Fantasyland Events

***May 12, 2006, A New Orleans Night in San Francisco

Special thanks to members of Tea Leaf Green, ALO, The Ritual, Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove, The Everyone Orchestra, Hamsa Lila, Albino, Group Du Jour, and The Smokedaddies for playing until 7AM at this festive late-nite birthday celebration for Sauce and Jordan, and post-New Monsoon After-party at The Pound. Mezmerizing projections by Jay "Dr. FX" Newbie literally took our breath away and added his very special magical element to the event. Very special thanks to our co-producers, the amazing Jenstar Productions and Jordan Feinstein of The Ritual.

Recordings of this event will soon be available on the Conservation Value merchandise page, with proceeds to benefit this sustainability non-profit organization.

***April 2, 2005, Planet of Green Love Party

Special thanks to members of ALO, The Ritual and Samantha and The Ritual, Hamsa Lila, Neckbone, Tea Leaf Green, Guitarmeggedon, London Street, Garrin Benfield, The Smokedaddies, and Tracorum for playing until 7AM at this triumphant late-nite Tea Leaf Green After-party at Project THERE. The Ritual, with members of ALO, Hamsa Lila, Guitarmeggedon, London Street, and Four Year Bender lead hours of jamming that included the music of The Ritual, ALO, and Neckbone, and guest appearances by members of Tea Leaf Green and Guitarmeggedon (playing wild versions of Statesboro Blues and Red House), and Garrin Benfield (playing songs including the Grateful Dead's Althea)! Mezmerizing projections by Jay "Dr. FX" Newbie in the live music BARN, and Dr. John Dix in THERE. Very special thanks to our co-producers, the amazing Jenstar Productions and Jordan Feinstein of The Ritual.

Recordings of this event are now available on the Bay Recorders Organization's Fantasyland Events Web Page.

***November 2, 2004, Election Night with HeadCount, 12 Galaxies, San Francisco: Special thanks to Pete Sears, David Gans, Mark Karan, Jamie Janover, and members of New Monsoon, ALO, Samantha and The Ritual, and Neck Bone, as well as Visuals master Dr. FX, poster designer Shauger, and the Bay Area music community for coming out strong on a night that we all needed each other and the music. The music and comradery provided a breath of fresh air that made this difficult evening a lot easier to get through.

***September 11, 2004, Studio 352 Party. After Samantha and The Ritual's pre-CD Release Part at The Independent, The Ritual, joined by Samantha Stollenwerck, Jason (Saxophone), and other guests, had Studio 352 groovin' till long after sunrise!

***June 5, 2004, Studio 352 Party: Special thanks to The Ritual, with special guests Josh Clark and Trevor Garrod of Tea Leaf Green, Sean Leahy of London Street, and Aaron Kaplan (of many a musical endeavor) for yet another musical throwdown that lasted till the wee hours of Bay Area twilight. The peak of the night had to come during some o' that Band of Gypsies stuff that Josh and Sean were just blazing through, Josh on lead and Sean on slide, leaving many a jaw dangling below our belts. Unquestionably, guitar playing intense enough to draw comparisons to some of those old Clapton/Duane Derek and the Dominos Sessions... (and if you don't believe us, we've got the recording somewhere...) Don't miss the next Studio 352 Party-- even we never quite know who's gonna play..!

**May 1, 2004, Fantasyland Jam comes to Jazz Fest

Special thanks to Sunset Promotions and Red Underground for organizing New Orleans JazzFest's first ever Fantasyland Jam! The jam ran from 5-9AM and featured an astounding line-up of musicians, including Tea Leaf Green's Trevor Garrod (keys) and Josh Clark (Guitar), Fuzz, Carlos Washington, Papa Mali, all of ALO, Jeff Miller (guitar), Ben Bernstein (bass), Marty Ytalio (drums), Brian (persuccion), and Pete (keys) of New Monsoon, Jordan Feinstein (keys), Samantha (vocals), Pete (bass), and Chad Zammuto (percussion) of Samantha and The Ritual, Addison Groove Project's keyboard and sax players, Tanya and Dave of Mountains of Venus, and Henry Butler's percussion player!! None were safe, as the legendary PlateFace was in the house...

***March 12, 2004, Bay Area Family Jam

Special thanks to members of Tea Leaf Green, ALO, Samantha and The Ritual, Neckbone, Bohemian Knuckleboogie, London Street, and Home at Last for playing until 6AM at this wild late-nite buffet of Bay Area bands at the WerePad.

Samantha and the Ritual opened the festivities with a stellar set, followed by Tea Leaf Green (with Steve Adams of ALO on bass), London Street, Neckbone, ALO (Dan and Steve playing with Josh and Trevor of Tea Leaf Green (guitar and keys), Jordan and Chad of The Ritual (keys and percussion, and Lucas of Home at Last and Bizar Baazar on drums), Bohemian Knuckleboogie, The Smokedaddies, and an All-Star Jam. Each band played a few of their songs with special guests from other bands, all to the backdrop of the wondrous projections of Magic Gravy and Kaia, and the energy of a funkily-dressed and grooving audience full of the positive vibe!

Recordings of this event are now available on the Bay Recorders Organization's Fantasyland Events Web Page.

***February 21, 2004, Studio 352 Party. Special thanks to Shanti Groove from Boulder, Colorado for playing an outstanding who knows how many sets of bluegrass long into the night to a packed Studio 352! After about 5:30AM, everybody unplugged, and in the ensuing jamming, Josh Clark of Tea Leaf Green joined in on mandolin, as did Steve Adams of ALO on bass and Jordan Feinstein of The Ritual on piano. The last note wasn't played until long after sunrise. Yet another night in which we are thankful to live in San Francisco!

***January 16, 2004, Studio 352 Party. Gilly's 30th Birthday Party. The Ritual, joined by Sean Leahy of Boomshanka and Samantha Stollenwerck had Studio 352 groovin' till nearly 4AM. The Ritual played the first set solo, and was joined by Sean and Samantha for Sets II and III. Samantha, fresh out of the the redwood hide-out of In The Pocket Records, where she and The Ritual are recording Samantha's new album, stepped up and brought the room to a hopping, grinding frenzy.

Read Jambase review of recent Samantha and the Ritual show that touches on their performance at this party.

Oct-December, 2003: On vacation, traveling the wildneress areas of central Idaho (Frank Church River of No Return) and northeastern Nevada (Jarbidge), and exploring the rainforests, caves, cayes, reefs, and Mayan ruins of Belize and Guatemala...(check back for photos!)

August 23, 2003. Studio 352 party with The Ritual and friends.

Lost Underwater World Post-Phish Afterparties - July 9-10, 2003

- -With our comrade in The Oeste Experience, Brian Morgan, we teamed up with our friends at High Sierra Music to bring you 2 wild nights of our characteristic late-nite live music environment following Phish's July 9th and 10th Shoreline Ampitheater shows.

After a pair of rockin' sets from Umphrey's McGee, Phish's Mike Gordon stopped by and sat in with The Slip for a song on Wednesday night.

ALO and Tea Leaf Green had Studio Z boogyin' down Thurdsay night as Jay Archibald and Alan Pettibone provided spellbinding undersea video and kaleidoscope visual effects. Special thanks to Nicole Avenet from Hartman Studios for providing beautiful undersea world decore, Mark Mason of MJM Productions, Jordan Feinstein of The Ritual , and the good folks who volunteered their time to help us create the Lost Undersea World ambiance!

Fri June 13, 2003. Ph.D. Party and Birthday Bash at Studio 352. Special thanks to all the good people who came out to The Friday the 13th Ph.D. Party and Birthday Bash, and especially, to The Ritual, Boomshanka, and Tea Leaf Green stepping up to play, and to Dr. FX and Jay Archibald for providing spellbinding visual effects. It has truly been a pleasure to watch as this scene of intelligent, responsible, and creative folks who know how to have fun and keep life balanced has come together. We are humbly grateful to all of you.

*Fri May 16, 2003. In celebration of Jordan's birthday, The Ritual participated in another outstanding late-nite jam at Studio 352 in San Francisco. After the Cara Crocker trio opened with an acoustic set, The Ritual took over on electric, tearing it up with its wild, soulful mixture of funk and electronica. Many special guests joined in the fun, including Samantha Stollenwerck , the Charlie Hunter Quintet's John Ellis (sax) and Derek Phillips (drums), The Om Trio's Ilya Stemkovsky (drums), ALO's Steve Adams (bass), Boomshanka's Mike Warrington (bass), Funky Beulah's Dave D'Ambra (guitar) and Mike Myers (sax), Urban Funk Machine's Scott Woods (guitar), Jambase's Andy Gadiel, Ron Jeremy Explosion's Andy Shirey, Cara Crocker Trio's Adam Gutterman, Chad of "Woman", Chewy Smith of Cool-Shades McGruff, and other members of the Bay Area Music Mafia!

*Fri April 18, 2003. In celebration of Grier's birthday, The Ritual lead another outstanding late-nite jam at Studio 352 in San Francisco, with special guest guitar and keyboard players from Cyril Neville's Band and Andy Gadiel of JamBase joining in the jamming later on in the evening (or early morning)! Happy Birthday to Grier!

Sat, March 29, 2003. Surprise Tea Leaf Green afterparty at Studio 352. Special thanks to Tea Leaf Green for their generosity to their fans in playing at a surprise, unannounced afterparty at the Fantasyland locale following their sold-out MysteryMachine/Sunset-promoted show with Rebirth Brass Band at the Great American Music Hall. The band played until 5AM to a packed, sweaty, fist-pumping crowd full of the positive vibe! The Ritual, joined by members of Boomshanka, then took over the music and played until well after sunrise, featuring some of the most astounding keyboard jamming we've ever heard (see our music section for a sample!) Thank you to everyone who made this last-minute party possible, and thank you Tea Leaf Green and The Ritual for another epic night of peaking jams!

Read Jambase review of shows from the Great American Music Hall and late-nite party that also touches upon our late-nite Studio 352 parties.

Fantasyland Party - Saturday, February 1, 2003, Studio 352

- See photos from the Fantasyland party in San Francisco.

- We teamed up with Jenstar Productions and The Ritual for this event and what a treat it was! This intimate jam session celebrated the Bay Area's growing late-nite live music scene. With a mezmerizing visual backdrop provided by the video magic of Dr. FX and the kaleidoscope work of Jay Archibold, the music lasted from midnight until 7AM without a single set-break, thanks to a continuous rotation of musicians, including:

*Jordan Feinstein--The Ritual (keyboards and vocals)
*Dan Lebowitz--ALO, The Ritual (guitar and percussion)
*Steve Adams--ALO, The Ritual, Phil Boyd Studge (bass)
*Mike Park--The Ritual, Ron Jeremy Explosion (drums)
*Samantha Stollenwerck (guitar and vocals)
*Josh Clark--Tea Leaf Green (guitar)
*Trevor Garrod--Tea Leaf Green (keyboards and vocals)
*Ben Chambers--Tea Leaf Green (vocals of Green Love)
*Jason Concepcion--Netwerk:Electric, Santa Cruz Hemp Allstars (guitar)
*Dave Menez--Netwerk:Electric (bass);
*Ben Bernstein--New Monsoon, Stolen Bibles (bass)
*DJ Motion Potion (da funk)
*Eric Martens--SFUNK (guitar and percussion)
*Sean Leahy--Boomshanka, London Street, Neckbone(guitar)
*Mike Warrington--Boomshanka (bass)
*Funky Dave D'Ambra--Funky Beulah (bass and vocals)
*Lucas Carlton--Home at Last, Bizar Baazar, Wayside (drums)
*Justin Hellman--Wayside, Monkey Night Fight (bass)
*Andy Shirey--Ron Jeremy Explosion (guitar)
*Adam Gutterman--Cara Crocker Trio (keyboards)
*Tony Mattioli--Stolen Bibles (guitar)
*Alan Schneider--mgr, Tea Leaf Green (percussion)
*Debbie Stewart (cello)

All we can say is, "Wow!" and "Thank you!" to our amazing friends.

**Halloween Tea Party and Costume Ball - October 26, 2002

- Read a review from Jambands.com about Tea Leaf Green's blistering-hot performance at the Halloween Tea Party and Costume Ball, a late-nite post-Stringcheese Incident boat party on San Francisco Bay that took revelers on a scary musical journey from the Golden Gate Bridge to Alkatraz to Pac Bell Park.
- See photos from the Halloween Tea Party and Costume Ball, organized with my comrade in The Oeste Experience, Brian Morgan. The theme of the party was "Sex in the 70's" and Dr. FX provided a truly wild visual backdrop rooted in sex and 70's related footage. Please email Jon if you have any photos that you are willing to share!