Michael Franti and Spearhead were scheduled to perform in Santa Fe, New Mexico the same night (Sept. 26) as the presidential debates. So Jamie Lenfestey of Fan Man Productions decided that, if Franti approved, he'd show the debate on a screen over the stage before Franti played. For the record, Lenfestey asked me what I thought about the idea and I said I thought it was great...I still think it was a great idea, I'm just not sure it was a great experience. For one thing, it wasn't exactly the most rousing of debates, so going from Obama and McCain bitching over who knows Kissinger best to Franti demanding everyone JUMP for two-and-a-half hours was a little jarring. Beyond that, the audience was not just a very very liberal Santa Fe crowd, it was a very liberal Santa Fe crowd that came to see Michael Franti. So about halfway through, either as the result of boredom or impatience, people just began just booing every time McCain spoke. I am a pretty liberal gal myself, but I want to hear both sides, all the time, so I found all the booing pretty tedious (and then I had to watch the entire debate again, right after the show, which made for a very long evening). Franti didn't get too into politics during his show, except to briefly say he thought it was great that the debate was shown, and that he had also told Lenfestey it was fine let the Democratic Party register voters at Paolo Soleri Ampitheatre (the registrars were out in force; you can't walk down the street in Santa Fe these days without five people asking if you're registered; hello Swing State), as long as the Republicans, Greens, Libertarians et. al also were invited. The crowd cheered heartily at this sentiment of political inclusion, despite having just booed through most of McCain's responses during the debate. Anyway, here's the video--quality not awesome, I'm still learning what the new Flip Cam can and can't do.
