Category: Music

Live Music in 2025

My New Years resolutions speculations post from a few weeks ago included seeing more live music this year. I’ll use posts like this one to sort of take notes on shows that may be coming to my neck of the woods (or not) that I would like to try and work up the energy/courage to go see. We’ll see how this list develops over the course of the year.

  • Tsunami on March 23rd at the Crystal Ballroom in Somerville Theatre
    • Yes I want to see this show. Will I? I don’t know. Tickets are already on sale.
  • Throwing Muses
    • No US dates have been announced though there are shows on the books in Europe. If they play in the US you are probably going to have to chain me to a wall and lock me in a dungeon to keep me away.
  • Steven Wilson
    • No US dates have been announced though there are shows in Europe (a lot of them) and word is that US/North American shows are coming. I would like to see him but how badly I want to go depends on his next record, which comes out in March. If it’s really good, then I will try to see a show, assuming he plays in/around Boston.
  • Lizardfish
    • Duh

More to come as the year rolls on. I want 2025 to be a more musical year, but how badly do I want that? I’ll let you know as things develop.

Something I’m Thinking About

The RPM Challenge is about three weeks away. I’m thinking about what to do as far as guitar gear and I think I have an idea…

132/365

I would add a Crybaby wah pedal to this. It would be off the board to the right, but in the signal chain it would come after the Fuzzface and before the Dyna Comp. Pedal chain law requires a Fuzzface to come first. It’s an impedance thing. I’m not an electrical engineer so I don’t really get it, but it’s true. wah->Fuzzface sounds terrible. Fuzzface->wah sounds… okay.

I’ve wired this for power but I haven’t put velcro on the three new pedals. Outside of that and adding the Crybaby, I am all set to try this out… someday. Saturday? Sunday? Someday.

Guitar playing… I haven’t forgotten about you, my friend and favorite hobby and possibly unhealthy obsession. Just need to make some time.

Play

I didn’t have a chance to play any guitar last night. I didn’t blow off an opportunity, the opportunity just never arose.

This weekend? We’ll see. I need to start preparing my fingers for February’s album-in-a-month challenge. Also, hopefully the band will start practicing again. I have no calluses on my finger tips right now. It’s been almost two months since I’ve played a single note. It’s going to hurt when I start. That’s okay. I will survive. I will persist.

131/365

I’m thinking of downsizing the pedal board setup for February. Just to shake things up. We’ll have to see.

It’s time to start playing for real, Robert. Get to it.

I Want to Go Home

I want to go home. I’m in the office, 44 miles away. Tonight I want to cook dinner for my beautiful bride and then move some furniture around to make room for a new couch. I got seven hours of sleep last night so I am not terribly tired right now (and it feels weird) so I know I will have the energy to pull it all off. I just wish I were at home so I could just punch out of work and do it all without having the long drive home wedged into the middle of everything. Blah.

Here’s another cat photo that I took this morning before I left for work just because Robin the cat is adorable and she was very willing to pose for the camera today.

Unrelated question… the band Facebook chat left off with hoping we could all get together at some point after the first weekend in January. The first weekend in January is now over. How long should I wait before I start the discussion up again? How soon is too soon? Should I wait three days as if it were a kind of first date thing? Do the same stupid rules apply? I don’t want to sound too eager even though I am SUPER eager to get the band moving again. I want to play. I want to gig. I want, want, want.

Nothing to Say

I’m down to the final minutes of my lunch break on this fine Friday afternoon. I am pretty exhausted from a lack of sleep over the past… month(s) but I’m hanging in there. I had some Purdue Popcorn chicken and some peanuts and some sugar free Hershey bites for lunch. I really want a drink of water but I still have to wait the better part of an hour before I am clear to drink anything. That’s a gastric bypass patient thing. If you know, you know.

Fed Ex delivered a package today. I am not home to get it, but it contains a new guitar pedal. If I read the amazon shipping notes correctly, it’s a compressor pedal. The first I’ve ever purchased. I have this weird idea of using cleaner guitar sounds for this year’s RPM Challenge in February and a compressor will be a part of that. I bought an MXR Dyna Comp because it’s super simple and it will let me squash my clean signal down to a delightfully mushy… mush. There are two more pedals coming over the weekend. One is a Flanger, the other is an Amp Sim. I don’t have room on my pedal board for any of these kiddos and I don’t have open slots on my power brick… so I am going to need to get creative, I think. It should be fun. I don’t think I bought a single guitar pedal during all of 2024. I know I bought a couple of microphones for band practices that haven’t actually happened yet, but no pedals.

There are a lot of tentative plans for the weekend. We may be messing with our living room and we may be going to some stores for research purposes. I hope to spend some time wandering around town taking pictures with my new/possibly antique (though probably not) camera. I got a gift card for the sugar free bakery in Salem, NH for xmas. I haven’t bought anything from them in about a month, but now I am definitely going back and getting some cookies. Good stuff.

What else… I thought there was something else… One of our cars is going to get a break job. That wasn’t the thing that I am forgetting though… am I going to go shopping for a new iPhone? That’s definitely on the to-do list before we go to Florida at the end of the month, but is it this weekend? I don’t know.

I have to start practicing the guitar. The band is hoping to reconvene (hopefully for real this time) at some point after this weekend. I need to get ready for that. Which guitar should I bring to the first practice? Probably the Les Paul Standard that my wife got me for my 50th birthday in 2021. I really dig that guitar.

I know I had something else I wanted to write about but it has slipped my brain entirely. Don’t get old, kids. This is what happens to you when you get old. Stay young for as long as you can. Unless you’re already old like me in which case… sorry, folks. We had a good run, I’m sure.

Flashback

I watched a video on youtube tonight of a band playing in a bar in DC back in the late 90’s. I saw the band play in a bar in Cambridge at around the same time… maybe about a year earlier. Whatever. That’s not the point of the post.

The point of the post was that I had what seemed like almost a full sensory flashback. I could smell the cigarette smoke, I could feel my ears ringing from the volume, I could feel the heat of the room and the crush of the people packed into the tiny space… it was weird and also kinda wonderful. The video was 26 years old and I almost felt like I was there.

How weird was that?

Seriously, underground bands playing live in the 90’s was the absolute best musical thing ever. EVER.

In an unrelated note, I have three guitar pedals in my amazon cart right now. If I pull the trigger on it, I hope I’ll have a band to use them with. We’re looking at trying to start up again next month, and next month is the day after tomorrow. Cross those fingers, kids.

Amp Sim

The RPM Challenge opened for sign ups for 2025 today. That seems a smidge early, but who cares. I haven’t signed up yet but I will. Soon. I am starting to feel the pull. I am starting to feel the anticipation. I am starting to look at my pedal board and recording setup at home and think about things I might want to change for this February’s challenge.

Last year I went entirely direct input into my USB audio interface. I have two amps with cab sim line outs and I used them both. Over the course of the last year or so there have been a ton of very good amp simulation pedals released into the world. Most are grossly expensive. TC Electronics has a series that is reasonably priced. Do I want to try one? They have one the sims a Fender Deluxe Reverb. I went looking for one on amazon the other day and they appeared to be out of stock. I checked again today at a couple of music vendor sites and they are definitely available. I must have misread the amazonian’s site somehow.

I would only ever want to use a device like this for home recording when there are people in the house. Otherwise I am playing through a real amp and just try to stop me. The demos for these pedals make it seem like they sound pretty good. Should I try one out? Should I take the amp sim plunge?

Or should I just splurge on an expensive new guitar? Or, should I splurge on an expensive new guitar?

Air Fryer: An Obsession

I cooked lunch for me and my wife today. I cooked it in an air fryer.

I am about to start cooking dinner for me and my wife. I am going to cook it in an air fryer. I just have to wait for the dishwasher to finish so my air fryer baskets will be clean, then I’ll start on dinner.

I think I might be a little obsessed with cooking in an air fryer. Is that even a thing?

The only thing left to do (apart for wait another five minutes for that pesky dishwasher) is to decide what music to listen to while I cook dinner in an air fryer. I’ve been listening to a ton of Tsunami lately. Also a pretty healthy dose of Throwing Muses. Maybe I should drift back toward prog. I’m thinking maybe some 80’s Rush… or maybe some 90’s King Crimson? I don’t know. Let’s just see where the world takes us, m’kay?