Guerilla Union’s Spring Gathering at NOS Events Center 6/11
Guerilla Union’s Spring Gathering turned out exactly as it should have:
A huge festival without the huge festival hassles.
Thousands of people were in attendance, the event did sell out, but the calamity, distortion and stress that usually accompanies this sort of thing was nowhere to be found.
Hence, on a beautiful, windy day, my friends and I got to enjoy the best of reggae and hip hop in a calm, cool environment.
We walked around and ate our funnel cakes, lounged in the many comfortable rest areas, and just enjoyed a nice Spring day.
The performances were sick, too.
Out of all the Marley brothers, Stephen Marley sounds the most like his legendary father.
With a couple of cute little boys waving the Jamaican flag on stage, Stephen performed his father’s timeless music including “Buffalo Soldier,” “Three Little Birds,” and was joined by Damien as they did “Could You Be Loved“.
I figure since we are all too young to have experienced the magic that was Bob Marley, who better to channel his energy than his children?
Stephen also performed a couple of his own songs, including “No Cigarette Smoke (In My Room)” and the powerful “Freedom“.
Cypress Hill‘s set was a crowd favorite, per usual, and for some reason Sen Dogg really stood out to me during this performance.
Julio G DJ’s for Cypress, and B.Real credits him as one of his inspirations to start DJ’ng, which he does quite well.
We didn’t see B.Real get down on the turntables this time, though. He stayed on the mic and kept the Cypress classics coming.
Travis Barker and Mix Master Mike did an ill collabo where they were set up on two sides of a huge boombox replica and meshed turntablism and drumming into a finely tuned show.
Snoop Dogg closed out the show, and along with Kurupt, he brought out The Bishop Don Magic Juan and his uncle June Bug on stage.
Snoop performed a plethora of hits old and new, the most memorable being “Gin & Juice.”
…Next up on Guerilla Union’s playlist the infamous Rock The Bells
words/photos: Ani Yapundzhyan
