Another Three Day Hookah Run

Last weekend came early for me. I wish they always would.

I got off work Wednesday night so excited about the days to come that I could hardly sleep. I was getting ready for my three day Hookah adventure. That's always so much fun!!!

Thursday afternoon, Ryan and I headed down to Indy to pick up my girlfriends Kelly Anne and Julie B. From there we were headed to Newport, Kentucky. Ekoostik Hookah played at The Southgate House there. That is one of my favorite venues. It's the creepy old house where the Tommy gun was invented. Same place I've dreamt about for several years now.The Rumpke Mountin Boys opened up for Hookah. They are a great bluegrass band from Ohio. Ryan and I have seen them a couple times over the last few years. It's always fun to see them again.I absolutely love the mandolin. This guy totally tore it up too!!Once the show got started, we all made our way to the front like we usually do.

Kelly Anne, Ryan, and I...............Hangin' in the "Muffins Middle." Hookah fans will know what that means :-)The crowd up front in Kentucky was really kind. Normally, it gets kind of brutal up front. People pushing you out of the way and drunk people falling on you...yada yada. But here, it was different. I never once had anyone's elbow in my eye or anything.Newport, Kentucky is directly across the Ohio river from Cincinnatti. So, we are attributing the nice crowd to the Cincy kids. I've always heard good things about them and always have had good experiences when in Cincinnatti, so it's all their fault that we had it so easy that night. John Mullins has all these nice "bowling" shirts, as he calls them. We had an extended conversation after the show about buying them on sale. Now I'm on the hunt for a shirt for not just John Mullins, but Eric Lanese as well.

Eric fell in love with Ryan's freaky unicorn and rainbow shirt, so we have to try to find one for him now. He wanted to trade shirts with Ryan, but Ryan wouldn't do it because his was a gift from Jeff and Karen in Portland.

Yep................that's the shirt. Makes mama proud!! The website it came from has it named "Afternoon Delight." HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We all had a great time Thursady night. I was texting setlists to our friend Kelly Jo in Michgan. She was patiently awaiting Friday to roll around so she could join us up in Michigan.

So, we all drove back up to Indiana after the show. After dropping Julie and Kelly Anne off in Indy, Ryan and I headed home and made it to bed by about 6:30 AM.Friday night, Ekoostik Hookah played at a little venue in Lansing, Michigan called Small Planet. Kelly Anne and Ryan weren't able to join is for this show, so it was just me and Julie. We met up early with Eric, the drummer, and had dinner. He put us both on the guest list so we didn't have to pay to get in the show. I felt so important!!! I hung up front in the Muffins Middle like usual. Kelly Jo was up there with me for awhile. Julie came and hung up there for awhile, but she was hanging out at the back with Buddy, the light guy. This is my buddy Curtis from Chicago. I'm always glad to see those Chicago kids. Another friend from the windy city, Travis was there, and I finally got to meet his girl, Jess. I was really glad to officially meet her. We all talk on the Hookahheads website a lot, but never had an official introduction until Friday. It was lots of fun!!This is me and Julie cracking up about something that was hilarious, apparently.........This is me, Julie, Eric the drummer, and some strange chick that had to jump her skinny little ass in our pictures at the last minute.............tramp!!!Me, Kelly Jo and Julie..........well into the night.Sweney ROCKS!!!!!!!!!

After the show was over in Michigan, Julie and I headed back to Indiana again. Lansing is a really easy drive from home....straight up I69. We stopped and got some food to keep us going on the road and off we went.

We got back to my house at about 7:00 AM. Julie slept on the couch for a couple hours before heading back to Indy. I, on the other hand, slept ALL DAY LONG!! It felt awesome!!

I got up at about 5:00 PM feeling alive and refreshed and ready to do it one more time.

Ekoostik Hookah was playing at The Lafayette Brewing Company in Lafayette, IN. I love it when they play there because it is the closest venue to home for us.

Most of the neighborhood from West Middleton came to the show. Several of us met for dinner before the show started. When we got there, Eric and Julie were eating dinner and Eric informed us that we were on the guest list again..............THANKS BUDDY!!!! Like I said before....I feel so important!!!

This is a few friends from the neighborhood: Jason, Marcus, a friends of theirs whose name I do not know, and Ryan. I was really happy that a lot of our friends were able to make it to this show. There was a pretty decent size crowd there and that always makes me happy because it keeps them coming back!!

Julie, Ryan, Kelly Anne and Nate with someone behind them. I still don't know whose hands those are!!The LBC is a great place to see a show for a couple reasons. First of all, you can get right up to the stage. It is literally about as high as my ankles. Secondly, the floors upstairs where the live music happens are all hard wood, and you can feel them bouncing underneath you if you get enough people moving at the same time. That's never hard for Hookah to accomplish.I'm always happy when we can spend time with Dave and Kelly Anne. They are so much fun. The next big adventure is just around the corner. Two days and counting...to be exact!!!Ryan drank coke and I got to drink some wine that night. I had been the designated driver the last two nights in a row, so I was ready for my turn to roll around. I was definitely "in my happy place" just like my shirt says.............


Julie and me before heading out for the night.

What a great weekend!!! It has only taken me two weeks to get it posted here. Sorry!!! it's hard to do all this stuff AND blog about it!!!

Ekoostik Hookah Rocks Lafayette

On Saturday, March 29th, Ekoostik Hookah was back in town, along with several of my hookahhead friends from all around. I always love it when they come to Indiana. It doesn't happen often enough. Although, I'm feeling pretty lucky this year because along with the show in Lafayette, they have two other Indiana shows scheduled this year........YEAH!!!!!

Ryan and I met up with a few friends at our house before the show. Our friends Joel and Steph from Toledo, and Kelly Jo from Grand Rapids all came down to stay with us for the night.

I was super excited when we got to the show until I realized that Kelly Jo had forgotten her ID in her purse.......at my house. CRAP!!!! This poor girl drove all the way from Michigan to see this show, and as her friend, I was not going to let her miss the whole thing. So, right before they started playing, Kelly Jo and I headed back to West Middleton to get that dang ID!!!!

I tried not to speed too much, but I knew we were going to miss about half the show, so I put the pedal to the metal a little :-) When we got to the house, I ran in, peed, Kelly got her ID, and out the door we went!!!

We made it back just as the first set was ending. I felt really bad for Kelly Jo. No one wants to miss half the show they just drove five hours to see. But then again, I guess it was better than missing the whole thing. Several people were like, "I wouldn't drive all the way back....let her sit in the bar until the show is over." Of course, the people that were saying that were not the people we were with. That's NOT how our friends roll!!!! I felt like I had no other choice. leaving her in the bar, or anywhere else, was not an option!!

Once we made it back to Lafayette, it was great times as always. We got to see an awesome second set and encore. I also managed to snag another one of Eric's broken drumsticks from him after the show. I've got a pretty nice little collection of those things now :-)

I really didn't take very many pictures. I wish I would have. I'm always disappointed in myself when I don't get pictures of our friends when we get together. I was mainly just interested in getting up as close as I could and soaking in as much music as I could in the little time I had left.

I think I managed to get at least one picture of everyone in the band. The top picture (and you may actually know them by now) is John Mullins: lead guitar, vocals.
Next is my playful friend and awesome bassist, Cliff Starbuck.
Yeah baby............Everyone should know who Eric is by now. Stating the obvious: um....he's the drummer :-) And my guilty pleasure. I was a very happy girl when I saw that long mane of his haning down his back. I hardly ever see him with his hair down. You all know how I feel about that long hair!!!!!
Steve Sweney......the guitar god!!!! On Hookahheads.com we abbreviate his name as "SFS." If you use your knowledge of deciphering online chat abbreviations, you can probably figure it out pretty easy. Obviously, the two S's are for his name, and the F would be the same as the F in "WTF." So, yeah, we just refer to him as SFS............he rocks my world every time I see him!!!Now, I know this seems weird considering how I feel about feet, but my opinions are different about the Hookah boys' feet........I love them. And these belong to Dave Katz. it's actually the only picture I got of him :-)
We were lucky enough to hang out with Dave and Kelly Ann for awhile too. I didn't get to talk to them much since I drove home during the first set, but I danced my tail off with them during the second set!!!

We had a blast!!! And it's less than a week until my next Hookah fix.....tell ya all about it when i get back!!!!

Hookah Run Night Two, Lafayette, IN

These are Steve Sweney's magic alien hands.................and his magic alien guitar that makes sounds like no other :-)

After driving four hours to get home from Grand Rapids, I was just in time to start getting ready for the next show in Lafayette at The Lafayette Brewing Company, or LBC.

Kelly Jo followed me from Michigan, and we pulled into West Middleton at about 5:00. Plenty of time to shower, make a few phone calls, and round up our friends who were tagging along. After all the loose strings were taken care of, Julie, Aaron, my nieghbor Marcus, Kelly Jo, and I all piled into Aaron's car and he drove us to Lafayette.

Chad and Jen were there just hanging out getting a couple coctails before the show. They didn't go to the show, but we got to see eachother briefly before I went upstairs, so that was cool. There were so many people there that I knew, I kinda felt bad because I didn't get to talk to everyone as much as I would have liked to. Regardless, I managed to have another great night!!!

We all grabbed a bite to eat before Ekoostik Hookah came on. The food the the LBC is awesome!! There's some kind of weird boiled eggs called scotch eggs that a lot of my friends get when we go there. I stuck to normal things like cheesy potato munchers and whatnot. After filling up on delicious bar food, we headed up for the party!!

I really enjoy going to shows at the LBC. The dance floor is pretty big, and when enough people get moving, you can feel the floor rumble under your feet. It really is an awesome feeling. The bass drum rattles through your chest like thunder. It gives me chills just thinking about it. It's one of those situations that makes you sit back and think about how good it is to be alive and able to FEEL so much. I don't necessarily mean that in just a literal sense either.

Ryan had to work all weekend, so the LBC show was the only one he was able to attend. I missed him at the other two shows. This picture was shortly after he got there. That's Kelly Jo with us. He actually made it a little earlier than I expected, so that was a nice surprise.

I caught Eric's attention to snap this pic in between songs. He is so much fun. I got a drum stick from him after the show....I wonder if it's one of the ones he's holding....hhhmmmmmmmI love taking pictures at the LBC because you can get literally inches away from the band. In fact, there were a couple times I felt like I was too close. Like I was invading their space or something....but that didn't stop me :-) This is John Mullins on guitar. He has gotten familiar enough with me and Ryan that he always approaches us now. (He was the one who re-joined the band last year) That makes me feel good...I don't have to be that annoying fan chasing after him all the time now. Although, not much stops me from hunting these guys down after the shows anyway, but he just makes it a little easier!!!Good ol' Dave Katz....I love this guy!! Some would say he is the heart of the band. Very playful and positive, always smiling, and ready to blow us away. He was actually hiding behind his michrophone on purpose when I took this picture. I was crouched down in front of his keyboard trying to get a good shot through the crowd when he noticed me.Luckily, Dave gave in and came out from hiding and I got a good one of him laughing at me.......That may have had something to do with the fact that I was flipping him off while I was snapping that pic with my other finger :-) Either way, he looks like a happy man, huh?

We got lots of great songs that night. They covered "Hush" by Deep Purple and tore it up!!! That whole building was rockin' by the time they finished that song. They were in the moment for sure on that one!! I was sweating so bad from dancing by the end of the night, that I bet I lost five pounds.....that's my kind of exercise!!!!

Here's Kelly Anne and Ryan at our house.

Several of our friends came back to stay at our house after the show, so we stayed up and continued the party until almost 6:00 AM. I cracked a bottle of wine when we got there and began to catch a little buzz. I stayed sober at the show incase anyone needed a designated driver. But the Shiraz was deliciously waiting for me when I got home :-) So, by the time some of these photos were taken, little ol' Alli-Gal was feelin' pretty good :-)Kelly Jo, Julie, me, and Kelly Anne.....Yep....feelin' good...............That just happens to be the name of one of my favorite Hookah songs that has an awesome drum solo. I love it when my man Eric gets his time to shine :-)
I'm pretty sure I took this picture this way on purpose, although, I'm not sure what my thinking was at the time :-) Regardless, it's a cute one of Kelly Jo, and one of her skirts she made.

After a few hours of sleep, I managed to drag myself out of bed. Surprisingly, I felt pretty darn good when I woke up. So, I sent Julie to the store to buy sausage and milk and made a huge pan of biscuits and gravy for everyone. Aaron took off early, so he missed out on that. There's still enough left to feed probably at least six people, so if ya'll want some....come on over!!!!!!!

Hookah Run Night Three.....coming soon..............