Music For The Masses H.O.R.D.E. Is Slowly Beating Out Lollapalooza With Sell-Out Crowds

The H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) Festival is quietly replacing Lollapalooza as the caravaning summer music festival du jour.

Since hoisting its musical big top five years ago, H.O.R.D.E., which stops at The Gorge on Sunday, has gone from a one-week tour eeking paltry profits to a 42-date marathon reaping both financial and artistic success.

Where Lollapalooza ticket sales have dipped in many markets this year, H.O.R.D.E. is selling out at most sites.

This year’s lineup is among the most promising yet. Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz and Rusted Root will share the main stage. On the second, it’s Portland phenomenon Pete Droge and the Sinners, Rickie Lee Jones, Spirit of the West and the Jono Manson Band.

All in all, there will be nearly seven hours of musical entertainment.

In addition, there will be a village on site selling trinkets and crafts, food, show memorabilia and H.O.R.D.E. CD-ROMS. Also present will be several political activist booths.

Headliner Blues Traveler (lead vocalist and harpist John Popper is the brainchild of the H.O.R.D.E. tour) is a well-traveled musical wanderer.

For almost a decade, the quartet has traversed nearly every highway and byway in this country, stopping from town to town, playing to hippies and frat boys alike, anyone who wanted to drink from their flowing fountain of blues-tinged jam rock.

In that time, they’ve gone from small smoky lounges to spacious outdoor amphitheaters, earning a reputation for being a must-see live act.

It was Blues Traveler’s incessant touring and stupendous live shows that helped the band finally land a couple of hit songs, including “Runaround,” on their fourth album, “IV.”

Just what you would expect from a live band, Blues Traveler is now peddling a brand new live album called “Live From the Fall.”

Because of “IV,” Blues Traveler went from a band with a tight cult following to multiplatinum artists. Previously, its first three albums had yet to go gold.

With its new-found success thanks to “IV,” Blues Traveler was faced with a dilemma: Would they go the route of a pop band or would they continue to explore the style that won them a following in the first place?

“The success of our last album really made us a little tentative about what was real,” drummer Brendan Hill said in a recent phone interview. “We wanted to make sure we kept our integrity. I think putting out the live album really showed our fans that we cared about them.”

Hill believes this album, perhaps more than the four studio efforts, is a true representation of the band. Those albums were adequate representations, yet at the same time they depicted a band constrained by song limits between four and six minutes. Blues Traveler is a band that likes engage in improvisational jams on stage.

“With the whole process of recording something in the studio, you’ve got to kind of overstep those bounds,” says Hill. “That’s part of the live thing. And that’s what makes each show different and interesting.”

Some critics aren’t enamored of the Blues Traveler’s live shows. And “Live from the Fall” has garnered some unfavorable reviews.

For instance, one reviewer said in this month’s issue of Details magazine: “It’s - hey! - a live album from the Trav. John Popper whines like Cat Stevens, the blues riffs drag on forever, and the harmonica solos prove that the Dead were smart not to have harmonica solos.”

“You have to sort of know the band to appreciate the songs going in segues,” explains Hill. “I think the album is something which is for our fans that we’ve had from the beginning. If people like our other albums, I think they’ll like this album.”

Like Deadheads, devotees tend to caravan from one Blues Traveler show to the next, so much so that Hill often recognizes faces in the crowd.

“With H.O.R.D.E., it’s definitely a little bit different because we’re with another five or six bands so there’s a lot of different fans for different bands. When we’re on our own tours, we definitely meet up with friends that have been with us all along.”

Fans have always been important to this band. Band members often browse their web site to see what their faithful admirers are chatting about.

“What’s interesting, the Internet site we have now (www.bluestraveler.com), there’s been a lot of really good feedback about shows and about the new album and about set lists,” Hill says. “So we get to sneak a peak about what our fans are talking about.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: H.O.R.D.E. FESTIVAL Location and time: The Gorge, Sunday, 3 p.m. Tickets: $36, at Ticketmaster outlets Main stage: Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, Lenny Kravitz and Rusted Root Second stage: Pete Droge and the Sinners, Rickie Lee Jones, Spirit of the West and the Jono Manson Band