Startin' the year off right with Dark Star Orchestra

Finally coming out of hybernation......went to the first show of the year for us last weekend. Decided at the last minute Saturday that we were going to see Dark Star Orchestra!! That turned out to be a great decision!!

Ryan and I were both itching to get out and shake our booties!! We're long overdue!!

I love this guy!!

Ah yes...the coctails...we're just getting started here!!

Trying really hard to keep those eyes open!!

Sad, but this is about the best photo of the band that I got the whole night. I never really wandered up to the front. Only for a few minutes on the last song. We were all having way too much fun in the back to even consider leaving and missing something fun!!

Miss Lori Culbertson needed a ride to Indy to meet up with her husband Bryan who was already down there, so she road with us. We had a great time hanging out with the Culbertson's....even made it to Steak and Shake after the show!!

Bryan and Screech must have been discussing some serious matters.....

I think we may have gone into this one in hopes of getting a nice little family pic, but I blew it!!!

BFF's hiding in the corner

Do you think I'm having fun? Just wanted to make sure incase you couldn't tell by this photo!!

I love this picture!! It just kind of sums up how the whole night was....we had a blast!!

Always happy to catch up with old friends, hang out with new friends and introduce them all as we go....the family gets bigger all the time!!

Summer re-cap

Hello faithful followers!!! I know it's been awhile since I stopped by blog land, but I'm gonna do my best to catch you up on what's been going on with Alli-Gal this summer.

Let's see.......when we last left off, it was Spring Hookahville which is over Memorial Day weekend.

The next weekend was our friend Liz Giblin's birthday. She had a private party with one of our favorite Indiana artists named Derick Howard. He has been the opening act for Ekoostik Hookah several times and plays frequently around Indiana. For just a little food, beer, and gas money, he came up to Indy from Columbus to play her birthday party for us. He is a one man band of sorts. A very talented man.




Not sure why these pictures turned out so tiny, but I think even with the small size of the picture you can see that Ryan and Liz were having BIG fun!!!

The following weekend was Cinco De Mayo, so we had our friends Dave and Kelly come up to Kokomo to celebrate with us. I had to work, but met them and Ryan at Hacienda afterwards to catch some of the live music. My friend Craig Miller is playing guitar for the band called The Fins. They're probably the most well known band in Kokomo right now. We had a bon fire that night. One of few that we have actually made time for, and had a few drinks by the fire when we got home.

A couple weeks later at the end of May, we went to Deer Creek to see Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved seeing Nine Inch Nails live. They totally rocked my socks off!!!

Trent Rezner is a beast these days. His voice is as strong as ever and his build has about tripled in size since I saw him back in the late nineties. His arms and legs looked like Popeye's!! But, more importantly, he sounded fantastic!!!!Our nieghbor Marcus tagged along with us and we ran into another aquaintance named Brian on the left. I also wore my favorite Johnny Cash t-shirt, which I just had to point out. No reason, really.Dave Navarro is now playing guitar for Jane's Addiction which was totally awesome to see and hear!! He used to be the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Jane's Addiction was one of my favorite bands in the late nineties, so I was absolutely thrilled to get the chance to see them a decade later!!! In fact, my Cat, Maceo, is named after a Jane's Addiction song. They didn't play that song, but I still had a great time!!
About a month later at the end of June, I took a trip up to Northern Indiana with Aaron and Marcus to a music festival called Hookahnanny. It featured my favorite band in the world, Ekoostik Hookah, of course.It was a two day festival over the hottest weekend we've had all summer. This tractor tram served as our main source of entertainment for the weekend. "Grandpa" drove it around while people jumped on and off with drinks in hand. He would take you anywhere in the campsite you wanted to go. Hog Hill was the name of the venue. It was in Hamilton, Indiana. Beautiful, beautiful grounds.
Our close friend Bobby Blue played a gig with his band at the bar called Mulligan's here in Kokomo. I regret that I have missed several of his shows this summer, but this one was a good one. I was really happy to be there!!

This is my friend Amanda Campbell playing the keyboard and singing. She has so much talent, it's sickening!!! She has been playing with Bobby's band for awhile now. Having a female in the group has added a lot of charachter to the band. LOVE IT!!!
Over the fourth of July weekend, we saw a couple shows. Dave and Kelly joined us for the weekend and we all had a blast together!!The first show was on the Fourth in South Bend. It was called Willie Nelson's Family Picnic. It was Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and John Mellencamp.We got rained on while we were there. Mostly through John Mellencamp's set.The rain didn't stop anyone there from having a good time!! We just kept on rockin'!!!Bob Dylan put on the best show I have seen him put on in all the times I have seen him. He sounded fantastic!! I hate to say it, but I was surprised :-)There was a small fireworks display after the show. It was pretty nice.

The next day, we took off and drove to Columbus, Ohio to see Ratdog, Jackie Green, and The Black Crowes. We had such a good time there. Jen and Chad met us at the venue and finally got to meet Kelly and Dave. I have no idea where the pictures went from that trip, but for some reason I can't find them right now. I'll see what I can dig up :-)

At the end of July, TeShannah and I headed up north, met our friend Trina in Goshen, and drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan from there. Ekoostik Hookah and Devon Allman (Greg Allman's son) were playing at a venue called The Intersection. We had a fun little girls night out and stayed with Kelly Jo, who lives up there.Devon Allman put on a good opening show. I didn't know any of his original tunes, but he did cover a couple Allman Brothers sangs including Midnight Rider. He sounded great!!Cliffy wore his Thundercats shirt for the show. He rocked it hard!!

A couple days later, Ekoostik Hookah came to Fort Wayne, Indiana for a show. It was a freebie which made it even better. Unfortunately, Ryan had to work, so I drove up solo. It was a great show other than the big drunk girls in the front row that got all pushy. Dave had to step in as my bodyguard a couple times. It was nice to have him there.

Regardless of the pushy people up front, it was a lot of fun. Plus, you can always expect that to an extent.

Right before the Grand Rapids trip, Ryan surprised me first by actually having a Saturday afternoon off work, and secondly, by buying us tickets to see the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. It was such a perfect and sunny summer day. We haven't had many of those this year, so I really appreciate that day looking back at the pictures now.
If you look real closely, you can see the conductor (I think he's called a conductor) of the orchestra is wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt. They also had some pretty cool lights during Sugar Magnolia, which is what was playing when I took this picture.

The fall season is filling up with plans already. Every weekend in October is booked. I'll try to keep up a little better next season :-)

Happy End of Summer Everyone!!!

Spring Hookahville 2009

Ryan and I went to Spring Hookahville over Memorial Day weekend and had a blast as usual!! A lot of our close friends were there and there was a fantastic lineup this spring. Good friends and good music....we were in heaven.

We took off early Saturday morning driving East towards a beautiful sunrise.(Ignore the bugs)

The music started pretty early...I think around noon, so by the time we got our tent set up, there was plenty of live music to entertain us.

This was a group called Toubab Krewe who played a lot of percussion. It was great to dance to!!The fella with the popped collar kinda rubbed me the wrong way...or at least his collar positioning preference did, but the guy in the back in the purple shirt was tons of fun!!

He was extremely energetic and semed to play the most dominant sounding drums of the bunch. He really caught my attention for some reason. (Maybe it's the hair)

Saturday night was a blast!! I didn't take many pictures while Ekoostik Hookah was on stage. Why? I have no idea....I'm usually juggling my camera and my drinks all night long. Guess I was just having too much fun!!

They have a small stage where the late night bands play after Ekoostik Hookah is done with their final set for the night. We got to see the band Oakhurst play late night on Saturday. They are a really good bluegrass band. It is always lots of fun to go see all the drunk people dancing at about two in the morning. I'm not sayin I'm never the drunk one....but the later it gets, the more they come out!! :-)

Ryan was stoked Sunday because one of his favorite bands, Secret Chiefs 3, was playing. We were really surprised to see them on the line up this year. They were a great addition to the music of Hookahville!!

I wasn't familiar with Sectret Chiefs 3 before Hookahville this year, but I was pleasantly purprised. They came out in navy blue monk outfits...except for the bass player. I'm not sure what that was all about. Maybe he hasn't gone through all the hazing to earn the uniform or something...who knows. I just know that I really enjoyed them. They played a lot harder music than Hookah, which I don't have any problem with, but like I said before I think it was a really good musical match for Hookahville. They do a really good job of keeping things interesting around there.

One of the great things about Hookahville is that the entertainment is all over the place...not just on the stage....I have no idea who these guys are, but they were lots of fun!!

Les Claypool, the bassist from Primus, was one of the main attractions for people this year. I think having his name on the bill probably brought in an extra 800 to 1000 people. The attendance was higher than it had been in years. I was happy for the band.This is Les.

His band was all wearing creepy dead president masks.

It's good to see a crowd this size at Hookahville!!

Les also came out in a pig mask and an Elvis mask, which I failed to get pictures of.

As the night prgressed, so did our drunkeness. Ryan officially put on the beer goggles. I bet EVERYONE was looking good to him that night!!

his is Dave Katz singing LONER.

As the night went on, I got a little more courage and began to push my way to the front. Usually I try to get there early and just stand my ground until the band starts, but we were hanging out towards the back of the crowd for awhile. I knew eventually Eric would be out from behind his drum kit singing us the encore song, so I had good motivation!!

Cliff hung out behind the keyboard while Dave sang a couple songs. He kept the base going with one hand, and the keys going with the other. AND he was wearing ski goggles.................?The Muffins Middle is the best place to be for photos. This is a great pic of John Mullins AKA Muffins.

This is just before Eric started singing for us....also about the time I started screaming like a little girl :-)

When the hat came off, the party really got started!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Eric.Watch out for the hair...it can be used as a weapon!!!

This is Ryan and I just before we finished packing up to go home on Monday. It was a long fun-filled weekend. I can't wait to do it again in the fall!!! Ony 3 months till fall Hookahville!!!