Flinchy's - 3/8/06 - Camp Hill, PA

A cool night at Flinchy's. A few LVC friends came down, Dan and Mike (who was wearing his Freddie Long t-shirt). Very cool of them to come and listen and it was great to just sit and talk with them about life. Quite a few musicians in the house, too. Chuck from No Shame (playing at Flinchy's this Saturday night) was hangin out and it was good to see him..

Shea Quinn from The Sharks and the Luv Gods also showed up at the bar later in the night. I had never actually met or heard of Shea or the Sharks before (although he looked familiar--the guy just looks like a rockstar), but after talking with him and Chuck I was extremely impressed. The Sharks had been pretty huge in the 80s and were on a major label (Elecktra), winning contests and having several videos on MTV. Shea also has a publishing contract for songwriting and has played with and written for Jeffrey Gaines. Man, this guy has been living the dream! I gave Shea an FLB demo CD and hoped he would listen to it and give me his professional opinion. Pretty damn cool.

I hung around til close talking with Flinchy and eventually hit the road back to MD at 3 AM. I stopped at the Sunoco in Camp Hill to gas up and bought 24 solid ounces of this new "Hyper Bean" coffee, which I'm pretty sure was able to circumvent the FDA before distribution. It was advertised as having twice the regular caffeine content of coffee, and judging from my incessant head bobbing, foot tapping, and over-the-top vocal performances in the car, the coffee lived up to the hype. Give it a try sometime.

St. Patty's Day at Flinchy's is going to be insane, I can't wait. Lucky the Leprechaun will be serving up the green beer all day and the FLB will be tearing the joint a new one. Come join us for everyone's favorite "alco-holiday." Car bombs? This could get messy...

This weekend we'll be at Griff's Landing in Frederick. It's going to be 70 degrees all weekend, so come out and enjoy the weather downtown. We'll see you there...

The Crossing at Casey Jones - 3/7/06 - La Plata, MD

What initially seemed to be another regular night at The Crossing was pleasantly varied after talking with a fellow musician during my first set. His name was Matt Stratford, a guitar player and a singer from the area. Matt told me that he plays at The Crossing and makes his living in the music biz, both playing and teaching.

Matt was an incredibly nice guy and I let him play quite a few tunes during my break, both of us hoping he'd impress his girl and get some action. Then during the last set we played some tunes together since I had two guitars with me. It was a great change of pace from the usual Crossing gigs and it was cool to meet and talk with Matt.

Tonight is a Flinchy's Kind of Night...

Rock Bottom Bethesda - 3/4/06 - Bethesda, MD

This Bethesda gig was the perfect remedy to an otherwise so-so weekend. Lifted my spirits right up. Always lots of young and good-looking people out in Bethesda, and this night was no exception.

This was our first "acoustic full band" gig as I had mentioned in my last post, and it was a blast! Ken had a very scaled-down drum kit along with some bongos and other smaller percussion, and I played quite a few "piano tunes" on acoustic guitar. A lot of cool acoustic renditions of songs we normally do, which gave the tunes a different feel and was very refreshing. I even found myself thinking, "maybe we should just become an acoustic band," but I/we like to rock out too much to give up our amp stacks and electric instruments. It gives you a idea of how much we dug the acoustic vibe, though.

We busted out a few never-rehearsed, never-played-before tunes, mostly requests that we tried to honor, including "Babylon," "Mr. Jones," and "Collide." We also played an acoustic guitar version of one of our own piano tunes, "Blanket," which gave the tune a really cool new feel. For me the highlight of the night was playing "Jump"--on acoustic guitars! I'm not sure that's ever been attempted in the history of the song. It killed, man!

Thanks to our man Rich for yelling at us the whole night and getting folks into the show, and for just generally being "that guy." You know what I mean. I met a lot of friendly people at the gig who said some nice things about the band. Thanks for listening. Probably one of the best crowds we've had in Bethesda to date.

Near the end of the show we were told that it was someone's birthday. The birthday girl, Amy, looked fantastic for the 37 years of life she claimed to have under her belt. She busted out some mad tambourine action and even helped me sing part of "Country Roads." After the gig we were talking to her and found our she lived 3 blocks down the street. So, amped up from the show we decided that we could continue the birthday party at Amy's place after we loaded-out. Amy claimed she had plenty of beer in the fridge, so we were all set. I took her number and told her we'd call.

After we packed up and went to get a bite at a local diner, I went to call Amy to solidify plans when I realized that I only saved 9 of the 10 numbers she gave me to call her. Sweet irony! Honestly, who does that? Man, I totally blew it. Chris said I ruined her birthday, but based on her jovial demeanor during the gig I'd say her birthday was already one for the books. No worries. We had some diner food and some good conversation and I made it back home around 4:30am. It was a good night.