Groovenaut Banner Friend-Fest Group Shot (bottom), GrooveSession (top)
Ontario, CA based groove-rock power trio, GrooveSession, took a rare weekend off touring to host a party in the Southern California mountains for family and friends of the band who have supported them and their music on 4/19 & 4/20 in the hills above the town of Julian, CA. I had the pleasure of providing the lighting for their stage. Here’s my take on the weekend.
First off, after driving the 2.5 hours into the mountains on a Friday evening, I had no idea what to expect. I had never been to this location and while I know the band and their music, the long and winding road that led me there was seemingly endless. I arrived on Friday night about 7 pm. They planned on kicking off the music at 7:30 pm with Barrel Fever Trio, an Orange County based bluegrass trio. Rolling in with 30 min to spare due to the insatiable Friday night traffic, I quickly began assembling the lighting rig. An hour later, all was ready to rock and first notes filled the air around 8pm.
Barrel Fever Trio w/ special guest, Sarven Manguiat of GrooveSession
Barrel Fever Trio got the crowd warmed up with a little over an hour set bringing the young kids out to the stage to kick up some dust to some bluegrass music. Now was time for GrooveSession. They lit up night with their infectious music right around 9:30 pm and three songs into the set an elderly resident of the canyon made an appearance in front of the stage yelling “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP THIS NOISE!!”. Of course, her rants were handled most eloquently by GrooveSession’s guitarist, Sarven Manguiat, and her demand for immediate silence was extended to 11:30pm. I was dumbfounded at how quickly her tirade turned to agreement. Time to keep rockin’! But first, Manny Sanchez, the drummer and captain of the SS GrooveSession took a moment to recognize the one year anniversary of the passing of Band drummer and Manny look-a-like, Levon Helm, leading into a GS version of a Band song. Can’t recall what tune but I remember it was a good one.
With a, now, shortened evening, GrooveSession pushed headlong into a fat set of music delivering a great first night of a two day camp-out. There was a full day ahead of them on Saturday and hopes that our fun-killer wouldn’t return for a second night.
GrooveSession (L-R: Sarven Manguiat, Ronnie Sanchez, Manny Sanchez)
Day two. Waking up to hot coffee, bagels and scrambled eggs from Chef Ron Sanchez, the father of two of the three members of GrooveSession, set the tone for a great day in So. Cal. Kids climbed and hiked the nearby hills, the babbling brook that flowed through the campground hosted a chorus of frogs and lizards and everyone was ready for three sets from GrooveSession. The plan was to start early as to not annoy our previous evening’s visitor again and so around 3pm we began rebuilding the sound system and light rig. A few hours later all was ready to kick off and a 4/20 inspired set leaning heavy on the reggae beat began. Second set took a dive into the deep end with heavy electronic effects from Sarven, hard thumping bass lines from Ronnie Sanchez and a plethora of vintage GrooveSession tunes that the die hard family in attendance we thrilled to hear. The whole evening wrapped up around 11:30 again which led to an improvised jam around the campfire led by Manguiat which included a delicious version of the Beatles “Blackbird” and a host of Stevie Ray Vaughan tunes and the Jimmie Hendrix song “Little Wing.” Sarven stretched his musical wings around the fire appeasing the late night crowd until well after 3 am. The presumed presence of a Sasquatch was your authors cue to retreat to the confines of the ShakedownNews-Mobile.
GrooveSession says they plan on making this an annual affair and inviting more bands next year. It will also be open to more people as they plan on moving locations to a 15 acre property nearby. I certainly hope so. This was a great camp-out full of great people and great music. The perfect formula to get threatened with a good time!
GrooveSession hits the road this week heading to Colorado:
4/24 – Gunnison, CO
4/25 – Denver, CO
4/27 – Durango, CO
4/28 – Denver, CO
4/30 – Aspen, CO
For more details visit: GrooveSession’s Facebook Page
