Seattle
| August 22nd, 2004 | Brian
All in all, the 2 day Seattle trip was a blast, especially considering
things didn't go quite as planned.
After a long day of traveling across country, we arrived late on Friday
and were immediately greeted by Scott 'Bubs' MacLaughlin. He brought us
back to life with a Seattle welcoming party not to forget. After a few
hours, everyone was feeling good and the traveling was a memory. We've
known Bubs for many years now. He's a professional cameraman who's worked
all over the globe filming sporting events like the Olympics, NFL games,
etc. Last November we brought him to Amsterdam to document our performances
in Holland (including the Cannabis Cup). Basically, besides being a talented
dude, he's also one of the coolest guys on the planet and for the last
couple days he was our Seattle liason/tour guide. Bubs and Kate really
made the trip great &
We had good reason to be excited about the Seattle trip. We were booked
to play one of the city's nicest clubs, The Showbox, on Saturday and a
prime '4:20' set time for the 2nd day of the Seattle Hempfest on Sunday.
The Showbox turned out to be just as nice as we thought, even nicer as
it was located in a great part of the city, right across the street from
Seattle's infamous Farmer's Market. After tooling it around in the Mkt,
we headed for soundcheck. Great PA and staging, but soon after, word got
back to us that the majority of the performances at the Hempfest (also
on Sat) got rained out and that rain was in the forecast for our performances
on Sunday. Seattle? Rain? Really? Yeah, someone made the major mistake
of not providing coverage for the festival's stages, which 100,000 people
were going to attend....in Seattle.
Saturday's
show ended up being poorly promoted. We played good still and made the
best of an ill-attended night. It was definitely somewhat of a let down,
especially b/c things weren't looking up for Sunday.
On
Sunday, as anticipated, our stage had been rained out and closed. So we
made it our mission to talk to whoever we needed to in order to get our
stage open again. It was a major process considering the kind of prevalent
disorganization that typifies 'weed' festivals. It's your classic "who's
on first" enhanced by high grade chronic, hacky sacks and the munchies.
Nobody knows what the BLEEP is going on. In the end though, somehow we
made it happen, playing thru 1 functioning speaker stack, make-shift keyboard
stands, etc. Scotty really gave it up, engaging the crowd and demanding
response even though crowds at weed festivals tend to be somewhat unresponsive
and lethargic (there's a reason why they call it dope). We furthered the
cause of the day but really drove home our political message in "One
For You". Seattle was lovin' it and it really felt great to overcome
the circumstances. Eleven years in the music business has made us consummate
professionals at making the best of situations like these. Now we can
leave with a sense of satisfaction that the investment was worth it.
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Seattle
Hempfest | August 22nd, 2004 | Scott
The actual Hempfest slot that we had was on Sunday afternoon, the 22nd
of August. After the Saturday show was pretty much rained out, we arrived
at the site on Sunday, hoping that we would get to play. We flew out there
on our own dime, to support the cause, but obviously, we were really there
to promote Jah Works music. I'm down with hemp, herb, etc. etc...but the
music comes first with Jah Works. Obviously, when the organizers of the
fest told us that our stage had been closed down due to rain, (there's
that Seattle weather...) we were well disappointed. But Bubs, Kevin and
a few other guys in the JW crew took over, and while I sulked about not
getting to play, they went to the command tent and pretty much insisted
that they open up our stage again and let us play. A half hour later,
that's exactly what happened.
While the Hempfest speakers preached their weed message to the converted,
we started to set up our gear. Working with half the soundsystem, since
it had been damaged the day before in the rains, we hoped that it would
be enough to rock the assembled hempheads. I gotta say, you're holding
a concert, outdoors, in SEATTLE, people...how about putting up some kinda
tent or something over the stage, huh?!?! Duh...I guess it's true...they
don't call it dope for nothing. What do you expect from a bunch of weedheads?!?!
I say that in the nicest way possible, tho, don't get me wrong. Just a
little observation from a musician to a festival organizer...Let's get
some coverage for the musical gear next time around, then maybe you won't
have to cancel the show when it starts to rain, IN SEATTLE!!! That's all
I have to say.
So right about 4:20 that afternoon, we took to the stage and began our
little show. We were fired-up, literally and figuratively, and proceeded
to tear that show up. We did our thing, played the weed tunes in our set
and took over. You could see a cloud of smoke rising from over the people
in the audience, and the rain finally let up as we played, which all seemed
like a bit of a miracle. The show coming off had a lot to do with the
efforts and spirit of Jah Bubs, Derek "Big D" Parker and all
the guys in the band who wouldn't let the day go by without us getting
to play and have our say. Nuff respect to everyone involved with the show.
And to all the Hempfest crew, no disrespect intended, just a bit of constructive
criticism about the tent or rain coverage for
next year, seen?! Big up to all the Seattle crew. We'll see you all again
soon.
