The Week In Review. . .

1. Tuesday 3/9 - The Pig 'n' Whistle on 2nd Ave
2. Wednesday 3/10 - Social Bar & Lounge 7-10
3. Wednesday 3/10 - Arctica Open Mic (Hosted) 10-1
4. Thursday 3/11 - The National Underground 8-10
5. Thursday 3/11 - The Pig 'n' Whistle on 3rd Ave 10-1
6. Friday 3/12 - Longhorns Saloon & BBQ 10-1
7. Saturday 3/13 - The Pig 'n' Whistle on 2nd Ave
8. Sunday 3/14 - Arctica

That's eight gigs in six days. I'm not sure I can remember the last time I was this tired. Patrick and I really kept the pedal to the metal the entire week. Every minute was worth it. 8 of the most fun gigs we've ever played, at least in my opinion.

And in truth, a funny thing happened on the way to The Pig 'n' Whistle.

Come out and see us. Have a great week and a happy St Paddy's Day. The madness resumes Thursday night.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

After-cA

As with many Sundays over the last ten months, Pat and I played Arctica tonight. It was a totally good time. I'd say it was one of our tightest performances of the last couple of weeks. Felt great especially after two impromptu nights off.

Some of what we played. . .

• Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper. Start to finish. How did this happen? Well, I mentioned that I was sweating a bit and that the best reasons to be sweating were at the gym, on stage, or in bed. Pat said "or if you have a fever". I said "I've got a fever". You can likely fill in the rest.
• The Turn - Christiana, Holding Your Breath, Tell You Twice, You Can't Make Me Let Go, I'll Take It From Here, Stormy, When You're Gone (sounded great), Brooklyn (working title, still needs a definite chorus) and our newest song which is currently going by the name Snakes. Sick.
• Them Crooked Vultures - No One Loves Me And Neither Do I. This has got to be one of our happiest additions to the set list. Having this up our sleeve, whoo.
• Queens of the Stone Age - Make It Wit' 'Chu. Mother effing awesome.
• Led Zeppelin - The Ocean. Doesn't get much better than that.
• At the outset of the evening there was a table of gentlemen, named Roland, Roger, Raul and Simon. They requested the following songs. .
• Incubus - Drive
• The Killers - When You Were Young
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue

Then we treated them to Everlong which after thirteen years, everyone still loves including us.

Sweet time. It was great to break out so many of our new songs. Come catch a show, we'll show you what's up.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

St Baldrick's

Patrick and I will be performing at 11AM tomorrow at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.

Yes, you read right that says 11AM. The event is called St Baldrick's day. In March of every year, right around St Patrick's day this organization gathers people who shave their heads and take donations to be sent to various organizations fighting children's cancer. This will be the second year in a row that we take part (last year, Ogy shaved his head for the event) and I'm very much looking forward to seeing everyone.

There is likely to be video from the event and if you guys want to swing by the St Baldrick's website and take a look around I heavily encourage you to do so.

Hope everyone is enjoying the hockey. See y'all at Arctica later.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

Fuel, Drive, Inspiration, all that

The number of different people that tell me they hear music in their head, and are "inspired on a daily basis" and "can't wait to get to a studio where they can make something happen" is staggering. The amount of talent floating around creating different music of all different genres is overwhelming.

On Wednesday night before Patrick and I played at The National Underground, we were preceded by a seven piece (maybe more, I don't even know) acoustic ensemble featuring a saxophone, a 12 string guitar, everybody singing different harmonies, and a gentleman playing some brand of percussion or other. They were so tight, and clearly so dedicated, and so in it together.

Seeing bands, or groups of musicians/artists/whathaveyou that have such a passion for composition and performance make me smile. People who clearly have a great time performing together and creating something that wouldn't otherwise have existed inspire me and us in ways that I can barely describe.

The world is a growing community of musicians. Sweet. Let's all make sweet musical love. I'll bring the bubbly.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B

What a day. . .

Sometimes people ask us questions at gigs like, "what do you guys do all day?"

What better a way to answer than Thursday 2/25, perhaps the busiest day we've had since The Turn has been together.

3PM - Rehearsal at 125 Rivington (@ Essex) on the Lower East Side. The same place we've been rehearsing every week (sometimes twice a week) for the last year. In fact, February marks the one year anniversary of Pat and I playing with Brian and Chris, so next time you see them wish them a happy anniversary. We played until roughly 5:30 at which point Pat and I went back to my car, grabbed our acoustic guitars and walked in the slush, sleet, rain and mushy garbage over to Whole Foods to grab a snack before our gig at The Red Lion. [As an aside, I recently discovered two brand new pairs of waterproof Timberland sneakers at my father's house. This would have been a great day to test them out, but I only thought of it after the first time I was ankle deep in New York City slush. Joke's on me, I suppose.]

We took a cab from Whole Foods, in which I sat in a puddle of whatever had been left from our previous occupant, leaving not only my socks but also the left ass cheek of my jeans soaking wet. Super comfortable. Rock and roll, the show must go on.

7PM - Gig at The Red Lion. The snow didn't keep 100% of people at home, and we had a great time. The crowd was equally as enthusiastic and it was totally awesome. The snow started to pick up as we were playing, and Ogy left at 8:30 to catch the train up to The Pig 'n' Whistle on 3rd Ave to set up for our next gig. Some Bud Light and a couple of shots of Jameson later, 9:30 hit, we played You Can't Make Me Let Go for a fresh batch of Australian crowd members (Aussie Aussie Aussie!) unplugged our guitars, shook some hands, got in a cab and took off for the third leg of our day tour.

9:55PM - The Pig 'n' Whistle on 3rd Ave. Our home away from home. Patrick and I walked in, put our jackets down, took out our guitars, plugged in and it was show time again. I looked over at him and mentioned that there was something strangely familiar about all this.

When all was said and done, it was a totally crazy day but truly the most fun we've had all year. Non-stop rock, twelve straight hours of guitar, a couple more beers and a lot of snow.

Anyone that was at MSG hanging with Mr Mayer, I hope you guys all had fun and I appreciate all of your text messages. We'll see you soon.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B & P

Beige Dildo

Last night at O'Brien's in Times Square, we decided to take requests of another kind. Pat encouraged the crowd to shout out inanimate objects and told them we would make songs up, effectively free-styling except instead of rapping, it was a rock song.

We provided the open forum, I suppose you could predict what was coming. The first suggestion was for a song about a beige dildo. I told the gentleman I would prefer it was chartreuse, but all the same I'd be happy to sing him a song.

I asked his name and he told us it was Richard. Pat and I both chuckled and sang the song to him. I might reprise it for any of you that come out and request it, but it will have to be accompanied by a shot of Jameson.

Anyhow, details later unfolded that the young English lad who had made the request just turned 21 recently and was in New York visiting until this coming Tuesday. During our first break he came and shook our hands and told us we'd never believe his name.

"You told us already, it's Richard right?"

"Richard, indeed" he replied, "Richard Manlove. That is, Dick Man Love. McLovin ain't got shit on me."

You can't make this shit up.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

Brian

Them Crooked Vultures

We're going to see Them Crooked Vultures on Monday night at Roseland Ballroom. We being me, Patrick McDermott, Jake Rake and Ogy. First of all, for those of you not familiar, Them Crooked Vultures are a rock band consisting of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Rockstar Extraordinaire) and John Paul Jones (aforementioned genius, of Led Zeppelin). I'm psyched. Beyond psyched actually, since I haven't been to a large scale production since we saw Kings of Leon in September.

• The fact that John Paul Jones is 64 years old and couldn't get enough rock and roll is inspiring beyond my ability to verbalize.
• These three guys in one band seems like it shouldn't be allowed. It's like being able to see the dealer's card in black jack before you bet. And wouldn't we all love that?
• It seems likely that if this show is as impressive as I'm expecting it to be, I'll have to find a damn good reason why not to go see Muse at MSG in March since that stands to be comparably (though differently) awesome.

Just check this out, and you'll know what I'm saying.

Peace Love and Vocal Harmonies

B