Rock, Reggae, Roots Festival - Philadelphia, PA 8/25/06

Five days after I left Sauce and the crew they had made their way south to Philadelphia. Mike and Ang were married, Sauce was a drunken mess, and the reception had barely ended for this bustling group of celebrators! Tea Leaf Green was categorized as the "rock" portion of the reggae festival that the Marley family promotes in major cities all over the United States. The purpose of the festival is to bring realization and knowledge to all sorts of communities of music, primarily reggae. This one day festival also highlights different genres that have an affect on reggae in different ways. My two hour commute to this festival stressful, I thought I wouldn't arrive in time. I made it 15 minutes before Tea Leaf Green took the stage, ironically, Sauce wasn't there yet. Unaware that I was his plus one on the guest list, I talked my way into the festival, swearing that I wasn't the kind of girl to cheat them out of money. I waited inside the festival for Sauce to arrive to large pier parking lot in Penn's Landing. The waterfront view was breath taking. Soon I heard a roar that could have only meant one thing, Sauce had arrived, in fine form, donning a wonderful yellow sweatband that would just make any girl melt. We grooved to the 45 minute set from Tea Leaf Green, a horrible tease for any dedicated fan. Afterwards, we enjoyed the rest of the eclectic festival. There were many different walks of life there, which made this festival by far one of the most enjoyable. We left the festival a little before close and grabbed cheese steaks on South Street (not too far from where the boys would play on New Years Eve). We piled back in my little Aveo and drove to a little after hours hot spot. Soon enough people were tired, dropping like flies, so Sauce and I drove to a friend's pad to crash. During the ride we experienced a horrendous hail storm at two in the morning. Terrified, we drove through, made it home safely and spent the night. The next morning we met up with the rest of the crew. Here we said our goodbyes. It will be over a month until I see Sauce again.

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.

Purpose

Hello- As you can read from my profile, my name is Jessica. I am an aspiring videographer. Upon graduating from St. Bonaventure University I decided that I wanted to seriously film musicians, primarily those who rock. There are many people out there who want to do the same, and from what I have experienced I can understand why. Honestly, many of the kindest people I know are those I have met on the road. The reputation of music really rings true, in the sense, that those who follow music are kind hearted souls. Anyways, the reason for beginning this stream of posts, really, is to share my stories. People close to me are always saying I should post my tales so they can follow my travels. So following in the steps of my great pal Matthew "Light Sully, Navillus" Sullivan and Pete Townshend (who made me realize blogging was brilliant) I will share with you the experiences I have while galavanting around the United States filming or seeing music. Unfortunatly, I have started this a little late, so I will quickly update those who are interested on all trips post graduation, May 2006.