Great round-up here from Blurt Magazine re: Moogfest 2010. And check out their killer photo gallery.
A snippett:
Because it was Halloween and Asheville (an Eastern Austin) is a city overflowing with creative types, all sorts of imaginatively costumed people were dancing, swaying, playing to the music.
A guy wearing a huge Residents-like eyeball with red vein lines posed for pictures with a child. Two young woman twirled hula hoops like lassos. Two costumed people on stilts paraded in and out of the park, while an amazing dragon – its long claws extending from a person’s hands to the ground – made a late appearance. And a balding man wearing a blue skirt and see-through top took photos of the proceedings.
It all felt so organic, so natural, so like a community making and enjoying music. And in that, there was an important revelation in addition to a lot of pleasure. In some quarters, electronic music – synthesized music – is felt to be artificial compared to acoustic music or traditional electric-guitar-based rock.
If Moogfest did anything, it proved that synths have soul. Or souls. And I’m sure the late Robert Moog, who created the Moog synthesizer in 1964 and the especially influential, portable Minimoog in 1970 and lived in Asheville in later years, would have been pleased. He was a very spiritual fellow. (He died in 2005.) His company, Moog Music, and the Robert Moog Foundation – which wants to further his legacy with programs and a museum – are still based in Asheville.