Hello again, Here we go with part 2 of last blog rant. Thank you to those who follow this random series of words (all 2 or 3 of you).
I am continuing with a few of what I consider our finest "shows" of this past year so far.
Camp Winnarainbow - We have been playing there every spring for the past 5 or 6 years and it is always a big fun event. It is a total and much needed escape from our daily schedules. The camp is an incredible experience for kids and also for the people at the Adult Camp at which we play for the Friday night dance. It's like the lyrics from "Home on the Range - where never is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day". If there ever was a model for a unified, global, one people planet then Winnarainbow is it. What a breath of fresh air after all the divisiveness going on today. Wavy is moving a bit slower these days but still is an active participant and inspiration at the camp. I encourage you to seek out the movie about Wavy Gravy -"Saint Misbehavin' " It provides a good look into his many positive contributions to this world in spite of tremendous challenges.
August 5 - Our annual Jerry Garcia Celebration. We don't call it Jerry Day anymore as some guy in the city got pissed and says he owns the name. That is a piece of shit. Anyway we had a very fun show. We had a short acoustic opening followed by much electric jamming and visits to songs from Jerry and the Dead. Of course we did a version of Dark Star as it was first conceived on the very spot that we were playing in Rio Nido. We once asked photographer Rosie McGee who was there when the Dead last played Rio Nido how it was. She could only remember that it was "hot as hell'. Others recalled how the Dead's equipment truck knocked down the Rio Nido sign. It was never repaired until about 2 years ago. We thought about knocking it down also but our truck is too small.
Cotati Cabaret on Aug. 12 - Another fun one. The Cab was a happening venue in the 80's with many, many well known performers: Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt, Jerry, NRBQ, etc. It was shut down by complaints from neighbors about rowdiness and noise. It remained shuttered for a number of years. Fortunately a cool and progressive group, Ner Shalom, has now taken it over and made it a synagogue. They have been having a few shows there to raise funds and this was one of them: a summer of Love Party complete with hippie fashion show. The placed was packed with friendly folks and the sound in the room was very good. Also, Drew & I found that if you park in the north west corner of the parking lot you get great reception of jazz station kcsm out of San Mateo. We sat out there until the wee hours listening and talking jazz.
KRSH Backyard Concert 8/24 - Another great Sonoma County super Jam. It was a pleasure hanging out with a bunch of cool, friendly musicians and being a part of this great review show. The Thugz did 3 songs including Sylvia's "Quiet Ones" and then backed up Danny Sorrentino on some of his rockin' originals. The final tune of the evening was a version of "Get Together" played by members of Solid Air, Thugz, & Pulsators. Thanks go to Andre for putting this show on. Even though the krush (krsh) is always under assault from mindless commercial interests it is still the last bastion of creative, almost free form radio.
A few days after the krush show we were again in Cotati at the Redwood Cafe. This was a gig where I really felt the power of the revitalized thugz show itself. The music virtually played itself and for a bit I know that I was lifted out of the sometimes drudgery of band logistics and into the zone of music bliss.
Now we go into the fall a new set of performances. On tap is a double bill with Solid Air which will include a John Lennon tribute, our annual holiday show and a few other things. We will get back to working up some more original tunes and hopefully spreading the joy and fun of live music.
One last show I'd like to mention is "Fishstock" on Sept. 3 - a fund raiser for our local Jenner Community Center. They built a new and nice stage and there was a huge crowd of folks enjoying the day. We saw a lot of old friends and felt like we were in a giant time machine transported back to long ago Golden Gate Park. The weather, which is often cool & foggy in Jenner, was perfect - warm, blue skies right where the river meets the sea. It was a very good finale to a string of summer of love shows and events. Even though the whole summer of love thing was a mostly a scam the ideals behind it of peace, love, nature, arts and unity of people are still our guiding lights