The 2009 installment of Gathering of the Vibes at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT was marred by the death of a concert goer under suspicious circumstances – what many see as an outgrowth of the general sketchiness in the west camping and the rise of the nitrous trade at major festivals.
[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]
However, back in the concert grounds, and over in the east camping, there was plenty of good music to be had, despite the crazy rain and heavy thunder storms that cut short multiple bands’ sets. The Vibes has always been a Grateful Dead celebration, and a family celebration, so that more so than other fests, many bands return year after year, including Ratdog, Assembly of Dust, Strangefolk, Keller Williams, George Clinton and the Zen Tricksters.
With one exception, however, this week’s Stormy Monday focuses on non-Dead contributions to this year’s party, opening with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals doing a short, tight White Rabbit from Sunday, followed by JJ Grey and Mofro’s On Fire from Friday afternoon. WMDS (Keller Williams, Keith Moseley, Gibb Droll and Jeff Sipe) get the one dip into the GD songbook with Eyes – it’s admittedly a pretty standard feature of Keller’s setlists, but this is an excellent version with Donna Jean joining in for bit.
The bulk of the mix is moe.’s opening suite: Not Coming Down > Wormwood > Stranger Than Fiction > Hector’s Pillow > St. Augustine. Utica’s Finest got the worst roll of the weekend when their three hour set was cut to single hour as a monster lightning barrage swamped the campgrounds – fans continued to grumble for the remainder of the fest that moe. was on fire and set to fly. To finish things up, Deep Banana Blackout, Bridgeport’s own, covers Santana’s Soul Sacrifice from the end of their traditional Friday night set. As always, enjoy!
One Response
case closed on n20 mafia. they are no where near as organized as people think and are from all over. some are sketchy some aren’t. like the dude i met at the u melt show in nyc. i was all suspect at first but it turned out hes just some old deadhead from brooklyn trying to supporting himself and his wife. they are not all philly thugs. and who really knows how organized it all is.