Annual Rock Falls Mid-Summer Music Fest

[starry-eyed pirate]

A pretty good time for $20.00.  I go just about every year.  

Hip and Ginger, I thought you were close enough, you might come, but everyone is invited.

And Hip, good to see ya around again.  Bring your guitarist and your harmonica.

Check it out!

http://www.rockfallsonline.com/

[Froderik]

A pretty good time for $20.00.  I go just about every year.

Have you seen or heard any of those bands listed there?

[starry-eyed pirate]

Yeah, Frod, I know about half of 'em pretty well and pro'ly partied with the unknown others, at some point without knowin' it.  Left for Dead is a killer psychadellic and dead cover band.  They played the first "grove party" I ever went to back in '91.  They headlined it last year too and encored with about a 20 min. "Low Spark".  It's just a small little festival...pro'ly 'bout 200-250 expected, I reckon.  They'll be a lot of acoustic bluesy and blue-grassy music played.  And some straight up Rock too.  BYOB though.  Come on if ya want.   I'll be campin' out.  Bring your guitar, they'll be lots of musicians wanderin' around in various states of  reality-consciousness.

This party is basically the traditional summer annual that's been goin on for decades in this ol' neighborhood.  They'll be some kind of meat cooked on a spit. Often it's a pig-roast.  And there's a nice big stone fire pit to drink beer and smoke up around.  

D'ja ever read my posts about my ol' shack in the floodplain, Frod ??

...Well this is the ol' neighborhood, where the ol' shack in the flood plain used ta be.  The "grove" was my backyard.  It's a cool ol' place full of tall ol' oaks on a plateau above the Slippery Rock creek. My cabin was in the floodplain just down below the grove.  

I was drinkin at some party up on the grove, one summer night, some years ago when I began to explain my spiritual connection to the place to some people I had just met, a man and a woman.  In order to demonstrate my oneness with the grove I reached down to the ground at my feet and scooped up a handful of sandy dirt and poured it into my mouth and chewed some and then swallowed it all in one smooth action.  Now this was years ago and it is much cleaner now, but you know how no-mans-land party places get sorta trashed, well, there could have been glass or metal or other trash or piss or whatever in that handful of sacred grove dirt, but there wasn't, cause the grove won't ever hurt me.  It has always protected and defended me.  Anyway, so that cat who I had shown how to eat dirt was so impressed that he immediately reached down and picked up a handful of that same sacred grove dirt and poured the whole thing into his mouth and swallowed it too!!!

No-Way!?!?

No...It's true!!!

It's a cool place.  Ya'll should come.

[Froderik]

Yeah, Frod, I know about half of 'em pretty well and pro'ly partied with the unknown others, at some point without knowin' it.  Left for Dead is a killer psychadellic and dead cover band.  They played the first "grove party" I ever went to back in '91.  They headlined it last year too and encored with about a 20 min. "Low Spark".  It's just a small little festival...pro'ly 'bout 200-250 expected, I reckon.  They'll be a lot of acoustic bluesy and blue-grassy music played.  And some straight up Rock too.  BYOB though.  Come on if ya want.   I'll be campin' out.  Bring your guitar, they'll be lots of musicians wanderin' around in various states of  reality-consciousness.

This party is basically the traditional summer annual that's been goin on for decades in this ol' neighborhood.  They'll be some kind of meat cooked on a spit. Often it's a pig-roast.  And there's a nice big stone fire pit to drink beer and smoke up around.  

D'ja ever read my posts about my ol' shack in the floodplain, Frod ??

...Well this is the ol' neighborhood, where the ol' shack in the flood plain used ta be.  The "grove" was my backyard.  It's a cool ol' place full of tall ol' oaks on a plateau above the Slippery Rock creek. My cabin was in the floodplain just down below the grove.  

I was drinkin at some party up on the grove, one summer night, some years ago when I began to explain my spiritual connection to the place to some people I had just met, a man and a woman.  In order to demonstrate my oneness with the grove I reached down to the ground at my feet and scooped up a handful of sandy dirt and poured it into my mouth and chewed some and then swallowed it all in one smooth action.  Now this was years ago and it is much cleaner now, but you know how no-mans-land party places get sorta trashed, well, there could have been glass or metal or other trash or piss or whatever in that handful of sacred grove dirt, but there wasn't, cause the grove won't ever hurt me.  It has always protected and defended me.  Anyway, so that cat who I had shown how to eat dirt was so impressed that he immediately reached down and picked up a handful of that same sacred grove dirt and poured the whole thing into his mouth and swallowed it too!!!

No-Way!?!?

No...It's true!!!

It's a cool place.  Ya'll should come.

Yeah.. I remember reading those cool posts you wrote about it a while back.....

Those sorta fire parties are the best.. really nice in the wintertime too..as long as you can go inside if it gets too cold..... (like not enough fireside space per person or something..) I went to one like that last thanksgiving.. one of the best turkey days I ever had.. They were servin' up hot cider with rum, tequila and triple sec.. one mix w/ rum,  one w/ the tequila...both mixes were really good...there were lights outside, strings of xmas lights hung through the trees..  They were roasting something on a spit and there were also oysters, clams..etc..It all tasted great prepared in the smoke like that...can't beat it.

Dirt is rich in mineral content, but you better look out for the yellow snow...if you go where the huskies go..lol.

Rock Falls Park sounds like a fun gig/party...

[Antigen]

So you'll get there, right Frod?

[starry-eyed pirate]

So you'll get there, right Frod?

Yeah!  C'mon, man. Let's get smoked up and jam!

[starry-eyed pirate]

hey, I just came from there.  The stages are all set up.  I already set up my tent and helped Bart get his tent set up too.  The new stage they just built is all made outta natural tree branches.  

I'll tell you about it when I get back...

[starry-eyed pirate]

A damn good time!

By Thurs. afternoon half the campsites were already taken.  The live music started around 5:30pm on Fri.  Uhhh...let's see.  I had a lot to drink Fri. night.  I can't really remember a whole lot of the details, just the sound of hard edged electric blues;  blues wifs teef!  A big fire sort of in the middle of the grove casting it's flickering light on and silhouetting those that made the scene.  

There was an ornithologist who gave a talk about 11am on Sat. morning.  I wanted to catch the man's talk but just didn't have the energy to make it Sat. mornin.  I ended up sittin around camp and smokin' ganja with friends instead.  Some puppet-master kid about 22 or so put on a real cool puppet show about a fish that wanted to fly.  He had all kinds of cool props that he used to tell the story.  Actually there were 2 shows.  One at noon and another about 5.  There were 2 stages set up for the bands so that they could alternate stages and have less downtime between bands.  Opie Killed Aunt Bee played clasic rock.  Among the songs they played were 3 Zeppelin tunes and a Black Crows tune("Remedy").  Well Strung was a 4 piece acoustic string band without a drummer.  They consisted of a stand-up bass player, mandolin player, guitar and banjo and they played mostly traditional bluegrass.  They're real, real good but in my opinion they are missin that fiddle player.   Then I think the Bootleg Brothers played next and they jammed a cool version of "All Along the Watchtower".  Waldo was real good.  It was dark by the time he came on and he laid down some hard blues on his acoustic guitar and harmonica.  Then Left For Dead played.  They were doin' "Shakedown Street" and "Eyes of the World" and the like.  I danced with a beautiful Bangladeshi princess and made her smile for a while.  They were gettin ready to jam all night.  The guitar player asked the crowd if they were ready to get down till about 3 in the mornin.  Ever't'in' was lookin so good.  Beautiful women everywhere, floatin around in their long skirts.  When I ran out of beer more was offered to me and the North Country Brewery, a local micro-brewery, came out kinda late Saturday afternoon and set up a tent in the far back corner of the grove that reflected the style of the middle ages and gave away all kinds of good free beer.  Stuff they had brewed themselves.  One of their kegs was full of Scottish ale.

Unfortunately the damn cops had to show up just as Left For Dead was ending their first set.  Must 'a' been between 12:30 and 1 sometime.  Told us we had to shut down the loud music.  Fuckin' pricks!!!  So anyway, I guess no-one felt like goin' to jail that night and so the music was shut down.  After that we all just kinda gathered around the fire, drinkin, and smokin and makin' pretty girls smile and playin acoustic guitars and hand drums an' such.  We carried on like that 'til dawn.

I'd guess there were between 300-400(??) people there at the height of the celebration.  

We thought about you Frod.  Raised our drinks to ya once even.  Maybe next year...huh ??

[Antigen]

Man, yenz who didn't make the trip you sure missed out! The Grove is a beautiful place. This old party has got a 20 year history and the place itself, as a park, goes back to 1932:

http://rockfallsonline.com/history.html

The place has powerful magics, it really does! Never mind the signs about leashing dogs. Only the ill behaved ones had to be tied down. The rest of them ran free and friendly all weekend long. The kids I met were just as well poised and self posessed; strong evidence of their keeping society w/ cool people. I didn't lose a single thing all weekend, no theft or even the vibe of it. I lost track of my water bottle one time, somebody spotted it and brought it back to my tent when I wasn't there. Left a ceramic cup somewhere, came across it awhile later untouched. Hell, even a cooler full of beers still had more than a few beers in it by the next morning even though the owner went out of frame for awhile.

Oh well, there's always next year. Maybe they'll have some other events in the mean time.

[001010]

Twenty bucks sounds cool... Too bad I'd have to drive a thousand miles to get out there next year. It sure looked like a good time!

BTW -- Nice hat, pirate!  :wink:

[starry-eyed pirate]

Oh thanx, 001010,

Yeah...that's my magic hat.  She must'a' showed ya all the pics she took, huh ??

[001010]

Yes she did. It looked really sweet!  

[starry-eyed pirate]

...and so it was... ::cheers::

[starry-eyed pirate]

Hey.  Here comes the annual Grove Party.  Get out your tent and your cooler.  Bring your dog, your kids, your guitar, drumz and harmonicas.  Summer is beautiful up here.

Looks like it's gonna be the 20th an' 21st of July this year.

.

www.rockfallsonline.com

[starry-eyed pirate]

What a time!!!  What a crew!!! :roll: :lol: :rofl: Nothin like a party on the "Grove" :skull: ::dove::

Ok, so by now ya'll ougtht'a' know...

You're all invited next year.