Well, that’s really not true—I also got to see one of my favorite bands live! For the first time! For free! I owe my love for Cage the Elephant to…
The forecast for Saturday in Franklin was rainy and bleak, hardly the weather thousands of eager Tennesseans wanted for the inaugural Pilgrimage Festival in Franklin. Big names like Cage the Elephant, Iron & Wine, and Wilco dominated Saturday.
The two-day event likely seemed quite cozy to seasoned veterans of the summer festival circuit, with only two main stages (and two smaller ones) and a schedule that frustratingly overlapped nearly every performer with another. Yet, the lineup itself made up for it.
On this day nineteen years ago, four of Blind Melon’s five members woke up expecting to play a show that night at Tipitina’s in New Orleans. The fifth, lead vocalist and chief songwriter Shannon Hoon, never awoke. He had died of a cocaine overdose at age 28. Today, to honor Hoon’s memory, I’d like to take a look at Blind Melon, a terribly under-appreciated member of the grunge pantheon.