New Orleans Jazz Fest

I went to New Orleans the last two weekends. What a city. There is NO place even remotely similar to New Orleans. The highlights or hi-lites or however that's spelled were Fishbone and The Roots.
1.5 years ago, my Seattle roomie, Jessica and I saw Fishbone. She stage dove twice, the second time knocking over the guitarist's wireless setup forcing the band to stop... for the night! She then, somefreak'nhow, convinced the drummer to sign a drum stick for me.
THE ROOTS!....The Roots, The Roots, The Roots! I have not shut up about these guys. I knew that they played their own instruments but who knew they played them well?! The bassist did a killer solo. The drummer has a sweet/unique style. Oh hey, how do you catch a unique rabbit? Unique up on it. The Roots did about a 25 minute medley of covers ranging from Zeppelin, to Salt 'n Peppa/Pepper, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Outkast, that brother/sister 2-person new crap band, to a very humorous Blue Oyster Cult 'I need more cowbell' rendition. The bassist took a drink break mid-show by tapping his straw plastic off and drinking a cute juice box; too funny. This band has talent, style, originality, and a whole hellofalotta showmanship! I can't wait to see them again.

Last weekend's bands worth mentioning were Kidd Jordan - Al Fielder & IAQ, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Galactic, and Dave Matthews Band. The first group played free jazz (I guess that's what you call it). A piano, drum set, bass, tenor sax, and trumpet played whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. There were no "songs" and no real communication between musicians. It was complete chaos! I was surprised with this elder group's tolerance for entropy. I guess 40 years of Glen Miller will do that to a man. I have never seen an audience refresh and recycle so frequent. People couldn't tolerate this at all. I ate up all 40 minutes, no breaks.
My expectations for Galactic were exceeded. Buy their albums now, over.
This was my first DMB viewing. Eh....they're a great band, but _______. I guess it's not a good thing when my attention deviates from the band to check out the HH-65 Coast Guard Dolphin flying overhead. Don't get me wrong, DMB rocked. They played many older songs and really got the crowd wrapped around their finger.

New Orleans got an 'A' last weekend.