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Riverfront fest sharing spotlight with social issues

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph.com

PEORIA -- Earth matters; music counts. Putting the two passionate concerns together, the concert conjurers at Peoria's Jay Goldberg Events and Entertainment have whipped up a brand new summertime music festival.

It's one designed to heighten social consciousness at the same time it sets bodies into motion.

Or: Yes, you can have it all, and groove to it, too.

The backdrop for the synchronicity is the downtown Peoria riverfront, where the freshly christened Universal Rhythm Assembly will convene for eight-hour sessions Friday and Saturday night (4 p.m. to midnight, Riverfront Festival Park).

According to festival spokesman Mike Armintrout, the event was hatched after it was decided to restructure another Goldberg festival that had occupied the weekend the past two years, the Jumbo Gumbo Mambo Combo, a Cajun-Creole-Latin American themed music and food fest.

Not to downplay the importance of the ever-alluring food-and-music combo, Armintrout and his fellow Goldberg associates decided to create a music event that would also serve as a forum for "some ideas we had that were close to our hearts."

Closest of all: lending our beleaguered old planet a helping hand.

Says Armintrout: "The idea behind the fest is to not only do what we do best -- present some great live bands people may not know but that people definitely should know -- but at the same time provide people information on things going on not only with the environment, but also in the area of humanitarian issues."

In the realm of great live bands, the Universal Rhythm Assembly will hold true to its name with a nightly five-group lineup, culled from the eclectic Goldberg pool of regional, Chicago and national acts.

Among them: Oteil & The Peacemakers, fronted by Allman Brothers Band bass player Oteil Burbridge (10:30 p.m. Friday); The Omega Moos, a new collaboration between members of Umphrey's McGee and The New Order (10:30 p.m. Saturday); and B-N's own nationally breaking Backyard Tire Fire (8:30 p.m. Friday).

The musical genre will vary from jazz to funk to blues to jam rock to a half dozen more, with the "world beat" theme tying them all together and plenty of social commentary expected to emanate from the stage, along with the universal rhythms.

"We were definitely looking for bands and musicians who also feel strongly about these issues and felt a need to be a part of this," Armintrout says. "And I'm sure they will have no problem voicing their opinions."

Accordingly, vying for the attentions of attendees, will be the "earth matters" part of the event, which will showcase the ecological and humanitarian agendas of such groups as the Sierra Club, the Sun Foundation, Peoria Recycling & Resource Conservation, the ONE Campaign, Peoria S.T.A.M.P. Project (Save Darfur), the Alaska Wilderness League and the Peoria Urban Forestry Board.

Meanwhile, a slew of area businesses will be displaying new technology designed to green up the environment, including energy-saving home insulation tips from Central Enterprises, in-ground cave homes from Daved Caves, wind and solar technology from Z.M. Fosdyck, eco-friendly lawn-care products from Eco Lawn Organics and automobile displays for E85 fuel, biodiesel and hybrid technology.

Also, says Armintrout, the American Red Cross will be hosting blood drives both days and Share Foods will be conducting a food drive.

There's an added incentive for hooking oneself up to the blood tubes: anyone who donates the red stuff during the festival gets a free one-day pass to another big Goldberg music fete, the end-of-summer Illinois Blues Festival, held Labor Day weekend at the same site.

Oh yes: Food and beverages will also be a part of the universal mix.

"We're definitely planning this to be an annual event," says Armintrout, "so we're hoping for, and welcoming, support from all walks of life."

The mantra of the festival, he adds, pretty much says it all: "Listen outside the box."

At a glance

What: First Annual Universal Rhythm Assembly

When: 4 p.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday (gates open 3 p.m.)

Where: Riverfront Festival Park, downtown Peoria

Cost: Single day, $15; two-day, $25

Tickets/information: (800) 514-ETIX and www.universalrhythm-assembly.com

The assembly

Following is the music lineup for each night of the Universal Rhythm Assembly:

Friday

• Joe Metzka Trio, 4 p.m.: Peoria-area purveyors of classic jazz standards

• Chicago Afrobeat Project, 5:30 p.m.: Chicago-based musical collective rooted in '70s funk and jazz-influenced Afro-beat

• Liquid Soul, 7 p.m.: Eight-piece Chicago assemblage praised by Down Beat magazine for "sweeping the mold and mildew out of jazz-funk and breathing it back to glorious life"

• Backyard Tire Fire, 8:30 p.m.: B-N's homegrown musical conflagration, currently torching/scorching venues around the country

• Oteil & The Peacemakers, 10:30 p.m.: The blues-rocking side project for Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge

Saturday

• Bu Khara Bu, 4 p.m.: Area band fusing blues, jazz and Afro-Caribbean beats

• Blue Magoo, 5:30 p.m.: Popular Peoria-based rock cover band

• Cornmeal, 7 p.m.: Bluegrass meets roots music meets country meets rock meets disco ... and more

• Groovatron, 8:30 p.m.: Midwest-sprung jam rock favorites, as famed for their on-stage antics (for example, a rock-and-roll pillow fight at the Summer Camp fest in Chillicothe) as their hook-laden sounds

• Omega Moos, 10:30 p.m.: New all-star rock project fusing the selected memberships of Umphrey's McGee and The New Deal; the result creates a sound (says one observer) "kind of like what Genesis would sound like if was produced by DJ Tiesto"

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Take a look

Bloomington-Normal's homegrown rock trio Backyard Tire Fire is one of the Friday night headliners at the Universal Rhythm Assembly, a new two-day music fest on the Peoria riverfront stressing involvement in social issues.

Allman Brothers Band bassist Oteil Burbridge is another headliner at the Universal Rhythm Assembly.

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