Why not...

For motivation I have some John Frusciante playing. A good mix, nothing from SMILE or NIANDRA, but some SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE, TO RECORD ONLY WATER FOR TEN DAYS, DC [EP], INSIDE OF EMPTINESS...the good stuff.

It's been about two or three years since I arrived in the Nation's Capital. In that year my friends and I have been to well over one hundred shows in numerous venues from Shoreline Ampitheater in Mountain View, CA (Bridge School Benefit 2004) to Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel (The Mars Volta 2005) in Providence, RI to our local haunts, the 9:30 Club and Black Cat. With some very bright opportunities on the horizon (Pearl Jam at the Verizon Center, Coachella at the end of April and Lollapalooza in August), I couldn't think of a reason why I shouldn't share all of the experiences with everyone. I was looking at a friend's MySpace page and while I didn't like the idea of MySpace I did like the idea of providing some feedback on all of the shows we were seeing. And there have been some incredible shows: Wolfmother @ Northsix in Brooklyn, NY; the surprise Foo Fighters show at the 9:30 Club last year; Ben Harper at the 9:30 Club; Living Things and The Vacation (I can count myself as one of about 30 at that gig, one of 12, not including members of Living Things, to see The Vacation open it up) at Black Cat and The National at Black Cat.

I found myself more and more immersed in the world of blogging simply because the information was so readily available. The first blogs that really caught my attention were Red Sox/baseball-related sites: The Soxaholix and Fire Joe Morgan. The latter really changed the way I looked at ESPN and a lot of mainstream media. I already had my suspicions with ESPN. The self-promotion would kill me on a daily basis and I had to pay to read one of my favorite journalists, the great Peter Gammons. Not to mention the fact that they employed Scoop Jackson, and let him get away with some outrageous social commentary. FJM was regulary making some very legitimate points about the sports world and holding broadcasters responsible for some of the crazy things they were saying in print and on the air. It baffled me that a guy like Joe Morgan would wonder why Doug Mirabelli was catching Tim Wakefield while Jason Varitek was on a tear at the plate. It was like Mr. Morgan had no idea that Mirabelli almost ALWAYS caught Wakefield, regardless of what 'Tek had going on offensively. C'mon. Aren't these the experts? I think the most recent Sports Illustrated tells it the best: "[it has become] the era of detachment and fragmentation - detachment because technology allows games to be covered from great distances and fragmentation because fans can tailor the 'news' to their needs." People are going to alternative media sources to find what they need. Of course, with that, comes the fact that a lot of lies and overall b.s. is coming out of this. But, I guess if you go out there with the intention of doing the right thing and being honest about what you are seeing, hearing, doing....then maybe someone will get some good out of it. I have definitely had my moments of uncontrollable laughter on The Soxaholix over the past few years. Enough about baseball.

I go to shows. I go to a lot of them. I buy way too much music. My friends do, too. We're pretty honest people. We probably have something to learn from anyone out there, new bands, great gigs...but we will never learn about it, unless we hear it, see it, do it. So here I go. There are a lot of shows that I will have to catch everyone up with...and there is a big week ahead. Rob Zombie (9:30 Club) on Sunday night, Arctic Monkeys (9:30 Club) on Monday night, stellastar* with Editors (9:30 Club) on Wednesday and Hard-Fi (Black Cat) on Thursday. Not to mention the coming months...we already have tickets in hand for the following: The Strokes, Death Cab for Cutie, Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, Cloud Cult, Coachella Art & Music Festival, Eagles of Death Metal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pearl Jam, Elefant, Ben Harper and more. Hopefully we will pass something along that will be worthwhile....a band, a song, a venue, an idea. We welcome any and all feedback.