For me, the hands down favorite of the festival was Black Bonzo. They might be Swedish, but they’ve more or less taken the genre of Americana and turned it on its head.

 

They are best described as Kansas with tads of funk, soul, jazz and blues. With their youth and vigor feeding this tempest, their symphony of destruction spins with the intensity of a typhoon. This freak of nature was awesome yet it was innate to all those storm chasers in attendance. Most of all, their presentation skills were best.

 

They commanded the stage and awed us with their antics. As a result, this was a treat for both our eyes and ears; though I cannot seem to fathom why the bassist, Anthon Johansson, wore a gardener’s hat that was geared for the other gender. Let’s just say that was par for the course and if any member of a band is to diverge from the pack, statistical analysis has shown it’s the bassist.

 

By the way, their frontman, Magnus Lindgren, stated “We are soldiers of music; we love to create not to destroy." Based on the lyrics that went with this impressive campaign, I couldn’t have said it any better.

 

To me, they seemed less like foreigners and more like neighbors of mine.