Beale Street Music Festival: Rain, Hail, or Shine, the Show Must Go On!
Location, Location, Location
Memphis in May is a long-time tradition in the South. It’s a whole month of different types of festivals celebrating food, culture, and music. The beginning to that month-long party is the Beale Street Music Festival, or BSMF for short.
BSMF takes place in gorgeous Tom Lee Park right along the edge of the mighty Mississippi River. Starting right at the edge of the famed Beale Street itself, the park plays host to three massive stages, a blues tent like no other, and a small blues tent as well, an art tent, rows and rows of brand-sponsored tents giving out swag, standard festival shopping, and food that ranges from festival fame to carnival comfort.
BSMF is a long-time draw for Tennesseeans and people throughout the Southeast. Unlike many festivals, it feels like the majority of people in attendance are from the local area or traveled a very short distance to be present.
April Showers Bring May Flowers
As a festival known for volatility in its weather, Friday was full of drizzles but never had a full rain until after the festival concluded. Saturday looked as though it was going to be the perfect weather, but late in the afternoon a wall of blackness moved across the Memphis sky and opened up above the festival grounds and released about 20 minutes of FAT rain drops and even hail. Concert-goers all scrambled for shelter, with many clustering under vendor tents and others getting drenched to the bone. About 20% of the grounds instantly became a mud pit, with another 10% becoming extra spongy. Before the end of the night, that extra 10% was converted into mud by beer carts, ATVs restocking ice and carrying police/EMTs. Sunday was then returned to semi-dry, thanks to glorious sunshine and the highest temperatures of the weekend. Overall, the weather was great, as long as you did not get soaked in that Saturday downpour
Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe
In regards to vibe, there was a very neutral tone to the weekend. While there was plenty of fun and merriment to be made, little of it was shared between groups of friends. The overall vibe of the festival was that you were hanging out with whomever you came with and having a great time, but good luck with making new friends. Additionally, the festival is very consumer-based, with brands present and sponsoring all stages, as well as tons of booths giving out brand-based swag.
SHUT UP, WE JUST CARE ABOUT THE MUSIC!
Music is subjective, but for my taste this lineup was STACKED. I was originally planning to save money and skip this festival this year, but the moment the lineup dropped I was sold. Seeing awesome ’90s throwbacks that are still killing it today in Incubus and Alanis Morissette, my inner teenager was ecstatic. Jack White is always a must-see and during this show still proved why he is one of the greatest influencers in the music industry today. Queens of the Stone Age absolutely blew my mind as my top unseen band. Also on the must-see bands list were The Flaming Lips. Other great performances include Misterwives, Kaleo, Ludacris, ODESZA, and so many more. The variety and availability of so much amazing music is what makes BSMF an amazing city-based festival.
Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) were hands down my favorite show of the weekend. I had never seen the Queens live before but have loved their music since the video for “Sicksicksick” came out back in 2007. The light show for their set was absolutely jaw-dropping. Light bars filled the stage and cut the performers at every angle. The stark juxtaposition of bright backlight and smokey silhouetted artists combined with the warped styling of QOTSA’s music gave the entire performance an ambiance of nothing less than eerie.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to see a Flaming Lips show from the rail. If you can be front and center for one band in your lifetime, this is it. Giant inflatable robots, a unicorn with an LED main, giant lazer hands — that is right, I said LAZER HANDS — and enough confetti raining down to make the EPA take notice. I would categorize a Lips show as more of a circus on LSD than a true concert, and singer Wayne Coyne is one hell of a ringmaster, scampering out into the crowd in his giant space ball while singing David Bowie’s Space Oddity.
Incubus was another first-time live band for me that absolutely stole the show. Some of the best sing-alongs of the weekend happened at that show. Brandon Boyd (singer) has a vocal tone matched by few of his peers, and it truly shone through during BSMF. My only complaint at this show is that it was not given MORE ROOM. The band played on the third and smallest non-tented stage, which has some trees that block even the view of screens, and thanks to banks of mud mentioned earlier it was difficult to find a solid spot if you did not show up a few hours early to snag one.
Finally, Jack White, the hipster who was hip before being hip even thought about throwing on some skinny jeans. I have been fortunate to see White a few times in my life. Living in Nashville helps, as he also calls Music City home most of the time. Previous shows have left me feeling as though I was seeing “Jack White plays his and his old bands music,” while this show was different. This show truly felt like a Jack White solo show. Sure, he still played plenty of The White Stripes, The Dead Weather and Raconteurs hits; actually, according to Setlist.fm, 10 of his 21 song set belonged to those aforementioned bands, but something about this presentation felt like he owned them more. Maybe they were tuned differently, maybe he added some extra layers, or maybe it is just the placebo effect, but they felt more like Jack White songs at this point rather than songs from other bands that he was playing. Either way, the show captivated the audience and truly felt like it drew you in to the music like no other artist doing it today can.
So many more bands also had amazing sets that I would do all over again if given the chance: the amazing mix of sax, drum, bass, trumpet, piano, and raw energy of Misterwives, Ludacis literally refusing to get off stage and having the lights eventually TURNED OFF on him, ODESZA‘s amazing visuals and set mostly comprised of new and unheard music, all of these mixed with even more amazing and talented acts to form a festival weekend that was amazing even while trudging through the mud. We’ll definitely see you next year, Beale Street!