NJ Crawfish Fest

That's me at 2009 Fest

This weekend there is a BIG New Orleans Louisiana event here on East Coast. Its the 23rd Annual Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest in Augusta, NJ. I've been twice before and had a good ol time- not Jazzfest but pretty close if you can't get to the real thing. There is a Main outdoor stage, a smaller Pavillion stage and then an indoor stage that features a hardwood dance floor and features Cajun and Zydeco bands and dancers. Food is just OK; boiled crawfish are real good but everything else I've had there is pretty mediocre in my opinion and cannot hold a candle to food at Fest. BUT, the music lineup is looking really good- especially on Saturday, June 2nd. Performers include Curley Taylor, Terrance Simien, Johnny Sketch, Bonerama and 2 of my NO favorites Glen David Andrews and Dr. John...Not too bad for New Jersey. Go HERE for the deets.

NJ Crawfish Fest Recap

Man...blogging ain't easy...feel like I'm way behind..really have to try and do a little bit each day..Anyway, my wife and I did make it to Michael Arnone's NJ Crawfish Fest a couple weekends ago and had a great time. We went on Saturday June 4th- weather was overcast, cool and looked like rain but held thru the day with only a couple of sprinkles. Music was fantastic. Saw one of my NO favorites The Tin Men -featuring the one and only Washboard Chaz- which was a real treat. Also caught a lot of cajun and zydeco music including Geno Delafose, the Savoy Family Band and best show of the day, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. The setup for cajun and zydeco bands is really nice with the stage set indoors w/ a dance floor surrounded by chairs-the place was jumpin' and folks were dancin' - especially with Nathan Williams cranking out that "chank a chank". Other highlights included the somewhat wacky but very groovy Brother Joscephus and the Love Revival Revolution Orchestra, great guitar work by Tab Benoit, some excellent blues by Mem Shannon and finally got to check out Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes who were ok but  not really my cup of tea. I had not been to the festival in a couple years and this time, crowd seems to be bigger- think there were a lot of folks there to see the Radiators on their farewell tour. Food was ok-not great (was disappointed last time I went b/c was expecting Jazzfest level food and it was nowhere close). This time around, lowered my expectations somewhat and was pleasantly surprised by some decent boiled crawfish, passable jambalya and some really great fried chicken. We were there more for the music than the food anyway. Overheard more than one group of folks saying that they were'nt able to make it down to NO for Jazzfest , and that this festival was at least a little taste of that vibe here up north.