Hookahville XXX

Over Labor Day weekend, Ryan and I celebrated our Honeymoon Hookah style!!!! We decorated our tent with a bunch of "Just Married" stuff and our friends decorated their tents with luau stuff for our honeymoon. We even won some freebies for our decorations.Kelly Ann even found one of those cardboard cut-outs that you stick your face in for pictures. I only got one picture of it, but Ryan got almost a whole roll of 35mm of people goofing off with it. We saved all the beer cans for the first day or so to string up and hang on the tent. Cousin Aaron was going to pull us around in the cart with some cans hanging off of it, but we got too distracted, and that never happened. Oh well, it was a fun idea.Here's part of the gang hanging out in "Reynoldsburg." That's what we called the area where Nick and Ashley Reynolds were camping behind Ryan, Dave, Kelly Ann, and me. We called our area Chaplis. Ashley's dad came with her. I was happy to see him there. It totally reminds me of something my dad and I would have done together.Caught Ryan and Cousin Aaron in mid high five!!! YES!!!!!Nap time for Matt and Liz. That's one of the best things at Hookahville....taking a nap in the shade. I slept almost one whole day away. It was awesome!!!! You all know how I love my sleep!!!The lineup for Hookahville was great this year. We got to see Arrested Development. It was so cool!!! They split up for awhile after they hit it big in the early nineties, but I'm pretty sure this is the original lineup. I could be wrong, so forgive me if my facts aren't right, but that was my understanding from hearing the band talking about being "back together again." The old guy is even still with them. I always wanted to call him Mr. Wendel because of that song they did by the same name, but I'm not sure if that's his name, or just my imagination. He definitely gives them a spiritual feel when they play.This chick had the most beautiful voice. She was the main singer in their big hit "Tennessee." The crowd went nuts when that song started.
Another act I was happy to see was Indiana's own Derick Howard. He's from Columbus, IN. He does a really cool little loop thing with his music where he plays a little of each instrument, records it, and then plays another instrument over it. He plays every instrument himself. Kind of like Keller Williams, if you're familiar with him at all. in this picture, he is sitting on his drum. it sounds kind of like a big congo or something like that.

The one song that blew me away was a Paul Simon cover, and I cannot remember the name of the song for the life of me. If I remember later.....I'll post it!!! Derick has been opening for Hookah at Lafayette Brewing Company for quite awhile now, so I was really happy for him that he made the lineup this year. He has been hoping for this for a long time. It should be pretty good exposure for him.
I was also thrilled to see Bela Fleck. He was playing with Abagail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet. I had seen him once before, but it was probably close to ten years ago. He plays a pretty mean banjo. Abagail Washburn was pretty impressive herself!!!



I missed a few bands that I wasn't already familiar with, but I could hear everything from the campsite. Everyone sounded great. It was just way too hot to be out in front of the stage all day long. There's no shade out there at all, so jumping, dancing, screaming and singing along with the band can get real hot real quick!!! We never missed a second of Ekoostik Hookah though!!! We never do!!!

We had a pretty bad experience at Spring Hookahville with hassels getting in and out the gates so we could get to our vehicle. Some people, including our group, stood in line for nearly seven hours AND missed the opening bands because of the line, so the guys from Ekoostik Hookah and Steve Trickle, the owner of the venue where Hookahville is held, did what they could to make it up to everyone.

First of all, they gave us a free night. Usually, if you want to go a night early, you have what they call the "Earlybird" option where you can pay an extra twenty bucks to get there earlier than everyone else, find a good campsite, and see a couple small bands. So, they made the "earlybird" free. Second, Ekoostik Hookah played a set that night. Normally they do two nights, this time, we got three for the price of two. That was so awesome that they would do that for their fans.

It was a huge inconvenience, and a real pain in the ass this past spring, but honestly, how many bands do you think would even care enough to ackowledge that there was a problem? Not many. That's why I love these guys. I know I've said it lots of times before, but it's true. We're more like friends than fans.

As some of you may remember, there have been a couple times when people's underwear end up on stage. This time, we set them up with some big ol' Granny Panties!!! All the people who were camping with us signed them, and Ryan and I wrote "Just Married" on the waistband. Our friend Kelly Jo from Michigan sewed a schwa on them ahead of time. Cliff, the bassist even copmlimented my throw. He called it a "three pointer." I only had a split second to actually catch John holding them up. he grabbed them in between songs, so I only got one blurry picture to remeber the moment!!!!! They guys were on fire all weekend long. They pulled out a couple older songs that we hadn't heard much since John Mullins rejoined the band. They also covered some good old songs I never thought I'd hear them play. One of them was "All Apologies" by Nirvana. That was a total surprise!!! Cliff sang that. We are all big fans of anything Cliffy sings!!!Towards the end of the evening, especially at Hookahville, Cliffy usually gets a little playful. He dances around all over the stage, and gets this ornery little way about him. It always gets fun when Cliffy's been drinking!!!
My man Eric got up from the drums just before the end of the show. He always does. It's a huge treat for eveyone when Eric gets up to sing. He did a cover of "Chest Fever" by The Band with horns backing him up. It was SWEET!!!!

Overall, I think this was one of the best Hookahvilles I've been to. We had great company, got to see lots of friends from out of state, had one of the best lineups yet, celebrated our honeymoon with our best friends, ate good food, drank good drinks, had lots of good wishes floating our way because of the wedding....................it really couldn't have been much better.

I'm ready for Spring Hookahville...................only eight months and counting!!!!