New Orleans Jazz Festival 2004

Whew… New Orleans was a real whirlwind tour. I can’t believe we were only there for three days: Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Here are those photos I promised! Click the link and follow along with the entry (will open in new window):

• View Gallery New Orleans Jazz Fest 2004

After arriving Thursday and checking into our hotel (The Hilton downtown, earned by points on EricG’s credit card), EricG and Angela ran off for lunch reservations and Sonia, EricJ and I took a walking tour around the French Quarter. This is one seriously old place. The streets are cobblestone, the buildings are colourful, tall, have high ceilings, balconies on every floor, are squished together — sometimes only three feet apart and connected by false walls.
And cafes everywhere! Nifty. We went for breakfast. A common dessert in the cafes was the “beignet” — something like a fritter, with a half-pound of icing sugar on top. Mmmm good. After poking around for some postcards (we saw a very cool antique shop) we walked back to the hotel along the Mississippi River waterfront, met up with EricG and Angela. We discussed dinner — EricG and Ang had just eaten and were still stuffed, so the rest of us took an adventure on a streetcar while they dozed. For $1.25 we traveled by rail deep into the Garden District and arrived at Audubon Park beside Tulane University. It’s a beautiful place; 100-year old oaks, green grass and jogging trails abound (with a special lane for bikers and rollerbladers). There’s a pond in the middle, too. We only had a couple hours, so we hopped back on the train and came back. On the way back, we went by Delmonico Restaurant & Bar, owned by noted master chef Emeril Lagasse.
After getting back to the hotel, we all headed out for dinner. Rock ‘n Sake Sushi — or “Rock’em Sock’em Sushi”, as EricJ and I were calling it — was an old haunt of EricG’s from a couple years back when he used to live in New Orleans. This place was a load of fun. Fun music, funky design (everything was painted a bold colour), a hip atmosphere (they had a Kill Bill roll) and excellent sushi… not a combination you see too often*.
After that stuffing session it was off to see if we could find an air mattress for me to sleep on. An air mattress? Yeah — on this trip I was in the company of two couples, so guess who gets the floor? After visiting a bunch of “mini marts” (all of which sold luggage for some reason) we found one and met up with EricG and Ang, who were at a piano bar off Bourbon Street named Pat O’Brien’s. There were loads of people there… standing room only, so EricJ and I hung across the hall where it was a little quieter. Note to self: a double margarita on the rocks is $2.75 — no wonder everyone on Bourbon Street is drunk. Wonder if alcohol is subsidized by the city.. hehe
It burst out raining shortly after we left Pat O’Brien’s; we took shelter in a nearby bar playing live music. In fact, it was a live act covering Def Leppard’s “Pour some sugar on me”. Man did that singer have energy. (Though not as much as Ang!!) I know it’s sacrilege in some circles, but I’d wager that it was actually better than the original. I know.
Anyhow that place got packed mighty quick; EricJ and I stepped outside to avoid the mad crush inside, while Ang used her persuasive powers to lure EricG into staying longer. Around 2am EricJ and I headed back to our hotel and didn’t awake until 4am when EricG and Ang came home. The air mattress turned out to be okay, though repositioning yourself sucks. Sonia’s working out the details still, but the cost of the room won’t be split evenly: I’ll be paying less since I wasn’t in a bed.
Friday morning we lazily woke around 9:30am; it was pouring hard outside. Jazzfest was cancelled that day, the first time a day had been cancelled in the 35-year history of the festival. Crazy. So we made reservations and took the car down to Commander’s Palace restaurant, a high-end southern eatery. Turns out this was the same place EricG and Ang went yesterday. They didn’t mind going again though! The food was great — we all ordered our dessert at the same time as our entrees as the menu actually said “Please let your server know ahead of time if you intend to order the dessert. Desserts take between 20-25 minutes to prepare.” So of course I ordered dessert with my meal. I had a seafood gumbo as an entree, with 3 half-cups of different soups (soup 1-1-1) for an appetizer and bread pudding soufflé as dessert. It was excellent, and the service was really something else. Plates cleared immediately, waters refilled as soon as they emptied. Like a swarm of helpful people.
Afterwards we took dinner at a restaurant in the Warehouse/Arts district, “Lucy’s”. Lucy’s is a “retired surfer’s bar”, the only one in the Southern US. They had an item on the menu — a jerk chicken appetizer — it was good, but nothing close to the jerk chicken we get down here in Sarasota. Then it was off to the Ween/Medeski, Martin and Wood concert at the State Palace Theatre.
What a big, old, creaky place it is. It was a great show, apart from what seemed like a constant stream of people in front of me getting up and sitting down. But when Medeski, Martin and Wood came out that settled things down a bit. They’re more like modern jazz based, whereas Ween is all about 3 power-distorted guitars.
Saturday morning marked the first day where we actually made it to Jazzfest. Admission? $25. We headed straight for the food, EricG helping us locate the Crawfish Monica — spicy mac ‘n cheese with crawfish. I’m not a big seafood fan, but boy did I like this! Shortly thereafter we established a base camp on the main field and we split up. EricJ, Sonia and I went over to the heritage center and watched flamenco dancers dance while getting oysters shucked on the half shell. I had six! Mmmm, oystery.
Then it was off to watch Shaggy perform at one of the nearby stages. He’s quite the lady’s man. Shaggy to crowd: “All y’all raise your hand if you a strong independent woman, don’t need any man (except me!)” The whole show was a lot of fun.. he and his sidekick Rik Rok (the one who sang in “It wasn’t me”) battled it out about which side of the audience was where the party was at.. lots of crowd participation. After Shaggy show was over, I made my way back to base camp where there were ten times as many people as when I left it. Santana was on, performing “Smooth”. He got political during his performance, saying that he’d (and I’m paraphrasing here) like peace and harmony in the world, and the ability to work together with other nations to build a better place for our kids. This was met with applause — and then he said (and this isn’t a paraphrase) — “This is the opposite of Bush.”, and pleaded the audience not vote him back into power in this fall. This is always a gutsy move for a performer of any sort, knowing you could be alienating your audience, but I think it’s admirable too. Doing anything less would be being dishonest to your fans. Though all of a sudden it felt like a political rally — which turned me off a bit. But the music was good, and that feeling disappeared shortly.
Sonia drove us to “The House” — an old-style mansion a photographer friend of EricJ and Sonia’s was renting out as a base camp during the festival — had some wine and chatted a bit. And finally it was back to the Renaissance Arts Hotel — an art gallery and a hotel in one — where we got cleaned up, went for dinner at the hotel restaurant, and took a swim in the hotel pool (which was just spectacular — the hot tub was hot and the view of downtown splendid). Sadly, I was out of space on my backup memory card, so aren’t any shots of it.
Sunday morning we got up early (EricG and Ang… the party animals… never actually went to sleep) and transferred the rental car over to Ang and EricG, who were staying until 9pm. Our flight was at 9am, so we busted it out of there early and we were back in Sarasota by 2pm.
Would I do it again next year? Hells yes! 🙂
* Sushi Zushi managed this combination in San Antonio, but it was because an employee there was playing his/her own CD-R.