Gathering of the Vibes '06

The next morning we left Buffalo and headed towards Gathering of the Vibes near Albany, NY, or so Sauce and I thought. After two hours of driving we realized we certainly had headed in the wrong direction. We pulled off in the middle of no where at a gas station; picked up road soadies, filled the tank and looked at a map. We hauled ass, we wanted our 5 hour road trip to be over. Ironically, we had left at the same time as the band, went two hours out of our way, and pulled in right behind them. We rolled into VIP sign in, got our passes and parked backstage. We got some dinner, some beers and went to snoop around. Sauce and I relaxed after a long ride, we met up with close friends of the band Kenny and Sharon and chilled at their luxurious camp site. Then, we went out to see Deep Banana Blackout; we were jamming when I randomly heard someone call my name from behind. Cathy Lapp, Dirty Dave and Cathy's best pal were standing right behind me in general admission. It was wild, I would later run into them at the late night Tea Leaf Green set, where they would jump fence in the middle of the show. Next on stage was Assembly of Dust, during this time we went backstage and got a ride from main stage to the other side of the field via golf cart. Here, the boy's equipment was loaded and set up on stage. I hung out on stage until sound check, taking in the scene. It was wild to be higher than everyone else and behind them, to watch the whole crowd groove together to AoD. Not long after Tea Leaf Green began their sound check two boys appeared, Charlie and Fred. They started asking me questions about the band, they wanted to meet them. So after chatting for a little I introduced them to Sauce and soon Ben Chambers, Bass, came out to meet them. The boys told Sauce and Ben about their horrible road trip dilemma on the way to the festival. A policeman pulled them over and gave them citations and took all their marijuana. Having had a similar experience Ben invited the two boys, both in high school and huge TLG fans, onto "the Digger" where the boys chatted with Josh, Trevor and Ben. Josh talked to the boys about guitars, how he plays and little tips. Trevor asked the boys what song they wanted to hear and they both agreed on Morning Sun, which was played early in the set. The energy of this late night show was amazing. Tons of people watching, listening, cheering the band on...this was by far one of the most enjoyable nights of summer. After the show Sauce and I went back to my car, collected items to set up camp and did just that. The next morning we woke up to Alan walking by, laughing at our private camp site, right in the middle of the concert venue..."have a nice sleep guys?". It began to rain and had gotten chilly, so we went back to my car where I slipped into some jeans and then walked around the festival, taking in the scene. We later went back to Kenny and Sharon's camp site where we drank wine and beer early in the morning and sat quietly next to their tent. We thought that Kenny and Sharon were sleeping, we were jealous, we wanted to sleep. An hour later the pair stroll in, laughing at their unexpected company. They then made us a luscious breakfast of bagels and locks, we sat and chatted for a couple hours until I forced Sauce to go see G. Love and the Special Sauce. Lets put it this way, Sauce used to like G. Love until he stage flirted with all the girls in the front row. Soon after we left Gathering of the Vibes and continued on.