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It remained oppressively hot at the Red Sky Music Festival on Tuesday, but about 18 brave souls turned out early to hear Straight Outta Junior High.(.(KEVIN COFFEY/THE WORLD-HERALD))


RED SKY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Day 2: More fans, more dancing, more heat
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If you read the fine print on some posters at Red Sky Music Festival concerts, it tells you that you might be photographed or filmed.

Red Sky audience members should prepare to get caught on-camera. Lincoln musician Lucas Kellison is filming the video for his song, "Take It, Make It" at Red Sky with George Clinton and P-Funk as his backing band. Kellison is a solo artist who also performs with a band called the Assembled Soul.

Last November, Clinton and his band joined Kellison in the studio to record backing music and vocals for the song.

Now that Clinton was back in town, Kellison and some of his band joined the musician onstage to finish the video and recording project.

They performed "Take It, Make It" near the end of Clinton's set.

It was definitely a funk track and showcased P-Funk's over-the-top style. Kellison played bass and sang with Clinton throughout the song.

Near the end, Kellison played a bass solo that had Clinton dancing.

"Let's hear it y'all. Give it up for him," Clinton said after the song. "Y'all got some homegrown funk here."

No word yet on when the song or video will be released. — Kevin Coffey

***

By the time the last two daYTIME stage acts were performing on Tuesday, several hundred people were rocking outside each.

Five-piece instrumental group STS9 barely stopped playing its blend of funk, jazz and rock. The band kept its rapt audience dancing and grooving for nearly two hours. It was the only daytime stage band that I saw perform an encore, even though fans of other groups yelled out for one.

On the other stage, king of funk George Clinton held court with Parliament Funkadelic in front of several hundred gathered festivalgoers.

Clinton — now without his trademark rainbow dreads — took the stage in a navy captain's hat and a blue shirt while surrounded by the P-Funk spectacle.

We were welcomed to their funky world by 17 musicians and singers, as well as a few costumed performers (including an alien smoking an illicit substance). The band worked through some funk classics, including "Atomic Dog" and "We Want The Funk."

Clinton and his pals have developed their act into something that resembles a circus spectacle as much as a musical performance. — Kevin Coffey

***

There was a lot of sweat, beer, dreadlocks and little bit of tie-dye among the festivalgoers who boogied their way through the George Clinton show Tuesday evening. Inside the nearby beer tent, though, the crowd was a little more of the yuppie variety — a few Creighton T-shirts, khakis and sun visors were spotted. Whatever the fan style, Clinton seemed into it. "Y'all have some grown funky," he purred into the microphone. "You dig?"

— Maggie O'Brien

***

In a little corner of the Red Sky memorabilia booth, you could snag some neat stuff other than T-shirts and tank tops.

Mike Hupf, a vendor for Gajo Enterprises Inc., showed off two limited items from funk legend George Clinton: an unopened copy of his 1978 "One Nation Under a Grove" album or an autographed book about his 1996 world tour.

Either — there were limited numbers of each, by the way — would set you back $40. But that wouldn't matter if you were a hard-core fan of the Godfather of Funk, right?

For his part, Hupf didn't seem to know much else about Clinton. But he thought the memorabilia was pretty cool.

"It's nice to offer something else along with T-shirts," he said.

— Maggie O'Brien

***

Don't call it hula-hooping. Omahan Chelsea Taxman, 23, said she hoop-dances.

"The Hula-Hoop," she quipped, "that's Mattel."

Taxman started hooping about five years ago. She created a local hoop troop — people ages 8 to 70 participate — three years ago. She teaches weekly hooping classes and encourages people to hoop dance whenever and wherever they can.

Tuesday, that was the Red Sky Music Festival.

Hooping has become a national fitness trend that improves flexibility and coordination, relieves stress and allows for creative expression through dance.

"It's a way to dance by yourself without feeling weird about it," Taxman said. "It also helps with menstrual cramps."

Hooping is more than a hobby to her. She called it a lifestyle — "a way to get people to come together."

She and two other women hooped during performances by Big Gigantic and Cornmeal.

"It's just a fun thing to have with us while we're listening to music," Taxman said. "Some people want to try it. Some people take video of us. And a very few get annoyed with us. They think they're going to get hit with the hoop."

But Taxman practices proper hooping etiquette. She's conscious of her surroundings and stands toward the back of the audience.

— Josefina Loza

***

Satchel Grande brought some late-night funk to the Red Sky Music Festival early Tuesday afternoon.

Ross Koley, 27, and Ashley Coogan, 24, wildly shook their bodies in tune with the band's beats.

"We're just big music fans," Koley said. "This is the first time Omaha has had something like this, so we wanted to do our part and support it."

"Besides," Coogan chimed in, "we love Satchel."

Tuesday was by far the best music lineup, Koley said, from George Clinton to Cornmeal to 311.

Koley, who bartends at both V. Mertz and the Rose & Crown bar, called attendance "disappointing." But it didn't stop him and his girlfriend from dancing.

"We like to have fun," he said while readjusting his woven, rainbow-colored headband.

"I don't normally wear a head-dressing, but I had to wear something over my head" to catch the sweat, he said.

Coogan did the same with a tan scarf that had peace signs printed on it.

Headgear — bandanas, sweatbands, scarves and the stretched sleeves ripped from a shirt — was popular.

— Josefina Loza

***

As of 12:30 or so, the crowd at the on-site beer tent was smaller than that near the stages, but a spokesman wasn't worried.

Frank Ethofer of Levy Services, which serves the ballpark and the CenturyLink Center Omaha, said few people visited the tent Monday until after 2:30 p.m., despite the hot weather.

— Maggie O'Brien

***

Beer report. Who's popular and who's not?

"Hey, you're a reporter, right," a server shouted from across a beer tent. "If you want to report which beer is sold the most, it's this one."

He pointed at a can of Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, a Wisconsin-based craft brew with a tart lemon flavor.

But this reporter looked around and saw no one drinking it.

The only two people in the tent drinking were clutching a Coors Light and a Mike's Hard Lemonade.

— Josefina Loza

***

Yeah, yeah. We know it's hot. But the real concern at the Red Sky Festival: How do you piece together a comfy outfit that makes fashion sense in weather like this?

You might want to take a few cues from Nika Blake, 23, who practically raided American Apparel for her threads.

Blake, who works at the chic shop in Omaha's north downtown, paired a lightweight— nearly see-through — peach cami with a bandeau bra and a billowy denim-colored skirt. She accessorized her outfit with a peanut-butter-colored belt and blue canvas loafers.

"I would've worn sandals, but I thought we were going to be in the grass," Blake said.

"I love this top because it's like you're wearing nothing," she said. "So even if you sweat, it doesn't show."

She described her style as "almost having an '80s revival, but not, because I make it 2011."

A stroll around the festival's grounds revealed these other fashion trends:

· Bikini tops

· Tie-dyed shirts and sundresses

· Bandeau-style tube tops

· Long-flowing skirts

· Woven vests

· Mini sundresses

· Skinny jeans on guys

· Midriff shirts on men and women

· Plaid shorts

· Muscle shirts

· Burnt-out T-shirts and tank tops

· Oversized women's glasses

· Nautical shoes

· Feather earrings

· Low-cut leather ankle boots

· Fringe on just about everything: skirts, vests and purses

— Josefina Loza

***

Those mist tents are the place to be at Red Sky.

Music fans ran in and out of the tents to cool off in-between sets. Julia Perez, a concierge for the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority, said about 5 p.m. was just about the prime time to rinse off the stink and sweat and get a refill from festival's free water stop.

"People would fill up their water and then run through the spray tents," she said. "Everyone was running through, young and old. I could barely keep up handing out all that water, too."

Zach Bayse, 31, and Adam Forsythe, 31, were two of those fans who ran through the misting tent Tuesday before heading to the next music stage.

They were dressed in weather-appropriate attire: Swimming trunks.

"We just always do swimming trunks," Bayse said. "It's a great way to stay cool, and if you get wet, you don't really care."

The guys are roommates at the Tip-Top Apartment complex on Cuming Street who walked the block or so over to TD Ameritrade Park for a festival ticket.

"We weren't doing much," Forsythe said. "So we decided to come hang out."

"Last night, we walked around the stadium and you could hear Journey playing," Bayse said.

They also like listening from the Tip-Top's rooftop patio, he added.

"You couldn't see into the stadium, but you could hear fine."

The guys wanted to enhance their Red Sky experience by actually attending Tuesday. They hoped to catch funkmaster George Clinton live.

They planned to return to the rooftop for 311 later that night.

The guys walked away from the misting tent carrying their shirts in their back pockets.

— Maggie O'Brien and Josefina Loza

***

In a corner, just feet from a Red Sky Festival stage, Wyatt Felt danced to the bluegrass group Cornmeal.

The toddler bobbed his tiny head, stomped his feet and swirled around in a circle.

Wyatt, who will turn age 2 in August, had a blast.

"He likes all kinds of music, but bluegrass is his favorite," said Omahan Meta Felt, 43, his mommy.

Wyatt and Mom attended Tuesday's festival just to see Cornmeal.

"We'll stay as long as we can. I'm just glad we could find a little patch of shade to sit in," Felt said.

To prepare for the day, Wyatt took a long nap, drank lots of water and applied lots of sunscreen.

Wyatt has also attended a Bright Eyes concert in Iowa. He has a harmonica and plays a keyboard.

— Josefina Loza

***

One band almost didn't get paid for performing at Red Sky.

Local bands — selected for the festival after competing in a battle of the bands — make $500 each, a good payday for a local band only performing a 40-minute set.

While pop punk band Straight Outta Junior High was onstage, the group's guitarist said that the long black pants he was wearing were the "worst idea (of) 2011."

While the band laughed and played on, some Red Sky employees thought they were trashing the festival itself and didn't find it so amusing.

They refused to pay the band until everyone talked it over. In the end, band members explained the joke and got their check.

"(It was) just a little misunder-standing. They thought we were talking trash on the festival. We absolutely weren't," said Straight Outta Junior High's Matt Tatroe. "It was an inside joke that got misconstrued. It happens. We had a lot of fun and are glad to be a part of it."

— Kevin Coffey

***

At some outdoor festivals, people who smoke have to stand behind a barricade yards away from the entertainment, or are put in a caged area. That's not the case on the Red Sky festival grounds.

Security and other MECA staff told people they could smoke freely as long as it wasn't in any of the beer tents.

"It is an outdoor festival," a server said.

Several no-smoking signs were posted inside tents. That didn't deter some people, of course.

— Josefina Loza

***

CROWDS WERE SLIGHTLY BETTER early in the second day of the Red Sky Music Festival, but still not amazing. The heat was as oppressive as it was Monday, or even more so. It was a humid 96 degrees at 2:25 p.m.

Local nine-piece funk band Satchel Grande brought about 30 fans to Stage C, the most of anyone early in the day Tuesday.

The group also performed in full '70s-style vintage polyester shirts, ties and Blublocker sunglasses, despite the heat. Keyboardist Andy Kammerer gave a good reason.

"You can't break character," he said. "But I wore cotton today, which is a little more breathable than the polyester."

The band knew fans were feeling the heat, too.

"Thank you for sticking it out in the sun and for coming out on a weekday," lead singer Chris Klemmensen told the crowd.

Satchel Grande, which plays funk, won over those in attendance, who started in with cries of "Encore!" and "One more song!" after the band's set was finished.

The first band of the day — pop punk group Straight Outta Junior High on Stage C — drew about 18 people at first.

Over at Stage B, rock outfit Vago started out playing for only one person.

— Kevin Coffey

***

Homer's Music was the place to be for a Red Sky after-party on Monday.

At midnight, the store opened and all five members of 311 were inside to celebrate the release of the band's brand new album, "Universal Pulse." Several hundred people lined up down the block and around the corner to get their hands on the recording and to meet the band.

Mike Fratt, general manager of Homer's, said fans started lining up at 9 p.m., as soon as the store shut down to prepare for the midnight sale.

About 100 people preordered the album and the store hoped it had enough to satisfy the horde that waited outside.

The band sat inside, shook hands with each fan and signed one item for each person. Some stuck to having the album signed while others brought posters and guitars.

Outside, those still waiting were eager to get glimpses of the new album and, of course, the autographs scribbled on the covers.

— Kevin Coffey


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