Music, landscape architecture, disc golf, screen printing and whatever else is fun :)

The Vibram Open at Maple Hill Review – September 2-4, 2011

2011-09-23T02:41:00.000-04:00

Disc golf is fun for me on many levels --- athletic competition, design and educational principals related to landscape architecture, the mental requirements it demands of you, similarities to my childhood love of golf and best yet…promotion. Golf is fascinating to me, but to many it’s boring. I feel bad that they think its boring to watch or incredibly frustrating to play, but does EVERYONE know what the sport of golf is, right? Pretty much, yes. Can the same be said about disc golf? “What, you mean Frisbee golf?” Sure, I guess. It’s actually called disc golf though --- and you’ll like it. It never really struck me that I loved promotion, I just did it. I heard a band I loved and I’d go tell all my friends about it because it was so much fun and so good that I wouldn’t want anyone missing out on it. I didn’t want anyone to miss out on anything fun, simple as that. I went to more and more music as I promoted more and more bands. I’d get free tickets to shows, but it was never about that. It was me not wanting my friends to miss out on the fun. It was about promoting a band because that’s what they want to do it and I wanted to do my part in making sure that it was a reality. Promotion was always natural because there was always something fun going on. The deeper into the music scene I went, the more fun I found.

Now I’ve found my most recent, endless promotion: disc golf. How many people know about disc golf? A lot. How many are OBSESSED with it? A lot. How many don’t even know what disc golf is? More than both those a lots put together. Sad, isn’t it? Disc golf is a sport I will play until the day I die. I literally mean that with ever fiber on my being. The fastest growing demographic of disc golf players is seniors --- and they’re turning out in record numbers! Disc golf rocks! If you know me, I’m not a tattoo guy. I’m tall, skinny, have a beard and like disc golf, music

and excel spreadsheets --- a tattoo on me would be awkward. I would get a disc golf related tattoo, though, and it would be amazing. Constant promotion! Haha, now that I read that I think promotion is the reason I’d get the tattoo, but it wouldn’t --- it would be because the sport is fun and I love everything about it. You should too.

My growing love of disc golf over the past 6 years was taken to another level when I spent multiple days at The Vibram Open at Maple Hill in Leicester, MA. This was the last National Tour Event on the 2011 Professional Disc Golf Association’s (PDGA) schedule and the majority of the world’s top pros were going to be in attendance --- all of this a little over an hour from my house in Amherst. I was going to be viewing my first PDGA tournament through the eyes of my new company, Explore Disc Golf. Explore Disc Golf is me using my Master’s in Landscape Architecture, and fusing it with my knack for promotion and my connections within the music industry over the last 9 or so years. If there is only one thing I took from my graduate work in Landscape Architecture, it would be DOCUMENT EVERYTHING --- and I did. I took pictures of everything from tee pads and baskets to porter pottie locations, vending and tee time sheets. What a wonderful weekend it was!

When I pulled in, the family vibe was very apparent. I was parked by the Tournament Director’s mother, and pointed in the direction of the clubhouse where I walked around to check out some of the discs before heading over to check out some of the vending. I was expecting at least half a dozen vendors, but this weekend there were only a couple, Ten Down Disc Golf from Maine and Bachnein Disc Golf from Vermont. Some of the

vendors were also dotted throughout the course to provide hospitality to players, while trying to catch some tee shirt and disc sales as well. The only other set up I saw was at the first tee where a large tent was erected to attract patrons over to the tee. The tent and small trailer go from event to event promoting the sport of disc golf, but the first thing I wondered was, “why is this at a disc golf tournament and not at a music festival?” I get it --- it’s a disc golf tournament, but don’t the few hundred people in attendance already know about or play disc golf? Why not take this massive tent and portable baskets to a 25,000 music festival or a beach on a beautiful, yet calm day. Well that’s exactly what Explore Disc Golf is going to do!

After getting my bearings , I decided to go find the first Super Group of the day. I got a late start to my day, but found the group of Nate Doss, David Feldberg, Will Schusterick and Paul Ullibari on the 7th hole. I followed these guys until the 15th hole, where I would follow the other Super Group of the day, which included Nikko Locastro, Avery Jenkins and two others I can’t remember. I apologize for not knowing everyone’s name, but this was my first tournament and I don’t really know the players that well. The name thing was actually one of the first flaws I saw in the system. We are trying to promote this sport, but what about the common person who has no idea who the #1 player in the world is? At a Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA) Tour event, there are handouts that have a breakdown of each group. Each player has a color next to his name, and his caddy is wearing that color with his name on it. That makes it easy. Nikko Locastro (Blue) --- oh look at that guy in a blue bib that says Locastro handing that guy a disc; that must be Nikko Locastro. Done, problem solved. I’m not trying to be harsh; I’m just trying to help the sport. I was bummed when I had no idea who I was watching, but then

again I was thrilled I could walk right up to someone and bump fists with them after they threw 600’ bomb over water and sat it next to the pin just like they envisioned it. Ridiculousness.

Unless you have seen professional disc golfers play, you have no idea what you’re missing out on. It took me less than 10 minutes to start laughing uncontrollably, and even tearing up a bit. That’s what I did when I saw Zach Deputy for the first time in 2007. The same thing happened when I saw Rubblebucket in 2007, as it did when I saw Australian-based sensations OKA in Nova Scotia in July of this summer. It’s all I know how to do when I see something I can’t believe. I just have to laugh and cry --- and take pictures. The reason I get all weird is because I know I'm seeing the future right in front of me. I was formerly a Tour Manager for a nationally touring band, and went through college seeing music 3-5 times a week. I don’t drink and I don’t do drugs --- but when I see the FUTURE --- I lose it. Zach Deputy and Rubblebucket have one of the fastest growth rates of bands I’ve ever seen. OKA will destroy the U.S. music scene in less than 5 years. And disc golf? There is just so much goodness already in place, but still TONS of opportunity. I’m a nerdy, attention-to-detail guy and there is so much missing in the sport. These guys are INCREDIBLY talented, and once I really saw it in person, I almost couldn’t take it.

The one thing I really took from my time watching these players is the confidence they putt with. I remember watching David Feldberg putt on the island green of the 9th hole --- he had a downhill putt of about 25' with water less than 10' beyond the basket. He doesn’t see the water --- he sees individual chains. The guy strokes it and smiles as he walks back to his bag and onto the 10th hole. Unreal! They aren’t limping these putts in either.

The disc is going UP as it hits the chains. I usually throw a pancake putt in there so it’s high enough to give myself a chance to float it in, but if I miss, it’s not wet. I really think anyone can throw the Big D. That’s just technique and torque, but putting is where the money is made and championships are won.

This year’s championship was won by Nate Doss. Nate had just picked up his third World Championship five weeks prior in Santa Cruz, CA before trekking across the United States to win the year’s final NT event. I watched this guy for two full rounds and he was solid as a rock. I think over the two days I watched, he had two bogies, maybe three. If you saw this course, that fact would rock your world. He avoids the high highs and low lows. He doesn’t get pissed when he messes up; he fixes it. He doesn’t celebrate when he makes birdies; he marches to the next tee. It was such a pleasure to watch him play because he was almost robotic. There’s something to be said about playing with no emotion and ice in your veins. Like I said previously; all this on the PDGA Tour in related back to the PGA Tour. Some of my favorite golfers are the most boring --- not calling Nate Doss’ playing boring, but it was methodical. I distinctly remember him kicking a small rock on the 10th hole on his final road, and after a massive 500’+ drive over water and between trees, his disc nestled up next to the basket on the 16th hole where he tapped in his birdie and gave a mini fist pump before marching on. You should have seen this drive on 16 --- a huge carry over water, skirting between trees as it crossed land and before carrying another 100’ or so up to the pin before it came to rest for a kick in birdie. And all he did was a mini fist pump? He just locked down the tourney! I would have jumped in the fucking pond in early celebration! Did I mention he almost aced 17?

Not knowing or ever speaking to Nate, he seems like a great face to promote the sport through. Avoid the high highs and low lows, one stroke at a time, every shot counts, bogeys are easier to get back than doubles --- all that stuff. Too many people get all caught up in the fact that they just made a double bogey and they lose their concentration. Then when they lose by one shot at the end of the round, it’s the end of the world. If they stayed focused after that double and didn’t compound it with another bogey on the next hole, they would be tied at the end of

the round and going into a playoff instead of losing by one. Sorry to break off on a weird scenario there, but it’s true to the game, and true to how Nate plays. The three other players that played together in the Super Group on day one were some ofmy favorites as well. As enjoyable as following around the lead card on the last day was, day one really stole the show for me. I really enjoyed watching were Ullibari, Feldberg and Schusterick as much as I enjoyed Doss. The thing I remember most about watching these guys --- Schusterick in particular --- is the fact that they don’t step when they throw their mid range shots. They anchor their front foot into the ground and just uncoil on it. Uphill shots of 300’ with an anchored foot are no problem for these guys, as you could imagine.

To make this sport and tournament even cooler, there were dozens of other activities planned to round out this high profile event. There were putting competitions, accuracy challenges, long distance drives, speed contests, match play challenges, ultimate showcases, pie eating contests and more. These guys are very driven and very competitive, but they do enjoy the laid back atmosphere that the sport is based around. It seems that the disc golf community is very close and very supportive. I wish I could have spent more time at The Vibram Open, but I enjoyed every minute I had. I can

only wait for more tournaments and more exposure for the sport. My advice to readers is the next time you think or hear about disc golf, look up a course with a 5k loop or playground nearby. Tons of information can be found out about particular disc golf courses on on www.discgolfcoursereview.com. When you do finally find that perfect course --- go over to the 5k loop and take a walk or even branch off on some holes and use the fairway as a hiking trail. Maybe you’ll find hikers, dog walkers or off road BMX bikers. See how disc golf fits into the landscape with almost no visual impact whatsoever and think about how well it connects on-site features. Disc golf can be enjoyed on so many levels --- from the spectator to the promoter to the player. Go out and give it a try, I promise you will have just found a recreational opportunity that you will enjoy for the rest of your life.

The Vibram Open Course Preview - Maple Hill DGC in Leicester, MA

2011-09-09T16:44:00.000-04:00

PLEASE NOTE: I wrote this review before The Vibram Open and posted it to Disc Golf Traveler. I will soon be following up with a review of the tournament, which will be posted on both sites.

The other day I had the opportunity to play Maple Hill Disc Golf Course in Leicester, MA --- it was the closest thing to playing on a major tournament course I’ve ever experienced. Playing golf since I was 6 years old, I have been brought up watching the sport’s majors intently. I used to dream of what it was like to play on the courses --- fully manicured, greens rolling 14 on the stimpmeter, grand stands erected, rough 4” thick and tournament officials walking about. What would it take to get me to be able to play those courses only days after the event? Probably nothing --- no chance. Now I’m 27 and have had a new passion for 6 or so years now --- disc golf. So what would it take to play in such a setting --- a major event on the Professional Disc Golf Association tour schedule? Apparently, simply driving to the course, paying my $5 fee and strapping up my shoes would suffice. Cool!

Wrapping up our 3-week Northeast tour with Zach Deputy, we enjoyed a couple days off in Massachusetts before having to head down to Fredericksburg, VA to pick up tour at The Otter House and follow up on successful summer music festival appearances at All Good Music Festival in Masontown, WV and Camp Barefoot in Bartow, WV. Our two days off proved to be very enjoyable, as I was finally able to play Maple Hill which has been a course I’ve had on my to-play list for a while now. Maple Hill will play host to The Vibram Open in a couple days, from September 1-4

to be exact. The Vibram Open is the 8th and final National Tour event on the Professional Disc Golf Association tour schedule. All the top disc golfers in the world will be there, and I’ll be ready to document every little sliver of information.

I’m a landscape architect professional and disc golf enthusiast. I have spent many hours documenting proposed courses all over the United States, but am yet to actually attend a disc golf event. I’ll be at The Vibram Open on Thursday, as well as the United States Disc Golf Championships at Winthrop Gold in Rock Hill, SC in early October. To be able to see the operation of the tournament directors, video crew, score keepers, hospitality staff, maintenance crew and more is something I will watch very closely. My life as Tour Manager for a nationally tour banding (and Innova-sponsored celebrity ambassador) has afforded me the opportunity to see massive production from behind the scenes. I am able to see the overall flow of it all, and get down to the nitty gritty and see the finest of details from paperwork in the production office to candy in the dressing rooms. Disc golf is an emerging sport --- I still can’t believe how unknown it is to many --- and I’m unbelievably thrilled to be able to see a National Tour event less than an hour from my home.

When we pulled up to the parking lot, I popped out excitedly with camera in tow --- snapping pictures of everything I saw! Taking pictures of the woodchips, signage, skid steers, pro shop, practice putting area, old signage from last year’s Vibram Open, and the extensive Christmas tree farm. I personally have always wanted a Christmas tree farm, so to see this course integrated so beautifully within one was a nice surprise. Douglas Firs acts as a whole other level of hazards in disc golf, too. Have you ever thrown a disc (or hit a golf ball) through a tree and heard someone say, “Trees are 90% air”? Ok, now let’s think about a Christmas tree. On the 11th hole, I had a routine second shot into the pin for what I thought was a solid par. I let down my guard for a minute and my Roc clipped the edge of the Douglas Fir, batting it down to the ground without a second

thought. There is no way to penetrate a disc through one of these trees, so to dot them around your course (or to put a course in the middle of a Christmas tree farm) is highly intelligent.

The 1st and 2nd holes are located within the Christmas tree portion of the property as well, but that should be the last of anyone’s worry. Standing on the first tee, disc golfers face one of the most difficult shots on the course right out of the gate. With no practice throws and only minimal stretching, I took my Umphrey’s McGee Valkyrie out of my bag in hopes that I wouldn’t plunk it in the drink. Maybe this was my demise --- thinking “Don’t put it in the water” instead of “Put it next to the pin.” I put a good huck on the disc, but not enough as it landed in the water about 3 feet short of the stone retaining wall. I hustled down to the basket, took of my sneakers and anything valuable off and jumped in to get my precious disc. I love this thing more than a lot of things in my life, and there was no way I was losing it! The next couple holes were routine pars, but things got exciting once we got back to the water again. Holes 4-9 were an absolute blast, as water was in play most of the time. I really enjoyed this stretch cause a lot of the shots were all about positioning --- leaving yourself on the correct side of the fairway, or putting your shot in a location that takes the water out of play, but still leaves you an uphill putt for par. The only shot on this stretch of holes that is all about muscle and less about discipline is the drive on the 8th hole. With a 275 foot carry all over water, you can’t miss your drive left OR right. Short and left is the large pond, while to the right side of the pathway that takes you to the

hole is more water! I tried to peel a left to right turning Sidewinder into this hole, but I didn’t get enough on it and left it about 5 feet short and wet. After plunking two discs in the water through 8 holes, I turned my game around and finished up quite nicely.

Hole 10 isn’t the prettiest of holes, but it does have a signature element to it --- a castle wall. The wooden retaining wall perches the basket well above grade, giving disc golfers even more of a challenge to this Douglas Fir-lined, uphill start to the back nine. The tee shot is pretty straight forward, while the second shot demands a pin high right approach, leaving a level putt for par. If you end up short on your second shot, par putts will be to a basket that is located 10 feet above grade --- very tricky par from there! The back nine is significantly longer than the front, but much more open for the most part. There were a couple wooded holes that really caught my attention, but were much more straight forward than their wooded counterparts on the front nine. I strung together a lot of pars on the back nine and escaped it only +2, which was a thrill for me after a +6 front nine. Ugh.

I was happy to keep it under +10 on my first attempt at this course, but was very disappointed with my play on the tight wooded holes, as those are usually my specialty. This wasn’t my best round, but it was more of a course introduction for me so I’ll be prepared for The Vibram Open, which starts in a couple days. I have seen the gold ropes laid out, making the course THAT much tougher for the world’s best. I remember standing on several holes, looking at the out of bands surrounding us, and just laughing at the gold rope. I’m a halfway decent player, but this blew my mind! I can’t wait for the tourney to start and see these guys BOMBING discs like I’ve never seen before. I’ve scouted out some slot holes that I’ll probably stake out just to see these guys peel it in, landing it within feet of the basket. The Golf Course was fun to see, but very humbling to say the least. Seeing the course in tournament conditions, the pin locations, the out of bounds, the tee signage, and the overall course layout were a treat. The world’s best are about to descend on Central Massachusetts and I hope that attendance for the tournament exceeds expectations. There is no reason for every avid disc golfer within a 4 hour drive not to be here. We are talking about seeing the world’s best at one of the finest, most demanding layouts in New England! For those who don’t come, look for a follow up to the tournament, chalk full of pictures, video and extensive review.

The Redwood Curtain in Arcata, CA

2011-08-08T19:31:00.000-04:00

Have you ever played a disc golf course that you absolutely LOVED, never to have played it again? Have you only played HALF of a disc golf course that you absolutely LOVED, never to have played it again? Well, until this summer, I thought the second half of that statement was applicable to me. Here’s the back story on a beautiful course: In 2008, I took the summer off to travel. I spent the first part of the summer in Honduras and Guatemala, with the later half of the summer spent trekking across the US hitting up all the festivals I promoted for throughout the school year. Early July found me at High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, CA having the absolute best time in my life --- raging late nights into early morning, only to do it again the next day with new found friends. After four days at High Sierra, I hitchhiked back to San Francisco, eventually making my way to Arcata, CA for a couple nights of couch surfing before an even wilder trip led me to Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, OR.

The two days in Arcata, CA found me exploring ever piece of the town I could. I ended up in some park playing Frisbee and listening to some banjo pickers before seeing a couple kids walk by with disc golf discs. I picked up my gear, tracked the kids down and joined up for an afternoon of back nine disc golf. These kids were a blessing for a couple reasons --- 1.) I would never have found the course if it wasn’t for them and 2.) I would never have been able to find the next hole, either. This course was INTIMIDATING! If I could get past the sheer size of the redwoods

that laid the framework for each hole, I still had absolutely no idea where the next hole was or where an appropriate place was to miss, as the vegetation was so thick and the signage so poor. Playing the course several times, I was only able to play six or so holes before getting completely lost, only to find the remaining three holes a day later. I never did play the front nine as my time spent in Arcata was limited, but I did enjoy the local bars and music scene with the guys from the disc golf course a couple kids I met on the ride in. I was bummed to know I only played the front nine of this course, as I was leaving early the next morning to meet up with friends I met at High Sierra Music Festival for a couple day hikes that would take us to who knows where.

Fast forward to July of 2011 and I’m back at High Sierra Music Festival, tour managing Zach Deputy who is playing a total of four sets over two days. After a fly in date to Michigan and a show in Mendocino County, we were tired, but ready to wake up early for a trek up with Arcata and a round at The Redwood Curtain. Last time I played this course I walked from the park to the college then over to the back nine of the course. I can’t remember much of the back nine other than it started with a par 3 over water with an elevated island green. The island green was created by a three foot retaining wall that turned good enough shots into bad shots, as the wall would spit discs right back into the pond that your disc just cleared moments earlier. The rest of the back nine have a mix of long, narrow holes that are framed by towering redwood trees as opposed to the skinny pine trees that I’m used to in my home state of Maine.

We parked our 50 foot long Sprinter and trailer under the shade of the redwoods as those in the back laced up on shoes and get mentally prepared for what I thought was going to be a long, grueling round. Coming up to the message board that denotes the first hole, you could see that this course had put in a little effort to educate the public about the vegetation along the course. In my opinion, this is the least that a disc golf course can do, as the holes are just an extension of the landscape, grabbing you and forcing you to interact with nature. The message board, signage on the tees or even in the fairways can and should educate the public about their surroundings, as there is so much to be know about this wonderful world. How the hell do these trees get so big? Why can you eat some of the plants on the course and not others? How do you know which ones are edible?

The first hole wasn’t the hardest of holes, but the visual intimidation was extremely significant. The uphill, dogleg left hole called for an Eagle that would split a sliver of redwood trees, while making it far enough up the hill to leave yourself with a clear second shot to a pin that was guarded by a couple fallen trees. The fascinating thing about disc golf (as well as golf in general), is how some holes just don’t fit your eye.

The opposite end of that would be holes that perfectly fit your eye, but this was not the case on the first hole for me. Usually I pick a line and try to keep it, but this time I just looked at a couple big windows in a general area and hucked it.Lucky for me, it landed perfectly at the bend of the dogleg, leaving me with a kick in par and a significant weight lifted off my shoulders.The second hole boasted one of the more unique features I’ve seen in all my disc golf travels. The tee was located on top of a redwood stump! There were a couple hand and foots holes to help players climb up the stump, as it was a good 8 feet above grade, giving a neat perspective of the second hole, as well as looking back down to the first hole and the flying discs coming up the fairway. I ripped a Shark on this tee, turning the corner to the right and moving hard to the basket. There wasn’t a lot to this hole, but the experience on the tee is one of the coolest I’ve had yet.

The remaining holes then headed deeper into the Arcata Community Forest, at one point even criss-crossing and blending in perfectly with the local bike and hike trail system. I love disc golf so very much, and with more courses trying to fuse the sport with its surroundings will bring the sport more promotion as there are far more number of hikers, bikers and dog walkers than us disc golfers. The signage on the course was a unique feature, as the wood burned placards were nailed to the massive redwood trees, giving a unique appeal to a common feature (even though sometimes not so common) in the disc golf world.

Overall, the front nine of the course was relatively easy in comparison to what I remember about the back nine. I’m not going to say I was disappointed, but I was hoping for much more of a challenge and some better scenery. The trees were significantly smaller on the front nine and there were even a few holes that didn’t have the same feel as the rest of the course. These holes could be considered “field”

holes, but were just clear cut woods that were not home to access roads for a plethora of vehicles. This is all well and good; it just took away from the continuity of the rest of the course, as well as a lot of the challenge. I finished at +1, but felt like a left a couple strokes out on the course --- showing how easy it was playing. All in all, the course is one I would recommend to any avid disc golfer, as the sheer size of the redwood trees and the rugged terrain you play on makes it all worthwhile. There aren’t too many big D opportunities out there, but precise driving and precision approaches will be in high demand. With a couple pole holes dotted throughout the course, disc golfers must be ready for a challenge, as these narrow poles are significantly smaller targets than the normal baskets that we are used to. With a plethora of challenges and unique course features, if you’re ever in the Pacific Northwest for any reason, check out The Redwood Curtain in the quaint town of Arcata, CA for a real sleeper of a course. Don’t be awestruck by its beauty, cause if you’re not on your game, it will eat you alive!

Nature’s Finest: Flat Rock Disc Golf in Athol, MA

2011-06-28T22:48:00.003-04:00

Every time I step foot on a disc golf course, it absolutely boggles my mind how the sport is completely unknown to the majority of the world. You ask anybody on this God’s given earth if they have heard of basketball, and what do they say? Yes. What about disc golf? It’s incredible that a sport that is so good on so many levels has yet to reach the mainstream public. A basketball court is comprised of two hoops, a large amount of cement and a basketball. It has a low start up cost (nearly free) for users, but the nearly $10,000 capital investment for the folks installing the court is a bit pricey. Add in the fact that cement is an impervious surface that contributes to erosion and degradation of streams, the court needs to be on a completely flat piece of land and that at its highest time of use can only accommodate 10 players, it’s funny how basketball is so common yet disc golf is so foreign.

With that being said, disc golf courses can go anywhere! Courses not only CAN go along riparian corridors and unbuildable slopes, but they SHOULD. Think of all the beautiful places you have seen in your lifetime and how badly you wished more people knew about it. Why don’t they know about it? It’s probably a bunch of reasons, but two of them are usually the fact that it is in a location that not many know about and that no one is taking them there. Well, enter disc golf. Disc golf can be the conduit for helping people interact with nature! Slopes over 25% are extremely costly to re-grade and situate a building upon, and with 200’ buffers along streams and riparian corridors, buildings simply can’t be located in these locations. Once again, enter disc golf. With no permanent foundations or playing surfaces, disc golf holes can follow streams and wetlands as well as ridge lines and even mountain tops. To tie back to the statement about basketball, disc golf can accommodate up to 72 people at one time (assuming the course is an 18 holes course and every hole has a foursome playing it), and the capital investment is minimal.

Assuming that the course uses top of the line baskets (18 of them), compacted gravel tee pads and signage for each hole, it’s still only around $7,000. Many courses decide to reach out to local businesses to sponsor holes. With a price tag of $250 per sponsor, and two sponsors per hole, the capital investment has now been recouped and now courses can think about spending the extra cash on course improvements. Sounds fun!

Spending the last four years living in Amherst, MA has giving me some of the best memories of my entire life. Having a huge work load at UMass, I was unable to venture out too far to see what Western Massachusetts had to offer. I spent the majority of my time doing school work and seeing music, but I would still frequent Northampton State Hospital Disc Golf Course and The Highlands of Conway multiple times a week, year round. Sadly, I didn’t get to play too many other courses besides Crane Hill Disc Golf Course, Wickham Park in Manchester, CT and a few others, but I still heard great things about some of the courses along Route 2 like Flat Rock Disc Golf in Athol and Tully Lake Disc Golf in Royalston. Finally, one my four day break from Zach Deputy tour, I was able to make it up to Flat Rock in Athol. The previous two days had seen my friends and I play rounds in Wilbraham and Conway, so to continue to the adventure, we drove 35 minutes north to Athol to play this private course.

Only getting some information from friends and DG Course Review, I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew the course was quite challenging and that it laid on private property with state conservation land flanking the holes as its boundaries. When we pulled up, we were all blown away. The disc golf store is situated in a rustic looking barn that lays adjacent to a small garden and the first tee box. The garden is closed by a twig laced fence and acts as an out of bounds on the 14th hole. While enjoying the garden, some of us take putts on the 14th basket to warm up for what is promised to be a memorable round. As we walk over to the 1st tee, we see wooden structures, rustic metal sculptures and environmental art dotted throughout the landscape. The message board is stocked with information, including an honest box, sign in sheet, hole in one shout outs and tournament announcements. The attention to detail that caught my eye was the pencil sharpener and bottle opener! It’s common for disc golfer to enjoy a nice beverage while they play, and not every pencil is the sharpest, so why not give the players what they need an want to enjoy their round to the fullest.

As we stand on the 1st tee and look down the fairway, we search for the pin as the dog leg right hole keeps the target just out sight. To our delight, we look to the sign for information and see the first ever 3 dimensional hole layout. Small rocks denote the rock wall that acts as the out of bounds along the roadway, while small plugs show the large trees that give the hole its shape. The pin and tee are marked with blue dots as we survey the landscape and map to find which disc we’re going to huck first. Naturally, I take out my Valkyrie as low flying bullet that turns a little right should leave me in perfect position to ease into this tightly wooded course with a par.

I’m awestruck as I approach my disc on the edge of the fairway that is lined with flowering mountain laurel and rock outcroppings. The course is absolutely gorgeous and we’ve only played one hole! As we walk down to the road to the far removed 2nd tee, we stare into the woods at the large canopy trees and ferns scattered along the forest floor. We’re all so happy to be with one another on this beautiful June day as we try our hand at what is to be an enjoyable day on the disc golf course.

The 2nd hole opens up a bit more, but a large put full of wood chips lies in the middle of the fairway, awaiting big booming drives or sloppy second shots. Just over the crest of the hill, the unassuming player will dump their second shot in this out of bounds pits, which is home to assortment of strawberry plantings. More out of bounds awaits players on the next 16 holes, so keep your shots straight and long. It is that easy, right? The 3rd hole is one of my favorites on the course, with a narrow fairway and a hanging basket. If you’re even lucky enough to hit the fairway, a Wolf would suit any player well as a disc that moves slightly to the right and sits quick will award a birdie opportunity. If you can pick you position here, be pin high left or a little long, as the hanging basket hovers over a ledge that drops off severally on two sides. If you don’t have a makeable put, take your par and leave, but if you feel like risking a birdie for a bogey, go for it…just don’t be surprised when you hit the basket and the disc rolls 30 feet to the bottom of the hill.

The 4th hole is a short, but challenging hole, but the 5th and 6th holes give each

player a fair shake at birdie. If you don’t make birdie on at least one of these holes you’re asking for trouble as the last couple holes of the front nine and the majority of the back nine don’t leave you with many opportunities to pick up strokes. The back nine is significantly longer than the front, but by the time you get to the 11th hole you’re ready to bust out a big Sidewinder and see if you can turn the corner on what is, in my opinion, the hardest hole on the course. If you were to remember one hole at Flat Rock Disc Golf, it would probably be the 12th, which demands a precise drive and approach shot to an almost island green that is 50 or so feet below, all the while surrounded by slow flowing water and more flowering mountain laurels.

The last three holes I will mention quickly catch anyone’s attention. The 13th hole actually made me laugh out loud. A short par three, this hole is boasts a multi leader tree that splits the fairway in two, offering players to either split their drive between the tree limbs or take it to the right of them. The only thing about going right is a small stick figure blocks your shot. Flat Rock is dotted with goofy faces carved into wood and sculptures to catch your attention. This stick figure sits atop a dead

tree with its goofy smile and an arm holding up a disc. The arm holding the disc is so perfectly positioned that it forces you to abort the low hyzer shot and makes you contemplate splitting the trees in the middle of the fairway. This was my worst shot of the day as I hit a tree and went deep into the brush on the right, forcing me to grind out an ugly bogey and be happy it was only that. The 17th and 18th holes are the first and only holes that really bring water into play. Crisscrossing a pond that sits in the owner’s backyard, these holes demand two opposite disc flights. A low hyzer Roc works just fine on 17, as the hyzer helps keep the disc under the tree limps past the pond, while allowing the disc to skip all the way back to the basket. The 18th hole asks for a long anhyzer drive with something like a Sidewinder, Beast or Katana. These two holes utilize the same pond, one being a short mid range with the other being a long driver, and really put an exclamation point on one of the finest courses in Western Massachusetts or New England as a whole.

To wrap this review up, I can’t stress enough how terrific this course is. From tightly wooded slot shots to big D field opportunities this course tests the depth of your bag. As you make your way through the 18 hole layout, stacked rock outcroppings and environmental art gives a delightful playfulness to the course. None of the tee boxes are permanent, but they are level and compacted so there really is no problem with them at all. Signage from hole to hole is very well done so wayfinding is fairly self explanatory. With a couple hanging baskets dotted throughout the course, there is even variety in the placement of baskets. I can’t say enough good things about this course as the towering pines, flowering mountain laurel and alternate pathways entice players to take a

stroll in the woods and almost forget about why they are there. Flat Rock Disc Golf is disc golf at its finest…testing every shot in the bag all the while taking players somewhere they’ve never seen before. We as disc golf course players and designers need to use the sport as an extension of the landscape, helping to bring players and non-players alike to some of the most beautiful, unexplored tracts of land that this fine country as to offer.

Disc Review: The Ion

2011-06-13T17:20:00.001-04:00

After a year or more of switching from one to another, I have found my go to putter…the Ion! Manufactured by MVP Disc Sports, LLC in Michigan, this unique disc is where it’s at for me personally. Even though the Ion is my go to putter, I do keep two other putters in my bag. I tend to prefer to use my XD for drives and longer tosses from the fairway, while I use my JuJu for high arching shots that need to bend around tree limbs and sit soft. The Ion is primarily used for putts that I’m looking to drain as the high arching floaters from the JuJu are rarely high percentage shots. I’m just trying to give myself a chance, all the while having the disc sit soft enough where I’m going to make the come backer. As great as the XD and JuJu are, when I’m trying to bang one in the back of the chains…out comes the Ion.

The Ion is a straight flying putter with a lot of glide. The over-molded, soft edge is great for the chains to receive the disc, while providing unbelievable comfort in the hands of all levels of players. The main difference between this disc and common disc golf discs is the different materials it is constructed off. MVP Disc Sports, LLC has named this GYRO Technology. It is a dual-polymer concept where the flight plate core is constructed of a lighter plastic than the darker, heavier material that comprises the over-mold edge. The juxtaposition between the materials allows for a “stabilized disc flight that keeps it spinning later in flight to produce straighter, longer and more accurate results,” according to the manufacturer’s website.

There are multiple selections in firmness of these discs, but the heavier plastic material on the over-mold edge remains the same super soft, grippy egde that is optimal for grabbing the chains, minimizing kick outs. I see this point, but I also tend to use my Ion through twigs and underbrush like I do my significantly heavier Wolf. It has a great glide to it, but I feel the Ion penetrates through the trees like a mid range. Most putters get kicked directly down by twigs and the like, but my Ion just keeps on trucking, so I can confidently use it to get back into position or stroke a birdie.

I would suggest this disc to any fellow disc golfer that is looking for a new putter. Maybe it’s not for you, but what’s the harm in trying? The feel of the disc really works for me. I wouldn’t suggest using the disc off the tee or for longer shots, as I don’t have as much confidence in it as my XD, but when I get up to the basket, the Ion ups my confidence ten fold. The over-mold edge helps the disc “melt” into the chains like the JuJu, but the stability of the disc is so much better. The Ion comes in several colors and is one of the only disc golf discs that are distributed as blanks. The price tag on a new Ion is right around $14.00 and is worth a shot for any disc golfer looking for a new weapon close to the basket.

Disc Golf Mecca: Walnut Creek Park in Charlottesville, VA

2011-05-25T12:06:00.000-04:00

Since this is my first contribution to Disc Golf Traveler, I wanted to take a second to introduce myself. My name is Brian Giggey and I’m the tour manager for nationally touring band, Zach Deputy. Zach and I met in 2007 when I was in my first year of graduate school at UMass where I was getting my degree in Landscape Architecture. When he came to play at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, MA in April 2008, I made sure to introduce him to a deep passion of mine: disc golf. I had only started playing disc golf about two years before that time, but it’s all I could think about. My golfer brain would think about flight patterns, course management and pin positions, while my land arch brain would drool over riparian corridors, ridge lines and the amicability of the sport with other uses such as hiking, biking and dog walking.

Fast forward two years and I find myself putting the final touches on my disc golf course design for Orchard Hill Disc Golf at UMass Amherst, which will hopefully play host to several Zach Deputy disc golf tournaments in the future. As I pack my bags and say goodbye to Amherst, I’m ready for my new full time adventure of traveling town to town and state to state across the country. Zach, Innova’s newest sponsored celebrity, is a touring machine --- six nights a week for months on end. As we approach markets with shorter drive times between shows, our angst for disc golf grows. We start paging through DGCourseReview for the local goodness. Ratings and reviews left by other players are like gold as we seldom like to derail from our path unless we know it’s worth it. Low and behold, almost a year to the day after I joined the road full time, I find my favorite course thus far.

After our show at Clementine Café in Harrisonburg, VA we headed south to Charlottesville, VA for two relaxing days off in the old of the Dave Matthews Band in the early 1990’s. As we traversed the hills and valleys of the local roads, I couldn’t help but wonder where Haunted Hallows was; the custom built recording studio for DMB and their associated projects. The farm lands and mountain vistas already have me thinking of a potential house here in the future, but the amount of disc golf courses in the vicinity is surprisingly low.

A little over 10 miles outside downtown Charlottesville lay Walnut Creek Park. As you drive down the entrance road, excitement grows as baskets and pin positions begin to reveal pieces of the course. I’m already making mental notes of where pins are tucked and where not to miss. The road culminates in an impervious parking lot with a large facility that houses vending machines, picnic tables and family gatherings, overlooking a large lake that’s pressed up against the backdrop of rolling hills and mountainsides. This lake will come into play several times throughout your round, so get ready for it. If it’s not hypnotizing you with its beauty, its making you sweat a couple bullets as it entices you to bit off a little more than you can chew. Flanking the parking lot are two small playgrounds and a few huts that are ready to host your family barbeque.

All of these separate entities are perfectly connected by a trail system that runs through the park, aiding bikers, hikers, fisherman and disc golfers in their daily activities.

Tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains, the disc golf course that circumvents the park is a shot maker's course through and through. With a 4.21 rating on DGCourseReview, I knew we we’re in for a treat. We all piled out of the Sprinter with excitement running through our veins, me especially, as tight wooded courses are my specialty. Zach is more of a rolling hills and fields player, while I could care less for those big D opportunities --- Walnut Creek Park: advantage me. Created in 2002, the course’s three designers put together a beautiful mix of uphill, downhill, open and wooded shots. This course is extremely challenging from either tee box, as each hole has multiple tee boxes and a variety of pin positions. Pin positions, as well as league information and course layout can be found at the message board near the parking lot, so head over to it before you venture off to the first tee.

As is standard with many disc golf courses across the nation, the primary feature that was lacking at Walnut Creek Park was signage between holes. Easily discernable to locals, wayfinding between some holes for us was quite frustrating. The only other negative in my opinion was that fact that all the tee pads were a compacted type of gravel, which depending on their structural integrity and amount of rainfall, were in either fair or poor condition. A course of this caliber should have permanent tee pads. Speaking from a landscape architecture point of view, less impervious surface (such as concrete or pavement) is a good thing, but in this case, concrete pads are a must.

After only three holes, you could see that this course was going to provide us with a wonderful mixture of both hyzer and anhyzer shots. Walnut Creek will bring out every shot you have in your bag! With tight fairways, water hazards and numerous elevation changes just on the front side, I was happy to be right around level par headed to the back. Notable holes on the front nine were the downhill, overwater 2nd hole, where if you split the uprights of the towering trees, you will be left with a short, level birdie putt. The 6th hole was the first of many holes with genius pin positioning. A relatively open field hole, the drive is uphill through a shoot of trees leaving players with second shot that only affords them a glimpse of the top of the basket. Situated on a 45 degree slope, players need to figure where they want to putt from. I decided short right would leave me the best putt, as who knows where my Roc would roll to if I flirted with that slope. I made par and left happy.

The 10th hole is your window to make up any shots you may have given back on the first part of your round. A straight shot, 235 foot hole, anything more than a par should make you think about heading to the car early.

The 11th and 14th are two holes that being too aggressive will only lead to birdie sometimes and bogies most of the time. With the baskets situated on severe slopes, unless you have a kick in, you might just want to take your par and move along. Saving the best for last, the 17th hole is one of the most breathtaking holes you’ll see. What initially looks like a big downhill drive and an awkward second shot slowly reveals itself to be so much more. With an elevation change from tee to basket of a couple hundred feet, this is your chance to let out all your frustrations. Be warned though, the lake on the right hand side is very much in play, while the thick woods on the left will catch the majority of drives, or if you go too far left, darn near impossible. As you make your way down to the plateau that catches most drives, a new obstacle presents itself --- more water! From the plateau to the basket isn’t much more than 125 feet, but the severe elevation change and water in the background should make you think for a bit before you throw. Remember that your disc is going to break A LOT when it slows down, so give yourself a large buffer from the water as it runs along the back and left hand side of the hole, leaving an almost island green to some degree.

Our round at Walnut Creek Park only took a couple hours, but this is a place where anyone could (and should) spend the day. If you’re in the area, block out a part of your day and really take the opportunity to explore this beautiful tract of land. Besides some wayfinding issues from hole to hole, there aren’t many negative things that can be said about this course. Charlottesville, VA has a prize in the form of Walnut Creek Park, so I urge you to put this course on your “to-play” list. You surely won’t regret it.

Four days of musical goodness: Zach Deputy and Umphrey's McGee

2011-03-01T21:02:00.000-05:00

I’m in the back of the box truck, updating documents en route to what is going to be a crazy night at The Engine Room in Tallahassee, FL. Tallahassee always gets down...hard! We’re coming from Atlanta, GA where we just sold out Smith’s Olde Bar after only our second play in the room. With 95 presales and a strong buzz about the show, we were confident about the attendance, but when the show sold out 20 minutes into Zach’s first set, we were all smiles as 338 stuffed into the 300 person capacity room for a fun ass Friday night.

With that being said, we’re back in our normal routine as a national headliner, heading into Florida for a week’s worth of shows before we start heading West for the rest of the month of March. When I said back to our normal routine of national headliner, I’m referring to us coming off our recent 4 gig stint as support act for Chicago-based Umphrey’s McGee. My two favorite live bands touring today...ZD and UM. I got a late start on the UM train in comparison to others, but have been going hard with them since 2006. I have been able to see them all over the US and in several different countries, including Jamaica and Amsterdam. I have been able to lock into one of the most passionate, dedicated fan bases I have come across. From seeing show after show, to paying attention to press releases, new show ideas, and trolling The Bort (UM forum) for many years, I have been able to study the UM model. I haven’t copied it by any means, but remember the good things, noted the bad (very few), and used the UM model for everything I do on Zach Deputy tour.

Then in late November, we were in a routing meeting with management, and I got the confirmation we would be supporting UM for 4 shows in the Southeast in February. As pumped up as I was, I’ve changed from the music rat that drools over everything to chipping away at the day by day tasks. I’m not able to get excited anymore until I’m IN the moment. Then it’ll kick me in the face, and I’ll stand there with my arms crossed, doing whatever it is that I’m doing, rocking the biggest smile humanly possible. Either way we were all still very excited to be supporting such a great band as my production manager and I were looking forward to seeing the inner workings of everything on the production side of things.

We haven’t opened for another band in almost a year and a half, so being in the support role was a huge juxtaposition for us all, yet the trade off was significantly larger crowds and AMAZING rooms. I had heard some great things about each of the rooms we were going to be playing (Music Farm, The Orange Peel, The Fillmore and The National), but never been to any of them. The Music Farm in Charleston, SC was our first stop and was a decent start. Both shows were good, but probably my least of the run. We spent the first day trying to wrap our heads around exactly how we fit in this puzzle, as we were trying to do our thing, but at the same time realize that this wasn’t our show and try to stay out of the way as much as possible.

Next up was The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC. A larger venue than The Music Farm, The Peel had enough room for all our gear (we had to store our gear outside at The Music Farm) as well as multiple greens rooms for the bands. The green rooms are on opposite sides of the venue; tied together by a corridor lined with everything UM production. This was nice to see. Loads of pictures taken, check. Robbie, UM’s stage manager has his production station set up along this corridor. He’s got space for his laptop, storage space for gaff tape, a clock, the night’s setlist and the daily production schedule at his disposal. Tech stations and guitar racks were set up outside the greens rooms for fine tuning of anything that needed repair. Don, UM’s tour manager, is around somewhere running the tightest ship I’ve seen. Very polite and to the point, Don gets shit done! He is a great example of a top of the line TM, and someone I watched very carefully during my time on the road. I don’t mean for that to sound stalker style, I was busy doing my thing, but I believe that everything has been done before and that we should all pay attention/learn from the best.

After two shows, we all went our separate ways, only to reconvene a day later in Charlotte, NC at The Fillmore. These next two shows were my favorite ZD shows. The crowds were big and the response was great. UM was nice enough to extend our 45 minute sets to 60 minutes, and we even got to see some collaboration.

Joel Cummins, Umphrey’s keyboard world extraordinaire sat in on Scrambled Eggs and Lincoln Continental to end Zach’s set at The Fillmore. Zach then sang lead vocals on Let’s Get It On in the encore slot for UM’s set. What a night! After the show we all hung out in the green room for a bit, enjoying one another's company as we’d all started to fall into a groove with each other after 3 shows.

The last show of our 4 night run brought us to The National in Richmond, VA. What an unbelievably gorgeous room! An old theater, this revamped venue has unobstructed sight lines, great sound, and some of the best backstage perks one could ask for. Separate dressing rooms, green rooms, rec rooms and even a sauna. There aren’t many opportunities at a show to find yourself with enough down time to have full blown conversation, but from our experiences on the road with Umphrey’s McGee for 4 shows, we only have great things to say. Every single band and crew member were extremely polite, accommodating and fun to work with. We didn’t get to see them load in every day as they get to the venue at noon after driving through the night from the previous venue, but we do see how much gear they move, and we love it! It’s amazing what a tour bus, a tractor trailer and 12 guys can do. The amount of lights alone that are brought into the venue is mind blowing, but so is the quality of work that Jefferson Waful is producing.

Just to wrap it up, I need to move away from production and talk about some stand out versions and the fan base. After all the conversations I got to have with the UM team, after all the insight I was afforded, and after getting all my work done for the last night of our run, I finally let loose and went out and danced. I climbed to the very back row of the venue, dead center with one of my best friends, Jeremy Cobb, and handful of his friends. Jeremy hit up 3 of the 4 shows; we both had a bunch of friends that hit up the first couple shows in Charleston and Asheville. The first few shows had some stellar versions of songs, but standouts for me were Get In The Van and Great American from The Music Farm; the entire first set of The Orange Peel show (that was seriously fuckkkkkked up; I couldn’t help but laugh at how amazing that was); Rocker Pt. II, Wappy Sprayberry, and a Ringo sandwich with Bulls On Parade thrown in there from The Fillmore; and lastly, Band On The Run and Smell The Mitten from The National. I’ll never forget that last night at The National, as Jeremy tried getting me to rage all week long. Smell The Mitten hit hard and we were on cloud 9 as the thick groove hit every square inch of the venue. Jeremy said something along the lines of, “Oh yeah, Giggey’s dream...in the back getting funky to Mitten!” Haha, music family knows each other! That’s my dream...in the back of a venue, with no talkers and all the space in the world, getting funky as shit with some of the greatest people I know!

2011-02-17T11:12:00.001-05:00

A couple of days ago, I celebrated my 27th birthday on the road. A couple months ago, I was in a routing meeting with Zach Deputy Management and thought I would be in Mississippi for my birthday. I thought, 'sure, I’ve never been to Mississippi, it should be fun,' but I knew I wanted more. As the weeks passed and the tour developed, we got a contract for February 11th, 2011 at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa, FL. Fuck yeah! Skipper’s is one of my favorite venues in the entire country. When I was younger I used to go on Dave Matthews Band tours, seeing them play in large sheds and higher capacity venues. When you get to that size, things become much more sterile and the venues lose their “flavor.” There are many venues out there that are absolute gems that I have had the privilege seeing, but the scale rooms we play on Zach Deputy tour are so unique. So believe me when I say I was stoked as shit for this Tampa play on my birthday.

I’m not much of one to tell people when my birthday is. I’m not sure why, I just never have been. If you ask, I’ll tell you. If you don’t, it’ll just pass on by. We played a show at Common Grounds in Gainesville, FL at the end of February and I got to see my good buddy Jarrod, his niece and many other friends. He lives in the Tampa area, so we got to talking about the Skipper’s show and I guess I mentioned it was my birthday. He got all amped up for the show and told me he’d see me on the 11th. Fast forward a couple weeks and I’m at Musica in Akron, OH with our good friend Michelle. Michelle travels a lot in her work and has been able to see us in five states so far. I told her our upcoming tour schedule and started raving about how amazing Skipper’s was in Tampa. She found out it was my birthday and then became really excited about the possibility of a Florida Zach Deputy show.

Next thing you know, it’s February 11th and we’re pulling up to Skipper’s for our 5:30p load in. The purple façade greats us as we back in to the load-in door with large towering trees covered in Spanish moss hanging overhead. We get the stage and merchandise set up quickly so we can all relax before the show. Skipper’s Smokehouse is a 700 person capacity outdoor music venue that boasts some amazing features. The wooden planked floor connects the venue to the restaurant. The restaurant and other building facades are so natural looking, with rustic tin roofs offering quite the complimentary aesthetic value. The restaurant and adjoining buildings is a maze for the first time visitor, but for those returning can quickly manage the venue quite easily. Either way, it’s a treat being about to cut and dodge through all these rooms and nodes to get through a show at Skipper’s.

Off to the corner of the venue are benches with their foundations rooted in the sand. The upper deck porch and bar overlook the venue as it slopes down to the stage, all encompassed be large multi leader trees strangled with Spanish moss. This venue is heaven for me…the perfect blend of music and landscape architecture. Landform, plants, water and structure make up the floors, walls and ceilings of the venue, all rotating around and feeding off the good energy of Zach Deputy, his music and the kind-hearted, fun loving fans he brings out.

Very early in the night, I walk out from the backstage area into an empty venue, as doors have just opened. Sure as shit, there’s Jarrod and four of his friends. He gives me one of the biggest, most genuine hugs as do my new found friends. All so kind and entertaining in their own right, these four new friends are joking with me and enjoying some good laughs. That’s music family for ya! I have a tough time expressing how amazing music family is sometimes. To put it in simple terms, music family brings accelerated friendship. If you’re friends with my friend, you’re a friend of mine. You have this trust and confidence that you’re friend only keeps the best of company, and 98% of the time, that’s true. You don’t need to do introductions and background checks…you skip straight to hugs, badass conversation and great times!

After I open my singing birthday card from Jarrod, I walk back to merch, only to bump into my friend Ashley. Ashley and I met in Asheville, NC a year or so ago and we have crossed paths again many times since then…including shows in Boston, California and now here in Tampa. It’s fun to be hanging with a dear friend half way across the US in some instances and not even think twice about it. It’s not weird, it’s not a coincidence…it just is. Then I see Michelle and her son Patrick. They hoped a flight from Philadelphia and came to take me up on my recommendation of Skipper’s Smokehouse. We all enjoyed one hell of night that consisted of lots of laughs, dancing and good company.

It just absolutely blows my mind that all of this that lays at our fingertips on my birthday is a byproduct of liking music. I’m a rat. I’ll see any music and I love the majority of it. I don’t do drugs, I don’t drink; I just fucking looooooooove music, traveling and friends. How is that fair though? I feel music at this unbelievable level and absolutely drool over the business side of it. I close my eyes and dance by myself, I run around and see all my friends, I get to see the United State and beyond, and I get to celebrate my birthday at one of the premier music rooms in the Southeast with some of the best people I know. And because of what…music? I still have a tough time wrapping my head around how lucky we all are to share these times together just because we have the same common interest in one of life’s most common things.

And to top it off, I got to pick up a package at Skipper’s the next day that consisted of some of my favorite goodies from Atkins Farm in Amherst, MA as well as birthday cards, winter gear and notes from home (thanks Zeena)! What an absolutely beautiful day. I never draw attention to my birthday, so for all these things to fall into place as they did really was touching and repeatedly blew my mind as I quietly stood in the back of the venue with my arms crossed and smiling.

Disc golf discs don’t fly as well in Colorado!

2011-01-25T22:23:00.007-05:00

For those who know me well, you could say disc golf is a huge passion of mine. I’m still relatively new to the sport as I have only been playing 5-6 years, but I’ve had the privilege of seeing some of the country’s finest courses. What started out with throwing one disc with friends in the woods in Maine has turned into a nerdy obsession. I’m an archiver by nature…I take pictures of EVERYTHING. Not so much people, but things. When I was getting my Master’s in Landscape Architecture, I heard the quote “nothing is original, it’s all been done before.” I took that quote, fixed it up a little bit to pertain to myself, and added it to a document that only I see. This document is a gold mine of inspiration for me as I visit it constantly. That being said, I have accumulated thousands of pictures of things --- seating, signage, pathways, lighting, structures, waterways, landform, etc. These picture come in handy in my designs, be it in the design of the 7,000 person amphitheater at Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA or my proposal of Orchard Hill Disc Golf at UMass Amherst. I aim to provide UMass, my alma mater, with one of the finest disc golf courses in the state, hopefully to be talked about within the community for years to come. You can find a link to the course’s official Facebook page in the sidebar to your left. The page includes excerpts from the proposal I provided the University, as well as some kind words from local supporters. Please ‘like’ the page, and keep in touch with the ongoing process.

Having the ability to play a different course in a different state almost daily, I decided to include course reviews in my blog. I love the sport so much, and part of the fun in it is to educate the public. My travels and pictures afford me the ability to expand my archive catalog, while my blog can hopefully bring some more light to the sport as well as some incredibly beautiful (or brutally hard) courses that you need to know about, and hopefully play in the future. This review is about

the disc golf course at Golden Bell Camp and Conference Center in Divide, CO. This course has been a fixture on our Zach Deputy tour’s in Colorado. On tour we have played Manitou Springs, CO (just outside Colorado Springs) twice, with our next gig being Three20South in Breckenridge, CO. This is a great drive because it’s all back roads through some beautiful meadows and mountain ranges with hardly any traffic. With a drive time of a little less than two hours, we never miss the course in Divide. The course runs through a valley set against mountains in the backdrop. Every time I get there, I'm pumped up! Let’s go, time to birdie the first hole! Sure as shit, terrible drive on the first hole! Disc golf discs don’t fly as well in Colorado! The air is thinner, I’m not in good enough shape to traverse the hills and valleys of the course, my discs are dinged up --- there’s got to be a reason! Luckily enough for me, after bogeying the first hole both times, I stick it 10 feet from the basket on the second hole with my Star Eagle to get back to even.

The next couple holes crisscross the valley with each of the baskets set under a grove of pine trees. These holes are a lot of fun as if you really get behind a Valkyrie; you can get to the pin on your drive. The tees are so elevated that the natural flight of the disc is straight into the tree tops, so you really have to come down on the release and risk throwing the disc straight into the ground. After some huffing and puffing from my fellow playing partners, a break is welcomed. You can sit on the hillside and look over the rolling landscape onto the mountains in the distance. What a sport! Look at where it has brought us. Somewhere in Colorado, en route to a show at one of the premier music markets in the Mountain West. Would we have known about this Camp and Conference Center if it wasn’t for the sport of disc golf? Nope. And that’s why I love it.

As the front nine ends (and we usually only have time to play the front nine), the final hole takes advantage of a logging road to be utilized as the fairway on this dogleg left. I’m just gonna go ahead and bust out my Star SL and throw a nice banana in there. Nope -- good idea, poor execution. Like I care though, as I got to my disc I look off to my right and see something awe inspiring. After I finish the hole with a disappointing bogey, I walk into a grove of birch trees. Sporadically placed, this resembles a vision I’ve had in my head from years. So what do I do? Snap a couple dozen pictures and file them away, of course! This living example will be revisited down the road when I design my next course, but for now, I’ll leave it at that as I don’t want to ruin the surprise.

Another trip to Divide, CO is finished, but we’ll be back in March of 2011. And damn it, I will learn the flight of the Colorado disc golf disc, and I WILL NOT BOGEY THE FIRST HOLE! If you’re ever in the area, check out Golden Bell Camp and Conference Center. With multiple baseball and softball fields, a disc golf course as well as a performance amphitheater, this tract of land provides plenty of opportunities for the outdoor enthusiast.

Umphrey's McGee, ter, and Penn's Peak - all good things!

2011-01-20T14:56:00.003-05:00

This show review might be a bit lengthy for most, but when I wrote it back in August, I hadn't seen the band live in months, and was headed to a venue I'd had on my list of must-sees for years. I never posted this review, but with our (Zach Deputy) upcoming opening slots for Umphrey's McGee in February, I thought I'd get this blog back up and going again with a piece that I had a blast writing.

If you’re a traveling music fan, you may have already had the pleasure of seeing such venues as The Gorge in George, WA, The Greek Theater in Berkeley, CA, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, CO, or Alpine Music Valley in East Troy, WI. These are revered as some of the top notch outdoor performance spaces in the nation, all of them possessing the ability to take your breath away in a matter of seconds. The east coast is dotted with some spectacular outdoor sheds, but this review will talk about an indoor venue that any music fan is lucky to see. Situated along a mountaintop in Jim Thorpe, PA, Penn’s Peak posses the same “wow factor” as the aforementioned outdoor music venues that attract legions of fans to their shows each year.

As one traverses the mountainside down into the quaint town of Jim Thorpe, you know you’re in for a treat. The small town that lies along a river at the foothills of these Pennsylvania mountains is the home of my new food recommendation, the French Dip sandwich at Maggie MaGuire’s. A great little restaurant in the heart of town, Maggie MaGuire’s patio offers up a meeting spot for the car loads of fans and friends that are making the trek in from last night’s Umphrey’s show at The Westbury Theater on Long Island. The Westbury show was a treat, showcasing the ability of sound engineer Kevin Browning and lighting director Jefferson Waful, and how they can easily adapt to the most unusual of scenarios, as the rotating stage was nothing more than an absolute delight as fans were offered never before seen sightlines that night. This new perspective for fans offered the ability for everyone to see how the band interacted with one another on a completely different level, as well as showcasing the two brains of Andy Farag and Kris Meyers, and how they become one. Watching these guys work together is a treat to say the least, and something fans rarely get to see in its entirety from their normal perspective within a crowd.

Back to Penn’s Peak. Anticipation was building as we drove up the mountainside to the venue, ultimately culminating in panoramic views in every direction down to the valley below. The lot scene was rippin’, with faces both old and new, ready for a Friday night rager somewhere in Pennsylvania. As friends poured into the lot, I could barely contain myself as Penn’s Peak has been a venue I have had on my list of places to see for 3-4 years now. I just finished my graduate work at UMass Amherst and always thought I would make it out to a show here, so when I found out I had a 10 day break from Zach Deputy tour, I planned my entire schedule around this one show. The Westbury Theater show was a great start to my four night run of Umphrey’s, but as I walked around the grounds of Penn’s Peak, I couldn’t break the overwhelming feeling of “this is gonna happen.” That feeling right there doesn’t come around that often, but when it does, you’re in for it.

As I walked into the venue, my jaw dropped. Wooden trusses support two floors of this cathedral-like venue. We were greeted by dim blue lights cutting through the fog that filled the large open space of the dance floor as hugs, smiles, and high fives were customary in the greeting of the masses. Umphrey’s tour (also known as ter) is fun because no one ever really says bye…you just know you’ll see each other at the next show, whenever that may be. Many fans figure out ride shares or meet ups via The Bort, but others just fly by night, knowing that they’ll see whoever it is they’re supposed to see. As the family greeted one another, I took a tour of the venue. The flow of the venue was superb. Circulation ran around three sides of the dance floor and upstairs to the balcony, offering up a different perspective of the show, as the raised outer edge of the dance floor was home to chairs for those who preferred to take it easy for the night. I got all sorts of excited when I saw decals on the floor, labeling the rows of seats…talk about attention to detail. Track lighting overhead made it easy for patrons to find their seats and played nicely off the dim blue lights that Jefferson Waful had set as house lights, creating some ambiance for friends and fans to greet one another and rest up for what was in store. The back of the venue housed a kitchen, bar, band merchandise and venue merchandise, en route to the outdoor patio that captures views into the extended landscape. With small cities in the far distance rendered to nothing more than a clump of lights, the foreground of the panoramic view offered up by Penn’s Peak was a blanket of dotted lights running along the valley floor, instilling in fans the notion that they are in a very rural part of the country, atop a mountaintop, and about to feed off the energy of one of the most progressive bands (both musical and intellectually) in the music industry today.

So let’s meet some of the family. My name is Brian and I’m a music rat. I currently tour manage Zach Deputy (www.zachdeputy.bandcamp.com for name-your-price soundboard recordings) and have been street teaming for Umphrey’s, amongst dozens of other bands, for a long time now. I’m not much of one to have a list of songs that I want to hear on a tour, but I had picked a couple originals as well as covers for this run (Dump City, Bad Poker, We’re Going To War, Bloody Well Right) since Umphrey’s shows are few and far between now. The pictures you will see throughout this article are the handy work of Beau Blackburn, a photographer from San Diego, CA. Next to me is Jeremy Cobb, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Jeremy is from Virginia, loves journalism, baseball, music and...Water! I’m very confident that Jeremy is one of the most in-depth music listeners I will ever come across. He hears where the music is going, from the slightest of chord progressions and teases, and can name the next song long before Umphrey’s even drops into it. Jeremy has been running all over the place, buying beers for everyone in sight, including my UMass friends and driving partners, Mike and Meg Dawg. Joining us is Spud and Andrew, dear friends of mine from Queens who put me up last night after the Westbury show. Without mentioning everyone in our little traveling posse, you can quickly see how going on tour with a band is so easy. We’re not here solely for Umphrey’s, yet they are the common element that brings us together. We’re here to see venues and friends, to drink beer, to rage hotels, to travel, to get away from work, and much more. We’re so very lucky to have each other and in all honesty, Umphrey’s is lucky to have us. We feed off them; they feed of us…simple as that. Luckily for us, Umphrey’s McGee is in touch with their fan base. They know they have legions of followers; they thank the first timers, the second timers, and the travelers. They throw out guitar picks, hand out setlists, and remember faces and names. If you’re in a bind, talk to a band or crew member, 95% of the time, they’ll figure out some scenario to get you out of the pickle you’re in.

At 9:00p, the members of Umphrey’s walk out from behind the curtains, ready to rip Jim Thorpe a new one. Never to keep their fans waiting too long, they quickly launch into one of their newer songs, entitled Conduit. A short, yet hooky song, Conduit is soon followed up by Atmosfarag and The Bottom Half. None of these songs really put me into a frenzy, but nicely built the set to a point where The Bottom Half and its cascading lights segued into 2nd Self, where Brendan Bayliss stepped up as the featured artist. With his cutting vocals and loose guitar work, Bayliss ripped apart 2nd Self, setting a launching off point for the songs to follow. Cutting vocals and loose guitar work is not a knock on Bayliss, it’s a compliment if anything. A very original sounding vocal presence, Brendan Bayliss is one of the founding members of the band. His “loose” guitar work is only complimented by the band’s lead guitarist, Jake Cinninger. Jake, a naturally born drummer, tends to fill the negative space of the songs, with creative fills and licks, before unleashing his uncanny ability to shred a solo like no other. Bayliss is the opposite, possessing a much fuller, rounder sound to his guitar work, naturally fitting best on songs like 2nd Self. No slouch in the shredding category, I best describe Bayliss’ guitar work as loose as it’s much less choppy and percussive as guitar counterpart Jake Cinninger.

Next up, Water! Someone’s ears must have been burning when Jeremy was talking about how he wanted to hear Water earlier that night at dinner. Our friend Ian had informed us that Water was indeed soundchecked; only leaving us stirring with excitement as this song doesn’t seem to come around nearly enough. Seamlessly segueing into Andy’s Last Beer was the only thing that could possibly make me okay with the band leaving a stellar version of Water. As if things couldn’t get any better, next up was Umphrey’s rendition of Supergroup’s hit Bloody Well Right. Okay, I’ll take it; I haven’t seen this song since the barn burner of a show at The Avalon in Boston on 4.12.07. We music nerds can spit dates and versions of songs like it was nothing. Maybe that’s why I like tour managing and archiving, I just have a knack for remembering things from a decade ago like it was yesterday, and being able to spit off tour dates well into the future. As the first notes of Intentions Clear were strummed, I saw my buddy Mike take off for the bathroom, and I almost grabbed him and told him it was a bad idea, but decided against it. Judging from the jams in some of the previous songs, tonight was lining up to be one of those shows were everything Umphrey’s touched was gold…Intentions Clear was no different. Disgusting jam, go download it from www.umlive.net. The jam was one of the highlights of the night before The Bottom Half came back to end the set. The end of this song is a great opportunity to compare the guitar stylings of Bayliss and Cinninger. Similar to 40’s Theme, The Bottom Half initially features Bayliss as he builds the song to its climax before Cinninger comes in and kicks the song square in the face, ending each version with a bang, and in this case, the first set at Penn’s Peak.

After a half hour set break, the band came out at 10:40p, ready for another go around. Things got going quickly with a great version of Miss Tinkle’s Overture. One of the best built songs in their repertoire, this version peaked hard, whipping the crowd back into the state of mind they were just in during set one. Words slowed things down a bit, but once again offered a glimpse at the brain that is drummer Kris Meyer’s and perc world extraordinaire, Andy Farag. Last Man Swerving was the highlight for many, and in my opinion, showcases Umphrey’s McGee for exactly what they are. Last Man Swerving is always a great vehicle for a jam, and this version was no different. The first jam that came out of the song was a heavy, almost death metal progression, giving the song a rare dark feel. After a quick build to the jam, the band flipped the song on its head, laying down one of the best grooves of my four show run. Quickly driven by Jack Cinninger and complimented by Waful’s change of color palette, bassist Ryan Stasik wasted no time finding the groove and kept it going.

In my time following this band, I’ve had several music fans tell me how Stasik needs to be replaced because he’s not flashy enough and never takes a big solo. Flashy solos aren’t Stasik’s MO, though…he’s the root. He is the most fundamental layer in a sound that is completely comprised of layers. He finds the groove, lays it out and stays right on it. He rarely ventures off course and just sits in the pocket, usually capping it off with a smile from ear to ear. Jake usually leads these impromptu jams, with Bayliss filling in where he sees fit. Keyboardist Joel Cummins adds his own layer, and even though often overlooked in many jams, is an integral part of the Umphrey’s McGee sound. Pushed by the backbeat of Kris Meyers and Andy Farag, this six piece band always delivers when they’re given the opportunity to explore outside the structure of the original song.

Immigrant Song/Thunder Kiss ’65, a mashup of Led Zeppelin and White Zombie followed Last Man Swerving, before segueing into an 18 minute version of Utopian Fir. Always a monster jam vehicle, Joel Cummins quickly threw down a danceable synth layer, and when paired with the beats of Kris Meyers on the electronic drum pad, this Utopian Fir jam was already in high gear. Lighting director Jefferson Waful put a gloomy, dark wash on the band, turned the lights around and painted the back wall with gobos, nicely completing the vibe of the song. As the rotating gobos took the crowd’s eyes for a ride, the band’s layers continued to compliment and pass one another, as the initial layer that was turned down and buried, slowly built momentum until it was later the driving force of the jam. After the electronic dance party was over, Cemetery Walk made an appearance. The only song off Umphrey’s most current album, Mantis, I would have liked to see its counterpart, Cemetery Walk II continue the dance party vibe and end the show with a bang. No worries though as JaJunk in the encore slot offered fans one more song to get out any air guitar that they had been holding back.

As punctual as they were with their 9:00p start time, like clockwork, the band exited the stage at 12:00a on the dot. As fans fleeted into the night, sound engineer Kevin Browning could be seen burning out a copy of the show at front of house, ready to hand it off to tour manager Don Richards, who is stationed at the merchandise table with two CD duplicator towers and a line chalk full of fans eager to take home the set they just witnessed. Seeing this affords me the opportunity to make a point: one common misconception by fans is thinking the band is just the guys on stage.

Umphrey’s McGee has six men on stage, but they are a full 12 person team while on the road. Everyone knows their job and executes it to a T. Besides the constant evolution of the Umphrey’s family, the scenarios you get in on the road and the blissful music the band produces, my absolute favorite thing about this band is the feeling that you just got in the way of a 12-headed monster. They come into a venue, do their thing and leave…we were all just lucky to be in its path.

After a two great nights at Penn’s Peak and The Westbury Theater, we travelers packed up with excitement, ready to go from mountains to beaches, as we got in the van for a trek over to the New Jersey Shore, with Saturday and Sunday shows in Asbury Park and Atlantic City. The Penn’s Peak show was everything I hoped it to be and more, and with the chance to see four new venues on my short four night run, I couldn’t have been happier to share it with all my friends and one of my favorite bands on the scene, Umphrey’s McGee.

Penn’s Peak
Jim Thorpe, PA

Set I:
Conduit, Atmosfarag, The Bottom Half > 2nd Self, Water >Andy’s Last Beer, Bloody Well Right, Intentions Clear > The Bottom Half
Set II:
Miss Tinkle’s Overture, Words > Last Man Swerving > Immigrant Song > Utopian Fir, Cemetery Walk
Encore:
JaJunk

August Residencies and Boston Boat Cruise

2009-08-12T03:18:00.011-04:00

Damn it feels good to be back in New England! We’re in the box truck bombing down I-91 to Hartford listening to last night’s show at Nectar’s in Burlington. Last night was the second of five Monday’s in Burlington. Tonight we hit up Sully’s Pub, ready to stir up a feel good dance party at Zach’s Tuesday residency. To round out the August residencies, tomorrow we head to Martha’s Vineyard early for a game of kickball before Zach hits the stage at Nectar’s MV. These are Zach’s second go around for New England residencies, his first being last June in Burlington, Albany and Worcester. Just to give you an idea of what’s ahead this is how his Burlington residency went last summer: first week = 50 people, second week = 150 people, third week = 250 people, fourth week = sold out with a line around the block the entire night. Not bad for his first pass at a weekly residency!
The residencies have been an absolute blast to say the least. Last Monday in Burlington saw 100 fans turn out with loads of excitement about what was about to come their way the next four weeks. My trip to Sully’s Pub last Tuesday with Zach was really exciting for me since that is where it all began. I went to Wormtown Music Festival in Greenfield, MA in September 2007 and a dear friend told me to check out Zach Deputy, who at that time was making his first attempt at the Northeast, leaving his home base of Hilton Head, SC. Two days after Wormtown Zach played at Sully’s. I was so stoked for the show; I didn’t want to miss a beat so I drove down from Amherst and arrived at the gig at 8. I talked a couple of local bar folk to stick around for the show, as this was one act they didn’t want to miss. Zach ended up playing the show for roughly 10 people, but I could see it…we all could see it. Then boom, a little less than two years later, we’re working together, ready to take over the world.
This Hartford show was a little different with 115 people flipping out, screaming lyrics and dancing deep into the night. The next night was our first trek over to Martha’s Vineyard to open for Grace Potter and The Nocturnals to kick off Zach’s Wednesday residency. It was fun to open for GPN - a respected, middle-tier band. I saw them in 2004 when they were first emerging and really dug their sound, but to be honest, with their new arrangement and evolving sound, didn’t really dig the direction they have taken their music. But they’ve obviously done something right, winning numerous Jammy awards and bringing in 500 people to Nectar’s that night. Zach played a short 45 minute set, but will have a full 3 hour show every Wednesday from here on out, so come out to the show! If you get the opportunity to get out to the island, visit www.steamshipauthority.com to check out all the information you need regarding ferry schedules and vehicle reservation passes. The highlight of the Martha’s Vineyard gig for all of us was after the show on the loading dock. With a piano right by the loading dock, it didn’t take too long for some folks to start up a nice big jam session. As two Nectar’s employees jumped on piano, Zach grabbed his guitar and vocal percussion and set off a jam with Scott from GPN on harmonica. Folks gathered around the loading dock, listening, laughing and smiling as all us like-minded folks were in the perfect place that night. I love this job - seeing music, running a show, networking, making new friends and geeking out over the guts of music operations. Then after it’s all over, just gathering around with friends and enjoying some down time that takes you into the early morning. The next day we went back to the venue to pick up Zach’s gear and bum around the venue for a bit. Lucky for me, dj extraordinaire RJD2 was doing load in/soundcheck and we got to talk about everything from how much he makes me dance to the types of gear he uses to the festivals he plays, mostly his trip to the inaugural Up North Festival in Maine last August.
To finish up, I have to talk about the Boston boat cruise that happened last Friday. 250 eager fans boarded the boat in the late evening with excitement filling the air, as we were all about to enjoy a three hour cruise around Boston Harbor together. I’ll put it simply – Zach absolutely DESTROYED it! With lots of friends in the crowd, I couldn’t help but dance off by myself, looking up at the stars and smiling at how well Zach has developed the Northeast in such an incredibly short period of time. Even non-music friends of mine came out and couldn’t help but cut loose on the feel good music that surrounded them. The first set went well, but the second set saw the entire 250 people smush onto the music deck and get down like I’ve never seen before. Monster versions of Most People Never Heard Real Music, Wormtown and Coconut got the crowd whipped into a frenzy before Zach dropped Volcano on the crowd, leaving the entire boat hooting and hollering for more as the ship pulled up to the dock.
Zach’s music is a powerful thing. It brings a lot of good people together and sends them home happier than when they came. I love this music, I love the adventures it’s taken me on this summer, but I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back in the Northeast surrounded by my music family. I’m a music rat through and through – I need to see music. Then you make friends and need to see them. Then you meet their friends and need to travel to see them. Then they introduce you to new music and you need to see that. Then you meet more friends there - it’s a vicious cycle that anybody in music understands. If you think it’s about going to see a band, it’s not. It’s everything. It’s the drive to the show, it’s the song on the iPod that makes you flip out and rewind it 50 times, it’s the girl in the corner with the flower dress on spinning in circles, it’s the friends, it’s seeing the guy on the side drinking beers with a straight face let down his guard and RAGE with his friends that have been dancing for hours, it’s the glow stick wars, it’s the trouble you get in (or get out of), it’s the long drives through the night to get home, it’s staying up all night for continental breakfast at hotels, it’s stuffing dozens of friends into small apartments and sleeping in uncomfortable positions, it’s sleepless nights filled with jokes and pranks, it’s love, happiness and adventure. This summer gig with Zach is winding down, so I hope to see many of you on the road, be it at one of the residencies or maybe even the Portland, ME show at Empire Dine and Dance on August 21st.

10,000 Lakes Festival and onward

2009-07-26T22:35:00.043-04:00

10,000 Lakes Festival is hands down the prettiest place on the planet to stage a festival. The lineup up this year, although lacking in comparison to previous years, was solid from top to bottom and having the opportunity to see Soo Pass Ranch and go rip on some of the bands playing was an absolute blessing. Zach and I were able to travel up through Wisconsin in no rush, pick up Jeremy and prepare for a short visit to 10KLF. This is the second time I've been there...I went in 2007 with my good friend Gayle and absolutely flipped out. Umphrey's, String Cheese, Ratdog, moe, Bisco, Particle were all there and it was a great opportunity to get rooted in some really good Midwest bands. This year's 10,000 Lakes Festival was headlined by Dave Matthews Band, two nights of Widespread Panic and Wilco. Umphrey's, Boombox, Pretty Lights, The Macpodz, Steez and ZD were also on the lineup, making it another SOLID year of music as what is one of the sickest festie grounds I have stumbled across.
We got into the festie around 4 PM, which left us plenty of time to take it all in before Zach's 10 PM set on the Saloon Stage. I toured around the stage, meeting some folks and preparing for later that evening. I immediately knew my plan of attack though...I was like a kid in a candy store, haha. I grabbed some waters and headed over to Lake Sallie to take in some tunes and relaxation. 10KLF is about 25,000 people so the grounds are spread out, but not massive in size by any means. Northwoods and Lake Sallie are the campgrounds closest to the concert bowl and have plenty of lakes to find yourself lost in. You don't even have to go into the concert bowl - just tie a raft to a tree and call it a day! One of my favorite signs all weekend was "10KLF 2009 - Don't Drown!" It's just a magical experience to be able to go rage a band, then walk five minutes to the lake or natural jacuzzi stream and just unwind. Lake Sallie has really evolved it's campground stage, which holds music by the lake throughout the festival. Wednesday was the day Zach would be performing, but was only a half day at the festival so no music even got started til 6 PM. I was able to swin, walk around some campgrounds, grab dinner, see Widespread and Nathan Miller Band and just enjoy the grounds for quite sometime before Zach hit the stage. The sad part, if there had to be one, was that Zach had to perform 16 hours away in Louisville, KY on Friday so we had to leave the festival early Thursday at the latest.
This trip was extra special for me cause I had been here once before. After 2007, I told myself I'd be back again. 10KLF takes band recommendations and I easily pumped out 25 e-mails following 2007 that said something like: Zach Deputy! Get Zach Deputy! You might not know who he is - just go see him, book him, and enjoy! In January, I talked to Zach's manager and learned that 10KLF called him inquiring about Zach. Knowing that 10KLF would be a stop on the summer tour was such a topping on the cake. Zach is doing well in the Midwest, but being on the bill at probably the largest festival in the Midwest is huge! He was playing on the Saloon Stage, which is a large barn with seating around the back and and balcony up top. From the porch that surrounds that barn, folks could sit outside the venue and look over the festival down onto the main stage area.
Zach went on stage from 10 - 11:30 PM with a half hour for load in and breakdown. Zach has such a simple setup, festivals and venues love him, but that means we can only break down so quickly. We would have people in our face asking what they could help move or assist with. Wrapping cords is one of the most relaxing parts of the job for Jeremy and I. We sit on stage, breaking down the set, joking with one another and talking to fans. At festivals, it's get in get out. Everyone on the staff at 10KLF was so gracious and helpful though, we felt like kings when we got there.
Everything ran incredibly smooth and Zach had the fans groovin' early. The Into The Morning Into The Night > Volcano > Twisty Twisty > Eggs run got the fans moving in a big way and from then on out it was just fans flipping out for Chicken Pot Pie and Coconut. Zach's fun - he's either got ya dancing on some of the funkiest stuff you've ever heard, laughing at and confused by why Chicken Pot Pie is stuck in your head, or blown away by what exactly is happening directly in front of you during songs like Into The Morning Into The Night. Jeremy and I always enjoy talking to folks when they see his setup and scratch their head. Or when we meet people and know they have no idea what's in store for them. All the production folks on staff at the Saloon Stage came over and gave loads of compliments after the show. Loads.
I got incredibly sick during the festival for some reason, but decided to bore through it and get to see Pretty Lights for the first time. Pretty Lights is one of those bands that I know I'll love, but could never make it out to a show. I raged as hard as I could for as long as I could, but the show was lacking anyway. The energy just seemed to be missing for some reason, be it that it's Wednesday and the crowds were smaller or whatever the reason, it was just missing. Surrounded by glow sticks and barefoot dancers kept me content, but I was still pissed that I couldn't be diggin' in like I wanted to be. These festivals really are just the coolest thing going. The interactions you have with folks, the friendships you make, the bands you find, and the sights you take in will stay with you forever. People are so unique at festivals...you can be whoever you wanna be. Just taking in everything for what it is, meeting whoever you can and listening as much as you can is something I didn't do when I started going to festivals. Now, knowing exactly what I need to do to have the absolute time of my life for four days, makes it all wayyyy closer to my heart and something I need to do for as long as I can.
After Pretty Lights, Zach and Jeremy returned from the woods and we were ready to leave. It was 4 AM and we were making moves South for atleast a couple hours. We were 45 minutes from Fargo, ND and had to be in Louisville, KY by early Friday afternoon. We made it a couple hours before crashing around 6 AM. We stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool/arcade that was surrounded by balconies so I chilled in the hot tub to see if I could feel any better before our long drive to Kentucky. The next day was the day we had been dreading all summer. We started driving at 3 PM to pick up the box truck in Marion, IL before heading up to Louisville to open for The Wailers at Brown Forman Amphitheater along the river overlooking the city. Driving straight through the night, stopping only to practice disc golf or eat, we made it to Louisville around 4 PM Friday and were able to lay around Waterfront Park before load in. The show setting was nice, and the promoter/company putting on the event are some buddies of ours in the Kentucky market. Working alongside friends is always a treat! Seeing Zach play at an outdoor amphitheater got me all excited and being able to open for The Wailers was a great opportunity. This was one of two opening slots Zach has all summer. After Zach's set, we stuck around for The Wailers before heading back to the hotel for a night of Wii. We have the next two days off and only have to get up to Chicago, so the plan is Wii, disc golf, disc golf, and disc golf. We're definitely gonna be enjoying these two days off as the Sunshine CD Release Party at Schuba's in Chicago on July 28th starts a stretch of 32 gigs in 34 days taking us to the end of August. Hope to see y'all on the road at some point!

Midwest swing

2009-07-21T00:14:00.033-04:00

What a crazy couple of weeks it's been since we got back from the Virgin Islands. After a couple days off, we packed up the box truck and played a few southern gigs before starting the Midwest swing that will take us up to The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor, 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota, and Schuba's in Chicago for Zach's CD release party on July 28th.
The Midwest swing came to a hault quickly as the box truck broke down in Marion, IL as we were on our way to a gig in St. Louis. With absolutely no rental cars within a 50 mile radius, we had to shack up for the night and prepare for a long drive up to Michigan the next day. Our day started early, leaving the hotel at 6 AM in preparation for a 10 hour hike up to The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. The Blind Pig is a great room, favorites of many great bands, and was a gig I've been looking forward to for quite some time. We loaded in and soundcheck rather quickly which left us an hour or so to be able to enjoy the art festival that was in town. The main streets were blocked off and lined with arts and crafts vendors, food and music. It's rare that we get to spend a lot of time in these cities we visit, but lucky for us we had a good chunk of time to take in some of the works that were on display.The Blind Pig show was also the first show Zach had played with a written setlist. Zach usually just gets up on stage and jams out, playing whatever comes to mind, but on the drive up we thought we would write one out for the night. Having a written setlist allows Zach to put on a completely different show. The show was a lot of fun, from sleeping on chairs in the green room to raging with some friendly Midwesterners in the back of the venue. We all look forward to coming back!
Being on tour is a treat in every sense of the word, but the amount of music I'm able to see is far less than if I was festie hoping like I did last summer. Knowing that we had 3 days off before 10,000 Lakes Festival, I crossed my fingers in hopes that we would be able to go see Umphrey's McGee open for Dave Matthews Band at Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. That might not mean much to anyone else, but it meant the world to me. I'm a music nerd, I like venues just as much, if not more, than the music. The first band I really started to follow was Dave Matthews Band back in 2002. I went everywhere, catching around 50 shows in 6 years and seeing some of the most amazing sights in the music world. In terms of outdoor amphitheaters, there is the big three: Red Rocks in Colorado, The Gorge in Washington and Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. I went to The Gorge in 2004 and Red Rocks in 2005, but was unable to make it out to Alpine until now. Seeing my current favorite band, Umphrey's, open for my old favorite band at one of the most breathtaking venues in the world was amazing to say the least. The place is MASSIVE! 50,000 people can stuff into Alpine, that's double the size of large outdoor amphitheaters that DMB usually plays. It's just absolutely mind-blowing to see that many people on the hill being lit up by the stage lights.
Just to recap on the show, it was great. Seeing Umphrey's was fun, but the energy was lacking as they were playing to a crowd that really didn't care. Dave Matthews Band is a talented band, but has one of the worst fanbases there is...rowdy, youngsters that just wanna get drunk. And yes I can say that, I followed DMB for years and know every single detail surrounding the DMB world. And now being in the jamband scene, I really do appreciate the people that I'm surrounded by...they're all very knowledgeable and are there for the music (and obviously a little bit of the party, I mean come on...) All that being said, DMB was on fire. When I left my last DMB show almost 3 years ago, I knew that was it. It was a business and all too similar. I couldn't look at the stage before songs cause if I saw Dave's fingerings on the guitar I could tell what song was coming next. I didn't get excited like I used to. I didn't lose my appetite and get sick before every show. It might sound weird, but that's what happened. The night before a show, I couldn't sleep; driving to the shows I would get sick with excitement and actually have to pull over. I didn't have that feeling anymore...but I did at Alpine. Dancing around smiling ear to ear, counting my blessing that this really is happening. I had that shit eatin' grin on my face, knowing that I'm doing what I love and enjoying the company of those around me. The songs off the new album were MONSTERS and I got to see some rarities like You Never Know, Pig, Proudest Monkey and Halloween. Throw in a round of disc golf with Zach and a visit to Madison, and these were some of the best days off I've had on tour this summer! Now we're on our way up to Minnesota to pick up Jeremy and head up to 10,000 Lakes Festival in beautiful Detroit Lakes. If you've never been to this festival, I highly suggest you make the trip. I will be blogging about it in a couple days, so check back to hear about everything that happened.

2009-07-07T21:14:00.001-04:00

Virgin Island Part 2

2009-07-07T14:50:00.031-04:00

As we walked down the hill from our resort to The Beach Bar for our last show on the islands, I mumbled to Jerome "time to go to work" and couldn't help but laugh that this truly is the coolest job on the planet. The four of us loved our time on the islands and were sad to go when the time finally came. The St. John Festival was a lot of fun, but hurt us in terms of crowd size as people would stay up all night in the village and rarely take advantage of the great music being played at all the bars in Cruz Bay.

Zach's creative songwriting was on display the entire two weeks, but the last four shows on the island will be tough to beat in terms of show quality. These run of shows were some of the best I've seen Zach play in the almost 3 years of knowing him and are worth revisiting over and over again. Funky versions of old songs, rare requests and some on the spot song writing made these gigs ones to remember. It's fun to be able to see Zach fiddle on his guitar trying to find a groove to a song that he is writing on the spot, and then hear it three days later with structure, beautiful lyrics and room to expand. This tour was a treat to say the least!

We had a handful of folks come down for the shows in the islands and to spend their 4th of July with us and it was everything it was built up to be. Dancers packed the small stage as Zach belted out some truly classic versions of some songs that have been in his catalog for quite a while now. The trees over hanging the beach were occupied by dancers and climbers as they experienced Zach Deputy in their own way. The beach was packed from the fireworks display and dozens of people could be found dancing in the water as boats with families looked on from their perch. Zach and I are now combing over all the songs from the tour so keep a look out for those songs to pop up on Myspace. Some are already up, but we're really excited to see the response to Zach's new song, Volcano. The song was written on the spot during the July 1st show at The Beach Bar and was then played at the next couple shows. We all saw this song come together with ease and agreed that it will soon be a ZD classic.

Overlooking Trunk Bay on our way to a gig in Coral Bay

Jeremy walking around Cinnamon Bay before the gig

Stuffing in the jeep to drive across St. Thomas to Hull Bay Hideaway

Jerome and Sunshine in Coral Bay

Down time at the resort

He does what he wants

Zach and Tweeter

Zach, Jeremy and Brian - three guys, a box truck and a bunch of funk!

Virgin Islands Part 1

2009-06-29T01:01:00.034-04:00

Times are good! The festival kicked off today and the all the remaining gigs are on St. John. So far Zach has played four gigs - two in St. John and two over on St. Thomas at Island Time Pub and Hull Bay Hideaway. We've worked out all the kinks and now it's smooth sailing in St. John as we build up to the 4th of July gig at local favorite, The Beach Bar.

We arrived in St. John on the 25th and chilled out for the evening in our prized hotel, the St. John Inn. The town of St. John is so small, full of friends and open-minded people looking for a good time. The bars, inns, markets and music are all located on the beach or within a 5 minute walk of it. Zach's first two gigs went well and as we left for St. Thomas, we were all pleased with our move to Gallow's Point Resort. Now we're living like kings; now we can relax.

After only a couple days in St. John, we felt as if we knew everyone in town, or would by the end of our vacation. I thought I'd break this trip in two blogs since I have a pretty good feeling the beginning of this trip will be vastly different than the end. We settled into our spot, played four shows that have gotten better each night, and are ready for the festival that's running in town all week long!

The beginning of the trip went well besides parts of the first gig at Rhumblines and our living space. We were staying at the St. John Inn which was conveniently placed in the downtown, but didn't offer us enough space after we stored the PA system following the show. We were all really excited for the show at Rhumblines since Zach hadn't played out in a quite a few days. The staff was out of this world and made us feel welcome as we settled in for our first of 10 shows while we're here on the islands. We switched to the Gallow's Point Resort after a couple days and ever since, we've been on cloud 9.

Gallow's Point is the bomb! We feel like four bachelors in paradise. My buddy Jerome came down from Maine to join us; Jerome is the ZD street team coordinator and helps keep the website up to date. The music scene down here in St. John is ready for live music when it passes through, but that's rare. Coupled with the small town vibe and great venues for tunes, we're all pumped to be here! Just playing four shows, we've started to see lots of familiar faces and smiles as we pass through town. Now we're in St. John for a string of gigs leading up to the huge bash on the 4th of July at The Beach Bar. There is a festival in town which runs two weeks and operates all day and night, bringing constant live music, dancing, drinking, shopping and good eats. Zach is playing at the two hottest spots on the 3rd and 4th of July and we've been told to prepare for paradise. Haha, two weeks in the Virgin Islands with a festival coinciding, ending on the 4th of July, yeah right...

Two days ago was my favorite gig at St. Thomas' original beach bar, Hull Bay Hideaway. We stuffed five people and all Zach's gear (including PA) into a small jeep and took the half hour drive to Hull Bay. We arrived 3 hours early to the gig and enjoyed swimming in the ocean and taking in the sites. We were happy as could be when we saw all the games - pool, darts, horseshoes, ping pong and more. We're all super competitive over here in camp so we decided to start a new competition. Race to 50 wins in any game; winner stays on. Quarters, ping pong, pool, any game. Right now Jeremy has a 2 point lead with 4 wins, but that'll change.

The Hull Bay Hideaway gig was different, but good different. Early in the day we lounged in the ocean and played ping pong with a bunch of mothers around us, smiling and waving. Sweet, a Mom show! I don't mean this is any way, so don't read into it - it's just shows with parents are bad ass. They don't care what they look like, they just wanna dance. The men eventually loosen up enough to kick out a leg here and there, then the old couples come out and it's a full on party. That right there is what makes me so happy when I'm at music. I have this gift of hearing and feeling music to this insanely intense level, but the one thing that makes me happier than anything is when people let go and dance. Seeing the people that we're standing against the wall get dowwwwwwwwwn - nothing in the world makes me happier! One thing that we did notice about the crowd was that all these ladies would dance so hard, the whole crowd could only last two songs then there would be a couple song break. A few new friends came over from the last two shows, so we enjoyed our time with them and look forward to hanging out with them and many more new friends over the next week.

As I said before, we're now back on St. John for the rest our time down here and are ready to kill it. Just like always, we're recording every show Zach plays and have the Sunshine album in hand. The buzz is being spread throughout Cruz Bay and we're looking forward to large crowds as we wrap up our last gigs on the island. Stay tuned for the follow up to this when we get back to the States...

2009-06-23T19:44:00.001-04:00

Let's move to Asheville

2009-06-22T11:26:00.036-04:00

We just finished up our last shows in the States before we head off to the U.S. Virgin Islands for 8 shows in 10 days. Our short run through the South consisted of four shows in three days, performing twice in Asheville, NC. I love Asheville; I’d never been, but always wanted to visit. Last summer I applied for an internship at a Landscape Architecture firm where they let you pick the office you want to work in. Being the music lover that I am, I chose Asheville, but unfortunately wasn’t selected. When we pulled into Asheville on Friday night I had dreams of going down the rock waterslide and disc golfing; none of which came true.

As we pulled up, there was a band performing right outside The Emerald Lounge that was part of the Downtown After Five Concert Series. Asheville is a musically rich town, with loads of good eats, art/culture and all the mountains and hiking trails you could ever want. “Hippies” and dreadlocks are a common site, which left Jeremy and I grinning ear to ear as we walked around town before the gig. Currently living down the road from Northampton, Massachusetts, I’ve learned to love all the eccentric folks, street performers and small little hippie shops that no one knows about. Since confirming the date a few months ago, Asheville has been the stop I’ve been looking forward to the most this summer. Our plan was initially to spend the night in Asheville so we could play the next day since our drive to Knoxville that night was only a couple hours. As stated before, we weren’t able to do so as Zach performed a 1.5 hour set at Summer Solstice in Asheville the next day.

The Emerald Lounge gig was a lot of fun and had a great turnout. One of our new friends from Bonnaroo came out to see us in Asheville and continued on the road with us for the next couple shows. She worked merch with Jeremy as well as running around taking pictures. Thanks for all your help Jen. The show was solid from start to finish, but naturally hit its peak half way through the second set. Trippin’ On The Bassline was the highlight of the night for me, and started a run of 11 songs that ended the show with a bang. Thoughts Of Yesterday lead into a crowd favorite, Wormtown. Twisty Twisty followed which segued into Savannah, a song that shows some of Zach’s strong song writing skills as well as his ability to perfectly layer a song to form a slow, yet funky composition that keeps the crowd moving from the first note. Jeremy’s favorite Into The Morning Into The Night was a standard dance party, as was Fresh Street. One of my all time favorites, Most People Never Heard Real Music capped the set, with an encore of You Don’t Even Love The Girl and Mama Don’t Think. I know I just listed off songs, and for those of you who don’t know the songs, this paragraph must render itself pretty meaningless, but maybe that will urge you to buy the show. Any show we play, you can either purchase at the show, or contact me through the Zach Deputy website and I can get you all squared away with a link to download the show.

As a whole the show was a lot of fun, but Jeremy and I got a little extra treat when the sound engineer offered to let us run lights for the night. Ever since my days following Dave Matthews Band, I geek out hard over lights. Fenton Williams, DMB’s lighting engineering is one of the best in the business and growing up watching those lights really tied the whole show together for me. After DMB, I began to find the jamband scene, which was soon followed by the underground scene and a real grassroots movement. Falling down the tier of bands, the lights and production of their respective shows fell too. This made me even more grateful for what I had experienced in the 40+ DMB shows I caught over the years. I loved finding smaller, unknown bands as I could see something in them that no one has seen yet, but there were still no lights, and lights are a huge part of any show. DMB was eventually replaced as my favorite band in 2006 by Umphrey’s McGee. Umphrey’s was slowly moving up the jamband totem pole, but always had lackluster lighting until 2009. Then came Jeff Waful. Jeff Waful, forming lighting engineer for moe., is a GOD and was welcomed by the Umphrey’s family with welcome arms. I find myself just starring at Jeff during shows, wondering what’s going on in his head as his paints the venue with the colors that compliment the peaks and valleys of the music. I’ve met Jeff several times and maybe someday I’ll be able to sit down with him and really pick his brain. Until then, I split time running lights with Jeremy for Zach at The Emerald Lounge in Asheville, NC. As much fun as it was to run lights, Jeremy has a real talent and strong interest in developing that part of his career so I let him take the reins for the majority of the show. Don’t get me wrong, I was the happiest kid in the world when I was on those lights, but Jeremy did a great job synching up the lights with Zach’s music - so I just enjoyed it from back off the room with DP in hand. Before I move on, I just want to thank everyone that is following this blog – you wouldn’t believe how many people buy Jeremy and I Diet Pepsi and Red Bull. You guys are amazing; we’re all creating quite the community. Next time, come find Jeremy or I and we’ll get you your drink of choice, it’s only fair.

The next day we gigged in Asheville again at Summer Solstice Festival before heading to Knoxville for a show at World Grotto that night. Being a college town in summer, Knoxville wasn’t the most happening place in the world, but that didn’t stop us for getting all sorts of funky. We loaded in and had plenty of time to eat and wander around before the show. World Grotto faces on Market Square where Sundown On The City takes place, the city’s weekly summer concert series. We just missed a monster of a show, performed on Thursday where Toubab Krewe opened for The Wailers. Zach will be performing his only opening gig of the summer when he opens for The Wailers at Brown Foreman Amphitheater at Waterfont Park in Louisville, Kentucky on July 24th. Hopefully some of you will make the drive to Louisville; the location is absolutely gorgeous!

Market Square in Knoxville was full of street performers, people watchers and kids playing in the fountain. I ventured down to a man made stream in the park during set break to take a bit of a rest and enjoy some time to myself. Zach played a solid show in what was one of the most unique venues I’ve seen. The venue looked like you were in a cave and offered stadium seating with cushions and pillows for those who wanted to enjoy the music at a different pace. Zach’s version of Patty Wagon Funk and Getting Stinky wrapped up the first set on a high note. The second set was solid through and through, but highlights were the set opener Lincoln Continental and the set closing segue of Let’s Get In On > Sunshine > Gimme Something That’s Real.

The end of the night was different to say the least, but we all made it back to the hotel where we then proceeded to sleep until 7 PM. Catching up on some sleep was welcomed by all, and now we’re enjoying our drive through downtown Atlanta on our way to Zach’s house where we will spend the next couple days preparing the Bonnaroo Box Set and getting ready for our trip the U.S. Virgin Islands. My advice to you: get in the plane, it’ll be worth it, I swear!

Wow, I actually LOVED Bonnaroo

2009-06-17T17:32:00.037-04:00

I never thought that I would say I loved Bonnaroo, but damn did I soak up every single second of it. I never quite understood why people would go to Bonnaroo, the Wal-Mart of festivals, when you could go to Wormtown Music Festival in Greenfield, MA or other small scale festivals that are offered every summer. There's something to be said about small festivals - every corner you turn, your bumping into a friend or making a new one that you know you'll see back at the main stage in an hour. On the complete other end of the spectrum is Bonnaroo. Over 100,000 people and a ticket price reaching up towards $300. And for what? Hour long walks from your campsite to the stage, which when you get there leaves you no views of the performance cause you can't get within 100 yards? Or clusterfucks of people walking between stages, waiting for food/bathrooms/showers or just forming a crowd on shakedown street? The good thing about it all is that you can find anything you want. I want music, boat loads of new people to meet and dance with, and the opportunity to walk into the sea of tents in search of the unknown. I love you Bonnaroo, I really do.

Ok, so we all know how it ended - Zach played 24 sets, totaling 147 songs, in 4 days and everyone absolutely ate it up! Now let's back track. Jeremy, Zach and I pondered taking the RV up to the festival, but decided to stick with our box truck since the RV is huge and so is the price of the parking passes for it. We got into Manchester, TN Wednesday night only to find out that the festival was on lock down and we couldn't get in until Thursday morning. We played in the Wal-Mart parking lot, got some Wendy's and chilled by the empty pool at the hotel, meeting some fellow Mainers and enjoying one another's company. In the morning I woke up to find two girls tenting out next to our room, so I invited them in. Turns out one of them, Samantha, goes to school with me at UMass and doesn't know it now, but will be joining my friends and I for TONS of music when we get back to the Northampton area. After finding out that we couldn't bring our box truck down to the vending area, the Wormtown van came to pick us up and shuffle two loads of gear, including our stranded girls, to the festival. It's kind of hard to explain what exactly we were doing at Bonnaroo. Zach wasn't on the Bonnaroo lineup, but was instead performing in a crowded vending/camping area right on main shakedown. We were staged under the Wormtown Trading Company tent which also saw two of my favorite acts perform - Jeff Bujak and Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad.

When we first got to the festival, it was pure madness. Not quite sure where we were setting up, how long we were staying there (we were originally going to perform all over the festival grounds), having people come ask questions, figuring out places to set up camp - all the while trying to make a show happen - was lots of fun. I like to juggle a thousand things at once and that's what we had to do. The first performance of the festival was around 4:00 PM on Thursday and was a great kickoff to the weekend. In Centeroo there were only three stages going, so having Zach perform outside in the camping area was great. Crowds started to form after only the first couple of songs and by the end of the first set there were upwards of 300 people at Zach's stage. Mark, Zach and I enjoyed a nice laugh after the first set, realizing that things were going to work out just fine. I broke off after the first set to explore Centeroo and see the general layout of the festival. I found myself at the Fuse tent making vinyl spin art - something that I will be implementing at my festivals in the future. It was what it sounds like - put a vinyl record in a box and let it spin and just pour paint on it. I like how it came out, and would much rather have vinyl art than a t-shirt any day.

Logistically, Bonnaroo is a small city and damn is it run perfectly. Everywhere I looked I was finding fresh new ideas for both art and vending, as well as staging areas, FOH, tour bus parking, recycling and speaker systems. Bonnaroo has been going on for a long time and it shows. We were lucky enough to come through the vending entrance, skipping over all the cars in line on the first day that stretched back over 20 miles on the interstate. Going through the vending entrance afforded me the opportunity to see some alternative ways to bring people into the festival, the roads they used, the parcels of land they leased, and the arrangement of parking. This was a great festival for me. I was able to sleep on main shakedown so the walk to Centeroo was 5 minutes at the longest, and was able to see an amazingly eclectic lineup of music as well as see how this monster of a festival is run.

We had a new arrival on the merch table in the form of Zach’s new CD. The slated release for Sunshine is July 28, but got 900 copies for a soft release at Bonnaroo. Since this was a guerilla-style marketing event, we weren’t getting paid and knew we had to focus on merchandise sales. Luckily enough for us and all those in attendance, we were recording every single set of music at the festival. 30 minutes after each set, there was a CD available for purchase to take home and spread around to your friends. These Zach Deputy Lives are the topic of much conversation in ZD camp. Trying to stay fresh, coming up with new, progressive ideas and figuring out ways to spread the music farther each time. We have lots of great ideas that you will all see soon enough.

On Thursday, Zach performed three sets before having to shut him down for the last time due to some large incoming storms. Jeremy and I had to breakdown and cover up the stage multiple times, leaving us absolutely exhausted after only day one. But c’mon, I’ve never too tired for some of that good ol’ drum and bass. So I grabbed some waters (taking a break from the Diet Pepsi for the festival) and beboped over to Centeroo for some late night action. As soon as I got there I bumped into one of my very good friends from Chicago, Abby, who I had stayed with after Summercamp as I waited to jump on tour with Zach in Cincinnati. Abby and I had a blast at the late night dance party. There were sofas and chairs, surrounded by Xboxes and lava lamps for those who were feeling tired, but for those who weren’t, the music went until 5 in the morning. The highlight of the late night for me was the silent disco next door, though. There was a large tent for the DJ and ragers, but everyone in attendance had headphones on. This was a lot of fun for those watching, as you just see people wiggling and then all of a sudden they break out screaming and clapping. There were no more headphones left when I got there, but that didn’t stop me from jumping on the crowd’s groove and dancing with some new friends for a little before it ended. I hope some of you got the chance to experience it.

After heavy rains that night, the Wormtown booth purchased a tractor trailer load of hay, which when stacked next to the stage provided a great vantage point of Zach. Zach performed six sets on Friday, none better than the bubble set. I’m not joking when I say this could go down in ZD history as one of the best sets ever performed. I’m really working hard to archive things so everyone can enjoy this music in the future. This set will get looked back upon and enjoyed for a very long time. An improv, Bubbles, opened the set followed by So Fine and Let’s Roll. I Wanna Know, The Way You Make Me Feel and When No One’s Looking followed before the house came down. A new tune, Fifth Street, was the climax of the show before I got my request of the always danceable Magic Carpet Ride > Sex Machine > Magic Carpet Ride sandwich. Good times!

Saturday was a day full of sunshine and dancing at the Wormtown tent. You could tell the buzz about Zach was being spread throughout the festival as the crowds were getting larger and larger. Since we didn’t have solidified set times, there were quite a few people that would linger around in hopes that the funky dance party would soon start. For those of you who purchased the entire 24 disc package, you will greatly enjoy some songs that you either won’t ever hear again or that will eventually evolve into songs that Zach keeps in his catalog. After the first couple sets and having people ask what the difference was between each disc, we decided that there would be no repeats throughout the weekend. Trying not to repeat any songs, Zach would sprinkle in some grooves that he was feeling – add some vocals and a couple solos and you have a well structured song. Some of my favorite moments throughout the festival were these deep grooves he was feeling, so my suggestion to you is buy the box set. After an overwhelming response, we are going to create a Bonnaroo Box Set with over 24 hours of music. As I type this I have my headphones on, combing over the stacks of CDs, making sure every song is titled and trying to dwindle it all down to 6-8 songs so we can create a podcast on the website for those of you who weren’t in attendance.

Back to Saturday night – the night that never ended. I had an hour to go see as many late nights as I could before Zach started up at 2:00 AM. I raged Nine Inch Nails for bit, and then headed over to moe. for 20 minutes. I decided to pass by Ben Harper and MGMT on my way back to shakedown because they weren’t sounding too hot. Zach played a nice, fatty late night which ended just shy of 7 in the morning. This night was epic for two reasons – the infamous Wormtown jello shot party and the Haystack Hoedown. Trapper was in the crowd passing out jello shots, putting Wormtown’s total of jello shots given out to over 290,000. Wormtown has been doing a good service for a long time! Being able to share this experience with Wormtown is something that is really hard to put into words. Duck, Trapper, Mark, Debbie, Jess, Long Hair and Jay have a GREAT time selling merch and dancing all the while. During Haystack Hoedown there wasn’t one person in the crowd or at the Wormtown booth standing still. The crowd had about 200 people in it and they stirred up one of the biggest frenzies I’ve seen. Hay flying everywhere, people screaming at the top of their lungs, Zach killing it – I was home. I couldn’t help but start laughing uncontrollably as I danced barefoot in the hay, dosie-doing with a cute little mama to my favorite form of funk performed by one of my good friends.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m tall and like space, so I dance in the back. This is great for two reasons: 1.) dancing space and 2.) seeing people’s faces as they walk up. For those of you who have seen Zach, you understand what his music is all about. It’s warm, inviting music, connecting fans and friends. He has the wow factor. At Bonnaroo, I loved being able to dance in the back and watch people walk up from shakedown and see the “what the hell is this funkkky stuff?” on their faces. Then I have the privilege of telling them that he is performing all weekend long, recording every single second of music. After music ended, Jeremy, little Jean Cleary from New Hampshire and I finally got to explore the rest of the festival grounds. We took a nice long walk in search of pirate flags to steal. Before you get mad, this is common practice at festivals. If you have a pirate flag, you’re asking for it. The rules of the game are simple – if you have a flag, you must fly it and you must be ninja to steal it; if you fight over it, it loses its appeal. Jen, Jeremy and I walked around til 11 in the morning in search of pirate flags, spotted quite a few and strategized for the next night when we would take them. The Wormtown booth had three flags, we needed to defend them as well as gather more. Jeremy and I had a ball strategizing while looking at the flags, going all ninja style around the camps to see who sleeps where, in what direction and what the best plan of attack is. Sad thing is Zach played so late on Sunday that we didn’t get to steal the flags, but we’re just crafting our skills for all the other festivals we’ll be at this summer.

I just want to end this by putting out a big thank you to everyone. Thank you to Mark and everyone at Wormtown for making this happen as well as all the old and new fans for turning out. Thank you so much to the girls, Brit and Samantha, for helping out in any and every way possible; I’m glad our paths crossed. Also thank you so much to Gideon and Jason for your help, it doesn’t go unnoticed and we all greatly appreciate any help you can and do give. We are all one big happy family, seeing what needs to be done and doing it. Everyone surrounding us can see the big picture; a stable foundation created through grassroots style marketing and performance is the best way to build any career. You guys are all part of this and I’m so happy to be sharing it with all of you!

2009-06-17T04:01:00.001-04:00

2009-06-17T04:00:00.001-04:00

2009-06-17T03:59:00.001-04:00

Wanee and Hilton Head

2009-06-09T13:35:00.018-04:00

Spirit of Suwanee Music Park, the home of Wanee Music Festival and Bear Creek Music Festival, is pure magic. Zach will be performing twice at Bear Creek in November and hopefully many of you will join us. I will be back at school then, but you can bet that I’ll be clearing that weekend so I can get funky in Florida. As I said in the previous blog, we drove through the night and arrived at Wanee around 5:00 AM Sunday morning. We parked the truck and were greeted by friends before unloading what we needed for the night. After a quick unload, we all dispersed into the early morning to find any dance party or form of fun, but to no avail. The grounds were quiet, but absolutely mind blowing. I ventured off by myself to find some of the park features that I’ve heard so much about.

In every sense of the word, I’m the biggest music nerd there is. I want to know everything; every single detail that has to do with music production and the business itself. I was running around the woods at Wanee all by my lonesome, happy as shit that I get to do this as a job. Wondering how many stages there are and where are they located. Are there direct paths connecting the stages? Why is the front of house so massive and blocking views? Where are the cables running? Are they buried or exposed? What kind of lights do they have? LEDs? Where is the hospitality tent in relation to the artist entrance? Are the garbage bins overflowing and why haven’t they been emptied? These are just some examples of the millions of questions that run through my head every time I get to a show/festival.

The morning we got to Wanee was exactly what I needed, even though there were no dance parties to be found. I met some great people as soon as I got to the grounds and just started thinking back to last summer when I took the summer off to festie hop at all the festivals I promoted for. Solid friendships and new adventures came out of that summer and I only hoped this summer would stack up to last. Walking around the music park was so peaceful with the vegetation drooping over my head as I explored the mushroom stage. The mushroom stage, besides the awkward FOH positioning, is one of the coolest stages I’ve seen. It’s a natural amphitheater with trees sprinkled throughout the arena. Hammocks were tied between every tree, quite a few acting as homes for the night.

After the mushroom stage, I headed over to the main stage to see what that was all about. The stage was being torn down as all the music was done for the weekend. I decided to kick off the birks and dance in the mud for a little before venturing off to find the river. It’s easy to dance in the mud with no music when there is constant music running through your head. My brain is a library of what I’ve heard, seen and created in my 25 years – it’s amazing how easily you can remember things when you eat, sleep and breathe it. The rest of the morning was just me walking around, unable to find the river. I got back to my tent around 7:30 AM and chilled by the hammock with Jeremy and Sarah before passing out.

The early afternoon was a success as I finally found the river. It was a looooong walk, and now I understand why so many people have said they won’t come to Spirit of Suwanee Music Park without a golf cart. The walk was worth it though, as I got to chill down on the beach for a half hour or so before going back to camp for that afternoon’s load in. Zach’s gig started around 5:00 PM and was a very different set. The venue had hired an experienced light engineer, making Zach’s show all the better. The first set was very relaxing and saw almost all new material. The second set got going around 8:15 PM and was a blast from the get go.

Every since I’ve gotten on tour I’ve been in Zach’s ear about the wide world of electronica. As you all know, Zach is all about soul. I bleed funk, I love it…but I also love to trance my brains out. If it makes you dance, I like it. On our way to the gig, we busted out some Michael Jackson house music, which was a lot of fun. Picking up on some drag hi-hat as well as some drum and bass lines, I urged Zach to explore. The show saw Zach throw down some really interesting layers, pulling from some of our talks. Zach has such a unique sound and is lucky that he appeals to EVERYONE. There is no question that Zach Deputy is dance music for the soul – and there’s also no question that electronica ragers will love him. The show as a whole was a lot of fun, with a ridiculous version of Tubesteak and one of my new favorites Don’t Let It Get You Down. Games followed by Fresh Street was a great sneak peak at what’s to come on Zach’s new disc as well. The highlight of the night for me and many others was the set closer Jump In The Water. This song has grown leaps and bounds since its debut and really has turned into a crowd favorite. With a little bit of calypso, celtic, dance hall beats and country flair, this song is a boggiefest. The Music Hall at Wanee is the perfect venue – it’s huge with tons of dancing space. Everyone at the show dug deep to muster up all the energy that had left and wiggle til the music stopped. This show was everything the three of us expected it to be with a good turn out and tons of friends.

After the show we all headed back to camp to unwind and enjoy some laughs. The festival was over so very few people were left, but those left gathered at our campsite and had a great time. Festie season is in full swing and I’m so ridiculously excited to be meeting so many new people as well as bumping into so many old ones. We’ll be at Bonnaroo on Wednesday where Zach will be performing multiple sets everyday of the festival. Hopefully you will all brave the heat and make it out to the show. We have recently just bought another CD duplicator so we’re ready to bust out lots of Live ZD discs. We’ll be recording every set, so come pre-order the show with Jeremy and pick up all your discs after the show. There’s nothing like the live experience, now you can relive it with a soundboard recording!

As for the Hilton Head gig, Zach played a nice long set to an enthusiastic crowd at Big Bamboo. The venue was packed out making it one of the hottest evenings of my life. Load in was a real treat, having to huff Zach’s huge PA up a flight of stairs, but once we got inside it was all worth it. Zach played a really fun version of Tubesteak the other night in Florida and we enjoyed the hell out of the recording so much on our drive to Hilton Head that he decided he would go with another version similar to that one. Tubesteak is a fun song with its original structure, but these last two versions have been absolutely incredible; I’ll say once again, the shows is worth the purchase for this version of Tubesteak alone. We are archiving all these show so if you didn’t pick up the discs at the show, fire me off an e-mail and we will take care of you. All my contact information is on the Zach Deputy website.

With all these shows behind us, and a day off to collect our thoughts, we are focusing on Bonnaroo and the craziness that comes with it. Zach will be performing multiple sets everyday throughout the festival on the solar stage on shakedown street as well as performing in the camping areas. We are currently looking at the Bonnaroo schedule, figuring out set times and bands that we either don’t want to miss (NIN late night!!!!!) or don’t want to compete against. We’re looking forward to all the exposure that awaits us at Bonnaroo, as well as the opportunity to unveil Zach’s new album Sunshine. We are picking up 900 copies on our way to the festival, so be the first to get your copy! To end I’d like to add one more note, completely unrelated to ZD. If you are looking to see a talented performer, please check out Jeff Bujak playing VERY late night every night of Bonnaroo. Buj plays progressive piano and some of the best electronica I’ve heard. He is one the most talented performers I’ve seen and I’m so very excited that such a good friend (and fellow disc golfer) will be performing at Bonnaroo with us. Buj is tentatively playing every night from 4 to 6 AM. Check him out, I’ll be there!

The ball is gone

2009-06-08T16:50:00.014-04:00

What a string of shows we’ve just had. But let’s get right to it, the super bouncy ball is gone. In Charleston, when the crowd was singing happy birthday to Zach, he ran off stage, grabbed the ball and chucked it into the crowd, never to be seen again. There was something special about that ball; I envisioned a whole summer with that guy…too bad.

I’m sitting here typing this blog listening to Zach’s soundcheck at the Music Hall at Wanee Festival. We got into the festival around 5:00 AM this morning after a long drive from South Carolina. Both Georgia and South Carolina treated us right over the last couple gigs. We got back on tour on Thursday, playing to a small, yet enthusiastic crowd at The Georgia Theater. We were all in high spirits arriving at The Georgia Theater as this is THE VENUE in the Southeast. This venue has held every performer that has ever performed, so we were delighted to be headlining it. I had a great time in the green room, taking pictures of posters and autographed pictures. Seeing posters that had dates of when Dave Matthews Band, Phish and Red Hot Chili Peppers all performed for $3. $3? Those were the days. DMB just played Fenway Park the other day for $91 a ticket. Anyways, the show had its moments – namely Into The Morning Into The Night and I Bit His Ear (Mike Tyson Parody) into the long awaited return (for some fans) of Free Turd, Zach’s rendition and response to cheers of Freebird. I was feeling good when the second set started off with a barrage of covers, of which I call Hip Hop Medley. Many of you know this sandwich of songs; it usually consists of theme songs from Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, James Bond, Vanilla Ice, and others. Rarely do I ask for songs, but mid second set I got my request of Fresh Street, a feel good song off the new album Sunshine, slated for release in late July.

Our next gig was at The Pour House in Charleston. This show is easily my favorite show since being on the road. Zach turned 27 at midnight, and with lots of friends and family in the crowd, it was quite the night. We are working hard over here to archive every show with audio, video and pictures now. Every show will be available at Zach Deputy shows and hopefully, eventually available online. I mention this for two reasons: 1.) it’s great to be able to leave the show with a recording of that specific show and 2.) because I can’t get Zach’s version of Quarter In My Pocket out of my head. This show is worth the download/purchase for this version alone! Any of you catching shows in the near future, come up to Jeremy at the merch table and ask about some Live ZD CD’s – we got recordings of a lot of great shows. Another note about the live recordings: BRING A USB THUMB DRIVE TO THE SHOW AND WE WILL BURN THE ENTIRE SHOW FOR ONLY $5! Since we’re talking about bringing stuff to the show, I’ll add one more bit. In response to the loss of the super bouncy ball, we are creating a rubber band ball, so please bring a rubber band (or rubber bands) and take it over to Jeremy at the merch table and be part of the new Zach Deputy tour ball.

After our gig at The Pour House, we headed back to the hotel in Columbia, setting up a short drive to Rock The Dock the next day. Rock The Dock was absolutely amazing – from the music, to the people, to the location, to the cold Diet Pepsi. This was an event put on by Tmayn Entertainment out of Columbia, SC. It was a large gathering of people at a private residence, giving off the block party vibe. Patrons paid their $20 to get all the free food, music and beer they wanted. The massive slip and slide leading down to the lake was the hit of the party. I found myself playing cornhole and dancing in the muddy spots of the lawn – relishing in the fact that this is indeed my job. Over 700 people stuffed the yard, leading from the stage at the top of the hill all the way down to the dock. Boats slowly gathered throughout the afternoon, bringing in even more people by the end of the day. Woodwork Roadshow opened for Zach, who played a relaxing, yet entertaining set. I uploaded a video of Bluffton from this show to Facebook and both Zach and I’s YouTube channels, as well as this blog. I hope you guys are checking in on Zach’s YouTube channel – I’m trying to put up videos from every show. I will be uploading weekly pictures as well on Facebook. The end of the first set into the beginning of the second set was the highlight of the show for me personally. Some of Zach’s newer material was used to open and close the sets. Always-funky Cross Town ended the first set, only to see a soothing rendition of You Don’t Even Love The Girl get people ready for the second set of music. One of my favorite songs, Most People Never Heard Real Music, followed and was a welcomed return to Zach’s setlist after a little time on the shelf. After telling Zach how much Little Bit Of You is growing on me, he ended the show with a wildly different version of the song. He easily found a deep groove that pushed the song throughout, ending the set on a high note for both me personally and all those in attendance.

Now it’s time to go rage Wanee. The festival runs Thursday through Saturday, but Zach is playing a benefit in the music hall right now. We have lots of friends in attendance and have been looking forward to this show for a long time. Tomorrow we are playing another benefit in Hilton Head, SC so check back in a couple days to read about the review of all the happenings of Wanee and the show in Hilton Head. I’m off to go dance with smiling strangers and only begin to imagine where the night will take us.

Days off

2009-06-04T00:58:00.030-04:00

ZD camp will be on the road and in full force tomorrow, rolling into Athens, GA to play the historic Georgia Theater. The three of us have enjoyed a nice four day break, preparing for nine shows in eleven days. We all arrived at Zach’s house early Monday morning and did some production research for the upcoming festivals, namely Bonnaroo. We’re so very excited to have the opportunity to play multiple sets each and every day at Bonnaroo – talk about exposure!

Jeremy and I decided to head down to his hometown in St. Augustine, FL for a couple days of fun in the sun while Zach stayed home to see his family. We got down to Florida early Tuesday afternoon and met up with some friends and got some tasty food at Stir It Up. Stir It Up is the coolest place on the planet – go there and say hi to Sarah, Erin, Esme and Rocco while they prepare some of the best food you’ll ever taste.

The couple days off down here were exactly what we needed. Being on tour is a blast, but it’s so hard to slow down and sleep when you need to. There’s always someone to talk to or something to experience, so sleep isn’t an option just yet. We met up with Jeremy’s sister, Sarah, who will be joining us on the road for the next four shows. We also got the opportunity to sit in on a recording session at Light It On Fire Productions which was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

The main reason for the break in Jeremy’s hometown was for him to produce some glass for the ZD merch table. Watching him hard at work is a lot of fun, he’s a talented kid. Need some patch work, glass blowing or tech help? Jeremy’s your man. He helps the ZD train keep moving forward, always brainstorming progressive ideas that will further the team in the long run.

Zach is at home picking up his PA which will take his sound back to a whole other level. We look forward to playing through our own system as Zach’s PA is top of the line. It was fun loading in and out of shows with little gear, but with the addition of a PA and subs, things just got a little bit heavier and little bit harder. We can’t wait though!

Relaxation was the key to this trip so Sarah and I went to a barbeque while Jeremy stayed and worked on glass. He was up til about 4:00 AM pumping out some amazing work that you will soon see on the ZD merch table when we come through your town. We toured around St. Augustine which is an absolutely beautiful place. Everyone is so chill down here – it’s one of those places where it’s uncommon to walk by someone and not say hi. I love it here and all the people here are wild about ZD. Many of them are going to see Zach perform at Wanee Festival in Live Oak, FL on Sunday. Zach will be performing two sets on Sunday, one from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM and the other from 7:30 PM to midnight. The venue is an absolute gem in the festival world and should be seen by everyone and anyone who enjoys music in a natural setting. One stage is settled in a natural amphitheatre with hammocks tied between each tree – we can’t wait.

Our last day off before heading back on the road was great. Bike rides to the beach, more grub from Stir It Up, kite flying, glass blowing, live music and relaxation on the beach. Jeremy has been raving about the kite he has, so we headed down to the beach to take a stab at it. This thing is impressive; swooping and diving through the sky. I struggled with it at first, but got the basics down, enough of a foundation for our two week trip down to the Virgin Islands at the end of the month.

Jeremy, Sarah, Erin, Esme, Gemma, Megan and I met up at the beach where there was large gathering of people for a dance off at the pier. There was an oldies band in the pavilion and youngsters outside playing volleyball in the sand. Hola-hoopers rounded out the crowd, making this a great way to end our last night in St. Augustine. Jeremy and I are now back in the shack, jamming out to some nasty trance and blowing glass. I’m trying to keep on top of this blog so I don’t get behind when we get back in the bus tomorrow. Just to note, after receiving free red bulls in our rider at Nelson Ledges in Ohio, our merchandise manager Jeremy is now HIGHLY addicted. If you see him, please reward him with a red bull. He’s a good dude that does a lot of great things in the ZD camp. Show the guy some love with a nice cold red bull, he’ll love you for it!

Loving on Ohio

2009-06-02T18:23:00.022-04:00

We just wrapped up four shows in four days, capping it all off with a visit to GORGEOUS Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Garrettsville, OH. Hopefully many of you have gone over to the Zach Deputy fan page on Facebook or visited Zach's YouTube channel to see some of the videos I took over over the course of the four shows. If you haven't subscribed to Zach's YouTube channel or become a fan on Facebook, I highly suggest you do so, as I will be putting up videos of shows, tour antics and who knows what else.

Let's take a step back. When I last left off, we at ZD camp were in intense preperation for our wiffleball game in Akron. The show preceding the game was a lot of fun; our good friends, Ashes, were on the bill with Zach at The Barley House. Right next door to the venue was a small temporary 2,000 person amphitheater which was packed full of residents soaking up the sun and enjoying that evenings performance. After load in, the bands and their respective members enjoyed a nice big meal together all the while talking a little bit of game and reminising over the last wiffleball contest.

With wiffleball on my mind, I quickly became lost in the moment with all these game surrounding us. For those of you who are unfamiliar with cornhole, I suggest you research the game. A couple years ago I built my own game and soon became obsessed. I heard cornhole was wildly popular in Ohio and finding the game in bars and restaurants wasn't uncommon. There was also a sort of shuffle board game at the Barley House which was a great warmup to the show. Zach and I got in quite the battle - I battled back from a large deficit to earn the W, which Zach blammed on distractions from fans. I generously granted Zach a rematch, just to give him another dose of the same thing. For any of those who know me, I'm a stud muffin at worthless sports. Basketball, baseball, soccer = awful. Ping pong, raquetball, cornhole, beer nuts, fooseball = stud. Enough about that though.

The show was a lot of fun with Zach pulling out a debut entitled You Don't Even Love The Girl. Other highlights on the night were a great rendition of the Mike Tyson parody I Bit His Ear, and the constantly evolving dance party that is Lincoln Continental. For those of you following the blog, you've already heard about the super bouncy ball - connecting ZD fans since May 28th, 2009. Let it be known that this venue was a restaurant with a basketball hoop. Mid set, the ball made is first appearance - knocking over drinks and generating huge laughs. A couple folks made some impressive shots before the ball got put back in the bin, eventually to return at another show.

After the show, we loaded out and headed to the Ashes house for the big game. The house had a large back yard, which was home to a bonfire and slews of tents. We situated the cars to get the game going, which was a hassle to say the least. There were quite a few jacks deep into the woods, which put the game in jeopardy once we only had one ball left. Zach led us to victory with two dingers, putting to rest another challenge offered by Ashes. We look forward to coming back to Ohio for another match with them. After the game, we enjoyed the fire and acoustic ZD songs before packing up around 6:30 AM and driving an hour to the festival.

I could hardly contain myself as we pulled up to Nelson Ledges around 8:00 AM. Visiting this fesitval grounds has been a dream of mine for about three years now, so to say I was excited was a huge understatement. I have tried several times to come out here, but the drive from Maine is about 12 hours. Either way, we were there and there was nothing left to do, but enjoy it. The three of us, grossly over-tired, stumbled through the festival grounds and picthed our tents right on the edge of lake. This venue is absolutely incredible. The two stages are on the beach, cliffs surround the lake for cliff jumping and large woodland camping encourages late night strolls where anything and everything can, and will, happen.

The three of use passed out til about 4:00 PM and lounged for a good part of the day. I geeked out pretty hard when we received our goodies from our rider. A cooler full of red bull, water, diet pepsi, bud light, rum and orange juice was delivered by a staff member - I couldn't believe it. I grabbed a couple DP's and ran around the woods spreading the ZD love and evenutally making my way to the stage for some tunes. I enjoyed being able to run backstage to the hospitality tent to get a couple plates of fried chicken, pasta salad, maple potato wedges and some brownies for good measure. I could see myself getting used to this!

Max Allen Band was a real treat, hailing for Indianapolis, IN and getting the small crowd moving. Zach had played on the same bill with them before, so he sat in on a couple songs to end their set. They are a very talented bunch of guys and would sugget giving them a listen. Another band I would like to suggest is one of my very favorite bands, Japhy Ryder from Burlington, VT. I found this band a couple years ago at grad school in Northampton, MA and fell in love. I had no idea they were on the festival bill, so you can understand my excitement when I saw them walk out on stage. I quickly proceeded to kick off the birks and dig in, enjoying the hell out of their one hour main stage set.

Zach performed two sets in front of a very large crowd later that the evening. His first set at 8:00 PM started off with a groovy Get On Board and a birthday dedication of the song Home to our friend J Dog. It was a lot of fun to meet so many good people on my first pass through Ohio. There was a small ZD family that made it's way from one show to another which was a real treat. After Scotty Don't finished their set, Zach was on for a quick half hour before Badfish and absolutely tour Nelson Ledges apart. The short, but killer setlist included Into The Morning Into The Night > Lincoln Continental > She Says > Scrambled Eggs. The crowd ate it up hard with several bands, including Badfish, giving the highest of praises to the ZD camp.

After load out, Zach grabbed his guitar and the three of us walked into the woods for what we hoped would be a party filled night. To our disappointment, the majority of things slowed down around 4:00 AM, which put us to bed around 5:00 AM. I love festies and their late nights, so this was quite a disappointment, but we all still managed to have some fun stories when we all reconvened in the morning. The next morning we cleaned out the bus and got on the road to enjoy a couple days off and take a chunk out of the monster drive down to Georgia. We stopped in Athens, OH for a potential party/gig with wildly talented electronica act Papadosio, but things didn't go as planned, leaving us without a party or a chance to collaborate with some talented fellas.

Nonetheless, with Zach's killer set at Nelson Ledges, we ended the Midwest swing on a high note. The trek down to Zach's house in Georgia was a little on the long side, but we got the opportunity to take in some scenic views and listen to the live shows as well as the new cd Sunshine, which is slated for release on Tuesday, July 28. The three of us are now enjoying our time in the South, preparing for our next five gigs, which include some very unique shows. Zach will be performing on a boat for his birthday at Rock The Dock in Chapin, SC on Saturday, June 6th. The only way to get to the show is by boat, with dancers on the beach and in the water - we're all very excited for this one, as well as the Thursday show at the Georgia Theater and the benefit concert at Wanee Festival in Live Oak, FL on Sunday.

Well, I appreciate all of you keeping up with the ZD blog. We're gonna enjoy the next couple of days off and look forward to seeing you all at the historic Georgia Theater on the 4th!

It's on...

2009-05-29T05:51:00.011-04:00

Here we go, two days into ZD tour and what an amazing trip it has already been. After an incredible week in the Chicago area with loads of friends and music, I took a painful 8 hour ride to Cincinnati to jump in the bus and get things going. Wednesday afternoon, while waiting for Zach and Jeremy to arrive from Massachusetts, I found myself walking around the city stirring up the buzz about Zach's show later that night at The Mad Frog. I spent a couple hours in beautiful Fountain Square talking to strangers, geeking out over the design of the plaza, and just thinking about how unbelievably excited I am for this journey. I met some GREAT people on the bus and in the city, and a few actually came to that night's show.

Fountain Square - Cincinnati, Ohio:

After 4 hours of killing time and befriending strangers, Zach and Jeremy finally arrived. We grabbed a quick bit, loaded in, soundchecked and got ready for the show. The show was a lot of fun, but the crowd was on the smaller side as Cincinnati doesn't have a very strong music scene. Spirits were still high though, as the three of us were finally on tour and festie season is kicking into full gear. We're at Nelson Ledges on Saturday with two big one hour time slots; that'll be a fun way to say bye to friends and end our brief Midwest swing. After the gig we loaded out and started driving to Morgantown, WV. We ended up going to Meijer (the better half of Target and Wal-mart) around 3 AM and bought some supplies for tour. One necessity for tour was sweet onion salsa and chips, which we killed in about 20 minutes while sitting on the back of the bus laughing, high fiving and just having fun. My body is naturally ready for the tour schedule...wake up at 1 PM, get after it, then pass out around 6 AM. I mean, it's 6:12 AM right now and I'm blogging, waiting to get breakfast in 20 minutes in the hotel lobby.

We just finished our show in Morgantown, WV a couple hours ago; it was a fun crowd. The night started off with the bouncy ball, a new addition to tour that we picked up last night at Meijer. We found so much joy in the ball that we thought it needed to be brought on tour to bring everyone together. After load in and soundcheck, the three of us starting hucking the ball around the venue, slowing gaining participants. This was a lot more fun than expected as people were really getting into it, almost wiping out a couple times to preserve the integrity of the game. You don't want the ball to the hit the ground, right? I mean, c'mon, it's the ground.

Let's be honest though - the real fun was after the show in the form of late night kickball baby! We rounded up a good 15-20 people from the show, went up to the mountain layer of WVU campus and got ready for an intense game. Zach, Jeremy and I were naturally on the same team - preparing for our huge late night wiffleball game tomorrow night in Akron. The game started off well, jumping out to a 14-0 lead, but then we lost it a little bit, losing the lead and going into the last inning down by 2. But we then proceeded to pull it all together and bust out 5 runs, putting us up 25-19. The bottom half of the inning was a little nerve racking, but the game ended on a HISTORIC play. ZD made a diving catch, threw it to me at third after which I fired it back to second base to complete the game-ending TRIPLE PLAY. Epic, historic, legendary...whatever you wanna call it. You needed to experience it.

Well, I derailed on my blog, it's already 7:00 AM, I need to go get grub downstairs. Keep tuning in as I'll be putting up another post after the wiffleball game tomorrow night/Nelson Ledges Summer Kickoff on Saturday. This is just the beginning...it's only gonna get crazier from here!

Tour starts soon!

2009-05-19T23:59:00.008-04:00

Welcome, welcome, welcome. My first post! Classes are over, the weather is beautiful and festie season is here! As I sit here typing, I'm bursting with excitement knowing that in 12 hours I will be in Chicago with my Midwest family, gearing up for what is to be a ridiculous weekend of music, late nights in the woods, new friends and much, much more. Summercamp is a festival in Chillicothe, IL that I have promoted for the last two years and is one of the best festivals going. Umphrey's McGee and moe each perform three shows over the four days, along with 50 other bands. Late nights go til 4 in the morning, but the fun doesn't stop there. I'm so happy to have some of my best friends from home mobbing out to Illinois with me, along with a slew of music family from all over the US. It's gonna get messy, but it's gonna be a blast while it lasts.

This festival is just the beginning of what is to be a memorable summer. After Summercamp ends on Monday the 25th, I have a couple of days to relax with my Midwest friends before somehow making it to Cincinnati to join up with the future of music, Zach Deputy. Zach will be coming off a monster 13 hour drive from Massachusetts, and am sure will be ready make some booty's wiggle. We will be spending the next couple days in Ohio performing shows, capping off the short Midwest swing with two sets at Nelson Ledges Summer Kick-Off in Garrettsville, OH. If you have never been to this festival grounds, I HIGHLY recommend you do so. I've wanted to go for quite some time, so am very excited to be doing it so early in the tour. Beaches, all night dance parties, cliff jumping, sky divers AND music? Damn.

Well that's all for now. I look forward to blogging about the summer with Zach and Jeremy and sharing it with all of you. Check back often as I will be sharing videos, pictures, stories and more as the three of us begin a hectic summer tour that will take us all over the United States. Keep up with everything Zach through the widget tourdates on the sidebar or the links at the top of the page. Take care all!