(The Black Keys)
(photos and words by Keith Klenowski)
When the lineup to the Forecastle festival was announced a few months back, I was surprised by how strong it was. The Black Keys, Black Crowes, and Widespread Panic were all headlining the bill. Pretty impressive considering the major headliner last year was Tortoise. With more money coming in from giants like Nederlander Entertainment, it looked like the crew behind the event knew where to spend it.

Due to family events, I was only going to be able to make it on Friday night of the festival. Perfect for me since I love the Black Keys and have been hearing wonderful things about Cage the Elephant. Throw in Cincinnati favorites the Lion’s Rampant and Bad Veins and I thought that this would turn into a pretty good night. While it wasn’t a terrible night, it wasn’t exactly great either. I haven’t been to a festival in some time, and once you have been to Bonnaroo and see how massive this beast can be, you have a new respect for the people who put these events on. So here is my list of pros/cons/highlights from the one night that I was there……

(Bad Veins)

Need to get rid of the food and drink tickets! Not cool that they only came in packs of 10. Average food price was 6 tickets and drinks were 5…. you do the math. Being on the river was awesome (especially sunset), however the entire venue felt cramped and unorganized. Ocean Stage (DJ tent) was right behind the East Stage. You were getting some overlap in sound and disruptive to the band playing. Trying to put so many vendors in a small space sucks. You had a BMX park, climbing wall, silent disco, oxygen bar, and tons of other vendors all crammed together. When the place got crowded (which it did), you could barely breathe or walk to the other stages. I heard that it only got worse on Saturday. I understand that they want to cater to different populations, but maybe slim some of the “event” tents and bring in more food and drinks. Or use the main street more effectively?

(Cage The Elephant)

The lineup this year was fantastic. My hats off to Ian Bolender of Nederlander Entertainment who booked all of the bands on the East Stage. He also books many of the bands that come into the Southgate House here in Cincinnati. Nice diversity to the lineup. It would have been nice to let the bands have longer sets (average was 30 minutes). Also give a shout out to the crew of East Stage. It seemed that they were fighting technical difficulties throughout the day. Awesome teamwork to find a power cord for the Lions Rampant keyboard. Their set had already started and a tech guy riding a bike comes out of nowhere and throws the power cord over the crowd and onstage. It could have been a scene out of Wayne’s World. Impressive gentlemen!!
I found the drunk heckler who mixed up the Bad Veins with a band called Mayonnaise to be pretty hilarious.

I realized that shooting the Black Keys is one of the reasons I have been put onto this Earth. So if anyone has any connections to the band and would love to help me out…….

(The Whigs)

During the endless performance by Pretty Lights on the Main stage, I met a rather interesting young man from Missouri. Ryan hails from a tiny (only 250 people) town and drove 5 hours to see the Black Keys. He was excited about the entire festival, but he went to great lengths to tell me how much he loved the Keys. Normally, I would get angry with anyone who tried to rival my love for the band, but Ryan was pretty awesome and a lot bigger than me, so I let him have the biggest fan award. It was talking with Ryan that made me realize just how impressive this festival is becoming. If he would drive this far for one band, just think about the number of people who will keep coming if the lineup continues to be this strong!

So congrats to JK McKnight for keeping this festival going for 8 years. I honestly can’t wait for next year and can see this being a huge event by it’s 10th anniversary.

(The Black Keys)

(Cage The Elephant)

More photos after the jump…


(Jason Isbell)

(The Lions Rampant)


(Cage The Elephant)

(The Black Keys)

(The Black Keys)

(The Lions Rampant)

(Bad Veins)

(The Black Keys)

(The Whigs)