The Pack traveled to Sequim for the Lavender Festival on the weekend of July 17-18 for some fantastic gigs in the sun and lavender fields. The very first thing I want to address… Tracy Blume, of Jazz in Blume, was the Maven Delightful in scheduling and coordinating all the musical performers for the entire festival – which were manmanymanymany… 6 bands per day on the main-stage alone plus 4 or 5 “Jazz in The Alley” stages throughout town for 3 nights each – that’s a LOT of work and she deserves more than mere recognition – somebody buy this woman a new car!
We also want to give a big shout out to Neil Culbert, who was a big part of the weekend’s success as well. We also want to thank “A Catered Affair” for the craft service and fantastic salmon-Caesar salad.
Back to the Pack… We played in the afternoon at the main stage in the festival center and that was just wonderful. Then we headed to our hotel rooms and Tracy had also booked a “rental” house on the Sunland Golf & Country Club for some of the band as well. What a fabulous place it was. Dave and Patty Mattingley – we thank you so much! What a beautiful place you have, thank you so very much for allowing us to stay in your guest home!
So we loosened up at the house for a bit then headed to The Islander Pasta & Pizza Shack on Washington Blvd. and got ready to play the Jazz In The Alley event. They had a sort of beer garden area set up out back and we were in an event tent right in front of the crowd. We did our usual thing and the wind did something new – Crazy thing about wind and lightweight music stands and paper music in gusty breezes… stuff like that (and event tents) have a tendency to leave their proper place. I’m just sayin’. We quickly remedied that and ended up with a wonderful performance and a really nice crowd shared their love with us. By the way, for those non-Sequim-ites… Ken and Debbie Seavy own both The Islander and the Oasis (across the street) and they are truly AWESOME people. If you live in Sequim – go there… often. And if you visit Sequim – GO THERE! it’s on Washington in the early part of town if you’re coming from Seattle. Tell them The Pack sent you. (because it will be true!)
Then we headed across the street to The Oasis Sports Bar & Grill for some mild dance and debauchery. There were rumors that Mark did some pole dancing… There is a structural pole smack dab in the middle of the dance floor and Mark just had this idea that the energy wasn’t quite hot enough so he swung around that baby in a way that would make a stripper smile. And the ladies screamed with delight.
Next day we headed up to the Cedarbrook Lavender Farm on Sequim Ave with the Medicated Trio for a little afternoon Lavender delight. We did songs like “That’s A-lavender” and “Lavender is for the way you look at me” and other mauve-ish favorites. Marcella was a grand hostess and the air was sweet with fragrance.
We were then back to The Islander for round 2.. This time it was pretty clear that the word had gotten out about The Pack because about half hour before show time the seating was full and people were standing around the outside and more had pulled up in their cars to do a little window-down listening – which was totally awesome for the band.
In all, it was a really great weekend and we want to thank all the people that travelled to Sequim, all the people OF Sequim, Tracy Blume, Neil Culbert, Dave & Patty Mattingley and Ken & Debbie of The Islander Pasta & Pizza Shack and The Oasis!
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Tracy Blume 07.23.09 at 10:10 pm
Kudos to Half Pack Live! for rounding out the fabulous entertainment line up for this year’s Jazz in the Alley. We had 6 venues with 6 different styles of Jazz (including Pearl Django) and the Pack was an undisputed hit!!! We so appreciate the band making the effort (and financial sacrifice) to participate in the Lavender Festival Street Fair and Jazz in the Alley. You added sparkle and sizzle to our 2 day event that folks are STILL talking about. I wanna see you pole dance next time Mark!!!
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