Echo Project - Loose Lips and Sinking Ships

After relatively peaceful beginnings, things got a little crazy at Echo. That's not to say that there was widepread panic (that band isn't even booked) but there did seem to be a real wave of chaos usurping the quiet control that marked the early hours of the event. I mean, when the batik-and-Birkenstock crowd eagerly enters in a shotgun homicide singalong with the infamous hip-hop act Cypress Hill, you know that strange things are afoot.

Of course, it's possible that the oddball vibe was just right for some of the marquee acts that followed. Both former Primus frontman Les Claypool and psyche-rock kingpins The Flaming Lips seemed to feed off the mostly-natural fog shrouded crowd, turning in magnetic sets. The Lips, in particular, seemed charged. Of course, it should be noted that rock revivals, resplendent in confetti, balloons and oddball antics are a Flaming lips specialty.

Theoretically, I planned to end my evening with a little bit of minimalist magic with Album Leaf and this filing. Check the time stamp. Clearly that didn't happen. Instead, I spent several minutes fruitlessly struggling with the wireless connection and then trudging to find a shuttle that would take me to my car. Instead of a shuttle I found surly staff who had clearly been exposed to too much sun, bass and drum and a seat on a van that dropped me miles from my car. Put the shuttle and badges with bad attitudes on the list of issues to be shorn up before next year's event.

I've also decided to make today my final Echo day. Without going into too much detail (believe me it's better that way) I find myself running at about half-speed today, the after affects of a delicious, but clearly semi-toxic, falafel dinner. Still, expect a few more dispatches from the trenches before I finally give in a call it a day.