After a rather miserable day Friday, Saturday at Voodoo Fest proved to be a hellaciously awesome experience – lots of loud music, mud, and Halloween hijinks. Typically held on the week before All Hallows’ Eve, this year’s Voodoo marks the eleven-year-old festival’s first to take place on Halloween. To mark this occasion the New Orleans Bingo! Show staged a late night zombie gathering with the hope of breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest zombie congregation. I’m not sure if they were successful, but I suspect that there are very few of us who managed to escape the grounds with our brains in tact. As for the music, upon arriving, I set out for the Voodoo Stage to catch K’naan, who due to something or other canceled. His replacement was Austin singer-songwriter Dan Dyer. So I stuck around for Dyer’s first few numbers and dug into his rootsy, soulful rasp before making my way to the Bingo! Parlor for the riotous, local, gypsy brigade the The Zydepunks. Due to the previous evening's storms, the entire festival grounds had turned into a boggy mudpit. Navigating the trenches and furrows without completely sinking in the sludge became the day’s mission.

Sorting through festival rosters can be rather daunting. Voodoo Fest is no exception… By my estimate, over 120 bands will be playing over the course of the next 3 days. It’s always easy to latch onto the headliners and spend your time taking in the main attractions. And there’s no doubt a good time to be had in doing so – hey, I’ve done it. Of course, you can’t catch every act, and you probably won’t know them all either. But, the time crunch and the idea that at any given moment, some band you’ve never heard of could completely turn your world upside down is what draws us to these spectacles. The excitement, the crowd, the anticipation, the uncertainty, and the surprise – happenstance, serendipity, euphoria, and ecstasy – these are the qualities that make for a memorable festival experience. At Voodoo, each year, there’s no topping the circus-type atmosphere of the Bingo! Parlor.

Now, I’ve already given you my top picks for the weekend. In this post, I’m going to touch on three local performers – one for each day – that might not immediately jump off of the lineup card at you, but whom you should most certainly keep on your radar… that is if you think you can handle the chaotic wonderment of the Bingo! Parlor...

A few days ago – of course, where else but on twitter – I came across Jambase’s review of local pop progsters Big Rock Candy Mountain’s debut album Hey Kid. Previously, in Offbeat magazine I too bestowed similar praise upon the group (so I’m pretty high on them), but I had yet to see them live since their performance at the New Orleans Indie Rock Fest several months earlier. That was until a few weeks ago when I caught Big Rock (@brcm for the tweeps out there) alongside fellow Nola indie favorites Rotary Downs at d.b.a. Surprisingly, when I got to the Frenchman St. watering hole, which typically plays host to the jazz/funk/blues crowd, a sizable crew had already amassed within the venue. After scoring a beer, I squeezed into the front corner of the room and waited for the band to take the stage. A large part of me didn’t know what to expect. Anxious, my mind drifted. I wondered if BRCM could match the raucous histrionics of their album in concert.

It’s certainly been a busy fulfilling few months for us at Groovescapes since our launch in October.  As we begin a new year, the horizon is looking brighter than ever.  We have a lot in store for you in 2009, including a soon-to-be launched social networking platform for both musicians and fans and a New Orleans specific online music store.  We’ve also got a few changes in store for the Groovescapes blog as well.  But before I get ahead of myself, I’d like to usher in 2009 with a monster photoblog from a handful of shows which occurred over the last few months…. beginning in October at Gretna Fest and continuing to cover the New Orleans Indie Rock Collective, the Super Secret Fireman’s Other Masked Band Ball, Tim Reynolds and Paul Sanchez, and Connor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band.