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...
I liked it.
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