I am soooooooooo in Love with Squeeze right now - even more than I ever was, if that's possible. They were incredible last night, basically playing everything from the Singles - 45's And Under release, with a few obscure songs that were definitely treats for us fans, stuff like In Quintessence, If I Didn't Love You, Heaven and Bang Bang from their very first album. My fucking jaw dropped as I haven't heard them play that song in like 30 years. Fucking Wow!!! In the early days, sure, but now, not really, as the band pretty much sticks to a give-the-people-what-they-want aspect of playing the Hits, although the band gets to stretch it's musical muscle on some newer, latter day material that's almost jam band, Rolling Stones like shit, but I forgave them for that little hippy-ish indiscretion. The crowd was tame, but the waitress service was fun, with the old folks in the crowd standing in nicely organized rows, allowing the waitresses to keep bringing me those splendid 32oz. drafts without any trouble. The more I drank, the better the band sounded. Go figure, right? ha ha ha There I was, a big dude in a Sharks jersey, jumping around and rocking out to Squeeze, singing along to almost every gawd damn song they played and just having the time of my Life in a crowd where there was seriously no one under the age of 30 in the place. Ha Ha Ha Ha I did not give a FUCK because sometimes it's good to be an old dude because you can appreciate the songwriting Genius of Mr's Difford and Tilbrook and the Music that they have created. The band was incredible. It was the same line up of players that I saw when Squeeze played the Crown Theater inside the Rio a few years ago (click here to see the photos I took that night) and like a fine wine, they've only gotten better with age. <3 Gawd damn do I love me some Squeeze. I bought all kinds of swag as I left the place. It was gaudy and all over-priced and I didn't care. :-)

Right before the gig I was watching the live feed on YouTube of Coachella 2012, and I gotta say, it was pretty sweet. I watched Jimmy Cliff's set, which was fantastic, despite the presence of that dooshbag Tim Armstrong in Mr. Cliff's backing band. It took me a while to recognize that Jimmy Cliff was doing a Rancid cover, but once I did... BARF!! ha ha ha I Can See Clearly Now was great, with the storm clouds off in the distance over the mountains, and, of course, The Harder They Fall, which is a Spiritual fucking classic. The set ended too quickly for me. The crowd seemed to dig it though, so that was good. And then came Madness. They sounded a bit ruff during the opener One Step Beyond, and they were missing Bedders on bass, but I gotta say, they sounded GREAT!! Suggs voice was in fine form, Woody is always on the beat, Chrissy Boy was playing Johnny Thunders riffs in between songs, Mike was pounding the keyboards in the back and Lee is just a madman, coming out dressed like some Chinese citizen from 1792 and just acting like the lunatic that he is, jumping around and up on the monitors, and mugging for the camera whenever possible. Best line of the night came from Chas, who said "I'm too old for this shit." LOL Second best was Lee asking the crowd "Does anyone have any drugs?" ;-) The highlight of the set was when they did Night Boat To Cairo, with the dual horn intro that sounded SICK, and that fucking crazy kid in the audience who was dressed up like the band were in the video for the song, crowd surfing with the biggest smile on his face while Madness played. That's what going to gigs is all about - having FUN!!! Oh my gawd I cannot wait to see Madness tonight. <3

If you're not going to the Madness gig tonight (I can't imagine why you're not though) there's other stuff going on. I had the date wrong about the Seriouslys gig @ the Motor City Cafe. It's tonight, not yesterday. If you're not going to that you should go to the Ignite / Guilty By Association / The Happy Campers / N.E. Last Words gig at the Aruba. Deadhand dropped off the gig because they don't do Pay to Play. Good for them. I couldn't be prouder. :-) And oh, I lost that video I shot of them doing Singing For You @ the Double Clown on Thurs. My iPhone took a shit, and when I took it down to the Apple store for them to fix it, they said they didn't know what was wrong with it, because it didn't show any signs of abuse/damage. It just couldn't be accessed, so I lost everything on it. Oh well. I got a brand new iPhone out of it, which will be majorly used tonight at Madness. I got Pigasus practice beforehand, so I'm gonna go try and get some sleep. These past few days have been AMAZING, and tonight is just going to be the capper of it all. It's always good seeing your old Friends. :-) Have a great weekend everyone. I know I am! Oh, and go see The People's Whiskey and the Hard Pipe Hitters tomorrow night @ the Bunkhouse!

So I get this call at like 3 in the morning from a really good friend of mine, who was a bit shaken up after dealing with the Police and Paramedics. Her boyfriend had just beaten her up pretty badly, and she was in a bit of a state of shock. She said she called me because she knew I would be up at that time in the morning. I talked her off the ledge she was on, calming her down and assuring her that everything was going to be OK, and just did my best to be there for her in her time of need. Catch me on a good day and I'm the greatest guy in the world. Catch me on a bad day and apparently I'm an asshole - or a prophet. ;-)

Is it Thursday yet? LOL I'm anxiously awaiting Game 1 of the Playoffs and to see Deadhand. :-) They're playing that crazy ass Ignite gig this Saturday, but I can't go to that gig because I'm gonna be at Madness  that night, so I'm gonna sneak into the Double Clown tomorrow and see them and then get the Hell out of that sullied establishment. After all, I can't have my stellar reputation degenerate any lower than it already is, now can I?

Yeah, I'm totally gheying out on my 80's weekend but I don't care. There is other stuff going on, like this cool Seriouslys gig @ the Motor City Cafe on Friday night, and, yeah, like I said earlier, that Ignite gig on Saturday. Guilty By Association, the Happy Campers and Deadhand are opening. That gig is gonna be FUN! Steel Pulse is playing the Silverton on Sat. too. Man I'd love to see them, but I got a better chance of seeing them again sometime soon than I do of seeing Madness here ever again. Wasn't the last time in 1998 @ the Texas?? I know I was there... sort of... ha ha ha Whatever. There's that interesting gig @ the Bunkhouse on Sunday with The People's Whiskey, Holding Onto Sound, the Hard Pipe Hitters and some band called The Horn Prayer from Colorado. I just might check that out. :-) Anyways, everything is updated. Pictures of Nests @ the Arts Factory and The People's Whiskey @ the Motor City Cafe were just added. Click here and here to check those out. The weather has been beautiful as of late. It's Springtime. Time to start planning road trips, right? Right!