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!!!

Friday in Jamaica

Ryan and I got up Friday and hung out on the beach for a little while with the gang from Indiana. That was what we did most days for at least a little while after we got up. I was happy that we had so much beach time while we were there.


When lunch time rolled around, we took off down the beach again to find some good eats. On our way past the bar next to our hotel, we found this huge lounge on the beach. Ryan and I both decided we needed to take it for a test run. It was so comfy!! I could have laid there and slept all day.

Our last Hookah show was scheduled for that night at a venue called Negril Escape. It is on the cliffs and is a wonderful place to watch the sunset. Ekoostik Hookah had scheduled a show at sunset, so everyone just hung out and lounged around for most of the day.

Some friends that we met while we were there had made arrangements for a large group of us from Fun Holiday to take a glass bottom boat out to Negril Escape. We planned on it being a party on the water on the way, and it was!! Our original arrival time was supposed to be at 4:20 so we could make it in plenty of time for the sunset. We thought it would be cool for a group of people to make their entrance from the water rather than the street.

This is one of the guys that was doing the glassbottom boat tours as we were taking off.Everybody's eyes were glued to the bottom of the boat the whole ride. We didn't see anything extremely thrilling, but it was still pretty cool. Really we were just using them as a water taxi rather than taking the tour. They would have taken a completely different route if we hadn't have hired them to take us to the show.We were all drinking and having a great time on our way to Negril Escape. I think everyone on the boat was from the Fun Holiday, so we had our pseudo family along for the ride.These two guys were a lot of fun. I regret that I never caught their names, but they were a big help on the way since the water started getting really rough.This is Larry up front in the boat. He and his wife renewed their vows the night before at the campfire jam at 3 Dives on the Cliffs. They're celebrating ten years of wedded bliss.The picture above shows a resort that looks like a huge castle. Apparently it's been up for sale for quite some time now.Everyone on the boat decided that we were all going to sell our homes and chip in with eachother to buy the place. It would be plenty big enough for all of us :-) After all our claculations, we had about $600,000.00 figured up that we could come up with if we could all sell our homes. We need only about twice that. It's a steal of a deal really, so if you know anyone who has about a half a million to invest in this place let me know.
This is when the water started getting really rough. It was kind of exciting!!This is Negril Escape as we passed it the first time looking for a safe place to get on shore.This is after we passed Negril Escape and turned around to find a safer place to stop. We definintely didn't make our 4:20 deadline we were hoping to make.It turned out to be a nice little stop that we detoured to for our departure from the boat. We stopped at a place called the Rockhouse Hotel, and these are the huts you get to stay in when you stay there. Ryan and I fell in love with this place as soon as we laid eyes on it. I think we might know where we're gonna stay the next time we vistit Negril. :-)

As we pulled up to the Rockhouse, we all began walking and trying to find our way through the grounds of the resort. It was beautiful!!
We knew we had arrived when we found this sign nearly standing in the road. (Remember, there are no shoulders on the roads in Jamaica)We barely made it to the venue before sunset, but we made it. I was so busy watching it that I didn't take a single picture.
The set up at Negril Escape was awesome. They had a huge stage and a large area to dance that was all stone. There were several of these hammocks hanging near the edges of the cliffs. That's Dave and Kelly haging out across the way from us.

We never made it up into the lighthouse behind me in this picture, but our friends Nick and Ashley had a fun experience up there.....Ashley's purse got caught in the wind while she was leaning over the rail and flew right out of her hands. Ryan and I were on the ground talking to them as all of this happened. We all thought it was funny except for the girl who was sitting in a chair directly underneath Ashley. She got hit in the head with the purse as it fell. We couldn't help but laugh, and I really don't think that helped matters much. Ashley tried to appologize. She even offered to buy her a drink, and the lady wasn't having it. She was pissed!!!

I got a few good pictures of the band again on this night. The night was kind of a bummer in a way because we found out after the first set that Dave Katz from the band had gotten sick and wasn't sure if he would be returning for the last set.
That still didn't spoil our fun though!! This is me and Eric Lanese hanging out during set break. Unfortunately, it was the only time we really hung out during the week other than our occaisional hellos and flirtatious glances over the drums in the nights prior.

After set break, we were blessed enough to have Dave back up on the keys and a couple local guys join in to give us a taste of their kind of live show. It was really cool. Our friend Matt ended up meeting up with this guy at the Twenty Three Seven bar the next night and they exchanged info with one another. He is also a taxi driver as well as a musician.

We discovered that most locals are taxi drivers on the side to get extra cash. Their taxi driver's don't have to have any special license or anything. Some of them do have a special license and insurance, and they drive the cabs with the red license plates. The people with white license plates are just locals driving around giving people rides.

We could all tell that Dave wasn't feling up to par, but the rest of the band really made up for it with their energy level. Cliffy seemed to have a blast on bass while the reggae guys were up there with him.

There were a couple really good spots to get on the side of the stage where you could see Eric really well. Still, I could only get mediocre pictures of him. It was frustrating, but I was really happy to get so up close and personal.

After the show was over, Liz sat down on this boxed percussion instrument that was for sale. I thought Cliffy from the band was gonna buy it at first. He played it for awhile after he left the stage. The lady sitting next to Liz made it, I think. It sounded really cool. There metal prongs on the front of it with the box itself hollowed out. When you pulled on the prongs, it made a weird whiny bouncy sound. I really don't know how to describe it....Liz, I need your help!!

It meant so much to all of us that Dave got back out there and stuck it out for us fans. He looked a little puny behind the keyboard towards the end, but he still made it sound good.

When we got back to our hotel, the guys who work there had another big bon fire going on the beach for us. There were a few new faces there, but it was mostly the same people who had been hanging out with us all week long.

We still had two nights left in Negril, but somehow knowing our last concert was over made me a little sad.

Each night that we sat by the fires on the beach seemed like a scene from a movie or something. It always seemed too good to be true. I am still in awe over what a fabulous place Jamaica is. I really hope to go back again sometime soon!!