162: Hershey is for Hippies

So my wife, she is a huge DMB fan. As a result I went to my first show at the E-Center, just across from Philly, 4 years ago. The crowd was a lot of old grateful dead guys, tied died shirts and definitely that phish/dead/dirty hippie feel. Hippies aren't my deal, but generally are pretty nice folks. I like nice people.

Over the last few years I have found myself at more than one of these shows in Philly. Slowly but steadily, the crowd changed. First it evolved into a frat rat patty crowd, who only went crazy when Dave made a reference to getting high. Which he does pretty often. Honestly, not my gig, but that's cool.

Then last year it went totally bad. "Joey and Drama Queen" hit the scene. Seriously the last show I swear was a series of outtakes from hot chicks with douche bags. As a side note, those girls kinda scare me, and not in a hot good way. And they are really not cool to sit next to at a show, not one bit.

Friday night, Monkey and I ventured to Hershey, PA for the DMB/Black Crows show. The show was great, my only complaint would be that the Black Crows set was way too short. DMB looked like they were having lots of fun, and played the best set I have seen in my way too many DMB shows. Don't tell Monkey, but I actually enjoyed myself.

Best of all, I found all the hippies! They were hanging out in Hershey. The crowd was very festive in the fields we parked in, (thanks to the Hebe clan for a nice cold beer!). Old grateful dead folks were a plenty, as well as girls with good tattoos. The crowd was really into the show, not being the show, people were friendly, and dancing not like they were in a NYC club, which at a Dave show never made sense to me, but like they were god damn dirty hippies! Yeah Dirty Hippy Dance!

Dirty dudes, white dreads, the smell of weed everywhere. Long haired freaky people ! They must have all had the munchies really bad, and have been hanging out in Hershey for the chocolate. Friends, for my concert money, if I have a choice between sitting next to the long island drama queens or a dirty hippie, well pass me the petruli... Hershey was outstanding.

Drive home was uneventful albeit longer than coming from philly, as I hit the pillow at 2:00am.

Saturday morning I was up early as these guys arolled by the homestead and we headed down to the pokerrun, which was a great ride:

Buddy primarily set the pace for the first hour, followed by E-town in the second, and I finished out the Maestro duties for the reminder of the ride. Roughly 32 miles in just under 3 hours, counting the ride in from the house. We were also joined by Kid Chris and Brad Clark who I am certain carries a wallet like this. Needless to say, it was nice little ride.

The course was fun, but I'll be honest I miss the days where there were actually cards that you picked up at the five different stops. You know when the poker run was actually a poker run, not me paying to ride the trails that are basically my back yard and getting a raffle ticket. the trailspinners are a great group, lets hope the mend this great event for next year.

Say a prayer to the employees of all the Chuck E. Cheese's of the world tonight. I had the controlled chaos of those poor souls thrust upon me as I helped my 5 year old nephew party up on his birthday.

Seriously, pray for those poor people. I did have fun hanging out with my newphews. SuperChunk and I tore it up on teh rides:

be safe. Smile and wave.

respect.

faticus