We walked into the RRU Festival on day 2 around 11:30 and it was already in the 90’s.  Would the lineup for the day bring as much heat as the day before and as much as the weather? We checked out the breweries that were there for the brew fest, a nice variety but nowhere near the 50+ breweries they said would be there.  I counted 17 total from local breweries to nationwide breweries; RAR, Clear Skies Meadery, M8 Beer, Corona, Lagunitas, and Big Truck Farm Brewery to name a few.  Some very passionate people, especially from the local breweries.  Nice idea for RRU to add the beer fest, but I think it fell a bit short. I was more excited for this day’s lineup than the previous day, so I was expecting a great day of music.

After we put on our sun block and filled our water bottles, we headed down to the stage for The Harbor Boys to start the day off.  The Baltimore based band, led by Cody Woolsoncroft and Andrew “GINGY” Hall, hit the crowd with their reggae/rock jamming out like madmen on stage (like usual).  I met up with them a couple years ago for an interview before the first year of RRU pre-party and watched them perform at the now closed Tin Roof.  In these two years they have added some band members and deleted some band members, but Cody and Gingy are they mainstays and wow have they come a long way.  I would have described them back then as a fun dive bar band or college band, they have now homed in on their style (I think they were struggling with an identity before), a little more rock than reggae, but their sounds is much more solid.  The future is bright if they stay focused.

Next up was an artist I have never seen before, or really ever listened to, Claire Wright. The Northern California singer “fuses elements of sunshine and carefree living into every ounce of her music. Wright learned the art of penning authentic and compelling lyrics, after spending several years as a full-time singer/songwriter in both Southern California and Nashville, Tennessee” (taken from her website, which perfectly describes her).  She was accompanied by Iration guitarist Micah Brown and Landon Chung of the Wide Eyed Kids on drums, they sounded fantastic as a trio, and we even got a visit from Carter of Surfer Girl for “All I Wanna Do (Surfin’).” She has an amazing, sweet and soulful voice, I expect to see her more and more in the future as her fan base grows. Another group I had never heard before, Maine based Coyote Island.  They have a very unique sound mixing folk, reggae, pop, world, cumbia, and psychodelia.  Not one of my favorites from the weekend, but the crowd did seem to like their distinctive vibe they had going on.  The Wayland, MA Carter Reeves and Surfer Girl were up next.  Their sound is all about good vibes and groovy rhythms, combining indie-pop, reggae, surf-rock and hip hop elements, and the crowd was truly into this set.  Carter, (I ran into him Sunday morning at the café at our hotel and got to talk for a few minutes, awesome down to earth guy), has such a fantastic voice and vibe up on stage.  Just doing his thing and keeping the crowd captivated. Surfer Girl’s drummer and bassist are fantastic, I wish I knew their names for the shout-out. The bassist just totally killed it on stage, the crowd was mesmerized. I was mesmerized!

Ballyhoo! was next up, and as always destroyed it, jamming on stage with their #MarylandBeachRock reggae and punk vibe.  The Aberdeen, MD group, as always, had a huge crowd for their set, everyone in the crowd singing and dancing right along with them.  They are such a fun band to watch and photograph, a crowd favorite always and one of my favorites as well.  I got to meet up with the guys before their set, first thing that hit me, Howie is much taller than I thought (he said everyone says that to him all the time so I felt kinda dumb for saying it LOL). They are so cool and would have loved to be able to spend more time talking with them. Next up, hailing from Bermuda, is one of my favorite artists, Collie Buddz.  I always look forward to Collie and he killed it the previous year at RRU, so I knew this year would be no different.  As always, he sounded great and his band absolutely killed it.  One of the best backup bands out there today lead by Jason “J-Vibe” Farmer, Shawn “Mista Roots” Mitchell, Ronny Gutierrez and Noah Cronin they take a Collie concert to the next level.  I met up with Shawn shortly before the set for a few photos, and I knew this was going to go down big! Collie always puts on a great show and the crowd is always singing right along with him word for word.  I remember seeing him way back in 2008 and wow has he grow as an artist and his fan base.

Next up we got a nice, different vibe with KES (aka KES The Band) taking the stage with their soca sound, but it is much more than soca, blending reggae, calypso, pop, rock, dancehall and afrobeats together. The band was formed back in Trinidad and Tobago in 2005 and have been a steady force throughout the Caribbean and world-wide ever since.  They had a huge turn out at RRU, so many fans coming to the festival to see them (talked to a group that came from NY just to see them).  It was fantastic seeing the love the crowd had for KES and the love KES had for the crowd.  Definitely one of the best overall performances of the weekend.  So happy I got to see them in person finally. Next to the sage was Kingston, Jamaica’s own Orville Richard Burrell, better known to us as Shaggy.  A crowd favorite at festivals, always brings a lot of energy and swagger to the stage.  Oh, the swagger! While the crowd was loving the performance, they got tired of the constant talking and interaction with the crowd.  They wanted to hear his hits, and he seemed to be dragging this out, almost trying to get through the hour-long set.  He didn’t even get to finish his set, his time ran out, leaving the crowd without hearing “It Wasn’t Me.” We heard a lot about that the following day. He did start off his set with KES joining him on stage, which might have been the highlight of his set. The two work so well on stage together.

Finishing off day 2 was headliner and Grammy winner SOJA, bringing us some amazing roots reggae from Arlington, VA.  But shortly before their set started there was a special event right in the front row center that took place.  Last year I met a festival goer, Ron who was back this year with some great news, he was going to get married right before SOJA went on, with the entire crowd as a witness.  He asked me to get some pictures of his and Kathryn’s ceremony, so of course I was happy to. It was a heartwarming and sweet experience; never would I have thought I would see a wedding at a reggae festival. SOJA always puts on an amazing show and this was no different.  They sounded so good all night long, the perfect way to finish off the night, whether it is Jacob with his amazing distinctive vocals, Bobby Lee on bass (he never stops moving on stage), Ryan killing it on drums (I saw his mom backstage with a shirt that said SOJA Mom on the front and Yes the drummer is my son on the back), Hellman and Rafael sounding so amazing on horns, Kenny on percussion and Patrick on keys, and Trevor Young just killing it on lead guitar as always (rode in the hotel elevator Sunday morning with him, just a really nice down to earth guy). SOJA is a band that, even after an incredibly hot and long day, they push so much energy onto the crowd, it’s as if they all just arrived, fresh and ready to jam with SOJA.

While day 2 was even hotter than day 1, I was happy I made it through another grueling day, stayed hydrated and didn’t burn, but what was the best was all the performances.  Such a great day of music, vibes and love. Just like day 1, most bands seemed to outdo the previous band with so much great vocals and amazing instrumentalists.  You can’t help but smile thinking about it. Walking out of the festival, everyone with so much energy flowing around them, wondering what day 3 will bring.

One Love - Todd