Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Yup, a return to the town that made me famous, beautiful Quincy, Massachusetts. Home of two dead presidents, the Red Line and the ever-so-swanky Marina Bay which is really just a haven for gun-toting gangster wannabes and the New England Patriots. Quincy is also the setting of the story of a young lad, riding his 10 speed down Wollaston beach with a duffel bag full of Lite beers, planning to sit on the wall near the yacht club and kill some time. That boy rode past a run-down looking club and stopped to peer onto the patio - that boy saw the people having a good time and thought "one day, I will entertain these denizens of Quincy." Well, that day is here and the club hasn't changed. Just goes to show what happens when you don't set lofty goals for yourself - I could have said I was gonna play in front of thousands of people, but no, I wanted to slug it out against Joe Douchebag's cover band of the week for gigs at suburban bars. Way to hitch your wagon to a start there, Jeff. Nice work.
Dreams die, people. The key is whether you let those dead, broken dreams ruin you, of if you take every opportunity to crush those around you. We know where I have landed.
So, the Gilrein's was a good time except for the girl that got hustled out in an ambulance. Apparently our sexiness was just too much for her ... seriously, I hope she's OK. Too many people getting messed up around here ... Love Gilrein's can't wait to get back there again. Thank you Worcester and have a superfantastic day.
See you in the Q, people.
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Yeah, back in Worcester this Saturday night. Should be good times, Gilrein's is a great club. This is our first show there since we were voted Best Polka/Smooth R&B band in the Worcester Magazine. Didn't even know we were nominated. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I feel like Worcester's fat ex-girlfriend. You don't want anyone to know you're into me, but you keep coming back for some of that sweet, sweet lovin' that I dole out like a giant puddle of chicken gravy on your mashed potatoes. You know you love it. Either that, or we just don't appeal to the aging goth/metal crowd or the legions of x-dropping, hippity hoppity kids of today. You know the ones that eventually get bored with hearing "boom thumpa boom thumpa" all night long while they try to find a drink to roofie. Yeah, they raid Dad's vinyl collection and find "Led Zepplin IV", turn it on and say "DAMN!" Next thing you know they're buying old Black Sabbath shirts and digitally remastered MP3s of "Highway to Hell". Well, some of us have been doing this for years, buddy. You'll never know what it's like to rush home from work and throw "Destroyer" on the the Sears turntable because you have to hear "God of Thunder" as loud as you can (until the buzzy bass in the speakers makes the record skip and you have to tape a penny to the needle - I swear the thing had about $1.23 taped to it by the time it dies and was replaced with the cassette boom box). Ah yes, the cassette - finally, music was mobile ... as long as you wanted to carry a 70 pound boom box around and a duffel bag full of Lite beers and cassette cases. How the music industry has f#$^ed us. They had this MP3 thing back in 1978, I'm telling you. Just like the auto industry knows how to build cars fueled only by self-loathing, shame and failed aspirations. But no, Clive Davis and Tommy Mattola needed to get every $9.98 they could out of me at Jason's Music and Luggage (no sh*t, by the way) and eventually use that money to have me working 11 hours a day for a faceless, mind-sucking corporation and playing the same clubs week after week, month after month, year after year, so they can fund such stellar musical acts as Carly Hennessy, L'il Wayne and anything Madonna has released post 1994. Yeah, thanks alot. I hope you enjoyed all that paper route money. I think I saw the man behind the curtain when Pearl Jam showed up at my school in 1991 after releasing a huge record and they were bumming smokes and gum. Yeah, now they wear Gearge Bush masks and make political statements while I drive my 1987 Lincoln Towncar to the Home Depot and fill it with 150 sq. ft. of sod because the delivery fee is f%^&ing ridiculous.
Blech ... I'm so pissed now I don't even feel like mentioning the Boston Billiard Club in Nashua where we had a great show and the waitresses all wear little black dresses and big black boots. Nope, not even that makes me feel better. Good place, go there.
Done.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Yes, that's Boston Billiard Club in NASHUA, not Boston, Springfield, Worcester, Warwick or Danbury. It's Nashua, people. Home of the great Tim G. Waltner, and tax free New Hampshire shopping. We haven't played this far north since Evo's in Lowell or Michael's Harborside in Newburyport. Here's the deal, there's another band playing before us called GRAND EVOLUTION. They play til around 9:30 then we hit around 10PM. What more do you need to know? All I know is you people up north who complain we don't get up there better be out in full force. See you there.
Moving on, we heard that we won an award in Worcester Magazine ... I didn't even know we were nominated. I'm also not sure what a "Turtle Boy" is (although I do know many vulgar "turtle" references), but regardless, we appreciate the attention. Thank you to Charlene and everyone at Worcester Mag for the nod. For you denizens of Worcester, there's a ton of bands playing on Thursday night at the Lucky Dog and other places if you want to check out some of the winners. Every Thursday night you can catch Andrew and Tony from the band laying down some sounds over at Zipango Sushi on Shrewsbury Street. Drop by and congratulate them, by them some sashimi then ask Tony why he wasn't at rehearsal last night. Yeah, I said it.
OK, the private party thing. It can be fun, and it can be a drag, but what we learned this past weekend is that having signs up that say "Buy the band a drink" is NOT a good idea. I'm glad I didn't have to clean up the sea of beer bottles on the stage at the end of the night. Anyways, it was fun and we wish the best of luck to Jolene and Jeff at their wedding in June. Remember what Beanie said to Frank the Tank in "Old School" - "Alright, let me be the first to say congratulations to then. You get one ****** for the rest of your life. Real smart Frank. Way to work it through."
And with that, I bid you adieu.
For those that can't figure out how to check the SHOWS PAGE, the other upcoming shows we have are:
Saturday, May 17 at Gilrein's in Worcester
Saturday, May 31 at the Beachcomber in Quincy
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Uh, not that you care but we're doing the private party thing this weekend ... no it's not a wedding thank God ...
Breakaway Billiards in Clinton last Saturday night. Good show, great crowd, although they were very much the "watchers". See crowds come in a few types - "Dancers" that are there to move it and shake whether they've got it or not, "Drinkers", usually the younger crowd where everyone powerdrinks for a few hours and then tries to score or get into a fight, and "Watchers", those content to sit in there seats, watch and listen. Occasionally, they like to critique, which is always nice - "Lazy Eye was good except when you clammed the D on the intro ..." Thanks, Bosefus. You guys try to get up there after 3 hours sleep, pound 2 or 10 beers and play whatever your masochistic brother tries to pull out of the vault - "Hey, let's play 'Medicine Man' as an encore!" Why not just kick me in the nuts and call it a night? Anyways, it was a good time and a great room. Now that I've said that, I'm sure a certain South Shore cover band will start calling them trying to bump our next show. Tools.
On to more serious stuff, we heard that Steve Going from Wilbur and the Dukes was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last week. Our thoughts and prayers are with Steve, his family and friends. Be careful out there, people.
