Back To Reality

I returned from San Francisco late last night. It was a tremendous trip, a great vacation, and I’ve settled on the idea of moving there. It’s only a matter of when. This entry isn’t about my San Francisco trip (there wasn’t much music involved and it was a nice reprieve) but between being in San Francisco for 8 days on tour for 10, I am far behind on my business endeavors. 

I got cracking right away Tuesday morning organizing my life (and my email inbox) and I’ve made some strides but I’ve got a ways to go. I played at Providence College last night with my brother Tim. I’ve also locked down Springfield College in April and I hope to have a handful more college shows but it’s been tough. I’ve noticed the effect of the economy. A handful of shows that I thought would be locks this semester didn’t go through because of a change of budgets. I’m booking another artist right now and I thought things would go very well with him but I’ve had difficulty in that endeavor as well. I have ambitious savings goals to prepare for my move to San Francisco and I really have to put the pedal to the metal to get there. As always, I’m optimistic. I also found a note on the back of a coupon I received at a restaurant while on vacation:

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” I thought this was inspiring because people often tell me about how much of a hustler I am. Things have changed a bit but I know that holds true in my life still.

So, there’s much going on. I wanted to back track a bit about events before vacation, however. I arrived home on a Thursday (the 5th) from my tour, and on Friday I tried to get my life in order to prepare for vacation. On Saturday (the 7th) I had two shows with the band. The first show, the Winterfest Soup Competition went better than expected. We played it last year and didn’t really feel welcomed. This time, however, people were outstanding. About 20 people signed up for the email list and we sold way more CDs than I thought we would, and people (staff included), really seemed to be into the music.

The show at The Old Court was a mixed bag. It was pretty packed. Between the crowds that we brought as well as Tracksuit Panda and Christopher James, we were damn near capacity, but it felt like more of a typical bar show than I had hoped. People were into the music early on but it kind of deteriorated into us playing covers. Again, people weren’t rude but it fell a little bit below my expectations. I’m sure we’ll be back there again though and it still was a blast. As for the performance aspect of the day, we got better as the day went on. We were rusty at the beginning of the soup competition, having not played together since November 21^st (Johnny D’s) but we picked it up for sure and our set at The Old Court was great. I have no complaints on that side of things.

As for what’s coming down the pipeline:

- I’m scrambling to make sure the album gets finished in time. I was tempted to push the CD release show back to give us a little breathing room, but Max leaves on the 18^th for over a month and I didn’t want to wait until late-April to release the album. The songs are being mixed and I have pretty good drafts of 9 of the 10 songs but it doesn’t look like the first deadline will be met. It’s not a big deal, it’ll get done when it’s done. There is a tiny chance that the CD release show will be more of a listening party with pre-orders and a celebration but either way, it’ll be great. I’m not saying anything one way or another now, I’m just working to get things done. Between working on the mixes and the artwork, I’m spread pretty thin with that but much of it is waiting.

- We’ll also be doing a show on March 14^th in Lowell. More information on that to come.

- The High School Junior Prom we got booked for got canceled, which is a bummer. There would have been a lot of prep for it, which I’m relieved we don’t have to do now, but on the other hand, it’s still a drag!

- I’m starting to plan for my October tour. What October tour, you ask? I’m looking to hit the road for a full month this time and I’m optimistic that it can come together with enough planning in advance. I’ve got two good weeks left to try and pull stuff together for this semester, then I’ll be switching gears.

- More shows to come! We’re working on some really cool stuff and I’ll let you know as soon as they’re confirmed.