We're blogging from New Orleans this week, where we used to live before the age of blogs.
Yesterday, we hit up Jazz Fest and saw some amazing shows (clip of Al Green below), plus we endured through one of the heaviest downpours in human history. The resilience of the locals was astonishing. After all, one would think the locals would freak out at the sight of huge puddles of water rushing toward them in a crowded place...
After several hours of the hardest-hitting rain imaginable (we kept thinking it was actually a near-hailstorm), with passing tourists saying, "Hey, look, they have a swimming pool at Jazz Fest this year" (see above), during which we stood in crowded tents or stuck it out in the fields for an All-Star Jam Band session featuring Dr. John and others, the dark clouds receded, revealing a Fairgrounds covered in mud.
Not long after, Elvis Costello and Allen Touissant took the stage in grand style and we were rewarded for our suffering.
It was the New Orleans Woodstock, complete with audience members doing running slides through the muddy fields, no one upset about the rain even when it was coming down in torrents. Al Green took the stage right as the sun was coming out, throwing roses to the ladies in the expensive private front section, hitting every note of "Let's Stay Together" and "Tired of Being Alone." The city's people deserved nothing less than his greatness.
We'll have video of Etta James later, so check back soon...
This is a terrible cell phone camera video capture, so just keep that in mind... however, you gotta love how excited Rev. Al is here... plus, does anyone have cooler onstage dancers in their act?!