Day 168 - August 26th 2009
Hump Day…lol
I rediscovered Pandora this afternoon. I made a Boy Wonder station while I was working at Drexel and I completely forgot about it. I like Pandora and maybe one day I can get my tunes on it. I added Bang Camaro to it this morning. I miss those guys sometimes, usually when I do interviews and they ask me about my experience on tour with them. There were times of personal struggle out there on the road but man did I have some unbelievable times. It wouldn’t be the last time I would think about them today.
Wednesdays means Lickety and tonight I felt like we were gonna do well. We had some powerhouses returning from earlier this summer, so I was happy about that along with some new faces. Ian Young would sing a song about his experiences touring. All I kept thinking was with the exception of Home Sweet Home there ain’t a better road song than Life is Hard on The Road. Katie Haire and Tophers Bossa Nova Brigade brought up the rear and did a great job.
As Topher’s band was playing I got a tap on my shoulder. “Hey aren’t you in Bang Camaro?” I turn around and politely answer him. He recognized me from the Jimmy Kimmel Show and asked a bunch of questions I didn’t know the answers to. Luckily there were some girls that I knew there that saved me from this conversation. He seemed like a nice enough guy.
Moving some of these acts to Friday nights is inevitable and logical. If people are hitting home runs on Wed Nights then presumably they are going to make more money on Friday nights. I worry about what that does to Wednesdays, I like seeing the house packed in the middle of the week. Hopefully that will continue as the school year starts. We’re adding a jam session starting next week so that should bolster the overall attendance.
After I was done I fell asleep with that new Taylor Swift Song stuck in my head. I’d heard it blasting out of a car on my way to Lickety Split and now it is the bane of my existence.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 168
Day 167 - August 25th 2009
Lessons today finally. I had spent the better part of the last month not teaching guitar, something I dig doing. More walking though, not good for my ankle. It’s more sore than anything else. I need to make it a point on Thursday to rest it.
The search for a new place to write begins today, it’s clear that I’m gonna be unable to write at home, the ringing phones and all the booking work is going to make that impossible. Rittenhouse Square has way too many people that I know wanting to talk to me and Washington Square park seems to be filled with Gawkers and tone def people on bikes that wanna sing with me in Spanish. So if any readers have any suggestions I’m willing to try anything.
I arrived at my first students apartment and she told me that today would be her last lesson. Her and her fiancé are saving up to buy a house and are now restricting themselves to a tight budget that doesn’t include guitar lessons. Hopefully I’ve given her enough for her to be bale to play kids songs with her students when the school year starts.
I did my second lesson and ended up going to McGillins for 25 cent wing night….my ankle has to heal soon I’m getting fat from the lack of exercise and all the tasty food I’ve been eating lately, I sound like a woman I should stop talking about my figure.
Upon arrival I was told that Duane Swierczynski Crime author and author of The Punisher was upstairs doing a singing. He’s a local guy that actually did a story ark that brought The Punisher to Philadelphia. I walk up the stairs and there he was. Had I known he was gonna be there I would have found my copies and had him sign them.
I walked over to the Tritone and hung out with Kelvin for a while before going to Lickety Split for a meeting. Turns out I get a call telling me the meeting’s someplace else a fancy spot downtown no less.
I get the address and head over.
I walk inside and I can smell the sophistication from the entranceway. The vastness and décor of the place is intimidating like something out of one of those sophisticated indy style dramas with an enseble cast and intertwining storylines, I can’t afford to walk inside this place. The 3 finely dressed hostesses should have been clue number 1. I can smell the money. The place is empty but I can almost hear the conversations that would take place here, big deals, big cases, marriage proposals. extramarital affairs, the place had a waterfall in it.
They walked me inside to find my party both sipping martini’s and talking business. A far cry from where I usually roam, a far cry from the place we’re trying to take to the next level. Things are changing, everyone all around is thinking of ways to change the place and make it better. They take me on a tour of this place, the views of the city are better than the place itself. An ideal place to take a date they say to me. Extremely trendy, not sure if it’s my style. I had a martini with them and came home, I’ll have to ask Nikki why she likes them so much.
I’ll be at Lickety tomorrow but for now I get some sleep.
Lessons today finally. I had spent the better part of the last month not teaching guitar, something I dig doing. More walking though, not good for my ankle. It’s more sore than anything else. I need to make it a point on Thursday to rest it.
The search for a new place to write begins today, it’s clear that I’m gonna be unable to write at home, the ringing phones and all the booking work is going to make that impossible. Rittenhouse Square has way too many people that I know wanting to talk to me and Washington Square park seems to be filled with Gawkers and tone def people on bikes that wanna sing with me in Spanish. So if any readers have any suggestions I’m willing to try anything.
I arrived at my first students apartment and she told me that today would be her last lesson. Her and her fiancé are saving up to buy a house and are now restricting themselves to a tight budget that doesn’t include guitar lessons. Hopefully I’ve given her enough for her to be bale to play kids songs with her students when the school year starts.
I did my second lesson and ended up going to McGillins for 25 cent wing night….my ankle has to heal soon I’m getting fat from the lack of exercise and all the tasty food I’ve been eating lately, I sound like a woman I should stop talking about my figure.
Upon arrival I was told that Duane Swierczynski Crime author and author of The Punisher was upstairs doing a singing. He’s a local guy that actually did a story ark that brought The Punisher to Philadelphia. I walk up the stairs and there he was. Had I known he was gonna be there I would have found my copies and had him sign them.
I walked over to the Tritone and hung out with Kelvin for a while before going to Lickety Split for a meeting. Turns out I get a call telling me the meeting’s someplace else a fancy spot downtown no less.
I get the address and head over.
I walk inside and I can smell the sophistication from the entranceway. The vastness and décor of the place is intimidating like something out of one of those sophisticated indy style dramas with an enseble cast and intertwining storylines, I can’t afford to walk inside this place. The 3 finely dressed hostesses should have been clue number 1. I can smell the money. The place is empty but I can almost hear the conversations that would take place here, big deals, big cases, marriage proposals. extramarital affairs, the place had a waterfall in it.
They walked me inside to find my party both sipping martini’s and talking business. A far cry from where I usually roam, a far cry from the place we’re trying to take to the next level. Things are changing, everyone all around is thinking of ways to change the place and make it better. They take me on a tour of this place, the views of the city are better than the place itself. An ideal place to take a date they say to me. Extremely trendy, not sure if it’s my style. I had a martini with them and came home, I’ll have to ask Nikki why she likes them so much.
I’ll be at Lickety tomorrow but for now I get some sleep.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 167
Day 166 - August 24th 2009
Back at Philly Rising
Everything I do on Monday’s before the open mic starts is basically background noise. For me it’s the best way to start the week. Music Music Music. I’m surprised I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. My ankles been killing me lately. Probably cause I haven’t really been off it in like two weeks. With 6 gigs on a 7 day stretch it’s hard to do the things that need to be done like rest my leg or rest period.
I wanted to work on some songs pretty bad today but I’ve been asked to take over Saturdays at Lickety, which puts me at three nights over there, which when you’re at a new place is extremely hard work. My stress level’s been up quite a bit lately since they’ve even been talking about me overseeing Tuesdays…yikes. My acting teachers in High School were right, the reward for work is more work.
It was pretty hot today. As is August in the illadelph. The beauty about this city is that no matter where you are in the city you can see the skyline. Nothing beats the sun resting over the Liberty Buildings in the afternoon. As I turn the corner onto Walnut Street and see the sign for World Café Live, my stress level falls away because whenever I’m there I know the place is going to be well run, top flight everything. All I ever have to focus on is my job. I don’t have to answer bar tender questions, I don’t have to field complaints about unrelated B.S., all I have to do is be entertaining.
I opened up with a short set and noticed something strange. There were an inordinate amount of kids there tonight, when I say kids I mean people under 16 years old. It was remarkable considering the musical prowess of these kids, particularly in the songwriting realm. To me that’s half the battle, things like stage presence and look and vocal and instrumental proficiency can be improved upon but if you can write decent songs at the age of 12 you are going to have quite a run in this business in my humble opinion. I peeped the swag of a lot of these kids, that’s also something that’s going to be useful to them.
The grown up acts were good as well, especially our winners City Line and Damien Anthony. It was one of those nights where you go “Man this City has so much talent” if I can be anything like Amos Lee (who has blown up but is always reaching back and helping out Philly Artists) I’d be ok with that. So many of these guys have bright futures. It’s extremely inspiring
We ran till about 11 and I was so pleased with the vibe and the energy of the crowd. It was an extremely warm crowd and it’s always a pleasure to help entertain them. If you were someone just dropping in tonight, you saw some really great artists/bands.
I have to start setting up for this Midwest trip we’re taking I’ve been so consumed with this promotion work that I have yet to turn the focus to my band…which is why I’m not working full time in the first place. Perhaps an examination and realignment of my priorities is in order.
Back at Philly Rising
Everything I do on Monday’s before the open mic starts is basically background noise. For me it’s the best way to start the week. Music Music Music. I’m surprised I haven’t gotten sick of it yet. My ankles been killing me lately. Probably cause I haven’t really been off it in like two weeks. With 6 gigs on a 7 day stretch it’s hard to do the things that need to be done like rest my leg or rest period.
I wanted to work on some songs pretty bad today but I’ve been asked to take over Saturdays at Lickety, which puts me at three nights over there, which when you’re at a new place is extremely hard work. My stress level’s been up quite a bit lately since they’ve even been talking about me overseeing Tuesdays…yikes. My acting teachers in High School were right, the reward for work is more work.
It was pretty hot today. As is August in the illadelph. The beauty about this city is that no matter where you are in the city you can see the skyline. Nothing beats the sun resting over the Liberty Buildings in the afternoon. As I turn the corner onto Walnut Street and see the sign for World Café Live, my stress level falls away because whenever I’m there I know the place is going to be well run, top flight everything. All I ever have to focus on is my job. I don’t have to answer bar tender questions, I don’t have to field complaints about unrelated B.S., all I have to do is be entertaining.
I opened up with a short set and noticed something strange. There were an inordinate amount of kids there tonight, when I say kids I mean people under 16 years old. It was remarkable considering the musical prowess of these kids, particularly in the songwriting realm. To me that’s half the battle, things like stage presence and look and vocal and instrumental proficiency can be improved upon but if you can write decent songs at the age of 12 you are going to have quite a run in this business in my humble opinion. I peeped the swag of a lot of these kids, that’s also something that’s going to be useful to them.
The grown up acts were good as well, especially our winners City Line and Damien Anthony. It was one of those nights where you go “Man this City has so much talent” if I can be anything like Amos Lee (who has blown up but is always reaching back and helping out Philly Artists) I’d be ok with that. So many of these guys have bright futures. It’s extremely inspiring
We ran till about 11 and I was so pleased with the vibe and the energy of the crowd. It was an extremely warm crowd and it’s always a pleasure to help entertain them. If you were someone just dropping in tonight, you saw some really great artists/bands.
I have to start setting up for this Midwest trip we’re taking I’ve been so consumed with this promotion work that I have yet to turn the focus to my band…which is why I’m not working full time in the first place. Perhaps an examination and realignment of my priorities is in order.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 166
Day 165 - August 23rd 2009
Kickin Back
I woke up at my sisters after a good night’s sleep. My Bro-In Law made Pancakes and bacon so we munched on that before watching Hamlet 2, a flick that I’ve got to get on DVD ASAP. I took a shower and he told me he was going back into the city.
I met up with Mom and Dad and we went to see District 9, kinda slow in the beginning but otherwise pretty cool. I came home checked out SummerSlam, wrote a chorus and went to bed.
Philly Rising’s tomorrow. Looking forward to being back after being off last week. No rest for the wicked, well at least there will be tonight.
Kickin Back
I woke up at my sisters after a good night’s sleep. My Bro-In Law made Pancakes and bacon so we munched on that before watching Hamlet 2, a flick that I’ve got to get on DVD ASAP. I took a shower and he told me he was going back into the city.
I met up with Mom and Dad and we went to see District 9, kinda slow in the beginning but otherwise pretty cool. I came home checked out SummerSlam, wrote a chorus and went to bed.
Philly Rising’s tomorrow. Looking forward to being back after being off last week. No rest for the wicked, well at least there will be tonight.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 165
Day 164 - August 22nd 2009
Relaxing
This is gonna be my last weekend off for a lil while so I figure I’d just sit back and enjoy my family. Went to the fortress in Jersey, watched a few movies and as I sit here typing this I am sipping on a Watermelon Martini my sister made for the four of us (Two sisters, Me and Bro-In Law) as we watch the dude from Soul Plane’s stand up special.
Again trying to keep off of my cell phone in terms of business stuff. I answer when I absolutely have to, but I need to have balance in my life for as long as I can. I’m gonna be busy these next few months playing shows and the like so I wanna have as much fun with these guys as humanly possible. They keep me grounded and it’s something I know that I need.
I’ve had more than my fair share of booze so I’ll likely be going to bed right after I finish this sentence.
Relaxing
This is gonna be my last weekend off for a lil while so I figure I’d just sit back and enjoy my family. Went to the fortress in Jersey, watched a few movies and as I sit here typing this I am sipping on a Watermelon Martini my sister made for the four of us (Two sisters, Me and Bro-In Law) as we watch the dude from Soul Plane’s stand up special.
Again trying to keep off of my cell phone in terms of business stuff. I answer when I absolutely have to, but I need to have balance in my life for as long as I can. I’m gonna be busy these next few months playing shows and the like so I wanna have as much fun with these guys as humanly possible. They keep me grounded and it’s something I know that I need.
I’ve had more than my fair share of booze so I’ll likely be going to bed right after I finish this sentence.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 164
Day 163 - August 21st 2009
Day 7 of my 7 Day Stretch …somebody please stop the humanity
I’m only joking, I am pretty tired though. The Gap show was draining but I got four pairs of jeans for free out of it, along with some CD sales and some tips, not to mention hanging out with Awesome Gap staff type people. I woke up later than usual, wondering how The Bang Camaro Show went the night before, but I was way to beat to call someone and ask.
Since pops got his new vehicle a few months back we’ve relegated equipment transport to the big blue van. So I had to load it into the Big Blue Van before I went down to Lickety Split, I had to be there early for happy hour and Dad was gonna drop it off.
As the day progressed and I was about to leave the sky started to open up. Rain…great. For a local music promoter, rain is the bane of their existence. Bands, who already have a problem getting people to come see them, have their crowds often obliterated due to rain. Generally people are on the fence about going and when they step outside they decide to stay home and watch Ghost Whisperer.
Other problem with rain is it generally slows people up. It made The Good News, our Happy Hour Band to show up about half an hour after they were scheduled to be there, not that it mattered rain was keeping everybody out of the bar anyway. They rocked it though and people started to come inside. I’m a big fan of this band and I see a bright future ahead for them as they try to build a fan base.
Next up was City Line a band that I’ve mentioned before. This would be the second show that they’ve done with me and they get better and better every time. They drew a pretty decent crowd and they played a sensational set. Mike’s singing and songwriting is gonna take the group to the top. As they were playing I got a call from Brue of Grey Matador> I met Brue while on tour with Bang Camaro in Minneapolis and then he and his wife had caught up with us in San Diego. That’s when he and I really started talking. It was the first time I’d really mentioned the band to any of the Camaro fans. So after checking out each other’s myspace and we decided to do the old fashioned gig swap.
They arrived around 8 and got all of their stuff in while City Line was playing. I’m always concerned when out of town bands come in. Often they don’t bring a crowd but the general hope is that they are good enough to keep the crowd there….and boy were they. All I was thinking the whole time was that this band was awesome, a mix between Seattle grunge and 80’s New Wave. It was pretty sweet. I can’t wait to play with them at full volume in Minneapolis in a few months.
Once they were done it was time to set up to play. 4 Sets…about 3.5 - 4 hours. These gigs are always tough. I looked up and saw a packed house which in the middle of a rain storm is a very good thing.
Set 1
Ain’t No Sunshine
Michelle
Always Givn Me The Blues
Daylight
Destiny
The first set was abbreviated. We started late and I wanted to make sure we were running on time. Vocally I didn’t have a lot of time to get goin. We played for about 30 minutes and then came off for a short break. People seemed to like us a whole bunch so I was in a rush to get back on stage. Always Givin me the Blues was probably the best song of the set.
Set 2
Electric Love
What's My name
I Wanna Be your Lover
Whiplash
Private School Girl
Bitch
Demolition Man
Beautiful
This was by far the heaviest of the four sets. Why I ended it with Beautiful (A spacey Love Ballad) I haven’t got a clue, it’s about midnight and people are still here. I am sweating my balls off in this small yet lovely spot. The City Line guys were sticking around which I really appreciate as well as The Grey Matador guys who appreciated the Prince Cover. I had to pee like nobody’s business so I spent some time greeting people as I ran to the bathroom.
Set 3
Wasted
Stranger
Love Affair
The Way You Make Me Feel
Body
Feels So Good
Baby One More Time
(I Think We Should) Breakup
We got a little jammy this time around. It was pretty tasty. Kinda weird opening with Wasted but I thought it was appropriate for that night, the alcohol was flowing pretty steadily. We got off pretty good here but I noticed that I was starting to lose my voice. Good thing that with the exception of Baby one More Time all the songs were easier on my voice. We started to tighten up really good, I still love the Samba Groove of Love Affair. The Bar starts Yelling for Dick in a Box
Set 4
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Ain't no Way
Billie Jean
3000 Miles Away
Walking on the Moon
Dick in a Box
Leavin
Sunshine of Your Love
My voice was shot about halfway through. By the time we got to Billie Jean I was just about done problem is I had three more songs to play then I decided to appease the staff and play Dick in A Box. We need to learn Mother lover or something, the tune seems out of date. The guys and I are pretty sore and they still asked for an Encore so we ended up doing Sunshine of Your Love.
After a quick brew we bounced. I hit the bed around 3 thus ending my 7 day stretch. It was fun as balls being that busy. Shout out to The Good News, City Line, and Grey Matador for being awesome.
Day 7 of my 7 Day Stretch …somebody please stop the humanity
I’m only joking, I am pretty tired though. The Gap show was draining but I got four pairs of jeans for free out of it, along with some CD sales and some tips, not to mention hanging out with Awesome Gap staff type people. I woke up later than usual, wondering how The Bang Camaro Show went the night before, but I was way to beat to call someone and ask.
Since pops got his new vehicle a few months back we’ve relegated equipment transport to the big blue van. So I had to load it into the Big Blue Van before I went down to Lickety Split, I had to be there early for happy hour and Dad was gonna drop it off.
As the day progressed and I was about to leave the sky started to open up. Rain…great. For a local music promoter, rain is the bane of their existence. Bands, who already have a problem getting people to come see them, have their crowds often obliterated due to rain. Generally people are on the fence about going and when they step outside they decide to stay home and watch Ghost Whisperer.
Other problem with rain is it generally slows people up. It made The Good News, our Happy Hour Band to show up about half an hour after they were scheduled to be there, not that it mattered rain was keeping everybody out of the bar anyway. They rocked it though and people started to come inside. I’m a big fan of this band and I see a bright future ahead for them as they try to build a fan base.
Next up was City Line a band that I’ve mentioned before. This would be the second show that they’ve done with me and they get better and better every time. They drew a pretty decent crowd and they played a sensational set. Mike’s singing and songwriting is gonna take the group to the top. As they were playing I got a call from Brue of Grey Matador> I met Brue while on tour with Bang Camaro in Minneapolis and then he and his wife had caught up with us in San Diego. That’s when he and I really started talking. It was the first time I’d really mentioned the band to any of the Camaro fans. So after checking out each other’s myspace and we decided to do the old fashioned gig swap.
They arrived around 8 and got all of their stuff in while City Line was playing. I’m always concerned when out of town bands come in. Often they don’t bring a crowd but the general hope is that they are good enough to keep the crowd there….and boy were they. All I was thinking the whole time was that this band was awesome, a mix between Seattle grunge and 80’s New Wave. It was pretty sweet. I can’t wait to play with them at full volume in Minneapolis in a few months.
Once they were done it was time to set up to play. 4 Sets…about 3.5 - 4 hours. These gigs are always tough. I looked up and saw a packed house which in the middle of a rain storm is a very good thing.
Set 1
Ain’t No Sunshine
Michelle
Always Givn Me The Blues
Daylight
Destiny
The first set was abbreviated. We started late and I wanted to make sure we were running on time. Vocally I didn’t have a lot of time to get goin. We played for about 30 minutes and then came off for a short break. People seemed to like us a whole bunch so I was in a rush to get back on stage. Always Givin me the Blues was probably the best song of the set.
Set 2
Electric Love
What's My name
I Wanna Be your Lover
Whiplash
Private School Girl
Bitch
Demolition Man
Beautiful
This was by far the heaviest of the four sets. Why I ended it with Beautiful (A spacey Love Ballad) I haven’t got a clue, it’s about midnight and people are still here. I am sweating my balls off in this small yet lovely spot. The City Line guys were sticking around which I really appreciate as well as The Grey Matador guys who appreciated the Prince Cover. I had to pee like nobody’s business so I spent some time greeting people as I ran to the bathroom.
Set 3
Wasted
Stranger
Love Affair
The Way You Make Me Feel
Body
Feels So Good
Baby One More Time
(I Think We Should) Breakup
We got a little jammy this time around. It was pretty tasty. Kinda weird opening with Wasted but I thought it was appropriate for that night, the alcohol was flowing pretty steadily. We got off pretty good here but I noticed that I was starting to lose my voice. Good thing that with the exception of Baby one More Time all the songs were easier on my voice. We started to tighten up really good, I still love the Samba Groove of Love Affair. The Bar starts Yelling for Dick in a Box
Set 4
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Ain't no Way
Billie Jean
3000 Miles Away
Walking on the Moon
Dick in a Box
Leavin
Sunshine of Your Love
My voice was shot about halfway through. By the time we got to Billie Jean I was just about done problem is I had three more songs to play then I decided to appease the staff and play Dick in A Box. We need to learn Mother lover or something, the tune seems out of date. The guys and I are pretty sore and they still asked for an Encore so we ended up doing Sunshine of Your Love.
After a quick brew we bounced. I hit the bed around 3 thus ending my 7 day stretch. It was fun as balls being that busy. Shout out to The Good News, City Line, and Grey Matador for being awesome.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 163
Day 162 - August 20th -2009
Day 6 of the 7 Day Stretch
I woke up realizing that I’d left my guitar at Lickety Split last night. On a bad night I try to rush out of there, to take my mind off of it, I don‘t like to dwell on failure (or success for that matter) for me it‘s always about what the next thing is. They locked it up for me. I knew I would have to pick it up before going to The Gap to play this evening, yes the clothing store.
I needed a break from the song I was writing, this particular one is driving me crazy. I wrestled with it for the better part of the day. As the day progressed I realized that I was gonna be riding solo tonight so I adjusted the set list accordingly. Fortunately for me Dad was coming home a little early so he picked me up and I rode with him downtown after I passed by Lickety Split to pick up my axe we went to my mom’s job where we would be leaving from.
As we were listening to KYW 1060 we discovered that some idiot jumped in front of the EL Train so that it could run him over, all I ever asked the suicidal is that if you are going to kill yourself, please do it in such a way that it doesn’t completely screw up Rush Hour. It’s inconsiderate to jump in front of a train full of people on their way home from work. So as we hit 76 we discovered that it was mad backed up. Dad decided to take West Chester Pike to get there, it’s a much longer way but at this point 76 is probably longer with the traffic. At this point my butt’s pretty tight. I hate being late to things
Today I was performing at The Gap in Exton Square Mall as a part of Gap’s nationwide born to play event. At 700+ Gap stores up and coming musicians would play in their stores. The whole event is to laung their new 1969 Line of Jeans and commemorate their 40th Year Anniversary.
I arrived at the Gap at 6:45 15 minutes before I was scheduled to start, and the weirdest gig I’ve ever had was about to commence.
I’m basically sitting in this department store with my acoustic guitar with no mic or PA. They sit me pretty much at the front of the store, I’m not sure if it’s to attract customers or what. All I know is I have two hours to fill so I better get started
Set List
Empty Arms
Destiny
Michelle
This isn’t going well so far. My voice (Which I didn’t get a chance to warm up) sounds like six sides of ass, and my guitar can’t seem to stay in tune and when I’m in the middle of Michelle…Pop is the sound I hear as my A String basically decided to die on me in the middle of a gig. I had just changed these strings Tuesday. I don’t have guitar strings AHHHHHHH
I search around the mall for a music store, I am currently a big ol bag of stress, lack of preparation on my part. You should always have a spare set in your case at all times. The mall has no music store, I head back to the Gap and they tell me that there’s one in a nearby strip mall. I decide that would be my break and that when I got back I would just play for an hour and a half.
Dad and I were able to find a store and I bought two sets and some loose strings just to be safe. I got a chance to warm up in the car, got back put the strings on and it was down to business.
Set list (Continued)
Ain’t No Sunshine
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
And as I hit the bridge of (Oh) I Wish I loved You…Pop My G decides it wants ot join my A in Heaven as I mutter to myself “This can’t be happening” Fortunately I was able to change the string promptly and finish the song.
Set List (Continued)
(Oh) I Wish I loved You
How Can This Be Love
Toxic
Feels So Good
I Think We Should Breakup
Wasted
Hangover
Little Red Corvette/Highway to Hell
El Train
Baby One More Time
Daylight
Bed’s Too Big Without You
3000 Miles Away
As my comfort level grew I saw people stop, leave money in my case, buy CD’s, even a girl or two stop to look and talk. Playing music is awesome. The cool part about it was I was able to do some tunes I don’t get a chance to do outside of Lickety and it gave em the chance to try my Little Red Corvette/Highway to Hell Medley and my cover of the Police’s Bed’s Too Big Without You. After Toxic one of the staff members requested Baby one More Time so I played it for him later. So many people walked up with words of encouragement telling me that they like it and for me to keep doing what I’m doing.
Basically I rocked the Gap and when I was done they gave me some free…in the form of Jeans. The people there were really nice. The Staff even bought discs from me. The weird gig turned out to be a cool one.
Tomorrow’s Lickety. Four hours on South Street with the guys, at least afterwards I‘ll get some rest.
Day 6 of the 7 Day Stretch
I woke up realizing that I’d left my guitar at Lickety Split last night. On a bad night I try to rush out of there, to take my mind off of it, I don‘t like to dwell on failure (or success for that matter) for me it‘s always about what the next thing is. They locked it up for me. I knew I would have to pick it up before going to The Gap to play this evening, yes the clothing store.
I needed a break from the song I was writing, this particular one is driving me crazy. I wrestled with it for the better part of the day. As the day progressed I realized that I was gonna be riding solo tonight so I adjusted the set list accordingly. Fortunately for me Dad was coming home a little early so he picked me up and I rode with him downtown after I passed by Lickety Split to pick up my axe we went to my mom’s job where we would be leaving from.
As we were listening to KYW 1060 we discovered that some idiot jumped in front of the EL Train so that it could run him over, all I ever asked the suicidal is that if you are going to kill yourself, please do it in such a way that it doesn’t completely screw up Rush Hour. It’s inconsiderate to jump in front of a train full of people on their way home from work. So as we hit 76 we discovered that it was mad backed up. Dad decided to take West Chester Pike to get there, it’s a much longer way but at this point 76 is probably longer with the traffic. At this point my butt’s pretty tight. I hate being late to things
Today I was performing at The Gap in Exton Square Mall as a part of Gap’s nationwide born to play event. At 700+ Gap stores up and coming musicians would play in their stores. The whole event is to laung their new 1969 Line of Jeans and commemorate their 40th Year Anniversary.
I arrived at the Gap at 6:45 15 minutes before I was scheduled to start, and the weirdest gig I’ve ever had was about to commence.
I’m basically sitting in this department store with my acoustic guitar with no mic or PA. They sit me pretty much at the front of the store, I’m not sure if it’s to attract customers or what. All I know is I have two hours to fill so I better get started
Set List
Empty Arms
Destiny
Michelle
This isn’t going well so far. My voice (Which I didn’t get a chance to warm up) sounds like six sides of ass, and my guitar can’t seem to stay in tune and when I’m in the middle of Michelle…Pop is the sound I hear as my A String basically decided to die on me in the middle of a gig. I had just changed these strings Tuesday. I don’t have guitar strings AHHHHHHH
I search around the mall for a music store, I am currently a big ol bag of stress, lack of preparation on my part. You should always have a spare set in your case at all times. The mall has no music store, I head back to the Gap and they tell me that there’s one in a nearby strip mall. I decide that would be my break and that when I got back I would just play for an hour and a half.
Dad and I were able to find a store and I bought two sets and some loose strings just to be safe. I got a chance to warm up in the car, got back put the strings on and it was down to business.
Set list (Continued)
Ain’t No Sunshine
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
And as I hit the bridge of (Oh) I Wish I loved You…Pop My G decides it wants ot join my A in Heaven as I mutter to myself “This can’t be happening” Fortunately I was able to change the string promptly and finish the song.
Set List (Continued)
(Oh) I Wish I loved You
How Can This Be Love
Toxic
Feels So Good
I Think We Should Breakup
Wasted
Hangover
Little Red Corvette/Highway to Hell
El Train
Baby One More Time
Daylight
Bed’s Too Big Without You
3000 Miles Away
As my comfort level grew I saw people stop, leave money in my case, buy CD’s, even a girl or two stop to look and talk. Playing music is awesome. The cool part about it was I was able to do some tunes I don’t get a chance to do outside of Lickety and it gave em the chance to try my Little Red Corvette/Highway to Hell Medley and my cover of the Police’s Bed’s Too Big Without You. After Toxic one of the staff members requested Baby one More Time so I played it for him later. So many people walked up with words of encouragement telling me that they like it and for me to keep doing what I’m doing.
Basically I rocked the Gap and when I was done they gave me some free…in the form of Jeans. The people there were really nice. The Staff even bought discs from me. The weird gig turned out to be a cool one.
Tomorrow’s Lickety. Four hours on South Street with the guys, at least afterwards I‘ll get some rest.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 162
Day 161 - August 19th 2009
Day 5 of the 7 day stretch
Today I have to head over to Lickety Split. I wasn’t sure if I had to play tonight or not. I was prepared to.
I sat in Rittenhouse Square to try to write but that didn’t work. I went to Jefferson Square to see if I could drum up the magic there. I was just getting going as some dude walks up and starts singing in Spanish. Of course I forgot we live in a world where everyone can sing, and since everyone can sing of course it’s a foregone conclusion that a guitarist clearly sitting, playing to himself wants to jam with you. He wouldn’t leave, and not wanting to say something prickish like “Don’t you see I’m writing a song go away” I got up and left.
Fortunately for me everyone scheduled showed up and played. The Highlights for me were Chang Chang and Andy of The Future. I thought they were pretty killer and can’t wait to have them back.
Unfortunately it was a night where everyone playing didn’t pull their weight. Every show’s not gonna be a home run, specially when only one or two people are doing the lion’s share of the promoting. August is usually a slow month for bars, not that that should be an excuse. Hopefully Friday we’ll turn it around and get things going again.
Day 5 of the 7 day stretch
Today I have to head over to Lickety Split. I wasn’t sure if I had to play tonight or not. I was prepared to.
I sat in Rittenhouse Square to try to write but that didn’t work. I went to Jefferson Square to see if I could drum up the magic there. I was just getting going as some dude walks up and starts singing in Spanish. Of course I forgot we live in a world where everyone can sing, and since everyone can sing of course it’s a foregone conclusion that a guitarist clearly sitting, playing to himself wants to jam with you. He wouldn’t leave, and not wanting to say something prickish like “Don’t you see I’m writing a song go away” I got up and left.
Fortunately for me everyone scheduled showed up and played. The Highlights for me were Chang Chang and Andy of The Future. I thought they were pretty killer and can’t wait to have them back.
Unfortunately it was a night where everyone playing didn’t pull their weight. Every show’s not gonna be a home run, specially when only one or two people are doing the lion’s share of the promoting. August is usually a slow month for bars, not that that should be an excuse. Hopefully Friday we’ll turn it around and get things going again.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 161
Day 160 - August 19th 2009
Day 4 of the 7 day stretch and I’m already losing track of things
The Khyber is tonight, with the forecast of rain I’m pretty sure black folk ain’t comin out to see me tonight. I got some words of encouragement from Alex, I still have to ask him how they fit Bang Camaro on that stage. It would be my first show there in…ages. Not to mention I forgot I have to shake it over to the Tritone tonight to meet with the Jefferson Square Music Festival people about finalizing the show schedule. I’ve been so consumed with the business end I haven’t even figured out what I’m gonna do personally during the show. Small steps. I still have to get tickets for the September 4th show at World Café Live and promote the Cellar Sessions Podcast and get in contact with Gap people about Thursdays show and figure out who’s playing besides me. it’s enough to drive a man mad.
My voice feels a lot stronger than it did yesterday so the gig should be fine. I spent a lot of the day working
on a new song. It’s crap but I need to finish it.
My mom was kind enough to drop me off at Lickety Split as we discussed what to do about some of the other nights there after I left I walked over to the Khyber. Waiting there were some of the Soulfatronic guys. I was looking forward as always to playing a show with them, what a great band. I shot the shit with them as usual as we talked about the future. Which doesn’t look so bad these days.
I played a pretty long acoustic set, I’m always a tad nervous without my band. Playing alone is almost like being naked in public. I’m not covered by the pomp and circumstance of my persona, it’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing Andre on stage. With virtually no one in the crowd there to see me I’m even more nervous. I present the songs pretty much they way they are born, me playing alone on an acoustic guitar. If they can’t be performed that way you’ll rarely ever hear them recorded or performed. Sort of the test they have to pass. Once I sound checked the lights were up and there I was.
Set List
Ain’t No Sunshine
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Baby One More Time
Feels So Good
Get Me To California
Hangover
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Leavin
By the middle of the set I had eyes on me, I may not have brought a significant crowd but it seemed like I had the people that were there as they headed from the bar into the stage area. Once I get into a groove I can almost sort of imagine the bands there.
I ended the set with Leavin, the last song on Superego, which usually has me, bass, drums, horns, strings, and a choir. A song I’ve done in (what we call) the Epic format so many time I wasn’t even sure it would work otherwise. We’ve been playing it as a trio and have effectively cut out a lot of the room left by the other instruments. Now by myself I have to make less room. Oddly enough it worked. The emotion of the song is still there surprisingly enough and I still had an out of body experience.
My anxieties were laid to rest as the end of performance was met with a roaring applause. An older gentlemen said that he had never seen one guy fill the stage like I did tonight, one of my fellow musicians remarked that although my bands great, he likes me playing by myself with my acoustic guitar, years ago I wouldn’t have taken that as a knock on my band, but I know what we can do and how good we are, today I look at it this way; there aren‘t many people that can play with a full band and play by themselves that can elicit the same response and if people think I‘m just as good on my own than I am with backing musicians then I must be doing something right. The general consensus was that people liked it. I may attempt to incorporate that more into my live performances.
After that I ran to the Tritone to play a short set at the open mic
Set List
Bed’s Too Big Without You
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
Baby One More Time
After I was finished I met with the Jefferson Square People as we try to nail all aspects of this festival down.
After a ride home I hit the hay. Hopefully my ankle will feel strong enough to run soon.
Day 4 of the 7 day stretch and I’m already losing track of things
The Khyber is tonight, with the forecast of rain I’m pretty sure black folk ain’t comin out to see me tonight. I got some words of encouragement from Alex, I still have to ask him how they fit Bang Camaro on that stage. It would be my first show there in…ages. Not to mention I forgot I have to shake it over to the Tritone tonight to meet with the Jefferson Square Music Festival people about finalizing the show schedule. I’ve been so consumed with the business end I haven’t even figured out what I’m gonna do personally during the show. Small steps. I still have to get tickets for the September 4th show at World Café Live and promote the Cellar Sessions Podcast and get in contact with Gap people about Thursdays show and figure out who’s playing besides me. it’s enough to drive a man mad.
My voice feels a lot stronger than it did yesterday so the gig should be fine. I spent a lot of the day working
on a new song. It’s crap but I need to finish it.
My mom was kind enough to drop me off at Lickety Split as we discussed what to do about some of the other nights there after I left I walked over to the Khyber. Waiting there were some of the Soulfatronic guys. I was looking forward as always to playing a show with them, what a great band. I shot the shit with them as usual as we talked about the future. Which doesn’t look so bad these days.
I played a pretty long acoustic set, I’m always a tad nervous without my band. Playing alone is almost like being naked in public. I’m not covered by the pomp and circumstance of my persona, it’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing Andre on stage. With virtually no one in the crowd there to see me I’m even more nervous. I present the songs pretty much they way they are born, me playing alone on an acoustic guitar. If they can’t be performed that way you’ll rarely ever hear them recorded or performed. Sort of the test they have to pass. Once I sound checked the lights were up and there I was.
Set List
Ain’t No Sunshine
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Baby One More Time
Feels So Good
Get Me To California
Hangover
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Leavin
By the middle of the set I had eyes on me, I may not have brought a significant crowd but it seemed like I had the people that were there as they headed from the bar into the stage area. Once I get into a groove I can almost sort of imagine the bands there.
I ended the set with Leavin, the last song on Superego, which usually has me, bass, drums, horns, strings, and a choir. A song I’ve done in (what we call) the Epic format so many time I wasn’t even sure it would work otherwise. We’ve been playing it as a trio and have effectively cut out a lot of the room left by the other instruments. Now by myself I have to make less room. Oddly enough it worked. The emotion of the song is still there surprisingly enough and I still had an out of body experience.
My anxieties were laid to rest as the end of performance was met with a roaring applause. An older gentlemen said that he had never seen one guy fill the stage like I did tonight, one of my fellow musicians remarked that although my bands great, he likes me playing by myself with my acoustic guitar, years ago I wouldn’t have taken that as a knock on my band, but I know what we can do and how good we are, today I look at it this way; there aren‘t many people that can play with a full band and play by themselves that can elicit the same response and if people think I‘m just as good on my own than I am with backing musicians then I must be doing something right. The general consensus was that people liked it. I may attempt to incorporate that more into my live performances.
After that I ran to the Tritone to play a short set at the open mic
Set List
Bed’s Too Big Without You
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
Baby One More Time
After I was finished I met with the Jefferson Square People as we try to nail all aspects of this festival down.
After a ride home I hit the hay. Hopefully my ankle will feel strong enough to run soon.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 160
Day 159 - August 17th 2009
Day 3 of my 7 day stretch. No Philly Rising today
But what I do have is an interview with the Cellar Sessions.com internet Radio show. This wouldn’t be my first time doing a radio show, that would be in Chicago with Bang Camaro when we did Man Cow’s show. But this would be the first time I would be conducting an interview about me concerning my music.
I had quite a bit to do before that happened though. Lots of phone calls for upcoming shows, securing a driver for the upcoming Midwest stretch looking at a Van for that trip. It’s coming up in a couple of months so moves have to be made. I’m really excited about it as well as the upcoming shows in Baltimore and Ithaca. I feel like I’m starting to swell just a little, hopefully I’ll be bigger than I currently am which won’t take much.
I arrived at the basement studio around 6:30 with my dad. I asked if Jax was there and there she was sitting at the desk next to him. Jax is and old friend of an old bandmate of mine Amanda who I had just run into at The show at the Tritone that The Zero’s did in July and that’s how the ball kinda got rolling on me being a part of this whole thing.
I did have some concerns about what they were going to ask and if my voice would hold up (I’d been singing for 3 or 4 days straight so strain is always a concern) so I did the ol Camaro vocal warm up, which has been useful in the months that I’ve been home, although it looks, feels, and sounds just a little weirder when you’re doing it by yourself.
I went back downstairs and prepared for the interview. I wasn’t sure what they were going to ask but I was pretty prepared to answer anything they were gonna throw at me.
I won’t reveal the details of the interview just yet you guys’ll just have to wait till it’s posted on Monday for that but I can say that Bill and Jax and Crew were extremely professional, I had a lot of fun, and I think the interview went extremely well. I played 3 tunes in studio and they spun an MP3. Should be fun I can’t wait for you guys to hear it.
I left the studio and headed home to watch the rest of Monday Night Raw and headed for bed
The Cellar Sessions air this Monday
Day 3 of my 7 day stretch. No Philly Rising today
But what I do have is an interview with the Cellar Sessions.com internet Radio show. This wouldn’t be my first time doing a radio show, that would be in Chicago with Bang Camaro when we did Man Cow’s show. But this would be the first time I would be conducting an interview about me concerning my music.
I had quite a bit to do before that happened though. Lots of phone calls for upcoming shows, securing a driver for the upcoming Midwest stretch looking at a Van for that trip. It’s coming up in a couple of months so moves have to be made. I’m really excited about it as well as the upcoming shows in Baltimore and Ithaca. I feel like I’m starting to swell just a little, hopefully I’ll be bigger than I currently am which won’t take much.
I arrived at the basement studio around 6:30 with my dad. I asked if Jax was there and there she was sitting at the desk next to him. Jax is and old friend of an old bandmate of mine Amanda who I had just run into at The show at the Tritone that The Zero’s did in July and that’s how the ball kinda got rolling on me being a part of this whole thing.
I did have some concerns about what they were going to ask and if my voice would hold up (I’d been singing for 3 or 4 days straight so strain is always a concern) so I did the ol Camaro vocal warm up, which has been useful in the months that I’ve been home, although it looks, feels, and sounds just a little weirder when you’re doing it by yourself.
I went back downstairs and prepared for the interview. I wasn’t sure what they were going to ask but I was pretty prepared to answer anything they were gonna throw at me.
I won’t reveal the details of the interview just yet you guys’ll just have to wait till it’s posted on Monday for that but I can say that Bill and Jax and Crew were extremely professional, I had a lot of fun, and I think the interview went extremely well. I played 3 tunes in studio and they spun an MP3. Should be fun I can’t wait for you guys to hear it.
I left the studio and headed home to watch the rest of Monday Night Raw and headed for bed
The Cellar Sessions air this Monday
Monday, August 17, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 159
Day 158 - August 16th 2009
Day 3 of my 7 Day Stretch. Today would be the Tritone. The Tritone was the first place I ever went looking for a gig with the Boy Wonder project. I had hear that it was the place to play in Philly, not like I cared about crap like that I just wanted to play shows. After months of persistence the guy literally told me I’m not good enough to play here and probably would never be. I was of course hurt by his words, I was 19, 20 at the time and just wanted to play for fun. I did get two things out of that experience that would shape the direction my career took. One it sort of shifted my thinking to thinking outside of the box. I ended up playing in Supermarkets and Malls and stuff like that before I go a legit club gig. Two it showed me how never to treat artists because frankly you never know who you’re looking at.
I remember my first show there a couple of years ago, a charity show that my friends put together and tme walking in and the same guy that basically told me that I wasn’t good enough to play in his club all those years earlier basically kissing my ass wanting to get my number so that we could set up a real show there. As I stepped on stage I (in probably my most unprofessional moment ever) proceeded to tell the story of how the booker here told me that I would never be good enough to play his shit hole of a club, and me and the boys proceeded to rock that place hard.
Since then I’ve hosted their open mic in place of my good friends The Absolute Zeros and I’ve played there occasionally at the request of friends and what not. When I walked in there as a 19 year old kid I never imagined that I would be at a place where booking a gig at the Tritone would be a step back.
Tonight we were stopped dead in our tracks. Several members of the opening band The Good News were under 21 so they weren’t allowed to be in there. Of course the all powerful Tritone didn’t bother to tell the City Line guys that was going to be the case tonight. It’s clear on the website the owner says, but I basically stepped in and said that you dealt with these kids directly and probably didn’t tell them to look on the website and never bothered ot ay anything ot them while you were working out the details. So basically these boneheads probably had an empty bar all night.
After calling every venue in town to move the show we decided to turn it into a house party at Mike Mitchell’s house. We had a couple of beers and jammed on some tunes. It was fun kicking it with the City Line Guys and Matt Spitko, I rarelt have musician friends that like the same music I like so it was an interesting experience. It really inspired me to sit down and write some songs tomorrow.
Got a chance to kick it with Mike Mitchell cause he gave me a ride home. What a nice guy, City Line’s going to be huge.
3 down 4 to go
One of Mike Mitchell (Of City Line)'s classic numbers
Day 3 of my 7 Day Stretch. Today would be the Tritone. The Tritone was the first place I ever went looking for a gig with the Boy Wonder project. I had hear that it was the place to play in Philly, not like I cared about crap like that I just wanted to play shows. After months of persistence the guy literally told me I’m not good enough to play here and probably would never be. I was of course hurt by his words, I was 19, 20 at the time and just wanted to play for fun. I did get two things out of that experience that would shape the direction my career took. One it sort of shifted my thinking to thinking outside of the box. I ended up playing in Supermarkets and Malls and stuff like that before I go a legit club gig. Two it showed me how never to treat artists because frankly you never know who you’re looking at.
I remember my first show there a couple of years ago, a charity show that my friends put together and tme walking in and the same guy that basically told me that I wasn’t good enough to play in his club all those years earlier basically kissing my ass wanting to get my number so that we could set up a real show there. As I stepped on stage I (in probably my most unprofessional moment ever) proceeded to tell the story of how the booker here told me that I would never be good enough to play his shit hole of a club, and me and the boys proceeded to rock that place hard.
Since then I’ve hosted their open mic in place of my good friends The Absolute Zeros and I’ve played there occasionally at the request of friends and what not. When I walked in there as a 19 year old kid I never imagined that I would be at a place where booking a gig at the Tritone would be a step back.
Tonight we were stopped dead in our tracks. Several members of the opening band The Good News were under 21 so they weren’t allowed to be in there. Of course the all powerful Tritone didn’t bother to tell the City Line guys that was going to be the case tonight. It’s clear on the website the owner says, but I basically stepped in and said that you dealt with these kids directly and probably didn’t tell them to look on the website and never bothered ot ay anything ot them while you were working out the details. So basically these boneheads probably had an empty bar all night.
After calling every venue in town to move the show we decided to turn it into a house party at Mike Mitchell’s house. We had a couple of beers and jammed on some tunes. It was fun kicking it with the City Line Guys and Matt Spitko, I rarelt have musician friends that like the same music I like so it was an interesting experience. It really inspired me to sit down and write some songs tomorrow.
Got a chance to kick it with Mike Mitchell cause he gave me a ride home. What a nice guy, City Line’s going to be huge.
3 down 4 to go
One of Mike Mitchell (Of City Line)'s classic numbers
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 158
Day 157 - August 15th 2009
Day 2 of my seven day stretch. Today The Lockstock Music Festival, a new festival in Lock Haven PA that I’m hoping is going to be something that we’ll eventually be able to go to every year to move units and merch and the like. Lock Haven was three hours away so Brian would be our driver today. Rob’s girlfriend Allison and Brian’s Buddy Allie (short for Allison…weird right) would be joining us on our little excursion. We hit the road around one and headed to our destination.
As we listened to music Brian’s telling me the Fuel Gage is low. Unfortunately The Fuel Gage just does that on the van. Paranoid we stop to get gas. Which I would do every time something like that happens. I was pretty stoked. The Plateau Jam is one of our favorite dates of the year so I was excited about yet another festival to play. It’s a long ride but I can’t think of a better crew to do a 4 hour car ride with than my guys. The dynamic is interesting as the three of us have really bonded since we’ve been playing together it’s really cool.
When we arrived we noticed that there was a stage and some proto potties, what they didn’t have was beer or food. The guy running it said it’s pretty much B.Y.O.B. so it required us to go into Lock Haven to try to find a beer distributor.
Rob’s GPS took us to a place that didn’t exist. Then Brian asked a hick dude with no shirt on where we could find beer. After aimlessly searching around we happen to find one about 15 minutes before closing time. Then we turned around and got back to the fest in time to catch the all girl band SugarHi (I’m assuming it’s an Empire Records reference) they were pretty cool.
We drank a few beers and played some bean bag toss and when 9PM rolled around we set up to play. I rarely ever use a house amp when I got play somewhere but for some reason I didn’t feel like hauling my amp around today, boy did I pay for it. I put my gear through a Marshall combo, which never sound good. It would be adequate enough to get through the gig though
Set List
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
The Way You Make Me Feel
How Can This Be Love
Always Givin Me The Blues
Feels So Good
Wasted
Walking on The Moon
Leavin
We were on fire, three hours in the Six Flags Heat’ll do that I guess. I got a lift from them and we were really goin for blood as Dante used to say. I think because we weren’t havin nearly as much fun as we did at the Plateau Jam we were hell bent on making sure the actual show itself was a s good as it could be. We’re tightening up again, which is good because we got all this stuff comin up in the fall.
When we finished the concert goes encouraged us to play more so we strapped up and played an encore
Encore
Baby One More Time
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Demolition Man
Baby one more time is probably going to have to go in the set from here on out. I hate to say this but it sounds to good not to be a cover we play. We ended with a raucous versions of Breakup and Demolition Man. We got in the car and I got home around four. Tired again I went to bed.
2 Down 5 to go.
Day 2 of my seven day stretch. Today The Lockstock Music Festival, a new festival in Lock Haven PA that I’m hoping is going to be something that we’ll eventually be able to go to every year to move units and merch and the like. Lock Haven was three hours away so Brian would be our driver today. Rob’s girlfriend Allison and Brian’s Buddy Allie (short for Allison…weird right) would be joining us on our little excursion. We hit the road around one and headed to our destination.
As we listened to music Brian’s telling me the Fuel Gage is low. Unfortunately The Fuel Gage just does that on the van. Paranoid we stop to get gas. Which I would do every time something like that happens. I was pretty stoked. The Plateau Jam is one of our favorite dates of the year so I was excited about yet another festival to play. It’s a long ride but I can’t think of a better crew to do a 4 hour car ride with than my guys. The dynamic is interesting as the three of us have really bonded since we’ve been playing together it’s really cool.
When we arrived we noticed that there was a stage and some proto potties, what they didn’t have was beer or food. The guy running it said it’s pretty much B.Y.O.B. so it required us to go into Lock Haven to try to find a beer distributor.
Rob’s GPS took us to a place that didn’t exist. Then Brian asked a hick dude with no shirt on where we could find beer. After aimlessly searching around we happen to find one about 15 minutes before closing time. Then we turned around and got back to the fest in time to catch the all girl band SugarHi (I’m assuming it’s an Empire Records reference) they were pretty cool.
We drank a few beers and played some bean bag toss and when 9PM rolled around we set up to play. I rarely ever use a house amp when I got play somewhere but for some reason I didn’t feel like hauling my amp around today, boy did I pay for it. I put my gear through a Marshall combo, which never sound good. It would be adequate enough to get through the gig though
Set List
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
The Way You Make Me Feel
How Can This Be Love
Always Givin Me The Blues
Feels So Good
Wasted
Walking on The Moon
Leavin
We were on fire, three hours in the Six Flags Heat’ll do that I guess. I got a lift from them and we were really goin for blood as Dante used to say. I think because we weren’t havin nearly as much fun as we did at the Plateau Jam we were hell bent on making sure the actual show itself was a s good as it could be. We’re tightening up again, which is good because we got all this stuff comin up in the fall.
When we finished the concert goes encouraged us to play more so we strapped up and played an encore
Encore
Baby One More Time
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Demolition Man
Baby one more time is probably going to have to go in the set from here on out. I hate to say this but it sounds to good not to be a cover we play. We ended with a raucous versions of Breakup and Demolition Man. We got in the car and I got home around four. Tired again I went to bed.
2 Down 5 to go.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 157
Day 156 - August 14th 2009
I tried to get up as early as possible today. I had a long day ahead of me as the band and I head to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson New Jersey as today marks the first day of 7 show run over the next seven days. There’s always a lot of stress and hustle and bustle when you do these sorts of shows with time being of the essence we’re rushing to make sure that we get there on time.
Rob arrived first and then Casey as we loaded up the car picked up Jake and Lily and headed towards the theme park. It was a not so long drive up there as we listened to some music and chatted. I dozed off for a while and woke up at a WaWa near the park. It was packed so we had to go to a McDonalds. The grease from Jake’s Angus Burger was making his hands all shiny.
As we arrived into the park and unpacked the van we realized my guitars and Jakes bass head were missing from the party…OH NO! I had asked Casey to carry them out but didn’t check before we left to see if we’d forgot anything, I was in such a rush that I’d left three essential things…Fudge!
Fortunately I’d brought my acoustic guitar out and put it in the car. The plan was to just rock it like that. Jake would go direct and I would play acoustic guitar. I quickly put a set list together of songs that would sound halfway decent without the electric guitar, things that I play acoustic often , that I would feel comfortable playing with the band. Casey would attempt to drive back to Philly toi grab the gear and we’d rock it unplugged until he got back.
As we were about to start and Casey was well on his way, one of the sound guys (who must have overheard us talking) approached me and said, our boss has an electric guitar in his office. I said cool maybe we can use it? He said yes and I patiently waited to see what we were working with, I was expecting one of those toys r us guitars that just look like they sound like ass but as they approached I was relieved to see Fender Stratocaster…pretty close to the one I play night in and night out so we got down on that.
The challenge here, play enough material for a three hour set…child’s play. But the one twist today is we have to be family friendly (Quite a bit of my material is about booze and sex and also there‘s swear words) so this was going to be interesting
Set 1
Ain’t No Sunshine
Godess
Only You
Always Givin Me The Blues
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
3000 Miles Away
Destiny
Sunshine of Your Love
The First Set was a little rough. Admittedly I was a bit rattled over the whole guitar thing and playing an unfamiliar guitar can be a daunting task, you‘re just not used ot the feel and the sound of it. It’s kinda like dancing with a girl from the first time. I tired my best to focus on the task at hand making sure I didn’t sound like complete a utter ass. A task I didn’t accomplish. You could smell it all the way to the Scream Machine.
After we were done we had to sit and wait for the Hoedown spectacular to be finished. I was a little nervous because three of the songs I generally use to close sets with I played during the first set so I was scrambling trying to put two more sets together and remembering that I needed to keep it clean. I was anxious to get back up because by some miracle we were moving merchandise. And I wanted to make sure that we contiuned to do that, so as soon as we were done the sound guys turned us on and we were pretty much ready to go.
Set 2
What’s My Name
Electric Love
Hoochie Coochie Man
Michelle
The Way You Make Me Feel
How Can This Be Love
Love Affair
Demolition Man
The roughness continued until about midway through the second set, I had gotten a read on what I could and could not do with this guitar in terms of rhythms and leads, and I had to think on my feet to remove the drug references out of Michelle. But once we settled down we were great. Songs like Love Affair and Demolition Man really help with that.
When we came off we were told that the break would be a little longer because the hoedown spectacular was running a little late. I don’t know how those kids do those shows three times a day. It’s a living I guess. I was having flashbacks to the time I auditioned for them and Disney to sing and dance. That could be me up there…scary thought.
When they were done we hit the stage for the third set.
Set 3
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
Stranger
Billie Jean
Feels So Good
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Baby One More Time
Leavin
The roughness was a thing of the past as we ventured into all familiar territory. The crowds started to stop and either sit down or stand in front of the stage as we started to funk it up properly. I felt like we were finally on fire as the CD’s just started to really fly from the merch table. As I looked to my left a little Asian Girl was standing by the merch table taking pictures every so often. She seemed sweet but I couldn’t for the life of me figure exactly why she was standing there.
I saw some 14 year old girls scoping out the mountain of man that is Jake Dean so I broke into the Britney Spear Classic, Baby One More Time. It’s a song I knew pretty well so that band just followed me through the chord progression. It sounded pretty good.
We wrapped up the set and as I approached Bin Bin, the Asian Girl at the Merch Table, she told me she wanted an autograph, I was more than happy to oblige, I was gonna be in her autograph book one page after Bugs Bunny. She told me my handwriting was a lot better than most Americans. Sweet girl. I signed a couple of CD’s and we bounced.
Unfortunately for me my day wasn’t done as I had to venture in to Lickety Split to Handle Buisness. The first act had gone on, and when I arrived Jim George was playin. He wrapped up his set and I got Justin Barron on stage and got to talk to Jim as he picked my brain about how to make it in the Philly Scene. I’m reluctant about giving advice a lot of the time because I’m never sure if I’ve made it in the Philly Scene.
Once Justin was done the night closed out with Max Swan who hit us with some smooth Jazz. He was like a Jazz pied piper drawing people inside of the bar. He mellowed us out for a couple of hours and wrapped up the evening. Exhausted I got a ride home and fell asleep, face first on the couch.
Day 1 of my 7 day stretch is complete. Now all I have to do is last 6 more days.
I tried to get up as early as possible today. I had a long day ahead of me as the band and I head to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson New Jersey as today marks the first day of 7 show run over the next seven days. There’s always a lot of stress and hustle and bustle when you do these sorts of shows with time being of the essence we’re rushing to make sure that we get there on time.
Rob arrived first and then Casey as we loaded up the car picked up Jake and Lily and headed towards the theme park. It was a not so long drive up there as we listened to some music and chatted. I dozed off for a while and woke up at a WaWa near the park. It was packed so we had to go to a McDonalds. The grease from Jake’s Angus Burger was making his hands all shiny.
As we arrived into the park and unpacked the van we realized my guitars and Jakes bass head were missing from the party…OH NO! I had asked Casey to carry them out but didn’t check before we left to see if we’d forgot anything, I was in such a rush that I’d left three essential things…Fudge!
Fortunately I’d brought my acoustic guitar out and put it in the car. The plan was to just rock it like that. Jake would go direct and I would play acoustic guitar. I quickly put a set list together of songs that would sound halfway decent without the electric guitar, things that I play acoustic often , that I would feel comfortable playing with the band. Casey would attempt to drive back to Philly toi grab the gear and we’d rock it unplugged until he got back.
As we were about to start and Casey was well on his way, one of the sound guys (who must have overheard us talking) approached me and said, our boss has an electric guitar in his office. I said cool maybe we can use it? He said yes and I patiently waited to see what we were working with, I was expecting one of those toys r us guitars that just look like they sound like ass but as they approached I was relieved to see Fender Stratocaster…pretty close to the one I play night in and night out so we got down on that.
The challenge here, play enough material for a three hour set…child’s play. But the one twist today is we have to be family friendly (Quite a bit of my material is about booze and sex and also there‘s swear words) so this was going to be interesting
Set 1
Ain’t No Sunshine
Godess
Only You
Always Givin Me The Blues
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
3000 Miles Away
Destiny
Sunshine of Your Love
The First Set was a little rough. Admittedly I was a bit rattled over the whole guitar thing and playing an unfamiliar guitar can be a daunting task, you‘re just not used ot the feel and the sound of it. It’s kinda like dancing with a girl from the first time. I tired my best to focus on the task at hand making sure I didn’t sound like complete a utter ass. A task I didn’t accomplish. You could smell it all the way to the Scream Machine.
After we were done we had to sit and wait for the Hoedown spectacular to be finished. I was a little nervous because three of the songs I generally use to close sets with I played during the first set so I was scrambling trying to put two more sets together and remembering that I needed to keep it clean. I was anxious to get back up because by some miracle we were moving merchandise. And I wanted to make sure that we contiuned to do that, so as soon as we were done the sound guys turned us on and we were pretty much ready to go.
Set 2
What’s My Name
Electric Love
Hoochie Coochie Man
Michelle
The Way You Make Me Feel
How Can This Be Love
Love Affair
Demolition Man
The roughness continued until about midway through the second set, I had gotten a read on what I could and could not do with this guitar in terms of rhythms and leads, and I had to think on my feet to remove the drug references out of Michelle. But once we settled down we were great. Songs like Love Affair and Demolition Man really help with that.
When we came off we were told that the break would be a little longer because the hoedown spectacular was running a little late. I don’t know how those kids do those shows three times a day. It’s a living I guess. I was having flashbacks to the time I auditioned for them and Disney to sing and dance. That could be me up there…scary thought.
When they were done we hit the stage for the third set.
Set 3
Superhero
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
Stranger
Billie Jean
Feels So Good
(I Think We Should) Breakup
Baby One More Time
Leavin
The roughness was a thing of the past as we ventured into all familiar territory. The crowds started to stop and either sit down or stand in front of the stage as we started to funk it up properly. I felt like we were finally on fire as the CD’s just started to really fly from the merch table. As I looked to my left a little Asian Girl was standing by the merch table taking pictures every so often. She seemed sweet but I couldn’t for the life of me figure exactly why she was standing there.
I saw some 14 year old girls scoping out the mountain of man that is Jake Dean so I broke into the Britney Spear Classic, Baby One More Time. It’s a song I knew pretty well so that band just followed me through the chord progression. It sounded pretty good.
We wrapped up the set and as I approached Bin Bin, the Asian Girl at the Merch Table, she told me she wanted an autograph, I was more than happy to oblige, I was gonna be in her autograph book one page after Bugs Bunny. She told me my handwriting was a lot better than most Americans. Sweet girl. I signed a couple of CD’s and we bounced.
Unfortunately for me my day wasn’t done as I had to venture in to Lickety Split to Handle Buisness. The first act had gone on, and when I arrived Jim George was playin. He wrapped up his set and I got Justin Barron on stage and got to talk to Jim as he picked my brain about how to make it in the Philly Scene. I’m reluctant about giving advice a lot of the time because I’m never sure if I’ve made it in the Philly Scene.
Once Justin was done the night closed out with Max Swan who hit us with some smooth Jazz. He was like a Jazz pied piper drawing people inside of the bar. He mellowed us out for a couple of hours and wrapped up the evening. Exhausted I got a ride home and fell asleep, face first on the couch.
Day 1 of my 7 day stretch is complete. Now all I have to do is last 6 more days.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 156
Day 155 - August 13th 2009
Today was primarily dominated by four emotions
In the morning it was irritation.
Every year I am encourage to submit to the Dewey beach Music Conference and Festival finally I submitted last year and was rejected. We ended up playing a secondary stage but were able to get passes and have a good time. Again I am encouraged to submit this year and woke up to find a rejection email in my inbox. Which begs the question, why am I irritated?
Mainly because other than the alcoholic snow cones and the sweet party or two that you can get into I’ve never even bothered to go. I’d rather not be bothered, there’s generally no one there that I don’t already know or anyone there that has any information that’s particularly useful. It’s usually dominated by bands from outside of Philly and the aging Philly elite, there are a few decent young bands (Find Vienna and Bojibian in particular) that are reflective of what’s currently happening in the Philly Music Scene. But it’s pretty light on folk music, Soul music is barely present, Hip Hop is non-existent, even SXSW had a Soul Stage Last Year. I think more diversity would really help the conference.
With all that said we had such a good time together last year I may try to see if we can get into one of these side shows.
In the afternoon it was sadness
Les Paul had passed away. One of the primary inventors of the electric guitar and the inventor of multi-track recording. I wouldn’t be possible if not for his contributions to the world. He was also a kick ass guitar player.
He died at the age of 94 still playing gigs, If I could play guitar (and live) for 70 more years I would be pretty fortunate. I own a Les Paul that a rarely play but when I took up guitar I knew that every guitarist should own one. My first one I actually fell in love with it was a Black older model. After it was stolen I got Scarlett, I don’t use her for gigs often but I did use her once or twice on Superego (On Hangover Kelvin played a tele and Austin played a strat so I used the Les Paul to give myself a more distinct sound) and I’ve always been happy with what I was able to achieve with it sonically.
In the early evening it was shock
Michael Vick (Dogfighting Kingpin Michael Vick) singed a two year deal with the Eagles. Michael Vick is going to play here and people were already up in arms. This is a story that I’m gonna be following with great interest.
For all the people that are already passing judgment on the situation I say this. What he did was wrong no doubt, I don’t think that’s up for debate. Will we be talking about it till the day he dies? Of course we will. But the man was caught, tried, convicted and served his time in prison for his crimes, and for his idiotic behavior he will be going from being the highest paid athlete in football to making less than a tenth than he was making had he been smart enough to keep his nose clean. So no one is in the position to say that the man should be a allowed to work. You don’t have to like it or agree with it but I know that if something like that were to ever happen to me (not that I have any criminal activity planned) I would want to be able to get out and make a living.
So many people act like he drowned and electrocuted five people. I understand there are people out there that love animals, if those people had the same fervor for the treatment of their fellow man than maybe the world might be a better place. Some of these folks ask what kind of example does Vick playing in the league set for kids. I ask the parents whay kind of example are you setting by not teaching your kids about forgiveness?
This is going to make for an interesting season
Late night it was nostalgia
I met up with Leslie, the band that clocked in so many hours in the van with Bang Camaro as an opener. They had some shows in Reading and Jersey and came through to crash at Sean’s Pad. It was good to see them again. I took them to Jim’s for a cheese steaks then to Lickety Split. I wish I had more time to hang with them. Down the line definitely, they extended the invitation to Charleston so I think I’m gonna try to take them up on that in December.
I hung out with Tommy at Lickety for a bit before I went home. Tomorrow is the first day of quite a stretch for me so I should be getting more rest than I’m going to get tonight.
Today was primarily dominated by four emotions
In the morning it was irritation.
Every year I am encourage to submit to the Dewey beach Music Conference and Festival finally I submitted last year and was rejected. We ended up playing a secondary stage but were able to get passes and have a good time. Again I am encouraged to submit this year and woke up to find a rejection email in my inbox. Which begs the question, why am I irritated?
Mainly because other than the alcoholic snow cones and the sweet party or two that you can get into I’ve never even bothered to go. I’d rather not be bothered, there’s generally no one there that I don’t already know or anyone there that has any information that’s particularly useful. It’s usually dominated by bands from outside of Philly and the aging Philly elite, there are a few decent young bands (Find Vienna and Bojibian in particular) that are reflective of what’s currently happening in the Philly Music Scene. But it’s pretty light on folk music, Soul music is barely present, Hip Hop is non-existent, even SXSW had a Soul Stage Last Year. I think more diversity would really help the conference.
With all that said we had such a good time together last year I may try to see if we can get into one of these side shows.
In the afternoon it was sadness
Les Paul had passed away. One of the primary inventors of the electric guitar and the inventor of multi-track recording. I wouldn’t be possible if not for his contributions to the world. He was also a kick ass guitar player.
He died at the age of 94 still playing gigs, If I could play guitar (and live) for 70 more years I would be pretty fortunate. I own a Les Paul that a rarely play but when I took up guitar I knew that every guitarist should own one. My first one I actually fell in love with it was a Black older model. After it was stolen I got Scarlett, I don’t use her for gigs often but I did use her once or twice on Superego (On Hangover Kelvin played a tele and Austin played a strat so I used the Les Paul to give myself a more distinct sound) and I’ve always been happy with what I was able to achieve with it sonically.
In the early evening it was shock
Michael Vick (Dogfighting Kingpin Michael Vick) singed a two year deal with the Eagles. Michael Vick is going to play here and people were already up in arms. This is a story that I’m gonna be following with great interest.
For all the people that are already passing judgment on the situation I say this. What he did was wrong no doubt, I don’t think that’s up for debate. Will we be talking about it till the day he dies? Of course we will. But the man was caught, tried, convicted and served his time in prison for his crimes, and for his idiotic behavior he will be going from being the highest paid athlete in football to making less than a tenth than he was making had he been smart enough to keep his nose clean. So no one is in the position to say that the man should be a allowed to work. You don’t have to like it or agree with it but I know that if something like that were to ever happen to me (not that I have any criminal activity planned) I would want to be able to get out and make a living.
So many people act like he drowned and electrocuted five people. I understand there are people out there that love animals, if those people had the same fervor for the treatment of their fellow man than maybe the world might be a better place. Some of these folks ask what kind of example does Vick playing in the league set for kids. I ask the parents whay kind of example are you setting by not teaching your kids about forgiveness?
This is going to make for an interesting season
Late night it was nostalgia
I met up with Leslie, the band that clocked in so many hours in the van with Bang Camaro as an opener. They had some shows in Reading and Jersey and came through to crash at Sean’s Pad. It was good to see them again. I took them to Jim’s for a cheese steaks then to Lickety Split. I wish I had more time to hang with them. Down the line definitely, they extended the invitation to Charleston so I think I’m gonna try to take them up on that in December.
I hung out with Tommy at Lickety for a bit before I went home. Tomorrow is the first day of quite a stretch for me so I should be getting more rest than I’m going to get tonight.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 155
Day 154 - August 12th 2009
Woke up relatively early because I didn’t want to miss my meeting. My phone rang and Bill was wondering if I could come in right away because he had a meeting he had to go to in the afternoon. I hopped in the shower and headed on over to his office.
On the way over I was wondering what he was going to tell me suggest I should be doing. I have some ideas but I wanted to be open to what he was saying. My buds called to tell me G.I. Joe would be playing at like 1:20 so my meeting would be over by then.
I got off the bus and stepped into his office and we started to talk. We went through some basic stuff and then he started in on the different ways I can make money. He seems to think it can come from Boy Wonder the performer, Boy Wonder the songwriter, Boy Wonder the promoter and Boy Wonder the entertainment personality. I get the first three but Bill seems to think that if done right my personality/persona would allow me to break off into various other forms of entertainment, that would be sweet if that happened. My eyes were opened to some possibilities that could be explored in addition to music, as long as it’s done the right way.
With my mind still buzzing I went with my buddies to see G.I. Joe, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be…it was dare I say it…good. It’s always cool to see my friends, we’ve been friends for almost ten years now (around 7 or 8 Casey and I for about 10) and it’s particularly interesting because we’re all going through changes and figuring this whole life thing out. We went and got comics and then I hung around south street because I had a short time till Lickety Split.
With the exception of Gabriella Christine it was a slow night, the drummer from the first band was late throwing everything off by 30 minutes. I’m extremely anal about time especially on a slow night. As far as the talent level goes it was fine, but the door for soul music there is all but closed unless I can find some guys that can really get the job done.
The guys from Leslie’ll be in tomorrow, I’m pretty excited about that. My Marathon Stretch of shows starts in a couple of days and I’m even more excited about that. Bonding with the boys, we’re gonna need it for what I got planned.
Woke up relatively early because I didn’t want to miss my meeting. My phone rang and Bill was wondering if I could come in right away because he had a meeting he had to go to in the afternoon. I hopped in the shower and headed on over to his office.
On the way over I was wondering what he was going to tell me suggest I should be doing. I have some ideas but I wanted to be open to what he was saying. My buds called to tell me G.I. Joe would be playing at like 1:20 so my meeting would be over by then.
I got off the bus and stepped into his office and we started to talk. We went through some basic stuff and then he started in on the different ways I can make money. He seems to think it can come from Boy Wonder the performer, Boy Wonder the songwriter, Boy Wonder the promoter and Boy Wonder the entertainment personality. I get the first three but Bill seems to think that if done right my personality/persona would allow me to break off into various other forms of entertainment, that would be sweet if that happened. My eyes were opened to some possibilities that could be explored in addition to music, as long as it’s done the right way.
With my mind still buzzing I went with my buddies to see G.I. Joe, which was a lot better than I thought it was going to be…it was dare I say it…good. It’s always cool to see my friends, we’ve been friends for almost ten years now (around 7 or 8 Casey and I for about 10) and it’s particularly interesting because we’re all going through changes and figuring this whole life thing out. We went and got comics and then I hung around south street because I had a short time till Lickety Split.
With the exception of Gabriella Christine it was a slow night, the drummer from the first band was late throwing everything off by 30 minutes. I’m extremely anal about time especially on a slow night. As far as the talent level goes it was fine, but the door for soul music there is all but closed unless I can find some guys that can really get the job done.
The guys from Leslie’ll be in tomorrow, I’m pretty excited about that. My Marathon Stretch of shows starts in a couple of days and I’m even more excited about that. Bonding with the boys, we’re gonna need it for what I got planned.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 154
Day 153 - August 11th 2009
Slower day today so I decided to continue to work on the songs that I’ve been working on. With so much stuff on my plate in terms of the booking and promoting it’s hard to stay focused on developing the material especially since I’m not all the way sure it’s time to go in and lay stuff down.
I was scheduled to teach a guitar lesson but it was cancelled as I walked into her front door, bummer. It did give me some free time to work on this tune that needed a new chorus. haven’t gotten there yet but I want it to capture the emotion that I’m trying to convey in the song perfectly.
As I look down the barrel of the next week or so All I can think is that “Old times are here again” 6 (or 7 depending on if hear back from a venue) gigs in 8 days and I’m still trying to figure out if the show with Camaro on the 22nd in Boston is even physically possible to do.
Got a call from Bill Butler in the mid afternoon and he wants to help me develop a business plan. I’m interested to hear what he has to say in terms of where he sees my career going. I’m crossing over into a new frontier where my visions of success and art and music and where I fit are changing a bit something I’m extremely excited about. This is the 21st century and there’s so much that can be done today. It’s really cool.
I’m also going to see G.I. Joe tomorrow with the crew…Not lookin forward to it.
Now back to this chorus to see if I can get this right.
Slower day today so I decided to continue to work on the songs that I’ve been working on. With so much stuff on my plate in terms of the booking and promoting it’s hard to stay focused on developing the material especially since I’m not all the way sure it’s time to go in and lay stuff down.
I was scheduled to teach a guitar lesson but it was cancelled as I walked into her front door, bummer. It did give me some free time to work on this tune that needed a new chorus. haven’t gotten there yet but I want it to capture the emotion that I’m trying to convey in the song perfectly.
As I look down the barrel of the next week or so All I can think is that “Old times are here again” 6 (or 7 depending on if hear back from a venue) gigs in 8 days and I’m still trying to figure out if the show with Camaro on the 22nd in Boston is even physically possible to do.
Got a call from Bill Butler in the mid afternoon and he wants to help me develop a business plan. I’m interested to hear what he has to say in terms of where he sees my career going. I’m crossing over into a new frontier where my visions of success and art and music and where I fit are changing a bit something I’m extremely excited about. This is the 21st century and there’s so much that can be done today. It’s really cool.
I’m also going to see G.I. Joe tomorrow with the crew…Not lookin forward to it.
Now back to this chorus to see if I can get this right.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 153
Day 152 - August 10th 2009
So I got a call at 4AM this morning.
It was a guy calling me about wanting a gig at Lickety Split. I had just had a pretty relaxing Sunday with my family where for the most part I kept my phone and internet off to focus on family time and what not. I ate ribs and watched wipeout and had a grand time. When I got home I went to bed early, slept like a baby and I was in this good deep sleep so you can imagine as the phone rang loudly on the coffee table, I almost fell off of the couch. My thoughts ran along the line of, “No one would be calling me this late/early if it wasn’t an emergency” I was scared that something had happened to one of my friends, family (the nieces and nephew particularly), or the house down the street had been fire bombed again, I answered the phone without hesitation, without even looking at the number. I’m wider awake now as I hear some stoner’s voice through my phone.
Me: Hello.
Stoner: Um hey, so I heard you were the guy that books at lickety Split so I wanted to give you a call to talk about my ba-
Me: Okay I’m gonna stop you right there. First of all what time is it?
Stoner: Oh it’s like 4:03 me and my boys figured we’d try to give you a shou-
Me: Ok guys it’s NOT OKAY to call me at 4 in the morning for any reason. It’s the most inconsiderate, inappropriate, and most importantly unprofessional thing you can do, What’s the name of your band?
Stoner: **** ****
Me: Ok you have succeeded in never playing a show with me because I don’t book people that call me at 4AM. What the hell are you thinking about? What the fuck is wrong with you?
Stoner: Um my bad dude
Me: Get the hell off my phone before I trace this call and find out where you are.
I hang up
I hate to be like that, but sometimes it’s gotta be done. As I’ve mentioned several times before, for three years running I’ve been booking shows, it started off as me just wanting to control the quality of music whenever I played somewhere by booking all the acts, and eventually grew into something that resembles a booking agency. I’ve been blessed with the ability to be able to open doors for people, if I dig the music I can give bands opportunities to get themselves to a level where they no longer need my help. Now by no means am I suggesting altruism, this is part of what I do for a living now I’ve gotten pretty good at it I love it. But with this 4AM conversation it’s become apparent that it might be time to set some boundaries. I’ve made it a point to try to be as accessible as possible but that’s going to have to change.
I woke up with Philly Rising being the only thing I really needed to do today. I really like Mondays, Philly Rising is a pretty sweet event.
Our line was shorter than it had been in previous weeks…probably because of the heat. I kicked the night off and I played Baby One More Time for the first time in like 3 or 4 years (Toxic has been my Spears song for choice these days) We had some quality acts though. Particularly our standouts last night, Mike Short and Downtime. A bunch of teenagers playing country music, it was pretty awesome. We don’t get a lot of country music at Philly Rising and it’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
It’s really given me a lot of insight as to how talent is evaluated by the general public and has helped me in general in terms of seeing problems in my own performance and correcting them. A lot of artists have great voices, or great songs, or both but often don’t give the audience something visual that makes you want to look at them. Even if it’s a band standing there playing their songs at least there is the feeling of activity. Presenting something for the eyes goes way back before MTV. Look at The Motown Groups with the choreography, The Beatles with the wardrobe, Elvis, Hendirx Playing with his teeth. We should stop undervaluing how important an audiences eyes are as far as this whole music thing goes.
We’re off next week for the Beta Hi-Fi Festival but will be back August 24th hopefully the weather will be a bit better and we’ll have some more folks. I’m digging all the new faces I’ve been seeing as of late. I have guitar lessons tomorrow and am preparing for an old school Boy Wonder stretch of shows. Starting Friday I pretty much have shows everyday until the following Saturday.
So I got a call at 4AM this morning.
It was a guy calling me about wanting a gig at Lickety Split. I had just had a pretty relaxing Sunday with my family where for the most part I kept my phone and internet off to focus on family time and what not. I ate ribs and watched wipeout and had a grand time. When I got home I went to bed early, slept like a baby and I was in this good deep sleep so you can imagine as the phone rang loudly on the coffee table, I almost fell off of the couch. My thoughts ran along the line of, “No one would be calling me this late/early if it wasn’t an emergency” I was scared that something had happened to one of my friends, family (the nieces and nephew particularly), or the house down the street had been fire bombed again, I answered the phone without hesitation, without even looking at the number. I’m wider awake now as I hear some stoner’s voice through my phone.
Me: Hello.
Stoner: Um hey, so I heard you were the guy that books at lickety Split so I wanted to give you a call to talk about my ba-
Me: Okay I’m gonna stop you right there. First of all what time is it?
Stoner: Oh it’s like 4:03 me and my boys figured we’d try to give you a shou-
Me: Ok guys it’s NOT OKAY to call me at 4 in the morning for any reason. It’s the most inconsiderate, inappropriate, and most importantly unprofessional thing you can do, What’s the name of your band?
Stoner: **** ****
Me: Ok you have succeeded in never playing a show with me because I don’t book people that call me at 4AM. What the hell are you thinking about? What the fuck is wrong with you?
Stoner: Um my bad dude
Me: Get the hell off my phone before I trace this call and find out where you are.
I hang up
I hate to be like that, but sometimes it’s gotta be done. As I’ve mentioned several times before, for three years running I’ve been booking shows, it started off as me just wanting to control the quality of music whenever I played somewhere by booking all the acts, and eventually grew into something that resembles a booking agency. I’ve been blessed with the ability to be able to open doors for people, if I dig the music I can give bands opportunities to get themselves to a level where they no longer need my help. Now by no means am I suggesting altruism, this is part of what I do for a living now I’ve gotten pretty good at it I love it. But with this 4AM conversation it’s become apparent that it might be time to set some boundaries. I’ve made it a point to try to be as accessible as possible but that’s going to have to change.
I woke up with Philly Rising being the only thing I really needed to do today. I really like Mondays, Philly Rising is a pretty sweet event.
Our line was shorter than it had been in previous weeks…probably because of the heat. I kicked the night off and I played Baby One More Time for the first time in like 3 or 4 years (Toxic has been my Spears song for choice these days) We had some quality acts though. Particularly our standouts last night, Mike Short and Downtime. A bunch of teenagers playing country music, it was pretty awesome. We don’t get a lot of country music at Philly Rising and it’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
It’s really given me a lot of insight as to how talent is evaluated by the general public and has helped me in general in terms of seeing problems in my own performance and correcting them. A lot of artists have great voices, or great songs, or both but often don’t give the audience something visual that makes you want to look at them. Even if it’s a band standing there playing their songs at least there is the feeling of activity. Presenting something for the eyes goes way back before MTV. Look at The Motown Groups with the choreography, The Beatles with the wardrobe, Elvis, Hendirx Playing with his teeth. We should stop undervaluing how important an audiences eyes are as far as this whole music thing goes.
We’re off next week for the Beta Hi-Fi Festival but will be back August 24th hopefully the weather will be a bit better and we’ll have some more folks. I’m digging all the new faces I’ve been seeing as of late. I have guitar lessons tomorrow and am preparing for an old school Boy Wonder stretch of shows. Starting Friday I pretty much have shows everyday until the following Saturday.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 152
Day 151 - August 9th 2009
I’ve been over doing it lately. My ankle’s been hurting again. I’m young and don’t want this to be a permanent injury so I’ll go back to resting it whenever possible.
Today was quiet, a nice family barbeque which are always fun in their own special ways. Most of the entertainment was provided by Aydan who’s just started walking. They grow up pretty fast.
I got home around 8 kicked it with the rents and went to bed
I’ve resigned myself to not answering the phone for business reasons over the weekend. After getting a call from a band at like 4AM night I realized one’s gotta set some sort of limitations when it comes to accessibility. If people think you’re free to talk about their band 24/7 they’ll call you at 4AM
Philly Rising tomorrow…can’t wait.
I’ve been over doing it lately. My ankle’s been hurting again. I’m young and don’t want this to be a permanent injury so I’ll go back to resting it whenever possible.
Today was quiet, a nice family barbeque which are always fun in their own special ways. Most of the entertainment was provided by Aydan who’s just started walking. They grow up pretty fast.
I got home around 8 kicked it with the rents and went to bed
I’ve resigned myself to not answering the phone for business reasons over the weekend. After getting a call from a band at like 4AM night I realized one’s gotta set some sort of limitations when it comes to accessibility. If people think you’re free to talk about their band 24/7 they’ll call you at 4AM
Philly Rising tomorrow…can’t wait.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 151
Day 150 - August 8th 2009
I woke up around noon (not uncommon after being down at Lickety all Night) and immediately hit the internet in search of bands to put in the room. A Night like we had last night just motivates me to work as hard as possible to make sure we maintain that kind of consistency. It was really an awesome night.
As I was on Facebook I get to talking to a girl named Kari Vassar, a Bi-Sexual Journalism major at Temple from Kansas. She was friend of my buddy Amanda who threw the vegan party Thursday Night. When she went from talking about Zines to the missionary position I thought “too good to be true“, and remembered Amanda’s singing name was Amada Kari so I put two and two together and was 99.9% certain that Kari Vassar was my buddy Amanda. She ended our convo by inviting me to this party tonight.
Looking into the event it was related to Fatebook a performance art piece/multimedia show/theatre performance. As I understand it the actual show is about 13 people who create characters/personas on-line then interact in a real space environment and tonight the cast members would be at this party in character and we would interact with them and possibly some other people interested in being extras in the actual show who would come in character as well.
I convinced Zach and Rob to come with me. When Zach and I arrived Rory at the front desk said write down whatever you’d like to be called on your name tag. So I opted to be a dude named Drake. Zach seemed to be interested in the idea of everyone at the party and the masks that they were wearing, the fact that pretty much everyone was coming as someone other than their true selves. Which is something that would be interesting to discuss. We all wear masks, but I told him I always wondered if people were in fact a truer version of themselves on-line talking to strangers than they would be to the people that they know, it was a pretty heavy conversation.
I always enjoyed playing make believe as a kid, When I was little I pretended to be Superman, a Ghostbuster, Teen Wolf, a Veritech Pilot Squad Leader (Robotech) a member of the Voltorn Force, a Late Night Talk Show host, a pro wrestler, and many other countless things. The whole concept of me being Boy Wonder is about escaping what I percevie to be my true self and becoming something else. It’s the most fascinating thing about acting, all acting basically is you becoming someone else, convincing yourself that it’s real, and behaving accordingly. So tonight I was Drake Grayson. It was cool at first almost liberating as you interact with people as this other person. A girl even got Drake to dance with her (something I never do at parties…the real me hates dancing)
But as the night wore on it got a little trippy. As Kari walked in and I began to interact with her what was happening really started to sink in. This guy Drake has been talking to people all night but there’s a good chance that none of this is real. Am I really connecting with people in a traditional sense? Would the real me connect with the real them if those two people were in the same position. A few beers’ll do that. Once I decided not to be bogged down by it again I dove back into the game everyone was playing.
Round midnight it was all over. I was impressed with the characters staying in character even in the bathroom during the last whiz of the evening and even walking out of the party into their cars. I had a good time I may even consider returning to acting and trying to be a part of this show as an extra or something.
I headed home and hit the hay, family Barbeque tomorrow
I woke up around noon (not uncommon after being down at Lickety all Night) and immediately hit the internet in search of bands to put in the room. A Night like we had last night just motivates me to work as hard as possible to make sure we maintain that kind of consistency. It was really an awesome night.
As I was on Facebook I get to talking to a girl named Kari Vassar, a Bi-Sexual Journalism major at Temple from Kansas. She was friend of my buddy Amanda who threw the vegan party Thursday Night. When she went from talking about Zines to the missionary position I thought “too good to be true“, and remembered Amanda’s singing name was Amada Kari so I put two and two together and was 99.9% certain that Kari Vassar was my buddy Amanda. She ended our convo by inviting me to this party tonight.
Looking into the event it was related to Fatebook a performance art piece/multimedia show/theatre performance. As I understand it the actual show is about 13 people who create characters/personas on-line then interact in a real space environment and tonight the cast members would be at this party in character and we would interact with them and possibly some other people interested in being extras in the actual show who would come in character as well.
I convinced Zach and Rob to come with me. When Zach and I arrived Rory at the front desk said write down whatever you’d like to be called on your name tag. So I opted to be a dude named Drake. Zach seemed to be interested in the idea of everyone at the party and the masks that they were wearing, the fact that pretty much everyone was coming as someone other than their true selves. Which is something that would be interesting to discuss. We all wear masks, but I told him I always wondered if people were in fact a truer version of themselves on-line talking to strangers than they would be to the people that they know, it was a pretty heavy conversation.
I always enjoyed playing make believe as a kid, When I was little I pretended to be Superman, a Ghostbuster, Teen Wolf, a Veritech Pilot Squad Leader (Robotech) a member of the Voltorn Force, a Late Night Talk Show host, a pro wrestler, and many other countless things. The whole concept of me being Boy Wonder is about escaping what I percevie to be my true self and becoming something else. It’s the most fascinating thing about acting, all acting basically is you becoming someone else, convincing yourself that it’s real, and behaving accordingly. So tonight I was Drake Grayson. It was cool at first almost liberating as you interact with people as this other person. A girl even got Drake to dance with her (something I never do at parties…the real me hates dancing)
But as the night wore on it got a little trippy. As Kari walked in and I began to interact with her what was happening really started to sink in. This guy Drake has been talking to people all night but there’s a good chance that none of this is real. Am I really connecting with people in a traditional sense? Would the real me connect with the real them if those two people were in the same position. A few beers’ll do that. Once I decided not to be bogged down by it again I dove back into the game everyone was playing.
Round midnight it was all over. I was impressed with the characters staying in character even in the bathroom during the last whiz of the evening and even walking out of the party into their cars. I had a good time I may even consider returning to acting and trying to be a part of this show as an extra or something.
I headed home and hit the hay, family Barbeque tomorrow
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 150
Day 149 - August 7th 2009
I’m extremely nervous about tonight. It’s my first show at Lickety Split and I’ve basically had to throw a show together with only a day or two notice. I’ve locked in most of the bands, with some acts that I know combined with one of the acts booked by the previous guy
With all the acts booked at noon there was no use in obsessing over the night all day long. I decided that I would shut off my computer and TV and not answer the phone today to sit and work on some songs. I was intent on working on some things I had been working on earlier but a lot of it just ended up being dead ends. I’ve sort of adjusted my approach to writing in the past year or so. I’ll work on something for 30-60 minutes, if it’s not going anywhere I chuck it and move on to something else.
Finally I began writing something where I felt like I was onto something a laid back, upbeat, little number that might actually turn out to be a decent record somewhere down the line. I won’t go into details about it right now but it’s sort of my spin on a classic song subject, I’m kinda excited about it. It was a subject I was afraid to approach for fear of my own personal bitterness overtaking the song and frankly making it kind of conventional. Should be finished by the end of the day on Monday.
Pleased with myself I headed over to the doctors office to see my nephew/Godson Aydan, he was getting a physical and some shots (he just turned 1 this week) I was gonna go to Rittenhouse Square but it didn’t make any sense to go anywhere other than Lickety Split all things considered. I wasn’t quite sure about what was going to go down with this first band.
I got there around 6:30 and walked around looking for food. This was the most walking I’ve done since the injury and my ankle let me know it as I was heading back towards Lickety. I sat as Dave and 3J’s in the AM walked in, two acts I didn’t book and don’t really know that well.
Dave opened up with some classic rock acoustic covers and as he wound down 3J’s in the Am’s crowd came in. Once the set up they rocked out, classic sort of South Jersey Bar band. Rowdy, Rambunctious, Loud, and able to get the people goin. As the only band that had any kind of notice in terms of playing tonight I was concerned that people would bounce as soon as they were done. Some left but most stayed put.
Emerson B would take the stage and we just had all sorts of problems. They required me to walk about South Street in serch of 9 Volt Batteries for his pickup…and mine because when I let him use my guitar my battery seemed to be low. After all of the effort turned out to just be a bad chord. Once we worked that out he finished his set.
Joe Zaz hit the stage next and played some Dillon and a few of his songs. I even got to jam with him on Red House, I have jammed on lead guitar on that song with people at least 4 times and I don’t know it at all. His fans were probably my favorite of the night.
Lack of acts thrust me onto the bill last minute. There was a time that I never considered performing without Jake and Rob backing me up but lately with a great deal of my significant performing moments in the past few months (busking at SXSW and playing twice in LA) I’ve taken a liking to performing solo again. I’m really going to sit and work on an acoustic act where I can find other ways to be entertaining without the ripping lead guitar.
Set List
Can’t Stand Losing You
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Toxic/Closer
Wasted
Feels So Good
I had a lot of fun and seemed to be well received. Funny what seven days’ll do.
Then The Good News played to close out our night. They were amazing I even sat in and jammed on their Encore Fallin. The place was packed from 9PM - 2AM I loved it and the owners were happy. Everyone did such a great job. As crony as it sounds Lickety Split is one of my favorite places in the world and if I can help more people know that than I’m ultimately happy.
I went home and hit the bed around 3AM…Great freaking day.
I’m extremely nervous about tonight. It’s my first show at Lickety Split and I’ve basically had to throw a show together with only a day or two notice. I’ve locked in most of the bands, with some acts that I know combined with one of the acts booked by the previous guy
With all the acts booked at noon there was no use in obsessing over the night all day long. I decided that I would shut off my computer and TV and not answer the phone today to sit and work on some songs. I was intent on working on some things I had been working on earlier but a lot of it just ended up being dead ends. I’ve sort of adjusted my approach to writing in the past year or so. I’ll work on something for 30-60 minutes, if it’s not going anywhere I chuck it and move on to something else.
Finally I began writing something where I felt like I was onto something a laid back, upbeat, little number that might actually turn out to be a decent record somewhere down the line. I won’t go into details about it right now but it’s sort of my spin on a classic song subject, I’m kinda excited about it. It was a subject I was afraid to approach for fear of my own personal bitterness overtaking the song and frankly making it kind of conventional. Should be finished by the end of the day on Monday.
Pleased with myself I headed over to the doctors office to see my nephew/Godson Aydan, he was getting a physical and some shots (he just turned 1 this week) I was gonna go to Rittenhouse Square but it didn’t make any sense to go anywhere other than Lickety Split all things considered. I wasn’t quite sure about what was going to go down with this first band.
I got there around 6:30 and walked around looking for food. This was the most walking I’ve done since the injury and my ankle let me know it as I was heading back towards Lickety. I sat as Dave and 3J’s in the AM walked in, two acts I didn’t book and don’t really know that well.
Dave opened up with some classic rock acoustic covers and as he wound down 3J’s in the Am’s crowd came in. Once the set up they rocked out, classic sort of South Jersey Bar band. Rowdy, Rambunctious, Loud, and able to get the people goin. As the only band that had any kind of notice in terms of playing tonight I was concerned that people would bounce as soon as they were done. Some left but most stayed put.
Emerson B would take the stage and we just had all sorts of problems. They required me to walk about South Street in serch of 9 Volt Batteries for his pickup…and mine because when I let him use my guitar my battery seemed to be low. After all of the effort turned out to just be a bad chord. Once we worked that out he finished his set.
Joe Zaz hit the stage next and played some Dillon and a few of his songs. I even got to jam with him on Red House, I have jammed on lead guitar on that song with people at least 4 times and I don’t know it at all. His fans were probably my favorite of the night.
Lack of acts thrust me onto the bill last minute. There was a time that I never considered performing without Jake and Rob backing me up but lately with a great deal of my significant performing moments in the past few months (busking at SXSW and playing twice in LA) I’ve taken a liking to performing solo again. I’m really going to sit and work on an acoustic act where I can find other ways to be entertaining without the ripping lead guitar.
Set List
Can’t Stand Losing You
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
How Can This Be Love
Toxic/Closer
Wasted
Feels So Good
I had a lot of fun and seemed to be well received. Funny what seven days’ll do.
Then The Good News played to close out our night. They were amazing I even sat in and jammed on their Encore Fallin. The place was packed from 9PM - 2AM I loved it and the owners were happy. Everyone did such a great job. As crony as it sounds Lickety Split is one of my favorite places in the world and if I can help more people know that than I’m ultimately happy.
I went home and hit the bed around 3AM…Great freaking day.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 149
Day 148 - August 6th 2009
Not a whole lot today just my hair and a Vegan Dinner Party at Amanda’s.
Amanda was a girl that sang backgrounds for me a couple of years ago. We met on the shoot for my video for Who U Been…? And I found out the actress was a singer.
Her first show with me was my first show in New York, she did a good job and she was with me for a few months after that. Our schedule can be tough on background singers, especially back then when we were playing like twice a week.
She’s moving to Connecticut to go to a intensive Theatre school. She’s a talented kid and I’m certain she’s going to do everything she wants to. She was throwing a Vegan Dinner party so I figured I’d go and see her before she left. I wasn’t sure about the food, I like the animal products but decided not to judge, and figured at the very least there would be booze.
The food was surprisingly good, I’m not going Vegan…ever but Amanda did a pretty good job. I spent most of the night just listening to people talk. I don’t get to interact with people that are hip often so when I do I like to soak it all in. I had some wine and a few hours later I went home and started working on a song but I was much to tired to finish it.
That’s it tomorrow I’m turning everything off and I’m gonna try to finish all these ideas at least before I go to Lickety Split to dive straight into that cluster fuck.
Who You Been...? With Amanda Mchugh
Not a whole lot today just my hair and a Vegan Dinner Party at Amanda’s.
Amanda was a girl that sang backgrounds for me a couple of years ago. We met on the shoot for my video for Who U Been…? And I found out the actress was a singer.
Her first show with me was my first show in New York, she did a good job and she was with me for a few months after that. Our schedule can be tough on background singers, especially back then when we were playing like twice a week.
She’s moving to Connecticut to go to a intensive Theatre school. She’s a talented kid and I’m certain she’s going to do everything she wants to. She was throwing a Vegan Dinner party so I figured I’d go and see her before she left. I wasn’t sure about the food, I like the animal products but decided not to judge, and figured at the very least there would be booze.
The food was surprisingly good, I’m not going Vegan…ever but Amanda did a pretty good job. I spent most of the night just listening to people talk. I don’t get to interact with people that are hip often so when I do I like to soak it all in. I had some wine and a few hours later I went home and started working on a song but I was much to tired to finish it.
That’s it tomorrow I’m turning everything off and I’m gonna try to finish all these ideas at least before I go to Lickety Split to dive straight into that cluster fuck.
Who You Been...? With Amanda Mchugh
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 148
Day 147 - August 5th 2009
I’ve been watching Exosquad on Hulu all day, I highly recommend it.
My night basically started and ended at Lickety Split with another badass show. We had a band from Chicago come in last minute, The Robbery they were pretty good. Then Matt Spitko played next, kinda reminds me of that guy Matt Nathanson.
Joe Brady would hit the stage next and deliver probably the most compelling set of the night. I constantly looked at the audience watching as they were completely transfixed. This is a guy who actually has people that like his music. Quite a dangerous thing. He comes to Philly Rising a lto it was nice to see him play for more than ten minutes
Alexis Shea hit the stage next, she’s a lot better than she thinks she is. Then we got to the full bands of the night, Tunnel from New Jersey followed by The Natural Result. Both bands were at full tilt drawing people in with their rock and roll music. I’m excited to see Tunnel at Lockstock next week. Should be a kickin good time.
High Beta and JT spun that 70’s Soul after the show was over as I kicked it with the staff at Lickety. My new friends are…interesting to say the least. I enjoy all the times I’ve spent there so far. I smell sitcom.
There was a brief exchange on Twitter a little over a week ago that John mayer started called Awesome Problems. It’s an excellent way to look at your life, perhaps I’ll elaborate more on that tomorrow
I’ve been watching Exosquad on Hulu all day, I highly recommend it.
My night basically started and ended at Lickety Split with another badass show. We had a band from Chicago come in last minute, The Robbery they were pretty good. Then Matt Spitko played next, kinda reminds me of that guy Matt Nathanson.
Joe Brady would hit the stage next and deliver probably the most compelling set of the night. I constantly looked at the audience watching as they were completely transfixed. This is a guy who actually has people that like his music. Quite a dangerous thing. He comes to Philly Rising a lto it was nice to see him play for more than ten minutes
Alexis Shea hit the stage next, she’s a lot better than she thinks she is. Then we got to the full bands of the night, Tunnel from New Jersey followed by The Natural Result. Both bands were at full tilt drawing people in with their rock and roll music. I’m excited to see Tunnel at Lockstock next week. Should be a kickin good time.
High Beta and JT spun that 70’s Soul after the show was over as I kicked it with the staff at Lickety. My new friends are…interesting to say the least. I enjoy all the times I’ve spent there so far. I smell sitcom.
There was a brief exchange on Twitter a little over a week ago that John mayer started called Awesome Problems. It’s an excellent way to look at your life, perhaps I’ll elaborate more on that tomorrow
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 147
Day 146 - August 4th 2009
I woke up early. The excitement of playing 2 dates in the midwest was replaced by dread. Are we gonna play well? How are we gonna get there? How am I gonna pay for this? I’ll be putting on my manager’s hat soon and coming up with a concrete plan of attack to make sure we do the absolute best thing for all of us involved. I spoke with Fox through Facebook and he basically said that the only way to really get yourself out there is to hit the road and play as much as possible. Something I know he’s right about people can’t love your music if they don’t hear it.
My lessons were cancelled today but not before more good news came down the pike. Castaways in Ithica New York Called after hearing my press package and they want me to play there in September. I dug the place a lot when I came through with Camaro this past Spring. We’re supposedly opening for a really big band up there which would be totally bad ass. Jake’s got a gig with The Apostles the next day but we’ll make sure we’re back in plenty of time
As the night progressed I succumbed to my new addiction…Hulu. Hulu.com is a bad ass site that has TV shows and movies and stuff. After watchign several episodes of Family Guy I discovered that they had every episode of Exosquad on their site. It was one of my favorite shows growing up. I got to Episode 8 of the first season before going to bed early.
Lickety Split is tomorrow and I got six bands that I need to deal with. Oh Happy Day…lol
I woke up early. The excitement of playing 2 dates in the midwest was replaced by dread. Are we gonna play well? How are we gonna get there? How am I gonna pay for this? I’ll be putting on my manager’s hat soon and coming up with a concrete plan of attack to make sure we do the absolute best thing for all of us involved. I spoke with Fox through Facebook and he basically said that the only way to really get yourself out there is to hit the road and play as much as possible. Something I know he’s right about people can’t love your music if they don’t hear it.
My lessons were cancelled today but not before more good news came down the pike. Castaways in Ithica New York Called after hearing my press package and they want me to play there in September. I dug the place a lot when I came through with Camaro this past Spring. We’re supposedly opening for a really big band up there which would be totally bad ass. Jake’s got a gig with The Apostles the next day but we’ll make sure we’re back in plenty of time
As the night progressed I succumbed to my new addiction…Hulu. Hulu.com is a bad ass site that has TV shows and movies and stuff. After watchign several episodes of Family Guy I discovered that they had every episode of Exosquad on their site. It was one of my favorite shows growing up. I got to Episode 8 of the first season before going to bed early.
Lickety Split is tomorrow and I got six bands that I need to deal with. Oh Happy Day…lol
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 146
Day 145 - August 3rd 2009
My leg is getting stronger getting around the house without the brace with little pain. With the help of the brace there are times I forget about the injury altogether. Well except for the end of the day when it needs icing.
Today is gonna be a big day. First back to back Philly Risings all summer, I don’t know if much could beat the talent level we had last week, but I’m sure with the news that we’re back on a pretty much permanent basis people will be re-emerging to compete in our one of a kind talent competition.
The thing I probably like the most about it is that literally every week the open mic changes. 90% of the performers are new, making the crowd different each and every week. I’ve learned so much about how to work a live audience doing this every week for almost two years.
The energy is certainly different today as we seem to have less bands and more singer/songwriters as well as hip-hop acts. I see some faces from last week which is a good sign. Particularly Houston West, the banjo player from Atlanta who’s moustache rivals that of Leslie’s Jason Fox, Jack Gleason who’s there every week, and Tinuke Okyefule who impressed us a few weeks back with her voice this time has borught a band out with her.
We also had a featured act, The Icarus Account, a two man project out of Florida who had been touring the East Coast. I was gearing up for what would hopefully be a great night.
The second thing I love about this job is that it always surprises me. We have a list of guaranteed spots (About 23-25 people) when that list fills up (as it often does) we have a list of Alternate Performers, people that can get on if there’s time, or if someone drops out. These people are generally the last to show up in the line (You have to get there at 4:30 some nights to get a decent spot) and I’m always surprised at the lengths they will go to ensure that they get on. They try to intimidate me, bribe me, the femal performers are extra flirty, the off-balanced people are…off-balanced. The most notable was a girl trying to sing in my ear (with a metal band playing on stage) hopefully trying to sway me to give her a slot. These folks are willing to do any and everything but show up and wait in line. I think there’s definitely a reality show of sorts in here somewhere
The third thing I love about this job is that the talent does indeed come out. It was another night of absolutely stunning performances. Our winners were The Good News, Tinuke’s band. City Line came through as well and delivered yet again. Philadelphia is easily on the level of a lot of the so-called music towns in the country in terms of talent. We just haven’t figured out a way to organize ourselves just yet.
While I was there I also received word that I just got booked for a gig in Indianapolis the day before we play Minneapolis in October. It’s shaping up to be a pretty decent run through the Midwest. My excitement will be replaced by dread any day now but for now I’m deciding to feel good about it.
I got home watched Raw and fell asleep.
My leg is getting stronger getting around the house without the brace with little pain. With the help of the brace there are times I forget about the injury altogether. Well except for the end of the day when it needs icing.
Today is gonna be a big day. First back to back Philly Risings all summer, I don’t know if much could beat the talent level we had last week, but I’m sure with the news that we’re back on a pretty much permanent basis people will be re-emerging to compete in our one of a kind talent competition.
The thing I probably like the most about it is that literally every week the open mic changes. 90% of the performers are new, making the crowd different each and every week. I’ve learned so much about how to work a live audience doing this every week for almost two years.
The energy is certainly different today as we seem to have less bands and more singer/songwriters as well as hip-hop acts. I see some faces from last week which is a good sign. Particularly Houston West, the banjo player from Atlanta who’s moustache rivals that of Leslie’s Jason Fox, Jack Gleason who’s there every week, and Tinuke Okyefule who impressed us a few weeks back with her voice this time has borught a band out with her.
We also had a featured act, The Icarus Account, a two man project out of Florida who had been touring the East Coast. I was gearing up for what would hopefully be a great night.
The second thing I love about this job is that it always surprises me. We have a list of guaranteed spots (About 23-25 people) when that list fills up (as it often does) we have a list of Alternate Performers, people that can get on if there’s time, or if someone drops out. These people are generally the last to show up in the line (You have to get there at 4:30 some nights to get a decent spot) and I’m always surprised at the lengths they will go to ensure that they get on. They try to intimidate me, bribe me, the femal performers are extra flirty, the off-balanced people are…off-balanced. The most notable was a girl trying to sing in my ear (with a metal band playing on stage) hopefully trying to sway me to give her a slot. These folks are willing to do any and everything but show up and wait in line. I think there’s definitely a reality show of sorts in here somewhere
The third thing I love about this job is that the talent does indeed come out. It was another night of absolutely stunning performances. Our winners were The Good News, Tinuke’s band. City Line came through as well and delivered yet again. Philadelphia is easily on the level of a lot of the so-called music towns in the country in terms of talent. We just haven’t figured out a way to organize ourselves just yet.
While I was there I also received word that I just got booked for a gig in Indianapolis the day before we play Minneapolis in October. It’s shaping up to be a pretty decent run through the Midwest. My excitement will be replaced by dread any day now but for now I’m deciding to feel good about it.
I got home watched Raw and fell asleep.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 145
Day 144 - August 2nd 2009
What I slept maybe three hours last night. When you come to a place like this you don’t want to sleep. It was my first time ever sleeping inside of a tent and it was pretty sweet.
I woke up and tried to catch something that resembled a shower. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, some things never change. I’d never showered outdoors before. There was something peaceful about it, I just kinda hoped no one saw my unsightly butt.
The rest of the camp woke up a few hours after me and they started cooking this huge breakfast. Pancackes Eggs, Corn beef Hash, Bacon, Fruit, and the rest of it. We stuffed our faces and proceeded to leave the camp.
As we were driving back to Philly we got some gas and then we got caught in the most epic of rain storms. We dropped Jake off and then proceeded to my house where everyone had their cars parked. We loaded the gear out of the car and into the basement.
Still weary from all the fun I turned in early and stayed put for the rest of the evening.
I’ve got this song that won’t go away, the start of something new and exciting perhaps?
What I slept maybe three hours last night. When you come to a place like this you don’t want to sleep. It was my first time ever sleeping inside of a tent and it was pretty sweet.
I woke up and tried to catch something that resembled a shower. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, some things never change. I’d never showered outdoors before. There was something peaceful about it, I just kinda hoped no one saw my unsightly butt.
The rest of the camp woke up a few hours after me and they started cooking this huge breakfast. Pancackes Eggs, Corn beef Hash, Bacon, Fruit, and the rest of it. We stuffed our faces and proceeded to leave the camp.
As we were driving back to Philly we got some gas and then we got caught in the most epic of rain storms. We dropped Jake off and then proceeded to my house where everyone had their cars parked. We loaded the gear out of the car and into the basement.
Still weary from all the fun I turned in early and stayed put for the rest of the evening.
I’ve got this song that won’t go away, the start of something new and exciting perhaps?
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 144
Day 143 - August 1st 2009
There are a few things that can be just about absolutely certain whenever we play The Plateau Jam. The first is I’ll wake up like a kid on Christmas three hours before we’re supposed to leave. The second someone will be so late to the house that we’ll get there 30 minutes later than my original intention. Third traffic will always make it so it takes two hours to get there and finally I won’t care one bit when we get there cause I know we’re gonna have an awesome time.
All of these things came to pass as we loaded the gear (I couldn’t because of my leg) into the van, went to get Jake and headed towards The Plateau Jam.
My buddies Clark and Fran throw a 3 day music fest in honor of their daughter Addie’s birthday at least that’s what I think it’s for. Anywho They asked us like three years ago to play and we always have such a great time that I go home and immediately circle the weekend in my calendar so that I make sure that if asked I’m there.
We hit a patch of traffic but it was soon over since we weren’t going to the shore (Thank God) and we arrived around noon. We usually play at night and have 12 hours to party but today we were playing mid afternoon. So it was difficult to keep a lid on the consumption of delicious food and alcoholic beverages. I can’t perform (or function) drunk so We kinda sat and listened to some music. I was glad I got a chance to check out Vanessa Boyd’s set. I’ve always really dug her stuff but usually by the time she hit’s the stage I am 3 or 4 margaritas (I’ll get to that later) in and I enjoy it the way a drunk person enjoys everything. She’s truly an amazing talent and I’ll def have to catch her.
As we approached our stage time there were gonna be a few interesting challenges. I’d be battling this heat, and trust it’s hot out here and there’s the issue with my ankle. I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I am not stationary. I and my guys deliver a pretty energetic show and I don’t think I’ve ever done a show where I haven’t gone airborne. I’ve got to play a show and just stand there or risk injuring myself further. So I had to put together a set list that didn’t have songs that would make me jump in the air.
As TJ Fry finished up we parked the van behind the stage and the crew began to unload and I quickly scribbled a set list down on a nearby piece of paper with a pen I borrowed from Jake.
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
The Way You Make Me Feel
Stranger
How Can This Be Love
Feels So Good
Love Affair
Billie Jean
Michelle
3000 Miles Away
Walking On the Moon
Leavin
It took us a little while to get goin but by the time we got to Love Affair we realized we’d only been playing for about half an hour so we slid three more into the set. I almost jumped off the drum riser but my ankle started to throb when I attempted to run. I got to sing Happy Birthday to Addie at the end of the set…sweet kid.
I was ultimately satisfied with the show. I had a hard time battling the heat and I didn’t play as well as I think I could have or should have but at the end of the day all of the people seemed to like the show so I’ll take it.
After the set was over we commenced to have a blast. I had my first margarita. Clark makes fruit margaritas from fresh fruit. They taste so good before you know it you’ve sold your first born to the Afghani Circus. I was embracing my new brothers and sistrs I needed a nap so I slept in the van for a few hours but woke up in time to jam around the campfire. We played sweet tunes till about 4am when I went to sleep in a nearby spare tent. The rest of them were still playing after I drifted off to bed.
There are a few things that can be just about absolutely certain whenever we play The Plateau Jam. The first is I’ll wake up like a kid on Christmas three hours before we’re supposed to leave. The second someone will be so late to the house that we’ll get there 30 minutes later than my original intention. Third traffic will always make it so it takes two hours to get there and finally I won’t care one bit when we get there cause I know we’re gonna have an awesome time.
All of these things came to pass as we loaded the gear (I couldn’t because of my leg) into the van, went to get Jake and headed towards The Plateau Jam.
My buddies Clark and Fran throw a 3 day music fest in honor of their daughter Addie’s birthday at least that’s what I think it’s for. Anywho They asked us like three years ago to play and we always have such a great time that I go home and immediately circle the weekend in my calendar so that I make sure that if asked I’m there.
We hit a patch of traffic but it was soon over since we weren’t going to the shore (Thank God) and we arrived around noon. We usually play at night and have 12 hours to party but today we were playing mid afternoon. So it was difficult to keep a lid on the consumption of delicious food and alcoholic beverages. I can’t perform (or function) drunk so We kinda sat and listened to some music. I was glad I got a chance to check out Vanessa Boyd’s set. I’ve always really dug her stuff but usually by the time she hit’s the stage I am 3 or 4 margaritas (I’ll get to that later) in and I enjoy it the way a drunk person enjoys everything. She’s truly an amazing talent and I’ll def have to catch her.
As we approached our stage time there were gonna be a few interesting challenges. I’d be battling this heat, and trust it’s hot out here and there’s the issue with my ankle. I’ve always taken pride in the fact that I am not stationary. I and my guys deliver a pretty energetic show and I don’t think I’ve ever done a show where I haven’t gone airborne. I’ve got to play a show and just stand there or risk injuring myself further. So I had to put together a set list that didn’t have songs that would make me jump in the air.
As TJ Fry finished up we parked the van behind the stage and the crew began to unload and I quickly scribbled a set list down on a nearby piece of paper with a pen I borrowed from Jake.
(Oh) I Wish I Loved You
The Way You Make Me Feel
Stranger
How Can This Be Love
Feels So Good
Love Affair
Billie Jean
Michelle
3000 Miles Away
Walking On the Moon
Leavin
It took us a little while to get goin but by the time we got to Love Affair we realized we’d only been playing for about half an hour so we slid three more into the set. I almost jumped off the drum riser but my ankle started to throb when I attempted to run. I got to sing Happy Birthday to Addie at the end of the set…sweet kid.
I was ultimately satisfied with the show. I had a hard time battling the heat and I didn’t play as well as I think I could have or should have but at the end of the day all of the people seemed to like the show so I’ll take it.
After the set was over we commenced to have a blast. I had my first margarita. Clark makes fruit margaritas from fresh fruit. They taste so good before you know it you’ve sold your first born to the Afghani Circus. I was embracing my new brothers and sistrs I needed a nap so I slept in the van for a few hours but woke up in time to jam around the campfire. We played sweet tunes till about 4am when I went to sleep in a nearby spare tent. The rest of them were still playing after I drifted off to bed.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 143
Day 142 - July 31st 2009
I keep forgetting July has 31 Days.
As I lay here with my leg elevated, it gives me some time to reflect. I’ve used my injury as an opportunity to take a breather from all the work I’ve been doing adjusting to the new role that I’ve been playing.
Musically I’m doing well, we’ve been playing big shows and drawing good crowds. The last record I put out was probably my best work. Bang Camaro allowed me the chance to experience the touring aspect of this business. Philly Rising is strong, despite my absence and almost two months of being gone this summer. The Lickety Split shows on Wednesday Nights have gone better than I could have ever expected. All good things.
Here’s what keeps me awake at night.
I liken my pursuit of musical success to pushing a boulder up a hill. You get up the hill and realize that it’s the bottom of a mountain and for some reason the boulder gets bigger and harder to push. I’m on the small hill and I wanna climb the mountain. I want to get to the next level and I have no idea how to do it. I’m flying blind, I’ve never really had any guidance, and I feel like I could be 1,000 miles in the wrong direction. It teaches one to trust oneself and that’s a good thing, but to have someone that gets it, someone who believes say, “I think you should go left” would be a weight off my shoulders, provided they aren’t fleecing me.
The things that I do outside of my own project, booking the shows (just came up on three years) hosting the open mic (In my Second Year) have gone well and my fellow musicians look at me like Santa Claus. It’s taken a long time for me to learn that sometimes people want to get close solely because I might be able to do something to help them move forward. Of course I’ve met genuine people amongst the vultures, but it’s getting harder and harder to tell, they’re getting better at hiding it. Sometimes people are gonna bring negativity in your life for no good reason simply because they think tearing you down is going to build them up.
I wonder if people are really paying attention, if they’re listening to me, if my music has ever resonated with anyone that’s ever heard it. I wonder what I can do in the future to make that kind of thing happen. 9 or 10 years since I’ve been doin this and sometimes I get that twinge, that little voice in my head that says “you’re no good” I believe otherwise but I still wrestle with that everyday At the end of the day I want people to respect what I do, it’s important to me that I host the open mic and book the shows well. But first and foremost I’m a musician and ultimately want people to get that. I want to be able to shift the focus more to that
I definitely need to refocus my energies and making sure that I’m doing the things that I need to be doing. Focusing on myself as much as reasonably possible. Beavising my ankle may have been a good thing. I had time to get all of this crap out into word form. I've been carrying it around with me for quite some time. I can start letting it go.
We’re at The Plateau Jam tomorrow. Two days on the Farm playin music, eatin food, and drinkin margaritas, I’d hate to go there with this baggage.
I keep forgetting July has 31 Days.
As I lay here with my leg elevated, it gives me some time to reflect. I’ve used my injury as an opportunity to take a breather from all the work I’ve been doing adjusting to the new role that I’ve been playing.
Musically I’m doing well, we’ve been playing big shows and drawing good crowds. The last record I put out was probably my best work. Bang Camaro allowed me the chance to experience the touring aspect of this business. Philly Rising is strong, despite my absence and almost two months of being gone this summer. The Lickety Split shows on Wednesday Nights have gone better than I could have ever expected. All good things.
Here’s what keeps me awake at night.
I liken my pursuit of musical success to pushing a boulder up a hill. You get up the hill and realize that it’s the bottom of a mountain and for some reason the boulder gets bigger and harder to push. I’m on the small hill and I wanna climb the mountain. I want to get to the next level and I have no idea how to do it. I’m flying blind, I’ve never really had any guidance, and I feel like I could be 1,000 miles in the wrong direction. It teaches one to trust oneself and that’s a good thing, but to have someone that gets it, someone who believes say, “I think you should go left” would be a weight off my shoulders, provided they aren’t fleecing me.
The things that I do outside of my own project, booking the shows (just came up on three years) hosting the open mic (In my Second Year) have gone well and my fellow musicians look at me like Santa Claus. It’s taken a long time for me to learn that sometimes people want to get close solely because I might be able to do something to help them move forward. Of course I’ve met genuine people amongst the vultures, but it’s getting harder and harder to tell, they’re getting better at hiding it. Sometimes people are gonna bring negativity in your life for no good reason simply because they think tearing you down is going to build them up.
I wonder if people are really paying attention, if they’re listening to me, if my music has ever resonated with anyone that’s ever heard it. I wonder what I can do in the future to make that kind of thing happen. 9 or 10 years since I’ve been doin this and sometimes I get that twinge, that little voice in my head that says “you’re no good” I believe otherwise but I still wrestle with that everyday At the end of the day I want people to respect what I do, it’s important to me that I host the open mic and book the shows well. But first and foremost I’m a musician and ultimately want people to get that. I want to be able to shift the focus more to that
I definitely need to refocus my energies and making sure that I’m doing the things that I need to be doing. Focusing on myself as much as reasonably possible. Beavising my ankle may have been a good thing. I had time to get all of this crap out into word form. I've been carrying it around with me for quite some time. I can start letting it go.
We’re at The Plateau Jam tomorrow. Two days on the Farm playin music, eatin food, and drinkin margaritas, I’d hate to go there with this baggage.
Boy Wonder: Professional Musician 142
Day 141 - July 30th 2009
Not a whole lot today. Mainly tying up loose ends. Confirming stuff for August and September and even October at this point. Seems like a far way off but you almost gotta lock stuff in now so that you know what you’re working with.
My head is spinning tryin to keep everything straight. The Lickety Split stuff is going smoothly on Wednesdays and once I can get a handle on Fridays we’ll be straight and I can focus 100% on locking down some stuff for myself.
July is almost over, it’s hard to even fathom at this point.
Been mostly sitting around resting my leg I have a show in two days and we’re on the grounds all day so the more rest I get the better it’ll feel. It’s getting stronger by the day I can’t run on it yet, but I’m getting a handle on the standing and walking thing. I’ve been very impatient lately, so this’ll probably be good for me.
Not a whole lot today. Mainly tying up loose ends. Confirming stuff for August and September and even October at this point. Seems like a far way off but you almost gotta lock stuff in now so that you know what you’re working with.
My head is spinning tryin to keep everything straight. The Lickety Split stuff is going smoothly on Wednesdays and once I can get a handle on Fridays we’ll be straight and I can focus 100% on locking down some stuff for myself.
July is almost over, it’s hard to even fathom at this point.
Been mostly sitting around resting my leg I have a show in two days and we’re on the grounds all day so the more rest I get the better it’ll feel. It’s getting stronger by the day I can’t run on it yet, but I’m getting a handle on the standing and walking thing. I’ve been very impatient lately, so this’ll probably be good for me.
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