TVD Live Shots: The Silopanna Festival at the Anne Arundel Fairgrounds, 8/16

Last Saturday gave way to a solid festival of music and fun at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds.

Nestled in a cozy little patch of woods in the Annapolis countryside which is also known for hosting the Maryland Renaissance Festival every October, the Silopanna Music Festival took shape and filled the wooded fairgrounds, bringing local and national artists together and serving up a mix of genres on its stages—with a little something for everybody.

The festival featured three stages with no down time between sets, games, plenty of good food, and enough beer and mixed drinks to go around. The festival also delivered something more than just a schedule of outdoor musical performances, from apparel to custom craft brews, there was something to suit any fancy at Silopanna.

Hosted by the good folks at Rams Head Live, the scheduling went smoothly the way any well-managed festival should. Headlining act, The Flaming Lips were preceded on the main stage by popular acts Matt and Kim, Dashboard Confessional, Sleeper Agent, and Hellogoodbye.

Rams Head did a smart job of adding well-known local acts like Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, Sweet Leda, and Eric Hutchinson to the bill and pairing the set times on the lawn stage to contrast the sounds coming from the main stage. They were always groups of people strolling around the grounds heading to catch the artist of their choice.

Matt and Kim played a searing set on the main stage and as usual, their performance was full of high energy drumming and banter back and forth between them and the crowd. At one point Matt came down into the throng to grab a sign from a fan in the front row from which Kim enlisted a new nickname, “The Knife.”

I have to admit, I was a little surprised to see Dashboard Confessional in the festival’s lineup only because we haven’t heard from them in quite a while. Despite this, they ran through their set in the best of spirits, crowd in tow, singing and hanging on every word. I think people reunited with an old friend.

For me, local musician Eric Hutchinson was the stand out act of the festival. With larger than life vocals and a really clean-cut swagger, Hutchinson delivered a top-notch performance and drew the biggest crowd of the day to the lawn stage. He’s definitely an artist to watch out for.

As for the main attraction, if you have never attended a Flaming Lips show, I highly recommend that you do. The Lips always deliver with over the top stage props and wild antics by front man Wayne Coyne.

For their stop at Silopanna, Coyne enlisted the help of various human toys. Along with his stage hands, plenty of smoke and confetti, and of course the huge inflatable beach ball that Coyne uses to walk atop the audience at almost every Lips show, the band brought with them more lighting and video boards than I saw at U2’s Achtung Baby tour.

The Flaming Lips are as proficient musically as they ever were and their dreamy electro-indie sounds filled the air at Silopanna. Wayne Coyne and his Flaming Lips are still on top of their game.

FLAMING LIPS