Friday April 26, 2013
Jazz Fest Day 1! It's moving day for Michael. Steve, Miri and I had a quick breakfast at Satsuma Cafe, bought Michael a muffin and coffee to go and picked him up at his hotel. His room was ready at the Quality Inn Belle Maison on St. Charles, so we took him there, dropped off his luggage and took off for Jazz Fest. Steve dropped us off at the Gentilly entrance.
We headed first for the Liagnappe and the Oyster Bar. We enjoyed the first of several oyster feasts during our time in NOLA. A nice Pilsner Urquiell washed it all down. If there was ever a dessert for breakfast, this was it!
There was no music going on, we arrived too early for the first show, so we went on down the row to the Gospel Tent. We sat in on the Zulu Gospel Male Choir as they finished their set, just enough to get a taste of the Gospel tent. We never made it back.
We walked through the grounds checking out the sights and sounds, finding the venues and checking out the food courts and craft stations. We picked up a couple of beers and headed to the Peoples Economy Tent for our first set.
The weather is warm and sunny, we are in short sleeves and shorts… Little did we know that this would be the exceptional day and not the norm!
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Michael saw his first second line and got some nice pics. This was original, traditional, and a perfect beginning for our Jazz Fest.
Leroy Thomas and the Zydeco Roadrunners - Lagniappe
We stopped by the food court for a taste of the fine New Orleans cuisine. Michael had Crawfish Pie and I got the Red Beans and Rice. We sat and ate outside the Peoples Economy Tent.
Blues Tent - John Mooney and Bluesiana
On to the Fais Do Do. We stopped first at the Fest T-Shirt Store and bought our Festival Shirts. I bought this year's shirt "Brass in the Grass," and "Nome de Plume" from 2008.
We were treated to the highlight of the first weekend. Le Vent du Nord (The North Wind). An amazing French Canadian band from Quebec gave us a very energetic set of folk and original tunes and couldn't get off the stage until they had played three encores! This is a very rare occurrence at Jazz Fest because of the time factor… It just never happens, but it did for this fine group! I was right up front for the whole gig. Amazing! Instrumentation was Bass, Hurdy Gurdy, bouzouki, guitar, fiddle and foot percussion. WOW!
We finished day one at the Gentilly Stage in the Wayyyy back watching Band of Horses.
We walked back out the Gentilly entrance where Steve picked us up and we all went to dinner at a nice burger place called TruBurger. We dropped Michael at the Quality Inn and went on home. Steve and I tried to watch Bill Mahr but I fell asleep on the couch (with my shirt open, jaw sagging and making strange sounding snoring noises or so says Steve.. :) It was gross, so Steve woke me up, turned off the TV and we went to bed.
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