Monday night in Somerville, MA and I got to hang out with my buddy Tom and his wife Marna and that would’ve been worth it alone but I also got to turn on the rock at a pretty cool little joint.
My buddy Tom is one of the most rock and roll drummers of all time. I was lucky that he played with me back in…1998 and we made some good noise. He was also the drummer in the legendary rock band The Stoves* and also one of the most intelligent folks I know. Their house was built in 1896 and is right near where I’m playing. I get there early and we walk and get some great Mexican food.
We do a good bit of reminiscing and he reminds me of things we did that I didn’t even remember and I have a pretty good memory.
I get to the show around 9ish as I’m going on around 10 and there is a group on stage with two guitars and a violin and folks are here for them, so that’s cool. I connect with Astro, the bartender/sound guy and I’m ready to go.
The Jungle is a hidden away club down an alley way in Union Square, Somerville. It’s a cool room with a good size stage and big PA and a bit of an old rock club vibe to it.
On stage the sound is…ok. I’m just a vocal and a guitar but the Peavey monitors are…well Peaveys and there are some feedback-y issues a couple of times but it’s fine. I’m having a pretty good set, go to do some looping with the Ditto X2 pedal and it just freaks out and doesn’t work right. In the middle of the song I turn it off and re-do the loop while singing and it works right the second time but like, no real reason for it to freak out.
I love/hate guitar pedals.
Ok, short Guitar Geek Warning:
Here is a list of the guitar pedals that I do not have issues with:
Bearfoot Model Bobbo.
End of list.
The issues list: The Line 6 M9 is great but it’s got a complicated power supply. The Lehle volume pedal is fantastic but it needs a power supply. The Ditto X2 is a looper that sometimes does not loop. The Peterson tuner would be fantastic if it had a built in DI instead of a ¼” output. The Donner delay would be great if it had a “trails” function. The Ditto X4 would be great if one would stay working longer than 30 days before bricking itself. The Line 6 Echo Park would be great if it wasn’t so stupid big, devour batteries in minutes, and seemingly set its own tempo for repeats.
Anyway.
The rest of my set is good and I’m surprised by how many folks stuck around to hear me and they are actually listening. That’s amazing.
I feel fortunate with my repertoire of material that I can adapt pretty easily to whatever environment I’m in. I have loud acoustic songs and quiet acoustic songs and songs with a looper and songs that can be sung quietly and songs for sing alongs. And I feel that having the wide range makes the quiet songs seem quieter and the loud songs louder because of the dynamics between the two and I also like to believe that it makes a good mix because of those dynamics. If everything was just quiet or just loud - the dynamic would flatline and be boring.
There’s a trio on after me and they sound really nice. Two guitars, piano and all three of the women singing. They had a bit of a mid-90s vibe to the songs, a bit dreamy pop, but I couldn’t catch their name and figured I’d just look them up on the venue website but alas, they were not even listed as playing.
And I’m sitting with Tom. Tom learned to drum to the Cult’s Electric album and I think AC/DC’s Highway to Hell or maybe Back in Black. We’re talking rock solid RAWK. And he’s digging them too. He and I talk about music and his tastes and influences are probably more diverse than mine and I listen to lots of different stuff and it’s so refreshing. We can all get in our bubbles of whatever but here we are listening to and grooving to some new music that, would seem at face value, to be out of our scope of interest.
Go see live original music!
Back at his place we talk for at least another hour and then I crash in their spare room. Thank you Tom and Marna for having me!
Goodnight.
~Bobbo
*What do you mean you don’t know The Stoves? Go listen to “set your pants on fire” on itunes or something. Their debut album is 17 songs and 25 minutes long and is a masterpiece.