Also this issue: In iPod He Trusts DJ Botany 500 inserts his brain into a little white box and rents it out. -Patrick Rapa Angelo Cho -Peter Burwasser Best to read it every week -Patrick Rapa Ed Harcourt -Andrew Parks Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra -Peter Burwasser Erin McKeown -Nancy Armstrong Electric Six -Paul Burress Tiësto -Sean O’Neal

June 12-18, 2003

the gig

Nate Chinen on Jazz

Last weekend, bookies and armchair enthusiasts all over the country weighed the odds of Funny Cide, the season’s equine equivalent of Tiger Woods, winning the Belmont Stakes for Triple Crown glory. For a smaller but no less passionate subset of people, there was a more interesting gamble unfolding in the area: the fate of the Field Day Music Festival, which had been scheduled to take place in the bucolic town of Calverton, on Long Island’s North Fork. Originally intended as an alt-rock camp-out in the spirit of England’s Reading Festival, Field Day had run into a series of snarls and snags along the way.

The saga had been ongoing for months. Promoter Andrew Dreskin announced the festival early in the year; tickets went on sale in mid-April. But Dreskin had not secured approval from Riverhead Township or Suffolk County, and he spent much of the spring butting heads with uncooperative officials. In the weeks leading up to the event there were lawsuits and permit hassles, and as late as the Tuesday before the event, it was unclear what would transpire. Finally on Wednesday there was a press announcement: Field Day would not take place on Long Island. That evening, tickets went on sale for a scaled-down version of the event at Giants Stadium, in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Need it be said that music festivals are a tough and unforgiving business? In Philly, we're facing the first summer season without a jazz fest in nearly 20 years -- a consequence of the Mellon Financial Corp.'s decision to drop its multivenue fête in favor of scattered concerts year-round at the Kimmel Center and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While those efforts are certainly worthwhile, the fact remains that jazz fans seeking an outdoor presentation this season will have to head to Wilmington for the Clifford Brown Festival this week. (See Best Bets on p. 32.)

As for Field Day, it went on at the Meadowlands, with roughly half the original scheduled performers. Dreskin, forced to abandon his original vision of the event, endeavored merely to put on a smooth show. Even in this, there were problems. Beck got slammed in the ribs by a stagehand while watching Blur and had to cancelhis performance. And the rain that complicated Belmont was a factor here as well: Turnout was undoubtedly affected by the downpour -- especially at the festival's second stage, where sad-eyed tunesmiths like Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes held sway. But Radiohead provided a saving grace, ending the night on an unquestionable high note. It raised the question: Is this the last we'll hear of Field Day? Some fans are already placing their bets.