Friday, August 20, 2021

THE PITCH
On the Scene at Bon Iver’s Oil Pipeline Protest Show

The band headlined yesterday’s Water Is Life festival, which was held in opposition to Minnesota’s controversial Enbridge Line 3 project.

By Andrea Swensson

August 19, 2021

Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon onstage at the Water Is Life festival. Photo by Tony Nelson.

With the ragged last chord of “Blood Bank” still echoing off the hills around Duluth, Minnesota, and a cargo ship passing behind him in Lake Superior, Justin Vernon stepped to the mic to speak. “We haven’t been on a real stage since March 7, 2020,” the Bon Iver bandleader said, gazing out at the thousands of music fans, environmental activists, and Indigenous tribal members who had amassed in Duluth’s Bayfront Festival Park for the Water Is Life: Stop Line 3 festival last night. After 10 hours of performances and pleading speeches about the nearly completed Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline in Northern Minnesota, which experts say would exacerbate climate change, sully sacred Anishinaabe territory, and contaminate the area’s water supply, Vernon used his moment in the spotlight to address the receptive crowd.

“Being a music fan can just become, well, ‘I like this band and I like that band,’” he said. “But for me, this whole thing started out as an expression of being alive. And you know the one thing we need to be alive? Water. And that’s why we’re here.”

“Blood Bank” began with a poignant collaboration with the pow-wow singers and drummers Joe Rainey Sr. and Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings, who both appeared on Bon Iver’s most recent album, i,i . Over an unflinching drum beat, Rainey and Jennings repeated the lines, “They don’t want us to live here/But we’re still here,” to a roar of applause. Their voices were interlaced with the mournful moans of Vernon’s electric guitar and then completely enveloped by a full-tilt rendition of “Blood Bank,” with founding Bon Iver member Sean Carey on drums and Michael Lewis on bass, that sent the audience leaping into the air (and the baseball cap flying off Vernon’s head).

The cross-cultural exchange between indie rock bands and Indigenous traditional and folk artists was a defining aspect of the Water Is Life festival. The yearly event is spearheaded by the prominent activist and water protector Winona LaDuke and her Honor the Earth organization. LaDuke has been on the frontlines of the Line 3 protests across Northern Minnesota, and is one of the 700 activists who have been jailed so far in the years-long resistance to the tar sands oil pipeline that is snaking its way through the region’s pristine wetlands and lakes.

As they attested throughout the festival, Line 3 protestors have been met with violence by the local police, including being physically tackled and shot with rubber bullets. LaDuke herself was most recently arrested and detained just three weeks ago, shortly after choosing a date for the festival, and several mayors from across rural Minnesota petitioned Duluth’s mayor to stop the event from even taking place. But the pipeline has now garnered national and international attention, and the bands played on.

When asked about the role music can play in protest, LaDuke simply told me, “Music is about love, and it changes us all.” Before walking away, she smirked and added, “Did you hear about those mayors that tried to stop this? I’m not going to jail this week. But maybe next week.”

The festival featured protestors who have been on the front lines of the Line 3 resistance and have raised more than $60,000 in bail funds for the cause. Photo by Tony Nelson.

The day began out in the festival field, with a with a diverse crowd quietly observing a Midewiwin water ceremony and taking sips from small Dixie cups of blessed water, before LaDuke hopped up on the stage to say, “OK, the rock and roll guys are going to play now.” And play they did: From the searing rock anthems of Navajo songwriter Corey Medina to the protest songs of troubadour Larry Long to the harrowing guitar howls of Low’s Alan Sparhawk, who performed a long electric guitar solo accompanied by drum duo Giniw and Nigigoons.

As a prop plane flew a banner with the menacing message “GO LINE 3” over the lake behind the stage, the Ojibwe songwriter Annie Humphrey wrapped up her set with a somber piano ballad version of Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock,” turning the eternal pick-up truck commercial soundtrack into an ode to the strength of the activists who stood in the crowd before her. “No matter what we do, it’ll never be enough,” Humphrey said onstage. “But you can’t do too little, so do something!”

Other artists kept their commentary brief. During a cathartic performance by St. Paul rock quintet Hippo Campus, guitarist Nathan Stocker simply said “Fuck Line 3!” and was greeted with an enthusiastic call and response from the giddy crowd. The entire front half of the festival field had filled in by the time Hippo Campus finished their set, and the large audience remained rapt for a final set of speeches by a full stage of protestors and tribal leaders, including an 11-year-old member of the White Earth Nation named Silas, who said, “This corporation tried to bury us, but they did not know we were seeds.”

After a short set by the Red Lake Nation rapper Thomas X, Bon Iver took the stage to close the night with an eight-song set, beginning with the For Emma, Forever Ago opening track “Flume” that placed a special emphasis on the line, “I move in water, shore to shore/Nothing’s more.” The pared-down, three-piece version of the band was at their most powerful when joined by the omnipresent Minneapolis guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker, who added an emotional dimension to a cover of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” and a transportive, drawn-out version of For Emma’s “Creature Fear.”

Before sending attendees away from the shoreline and back up the city’s steep hills, Vernon closed with a cover of Duluth-born Bob Dylan’s “With God on Our Side” and a final call to action: “This is an important part of the process, lifting people up and coming together. But there’s something that happens tomorrow too, and I hope we all remember that.” A Stop Line 3 march is happening today in downtown Duluth to demand that the Army Corps of Engineers pulls the permits for the Line 3 pipeline, and a subsequent rally is scheduled at the Minnesota State Capitol on August 25.

Backstage after the performance, Vernon was energized. “I’ve been inspired by Winona LaDuke since I was 16 years old,” he said, remembering back to when he saw her at an Honor the Earth concert with the Indigo Girls in the ’90s. “This is the only thing that matters right now

Watch Bon Iver Play Fest Protesting Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline, Their First Show Since Pandemic

KghVWVKCds
— kyle (@solace) August 19, 2021

Here’s last night’s setlist, according to one Reddit user:
01 “Flume”
02 “666 ʇ”
03 “Blood Bank”
04 “29 #Strafford APTS”
05 “A Song For You” (Leon Russell cover)
06 “00000 Million”
07 “Creature Fear”
08 “With God On Our Side” (Bob Dylan cover)
You can find out more about the effort against Line 3 here.

Water Is Life protest concert draws diverse, dedicated crowd to Duluth waterfront

Native voices mixed with Bon Iver, Hippo Campus and other rock acts at the 10-hour festival.

By Chris Riemenschneider Star Tribune

AUGUST 18, 2021 — 10:52PM

GALLERY

GRID

1/21

ALEX KORMANN, STAR TRIBUNE

Gallery: Bon Iver member Justin Vernon performed in the Water is Life Festival at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth on Wednesday.

Water Is Life protest concert draws diverse, dedicated crowd to Duluth waterfront - StarTribune.com

DULUTH – He wasn't yet a fan of Bon Iver or Hippo Campus, but George Martin loves Bob Seger. So the Vietnam and Korean War veteran was touched to have Seger's song "Like a Rock" dedicated to him from Bayfront Festival Park on Wednesday afternoon.

"This is a special day," said Martin, 85, of Wisconsin's Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, after Minneapolis singer Annie Fitzgerald gave him and his service a shout-out.

Martin's wife, Sydney, added, "This makes our heart feel powerful, seeing so many people young and old come out to an event like this."

The event was the Water Is Life Festival at Duluth's waterfront amphitheater, which — depending on your view — was either a rock concert with a purpose or a protest with a great soundtrack.

The 10-hour, 14-act music marathon carried a strong undercurrent of American Indian culture and brought together a lot of different groups of people based around a divisive issue: the Line 3 pipeline, which Canadian oil company Enbridge is currently building across northern Minnesota near the Mississippi River and other waterways.

Organized by Indigenous environmental activist Winona LaDuke and Minneapolis musician David Huckfelt with production help from First Avenue, the festival came together in less than a month's planning time but surprisingly still ran smoothly — even after 11 other northern Minnesota mayors sent a letter to Duluth Mayor Emily Larson trying to stop the event. They cited a risk of violence and their ongoing support for Line 3 to provide jobs and energy.

In the end, the only thing that seemed dangerous at Water Is Life was Wednesday's baking heat and the wildfire in nearby Superior National Forest, which LaDuke singled out on stage.

"It's not supposed to be like this in Duluth," she said in one of a dozen-plus speeches from Native activists about protecting the environment. The concert doubled as a fundraiser for her long-running nonprofit Honor the Earth.

Many of the 4,000 or so attendees were there mainly to catch the main-stage music, a lineup that included Bon Iver — playing his/their first post-quarantine concert — along with other Upper Midwest mainstays Charlie Parr, Hippo Campus and Lissie, plus bluesy South Carolina singer Adia Victoria.

Still, the music fans on hand also seemed to appreciate the added messaging.

"Especially after the pandemic, I want to find ways to contribute and make this a better world," said University of Minnesota Duluth student Emma Bursinger. "This feels like the right way to do it."

Native voices weren't just prominent as speakers but also as musicians throughout the day.

Dorene Day Waubanewquay added spiritual chants to Minneapolis folk musician Larry Long's old-school-folk fight songs. Drum duo Giniw and Nigigoons joined Duluth indie-rock vet Alan Sparhawk of Low fame during an improvised set of electric guitar drone and traditional Indian singing. Hoop dancer Samsoche Sampson and Oregon singer-songwriter Quiltman joined Huckfelt for the earthy soul-searcher "The Book of Life." Red Lake's Thomas X rapped about the struggles and strengths on Indian reservations as he filled in for no-show Mumu Fresh in the slot right before Bon Iver.

A hundred mostly non-Native attendees formed a traditional Indian dance circle during Ojibwe songwriting legend Keith Secola's anthem "NDN Kars."

"Welcome to the resistance," Secola yelled at the dancers, a scene impossible to resist smiling over.

Many of Wednesday's performers purposefully dropped in songs about water. Huckfelt and his all-star band the Unarmed Forces delivered a lush cover of Willie Nelson's "The Maker" ("Oh, deep water / Oh river, rise from your sleep"). Lissie talked about growing up near the big river and pollution in Rock Island, Ill., before her spirited "Oh Mississippi."

Performing as the sun set over the Duluth hillside, Victoria delivered a shimmering set full of poetically haunted, gospel-based songs based on her family's Old South African American heritage: "We have a lot in common," she noted toward her fellow Native performers.

With as many fans singing along as in Bon Iver's set, St. Paul-reared pop-rockers Hippo Campus looked downright giddy playing their first show of 2021, offering extra-buoyant versions of "South" and "Warm Glow."

Bon Iver's eight-song set started out mellow with "Flume" but quickly turned feverish as a pair of Indian drum circle singers, Jeremy and Dylan, set up a smoldering "Blood Bank." Singer Justin Vernon ended with a cover of "With God on Our Side" — "a song by a man born in Duluth [dedicated] to the men of Enbridge," he said.

After 10-plus years of building up Bon Iver's set musically and visually, singer Justin Vernon made a bold step back to a raw, three- and four-piece band that exposed a few cracks (namely his voice in the high-reaching "22 #Stafford Apts") but also added a tenderness (especially in a cover of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" accompanied by Mike Lewis on sax).

Summing up his emotions about being back on stage, Vernon said music "started as an expression of being alive."

"And you know what the number one thing is to keep us alive?" he asked.

"Water" was the answer, but live music like the passionate and often urgent performances at this festival also might have sufficed.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

chrisr@startribune.com 612-673-4658 ChrisRstrib

MUSIC

Justin Vernon on Duluth anti-Line 3 concert: 'We have to come together to save our environment'

Grammy Award musician from Bon Iver is the headliner for "Water Is Life: Stop Line 3," a festival organized by Honor the Earth as a fundraiser to stop the Enbridge pipeline.

Written By: Christa Lawler | 6:04 pm, Aug. 17, 2021

Bon Iver. Contributed / Graham Tolbert

Justin Vernon wasn't trying to dash other people's dreams of being a pop star during "Water Is Life," a 30-minute conversation with Winona LaDuke and other artists and organizers involved with the "Water Is Life: Stop Line 3" festival, scheduled for Wednesday at Bayfront Festival.

But he didn't get into the music business to get famous — or semi-famous with a lower-case f, as he described himself. Rather, the Grammy Award-winning artist behind Bon Iver said he wanted to move people.

"I've never really stopped thinking that art has the ability to move and change people's hearts," he said. "Conversations are one thing, philosophical debates and town halls are one thing, politics are one thing. But that's why I'm here and that's why I can't stop doing what I do."

He's offered a portion of royalties to organizations combating domestic and sexual violence, gender inequity, and in 2020, he launched a campaign to get Wisconsin voters registered. He's also invested in saving the planet.

"I have this feeling, it's more than a belief, it's a feeling in me, " he said. "We are all so similar and share so much. We have to come together to save our environment, save our earth from total annihilation. That's on its way."

Winona LaDuke

Bon Iver is the headliner for the all-day festival, a fundraiser for Winona LaDuke's Honor the Earth organization, with its mission to raise awareness and money for environmental issues, especially those that affect the Indigenous community — specifically Enbridge's Line 3 project. The annual concert starts at 12:15 p.m. Wednesday at Bayfront Festival Park and the lineup includes Corey Medina, Larry Long & Friends, Annie Humphrey and Band, Charlie Parr, David Huckfelt and Unarmed Forces, Adia Victoria, Hippo Campus, Mumu Fresh, Superior Siren, Alan Sparhawk, Quiltman, Keith Secola and Lissie.

Tickets are $65 at axs.com.

David Huckfelt, formerly of The Pines, described the musicians in the lineup as "living and dying by the spirit of music." He said he has seen online comments from people are surprised that these artists would support an effort to stop Line 3. There's no reason to be surprised, he said, have you listened to their music?

"The support from artists is vast, massive," he said. "This intersection of art, music and activism reminds me of a John Trudell, a huge mentor and leader and groundbreaker," Huckfelt said.

Trudell, the late Minneapolis-based artist and activist, told Huckfelt that some people define insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But, he recalled Trudell saying, "That's not all of it," Huckfelt said. "He said, 'I think about alchemy. We do the same thing, we show up, we bring our creativity, our ideas and our passion. We do it again and again and again until the conditions are right and then everything changes.'"

LaDuke, who met the Indigo Girls in 1990 during an Earth Day event and launched this concert with them soon after, told the News Tribune in 2019 that there had been about 100 shows since. Artists, she said, are who she connects with, and she spent most of her life around great musicians who are "doing the right thing."

"I want to be with the team that has the vision and the courage and the beauty to change the world," she said. "I don't want to listen to a bunch of guys with dumb ideas trying to make a buck. I want to be with the heart and the spirit."

Last week, a handful of officials along the pipeline route sent a letter to the city of Duluth asking the city to cancel the concert. That request was denied. In previous years, artists like Chastity Brown, Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile and The Chicks have played the festival.

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Friday, August 20, 2021

Water Is Life protest concert draws diverse, dedicated crowd to Duluth waterfront

Justin Vernon on Duluth anti-Line 3 concert: 'We have to come together to save our environment'

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