Zion I and the Grouch @ the CMJ in NYC

Once a year, tens of thousands of hardcore music addicts cluster together in the Big Apple for CMJ. For the uninitiated, CMJ is the College Music Journal which is a music events/publishing company. This is a festival for any kind or type of band on the face of the Earth. From the corniest of pop to the grimiest of punk, to the slickest of hip hop...this is a music festival for music lovers and creators. If you're one of the above, welcome to heaven...
We arrived around Monday evening. I was feeling alittle under the weather, so I chilled at the hotel and watched football, while the rest of the crew went to a Fela party. I can't believe I missed out on it, but it was better to rest at that point. I woke up on Tuesday and headed to Brooklyn to check the homey J Period at his Truelements Studios. The spot was bustling with interns as I waded thru the slew of mixtapes and gadgetry. We chopped it up for a minute..then I headed back to soundcheck.
I met the squad at the Sullivan Room on the Lower East Side. Amp was on stage tinkering with the mpc, grouch teetered in the shadows, and Tim House sqauked on the celly. We checked the system, and it sounded pretty good. Thats always a plus. We left the building feeling a quiet confidence about the night to come.
Upon returning to the club, LadyBug Mecca was on stage. Her steady swag and laid back nonchalance created a heady mist of chill throughout the crowd. Only thing wrong is that the speakers sounded like we were listening thru 10 feet of thick water. The bass warbled out the snare, and made a muddy mess of the whole room. Yuck.
By the time that we limped to the stage it was 1AM. An eager crowd still huddled around the dimly lit stage. We came out to "Smack" and allowed the slump to energize the audience, as well as ourselves. They were slow to warm, but by midshow we had the small multitude with their hands in the air. Grouch slinked side to side with his hat hovering over his face, Amp clapped beats from the 5th dimension, and I bounced sweat to the stars above.
After the show, a couple of ol skool homeys showed up. We chopped game outside in the warm New York air, then decided to keep it movin. We pushed to another club where we posted up, and caught up on old times. Afterwards, we got some pizza, talked more shit and hopped the train to the hotel. Another good night...at the CMJ.