturday morning, no small feat. The gates open at 10:00, and we want to be there early, so after two brief stops (one for a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee for yours truly and another to pick up a dozen Krispy Kremes for breakfast en route), we are on our way. Bryan brings reading material in the car, but the three of us spend most of the trip chatting. The traffic on I-95 is bearable for once, a good omen. We miss the Randall's Island exit on the Triborough Bridge due to my momentary confusion about the discrepancy between my printed directions and the road signs. To my surprise, Jim's head fails to explode and we get off at the next exit and turn around, another good omen. We're parking the car shortly after 9:00, and I'm looking forward to the day.

The crowd at the gate is pretty thin at this hour. The demographic is very mixed, at least agewise. There are plenty of old farts mixed in with the kids, and a lot of younger teens accompanied by parents in various stages of hipness. The festival is scheduled to run from 11 AM until 11 PM, with nonstop music all day long, so it's safe to assume that lots more people will show up later on to catch the headliners, who won't start taking the stage until evening. As soon as the gates open, Bryan heads off to stake out his territory in front of the stage, while Jim and I decide to spend the day in a location better suited for a long-term occupation.

Article Author: Lisa McKay

Lisa McKay is Blogcritics' Executive Editor. At BC she can usually be found hanging out in the film section. She recently started food blogging at Will Kill for Food.

In her spare time, she watches movies, listens to music, reads, and caters to the whims of two spoiled cats. …

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