The much anticipated Last daze of summer (2nd annual) found me sick as a dog but there was no way I was gonna chump out so I played 2 sets coughing a bit but pulled through for a fri. 4pm set on main stage and a sat. 1pm set on cafe stage. Weather was nice and the turnout was great. My fav performances of the weekend were.....
The Heavy pets epic performance(i've seen these guys about 10 times in the last 2 years but man have they gotten tight and funky since I've seen them last. Super high energy great jams loved every second of it. Hot Day @ the zoo put on a great show as well I dig myself some bluegrass and they were alot of  fun to watch I really was digging there melodies and they are a better party than I remember them being @ past shows as well.Spiritual Rez was amazing that guitarist can really shred any style it seems but really blew my mind w/ the funky stuff and the stevie ray vaughn-ish riffing. Being a huge fan of stevie ray I was paying close attention to the smokin leads. The band all around was super tight, i wanted to get a c.d. but they did'nt have any unfortunately maybe next time.Jatoba played a fun set as always, House on a spring rocked a nice one sun and time herron corp. was awesome as always Tim another one of my fav guitarists to watch @ stage. Although camping and dancing and partying 3 days in sterling was making me sicker we were obligated to cruise stright out of sterling to the bullfrog brewery in williamsport PA. There was no stage but a great PA and a whole lot of beer brewing going on I was so sick i was'nt interested in drinking a super kind new friend helped me out w/ a glass of tea which helped my voice make it through the 2 hour set. Really liked the crowd alot of friendly new fans were made and were hoping to visit back to williamsport soon. The criuse home somehow turned into 6 hours and finally it was time to rest. However harvest fest came to soon I was def not better at all and fri. I had the surreal experience of opening for my all time fav acoustic guitarist keller williams. I cannot thank scotty and the whole groovelink crew enough for making the dream happen never thought i'd ever open for keller and it was alot of fun watching him play his solo set as well as jam hard under the blue tent w/ juggling suns for 30-40 min. This was my 1st time seeing Juggling Suns and I loved every min. of it. Awesome band. in attempt to get better I retired early fri. but i needed sleep so bad I woke up just in time to catch the end of Maganahans revival set before grisman @ 8pm. In awe watching grisman I found myself drenched in soaked socks. My tent filled up w/ 3 ft. of water and we were very blessed to take greg sheldon up on the offer to take shelter and rest in his van on top of a giant pile of super awesome "el packa" hoodies. If it was'nt for this kind act I prob would've been in the hospital. Still so worn down I slept until I heard rusted root's amazing percussion and harmonies raging from the main stage sun. @ 6 unfortunately I never made it the stage the el packa's were just too warm and inviting and i could hear the band so good I stayed laying down for the entire set. I think the rusted root set was my fav of the weekend, I'd seen them before w/ out jim donovan and I must say he is one of the best percussionists I've ever heard go off in my life. Being a hand drummer I was loving every second of that set + i've always been a huge fan of all rusted roots albums so i knew the words to almost every song .Sun. I retreated home sicker than ever now after an extremely cold wet weekend I hoped that if i just laid in bed until thurs. I'd be better in time for my 1st show in utica @ the electric co.. Not the case,when I got there at least I did'nt feel like I was getting people sick cause everyone there was pretty much already sick. I played a 90 min. set w/ as much energy as i could put out and the last half of the set was recorded and put on archive .org. NY funk exchange took the stage after me and if your into funk w/ a 3 piece horn section and great female vocals you will find these guys to be alot of fun. Thanks again to marie and beetle for all the hospitality/pizza/beer/shelter/and bringing PMT to utica for the 1st time. also thanks to old friends motorcycle al,woodstock ron,  jules,dank hank, joyce and all her friends,and teri mower from the radio station for making the trip out, some coming great lengths. It was kimmie's B-day so a small crew of us albany kids came out as well and raged it for kimmie's b-day. Sick or not The electric company was a great venue and overall awesome time, def hoping to return there to party as soon as marie will have me back. Feeling better now and gearing up for southern tour been awhile and can't wait to see y'all down there only a handful of shows but always worth the trip to see old friends and fam I don't get to see nearly enough. can't wait to party w/ y'all see you soon in the warm sunlight ;) 

Well we got to folkfest set up this huge tent in the dark took like 4 hours till we collectively figured it. Went to sleep did'nt much unfortunately caused me to doze off through part of what was an amazing set by Natural Breakdown and completely sleep through Rubblebucket Orchestra who I've still never witnessed live. AS always dug Jatoba and Zach Deputy, Sat. came I'm awake and listening but most music was missed trying to set up the keg party account my peeps through the gate met jesse dee at the gate he was nice. Keg party set went something like this
1.Fun In the dark 2. smile 3.brand new Day>No escape 4.Well Marketed Hype 5.Passing Storm>what I got 6. It's alright 7.Hoping for the best 8. The road she is a fierce and fickle misstress might have been a dispatch cover of elias or the general I can't quite remember have it written down somewhere. Sun. I remember The family dawgs rocking and alot of other great bands.It was good to see all my old sterling friends but it seemed the more new sterling friends we'd brought  the less i saw our old ones I'd been looking forward to partying w/.
Mountain Jam- got a miracle into mountain jam and was lucky enough to play 2 sets in the campgrounds 1 set during martin Sextons set(who I really wanted to and still have'nt seen by the way) and another one in the freezing and i mean freezing cold after the allman brothers set. many thanks to the band Peacekeeper and the traveling kitchen for setting up that awesome PA and making my Mountain Jam dreams come true. def sweet miracles all around. and thanks to crispy for the jerry garcia strap, the guy who gave me the dead shirt I promised to wear my next 40 performances and selena for providing some percussion on set 1 and kimmie for getting me in and in w/ the stage PA etc.. Michael Franti and The Allman brothers were awesome.great weekend even w/ the freezing.
Last but not least www.thegroovelink.com the new issue is out w/ an outstanding article on keller williams in which Positive mental Trip is actually mentioned :) This makes luke super happy because keller is his fav so to be mentioned in that article made a rough week end pretty sweet. CT film festival was cool to be a part of last weekend this weekend were in Boston for community Connect 09' part of www.projectthinkdifferent.org and the the gathering june 25-28th see y'all there been one awesome ride so far. Thanks/peace-luke

2nd annual Jam for tots Toys for Tots Benefit @ Red square 388 Broadway

Albany,NY  live jam/electronica/folk/reggae/proggressive/funk/and staright up rock and roll 7pm-3am all door money goes to the kids :) 7 bands for $7

Front Stage 7-7:15 PMT

Backstage 7:15-8  Robo-France 29

front stage 8-8:10 PMT

Backstage 8:10-9 Synewave

front stage 9-9:10 PMT

Backstage 9:10-10 Capital Zen

front stage 10-10:10 PMT

Backstage 10:10-11 The Quiet Kids

Front Stage 11-11:50 Positive mental Trip full set

Backstage 11:50-1:10 Consider the source

1:10-1:20 PMT final set

1:20-3am Dr.Jah and the love Prophets

Having the front stage for Positive mental Trip kills all dead air and gives all the bands a little more time to play,plus I'm only one dude so I don't need a huge stage to rock it.

Evolve 2012 Sept 5-7th NJ state fairgrounds

I found myself @ The New Jersey State fairgrounds for another one of those alot of bands playing @ once festivals Evolve 2012. I put a bunch of flyers all over the fairgrounds so people would know where I was playing since so much was happening @ once. However this proved to be of no effect when I awakened sat. morning or early afternoon whatever you wanna call it, due to hurricane weather all stages and times had been changed. Due to tons of possible stages @ the fairgrounds I was moved under a large pavillion rather than the richards building where I was gonna play. It all turned out to work in my favor I was basically playing right to all the tents/campsites and when I started playing everyone heard and came under the pavillion which would'nt have happened if I was in the richards building. It hurricane poured during my set so I'm sure that brought some people under the pavillion as well. All in all it was a great little festy depite the crap weather and stage changes the N.J. state fairgrounds was a surprisingly awesome place to have a festy. Musical highlights of the weekend were Jeff Bujak late night Fri., Katie Pearlman band, Cliff Street, Natural Breakdown, The Jack, and Hemp bag monk sat..Unfortunately due to us being late and having to leave early I missed alot of bands Fri. and all the bands sun.. We got lost on the way home and everyone in the car took part in one of those long weekend meltdown fights , but we made it home safe and all is well that ends well.

Sterling Stage Last Daze of summer sept 12-14th(aka the best day of my life)

I finally felt as if all my hard work had added up to something. The last festival of the season I was given the best slot I'd had all season to play on the mainstage to start off the day sat. some hours before Donna Jean and the tricksters feat. donna Jean of the grateful dead would play on the same stage. Backtrack, me and all my friends show up thurs. night late and the sterling stage is hauntingly empty.When we showed up this time thurs. for folkfest the place was packed. I woke up 2pm sat. and was surprised by the same. I heard one unnamed character say "where are all the custy's". I thought to myself yeah what the hell U-Melt and Giant Panda are playing tonight where is all the peoples @. I walked out to the gate and found out. Lines of cars were backed up, people must have wanted to stay out of the rain that filled up 2 inches in mine as well as stan's tent.(never camp on a hill on a rainy weekend) Alot of great music happened Fri. night highlights for me were 2 sets of The Family Dawgs(dead covers),2 sets of U-Melt, Giant Panda, and The Buddhahood.(although I had to go to sleep to them playing so I could wake up early to load gear onstage @ 11am) I dragged myself out of bed @ 11 am and started to try and get pumped up or at least awakened up for the set. I woke all my people up and called the friends and family who were driving out that morning just to see me play and drive back and loaded gear up on the stage. Although for the weekend levels of people by the stage during the daytime were extremely low I had a decent size crowd in front of the stage @ noon considering everyone was up so late the night before. Nana and Owen came down and brought me a cup of coffee which was super cool of them and very much needed and I started going through the set. Response was best it had been since folkfest when I threw the kegger and I was very happy with the set. Not too shabby at all for an early morning/I mean afternoon show. If you wanna check this one out we have alot of video from this one up. Hope you enjoyed the scoop on everything that went down this summer, I like keeping track of things on here for my own records of remembering exactly how and what went down. After this was the 1300mile tour of the virginie's which you can read about below. I'll be spending alot of time in the studio finishing the album day and night, I'm gonna try to lock myself up in there and figure it all out, so I have something to tour with that represents what I do solo come Jan. Feb. I'll keep you all posted. Lots of love/Thanks/Peace-luke

My 1st solo tour down south would be a rather short but long weekend in the Virginia's. DJ Mason took the ride with me and made excellent company and helped me out bigtime throughout the trip. We left thurs. morning a bit after 11 and made it to the empty glass in Charleston,WV around 11pm when I was set to go on. We quick got the gear up to the stage and started my 1st set within 10 min. of being in the door. I played about an hour and 20 min. took a short break and then probably played another 90 min. before we shut it down for the night. Roadblock and everyone @ The Empty Glass was very kind to us and we hope to go back there on our next southern tour and hopefully get some more people out. We are def looking for street team in Charleston! We drove out of Charleston and hit Lewisburg around 5:30 am totally exhausted we passed out immediately. The bar in Lewisburg WV The Fort Savannah Inn was a comfortable venue w/ dart boards pool tables and pretty good overall atmosphere. I began playing @ 10pm and did'nt stop till around 12:30. I was gonna try to go all 4 hours straight but eventually I had to break down and pee :). I got back up there and played till probably 3am I think the bar turned on  the lights to let me know it was time. Everyone was super nice in Lewisburg and we will def be coming back there on our next southern tour. Thanks to Dave Walton and everyone else @ The Fort Savannah inn for bringing us down there. Next we drove over 3 hours north to one of the coolest little towns I've ever been to Sperryville VA. Our friend Brynn brought us there and set up the show for us @ a nice little restaurant/bar called Rae's. Rae,Brynn,and every other person in this town was super kind to us and really made this show the perfect way to end the tour.  After the show we were invited to an afterparty and we wished we could stay longer but after about 90 min. of chilling out and listening to drum circles and Brynn rocking some bad ass string instruments we had to get on with the long 7 hour drive which turned into an 11 hour drive due to powerful rainstorms and the subaru's bald tires. We'd like to thank everyone who prayed for our safety on this trip, everyone who gave us a place to stay, and everyone who helped make this happen in anyway. We were super grateful to be able to travel 1300 miles playing music and having fun going into places we'd never been. Hope to do it again sometime soon!

This summer Luke(me:)) made the transition, forced to musically re-invent and redifine myself live as a solo act. By the end of the summer I can say I'm happier then ever with the live sound and direction of Positive Mental Trip. Although I very much miss my old bandmates and there musical goodness, the transition to a solo Positive Mental trip has made the Positive Mental Trip mobile very mobile. This summer I played  alot of places, met alot of great people and have'nt had time to write about it till now but here's what went down from begining to end.

May 23-25th Sterling Stage Folkfest

I had the opportunity to come back to the sterling Stage for the 2nd year and as always the folkfest was banging. I showed upThurs. night with my peeps about 5am expecting the place to be empty and it was already packed w/ party people. The weekend featured lots of excellent music The Breakfast,Zach Deputy,Roots Of Creation, One Eyed Jack, Ryan Montbleau Band!!, Sam Kininger Band, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, and 2 sets of Positive Mental Trip including my kegger B-day party @ the cafe stage Sat. afternoon. I played 1 hour solo acoustic Fri afternoon after Roots Of Creation's 1st set to get the party started and for Sat. electric set I was joined by the entire band Deja who rocked out with me for the entire set. I did'nt miss one musical performance and enjoyed as well as played a great weekend of music. Could'nt have asked for a better way to spend time w/ friends (some traveling as far as Florida) or a better place to throw a B-Day celebration. Thanks to Eric and everyone who makes folkfest happen every year.

After enjoying a good weekend of listening(not playing) @ Mountain jam I found myself back @ the sterling Stage again.

Sterling Stage String Fling July 3-6 08'

This was a 1st time bluegrass festy @ Sterling and setting up camp @ 5am Fri. morning turned out to be a bad idea. My set was 5pm fri. and I did'nt get any sleep with the 24 hour drum circle that happened near my tent. This performance was what it was my 1st festy performance by myself looping electric as well as acoustic on no sleep. Many people said they enjoyed and I tried to put out as much energy as I could. I stayed awake by the stage all Fri. night and caught some great bluegrass bands like Mike Smith and the grassholes, Free Grass Union, Jatoba, etc. Could'nt stay the whole weekend this time I had to play boodles (my sister) graduation party back home Sat. night. Sleep or no sleep String Fling proved to be another great time out there.

Next on the list was

Good Omens 2 festival @ Lee's Campgrounds

I was fortunate enough to recieve a 2 hour slot playing last Fri. night and it gave me a chance to really get playing alot of new material and looping experimentations live. This festival was thrown by Scott from The Groovelink who has really good taste in music. I saw great bands like Jaik Miller Band, Mecca Bodega, Katie Pearlman Band, Devil Makes Three (from California) for the 1st time and I had a great time playing in the dark under the lights playing a long night time slot. Scott from the groovelink is another good dude who works hard to bring good music around and throw these awesome festivals. Check out www.thegroovelink.com

July 18-20th Bellstock 15

Greg Bell's annual B-day party up in the beautiful Catskill Mountains where I was born. I played a short early afternoon set fri. and stayed to listen to 3 days of great music and hang out with Greg Bell the man responsible for bringing awesome music to the capital region for the last 15 years. It's always an honor to play bellstock this was my 3rd year back.

August 2nd 9th annual Lockstock music festival Lock Haven PA

August 1st we drove out to Lock Haven which hosted the 1st music Festival Positive Mental trip ever played 4 years ago. The festival hosted by Joel drummer of the well known Philadelphia band "The Nodd" throws this party every year and bands like Electric Sex Power, Better than better than ezra, Dufus,and many other great bands. As it was the 1st time it was an excellent Lockstock I made alot of new friends and listened to some hilarious as well as extremely technical and amazing music. Positive Mental Trip played a long set late Sat. afternoon in which special guests got up and sang and Joel joined Luke on the drums to play on the last few songs.

Aug.9th Con-e island music festival and fireworks Catskill, NY

My only hometown show of the summer found me back on the stage with notorious Positive Mental Trip drummer Kevin Ozmon. The man never missed a beat and it was good to jam again w/ an old friend. Kevin left the band to do the responsible thing go to college in Binghamton. John Pinder started it off with a great set and then Me and Kevin played awhile and then The Saucy Jack Band rocked out and put on an awesome fireworks display which was really amazing. As usual hundreds at least gathered in the streets of catskill to check them out.

August 23rd 9th annual Musefest Ithaca, NY

This was my 1st time in Ithaca and my 1st time @ musefest we got there late in time to catch a set of Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Ekoostik Hookah and set up camp fri. night. I woke up and was the 1st one to play on the cafe stage. I played solo and once again the performance was what it was. Some technical difficulties occured without a soundman but sang alot of good songs and rocked out just the same. About 4 bands going @ once @ musefest there is a whirlwind of music to catch and it's a real good time. The organizers really got alot going on @ this festy and I'm very thankful to Rob and everyone who puts this fest on for bringing me out to Ithaca.

sept 5-7th evolve 2012 music festival NJ state fairgrounds......to be continued part 2 next blog Peace/love/rock n roll :)-luke

Ian joined me onstage w/ some Djembe last min.as well as the spontaneous addition of a harmonica solo and drums/dlembe of our good friend Brendo on some songs.Happy B-day to jackie!!! Thanks to everyone who came from afar

1. Soundcheck(happy-bday-what I Got

1.Good Times>Navigate>Georgia(Ray Charles)>light>Good Times

2.Brand New Day> No Escape

3.Circles

4.The Weight

5.Paradox(brendo solo on harp)

6.Positive

7.This is love

8.Brand New Day(played again as requested by the B-day girl)

9.Out of My head

Thanks to Deep Chemistry for being cool enough to bring us down to New Paltz!!

Thursday, January 03, 2008


Playlist 1/3
Current mood: productive
Category: Music

A special thanks to DJ Eric P. for stopping in and spinning some tracks to get people warmed up for the Bell's dance party.

Artist / Track / Album

1. Oysterhead / Mr. Oysterhead / Asheville, NC 11-17-01
2. Talking Heads / Crosseyed and Painless / the Name of this Band is Talking Heads
3. My Morning Jacket / Off the Record / Okonokos
4. Soulive / Solid / Soulive CD
5. Perpetual Groove / Space Paranoids / Georgia Theatre

6. DJ Eric P Spinning Live in WIDR Studios

7. Blue James Band / I Can Relate / That's That
8. JoBu / Free / Assemble
9. TieDye Keith / Focus on it While You Can / Portrait of Claudine
10. Wolfmother / Dimension / Wolfmother
11. Strange Arrangement / All Around the World / Demo
12. the Macpodz / You Got Me / Genius Food For Super Heroes
13. Zegg / Send Your Blue Skies / the Ride
14. Sam Cooke / Little Red Rooster / Night Beat
15. Widespread Panic / Bust It Big / Bonnaroo 05
16. Positive Mental Trip / Good Times / Speak Your Peace
Currently listening :
The Definitive Collection
By Howlin' Wolf
Release date: By 17 April, 2007
We'd like to sincerely thank spread the jam for playing us in a far away state and spreading the PMT love!!!!

The Jam for tots was a great success by my standards we got 74 people to come out on a rainy night Sun. Dec 23 to see local bands. Rebel Jelly and Sugarproof went on first and everyone who was there said they put on great shows. I got there in time to hear Paul and the Acoustic Trauma guys tearing it up finishing off their set. After AT Skadee and Dr.Jah and the love Prophets got up and played 2 of the best reggae/dub sets I've ever heard from any local reggae dub bands. Then it was tim for our set, here's what it looked like

1.Brand New Day>No Escape

2.This is Love

3.Paradox>Deck the halls

4.Frosty the snowman>Joy to the world

5.Feelgood

6.Pure

7.Carol Of The Bells

8.Passing Storm

9.Out of My Head

10.Away in a manger>God Rest ye merry gentlemen

11.Circles

12.Life's Surprises

13.The First Noel>O holy night

14. Good Times

Encore

1.Silent Night

We like to thank Crista Leigh and ben from jamm and toast @ 102.7 for getting behid this positive event. We raised over $400 in toys and got all of them into the kids hands for christmas day. Thanks to all the bands as well who came and played for free so kids could get toys. You guys rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!