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Line Up Magazine - Alma Surf Festival - one historical surf festival, three happening cities, four kick ass bands, and a handful of international fine artists, photographers and award winning film makers. Mix in two vans of surfers, skateboarders, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters, boozers, fathers, vegetarians, mustaches, hung over hippy folk singers, harmonicas, adoring fans and TV shows. This was some of our week and a half during the Alma Surf Festival and this is some of what went down. Did I mention eight plane flights and eleven days of all this? After two connecting flights from Philly, I arrive in the early morning on November 6th to Sao Paulo, Brazil . "Hey bro, I'm Jay. I'm one of the surf artists showing work at the festival," I say to the tall familiar face standing behind me in the customs line. "Wussup, I'm Garrett," he replies. G. Love and his manager, Jason, and I exchange some words and my eleven days of Brazilian adventure begins. Wondering why there weren’t Starbucks in Brazil, Sean and I sit at the hotel lobby bar drinking cappuccinos. Sean Davey, a well known surf photographer and a close friend of mine, tries explaining in his thick Tasmanian accent where he is from to the bartender. As he draws pictures of Australia and points on a napkin to the non-English speaking bartender, Matt Costa walks around the corner. In Jersey when I hit the play button, there are a handful of bands that borderline between being over-played and being a constant in my daily ritual towards finding contentment. These are musicians that inspire me. I workout, jam on guitar, skate and even sing in the shower to them. My girlfriend and I even took a trip out to Squaw Valley, California last spring just to snowboard and see Matt Costa, G. Love and Donovan Frankenreiter perform. Now here I am, eight months later, chatting it up in the lobby of the Blue Tree hotel with Matt and his manager, Chris, just after taking a shuttle bus from the airport with G. Love. Have you ever read The Secret? You really should …that shit works! The lobby fills with welcoming smiles as Donavon Frankenreiter arrives. G. Love and Zach Gill from ALO jump up off the couch to give Donavon a brotherly hug. With our last musician now here, our tour officially commences. THE FESTIVAL: SAO PAULO We arrive at our first venue with Donavon. As we pull up, you can feel the energy of the crowd approaching. We step out of the van knowing that this was going to be a really good time. As we flash our “Artista” VIP badges we head towards the entrance and we hear “Hold on a sec.” Donavon gets sidetracked. I watch as he spends 20 minutes with fans, two of whom had no money and Donavon quickly adds them to his guest list. “You guys comin' backstage with me or what?" Donavon asks as he motions with his hand to follow. We all end up in the VIP area on the 3rd floor as the sound of clinking glasses, cracking beer cans and the white noise of the crowd echoes through the dome shaped building. My buzz sets in as the bands go on. Matt Costa takes the stage first with James Fletcher and Mitch Townsend. They perform Matt’s unique brand of instantly adored acoustic folk riffs and creative lyricism about love, emotion, whiskey and wine. Matt’s on and offstage presence is reminiscent of the early Beatles with his touch of coyness and drunken wit. Garrett, with his ‘hip-hop meets the Blues Brothers persona,’ tunes his guitar as he exchanges friendly words with Matt after his set ends. G Love is called to stage and pulls up a chair. He rests his Gibson on his lap with his C-Harp propped up on his harmonica holder and rocks the audience. By the end of his set, all the musicians end up side by side on stage playing along. We finish off the bottles of booze and piled back in to the bus. Donavon and his bassist Matt Grundy, along with Zach Gill, Dan Lebowitz, and Steve Adams from ALO and James from Matt Costa’s band congregate in the hotel with instruments still in hand from the concert. Donavon, sitting on the armchair next to the hotel bar, strums a few chords from “It Don’t Matter” on his acoustic. The other musicians, eager to fill the musical void, chime in. We watch the birth of our trip’s two theme songs, “The Weight” and “Sympathy for the Devil” which became a staple in every remaining show of the tour. I seized the moment and grabbed Zach’s ukulele and played a few drunken riffs. We ended the session by ordering Dominos. THE NEXT DAY Also, along for the trip is movie maker and lifelong surfer, Sunny Abberton. Sunny tellls us on a bus ride how he got Russell Crowe involved in his film, Bra Boys. Sunny’s movie was one of the most talked about surf films showing at this year’s festival. This emotionally charged movie is a tour through his family’s struggles and insight into Australia’s surf culture, always leaving the crowds with eyebrows lifted and jaws sagging. The showing tonight is no different. The crowds pour out of the movies and into the front of the stage for another night of music. As they walk past to take the stage, you can feel the happiness in Zach, Dan, Steve and Dave, friends and members of the alternative jam band ALO. Their acoustic driven tunes embody the power and the spirit of the San Francisco folk and jam band scene, and I had no idea how cool an accordion could be until I saw an ALO show. Donavon comes on for his headline set and the crowd roars, already pumped up from the three other bands before him. Donavon, sporting his patented bell bottoms, vintage button down and large brimmed hat, along with Grundy, play a sick set of acoustic tunes that turns the show into a karaoke session. English speaking or not, the audience knew every word Donavon uttered. RIO As we get ready for take off to Rio de Janeiro, I overhear Donavon sitting in the seat directly in front of me talking on his cell phone to his little boy Hendrix. He says in his best Daddy-voice, “Hey baby, it’s Papa…. How was your soccer game?... Is Mama home?” I then acknowledge that these guys really write songs from the heart. I’ll never hear his song, “Call Me Papa” without recalling that moment on the plane. BERNARDO’S PLACE It is dark and rainy when our bus pulls into a small alleyway as we arrive to our new local friends’ house. Walking up the wet, unlit brick steps, none of us know that the next several hours are to be what some of the bands were calling after words, their best jam ever. "The beer is upstairs, my friends," Bernardo announces proudly to his guests. Set on the side of a hill, the second floor, reached only via winding staircase, overlooks the valley of lit up apartments and favelas. We all explore the house and throw back some brews. Groups huddle on the balcony as musicians grab some instruments from the front room. Smoke begins to fill the air and the night begins. Bummm...Bumm....Bummm, the acoustic bass of Steve Adams thumps as Dave Brogan, on the drums, sets the beat. Zach Gill joins the freestyle jam on his iconic Melodica, as Matt Costa grabs a guitar and strums along. Donavon plugs in to the amp as Dan Lebowitz throws down some licks on his slide guitar. Local musicians add a Brazilian flavor with metal drums and percussion. Sean and I, being the only two photographers in the room, seize this rare opportunity to shoot photos and video clips while the rest of people talk and bob their heads to the beat. One by one, each musician amended their own musical brushstrokes, only taking breaks for beers, a smoke or an instrument swap around the room. The room’s atmosphere picks up of a house party flavor as G. Love arrives an hour later. He starts freestyling on the mic and blowing his signature blues licks through his harmonica. Being in that room for the next several hours filled my soul with music that is as significant to me as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin were to that generation. FLORIPA We arrive in Florianópolis, or Floripa (pronounced: Floor-eepa) as Brazilians call it, around 1:30 in the morning and as we check in, we see Steve and Zach from ALO in the hallway coming back from pizza. After giving away their take home box of remaining slices, they invite us to the El Divino Club, a dance club up the street. Tired from the flights but stoked to go out, half of us run upstairs and throw on some fresh clothes and a spritz of cologne and we’re out the door. The bouncers get talked into letting me and Zach go in with flip flops, as we get our silly drinking cards. Down in Brazil, they give you a card or a paper, so you can tally your drinks and pay for it at the end. I guess this saves time, but at the end of the night, the last thing you want is to stand in line to pay your tab. Luckily beer in Brazil is cheap, and we drank the whole night for the equivalent of about 15 bucks U.S. THE SHOW IN FLORIANOPOLIS The mood of this show was different than the previous three. It was a night of celebrating new and old friendships, a night of acknowledgement, appreciation and almost time to say goodbye to Brazil. Mentally and physically on empty from partying too much and lack of sleep, and beginning to miss my home and loved ones, I ask at the show, “How the hell do you guys do this so often?” The bands and managers simply say to us non-rock star folks that this tour was unlike others they had been on. Never before had they toured for so long away from home with such few performances. For the encore, Donavon looks over to the side of the stage and waves us over and says “I wanna bring out all the artists, film makers, photographers and crew.” The crowd cheers. We all smile ear to ear and stand tall. We fill in the remaining empty spots onstage behind and around the other musicians as they serenade the audience one last time. And as we stand up there looking out into the crowd of thousands, we sing along but I don’t remember to what song. The moment became a blur and time stood still. On the flight home, Steve Adams, Sunny and I hang out until 3:30 in the morning drinking wine and reminiscing. A few rows back, Matt Costa is passed out with his head hanging into the aisle. We had spent the past ten days traveling with each other swapping stories, telling jokes, sharing drinks and car rides, recycling clothes and saying Obrigado way too much. AFTER THOUGHTS One of the key accomplishments in the evolution of humankind is our ability to create and inspire. We are spiritual beings having an Earthly experience and no matter the time or place, history glorifies and romanticizes art, music and culture. I feel blessed to have been selected to display my Surf Art on this paramount voyage. Being alongside people whose work inspires and creates the soundtrack of my life made this experience so sweet. During my art exhibits, I met locals who couldn't speak my language nor I theirs. But through my paintings, we communicated and I realized that what we all do to contribute is significant. As an ALO song says ,"...it's clear to me that this life is gonna be all about the dangling possibilities".
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