Hamish Anderson Blog: Festival Tour
Australian blues rocker Hamish Anderson has been quite busy on the road promoting his latest album, Trouble. Anderson had the opportunity to play some of the biggest music festivals in the United States over the summer and is blogging about the experience for Blues Rock Review.
FireFly and Mountain Jam:
It was an awesome two days kicking off my summer festivals by playing both Firefly and Mountain Jam. The best was that we did one set on Friday at Firefly and then the next day, performed at Firefly at 2 p.m in Dover, DE and then we got in the van and raced up to perform that SAME night at Mountain Jam at midnight!
There was such great energy at FireFly — it was a really impressive festival and I was glad to have that as my first US festival. The crowds were intense – it’s just a gigantic festival. I never even saw the main stage, actually!
Mountain Jam:
Was one I was very excited for- the lineup was insane, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Gary Clark Jr., Peter Frampton and Steve Miller Band just to name a few. We arrived at Mountain Jam just in time to watch Gary Clark Jr. and Tom Petty’s set for a bit before I had to run off to get ready for my set. Was awesome to get to soak them both up before playing my set. Tom Petty finished a little after midnight, so we waited since the entire festival shuts down for his performance. Then suddenly, we saw people running into the venue and we realized we were up! We hit down beat shortly after midnight and the crowd was electric, definitely one of my favorite shows and audiences. What an epic few days!
High Sierra:
Then it was time for High Sierra Festival in California – We all loaded up the van and drove from LA to Quincy, it was a really awesome drive going into Quincy with all the incredible mountains and scenery. High Sierra was a great festival full of great people. It was very much a dead-head, jam band kind of scene so it was great playing to an audience that really loved rock and roll music so much. The set went great and after that we all had to race across to do a session with Jam In The Van, which was also a highlight of the day. We did three songs “Little Lies’, “U” and “Hold On Me” with the guys at JITV and I was stoked with the way they all turned out. Killer vibes all around at High Sierra.
Hamish Anderson
I was excited to get to see Hamish, but I guess the Vegas Blues Bender was not worth mentioning as he was put in the new “Juke Joint” venue which was small and had sound problems, for me too loud. The venue never quite got the vibe to make it work. Seats too close to the stage that discouraged dancing. I don’t know if Hamish hung around the four day festival after his set, but I never saw him. Jesse Roper played there too. I was a little disappointed in this venue and maybe AJ will address this next year. Keep The Blues Alive!
This is only the first entry. Hamish will be talking about the Blues Bender in the next blog.
My husband and I were at Mountain Jam. It was our first festival and we were so excited to see Tom Petty. We decided to check out the other musicians on the lubeuo before goibgvti MTN Jam because we knew we wouldnt get to see them all. When we discovered Hamish we made sure we were at his set. Wow!He is amazing.After his set he came out and talked with us. We told him how our 7 year old son absolutely loves to listen to his music.Hamish even signed a CD for us. We really hope he comes back to MTN Jam next summer!
My husband and I were at Mountain Jam. It was our first festival and we were so excited to see Tom Petty. We decided to check out the other musicians on the lineup before going to MTN Jam because we knew we wouldnt get to see them all. When we discovered Hamish we made sure we were at his set. Wow!He is amazing.After his set he came out and talked with us. We told him how our 7 year old son absolutely loves to listen to his music.Hamish even signed a CD for us. We really hope he comes back to MTN Jam next summer!