{"id":20747,"date":"2012-07-27T08:49:19","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T15:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20747"},"modified":"2012-08-04T01:36:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T08:36:03","slug":"woodstock-revival-iv-libi-and-the-flashback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=20747","title":{"rendered":"Woodstock Revival IV: Libi and the Flashback"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Libi at Woodstock Revival III\/Photo: Tammy Salomon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One night, in the middle of an Israeli February four years ago, a group of musicians sat listening to Geva Alon sing Neil Young.\u00a0 The conversation amongst the friends wasn\u2019t anything out of the ordinary, until someone had the idea to do a Woodstock 40th year anniversary event in Israel.\u00a0 One thing lead to another, and the first Woodstock Revival festival took place in Jerusalem in 2009.<\/p>\n

And it simply hasn\u2019t stopped rocking since.<\/p>\n

Now in it\u2019s fourth year, the Woodstock Revival is set, yet again, to be an extraordinary, psychedelic event next Thursday, August 2 at Jerusalem\u2019s Kraft Stadium.\u00a0 Don\u2019t miss Israeli\u2019s leading artists singing Woodstock classics and other 60\u2019s jams: Geva Alon singing Neil Young, Libi and the Flashback playing Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and hosting Yael Dekelbaum, Michael Greilsammer with a Led Zeppelin set, The Elevators playing The Grateful Dead, Ummagumma bringing Pink Floyd, Crystal Ship doing a tribute to the Doors, and much more.<\/p>\n

I chatted with Libi, the bold, brilliant singer from Libi and the Flashback, this week.\u00a0 We met at Banana Beach in Tel Aviv as the sun was just about to tuck into the horizon and disappear for the day, its neon colors flashing pink and orange over the shimmering, quieting waves.\u00a0 Having re-made Aliyah only a year a half ago, Libi exclaimed: \u201cLook at this!\u00a0 The best city in the world!\u00a0 Lots of people have beautiful beaches all around the world.\u00a0 But this is ours.\u00a0 This is my beach.\u00a0 And it\u2019s great!!!\u201d\u00a0 She paused to let her enthusiasm reverberate in the hot, sticky breeze.\u00a0 She shot me an earnest glance: \u201cLook at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Libi was raised in upstate New York in Monsey, what she calls \u201ca lovely disneyland for Jews.\u201d\u00a0 She bought a ticket to the original Woodstock, but when her parents found it, they bought her a plane ticket to Israel instead.\u00a0 Ironically, she remembers pouting the entire plane ride here, but ultimately, Israel became her true home.\u00a0 An \u201cintravenous zionist since birth,\u201d as Libi calls herself, she made Aliyah with her first husband and daughter of 10 months in 1979.\u00a0 Her band, Libi and the Flash, was the first hard rock band in Israel.\u00a0 \u201cI wore fish nets and chains and sang Led Zeppelin.\u00a0 Now, it\u2019s considered tame, but for 1980 in Israel, it was crazy.\u00a0 We had songs about prostitution, about living in a coffin, about how much better hell is than heaven…\u201d she reminisced.\u00a0 She stayed in Israel for a while, but life events eventually brought her back to the United States, and she ended up in Boston where her daughter and grandsons lived.\u00a0 Although she always wanted to return to Israel, it was important for her to be with family.<\/p>\n

On a desperate vacation to Israel about three years ago, Libi had a gig at Blaze, a funky rock bar in Jerusalem.\u00a0 The first song she sang that night was a ZZ Top song, \u201cTush,\u201d that ends with the following line: \u201cI\u2019m coming back, I\u2019m coming home, not by myself, not alone.\u201d\u00a0 She recalls lifting her hands up in the air after the song, and despite sounding cliche, she is not embarrassed to retell how she felt a white tunnel spring from her arms upward, a transcendental moment conveying to her that everything would be okay, that everything would be taken care of.\u00a0 Following that mystical trip to Israel, she returned to Boston, but after a trip to San Francisco for an insane Grateful Dead concert with all the original Dead Heads, she decided she would move to San Francisco.\u00a0 She returned to Boston to tell her daughter the bittersweet news, but upon declaring her decision, her son-in-law placed his hands in his head with disappointment: \u201cbut we were just about to tell you that we decided, while you were gone in San Francisco, that we\u2019ll move to Israel!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Libi and Yael Deckelbaum at Woodstock III\/Photo: Yehoshua HaLevi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And so Libi is back.\u00a0 She officially re-made Aliyah with her daughter (this time for good) a year and half ago, and just four days after her arrival, she found herself performing at her first Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem.\u00a0 At last year\u2019s event, she was singing the Beatles\u2019 \u201cWith a Little Help from My Friends,\u201d when she felt inspired to invite everyone in the audience up on the stage, fitting with the song\u2019s spirit.\u00a0 All of a sudden, she describes hearing this angel singing, and she looked over to see none other than one of Israel\u2019s finest singers, Yael Deckebaum.\u00a0 There the connection was made, and Libi and Yael are set to perform Janis Joplin together at this year\u2019s Woodstock.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see all three generations at Woodstock!\u201d remarked Libi\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s such a wonderful day of happiness and joy.\u00a0 Woodstock was what it was because it was a time of innocence.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not such a terrible thing to try to recapture it,\u201d she paused and added in verbal parenthesis, \u201cbesides the fact that it\u2019s the best music, ever, ever, ever!!!\u201d she exclaimed in an enthusiastic whisper, almost trying to contain herself.\u00a0 She continued, \u201cBut Woodstock was also the discovery of joy, peace, love, brotherhood, and sisterhood.\u00a0 Peace and love meant different things back then – those words actually meant something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Libi suspects that the social protests of last summer were something similar to the spirit of Woodstock: \u201cThe social protests last summer were the first time I saw hope like that since Woodstock.\u00a0 This generation is amazing.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t the innocents we were back then – the world is certainly not innocent – and the Age of Aquarius will never come again.\u00a0 But we can definitely search for it.\u00a0 Woodstock has been held in fascination all over the world for years and years.\u00a0 Woodstock will be a fascination forever.\u00a0 And I hope it will come back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerusalem Woodstock Revival IV will take place Thursday, August 2 at Kraft Stadium
\nGet your tickets early for 100 nis, or at the gate for 140 nis.\u00a0 Students and soldiers pay 85 nis.
\nIf you have a Yerushalmi Card, early tickers are just 70 nis, and at the gate 110 nis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One night, in the middle of an Israeli February four years ago, a group of musicians sat listening to Geva Alon sing Neil Young.\u00a0 The conversation amongst the friends wasn\u2019t anything out of the ordinary, until someone had the idea to do a Woodstock 40th year anniversary event in Israel.\u00a0 One thing lead to another, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}