philly trip

I rode up to Philadelphia, PA over the long weekend (took Friday and Monday off). Went up to see a free concert featuring Adrian Belew and They Might be Giants. And of course, an excuse for a road trip.

I stopped in Fredericksburg, VA to visit relatives. I went up US-1 most of the way, with a couple blasts along
I-95. The best way to describe it was Very Very Warm. Managed to empty out the 2liter Camelback on the way up, along with more than a few bottles of water. US-1 is pretty boring.

Left at 7am to head up to PA. Took mostly 95, since I had a schedule to keep. Though bits of the way on 1/301/3.
Got there in plenty of time, checked in the hotel, and started wandering around Old Town Philly. Wandered around the area a bit. Put off waiting in the multi block long security line to see the Liberty Bell and such.

Show was right beside the river (Penns Landing). The Adrian Belew show was as a power trio and seemed to work pretty well. A couple of new songs, and three or four King Crimson songs. Very cool.

Headliners were They Might Be Giants. I’m not actually all that familiar with They Might Be Giants despite having seen them live once or twice. But they put on a very enjoyable show.

On the way home, stopped at Fort Meade as the last post shows. Also wandered around D.C for no particular reason.
Again, it was Very Very Warm. 99F according to one of the bank signs I passed.

The bad thing is I seem to have picked up some sort of stomach virus.

Overall, the trip was about 850 miles.

philly trip

I rode up to Philadelphia, PA over the long weekend (took Friday and Monday off). Went up to see a free concert featuring Adrian Belew and They Might be Giants. And of course, an excuse for a road trip.

I stopped in Fredericksburg, VA to visit relatives. I went up US-1 most of the way, with a couple blasts along
I-95. The best way to describe it was Very Very Warm. Managed to empty out the 2liter Camelback on the way up, along with more than a few bottles of water. US-1 is pretty boring.

Left at 7am to head up to PA. Took mostly 95, since I had a schedule to keep. Though bits of the way on 1/301/3.
Got there in plenty of time, checked in the hotel, and started wandering around Old Town Philly. Wandered around the area a bit. Put off waiting in the multi block long security line to see the Liberty Bell and such.

Show was right beside the river (Penns Landing). The Adrian Belew show was as a power trio and seemed to work pretty well. A couple of new songs, and three or four King Crimson songs. Very cool.

Headliners were They Might Be Giants. I’m not actually all that familiar with They Might Be Giants despite having seen them live once or twice. But they put on a very enjoyable show.

On the way home, stopped at Fort Meade as the last post shows. Also wandered around D.C for no particular reason.
Again, it was Very Very Warm. 99F according to one of the bank signs I passed.

The bad thing is I seem to have picked up some sort of stomach virus.

Overall, the trip was about 850 miles.

[view at adrianlikins.com ]

live performances

If I count correctly, since about May of last year, as of last night, I’ve played 14 public performances. Not bad for someone that hasn’t a clue what they are doing.

And thanks to Badger, since I think he set up most (all?) of the shows ;->

Death Jazz Show Report

Played last night at the Death Jazz night at Bickett. A little different, since it’s the first time I’ve played while I’ve been in the audience at most of the shows there.

Small crowd, as to be expected. Almost all musicians in the audience, I suppose also to be expected. A little odd to see people who you know are actually real musicians watching you play.

Took stick and guitars (parker and the fretless) and the usual bag of pedals. Setup kind of a medium size setup. I initially planned on a smaller more “rock” setup since we would be playing with a kit drummer, but then the drummer mentioned they were bringing assorted synths/pedals/loopers, etc, so went for sort of a hybrid noise/ambient and “rock” setup. Seemed to work okay.

First piece was a bit odd, mostly just supporting the sax. Decided to switch to the fretless as it wound down, but it didn’t want to generate any sound despite it working fine in sound check. So switched to the other guitar, just in time to play about one note before the piece ending. I at least, found that kind of humorous.

Second piece I stuck with guitar, and Bob switched to guitar as well. A nice bit of interplay between the two guitars making growling/grumbling/trembling off kilter riffs.

Third piece I stuck with guitar. Brian started up with a more straight ahead drum beat and some loops, so I started building up a bit of a math rock loop. Brian built up more loops, kind of cycling against the now loud math rock loop. I thought it sounded cool.

Folks seemed to enjoy it. Or at least, they said nice things. But then, people always do, whether or not they mean it.

we care a lot… about your product or service

Weird. In the three hours or so of TV I’ve watched in the last three days or so, I’ve seen not one, but two commercials featuring Faith No More songs.

One is a Levi’s commercial with the cover of “Easy”, and the other is an ad for a discovery channel show called “Dirty Job” with “We Care A Lot” as the music. Sigh.