The sounds was awesome..

Khaled played a nice lenghty set. His performance was 30 times better than the last time I saw him in Berkeley.

Cheb i sabbah rocked the crowd per usual and had some nice live tabla.

Diverse crowd and great to see a lot of the rock'n Morrocan's and Arab Emirates crowd.

It wasn't overly loud, but I had my earplugs in on the rail for Cheb i & on the hill for Khaled... Also, I didn't notice the percussionist, Walfredo Reyes Jr., playing tabla - he is a latin/Cuban percussionist...


Stern Grove was clear and hot through Cheb i's set, and then the much anticipated overcast mist began to sift in slowly.

Great dance party in the pit for Cheb i's set, which started off with a couple discrete songs and ended with a long continuous mix of some of your regular Cheb i favorites... Walfredo Reyes Jr on percussion was a nice addition.

This show was my first Khaled set, and I was highly entertained. The majority of the floor was dancing from the get-go, with many people on the hill rising from their feet by the end... The roster of musicians was huge:

-Khaled - vocals
-Elan Attias - reggae MC/smooth backing vocals
-2 guitars
-electric bass
-acoustic lute or similar
-kit drummer
-percussionist
-trumpet
-trombone
-tenor sax
-keys/organ
-keys/effects/production (must have been Don Was)

It is a rare treat that I enjoy vocals - sappy lyrics, lack of vocal training, and poor application of one's instrument usually draw me to purely instrumental music. However, I was thoroughly impressed with Khaled's vocal abilities - his training definitely shows in pitch, resonance, and clarity, and also in ryhthm & time. Although rai is definintely his style he moved through reggae, rock, and latin themes easily. He is also a great entertainer who engaged the crowd all the way through the set both by singing and energetic (yet appropriate & sincere) dancing along.

The vast majority of the music was truly live. There were definitely some effects & samples being thrown down by the keyboard players from time to time, but for the most part everything was live and rocking. This contrasts *heavily* with another Algerian artist I saw recently at the Great American, Rachid Taha. Rachid Taha had a band, but so much of his set was completely canned - the bass player was a complete figurehead who did nothing. In addition, Rachid's vocals were, well, terrible. Although I like the Rachid Taha studio cuts that Cheb i throws into his sets, his live performance left me, to be blunt, limp. Accordingly, I left him 35 minutes into his set...

Back to Khaled, the horn section was capable but a bit boring - very basic call & response for the most part, although there were a few *brief* solos. Please note that I'm a NOLA-style brass junkie, so I'm very opinionated on this subject. The horn section participated on about half the songs.

Santana sat in for the last third of the set, which was fun. However, his addition of a fifth guitar on stage muddied the sound quite a bit... They gave him a latin rocker to work with on the 2nd song he was out for, and then he took back burner for most of the rest of the set, which was fairly reggae-centric. To be frank, I enjoy Santana sit-ins because of the energy he brings to the crowd when he comes on stage, but I haven't cared too much for his actual musical contributions for quite a while... His presence was definitely additive to the spirit of the crowd, and got even more of my hillside neighbors up & moving, which I greatly appreciated. Khaled honored him personally by rocking out with some big, sincere dance moves directly in front of him during the peak of his big solo.

I thoroughly enjoyed the MC stylings of Elan Attias, especially during the reggae numbers. And his occasional backing vocals were gentle, not oppressive, and only served to highlight Khaled's contributions.

All-in-all it was a great day at Stern Grove. I really like this festival, in spite of the heavy corporate sponsorship/advertisement from the mics both pre-set and setbreak... They go beyond a mention of sponsorship and give a full commercial... The weather is usually wonderful SF summer overcast mist. If any of you are planning on Ladysmith Black Mambazo this week, I'd suggest an early arrival... I might pop in next week or soon thereafter, but I'll definitely be back for Dirty Dozen Brass Band, who opens for Beausoleil (cajun) on August 14.