GOTVibes on Friday

Here it is finally.

For one very long weekend each year Seaside Park on the Long Island Sound in Bridgeport becomes the most unlikely congregation of peanut-butter-and-jam-loving psychedelic enthusiasts and their contemporaries.

Finally it is here.

Friday is technically the second day of the Gathering of the Vibes. No matter, Thursday was kind of the warm-up, headlined by the world’s most capable and pleasantly plum purple Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra.

Day two it gets real. The show clearly hit its stride, even as the Tedeschi Trucks Band blasted the audience with a blues heavy rock show the anticipation for Grateful Dead spinoff Phil Lesh & Friends was heavy in the pleasant summer air.

That’s basically the point of the Vibes, as the festival is endearingly called. Sure it’s a place for lesser-known acts to get some playing time, and sure it’s a place for artisan vendors to make some money. But there’s little argument the concert is set up to spin around the band that brought the jam genre to the forefront, so whatever incarnation of the Grateful Dead that shows up is so very welcome.

Last year every living member of the Grateful Dead performed, but in their respective acts. This year it’s only Phil Lesh with his friends, but for the first time in its 18 years his group will do two consecutive nights – Friday and Saturday.

This incarnation is a unique lineup of friends, made of three Johns and a Joe. Respectively they go Scofield, Medeski, Kadlecik and Russo.  Craaazy.

Anyway not all bands are so jammy, the Revivalists garnered great buzz with their afternoon performance on the secondary Green Vibes Stage. It’s worth noting that when they entered the media tent photographers and writers swarmed them, and upon questioning one member paraphrased Jason Lee’s character from Almost Famous - “Finding that one guy in the crowd makes it all worth it.”

Lee’s fictional rock singer in the made-for-movies act Stillwater said actually something like “I find that one guy who’s not getting off and I make him get off.” It was close.

The Roots, the hip-hop ensemble now known as the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon band, are among the groups to perform tomorrow. It’s Saturday, they got nothing else going on, so hopefully Fallon comes up from Rockefeller Plaza and introduces them with his often humorous brand of funny talk.

We’ll see. Tickets are still available at the gate, people can go to www.govibes.com to learn more.