Hard Rock at Burning Man 2008?

[admbmb]

My first year was 2007, although I've been trying to get out there since 2004.

I saw and experienced a lot of techno, electronica, and even some Mutaytor and a couple reggae bands.

I'm wondering first and foremost.... how much of a demand would there be for some intelligent, tribal-ish progressive hard rock music/almost leaning toward metal?

Second, what would one might have to do in order to get on a couple of the more proper stages that are set up at Burning Man?

I'm in a band. I think it would fit. I'd like our whole crew to experience and feasibly play at Burning Man 2008. Have no idea where to start; I'm going from first-timer to possible big-ish theme camp in a year haha... Would we simply have to bring and build a stage and register with Burning Man as a Theme Camp and get a reserved spot??

Thanks ahead of time for any info.

[MikeVDS]

Good questions and good to see some fresh meat excited about participating. Some of the more formal stages you're talking about are probably mostly Esplanade camps and maybe the Deep End. Most of them are probably already starting to plan and fund raise for next year. Also the popular ones are probably quite picky about who they have play for them, though I'm just guessing at this point. If you're serious about it and think you'd make the cut you might try contacting some camps directly. If you help with fundraisers and other projects and click well with their vibe, you'll likely have a nice place to play. Check out the registered theme camps from this year and look for the stages you liked.

http://www.burningman.com/themecamps/07_camp_vill_a.html

If you'd like your own stage you can do it. Registering with burningman will get you placement and possibly some early arrival, but unless you're bringing tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, bringing something really unique or know someone, you probably won't be placed on the esplanade your first year as a theme camp. We did a club this year in a 41' dome, and though it was moderately successful, it was not always hopping. This was the first year any of us tried something like that and it was an enormous amount of work, not only setting up, but maintaining power, lights, adjustments for weather changes, keeping things running and doing all the other needed things for camp.

There are many camps that are testament that a small stage can be quite successful too. Some of my favorite camps are the smaller ones who hide in the city and fill a need of mine. Grilled cheese samiches 24-7 and some cool people to talk to? I'm there. If you don't have 24-7 staffing or close you might be better off doing one big event with full staffing rather than something simple that's on and off.

[K-mom]

The Golden Cafe might be a good place for that. They have a full-band setup including a drumset and keyboards, and the music selection is pretty diverse going on the handful of times I've been in there
In 2006 I got to sit in on the drums, it was pretty impromptu, I think some of the people were regulars and some of them, like me, just got up there ... we did some free-jazz type stuff that metamorphosized into hard-rock/psychdelic-metal jam and some guy wandered up to the mic and started reading a poem ... and ended with this all-out fucked up version of a Hendrix song.
Ahh memories!

[admbmb]

Thanks for the info.

I know that there was a stage there off the beaten path (maybe 4:30 and Freshwater or something) that was covered nicely and actually looked like an ampitheater, and a latin dance band played there and house was PACKED.

I'll take this information and swirl it around.
Hopefully, there will be rock.

[MikeVDS]

Keep posting here and try tribe.net as well and you might find more stages.

[admbmb]

Ok, so after some thought, I'm attmpting to organize my peoples, fund-raise (Which I might need some direction on...) and actually build a fairly substantial theme camp/stage possibly worthy of the Esplanade.

Ha ha, high hopes for a 2nd year Burner, but we just might have the means...

Thanks for the information, I'll be around this thing probably fairly substantially getting info and research.

[Lukky]

I kept trying to play some metal, but my dad thought it would scare all the hippies.

[pinemom]

Now lukky, you know most of us went out of our haight ashbury and straight into head bangin!

[The Chinese]

admbmb-

Keep in touch with me.... We have a theme camp, "Transmorphagon", that we have a full live setup. We curretly have our house funk band playing, but are looking to have other bands in camp next year. Let's chat!!!

-Todd A.

[ZaphodBurner]

I'm wondering first and foremost.... how much of a demand would there be for some intelligent, tribal-ish progressive hard rock music/almost leaning toward metal?

I'd listen. Do you have a website? Check this out: http://www.cdbaby.com/logoseyemusic

(In case anybody's curious, bucky gave us permission to use the cover photo.)

Took a PA system out in 2005 but we all ended up too busy to play; I'm still shaking dust out of the system, my congas, my gig bag...

What I've discovered is that pitching the idea to bandmates can be tricky: "Let's see... You want each of us to pay $250 to bake in the sun and shit in a dusty toilet for x amount of days where we can't even sell CDs to cover the cost of gas? Man...you really ARE high!"

A better bet is to find some people to jam with while you're there, or bring the band sans gig the first time; then they're bit, and the more you go "Aw, fuck it. I don't want to play at Burning Man. It was better last year." the more wound up they'll get about wanting to do it. The ol' Tom Sawyer trick.

Stay in touch. Hell, if all else fails maybe me and a couple of camp dudes can hook up with you to jam some dusty afternoon.

-zb
(http://www.myspace.com/catharticusX or /logoseye)

[Teo del Fuego]

blue oyster cult played a set this year. That damn cowbell kept me up half the night!

[K-mom]

Are you sure it wasn't just a fever?

[duke of weimar]

i've read several sightings of animals on the playa - maybe it was really a cow ???

[MistDance]

Greetings!
Yes - Late reply but hey... I dont come in and read that often.

My suggestion - Get a small camp going. Get on the schedule of events (hopefully - it will be revamped and we can FIND you next year!)
Head it something like ALTERNATIVE MUSIC hour. For those who want to let their thumping heads get into a new vibe...


I dont consider what 95% of the music is on the playa - anything more than disco. Rave junk. Nonsensual beat jibberish.

Our neighbor played some good old fashioned rock, Oldies and goodies.. it was nice to hear and sip a drink to.
Like hanging in the back yard - but with a hint of dust and a whole lot of wind.
Maybe you can bring your band on a CD and play it...Often. Then you dont have to deal with them bitching about toilets, wind, dust, food, late hours, early hours... and beauiful people who walk around nekked!
Its cheaper too!

I have found going to BM solo - is a great way to go. No Bitching! whoohoo! Fun stuff.

[Barbie]

I agree about going solo to burningman...Its alot easier to worry about yourself...

[Nick Collide]

Our neighbor played some good old fashioned rock, Oldies and goodies.. it was nice to hear and sip a drink to.
Like hanging in the back yard - but with a hint of dust and a whole lot of wind.

Well then. You sound like someone who needs to stop by The Booby Bar this year on "Gawd-Damned Hippie Night" with music from the Summer of Love.

Or maybe on "A Night at the Opera" - none of that trance stuff here

Stay tuned for additional themes to be announced...one for each night of the week.

[Box Burner]

I kept trying to play some metal, but my dad thought it would scare all the hippies.

metal...? Ya mean like aluminum?

[oneeyeddick]

I brought a huge ass hand saw and the bow from my "cello" a few years ago.
Nobody liked it, and in saying that I mean no one , not that guy named Nobody.

[EspressoDude]

I kept trying to play some metal, but my dad thought it would scare all the hippies.

metal...? Ya mean like aluminum?

more like TITanium, unobtanium, upsidasium the antigravity heavy metal, or LEAD-ZEP, played with a carbide guitar pick and stellite drumsticks

[Elliot]

(Cruises up in a silly amphibious pedal car and gets out. Walks towards the group, following his ear.)

Do I detect a trend? Is actual real music not dead after all? Is there hope!?

(Points to his signature blurb.)

[DaftBrian]

I hear ya! Let's get this music motion to roll like lotion. I just about splooged my pants last year when I got a break from the techno and followed my ears towards a camp blasting Iron Maiden. My camp's always played a huge variety of music, mostly classic rock and metal (Led zeppelin anyone, the DEAD??, Dio, Pantera, and the beat goes on..). Anyone that wants to get together for a break from the insanity of the rave music and bang heads to some serious rock should definitely contact me!

not saying that i don't enjoy dancing to da thump thump tho.. ;)

err not saying that i don't enjoy dancing with the girls that enjoy dancing to da thump thump tho!

[Elliot]

DaftBrian: You're not so daft at all! Welcome to the realm of sanity and understanding (as I personally see it ).

Your post may help some come out of the trance.

Sure, dance rythms have their place.

[Gizmo]

[quote="MistDance"]Greetings!
"I dont consider what 95% of the music is on the playa - anything more than disco. Rave junk. Nonsensual beat jibberish."

Yes, people! Bring some different music to the Playa!

I am old enough to to have lived through the "Disco Era".
Qualludes, cocaine, and easy sex were the real reason
people came to the clubs.
The music was crap then, and is even more crappy now that it is
being repackaged as Electronica. Who came up with the idea to take a
30 year old turd and make it even more shitty? Drugs MAY have been involved.

I usually bring the following CD's so I can entertain my raver neighbors..
Muskrat Love by America
Muskrat Love by Captain and Tennile
Please Daddy (don't get drunk for Christmas) by John Denver
Slim Whittman's Greatest Hits.
Lucy In the Sky and Tamborine Man by William Shattner
Johnny Pissoff, and River of Shit by the Fugs
An Evening With Wild Man Fischer
Bonzo Dog Band
Trout mask Replica by Captain Beefheart
Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits.
(I am always looking for new suggestions for my play list)

[Elliot]

It's not because I'm old. Your music actually does suck.

The revolution has begun!

Most of the people I heard lamenting the overwhelming-thunder-of-techno-everywhere were quite young. Many young people have good taste. But they are perhaps less ready to stand up for it, fearing somebody will label them as un-cool. I don't care what somebody labels me -- I already know who I am.

[Journeyman]

First: playa dust and electronic equipment are adversaries. Never forget that. Along with all your other supplies that you have to clean upon return to the default world, do you want to disassemble your gear to blow, suck, and scrape playa dust out of it? Is your PA disposable? How about that Marshall double stack? How do you get powdered fossilfishshit out of the Floyd Rose or out of the coilwire in your Duncan hotrails pickup? The sweat from your hands turns your fretboard and neck into a clay coated monstrosity, and you can watch as the caustic dust erodes your strings and tuners. How do you plan to protect the stuff when you're not using it? How many trucks do you need to bring your own stage and lighting?
Second: Burning Man is what it is, a mindswelling experience, a conscious force that replaces plan with spontaniety. Plan a set to start at 7, and your drummer and bassist are nowhere in sight, and the keyboard player is chemically enhanced enough that he's already putting on a psychedelic solo show. The tunes you've planned to play, even when you can actually find the bandmembers, are lost to oblivion. Also, a band is like a polygamous marriage. Many marriages have dissolved at Burning Man. Get the picture? Might be best to ride the tide, meet burners who are musicians, and form a separate project starting on common ground. Seems to me that playa-born bands are more valid anyway.
Listen to the advice from seasoned participants, don't rely on your bandmates to help you pull this thing off. If you want to perform, there are many many stages and venues. Radical self-reliance, the name of the game. Keep it simple.
ANY kind of live music has an appreciative audience in BRC. Just don't plan too big, and don't bring your best equipment. Take baby steps until you know where you're going. Good luck, I'll be listening for you.
Off subject: on first posting I looked at the date and time posted... according to my time instrumentation and the local electronic media, today is Friday, January 18. Can anyone tell me how I posted this tomorrow? It's happening again... just when I was getting used to this dimension... the Trickster's never gonna leave me alone.

[Gizmo]

First: playa dust and electronic equipment are adversaries. . Just don't plan too big, and don't bring your best equipment. .

A very important rule. Don't bring ANYTHING to the Playa
that you can't afford to lose. Assume that anything you bring
will be lost, trashed, or stolen. Mabe it won't be, but you gotta be prepared to accept that as a very real possibility.

[vargaso]

There was some decent rock bands playing waaay out on edge, opposite of the big dome in 2007. They had a stage on top of a full halfpipe, with skaters going while they were playing.

I'd say anything goes, just bring your band, a generator and start playing. I, for one, would LOVE to hear something else besides fucking techno (as much as I do love it at times).

[Samsa Bee]

Ive only been going since 2005, but seems like the expansion of music is getting better and better!! I was prepared since 1996 for full on techno untz brigade , but was pleasantly surprised at the array of sounds BRC has!! I even made a list of songs I heard my first week there. Red Hot CHili Peppers, Herbie, DeeLite, Sinead Oconnor, Cocteau Twins, you name it....Fleetwood Mac.....fuckin 38 Special....anything to get silly with.
In 06, the camp across from us would BLAST Sheena Easton's morning train EVERY MORNING at 9am. HILARIOUS.....

Try The Fringe stage, too.....they always have some great trippy funk bands and such......That ampitheater stage that the "latin" band was playing at is Otter Oasis. That band is ALBINO and they are my fave playa band!! WOOHOOOO for Afro Beat camp in 08!
I do LOOOOOOVE the way electronica sounds out there. ALien whomp and all that trance just sounds so good on that land. But, cruising the backstreets and hearing all the different sounds is a neccessity! Bring on the metal!!

[Elliot]

I was across from the "Morning Train camp" in 2007. Best neighbors I could dream of! After the daily Morning Train "wakeup call", they'd turn the volume back down to sensible and play quality records of a wide variety the rest of the day. I walked over there just to listen a couple of times. I wanna go back NOW!

[Gravity Mike]

The Golden Cafe might be a good place for that.

I also recommend Hair of the Dog (HOTD) as a place to see live music, and as an available stage for other acts. They have a drum set and PA.


I'm not *opposed* to any category of music - very good techno does exist, but most of it is assembly line music, and we need better balance, more diversity.

I've seen just about everything (musically speaking) at BM, and as long as its good, it will go over well. I saw some band at the Golden Cafe a couple of years ago that played bluegrass versions of pop songs - some they even changed the lyrics to be BM-themed. They were awesome, and I generally don't care for bluegrass

Rock on!
Gravity Mike