7:30- Rocked by the Gypsy Yiddish stylings of Golem. Their accordionist says “Thank you for moving your tuchaser,” (butts) then says the message of a song is “I’ll even take care of your elderly mother, where the hell are you already?” Gotta love the jewish guilt. Reminds me of hebrew school. Their upright bassist rattles my eardrums and can be heard three blocks away.

7:45- Mamadou Diabate satisfies my soul with his 14 stringed instrument. I used to think the six string guitar was the zenith of rock, but I love his acoustic traditional music. His talking drum player can’t stop smiling and is making me feel good. He yells out “How you feelin’ beautiful Bloomington?” pretty damn good thank you. His band is decked out in African garb and has the crowd swaying.
8:05- Go to Bluebird, which was so dead this weekend you would have thought they were having a Creed reunion concert every night. Fiamma Fumana had a fan waving an Italian flag and their bagpipes were pretty good, but I didnt get that into it. The lead singer said “I’ve seen you dance before. You dance now.” I decided to move on.

8:20 I caught the end of my boy Mamadou and the crowd swelled for his last song. The one-time child prodigy has the crowd grooving. The announcer said, “No time for an encore. That’s the heartache of Lotus.

8:30 YAYY The guy who I thought had abandoned his mullet the night before actually had just been hiding those beautiful locks behind a ponytail. That flowing, gray, wavy mullet flew by me in front of the Buskirk and life was good again.

8:35 Front row for Nomo, but after a few minutes of waiting for the 8:30 show I walked around. Came back five minutes later and the tent was packed! And they knew where to be. Nomo was the surprise hit of the night! Their four strong horn players tore the house down and I didn’t want to leave. The two saxists and trumpet players carried the band which was filled out by a bongo player, piano/cowbell/Danger Mouse-esque electronic keyboardist. I want mo’ Nomo

9:20 The stilt guys put on a street show which scares my girlfriend a little. The masks and creepy movements are weirding me out too.

9:25 Bluebird is still dead. Maybe Creed was followed up by Staind. Oh no, it’s just Kal, who I frankly expected more from. The violin/guitar combo had me bored, so I bounced to get some food.

9:35 A quick Gyro from Trojan Horse fuels me to check out Kirkwood, but the Buskirk and Church have overflowing lines, so I head back to my triangle of Monroe Tent, Union Board, and occasional peeks into Bluebird. I finish up Nomo’s awesome set and get ready for Balkan.

10:20 Waiting for Balkan as the tent swells with energy and anticipation for the ultimate last show. And it was by far the rockest show of the night and possibly the festival. I’ll save a whole entry for it, but now I’ve gotta run to Sunday’s festivities.

Check back later for much more.

We Got the Beat

by Zack Teibloom

Within five minutes of being at Lotus I ran into Balkan Beat Box- the most talked about band at last year’s show. They put on a jaw dropping set that had the tent hopping and Ori put on a DJ set that had over 50 people dancing on stage and the whole tent in a craze past midnight…even though they were supposed to stop at 11.

They invited me to walk around with them as they went to get dinner and talked about everything from how their band is like a circus to the fighting near their hometown in Tel Aviv.

Singer Tamir flew in from Tel Aviv just for the show because “It has a great vibe to it- the most amazing hospitality and open minded people We’ve really been accepted here.”

He said he was happy to come back, but it was an exhausting 12- hour flight. Tamir talked about being outside the missile zone, but still having worries in Israel.

“It’s better now that the war ended. We hope for a new middle east, but that’s all bullshit.”

He said they have their second album on the way in early 2007 and when I asked how early? His band member joked, “Oh, 5 a.m. Well, I like to sleep late. Maybe we’ll put it out at noon.”

When asked what sound it will have they said “better.” And then offered a taste by saying “chuu chuuuuu before getting serious and saying it will be more of the same: live instruments and a combo of traditional and modern.

“Just to spice it up,” a member of Balkan Beat Box leaned toward Tamir and joked “We don’t like each other…and he used to be a woman.”

They have another show Saturday night at 10:30. Don’t miss it.