I can feel it coming… and it’s coming… coming around again! We got live music back 🙂 – Check out Night 1 of Magic Beans at Beanstalk Music Festival!
After an entire year without live music, the return to Rancho Del Rio for the 9th annual Beanstalk Music Festival was a cathartic homecoming of sorts for the tight-knit community crafted by the Beans over the past decade. Friends who hadn’t seen each other in a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic were able to come together at what, for many, is the best weekend of the summer. The capacity was significantly limited compared to previous years (around 350 attendees vs sometimes 1,000+), which positioned this year’s offering as a particularly intimate affair. In addition to the intimacy came a whole heap of water, as this year’s festival was WET. As many Coloradans will tell you, the rain never lasts long in the front-range, if it even shows up at all. In the eight previous years it had rarely rained, but this year it felt as if we barely had any reprieve from the onslaught of rain that poured down on attendees hour after hour. Fortunately, rain was not going to stand between fans and an epic weekend.
It’s worth mentioning how incredible it was that this particular set even happened. Morsel and Lespecial were scheduled to play sets that evening, but after soundcheck, while waiting for the music to start in front of the sound and lighting booth, a storm rolled in. As the rain began to pour and the wind began to pick up, the crew covered the equipment and then around five of us (myself and my wife included) began to hold on to the canopy that was the only separation between the equipment powering the festival and the unrelenting Colorado rainstorm. Our efforts would be in vain as the entire metal structure was swept away, exposing all of the lighting and sound equipment to the elements with nothing more than a few tightly wrapped tarps to protect the vital instruments from the damaging moisture. All my gear was there as well and was shoved under the tarps with all the other equipment in the fray, so there it would remain until the storm would stop. I went back to the car, soaked to the bone, and hoped for the best. With the canopy top crumpled off to the side like a dead daddy long-leg spider, it was genuinely worrying me that the festival may not be able to proceed. Once again, fortunately and thankfully, Team Bean was not going to let some rain cancel this musical reunion. All bands, except Magic Beans, were re-scheduled to the next day, and sober drivers were sent 40 minutes down the road to a Walmart with a mission to buy three EZ Ups. As the canopies finally rolled in and were scooted over the sound booth, the crowd cheered, and our spirits were reinvigorated. The show was going to happen.
Finally, around 11:30pm, after a day of rain that brought up questions of whether or not the festival would be happening at all, the Beans took the stage to a fiercely jubilant reception. The Beans did not disappoint, playing an almost 2 ½ hour set packed full of highlights. The set opened with their original, “Jamboree”, which appropriately matched the exultant vibe in the crowd. It would also prove to be the bookend of the main set, segueing itself into the instrumental “Time Cube” off the band’s new record, “Slice Of Life”, seemingly forgotten until it would make its reappearance at the end, after “Mr. Scientist”, completing a satisfying song-sandwich of a set. The band also made nods to the rain with the song “Frontier”, which has the solemnly hopeful line “Going out where the rain don’t lie at night”… Clearly that was not Beanstalk 2021, but I digress.
The real gem of the set is the middle section, which is an almost 50-minute nonstop segment that provided fans with everything, including great cover selection, beefy jams, and Beans original music. It starts with a take on the Parliament Funkadelic tune “Handcuffs”, which stretches itself into the most extended jam of the evening. This eventually segued into an out-of-the-blue cover of New Order’s “Blue Monday”, which fit oddly well with the Beans’ dancetronica jam before segueing into their original “Alibi”, a tune that highlights the band’s ability to write accessibly melodious songs with minimal lyrics, similar to one of my favorites, “Off Leash”.
The band would follow this up with another smaller segment of tunes, starting with two funky originals: First, “Studdah Buddah” made sure everyone felt good, and then “Sweet Thang” told us what was good, segueing into another fan favorite, “Mr. Scientist”, with an exclamatory “God Damn”, before hitting fans with the colossal opening bass line. “Mr. Scientist”, in addition to having a solid jam, included an impressive percussive breakdown featuring Rory Dolan from Lespecial tapping away next to Will Trask and Cody Wales. The band, still feeling a bit jammy, finished out the set with a solid take on “Hello” and an even more solid take on “Handshake Or Hug” during the encore.
This Beanstalk set was not just a return to normalcy, it was a testament to the tenacity of the entire Team Bean crew that understood how important this weekend was for everyone. The fact that this set happened at all is beyond impressive and the entire crew deserves all the kudos in the world for that. They saved the weekend and managed to get off a top-notch Magic Beans set in the process, giving a proverbial “What now?” to mother nature. She would certainly have more to say the rest of the weekend, but she had more respect for the front of house after that. Big respect to the entire Team Bean crew. That was awesome.
Magic Beans | 2021-06-24 | Beanstalk Music &
Mountains Festival at Rancho Del Rio, Bond, CO
-= One Set =-
01. (Intro)
02. Jamboree >
03. Time Cube
04. Frontier
05. Handcuffs (Parliament Funkadelic cover) >
06. Blue Monday (New Order cover) >
07. Alibi
08. (Banter)
09. Studdah Buddah
10. Sweet Thang >
11. Mr. Scientist[1] >
12. Jamboree[1][2]
13. (Banter II)
14. Hello
-= Encore =-
15. (Encore Break)
16. Handshake Or Hug
Show Notes: This was the first night of the Beanstalk Music Festival. Morsel and Lesepcial were scheduled to perform but had their sets rescheduled to the following day due to rain. Will Trask provided additional percussion for the entire set.
[1] “Mr. Scientist” and “Jamboree” featured Rory Dolan (Lespecial) on additional percussion.
[2] The end of “Jamboree” contained a “Mr.
Scientist” tease.
Taper Notes: Mics setup FOB DFC raised around 7′ PAS. Board feed was split off of the PA sends but does not have the subs mixed in. As a result, the recording is matrixed with the audience feed to provide low-end as well as ambient sound. Thanks to sound engineer Richard Hartanft for the patch and mix!
Thanks to Magic Beans and Beantsalk for being cool taping/sharing shows. Go see live music and support your local artists! #spacetapes
ARCHIVE LINK: https://archive.org/details/magicbeans2021-06-24.StudioProjects.C4.MKII.cards.AUD.SBD.Matrix.FLAC16bit
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