The Big What? returned to the rolling green fields of Shakori Hills with joy wired straight into the PA, a communal heartbeat echoing across the North Carolina countryside. The festival opened like a familiar book, its lush meadows, shady paths and sunny skies framing two stages that traded bands like good neighbors without any overlaps. No lines, nowhere to hurry to, just a steady circulation of grins. The art tent hummed like another stage bursting with color, as live painters bloomed canvases in real time, fire spinners launched sparks into the air, and the whole scene seemed to sparkle.
Thursday lifted the lid with New Dawn Starkestra, a sunrise you could dance to. Rebekah Todd's luminous voice soared over Isaac Hadden's diamond-bright guitar while Quinn Sternberg grounded the low end and Jeff Sipe, part drummer and part rushing river, kept the current flowing forward. They kissed the set goodbye with John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," a benediction that hung in the air like incense. Wolf Mask prowled out of the shadows with teeth flashing and synths purring before Jimkata converted the clearing into a neon revival with hooky choruses and pulsing electro grooves that still felt heartfelt and human. Natalie Brooke hit like a keytar comet, a funk-rock rocket with jazz bones, and when Big Something members Casey Cranford and Jesse Hensley slid in on sax and guitar the whole pasture seemed to levitate. Dizgo gave us golden-hour jamtronica in long-form, both heady and utterly danceable, and then Big Something struck the match.
The festival's host band sparked the fire with the driving push of "The Breakers" and"Grey Matter," and then a sunlit surprise: "Blue Sky" by the The Allman Brothers Band, played for the first time and sounding like it was written for this very time and place. Isaac Hadden joined on guitar for an explosive "My Volcano," and former member Josh Kagel added his trumpet to "Heavy" as the night tilted moonward. The band unveiled Pink Floyd's "Any Colour You Like" for the first time and sailed it straight into "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse," also firsts, with Rebekah Todd's voice turning starlight into harmony. "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" floated above us, as the field felt like one body breathing together. The encore debuted Nick Drake's "Pink Moon," followed by "Pinky's Ride," punctuated by Kagel's horn casting bright bursts of color through the trees and a crowd sighting of Pinky himself?
Friday started in play mode with a Band vs. Fans Game Show where the line between artist and audience disappeared. Hunter McBride offered tidy indie postcards stamped with Greensboro grit, then the Sam Fribush Organ Trio cracked the day open with Hammond organ, greasy and feather-light in all the right places. Victoria Victoria poured vulnerability into every melody before DJ Logic welcomed esteemed friends, including Big Something's Nick MacDaniels and Casey Cranford alongside Sam Fribush and Nathalie Brooke, for a thrilling set of grooves. Consider the Source delivered their patented sci-fi Middle Eastern fusion, somehow gloriously danceable against all odds. Standup comedian Kyle Ayers stitched comic relief into the setbreak before Andy Frasco & the U.N. detonated a group therapy session disguised as a hilarious rock show, and The Mantras marched in like hometown storm gods, delivering precision without pretense and jubilation without brakes.
Big Something's Friday show came in hot, opening with "UFOs Are Real" and "Machines," with DJ Logic joining for "Megalodon," slipping through the spaces between the beats. He stuck around to help debut Incubus' "Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song)" and stayed for "Tumbleweed > Sundown Nomad," while Kagel's keys widened the horizon. The second set sailed us through the endless skies of Black Sabbath's "Planet Caravan," before "Algorithm" cracked open into The Edgar Winter Group's "Frankenstein," with Natalie Brooke firing keytar lightning bolts while Nathan Shulkin thundered on percussion. The encore of "Chemistry > Evil Josh" saw Kagel's keyboard kindled with nostalgia. Progressive bluegrass act Magoo took the handoff and raced headlong into the night, and DJ Logic shepherded the Silent Disco toward morning, headphone lights bobbing like fireflies.
By Saturday the weekend felt like a living scrapbook, not just a lineup but a lineage, with each new memory pressed against the old. The day opened with another burst of game-show shenanigans before William Hinson sketched indie-pop portraits that caught the sun just right. The Hourglass Kids poured reggae warmth into freewheeling rhythms, and then it was time for The What Fam Jam. Big Something served as the house engine, powering the jam while friends and fans rotated into the spotlight, delivering playful and joyous takes on classics by Talking Heads, Hall & Oates, David Bowie and more. The set concluded with Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song," sparking a dancefloor communion.
Kyle Ayers' second comedy set left the crowd grinning as Susto rolled in with psych-Americana made for a long midnight drive. Sunsquabi followed with their signature hydro-funk, a three-way telepathy whose groove carried us into space, before our hosts returned to guide us back to earth. Big Something opened their final show of the weekend with the inviting bounce of "Song For Us" before sliding into a slinky cover of The Beatles' "Come Together," featuring Oc3ans' Brooke Renshaw on vocals. "Come together, right now" rang out, and for a moment it wasn't just a lyric but a promise kept.
"Pnuts Song" popped, "Palm Trees" brought Susto's Justin Osborne to the mic, and the Grateful Dead's "Scarlet Begonias" kept him there. "Once in a while you get shown the light," carried on the night air, and the field lit up as if we'd been waiting for that line all year. Set two scaled "The Mountain," crackled with "Vibrations," and vaulted into the debut cover of Turnstile's "Mystery," like catching sparks with bare hands. Kagel's trumpet preached "Truth Serum," while "Bob & Weave" jabbed, and "Love Generator" reminded everyone why we came here in the first place: to "feel the love we are generating."
Frute served up a late night feast of swirling psych-groove, leading to Casey Cranford curating the Silent Disco, whose glow stretched far into the last night of The Big What?, fueled by dancers unwilling to surrender. As always, what lingers long after sunrise is the sense of community and the strangers who've become new friends, until eventually just a simple refrain remains: Come together, right now.
- Paul Kerr
