2001

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Wed Jan 3, 2001 with Project/Object - Lilli's Boston (Somerville) MA
Thu Jan 4, 2001 with Project/Object - Valentine's Albany NY
Fri Jan 5, 2001 with Project/Object - Milestones Rochester NY
Sat Jan 6, 2001 with Project/Object - The Docksider Erie PA
Sun Jan 7, 2001 with Project/Object - The Saint Asbury Park NJ

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1.12.01 with JFK'S LSD UFO - Jan. 12th, 2001 from 8:30 to 11pm at Wetlands-Preserve, NYC

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We were downstairs while DJ Logic had a Superjam with friends from various jam bands as they like to call them (ulu and moe, etc.).  Upstairs was the groovalicious and downstairs was theLSD.  We spaced out and played to eachother.  People used the downstairs to get away from the crowd and smoke pot----right in front of us.  This was a great experience and a great opportunity to be a special guest with JFK'S LSD UFO.  They push the boundaries of what performing is.  After my segment with the band, I rushed into a cabby and traveled across town to get to Sidewalk Cafe to play lead guitar with Esme Montgomery and band. 

1.12.01 Esme Montgomery - Jan. 12th, 2001 from 11:30-12:30 at Sidewalk Cafe in NYC. 

Got there and Dave Dreiwitz was setting me up a marshall that was borrowed for me to play on.  John Braun was setting up his drums.  I got there on time!!!  We played the gig and the audience was responding very very well.  We did a cover of "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots that went over well for some reason.  The audience enjoyed the show A LOT and these esme gigs are getting better and better response and love.  Someone shouted "More Esme!" before the "The Bitter Poet" took the stage.  Esme did a cover tune by her self called "Romeo & Juliet" (by dire straits) as an encore.  We packed up our stuff and Dave went to a "gay party" in Chelsea, Esme left for a gig in San Francisco, and John Braun slept over me and explaura's house.  The "Bitter Poet" was a great show and if you get the chance to see them, do so.  The band and the poet were funny, talented, and captivating. 

FEBRUARY 2001

2.10.01 Esme Montgomery - Feb. 10th, 2001 at the C-Note, NYC.

I went "pick-less" for this one. This was a really cool gig because I thought we rocked extra hard and probably were more tighter as a band then any other show. In the afternoon we had a hardworking rehearsal, bringing a new song "Roll Me Over" into the set bag and premiering it that night. Dave Dreiwitz was on bass, Tom Zovich (who has played bass with this band as well) was on drums, and Esme Montgomery was on vocals, electric and acoustic guitar. We also premiered a jazzy cover - a Nat King Cole song called "L.O.V.E." in which I attempted to play a loungy guitar solo. Dave reassured me that it is "the thing" to be always on the verge of hitting a bad note when playing jazz solos. (Dave is back on tour with one of my favorite bands, Ween in March for a 10-day run, by the way.) Oh yeah, I signed magicalpig's tit at this show with a black sharpie. It was good to see all the fun peeps that came out to this show. Afterwards I went to see P.I.C., a band that plays one of my favorite songs called "Hambo". This band you should check out, they use Rick Bartow on bass from Project/Object and Lovetester. 

Project/Object Tour - Feb 22 - March 8th, 2001.

February 21, 2001 with Project/Object - State Theater - Falls Church, VA

February 22-23, 2001 with Project/Object - Visulite Theater - Charlotte, NC

Mother Nature stopped us dead in our tracks on the second day of the tour. It was in Virginia driving to North Carolina to play 2 nights at the Visualite Theatre in Charlotte, NC. The people in the more southern range then the NYC Tr-State aren't used to driving on I-95 during a blizzard. Basically there was a 100-car pile-up or a few of those. We were stuck right behind it. Other idiots drove on the shoulders to get 15 cars ahead and fell off the side of the highway to cause more trouble. We spent about 5 hours traveling 60 miles. Basically the gig that night was cancelled. We showed up to the club at 1am, ate dinner, watched the sopranos and stormed down the east coast playing everynight except the one day off on March 6th. Oh yeah our cargo/equipment rented van broke down (tranny) on the way to Asheville, NC from Savanna, GA. After doing about 8 tours with this band, I can tell you that mishaps like this don't happen ever, but this time, they did. Anyway, look out for a west coast tour in mid April. Thanks to everyone who came out and we're nice to me and to those who spent their money on the Great Atomic Power CD. Check out the tour diary I made for each day/gig on this tour. 

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Wed Feb 21, 2001 Falls Church, Virginia State Theatre 

Barely made the late train at Penn Station, NY to Central Jersey. Got picked up and brought to A&P.; Bought pretty good grub, Vitamin C, zinc lozenges, and echinacia at the A&P.; Left Rancho Relaxo around 11am-12pm. We turned on the walkie talkies. Andre in the passenger side, Spack in the driver's seat, me, jordan, rick, and Ike with seats for ourselves. Got to the gig decent timing. Set up, had some food there from their kitchen. Nice place, big sound, Theatre-Like. Drank some green tea. Met the Charles Wright group during our soundcheck. They were zappa fans and they were gonna open for us. 2 black dudes and a white guy. They opened for us and they kicked SO much fucking ass. They are a fusion group, they all rip it up. http://www.killerfusion.com We had great guests on horns. These two guys from the U.S. Navy band who learned a few zappa songs like Echidnas arf and participated in our Improv Sections and ripped mad solos. Maybe i'll post the setlists for these shows, Rick is our setlist designer and manager. Watched tv at the hotel and had a great party. 

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Thurs Feb 22, 2001...Charlotte, NC Visualite Theatre. 

Woke up in the hotel with my roomate, Rick Bartow. Looked out the window and the snow was packin up. I saw Road Manager Bob from my window trying to get the van packed to get us on the road. Went down to the van and got in. Took off fairly soon and soon hit Traffic on I-95 and the snow was still falling. 1 hour later we were dead stopped in the road. People got out of their cars and took whizzes and walked around. The smokers got out of the van to have a smoke. Jordan started with the snowballs. And we threw snowballs at eachother for a while on I-95. It was time to get back into the van. Yes we were moving another 30 feet. Then we stop again. This went on for 5 hours. I'd say we drove about 60 miles in five hours. The whole time Andre who has much hate for his horrible verizon cell phone with horrible verizon service was contacting the club and owner trying to see what the weather was like in Charlotte (we were still in Virginia---"no snow in charlotte!"). Andre told him that the chances that we would get there on time were slim with all this traffic. This was supposed to be our 1st of 2 nights at the Visualite. We were very psyched to play this gig because it would be the first time we could play 2 shows in this order; 1)set up our stuff, 2) play, 3) leave the stuff on the stage, 4) leave the venue, 5) sleep 6) drive hardly any distance to the next show 7) not set our shit up! 8) rehearse, 9)then play another entirely different show. But the weather and the people who don't know how to drive carefully in snow fucked us all up. We were stuck behind a 100-car pile-up that was all over the news and we drove right through it. By the time we got out of the mess and to the club it was 1am. We unloaded our gear and were welcomed with applause from the barfolks who had come out to see us. The owner told us that we'd be playin tommorow not 2 shows but 1 show with three sets. They were all watching a big screen projection of 200 Motels when we got there. They had food for us waiting. We all ate. And a guy put a DVD of Sopranos episodes...so we watched that on a huge screen. Had a beer or two and then took off to the hotel. 11 Hours were spent driving that day....or not driving....sitting, laying, waiting. Oh yeah, when we got to the hotel, it became apparent that they gave our reservations away to walk-ins and we all had to get rooms with only one bed and we had to wait around for an hour while they fucked around with us some more. A member of the band did us a huge honor by leaving an upperdecker in the hotel lobby bathroom the following day.

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Friday Feb 23, 2001...Charlotte, NC Visualite Theatre. Project/Object

Needless to say, we were quite rested for this show. We got there and set up and rehearsed anyway since we got there so early. Had a great beer in a huge bottle during the daytime. The band room is pretty cozy in this venue. It's right behind the stage....Imagine you were chillin' --had your living room with your coffee table and smooth mood lighting and you invited your band over 'cause people were gonna show up to your back porch expecting a show. Outside was nice weather. I chilled out there with a beer and guitar and smoked. We played 3 sets this night. 2nd set was the "One Size Fits All" album. Had a great time playin this show. Back at the same hotel, the member of the band confirmed that it stank in the hotel lobby bathroom.

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Saturday Feb 24th, 2002...Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse. Project/Object

Denny Walley on slide guitar and vocals. Local legend, Glenn Phillips, on guest sick-shredding guitar playing. That's right, 5 guitarists that night--whatcha gonna do? Seahag, Ike, Andre, Glenn, and Denny---The Variety is the right place to do that too. The stage is huge and the sound is unbelievable. We also had a juggler named Dan Berg on the stage a few times that night who did an awesome juggle show to Peaches En Regalia. Before the gig and after soundcheck, Denny and his wife Janet the Planet (yes, from the zappa movie, Baby Snakes) took us all out to indian food which was super nice and awesome of them. I sat next to Denny and had a delicious dinner. Janet made us some pumpkin bread and the whole band housed it and I didn't get any somehow. So later a member of the band found Ike's stash-away pumkin bread and stole one of the middle slices and gave it to me (and of course had some for himself) and put the bread back together. We rocked that house that night. Denny sang an unbelievable City of Tiny Lights and played such awesome slide while Glenn played incredible stuff on his guitar. Oh yeah. The hotel we stayed at in Atlanta was a scary place with ghosts of mental patients. When me and rick tried to get into our room a man who was in bed said, "Someone's in here" and we closed the door. What happened was they split me and rick up and in the scary place I had a smaller single bed room for 1. So did rick. But since Rick picked my room for me, he gave me the more scarier room with the crooked door frame. I woke up fine though. I ain't afraid a no ghost. 

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Sunday Feb 25th, 2001...Athens, GA Athens Music Factory. Project/Object

Invited Glenn to play with us here as well since it's only an hour away from Atlanta. Got there very early, and went to some neighborhood stores like the place right next door. Out of the t-shirt money was a purchase made by the whole band. The Captain Kirk stand-up cardboard cutout for a stage prop to hang girls lingerie on. It was either the Bill Clinton with a sax (right head, wrong body), Cpt. Kirk, or Elvis (making the most stupidest goofiest stance i've ever seen). We had to get the kirk though....cause we already made fun of him in our shows in the past. Glenn showed up and played awesomely again on more tunes. Had a great time. Dan Berg came and juggled some more at this show. My friend, Neil Golden also known as Octa, showed up (he's from athens and in the group called The Glands). We hung out and I gave him my beers. 

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Monday Feb 26th, 2001...Charleston, SC The Music Farm Project/Object

I don't remember much about this gig except that we played Carolina Hardcore X-tacy and the crowd went nuts when the lyrics say..."Take a Charleston...." Anyway. I met this kid from Winston Cigarette Company who was taking pictures all night. I tried to get him to hook me up with fresh smokes but all he told me to do was get on the mailing list....maybe he'll come through and get them delivered to my house. I shouldn't be smoking anyway...but if they're free it's better off. This place reminded me of another place....and of another place....and of another place....which is why i can't remember this gig well. 

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Wed. 27th St. Petersburg, FL at the State Theatre Project/Object

Hey this place was pretty dirty and the people hardly "shew" up. But lo and behold we had a guest with us that night. The guest was Jerry Outlaw from the florida-based-band-that-performs-the-music-of-frank-zappa-with-Napoleon-Murphy-Brock-and-an-orchestra called BOGUS POMP. We'd heard a lot about this band and Jerry urged us to play this gig and brought his guitar and amp to play. Turned out that Jerry was a really good guitar player who played an 80's Kramer like me (currently my only guitar costing $150) He knew a bunch of songs so he played with us a lot and he got to take a lot of solos. There was one solo where I solo'd at the same time as him. I don't know why people don't do more of that. I pretty much did it because I knew someone was taping the show. Anyway, besides the lack of crowdige we had at the State Theatre this was a fun show to play and the promoter was a fine lad. One thing about this crowd though, we played 2 sets and everyone was back in their seats. When we came back for an encore, they were up to the stage dancing. It was like, way too late for getting really into the show. It was the last song. I even said to them "What, ya come up to the front now? It's the last song, why'd you wait for the last song" or something. Somewhere a few blocks from this this theatre was a great coffee shop where all the wierdo's hung out. We got food there that was REALLY fuckin good and good coffee. The best veggie burger ever. We hung there for like an hour and i want to do more of this laid back dining in the future. 

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Thursday Feb 28th, 2001 Ft. Lauderdale, FL at State Theater Project/Object

This was at first a drag because we showed up and the club wasn't open. All there was was Quiet Riot flyers cause they were gonna play there soon. (I really wanna know the story about Ozzy punching Rudy Sarzo in the face.) Me, Rick, and Wes went to the bar and ordered coffee's and the bartender was from Jersey. A few coffee's later, I was having a great time at the bar and the club was open. This was the night where Rick's parent's were gonna come see us. Also this was the night where our booking agent's parents were gonna see us. Basically both sets of parents were going to see whether their son was wasting his time or not. There was a huge 7 foot bong on the stage made out of cardboard and Captain Kirk took mad bong-hits during a reggae jam. The show was pretty silly and a wicked pissa, dude. The crowd at this show made up for the lacking crowd of our other two Florida shows cause they were abundant and loud. The weather was nice and Spackle and our merchandise was set up outside the club by the entrance. I talked to this one dude who told me he was recording the newest Aerosmith record and that he got to play keyboard on it. He was from Boston but i forgot his name. You people with the new Aerosmith cd can find out. Florida gigs were over now. It was time to go back north. We was pretty happy about it I think.

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MARCH 2001

March 1, 2001 with Project/Object - Culture Room - Ft Lauderdale, FL

March 2, 2001 with Project/Object - JJ Cagney's - Savannah, GA

March 3, 2001 with Project/Object - Stella Blue - Asheville, NC

March 4, 2001 with Project/Object - Peasants - Greenville, NC

March 5, 2001 with Project/Object - Alley Katz - Richmond, VA

March 7, 2001 with Project/Object - Met Cafe - Providence, RI

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3.18.01 Esme Montgomery - Olive's Cafe - Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Broke in a new drummer--Tom Curiano who totally kicked ass. Woke up at 11:30am and went to Tin Pan Alley to rehearse from 12-3pm. After rehearsal, me, Tom Zovich (bass), and Esme (ld. vox/guitar) rode in Tom's car to a diner where I had a Fish Sandwich deluxe (wit da fries). Esme had a Chicken Salad Club (maybe) with some bacon and fries. Tom had a Lobster soup which was supposed to be Turkey and then he had a Feta Salad with Anchovies. The Diner: The Hibernia Diner off of I-80...the diner where the guy kept getting Tom's order wrong...."Can I have a coke?" - "Ok, here's your sprite." Anyway we drive through the bitter cold of I-80 to Wilkes-Barre and arrived at Olive's around 7pm. There we saw members from my good friend Les' new band called Stoney Creek. The bartender Brian was cool and gave us beers galore for no charge. Charles (promoter/booking for Olive's) was a nice dude and I hadn't seen him in a few years. Olives might soon be a cool new spot to play small shows in the NE PA area. I made the setlist for this show. There was 2 sets each band. We split the show up this way; Esme plays first set, Stoney Creek plays first set, Esme plays second set, Stoney Creek plays second set. This was cool because as John from Stony Creek put it on the mic on SCB Set II - "Wow, ya don't realize but while you're on your set break you're watching another band and getting really really drunk". I suppose this was the feel of the night for all involved. This was our longest set yet and some of our songs were performed faster then any other time. Especially Get Out of My Head which was fucking fast. We did a lot of covers. Mother Mother (by Tracy Bonham), What Is and What Should Never Be (by Led Zeppelin), Stay Forever (by WEEN), To Be With You (Mr. Big), Sex Type Thing (by STP), and Lets Hear it for the boy (from the footloose soundtrack by ???). No one recorded this show. I have a feeling that the Amityville gig on March 31st might be long like this one was. After the show, Tom drove me and him back from Wilkes-Barre to NYC. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts and got some coffees and Tom kept callin' the guy 'Boss' at the franchise. When traveling on I-80 in the western part of New Jersey, make sure you all have enough gasoline for your car especially at night. We barely made it to an "open" gas station. 

3.20.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Lakeside Lounge, East Village, NYC.

I only played with this guy Paulie once before this show. It all happened on Dec. 23rd, 2000 when Dave Dreiwitz was gonna play his first show with Esme Montgomery and before our gig at 9pm he said he had to meet his friend at 9C (bar in nyc) to play a gig. So Dave took me and Esme in his car to the gig. We got some chinese food to eat at the bar and soon enough Paulie shows up and starts playin' and singing lounge tunes at the bar and dave is playing along on bass. Then we played the Esme gig across the street at another bar (C-Note). After show, me and Laura were invited to a joint in Williamsburg (where we reside). At this joint, Paulie told me I should get up there and play lounge shtuff with him and dave. I only knew about 1 song out of about 2 hours of music but they said i did good. So Paulie calls me up a few months later for this gig. And i say, "Is there a rehearsal?". He says "No we'll do it just like last time". So this time there was a drummer and i recognized more of the songs. A debut of "Shaft" was done and talk about doing "Carwash". It was quite fun and the beers were free for the band like they should always be fuckin' dammit. The blue panties that have been hanging on my headstock for the last 6 months were used in a surprisingly skilled game of panty-tag (throwing the panties and landing them on the other guy's instrument). After the gig, Paulie told me I should come thursday at the Right Bank Cafe in Williamsburg. Apparently they play there every thursday night. From like 10-2am. 

3.22.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Drums and two guitars. "Rehearsal gig" they call it. Every thursday. Played 2 sets and learned some more songs on the spot that I never heard before. "Shaft" was rehearsed. Virginia (bartender) reminded me of ye good ol' Holly Piper and served us beer right to the stage. I actually witnessed Paulie "Supersize" his Scotch drink with our bartender. Patrick (the guy who runs the place) offered to take care of any of my hunger needs (wanna samwich? wanna salad?). Paulie and I discussed a very innovative project idea he came up with that we're gonna take on at the studio he works at in Williamsburg but that's enough about that--i'll have more to say when that starts happening. This gig was much fun and something useful to do on a thursday night while hanging out at a laid back bar. Talk of next Thursday at the same place is on...but apparently a DJ might be spinnin'....but if he's upstairs, we'll play downstairs hopefully.

3.29.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Same line up as last week--Glenn on drums with just a snare and a ride cymbal, me on "eddie van halen" guitarwith the panties, and paulie on d'angelo pick-up guitar. Welp this was my 4th rehearsal with this band and man i'm finally getting some of this shit down, with the exception of the new songs paulie whips out on me every show. We did "Shaft" much better then the week before. We also did "Hot for Teacher" instrumental and "pusher man" and some really really cool songs which i don't know the name to any of them. DJ Vick the Bruiser (WBAI) and the ever-famous Laura came to this gig and had drinks. I, for one, should not drink like i did at this gig. Basically I was fine until after the gig when I had my second "supersized" scotch and soda (after about 3 pints of Harp - beer before liquor never sicker). In the middle of the drink and in the middle of conversation, I had to head to the bathroom. When i got there i took a seat on the porcelain throne and basically "rested" there and dozed in and out of sleep (I had been very tired since earlier in the day) until some guy came in asked me if i was alright and i said "yeah, thanks" and then I puked (two shots) and felt much much better. Called a car from the car service by my house and got picked up and brought to me home at 4am. There is a streak of shows happening including/starting-with this one. 5 shows in 4 days. As DennisDwould say... "yeow". 

3.30.01 Esme Montgomery - The C-Note, East Village, New York

What a cool gig. First of all, lemme say that the Old Devil Moon is one of my favorite restaurants. Went there to meet Laura for dinner before this show. Saw my friends Josh and Dennis ("Fuckwheat" from mp3 page who owns the restaurant). Me and Laura had one of the best dinners ever there and splurged 25 dollars. We went over to the C-Note, and saw Danneh! sittin at the bar. Anyway. Sooner or later we were up at the stage playing and there was all sorts of cronies in the audience. Laura, Danneh, Ryan Sholin', Vick the Bruiser, Inspector Jim B. and Jessica, Davey & Charlyn (maybe even a drunk charlyn which is not normal). We played this show a super enthused crowd. And the rock prevailed. After the show Dan The Hotch (the most leadest singer from wrong) shows up and taps me on the shoulder surprising me because he lives in SanFran now. After the show, the people who were left went to Ryan's house and jammed on harmonicas and acoustic guitars until about 3am. Led Zep song was covered for the 2nd time at this gig--no slide on the slide solo.

3.31.01 Esme Montgomery - The New Wrong Way Inn, Amityville, LI, NY

Tom Zovich (plays an awesome silly bass) once again drove me and Esme to an out-of-town gig. I gotta say this was the greatest we've ever sounded as a hard-rock band even if we're not always a hard rock band. But for the songs esme writes that are hard-rock, this was the real deal. The real Rock. Tom Curiano on drums (3rd gig) keeps kicking more and more ass and gets me playing more live than live on the rock. Despite the lack of a packed house in this town, this was probably the best show we've ever played (is it only because we played the night before?). We could hear the vocals and the crowd response was golden. Tom C. drove me back to brooklyn and dropped me right to the front door of my house. I came home around 1am and slept by 2am. Led Zep song was covered for the 3rd time- no slide on the slide solo.

APRIL 2001

4.1.01 Old Rugged Sauce - The Pourhouse, Williamsburg, Bklyn 7:30pm

First of all, sorry but the POOL HOUSE gig was nixed. [I heard that Davey and Charlyn tried to go and couldn't find the place. Sorry Davey and Charlyn but it was April Fools Day and i guess i played my trick even though I didn't plan it.] I've always frequented this bar because it was a new joint that opened up close to my friends Dan and Liz's house about a year ago. This was my first time playing here so it was cool. Glenn was late due to Daylight Saving's time fuck-up-non-knowing-non-setting-forward-the-clock. At this gig, Glenn was officially known as "Peg Leg" because of his sprained high-hat leg (he apparently fell down a manhole). Glenn of course didn't show with a high-hat. Only with a snare and ride cymbal again. A woman was cheering him giving him approval especially during "Shaft". The gig was kind of tight (not a lot of room to play and I should've had a drink next to me for in between songs) After about 15 songs we split to the next joint. A stint at a new studio opening up in the gas tank riverbank of williamsburg.

4.1.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Comtex Studios, Williamsburg, Bklyn 10pm 

Woah, and god damn! This place is nice, dude. Outside the windows of this studio you can see gas tanks galore (huge). Inside this studio you can see a really great studio. Possibly the Paisley Park of Williamsburg. Anyway, it's a recording studio with great equipment-state of the art and old crap that still works well and weighs a lot of pounds. There's tons of space in this place as well. They were having the opening weekend party there and we were playing as the last band in their performance space which was very nicely lit with tables and candles and a bar and some meat pies. For this gig, Paulie invited two guests up to play the whole set with us. Pete on congas and (damn, i forgot the name) on sax. These guys played sweet and ORS pretty much played sweeter then we've ever played together since i started. I did my best being a guitarist and bassist at the same time in the first set. Again we did Shaft and we did "Pusherman". On set two Glenn was on marimba, Pete was on drums and another friend (i'm bad with names) played bass. During that set we played "Why Does It Hurt When I Pee" by Frank Zappa and Paulie sang it wickedly greatnessed.

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4.4.01 Project/Object - University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 8pm

Went to meet Jordan Shapiro and his bluegrass band, Citigrass, the night before. They were playing a gig at the Rodeo Bar in nyc. Got there and me and Jordonian drove to Matawan, NJ to wes' house so that we could leave early in the morning at 9am to get to UNH by 4pm. Plans worked well and we got to the club. It was there that i searched out our booking guy. Who turned out to be my good friend David Derrick's younger brother! Joe Derrick booked us there and I didn't even know it. I had met Joe and hung out with Joe a good 4-5 times in the past so it was cool to hang again and it was great to have him as a coordinator. We set up our gear and we loved the campus. It was beautiful. A river runs through it. We got to eat 10 dollars worth of food at the Dining Hall (food court) and it was pretty alright....alright. By the time 8pm rolled by it was playing time! We . At this gig, we had some mishaps, but over all, our jams were pretty super, and our improvs and randomoniums were stellar, this was a new crowd to us...since we've never been up in that New England area before and we played to that aspect. Luckily they all approved and they really dug it and cheered. By the end of our second set we were pretty thrilled with the crowd. After the gig, we packed up and stayed at the Holiday Inn in the town that Red Hook beer is from in NH (try to remember the name of the town). It was there that me, roadie/composer rich, and jordonian went to BICKFORDS and met the rudest waiter in the history of my dining. He was such a dick, but when he realized that we weren't impressed anymore he started becoming really nice to us and saying "can i get you anything else" rather than, "Fuck you, i'm gonna smoke my cigarette here at the this table with my friends before i take your order up". That night, Wes, Mumbo, and Head-Roadie Bob took their rented Cargo-truck back home and me and Andre, Rick, and Jordan, stayed at the hotel. Mumbo had to be at a craft show selling drums the next day in Virginia. ON HIS BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday Mumbo!

4.5.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Bklyn 11pm

This gig kicked the most ass because it was the first time that I had played with paulie with a bass player since Dave was here last (when i was still new). So about 7 gigs later we get Alec, a bass player who is back from the road with his band RAGING SLAB who i actually saw open for the melvins at cbgb's a few years ago. With Alec on bass, it opened up a louder, rockin'er sound on behalf of the whole band. I didn't have to worry about playing bassy notes on the guitar to fill in where i needed bass to feel happy. Alec had it all covered and it made all the guitar amps sound better. Even Glenn, who still showed up with just a snare and a ride cymbal, sounded like he had a full kit up there. Very fun. Next week is the last thursday night gig i'll get to do with them until after the upcoming Project/Object tour. 

4.7.01 Esme Montgomery - The Living Room, East Village, NYC 7pm 

Cool gig because i was allowed to play bass. So it was a duo. me and esme. Esme played piano and guitar and i played guitar and bass. This show wasn't recorded but it was a good one. I am going to have to get a stereo mic for my minidisc sometime soon. At this gig i met my old friend Paul Alves who i used to hang around and play with at age 12 when he was like 14. We used to record stuff on four-track with him on guitar, and me on bass. Found out he lives now a block and a half from my house! Back to the gig: it was really cool to get to play my spector bass because it sounds so good. I bought the bass from Kasim Sultan (from Todd Rundgren's Utopia) directly from his hands to mine about 1994 and he told me how he used it on joan jett recordings. Anyway. Despite the lack of a packed room (it was 7pm). I wanna thank Laura, Emily, Ryan Sholin, and Paul Alves for showing up and bringin' people. Anyway, fun gig! Some real beauty floated through the air....i think. After the gig, me and laura and esme and emily went to see Rick Bartow play bass with P.I.C. and it turned out it was the 1 year anniversary of their record label Riding Mower Records. We caught a really strong band that played before them called Black Sonny and Rick Bartow said he saw them a year ago and they're like one million times better now.

4.8.01 Old Rugged Sauce - The Pool Room, Williamsburg, Bklyn 8pm 

Well, this place is really close to my house and has been open less than a year. A surprise gig. This one, paulie called me and asked if would meet him here and that he'd bring an acoustic for me. They were going to have a rockabilly night or something with a dj spinning that stuff. I got there and i chose the green drink instead of the red drink, and pretty much got down to playing. It was just me and paulie for this gig. Paulie wants to get a steady gig here since they wanna get some band to play often. Chances are, Old Rugged Sauce will be the house band around there. (Ever hear the spanish version of "Winds of Change" by the scorpions? I'm getting the premiere right now from some apartment in this mostly hispanic section of town I live in.) So, me and paulie jammed on two acoustics (i played his Kay which was installed with a barcus-berry pickup and looked classy and very scratched up, used and abused, but the neck had just been set up beautifully). We played for about 30 minutes to give the owner guy a taste and then the dj went on. The room was a great room for this style of music. "It's so close to the house that it almost makes it worth it" was the quote of the night (about getting a steady gig here)

4.12.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Bklyn 11pm 

Showed up to this gig at 10:30 and soon Vicki Hipple showed up because she just got back from work at studio where she was workin' with the art department building sets for an infomercial starring Joan Rivers. Apparently, she realized it was Thursday night and figured we'd be playing. Had a beer and hung out and soon, Alec showed up with his Rick bass. We took the stage at around 11:15 and played a set, kind of a confusing set because I felt like it was my 2nd gig, 'cause Paulie was whippin' out tunes I had never heard. After about an hour of fiddlin' around, playing guitar solos, and faking my way through the wrong chords to back up Paulie's solos, we took a break---a well needed one, and during that break I talked to artist and lead singer of Two Minutes Hate for a while, a very nice gentleman and went back up to the stage about a half hour later. This set was a little more familiar. None of the other member's thought I was as lost as I knew I was during the first set. At the end of the second set, a dude came up again for the second week in a row. I keep forgetting his name. He played these old 60's English Rock tunes that were very obscure and corny....but he rocked at singing and playing them so they made all who witnessed cheery for the corn. We switched around, Paulie played drums, played my guitar, and later we both played my guitar: he took a guitar solo---fingering the fretboard with his left hand while i picked the notes he was holding down with my right hand. We pretty much played all night....actually went up and played a third set. I hung out there until finally getting home at 5am. Was fun.....it was the last gig at Right Bank Cafe that i'll play until I get back from my Tour with P/O. 

APRIL 2001

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4.13.01 Esme Montgomery & The Dark Sweet Cherries - Baby Jupiter, East Village, NYC 7pm

 
I had to take a car service to this gig (ugggh....10 bucks) because it was one of those gigs that I had to bring my own amp (oh, woe is me). Now, I don't even own a new york style small and professional combo amp. I have this amp that kicks ass called a BENJAMIN ADAMS that has a non working reverb and no clean tone. It's an amp that Satanham Lincoln (aka Regis Gimeno) basically gave me to hold on to years ago because he had it with a bass that he bought. I still have his bass at my parent's house in Newark, NJ. That bass is another unknown brand name bass. But unfortunately I really couldn't get a crystal clear clean tone for this gig, but whatever, i turned my guitar volume down and it worked. Also, I brought my minidisc recorder to this gig and a realistic flat-mic (mono) to record. Esme provided the batteries and the blank minidisc. So wow, this show was RECORDED! It was recorded too hot though. Distorted, but it still rocks and serves as a historical document of sound. Unfortunately, I cannot "man" the recording level from the stage, so some other person has to learn to do this please. Anyway, there were tons of people from Esme's workplace that attended this gig. Also, Laura Wilson and Ryan Sholin' again. Ryan is showing an impressive streak of attendance at these gigs and so is Laura. Esme provided a half gallon of Vodka for the audience (as there is a policy at baby jupiter: byob). She also bought 3 or 4 six packs of budweiser tall boys for the event. I think Tom Z did the shopping for it. A room of people sitting down enjoying the show with free budweiser in hand is an easy crowd to please! Nice choice of beer size--Very smart. Budweiser's never tasted so good and happy. After Esme's month of toying with the name, Dark Sweet Cherries for us (her band members), she finally put it on the flyer which is why this review's headline reads "& the Dark Sweet Cherries". I was a dark sweet cherry that night, and chances are, I might be one again at the next gig after I get back from the Conquest of the West Tour. Right now I'm gonna do something I haven't done before, I'm going to list the tunes we played: Falling Off Horses, Tell Tale Heart, Catch Me, Next Generation, Climb, Moon Cry, Anyplace, Hands Off, What Is and What Should Never Be (cover). A total of 9 tunes. 

MAY 2001

Project/Object Continues on its Conquest of the West Tour.

We continued on, and I don't really have a full tour diary of this stuff. Mumbo's more of the guy with the stories. And wes is the illustrator for it all. But yes, All of may was a gig. maybe like 25 shows or something. From April 18th to May 31st.

JUNE 2001

6.06.01 Project/Object . Wetlands, NYC 10:30pm

6.09.01 The Niche . ScottyPaluza @ Sterling Stage . Hannibal, New York, 7pm

6.12.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Lakeside Lounge, East Village, NYC, 10pm

6.13.01 Project/Object . Wetlands, NYC 10:30pm

6.14.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 10pm

6.20.01 Project/Object . Wetlands, NYC 10:30pm

6.21.01 Old Rugged Sauce Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 10pm

6.24.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Pourhouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 8pm

6.26.01 Old Rugged Sauce - Lakeside Lounge, East Village, NYC 10pm

Oh yeah baby. I've been riding Lorax's skateboard around to these gigs with guitar on back for a few weeks and I've been told that I'm "goofy foot" meaning that I pedal with my left foot when i'm a righty. Anyway. Me on guitar, Paulie on guitar and lead vocals, Dave on bass, and Glenn on drums. This was the night when the "incident" first happened. This gig was a rollercoaster. Some stuff that didn't do so great last time came out beautifully, and then Paulie started whippin' out songs we've never played before and well, then it's time for me to play a solo. By the end of the night there were a crowd of people sitting down and pretty drunk screaming after all the songs. Many backstage betties (tenacious d, they reign) were in the audience and were all shakin their booties in their chairs to our heavy upbeat numbers. (ha, numbers...Ozzy Osbourne, if you haven't noticed, says "number" instead of song, or tune, when you see him live. and if you've never seen Ozzy live, you've never seen the grandfather of heavy metal, a jolly and fun grandpa he is, he'll make you smile, I saw him first when i was 10.) Anyway, we were actually forced to do an encore, so we played too rockin' instrumentals and then hung up our guitars and got some beer. I was drinking my summer drink, gin & tonic earlier. I've been really liking vino lately. Wine. It was the first alcohol i've ever drank, I used to water it down at the dinner table when i was in my single digits. Later on, when I was about 14-15, I started to get drunk with my grandfather after we'd eat together. He lived downstairs. He'd have awesome italian bread and awesome mozzerella (pronounced, Mootz-sa-dell). So bread, cheese, and wine. "Get Drunk!" he'd say. Anyway. Beer gives you the beer belly. Am I wrong in thinking that vino and liquor is better off? Vino is good for food. Vino reigns. So what's this alcohol and grandaddy talk have to do with this gig? Oh, come on! I'm talking about the Old Rugged Sauce! It has everything to do with this gig. 

6.28.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY 11pm

JULY 2001

7.11.01 Esme Montgomery . Brooklyn Lyceum, Park Slope - Brooklyn, NY 9:30pm

7.11.01 The Plutonic Forms . Brooklyn Lyceum, Park Slope - Brooklyn, NY 11:30pm

7.12.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY 11:30pm

7.15.01 Old Rugged Sauce . The Pourhouse, Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY 6pm7.19.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

7.26.01 The Plutonic Forms, Wetlands Preserve, New York, NY 11pm

7.30.01 Old Rugged Sauce . MTA Subways, Staten Island Ferry, & Iona's, NYC, 2-6pm

So I told Paulie to call me if he ever wants to go out and play the subways for some spare change and some dollars. Sure enough, Paulie is a man of his word, he did callme and I said yeah. So i walked over to his house. "It's close enough to the house that its almost worth it", yeah that house. There we sat and listened to some music and chilled at his kitchen table. Nice pad. Next thing we were out the door, his acoustic in his case and me carrying a no-cased Kay with a pickup through Williamsburg right into the trendy section of Bedford. We down to the Bedford L stop and start whippin out the first song, and then the second song, soon enough we're kickin' ass just me and him and we get about 5 bucks. Then we take the subway to The Staten Island Ferry. When we get there, we decide it's time to eat, drink, and smoke. So we get 2 slices of Pizza each, I get a coca-cola, and he gets a pepsi. I told him that we should be arguing about the difference in sodas. But of course, we don't like to bicker about the television things in life. I personally enjoy both Pepsi and Coke, maybe a little RC too, or Brooklyn brand bottled cokes we used to get in Newark. Anyway, sittin around it's drizzlin' a bit, not good for the guitar with no case. so we finishe our pizza's and try to hit up the tourists goin to see the statue of liberty there. We don't make jack shit. So after about an hour we go back uptown and get on the L, but there's a violin girl there at Union Square L stop. By the time we get back to Bedford to try it again, people are only comin' into brooklyn, not leaving brooklyn. So we basically bagged it and went to IONA's, a bar in Williamsburg to see if we could play for free drinks. The girl that Paulie knows wasn't there, so we had to work it out with the bartender there who seemed kind of pissed and a little like we were in the way--comin' in there with our guitars expectin to do something. So we paid for a beer and then paulie got the nerve to say, "So can we play a few songs?" and bartender guy said yeah, right after this song (he had on some texas shit, some waylon jennings shit or something). So me and paulie play, then this drunk guy comes back with his sax. And he's good, but the dude played way too loud...very annoying...headache-ish . I told him to stick a sock in that thing about 2 times but he just kind of didn't hear cause he was drunk with other noises in his mind. But anyway. the bartender gave us a free beer (HARP) and we was on our way home. Seahag: Let's Not Not do this again............................Paulie: You mean Let's do this again? ............................ Seahag: Yeah like, we didn't do good, but lets not NOT do this again......................Paulie: So you wanna do this again?............................Seahag: Yeah, it's not like we raked in all the cash, and we could say "YEAH!! LETS DO THIS AGAIN!!!!! WOOOHOOO", we can't be all happy about it. We have to say "lets not not do this again"....lets give it another chance..........Paulie: Ok Happy. So needless to say, we'll do this again. 

AUGUST 2001

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8.2.01 Old Rugged Sauce. Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

8.9.01 Old Rugged Sauce. Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

8.14.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

8.15.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

8.16.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

​August 16, 2001 with Project/Object - Wetlands Preserve - New York City, NY (deconstructing 4 madonna songs)

8.17.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

8.18.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC (Matinee)

8.18.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

8.19.01 Fortune Cookie Dreams. Blue Heron Arts Center, NYC 

8.23.01 Old Rugged Sauce . Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

8.30.01 Project Object w/Ike Willis. Met Cafe, Providence, Rhode Island, 10pm

SEPTEMBER 2001 

9.01.01 Project Object w/Ike Willis. moe.down Festival, Hannibal, NY, 3:30pm

9.02.01 Project Object w/Ike Willis. Brighton Bar, Long Branch, NJ, 10pm

9.16.01 Old Rugged Sauce. The Pourhouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 6pm

9.20.01 Old Rugged Sauce. Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

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9.22.01 Old Rugged Sauce. Wedding in Weems, Virginia 5-10pm

.....................So I get my suit back cleaned from the local joint, call a car service and load 2 guitars, a suit, and a bag of clothes in it, and tell them to take me to paulie's house. There we meet Dave and he's got the rent a car. Dave had just did a session gig for Swifter...the dust cleaning mop style household product which i am just dying to try. I hope that dave did it for free, because that shit must rule. ANYWAY, what was i saying, yeah so we go and pick up freakin' Ethan at his pad, and we start going to virginia, 9 hours later at 1am we get there, and we have a little trouble finding our place to stay. The kid at the desk finally tells us where we are. We're at Cove Cottage. Yes, the whole band gets its own cottage in a cove on the water. So we open the door to our cottage and shit, there it is, the bag of chips, peanuts, jack daniels and johnny walker. We proceed to get ice and start drinking out on our deck on the water, sitting at our table under an umbrella. We stay up til 5. We wake up to a beautiful day. beautiful for swimming. it's 9am. Paulie went and rented a canoe for free. We swam, went into town to eat for super cheap. Paulie bought swimmin' trunks. We came back swam again, rehearsed on our deck loud on the water, got dressed around 4--walked over to the wedding area and played an instrumental 1 hour set underneath a tree for cocktail hour. After that, we went back to our pad, and about an hour later, we came back to play the reception. We must have played 2 sets, about 50 minutes each. Then there was this big boozefest after. All this booze and partying people from the wedding. It was quite fun. I drank Vodka all night and woke up drunk at 11am and in need of my next drink. So i drank a simple shot of vodka in the morning, then we left at 1pm. On the way home, we went to a seafood place off the Chesepeake Bay in Maryland, called the Crab Shack and blew all the money we could. I made the guys in the van listen to my old italian wedding band, and "Whats Wrong with My Dick" and "I fingered Your Vagina", and "Whores on Acid." They loved it. 

9.27.01 Old Rugged Sauce. Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11pm

9.28.01 Smoggy Borough Boys. The Sanctuary, East Village, NYC 7:30-10pm 

Jordan calls me up and asks if I wanna play tonight because James Kerr (the bad-ass dobro player and guitarist) couldn't make it. So it was just gonna be jordan. So I say yes....then he calls me and says, no, James can make it now. And I say, well, i'll play bass then. And then James Kerr did approve and we got there and played for 2 hours for people eating vegetarian meat dishes. Fake meat all over the place. I had a hot bowl of fake fish soup. The best part about the soup was the fake fish though. These Smoggy Borough boys are James Kerr, Jordan Shapiro and Ben Bernstein. Ben couldn't make it that night which is where I have become some sort of fill in guy for Ben now...which is pretty good considering the food they give. They pay crap though. 10 bucks for 2 hours of playing. It really should be at least 20 bucks. But then, the food is good. The Chicken-not nuggets. These boys play really nice shit actually. Acoustic stuff. Americana crap. Bluegrass and Country and Jazz. Jordan sings sometimes. Thems boys is good.

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9.30.01 Old Rugged Sauce. The Pourhouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 6pm

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October 25, 2001 - Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Double Header Sauce Gigs!

October 25, 2001 - Old Rugged Sauce - Poorhouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211 - 6:00 PM

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Sunday, October 28, 2001 - OLD RUGGED SAUCE at Old Devil Moon East Village, NYC

10:00 PM 

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Dennis said to roll on by the Old Devil Moon at around 7:30, but i didn't show up with Dave Johnsen until about 8:15, there I saw some members of posse and dark sweet cherry band members. This gig were gonna have John Braun on drums, Dennis Driscoll on bass, me on guitar, Esme Montgomery on guitar and lead vocals, Kirsten Thien and Corrin Roskos on background vocals. At the old devil moon, i had some foodage, and some pabst in a can. Made it over to Lakeside to see dennis reading story's about getting into trouble as a kid, stories that are not too normal and pretty fucked up, but good true stories about growin up in Inwood, NYC, fun stuff. He had a great guitarist with him playing background stuff while he read. Bald shaved head guy with an ESP telecaster with a spiffy tremolo bar, played really tasty stuff. After Dennis read, we tuned up and blew through our set quickly. Playing a debut of esme's new song, "I can't". I had fun playin' this gig, rocking out if you will. I kind of dig splanging chords on a strat with a bassy clean tone. The stage was crowded but i got to hang in back of the background vocalists and rock out with drummer, jonny pacalolo. After the gig, I got to hang out with good ole' friend drinky and drink cans of free tecate from the bar. Esme remembered to pass out the hat this gig so we actually made some pocket change, won some dollars and a metrocard. Got home late and pigged out on as much food as possible.

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October 31st, 2001 (Halloween) - Project/Object with the Grandmothers - Irving Plaza, NYC

November 1, 2001 - Old Rugged Sauce - Right Bank Cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn - 11:00 PM 

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Thursday, November 29th - Old Rugged Sauce at Right Bank Cafe (Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY), Kent Ave @ Broadway - 11:00 PM - Free Admission

Wed Jan 3, 2001 with Project/Object - Lilli's Boston (Somerville) MA

Thu Jan 4, 2001 with Project/Object - Valentine's Albany NY

Fri Jan 5, 2001 with Project/Object - Milestones Rochester NY

Sat Jan 6, 2001 with Project/Object - The Docksider Erie PA

Sun Jan 7, 2001 with Project/Object - The Saint Asbury Park NJ