THE SUGAR WATER FESTIVAL
JULY 9, 2005
at MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION, Columbia MD
featuring
FLOETRY, QUEEN LATIFAH, JILL SCOTT & ERYKAH BADU
By Karla Russell
for VocalMusician.com
All I can say is that it was PHENOMENAL; just off the hook, off the chain, off the Hizzle fo' Schizzle. Okay, seriously, the show was fantastic!
After battling traffic on Route 29 for over two and a half hours, we arrived a little bit late. We had lawn tickets along with "42 million" other people and a pretty good head start on a "libatious" buzz (due to the prolonged trip in traffic) but we also had a great view of the stage because of these enormous screens that had been set up in the lawn area. FLOETRY was already on stage and deep into the crowd favorite of "Getting Late" when we arrived. Unfortunately, I must say that we could not hear too well the fantastic lyrical caress of Natalie (the Floacist) who can spit incredibly deep, moving rhymes with her sing-song British accent and who can also tell a story better than Hans Christian Anderson. But we could hear the incredible range of MARSHA (the songstress), who melted "Getting Late" into "Sunshine" into "Say Yes" then into a new song called "Closer" which better be the single off their upcoming album. They ended their set, as they usually do, with "Let Your Soul Glow" from Coming To America.
The crowd was still yelling for FLOETRY when QUEEN LATIFAH took the stage - keep in mind that there was a 15 minute break between artists, so that's a lot of yelling. LATIFAH was resplendent, in jeans, high heels, a halter top and her hair in a ponytail hanging down her back. She opened her set with "All Hail the Queen," which we did, and then she launched a hip-hop revolution, ranging from 'ol school to new school. She mixed in a little Naughty By Nature along with the best of her best: "Ladies First," "Black Reign," "Dance For Me" and "Come Into My House." Riot police should have been called when she went into "Bananas/Paper" which heavily samples Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine." She then slowed things down with "California Dreaming" from the Dana Owens Album and forever endeared herself to the crowd by interjecting "When I'm in California, I'm dreaming of DC." She then sang "Simply Beautiful" on which, by the way, her guitar player sang Al Green's part and, truth be told, Al was NOT missed. She tried to leave the stage, but the crowd wouldn't let her. So she ended her set with "U-N-I-T-Y" which was PURE PERFECTION.
During the next 15 minute break, the crowd of "millions" was informed that Merriweather had run out of food. But the beer and Margaritas continued to flow freely.
Needless to say, when JILL SCOTT took the stage, the crowd was READY! SCOTT's stage presence is so perfect, you feel as though you are having an intimate conversation with her while beautiful music is playing in the background. She started with "Cross My Mind" in which her facial expressions and body language told you more than her well-written lyric ever could. She went straight into "Whatever," merged into "A Long Walk" and then into "Getting In My Way." Show wove a beautiful love story through her songs and the crowd followed along, falling in love and out of love and back in love right along with her. She improvised for a while (maybe it was "scatting," I ain't sure) but she played with the mic, creating reverb and echoes, using her God-given talent for a few minutes, adding snippets of old jazz songs and 60's R&B hits. Then she hit us with "Golden" and the crowd eagerly anticipated hearing more from her sophomore album, but then her set was over. The crowd was bereft.
The show ended with ERYKAH BADU - LITERALLY. Unfortunately, Ms. BADU seemed totally out of touch with the crowd, the band and herself. She opened with a bizarre piece that had something to do with her eyes being green. I am sorry to say that no one ever taught little ERYKAH that loud does not equal good. The more restless and disinterested the crowd became, the louder and louder she became. But she never got better. After screeching at us about her eyes for five minutes, she did "Other Side of the Game," which briefly pulled the crowd back in. Then she threw in a little bit of "On and On" and "Badusim" which went on and on, then into another crowd favorite, "See You Next Lifetime." However, after the first verse, she stopped the band, told the audience she wasn't "feeling it" and then began to ramble about the changes in her life - interjecting her impromptu Oprah interview with an occasional line of howling/singing. The crowd started yelling out songs for her to sing, which she ignored, choosing instead to continue telling us of her struggles with "weed," Royal Crown and no good men. At some point she sang a few lines of "Back in the Day," mixed with "Bag Lady" but I got the impression that she just couldn't remember the words to either song, so she kept winging it until she headed for a crash landing. She ended her set, ironically, with "Puff," which is the official theme song of "weed" smokers, Royal Crown drinkers and the bad-relationship-having set. She managed to keep the crowd interested by occasionally yelling out "Puff-F*** the Police!" When her set ended, she called for FLOETRY, QUEEN LATIFAH and JILL SCOTT to come back out. FLOETRY had already "left the building" (heading to the Poetry Summit) but JILL and QUEEN joined ERYKAH in an unscripted and noticeably unrehearsed tribute to the late Luther Vandross. It was touching overall, but off key and confusing as each woman seemed to be singing her own favorite Luther song.
All in all, the Sugar Water Festival is one of the best shows of 2005 and was well worth the two-and-a-half hour drive...in traffic.
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