All Good!

We left for our first music festival in 4 years at 1 pm. 10 hours later we would be sitting on top of a mountain listening to the Dark Star Orchestra give their rendition of October 29, 1977 Evans Field House - Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL. By the time we arrived to the center city of Masontown it was about 4pm and our stomachs turned in anxious butterflys. How was this weekend going to play out?

We sat for 2 hours, in line waiting to park at our campsite. Luckily the weather was holding up, in fact it was absolutely beautiful, and the sights were spectacular. By the time we arrived at our home for the next 3 days we couldn't wait to stretch our legs and set up camp. We were a little dumbfounded when we realized that we would be camping next to our cars, and basically right on top of everyone else. This was actually perfect because the thought of lugging all of our stuff up the mountain was ridiculous. With just a little bit of struggle we finally got our tent up and our air mattress filled. I made some quick notes on what to bring next time (ie. table, tiki-torches, glowsticks for the tent ties, etc). We ate our prepared kabobs of which we cooked on our mini-grill, and with full stomachs headed up to the Ropeadope stage for the beginning of Dark Star Orchestra. By the second set, we had had enough music for the night, and were actually quite chilly. We headed down to the tent for some much needed sleep, but not before making a quick stop at our weekend nemesis...the portapotty.

Friday was to begin with our neighbors blasting Phish and bong hits at 9am. These guys (and one girl) would turn out to be some hardcore partiers, esspecially early in the morning. We made some pancakes and waited to head over to the concert ground. They finally cleaned the portapotties by 2pm and we were ready. Our first show would be Mo's favs, The Pietasters. From what she could remember, we jotted down the setlist which looked like this:
Let's spend the night together
Biblical Sense
"new album song"
I got something better
Girl Take it Easy
Maggie May
Freakshow

There were a few others that she couldn't remember, but all in all it was a good show. Yonder Mountain String Band would be next up and we were quite excited. It was the weather that we were not getting excited about. As one of the opening bands were finishing their set, I could see the staff wrapping the lights with plastic bags...uh oh. The clouds were getting darker and darker, and swirling in. As YMSB came on we knew it wouldn't be long, luckily we were semi-prepared with one raincoat...lol. The setlist that I jotted down looked like this:
Hill Country Girl
Damned If The Right One Didn't Go Wrong
Night Out
Belle Parker
Rambler's Anthem
Kentucky Mandolin
Funtime
The Bolton Stretch
Angel >>>
Follow Me Down To The Riverside >>>
Angel >>>
Years With Rose
Ten
Encore
Holding

By the time "Ramblers Anthem" kicked in, one of my favs, the rain came tumbling down. I mean, it poured and the thunder and lightning just made things better. Mo left to the camp to get more supplies, and unfortunately missed "Holding" one her favs, and one song that we had been listening to while waiting in our car to get into the campsite the day before. The rain let up and the skys opened up to perfectly blue skys by the time the encore began and I could finally start to dry out.

We got to see some of the band Love Whip and also a bit of the Steel Pulse set. We sat through Wil Hoge waiting for what would turn out to be the show of the weekend: Keller and the Keels.

We've seen Larry Keel, Jenny Keel, and Keller "Keel", a couple times in the past, and we knew what they had in store for us. There set that night was probably the best we've seen. The setlist looked like this:

Crater In The Backyare
Faster Horses? (Larry Song?)
Mary Jane's Last Breakdown
Take Me Home, Country Road
Kidney in a Cooler
Mountain Song
Doobie In My Pocket? (new Keller song we had not heard)
New Horizons (w/ Jeff Austin of YMSB on Mandolin)
Local
Freeker By The Speaker
Breathe->
Another Brick In The Wall->
Breathe
Inside Out (Eve 6)
All Fall Down -> Culpeper Woodchuck
Loser (Beck) -> Loser (GD) (w/ Bob Weir)
Dupree's Diamond Blues (w/ Bob Weir)

The song of the night was definitely Doobie In My Pocket > New Horizons. "Doobie" is a classic Keller song, with all of his jovial lyrics and real life story telling. But, the New Horizons was especially hot, as an all-out glowstick war, a'la Phish's Harry Hood, took place. People were throwing them by the 10's and it made for some awesome visuals.

I don't remember much of the next set (Lotus), but I like them enough to warrant buying their latest cd. They play a nice mix of jazz/electronica that is just beautiful. Ratdog had me up and dancing and singing along. I have mixed feelings about Bob Weir though. I mean everyone loves Bobby, but at some points I feel a little like he is "phoning it in", so to speak. What made the set so great, in my humble opinion, was Steve Kimock who was filling in for the bands regular guitarist Mark Karan. Kimock is amazing, plain and simple. And, I think he carried the band. He makes noises that, if you closed your eyes, you would swear it was the ghost of Jerry coming through the amp. But, he doesn't just imitate Jerry, he makes his sound his own and expands on it exponentially. The set was pretty damn good though, and I wasn't complaining, although I was getting a little chilly and tired. Benevento/Russo Duo was up next and played a quick set that hit on all cylinders. But what I was really waiting for was the STS9 late-night set. A little after 2am, they hit the stage, and the fog that was setting in during "The Duo's" set, left a blanket that the lighting engineer really took advantage of. If only I could keep up with these youngsters, this may have been the MUST SEE set of the weekend. Alas, my eyes had become blurry, and I started to feel a little bad that Mo was back at the tent all alone. I did have to stay just to see those lights for a little while. The walk back to the camp was surreal. The fog was so thick that you could hardly see 4 ft. in front of you. And, the tweakers stumbling to and fro made me chuckle and remember the days that my buddies might have done the same thing...out of mind, in some kind of substance.

Saturday had us going back and forth to the concert area a couple of times. Our first stop was The Assembly of Dust's set, which, at 1pm, was the perfect setting for some down-home hick-funk. I've stated before how much I love Reid Genauer's lyrics. He played my favorite song "Speculator" and it was extremely fitting. We saw a little bit of Grace Potter's set...she is trying to be Janis Joplin sometimes, but I get it. She can pull it off, she's got a great voice and a nice little backing band to boot. We skipped Les Claypool. It seemed like everyone wanted to see him. I can take him or leave him. We wanted to save our energy for a long, late night. Michael Franti came on at 9pm, and he started his set out with a little video of his song "It's Time to Come Home". All of it set to George Bush's spliced in lyrics. Pretty funny actually. There set looked like this:
Time to go Home
Sometimes >
Hey Now Now
Taxi Radio
East to the West
Please Take Me Home
Sweet Little Lies
Stay Human
People in the Middle >
Red Red Wine
Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong
Rock the Nation
What I Got >
Theme from Sesame Street >
What I Got
Light Up Ya Lighter
I know I'm Not Alone
Yell Fire!
One Step Closer to You
Everybody Ona Move

One day I swear I am going to play a drinking game and do a shot everytime Michael Franti yells "How you Feelin?"! Moe.'s set was another highlight of the weekend. They played a very old skool set with many songs from their first, second and third albums. This was not dissapointing in the least bit. I've seen many reviews online where the moe.rons claimed it was one of the best ever. There setlist looked like this:
Rebubula >>>
32 Things
Spine of a Dog >>>
Rebubula >>>
Plane Crash
Skrunk
The Pit >>>
Rebubula >>>
Akimbo
Encore
Crab Eyes

Rebubula just kept rearin' it's pretty little head! What followed was the All Star Jam, but again...I guess I'm getting old. Oh well. As Kenny Liner's beat boxing kicked in, my walk "home" was in sync to the tunes. Good times.

By Sunday morning, it was pretty apparent that we were definitely not in it for the long haul. Mo and I were pretty much done. I made the statement "I think we've gotten this out of our system", and we made our way home. We couldn't wait to take showers and sleep in our beds. All worthwhile endeavors!

What a ride...

A couple notes on the last few tournaments i've played.

Firstly, I played in the monthly local game that my buddy Richard has at his "poker dungeon", and lost a race about an hour in that left me with less than 7 times the big blind. In his tourney set up, at this point it is usually crucial to just jam the hell out of the game to try and pick up blinds and get back to above 10 BB's. I luckily and unluckily had a ridiculous rush of cards, when it all started.

This is how it went. With a little less than the starting chips (10,000), I am in the BB with the blinds at 200/400. An early position player that I know well, opens for just over 4K and is all-in. It folds around to the button who is agonizing over his decision. I immediately think he has a semi decent Ace and is having trouble folding. He folds after much deliberation, and it comes around to me. I squeeze AK suited. I now have to figure things out. Firstly, I know the player who jammed will ship it with just about any "blackjack" hand. He plays that stuff frequently, although he could easily have a smallish pair. I think for about 20 secs. and figure I am either way ahead or flipping coins. My only problem is I may have one of my outs gone since the button basically gave away his hand. If I fold, I give him only 600 chips and really don't lose anything. But if I call and win i've got a nice size stack to start pushing people around a bit (bully chips). If I lose, I am down to 10 times the BB and feel like I can still get somewhere. I decide to gamble and say "I call". He turns over pocket nines and I immediately say to the button, "you folded an Ace didn't ya?". Of course he says he had AT. Even worse, the SB states that he had one of my Kings as well. So now I am down to 4 outs and some flush possibilities. I brick out and have to go to grinding.

Next hand of course the blinds go up because the guy on the button in the last hand had to take 5 minutes to fold AT, so we are at 300/600 and I am in the SB. It gets folded around and I look down at 67o. It's not a great hand, but I feel like I can just call and if the BB decides to get silly with my small stack I can still fold and be ok. He checks and we see a flop of J 4 5 rainbow. I go ahead and ship it in and he folds. "Cool", I say and rake in the extra 600 chips.

Next hand sees one middle position, semi-solid player limp in and I look down at QQ on the button. I smoothly, without saying a word shift my single column stack across the felt, signalling that I am all-in. The blinds fold and the limper deliberates. I try to act as though I am making a move, and don't want a call. I am thinking to myself that he must think this is bs going all-in two hands in a row. But, he folds. Whatever, there's another 1200 chips. That totals 1800 chips without a showdown.

Very next hand, folds around to me in the cut-off and I squeeze AQ of diamonds. With the exact same movements, I move my slightly larger column to the center without a word. The BB says, call rather quickly, but a little painfully. He shows AQo and we end up chopping. Fine, I think, theres another 500 chips (now at a total of 2300).

Finally the last hand comes down. This time it's folded around again and I look down at AQo. Here is where my decision to jam may have been a little off. This would be essentially 5 hands in a row that I would be either going all-in or calling an all-in. This time the player to my left wakes up with QQ and I am out and ship him almost 7K in chips. Looking back, it was definitely enough chips to make a raise with and maybe release, but it would've been hard.


The other night I played a $16 turbo SnG on Pokerstars. I have been playing a bunch of these and I actually really like them. It doesn't hurt that I have been doing pretty decent in them as well. But this one was pretty funny, and sums up the play and basically the title of this blog.

After exactly 31 hands of 82o, J4o, 23o, I was down to about 1000 in chips with the blinds at 100/200, and I have 6h8s utg. I decide this isn't my tourney and just decide to make an early exit. I push all-in and get called by the shorter stack who turns over AJo. I lose the hand and am down to 85 chips and am all-in on the next hand. I get AJo this time and end up winning against the sb who has J5o. Now I'm up to 170 and am in the sb the next hand. I have A2o and the pot is raised and I just go with it since I only have 70 more. I'm up against AT, the board bricks until the river comes the marvelous 2, and I now have 510 chips. Hey this isn't so bad sucking out for once (or so it seemed). I still had no aspirations of doing that well, but figured what the hell, the poker gods must be on my side for once. The next hand I must fold since the second short stack now goes all-in, and on the very next hand I push with K3 of hearts. The BB reluctantly makes the call for only 310 more and shows K2o. I hit a flush draw on the flop, a 3 on the turn and finish my draw with the heart on the river and am now up to 1120 chips. I fold the next hand and then the antes hit.

We are at 100/200/25 and I am now utg with A4d and I jam. Everyone folds. Wonderful! Now up to 1570. I fold the next 6 hands until I am down to 1120 and push all-in utg +1 with 83cc, the blinds have now gone up to 200/400/25 since everyone is playing slowly. Folds around. Now at 1870. 2 hands later I am in the BB w/ A6o and the utg shortstack player jams for 525 more, I have to call and he shows AT and wins. Back down to 895. Now in the sb I jam into a limper with J9o, he calls for only about 400 more with 44, I hit a 9 and am back up to 2200. A couple hands later I jam QJo and win blinds and antes, now at 2965 and am second in chips. I then call an all-in with A2 for 1000 or so chips and win when a 2 hits the flop and a A hits the turn (he showed T4o). Now at 4550 and chip leader with 5 left! Two hands later I make a standard raise w/ A9o and win the blinds and antes. Boom! 5550 now! I end up having to call an all-in in the bb for 350 more with 34o and lose. At this point the 3rd place player is now sitting out to my right and I just steal chips. We finally get to 3 handed after the guy sitting out failed to show up and was blinded off (he was at one time the chip leader with 9K in chips!). I chop a pot with A high against another small Ace. When we get to headsup after a funny hand where the 3rd place guy had 10 chips left after his ante and blind goes all-in with AA and I have J9 and flop a straight I have a demanding chip lead 4-1. I give away some with a call of an all-in with AT and he beats me with AK. But I end up taking it down when my J8o runs into 99, but I turn a J and we are a bit richer. I guess that's exactly what "Chip and a Chair" is all about, but for me it was one hell of a ride!

It's gonna be ALLL GOOOD in less than 2 weeks!

Here's my schedule for the All Good Festival:
Thursday Night - Dark Star Orchestra 9pm

Friday - The Pietasters - 5:20pm
Keller and The Keels - 9:15
Bob Weir and Ratdog - 11:30
Benevento - Russo Duo - 1:15am
STS9 - 2:00 am

Saturday - Assembly of Dust - 1:15pm
Perpetual Groove - 2:30
Grace Potter and The Nocturnals - 3:45
New Monsoon - 8:25
Michael Franti and Spearhead - 9:00
moe. - 11:15
The Slip - 1:15am
All Good Allstar Jam hosted by moe. - 2:00am

Sunday - Sam Bush - 1:15pm
West Indian Girl - 2:30
Leftover Salmon - 5:10

Should be a ridiculously fun weekend. I'm not sure if Mo is going to be up for that much music, but, I don't know if I am going to be able to handle it either. The last time we camped at a festival like this saw us leaving a little early because of the crazy people camping next to us that stayed up all night banging on their drums and talking about how Trey had some kind of machine installed in his guitar that made him play the solos so good. And, who could forget that they would refer to "good" bluegrass as "psychograss". I wonder if they knew that there was really a band that was actually called psychograss...hmmm.