LIVE: Summer Spirit Festival 2014 [DC]

photos: Sneakshot Photography

Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD was the place to be this past Saturday. The weather was gorgeous, unlike other years when it seemed to be incredibly hot. This year’s lineup featured (in order of appearance) Roman GianArthur, George Tandy, Jr., RDGLDGRN, Meshell Ndegeocello, Backyard Band and Junkyard band (together on the same stage), Talib Kweli, Raheem Devaughn, Janelle Monáe, and Ms. Lauryn Hill.

The music started at 3pm and ran until 11:15, a little bit over the strict 11pm curfew that Merriweather has.

First up was Roman GianArthur who has worked closely with Janelle Monáe and is mostly known for his minor hit “I-69.” His Prince-inspired rockish set was short at 20 minutes but gave us a glimpse of this up-and-coming artist.

Next up was George Tandy, Jr. Known for his hit single, "March," he is a smooth piano-playing crooner reminiscent of John Legend.  The local band from Reston, VA - RDGLDGRN (pronounced Red Gold Green) came on shortly afterwards. Their sound is loud, hard and fast; very much indie-rock mixed with a little go-go funk - somewhat similar to N.E.R.D.

Their loud and rocking set paved way for the smooth grooves of Meshell Ndegeocello, who is also a local artist made famous over the last 20 years. She played the electric bass during her entire set, which is always a treat. The crowd seemed to enjoy the grooves and the music, but seemed somewhat lost as she only played 5 newer songs (including 2 Nina Simone covers, “Be My Husband” and “See-Line Woman”) instead of more familiar tunes. Then she played “Friends” which is a cover of Whodini’s classic jam. The crowd did cheer loudly for her rousing slow-rock cover of Ready For The World’s “Love You Down,” which featured a killer guitar solo by Chris Bruce which closed out her short 30 minute set.

After taking forever to set up the stage for the go-go portion of the festival, Junkyard Band and Backyard band finally hit the stage and ran through some of their most massive hits, starting with “Tear The Club Up” then Junkyard’s “Loose Booty,” and a crowd pleasing jam of their signature song “Sardines” and then “Ruff It Off.” This go-go jam had everyone dancing in their seats and was over way too soon after only about 25 minutes. Well, on to the next act!

Talib Kweli came roaring out with a full band that was quite good. The drummer did a couple of amazing solos and the band was a treat and really complemented his performance. Talib was all over the stage and sounded great as he did “Lonely People” starting it off with a very prominent sample of The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” to show where the sample came from. He seemed to really enjoy being on stage and wrapped up his set with the crowd-pleasing “Get By.”

Local favorite Raheem Devaughn wasted no time in serenading the ladies with songs like “You,” “B.O.B. (Battery Operated Boyfriend),” “Woman,” and “Ridiculous” from his newest release. In the middle of his performance he did a little 90’s R&B dedication which drove the crowd nuts…with song snippets of R. Kelly’s “Bump N’ Grind” and Jodeci’s “Freak N’ You,” before closing it out with his hit “Customer” and an old-school fadeout where the band just faded-out the last song like on an old-school LP record. That was great.

The show-stopper of the night – Janelle Monáe – seemed like she couldn’t wait to get on stage and do her thing. And boy did she put on a show! She is so energetic and was singing at the top of her lungs and dancing, moonwalking, crawling on the floor and jumping down into the crowd. She and her tight band performed many songs from her most recent amazing album “The Electric Lady.” After being rolled out on stage on a dolly, she jumped right into “Given Em What They Love,” “Dance Apocalyptic,” “Q.U.E.E.N.,” “Electric Lady,” and “Primetime,” before finishing out her energetic set with “Cold War” and “Tight Rope” from her previous album “The ArchAndroid.” After so many frustratingly short 30-minute performances earlier in the day, she was on stage for a little over an hour, which still seemed too short!

Ahhh now for the “headliner” – Ms. Lauryn Hill. Was she going to show up on time? Look crazy? Act crazy? Alas, she didn’t make us wait too long. Her stage set was beautiful and she had an amazingly talented band, and a great light show...and she looked good and her voice sounded great. Ok, give it to us Ms. Hill! Most (almost all) of the songs were reworked and rearranged to where they were almost unrecognizable. They were all very energetic, rocked-up fusion of old-school soul with heavy reggae influences, and then speeded up – almost double-time to what their original sound was. She did a terrific version of “To Zion,” but other favorites such as “Everything is Everything,” “Lost Ones,” and “Ex-Factor” were literally lost on the crowd as folks couldn’t sing along as Ms. Hill was rapping so fast and the arrangements were so different, people started booing halfway through her set and then started leaving in droves, shaking their heads.  The pavilion was near-empty before she finally went into The Fugee hits “Fu-Gee-La” and “Ready Or Not.” These songs sounded fine, but it was too late by then; the show was over before she closed out with 2 Bob Marley songs “Jammin’” and “Is This Love” and then finally “Doo Wop (That Thing)” which was sped up and seemingly rushed through like the other songs.

All in all it was a great day filled with great live music, although taking 30 minutes (or more!) to set up the stage for several 30-minute performances was frustrating to say the least. But will I go again next year? Of course!

- Karl Ott