Sugar Water Festival - A Bust!

Here I am all dressed up, got my locks rockin' steppin' out to the Sugar Water Festival featuring Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Jill Scott and Floetry.

The X had hooked us up with 14th row seats and I was excited. I rushed home from work and fired up the old Caruso Steamer, put on a nice neo soul kinda outfit. The X was sportin' some nice, cool linen and we wuz lookin' good yall...Sorry didn't get any pictures of us other than this one snapped as we were leaving. I didn't want to be late, but...

It was down hill after that!

The concert tickets stated an 8 p.m. start. We got an email earlier in the week saying the concert had been rescheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start. We arrive at 7:45 and all I see is a mass of beautiful brothers and sisters mingling, drinking, fanning (it was 100 degrees although we were inside, there was a lot of us.) So I'm thinkin' cool - we haven't missed anything. By 9 p.m. the doors still aren't open. By now the natives (including myself and X are getting restless.)

Finally they let us in about 9:15 and then the band takes another 45 minutes for the sound check. They don't even pull the curtains - no videos playing on the big screen - just us watching some guys "test, test, test." Finally at 10 p.m. Jill Scott comes out. She apologized, it's their first stop on the tour, this usally doesn't happen...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...I'm thinking, sing something and see if that will make it better. It did! The gurl is B-A-D and what a range! I had no idea she was that talented. I could have listened to her all night - actually wished I could have.

Ahhh...but back to the drama...we wait another 30 minutes while all of Jill's bands stuff was removed from the stage and Queen's setup, adjusted and another sound check. The only good part about this break is that I ran into my gurl TRA in the ladies room. We screamed and hugged and compared locks. Her braidlocks were slammin! They don't even look like braidlocks anymore - they look just like Sisterlocks and she was as beautiful as ever, but I digress...

I got mad love for Queen, her versatility and accomplishments - but she's no concert performer. She was very out of place on this ticket. She has very little stage presence and didn't sing with any conviction. The X and I literally fell asleep during her set. I kid you not - if you don't believe my version, check out TRA's post on the subject - she fell asleep too!

O.K. we suffered through Queen - and guess what - you got it! - another 30 minutes while the stage hands break down then setup for Erykah. Again, they don't draw the curtain, no music, no videos, nothing...By now it's almost 12 midnight and we have been there sine 7:45!

Erykah's my gurl - and my home gurl too. She finally took the stage about 12:15 a.m. We lasted through two very odd "new tracks" that she was "testin' out on us." They were weird. You know how you love Prince - but sometimes he goes to a place that only Prince knows about?....well, Erykah started off her set in her own lala land...we didn't know where she was and wasn't feelin' the two new songs (don't release them Erika!) We just couldn't take it anymore....we were tired (this was a Thursday evening and we had to work the next day.) I had a pounding headache from my $15 dollar drink so we headed on back to the casa.

Mad props to the X for doing everything to make this a great night for me (he doesn't believe in going to concerts "when you can just listen to their cd." I'll be hard pressed to get him to take me to another. On top of that, he purchased the most expensive tickets, paid $25 for VIP parking so that I wouldn't have to walk so far and who we really wanted to see, didn't even show - Floetry!

The best part of the evening was seeing my girl TRA and all of the beautiful natural and locked sistuhs and brothers there. We are such a beautiful people!

Note regarding my hair style: I used the Caruso Steam Curlers, but I used fewer locks per roller and used all of the rollers for more curls and body. I finger styled, shook my head and the results are what you see here. Despite the 100 degree weather, the curls held. Actually it's two days later now and the curls are still holding.