Goodbye Spring, hello Rebelution’s Good Vibes Summer Tour

Temperatures are on the rise as the spring season is slowly fading away, and to the musically driven culture, it’s a clear signal for the summer tours to start crawling across the country! 

Rebelution’s “Good Vibes Summer Tour 2023″ is coming to a city near you with, a bill full of (what I consider to be) headlining acts amongst the American reggae community. Passafire, The Expendables and Iration hopped aboard this year, with DJ Mackle spinning tracks in-between acts. The tour kicked off in Texas for a few stops with plans to hop over to Florida before heading up the east coast, then jumping over to Washington to start the west coast leg from the north down. 

I was able to catch the second stop on the tour in Dallas at the Toyota Music Factory, one of the larger venues in the area for live music. Passafire took the stage first at 6:00 PM sharp, with plenty of early arriving concert-goers to put on one hell of a performance for. 

The lighting at the TMF is some of the best in the area and the band put them to good use while the sound system was delivering a booming, rich sound with no noticeable hiccups along the way.

The energy was high as the boys played their hearts out to a very receiving crowd that warm, muggy Friday night.

Being the opening band, their set was a bit shorter than I wanted it to be, but a schedule is a schedule! These guys are true professionals of their craft. Their next single, “Offer” will be out on all streaming platforms on June 16th! Pre-save it here.

The venue began to really pack in as The Expendables prepared to melt faces with their brand of reggae rock they’ve excelled at for quite a while now. Mr. Geoff Weers led the team into battle as the smoke machines created a haze that was perfect for the color filled spectrum of light beams emanating from the stage, dancing down onto the audience. The sweet smell of quality greens hung in the air while the band played through a kickass setlist, including a few songs from their new album (set to drop on the 23rd of June). After throwing a few guitar picks to the crowd, the band gave their farewells and headed out after a job well done.

By this time, the venue was packed to the brim. Not sure if this was a sold out show or not, but I’d believe you if you told me it was. The crowd energy was big, big. DJ Mackle had his rig setup stage right, keeping the vibes alive during the intermission while everyone scattered to hit the bar to re-up their drink situation and the necessary bathroom break.

It was time for the soothing vibes of Iration. Jona, a friend and fellow photographer, along with Roman, the house photographer for Live Nation and I gathered our tools of the trade before slipping into the photo pit to once again capture history.

Everything went silent as the house lights disappeared and the shouts and whistles of the masses grew loud.

Silhouettes began to appear from backstage. The music started oozing from the PA system as the lights lit up the platform and revealed the boys from Iration poised and ready to rock your mind socks off. 

They pumped that sweet aloha spirit into every set of ears attending with the biggest smiles that could be seen from the nose-bleeds. 

Every song was performed with machine precision and if you’ve never been in front of this band when they’re shaking the airwaves, I highly suggest it. They’re style and sound is infectious. The set lasted roughly an hour or so, but the clock seemed to stop as the crowd swayed to the timeless tunes in unison. 

The venue has a capacity of 4,000 people, and I can’t emphasize enough, I feel like we had more than that in the house. This place was absolutely packed with reggae lovers of all kinds. 

The time was 9:20 PM when headliner Rebelution showed us what the Good Vibes Summer Tour was all about. Eric Rachmany took the stage with his gang of music-makers and banged out one hell of a setlist to a FULL amphitheater. I know I’ve been stressing the quality of lighting this place has, but this time they brought out the laser lights and created a visual aspect of the show that took it up a few notches. 

In usual fashion, Rachmany would point the mic at the crowd during songs throughout the show to signal the time to sing at the top of your lungs as the musicians lowered the volume of their instruments to let the crowd be heard in full flavor. It was the biggest and loudest reggae-driven choir I’ve ever witnessed. The amount of songs that were played for their duration of time on stage was worth the entry fee alone. 

The tour is in its infancy, there are tons of dates and cities left for you to catch this phenomenal lineup of artists. Gather your friends and get there! 

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