Good Vibes Summer Tour!
Featuring Rebelution, Iration, The Expendables, Passafire and DJ Mackel
Photos by: Samantha Madnick
Words by: Rudy Flores
"Smoke'em if you Got'em" was definitely the theme for Friday night's festivities as Rebelution along with Iration, The Expendables, and Passafire took the stage at the North Island Credit Union Amphitheater (Phew... that was a mouthful)! The evening began with Passafire, the rock/reggae band out of Savannah, GA. The four piece, consisting of Ted Bowne(guitar/lead vocals), Mike DeGuzman (key-tar... Respect for bringing that back), Will Kubley (bass... not to be confused with bass) and Nick Kubley (drum master extraordinaire), brought their unique brand of awesome to the crowd that was still funneling in the main gates. They definitely knew how to move a crowd as patrons in the pit swayed back and forth to the mellow grooves. Great sound, great vibes and some cool tricks too! In the middle of their set, without missing a beat ( baddum-tsss) Ted, Mike and Will swapped instruments for a bit and yup that got EVERYONE'S attention! Good stuff! Their next single, “Offer” recently dropped on all the streaming platforms back on June 16th so make sure to check that out!
The Expendables were next, a more local-ish band (Santa Cruz, CA) hit the stage with their surf rock sound and rode that wave right in (yup, I said it... had too... sorry not sorry). These guys were an instant hit with the crowd, Geoff Weers got us on our feet with some solid lead vocals along with Raul Bianchi on lead guitar keeping it funky! Adam Patterson aka "The Heartbeat of the band, was on the drums keep us all in step, while Ryan DeMars was busy being awesome on bass. They played a solid 9 song set that got everyone "feeling good" with songs like "Ganja Smuggler" and "Bowl For Two". Let me tell you THERE WERE SOME THICK CLOUDS ON THAT ONE! Their cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" was a crowd pleaser for sure! Lookout for their upcoming album "Pleasure Point" on Stoopid Records.
What can I say about Iration that hasn't been said a million times? THEY KILLED IT! How could they not with the setlist they chose?! Here's just a small taste of the hits they played "Time Bomb", "Day Trippin", "Falling", I mean they couldn't miss! Then add covers of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Big Poppa, What's My Age Again?, and one of the late great Tom Petty "Last Dance With Mary Jane" (that I firmly believe would've made him proud) and you have the recipe for one of the most amazing performances I've seen in quite a few shows. Honestly I could've just copied and pasted the entire setlist because from the first note to the last they had every single one of us loving life and saying T.G.I.F.!!
Pause for a quick set by D.J. MACKLE on the 1's & 2's spinning some deep cuts for us to move to until the headliner showed up. Side Note: He was a cardboard cutout during part of the first set... couldn't spin worth a dime. I like the real guy more, he was better... A LOT better.
It was finally time for Rebelution to grace the stage!! As the cool night air finally blew through the amphitheater bringing us all some much needed relief from this heatwavethe, the now completely packed crowd was on cloud 9 as the stage lights went out and the last words of Damien Marley's "Welcome to Jam Rock" played. The opening notes to "De-Stress" from Rebelution's 2015 album "Count me in" made everyone in crowd lose their collective minds! During "Attention Span" from 2007's Courage to Grow, the big screens showing the performance looked how everyone was feeling...trippy. Their 21 song set included a whole list of fan favs, exciting laser shows (perfect for the mysterious haze that formed just over the crowd in the pit) and even a tribute to the great Gregory Isaacs with their rendition of the classic "Night Nurse". Kyle Ahern, the band's guitarist blessed everyone with a track that he wrote called "Good Will Come" which was released back in 2018 (I said that like it was soooooo long ago ), which he nailed!
The encore had Eric Rachmany (lead singer) and Kyle come out and do an amazing acoustic version of "Life on the Line" from their 2012 self titled album that they debuted earlier on the tour. Obviously everyone was all in for that. They ended the show with the classic "Roots Reggae Music" and brought back Iration for one hell of an ending to the show. As the crowds funneled back out the gates from whence they came, you could tell that everyone had an amazing time! Make sure to catch them if you can at any of the remaining (as of August 8th) 16 shows, which include a 3 nighter in Costa Mesa, CA at the Pacific Amphitheater. They also have shows in Phoenix, Albuquerque, Red Rocks just to name a few. For more information check out https://rebelutionmusic.com/ and get yourself a seat for a fantastic show!
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