Jay – The Boring Old Man

Concert Review: Dogstar at the Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

Here we go again folks, Dogstar is back in town, roughly 4 months into their All In Now tour, which has taken them across the U.S.A., over to Europe for weeks on end, then back across the States once again.

This is maybe the 7th Concert Review of Dogstar on this blog, and I don’t know at this point how many times I have seen them. Maybe 30? It’s hard to say… And no, I’m not some middle-aged fan boy of Keanu – though he is a delightful gentleman – no, in fact every single show I’ve been to is because of Bret, their guitarist/vocalist. Bret and I go back 40+ years. We played our first gigs together at school events and house parties. We wrote our first songs together. We played our first night club shows together. Our first time in a recording studio was together, the first time our song got played on the radio… He was my Best Man when I got married nearly 35 years ago, his family is like my own. He’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother. And I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s come a long way and worked his hind end off to achieve the level of musicianship he’s reached.

So yes, every single time I have an opportunity to see him and his band, I’ll be there. And now you all get to hear about it too!

The opening band was The Backfires, whom I’d never heard of before today. Because it was a show up in the city and I had to work today, I didn’t get there until their set was almost finished. I heard one song as I was coming into the venue and actually got to see them perform the last song of the set. But that was it. I can’t really say much about them other than their lead guitarist seemed pretty darn good. I wish I’d been able to see a little more of them.

Dogstar put up a solid set, pulled from their most recent album and their last. They definitely seemed tighter as a band after all these months on the road and knocked out a good hour-plus before coming back for an encore. I still think they should pull out some of the tunes from their earlier albums – Our Little Visionary has some absolute bangers that deserve to be played live, but for whatever reason they’re just sticking with the Dogstar v2.0 repertoire. One really pleasant surprise was them whipping out “Can’t Hardly Wait” by The Replacements during their set. They did an excellent cover of that song and for me personally, it brought back some great memories. The Replacements were a big influence on Bret and I when we were coming up and it was a touching homage to some wonderful days gone by…

Keanu played great, and honestly I expected no less of him. I know he takes his instrument seriously, and it shows. A lot of people were there just to “see” him, and it’s a shame, cuz he’s actually a fine musician that deserves an audience’s ears more than their eyes.

Rob did his thing on the drums. I try not to say much about him, as I’m afraid it’ll come off as petty. I can’t help but hear Bret’s songs with what I would play behind them, and that’s not fair. Rob does what he does and I do what I do, and they’re simply different. He held it down, and that’s what works for Dogstar.

Bret was in fine form. The tour has certainly pushed his abilities and he’s just getting better all the time. His voice sounded great, which honestly was a bit of a surprise, I half expected him to be worn out a bit after dozens and dozens of shows for months on end, but his voice sounded really strong. And his guitar playing was absolutely on point all night. Great tone, great solos, just all around impressive. And I could tell it meant a great deal to him to be back at The Fillmore, “hometown” shows are always just a bit extra.

So once again I’d say it was a great show. Am I biased? Undoubtedly. But they are a seasoned band. They’ve been putting in the work, and it shows. This ain’t no vanity project, this is the real deal and Dogstar puts out good, solid rock and roll as good as anybody out there on the road today.

They’ve still got maybe 10 or so shows left on this tour, if you have the opportunity, go check them out. If you like tasty guitar and thumping bass, you will not be disappointed! And if you happen to meet any of the guys, tell them the Boring Old Man sent ya!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: Aneesa Strings at Yoshi’s, Oakland CA

Tonight was something special. And unexpected…

The Mrs. introduced me to Aneesa Strings some time ago, and I thought she was cool – I mean, who doesn’t dig a woman with an upright bass and a great voice? But honestly, it didn’t exactly knock me out. Not in the way that I’d actively seek out her music, it was just a little too much on the tame side for my tastes.

So when she told me Aneesa was coming to town and she wanted to go see her, I figured, m’eh, why not? It was a Friday night show at Yoshi’s, a club we’ve been to many times and despite being located in Oakland, it’s a spot we really, really like.

We decided to make a night of it and made reservations at the restaurant that’s attached to the club – or is it the club that is attached to the restaurant? Anyhow, we’d always wanted to try the food there – a Japanese -Fusion menu – but every time we’d been there in the past we were running up there after work and never had time to make it to dinner before the show. But this time around it was a late show, we’d made reservations at 7:45, and figured we’d have just enough time to eat before her set.

Let me tell you, we were FOOLS for not eating there in the past! Goodness me, the food was absolutely spectacular! I won’t go into all the details as I’m not a “foodie” and this is a concert review, but I will say I had a pork chop that was hands down the best pork chop I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. And I’m no stranger to pork chops… But seriously, everything we had was delicious and the pork chop was out of this world. I’d eat another one right now if I could!!

Aneesa was accompanied by a drummer, keyboard player and a guitar player, a relatively standard jazz band setup. The show started off a little slow frankly, and after the first song I was thinking to myself “I might be a little too tired to sit through an hour of this“, but very quickly things started to heat up.

I’m not gonna pretend to know what songs she played, old or new, I’m not at all familiar with her catalog of work. What I will say though, is that she was a phenomenal artist. Her voice was smooth as glass – at times – and sometimes gritty, when it was called for. Her bass playing was absolutely on point, it was plainly obvious that she and the upright bass were dear old friends. And midway through the set, she switched it up and picked up an electric fretless Fender Jazz bass, and that’s when things really started cookin’!

One particular highlight was her rendition of Sade’s Ordinary Love, which is a song I (and millions of others) love. I have never heard anyone cover Sade and sound good. Never, that is, until Aneesa. She not only did the song justice, she put just enough of a twist on it to make it her own and I was completely taken in by her version. To be able to hold down that impeccable bass groove – if you know you know – AND sing that song, with that depth of soul, beauty and conviction is beyond impressive.

And speaking of impressive, her band was on fire! We were seated about 8 feet from the drummer, who was right up at the front of the stage, and I was able to see every stroke, every kick drum beat, and as a somewhat snobby drummer myself, I just gotta say WOW. He was so fluid and yet solid as a rock. He played so many parts that straight up surprised me, and yet fit the songs perfectly. That’s how I judge a drummer; if I can predict what they’re gonna play before they play it? M’eh. But this guy took all kinds of turns I never expected, while staying completely in the pocket and just grooving. It was very inspiring. Her guitarist was very much in the background, both literally and musically, but he too was great. I don’t know a lot of jazz players, but his playing reminded me of Larry Carlton. Not at all overbearing, just the right amount of spice to compliment the flavor of the songs. Same with the keys, he took a few solos letting us know he had some chops, but for the most part he played in a supporting role, filling in the overall sound. But as an ensemble, she couldn’t have asked for a better band. They played flawlessly – to my ears anyway – never overshadowed the primary artist, and just helped weave a beautiful, sonic tapestry.

Then for the cherry on top, she finished the show with what was perhaps the most unbelievable “mash-up” I’ve ever witnessed as her encore. She launched into a slightly down tempo, gritty, funky version of Come Together by the Beatles, which wove its way into Blackstreet’s No Diggity, incorporated a few bars from a Biggie Smalls track (I don’t recall the particular song title, but it was immediately recognizable) and back to the Beatles. Now, I’m not really a fan of the Beatles, and I’m absolutely not a fan of Blackstreet nor partial to Biggie, but I gotta admit, the musical acrobatics, the sleekness of which they melded the three songs into one, was certainly one of the most memorable moments I’ve seen on stage in a long time. It was a stellar end to an incredible show.

All things considered, I couldn’t have enjoyed the night more. Excellent food, a great vibe and amazing artistry.

Thank you Aneesa for a night full of “WOW!”, and props to your band for playing their hearts out. I’ve seen literally hundreds of shows over the last 40+ years, and last night’s show at Yoshi’s is gonna live in my personal Hall of Fame! It just goes to show, sometimes when you step outside your comfort zone and open your mind and your ears, you get to witness magic. And last night was absolutely magical for myself and the Mrs!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: Public Image Limited at The Rio Theater, Santa Cruz, CA

This one was a long time coming folks. As a youth, a tender Freshman in High School, I was introduced to the Sex Pistols and it was one of those musical events that absolutely changed my life. I had already been turned onto College Radio by that time, but the Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks album was unlike anything I’d ever heard in my life and I was forever changed.

Unfortunately for me, the year was 1982 and the Pistols had already imploded and were no more…

A year later I came into possession of a book titled The British Invasion: From the First Wave to the New Wave by Nicholas Schaffer (thanks Dad!) and it was there that I discovered Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols fame had shed his Rotten moniker, gone back to his given name of John Lydon and started a new band by the name of Public Image Limited. Naturally, I was thrilled, and I set out to find their records. Ha!

Now keep in mind, this was way before the interwebs. The days of record stores like Music Land and Rainbow records and of course Tower Records. And we also had a great used record store in town in an old converted house called Streetlight Records that specialized in punk and New Wave records, European imports and the like, and it STILL took me TWO YEARS to get my hands on the Public Image Limited debut record!

And let me tell you, it was NOT what I expected! Nonetheless, I took my time absorbing it and came to appreciate it in a totally different way than the Pistols’ album.

Over the years I was there for every subsequent album release, and I grew to love the “band” – really a constantly revolving cast of characters – including Steve Vai at one point – with Mr. Lydon at the helm. And the records just kept getting better and better over the years.

But, for whatever reason, I was never able to see them on stage. So they became one of those bucket list bands for me and honestly I never thought I’d get the opportunity as Mr. Lydon hit 70 years old this year and subsequently just went through the passing of his long time wife Nora. The odds seemed insurmountable.

But much to my surprise I caught wind of a new tour coming this year and the minute I confirmed it was true I snatched up tickets. And here I am!

The Rio Theater was a new venue for me, not only my first visit, but the first I’d even heard of it! Which is weird considering I live only about 20 miles from Santa Cruz and come over the hill all the time… But it’s a cool venue, an old converted movie theater, which still has a bunch of seats, for which my old, worn out knees were grateful! The staff was super friendly – generally a given in Santa Cruz, but nice nonetheless. The crowd was a good mix – LOTS of old heads like myself, but a smattering of many generations altogether. Lots of Doc Martens, lots of old punk band T- shirts…my kinda people! Then again, most of the crowd was surprisingly “normal” looking. I suppose growing up in the 70s and 80s in the punk scene, if we’ve made it this far, we’ve got nothing else to prove and can leave the leather jackets at home.

The opening band was Plague Vendor from LA. They are kind of throwback punk band, with a bit of a modernized sound. Not really my thing, but I would have loved them when I was 16… What I will say though is their guitarist was great. He was ripping it up on a hollow body guitar through a tube amp, so for me he automatically gets bonus points! And their frontman was really giving it his all. He was a bit of Iggy Pop mixed with Lux Interior from the Cramps, with the occasional James Brown dance moves thrown in for good measure. He was definitely there to put on a good show for the audience. So, overall, I’d say they were pretty good for what they were, it just wasn’t my kinda jam.

The stars of their band. Not to diminish the rhythm section, but these two were blazing!

When it came to the main event I wasn’t sure what to expect. I figured it would be awesome or a train wreck quite honestly.

Well, the jury is in, and let me tell you they were AWESOME! The band was really sparse – guitar, bass and drums (though both the guitarist and bassist played some keyboards here and there), and they just killed it! They played songs from every era, even pulling out World Destruction, the dance club staple that John did with Afrika Bambaattaa back in the late 80s, and it was absolutely fantastic. Honestly, I had kinda forgotten just how deep their discography goes. They covered a lot of ground and didn’t miss a beat the entire time. That band was on fire! They played a number of their “hits” (LOL) and some deep cuts and just really wowed me quite honestly.

I wish I knew who this guy is, he was AMAZING!

Then John did something I’ve NEVER seen in a live show – he told us he was going to take a smoke break! “Gimme three minutes, and I’ll be right back” he said! He even flashed a pack of Marlboro Reds, just so we’d know he was serious. Only in California!

After the smoke break the band came back on, he thanked the audience for their patience, then promptly tore into the song Public Image. What a re-entry! Truly it was their encore, but it was different, I’ll tell ya that!

If I’m being completely honest, there were a number of songs I was hoping they’d play that they didn’t. But overall I really couldn’t have asked for more. They absolutely surpassed any expectations I might have had going in and I left on the kind of musical “high” that frankly is a bit rare these days.

And I not only got to discover a new venue but I got to cross a band off my bucket list that frankly I never thought I’d have the chance to see. An absolute win for the Boring Old Man!

Thank you Mr. Lydon and much thanks to your stellar band, I took me well over 40 years to see you, but it was undoubtedly worth the wait! I wish you continued success on the rest of your tour.

And to my readers, thank you for stopping by!

The End of a (Short) Era

Today was my last day at my “new” job. Although I didn’t plan it out this way, my last day is EXACTLY one year apart from my first day at this place – August 28, 2025 to August 28, 2026.

I have never, and I do mean never, held a job as an adult for this short amount of time before, and I feel kinda weird about it. Even my last “temporary” job, that was supposed to be a 3 – 6 month gig, turned into a year and 5 months… But I guess this is the world we live in nowadays. I’d estimate my average tenure at a job is 6 years, and I’d fully intended to stay at this one until I hit retirement age – which would be somewhere around 10 years – and I missed that mark by a WIDE margin. But if I’ve learned anything in my work life, it’s that staying for the sake of staying and hoping things improve is a mistake. In those situations the juice is never worth the squeeze.

I knew coming in that it was gonna be hard here. And it was. Much harder than I anticipated in fact. But it was also fun. I had a great boss that “got it” and knew what we were up against – years of neglect and a constant churn of staff, and the place was nearly off the rails. But we were all on the same page, we had assembled a great new team and we were crushing it daily and turning this place around. We were making an impact and every metric pointed to us moving in the right direction. So much so, that the ownership decided to pull the plug on the existing management team and “self manage” the operation. They pulled the rug out from under us with 29 days notice, sent my great boss to another property and installed a new one from their internal team, who promptly let go of some of our great team and imposed his will on every aspect of the operation, while placing undue blame on the rest of us that had pulled this place outta the sewer and made it profitable and an exciting place to be. He not only let the wind out of our sails, he sucked the very life outta the place. In three short months, he undid what we’d spent 8 months building and I reached the conclusion that the fork in the road I’d been forced into, was NOT the path I wanted to be on.

As luck (?) would have it, two days after I’d decided that it was time to pack it in at this place, I got a call from an old boss of mine. He was in a new facility and needed somebody with my particular skill set. A round of interviews were set in motion, I had to go through background checks, fingerprinting, drug screen and all that good stuff, and I dropped my notice of resignation on the new boss’s desk.

I’m leaving behind some really great people; colleagues that I hope to stay in touch with for the long haul, a couple guys that I hired that I really, really like and an absolutely gorgeous building, but I knew I would come to despise the place if I stayed there. Simple as that. But I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in months, my diet and exercise routine has gone to hell and I’m constantly stressed. That’s no way to live, and I’m too old to go down that path again.

So the new gig starts Monday. I’m quite anxious about it honestly as I swore I’d never go back into the “healthcare adjacent” field after my experiences during The Plague, but they kinda made me an offer I couldn’t refuse… I always had a good rapport with this former boss I’ll be working with, two of the guys on my team there are guys that I personally hired at other facilities in the past and they’re both outstanding at what they do. My daily commute will be less than half of what it is at my current place, I’ll get my.preferred health benefits package back (that was ALSO snatched away during the management transition at the current job) and my paychecks will be a bit fatter. On paper it’s a no-brainer. I just need to get myself back into the mindset of bureaucracy and endless regulations. I ain’t skeered of it – I spent 17 years of my life in that world – but I’ve been out of it for 2 1/2 years now, and it’s absolutely gonna be an adjustment to pick up where I left off.

Things might get a little (more) quiet on these pages as I re-adjust to my new reality, but I’ll be back, and better than ever I expect.

And for the sake of my diminishing memory banks, I’m gonna add some behind the scenes pics from this place with the hope that, in time, I’ll come to remember it fondly…

Wish me luck y’all! See you soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Changing Tastes…

I’m not sure what’s happening to me, but lately I find my taste in music has been changing drastically. So many of the songs I’ve enjoyed, loved even, over the last decade, I can’t even listen to anymore.

It’s kinda disconcerting.

I’ve always been a lover of music. All kinds of music. And certainly my tastes have changed over the years, but this feels different. Once upon a time (right around 1982) I vividly recall giving my entire music collection to my older next door neighbor because I’d discovered New Wave and punk music. I told him “I’ll never listen to this stuff again. You can have it all.” I said goodbye to AC/DC, Cheap Trick, Foreigner, Aerosmith, Van Halen…and more, so much more. He said, “let me know when you want it back”, and I laughed. But sure enough, a few years later I had come to accept that even though I preferred modern rock, there was still a place in my heart for all the classics I’d grown up on. Alas, he’d since joined the Navy, his parents had sold their house and moved out of state, and I never saw him or my old collection again.

But this time it’s different. Back then it was a conscious decision – I didn’t WANT to listen to those old bands anymore. I’d discovered a whole new musical world and I wanted nothing to do with the dinosaurs of old. Now, it’s as if I CAN’T. It’s not like I’m just bored of it, the music seriously aggravates me.

The only thing I can find that is a sort of common thread is, for lack of a better term, negativity. Which is weird, as generally speaking I don’t pay attention to lyrics. While I recognize that lyrics are part of the overall vibe of a song, I just never really thought about a guitar part, for example, as being negative. But it’s not like I’ve been listening to screeching post-hardcore or Norwegian death metal or some crazy stuff. It’s been primarily (though not entirely) stuff from the last decade, but across genres – hard rock stuff, alternative, hip hop, even what I guess would be classified as pop music – it all has the same effect on me. A song – from a playlist I personally curated, not just some random song – will start up, and within a few seconds I just get the ick, as the kids say, and I have to move to another song. And like I said, it’s not just a matter of being bored with a song ‘cuz I’ve heard it too many times, they make me borderline nauseous.

What gives?!?

I’ve also been listening to a lot of the same stuff I’ve listened to for decades, from Pablo Cruise to the Plimsouls to the Cult, and they all have lyrics that deal with heartache and loss and being left behind and whatnot, not exactly cheerful, zippity-do-dah lyrical content, but those songs don’t have that same effect on me. I tell ya, I’m baffled.

On the bright side, since I’ve had to pass on so many of my recent favorites I’ve taken the time to rediscover some oldies but goodies like the Ventures and Link Wray and some classic rockabilly stuff (the music they used to just call rock-‘n’-roll) and I’ve been enjoying that on a different level than I did in the past. It’s not a nostalgia trip – the vast majority of that music was released before I was even born – I just find I greatly appreciate the authenticity of it. Real people with real instruments, writing actual songs that can move you on a primal, subconscious level. Vocal harmonies like you simply don’t hear any more. You know, music!

I don’t know if it’s just because I am truly getting old. When I started this blog, the Boring Old Man thing was firmly tongue-in-cheek, as I was in my 50s, still going to rock concerts and playing the drums and surfing and doing a lot of stuff I loved when I was truly young, and that was something we used to say as a bit of a slur to the squares we encountered back in the day. The “geezers” that would tell us to turn it down! or not to ride our skateboards on the sidewalk. But now I wonder if I REALLY am turning into a square, or if there is something else – spiritually, metaphysically? – going on with me that is beyond my grasp.

I mean, I do sorta pine away sometimes for the simpler life we had back in the 70s and 80s. Back when you got your news in the morning paper and maybe if you were really into current events or politics you’d also watch the evening news, but you weren’t bombarded with it all day, every day. When you could take off for a day to have some sort of adventure and not be tethered to your phone. Solitude was exceptionally easy. When we just lived life without having to document everything with the prefect picture to post online. Before YOLO, before FOMO, before Insta… Back when you had to call your local radio DJ to request your favorite song and pray that they actually put it on the air. When we did what we liked to do, not doing what we thought would get us “likes” on social media. Sure, back then we had our share of fear-mongers and zealots and serial killers…gas lines and acid rain and the unending threat of thermo-nuclear war hanging over our heads, but we also had fun. We were hopeful and had dreams – bolstered by science fiction – that the future was going to be AMAZING. And we danced! Man, did we dance! We had an innate sense of abandon that I haven’t seen, much less felt, in decades. We were ALIVE. And to me and my cohorts, music was a MASSIVE part of that.

Now we’re incessantly swamped with bad news. With negativity. Everyone is afraid of something, whether it be losing a job or health insurance, being a victim of some random crime or being “cancelled” because they didn’t follow the herd with their comment on an X post. Not to mention the non-stop proliferation and accusations of “xx-phobias” these days. Bars and clubs are going out of business at an alarming rate because, as I understand it, women are afraid of being drugged and/or assaulted and men are afraid of being either labeled a creep for speaking to a woman, being ridiculed because they aren’t 6 feet tall with 6-pack abs and a 6 figure income, or just being straight up used for free drinks. And nobody dances anymore for fear of being recorded and posted online. The “amazing” future we all thought was around the corner turned into 24/7 surveillance, phishing scams, identity theft, dating apps and catfishing, a complete lack of faith in our government and voting systems, data centers gobbling up arable farm land and water sources and starting next year, cars that the jack-booted thugs, that work for us, will be able to disable at will. Not to mention nearly everything in life requires either a subscription or at the very least a log-in and password. I don’t know about you, but NONE of that stuff is what I imagined coming from the digital revolution. And I gotta ask, other than for the few that have made bazillions of dollars off this stuff, what’s the true benefit? Can we honestly say that our quality of life is better now than it was 25 years ago? Sure, it’s nice being able to pay your electric bill without writing out a check, putting it in a stamped envelope and dropping it off at the Post Office, and things like eBay and Amazon are convenient, but I swear I would be content with the capabilities of year 2000 interwebs, and could do without all the nonsense of the last decade-plus.

Ok, I realize this has turned into a bit of a tirade, that may or may not have anything to do with my initial statement. My apologies… When I get some random idea or queries in my head, sometimes things go a little sideways as I explore them.

That being said, maybe I just inadvertently fell into the reason that music I (until recently) really liked is making me sick. Maybe it’s simply that my negativity tank is just full to overflowing. The brain, with all its mysterious ways, has been known to produce physical manifestations due to psychological stressors. And let me tell you, I’ve been positively loaded down with psychological stressors as of late. Perhaps my brain is simply telling my body, “if you purposely indulge in any more negativity, I’m gonna make you toss your cookies, bud. I’m hanging on by a thread here…”

Anyhow… that’s what’s on my mind these past few days. Now that I’ve delved into the depths of my wonky brain, I’m gonna sign off and go listen to something uplifting. Perhaps a little Flesh for Lulu? ‘Cuz why not?

Thanks for stopping by!

Eh, Probably for the best…

Today I got a notice from Reddit stating my account has been banned for 3 days, due to my breaking of “Rule 1”

That’s right, the Boring Old Man has been accused of threatening or encouraging violence!

Here’s the question I answered that brought the hammer down:

My answer to said question was “Better Off Dead”, a COMEDY from 1985, starring John Cusack. I swear I must have watched that movie a hundred times as a teenager, and a few more times as an adult for nostalgia. My reply contained absolutely NOTHING aside from the words Better off Dead. Which quickly garnered a response from another user, quoting “I want my 2 dollars”, a running gag throughout the film.

Well, I was on a streak of 543 days, but I guess that puts an end to that.

It’s a shame. Of all social media platforms, I find Reddit the most entertaining. I strictly avoid ALL political and “cultural” topics, I stick to music, cars, entertainment and GenX related subs and have been enjoying it for a while now. But if this is the way things are going on the site with its AI moderator overlords, then I think my time is through there. Like MySpace, it was fun while it lasted.

It’s probably for the best. I need to find more productive ways to spend my time.

Suck it, Reddit!🖐️

Thanks for stopping by!

A SLO Weekend

This weekend the Mrs and I headed South to visit some of our oldest friends.

Our destination was Templeton, CA located in San Luis Obispo (SLO) County, which is commonly referred to as the “Central Coast” region of California. A region near and dear to my heart.

I have a lot of great memories of this area, going all the way back to childhood, and new adventures in my teens there and we’ve visited consistently our entire married lives. A home away from home, if you will.

SLO County is a curious and interesting place. It’s equally well known for agriculture, surf culture, ranching and equestrian pursuits and wine making. An odd combination to be sure.

Our friends live just 5 miles off the 101 Highway, and yet from the freeway exit to their driveway, it’s like a completely different world. You drive through the usual commercial zone right off the 101 with supermarkets and the usual assortment of shops and such, hook a left on a two lane road and before you know it, you’re in the middle of nowhere.

Our friends have a great little place up towards the hills and keep a small barn with a few livestock animals – a goat, a sheep and some chickens – and a barn cat, of course. As well as those critters that nature brings through daily. In fact, we woke up to a family of California Quail making their way up the driveway in the morning and one of the most amazing displays of a contingent of Dragonflies I’ve ever witnessed.

It was SOOO quiet and peaceful up there. Utterly different from what we’re used to at home. Just delightful, honestly.

We rolled in early Saturday evening and had a really nice dinner with our friends, just catching up and listening to some old records (vinyl of course!) and then we set out for our event, the “California Mid State Fair”, held at the Paso Robles Event Center.

Now, the Mrs and I are not what you’d call “event” people. Yes, we go to a lot of concerts, more than a few comedy shows and soccer games and our local Farmers markets, but outside of those things, we aren’t into crowds, we don’t generally attend fairs or carnivals or things that happen with thousands of people crammed into a centralized location. And quite frankly when our friends invited us to come down for the Fair, we weren’t too excited about the idea. But they were excited for it and we decided to just jump in with both feet and see how they do things on the Central Coast.

Let me tell you, the difference between the SLO County experience and what you’d find in Santa Clara County (our home region) are night and day! Yes, it was crowded, and even at night it was still pretty darn warm, and everywhere you turned there was alcohol for sale. At home, this would be a recipe for disaster. Down there? We had a great time! Everyone was polite, friendly even. No screaming, spoiled children. No roving gangs of *youths* looking for trouble. No drunken louts getting into fights. It was like stepping back in time a few decades. We stepped back into “real America” and it was actually quite refreshing and wonderful!

We spent a lot of time going through the stalls of livestock brought in by the FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the 4-H kids. The cattle and hogs, goats and sheep were all seemingly well cared for and the caretakers all in good spirits. Additionally, they had a good number of other things on display, from Art to flower arrangements, leather work and textiles. Kinda all the basics you need to get by in this world, without tech and computers mucking it all up. Just people doing what they do when left to their own devices without the electronic leashes everyone is tethered to these days. It took me back to a simpler, and yes, I’ll say it, a BETTER time. A time in history, not that long ago, that I greatly miss.

We took a break from all the walking, grabbed some adult beverages and took in a fun band for a while – Dante Marsh & the Vibesetters – playing a cool mix of funky, soulful, island influenced jams. Lots of folks, from tiny kids to great-great- grandmas, were up on their feet dancing and just having a good ‘ol time.

All in all, it was just a wonderful event and it renewed some hope for the state of the world for me. I enjoyed the festivities much more than I thought I would and I’d absolutely go back next year.

The next morning we were moving kinda slow (no pun intended) and had a lovely, leisurely breakfast on the deck, listening to some Jimmy Cliff and Beatles records and just taking it all in. We had to be back on the road by 11am, so there wasn’t much time to dilly-dally unfortunately. Nonetheless, we left refreshed and grateful for the quick respite and the unexpected outing we had at the Fair. All things considered, it was a great weekend!

A big thanks to D & M for their hospitality and for the invite to an event we would have NEVER attended on our own volition, it was really wonderful and well worth the drive!

And thank you for stopping by!

Ok, That’s Pretty Cool…

Seeing how this blog is primarily a place for me to jot down my personal memories and my occasional rant and/or rave, I’ve never paid all too much attention to my “stats” on this website, other than visitor count. But something caught my eye the other day – my stats page shows the country of origin of my visitors as well. This, I did not know. I will say, it piqued my interest. Granted, in the age of VPNs, these “overseas” visitors could be literally in the apartment below me, not across the globe and I’d never know the difference. Nevertheless the idea of my blurbs in their 1s and 0s, traveling across the world struck me as kinda cool.

If I can’t travel the world, at least my thoughts can!

While the vast majority of (what little) traffic I see comes from the US, in the last month I’ve visitors registered from the following (in no particular order):

Canada, Belgium, Germany, Slovakia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Serbia, Romania, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Australia and the UAE.

If only my passport had so many stamps!

Anyhow, that’s all I’ve got today. I just noticed it and thought it was pretty cool. A warm welcome to all my international friends!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: Cold War Kids and Young the Giant, Greek Theater, Berkeley CA

It just wouldn’t be Summer without a show at the Greek Theater. I went to my first show there (The Truth, The Hooters and Squeeze) around 1985, and it’s been a favorite venue of mine ever since.

Berkeley on the other hand, I’m not a big fan of, but I digress…

This show was courtesy of the Mrs and our daughter, who got the tickets as my birthday present back in early June, so the anticipation had grown for some time. We’d seen Young the Giant before, but despite being fans since their first record, had never had the chance to see Cold War Kids.

And as it turned out, this show was a triple bill, so we were in for a surprise. Listed on the bill was Kenny Hoopla as the opening act, but Kenny was MIA – in his (their?) place, we had a band by the name of Beach Weather open the show.

An ironic side note, earlier in the day we had gone to the beach in Half Moon Bay, and it was decidedly*NOT* beach weather – cloudy as far as the eye could see and a little chilly…

I knew of a couple songs by Beach Weather, just in passing. I didn’t even actually know the name of the band before the show, I just recognized a few tunes when they played them. And I will say, they were a pretty good band. Nothing earth shattering, but a solid, tight “alternative” band with some catchy tunes. The highlight of their show, for me, was the lead guitarist. He played some really unexpected parts, that fit just right, and he was frankly just fun to watch. All in all, it was a good set that left me wanting to dig into their discography.

Cold War Kids were next up, and boy did they deliver!! I can remember hearing their first single on the radio, nearly 20 years ago, and being totally knocked out by it. So much so I took the leap of faith and bought the CD (Robbers & Cowards) for the one song. And I was so glad I did! That record is really a masterpiece. If you’re not familiar with this band, look them up. They are special. I don’t know how to describe their sound, as nobody really sounds anything like them. The best I can come up with, is if Talking Heads decided to play Americana music, you’d wind up with Cold War Kids… Or something along those lines. Great songwriting, excellent musicians and a very distinctive voice. Really an exceptional band. And like I said, in the live setting they really delivered! They played a little bit of everything from across their catalog, and the entire band was on point. Quite honestly, it was much better than I had dared hope for. Absolutely a highlight of my 2026 concert run thus far!

The headliner of the night was Young the Giant. As I mentioned, we’d seen them before and I had really enjoyed them, much more than I thought I would, actually. They were another one of those bands that I knew a lot more of their songs than I realized. I guess they were somewhat low-key alt-rock superstars. We’d gone to that show for the opening band, but we were pleasantly surprised by Young the Giant, and they wound up on my heavy rotation playlist for quite some time afterwards.

Unfortunately, their show this time around was a little underwhelming. Not to say it was bad, it just wasn’t as good as the last time. The sound wasn’t quite as crisp for starters. Their vocalist spent an inordinate amount of time yapping between songs, which in my not-so-humble opinion brings down the energy of the show. Their drummer seemed neutered -for lack of a better phrase – this time around. And to be honest, their newer material just doesn’t hit me the same way the music from their first few records does.

All that being said, it wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great. Musically, all the guys were playing well. Visually, the lights and the stage setup were great. All the elements were there. But for all the sparks, the fire just smoldered and never really built into a burner. That being the case, we decided to call it early and left before the encore… I’d certainly go see them again, but I’m not exactly going to seek them out.

All things considered, it was a fantastic night. The Greek Theater is a spectacular venue, we heard a LOT of great songs played by a lot of great musicians and even if YtG had an off night, they still put on a show, it wasn’t a matter of them phoning it in. And yes, Cold War Kids rocked the joint and delivered an outstanding set that left a huge smile plastered across my face. That set alone made our trip to the East Bay well worth the effort. I sincerely hope I get a chance to see them again!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: RJD2 at the Felton Music Hall, Felton,CA

Well folks, last night was an eye opening experience. My entire perception of an entire genre has been turned upside down.

As my repeat readers may have picked up on, I like my music played by musicians on actual instruments. Lately I’ve had a growing disdain for the trend of using backing tracks and other electro-wizardry to fill the sound on stage. Nothing brings joy to my ears more than an electric guitar channeling through a piping hot tube amp (if you know, you know) and digital music kinda leaves me flat.

And don’t even get me started on the whole DJ as Performer thing. I’ve seen few on stage, and every single one of them has been as exciting as watching paint dry. Seriously, watching somebody play records and twiddle knobs? That’s got to be one of the dumbest trends in music ever.

Quite frankly, that’s what I thought I was walking into last night. This show was picked by the Mrs., and I knew a few songs by the artist, but I didn’t have any expectations that I would enjoy the show.

And after the opening act, my preconceived notions were reinforced. I never caught his name. I’ll stand by the ol’ if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say anything and leave it at that.

But then the main act – RJD2- came out. Right off the bat, I knew something was different just by the gear set up he was using. I’m not going to pretend to know what all he was using up there, but it was definitely not your standard two turntables and a microphone setup. He had two sampler pads in addition to the turntable setup and who knows what else, and he played all those things with all the passion and precision of a master musician. It was extraordinary. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it.

His compositions were extremely complex and deeply layered. His choice of instrumentation was unique compared to his contemporaries in the genre. He somehow took bits and bytes, loops from all directions, and threw it into his digital blender to make it come alive. It was almost as if every finger was its own musician, with his brain as Conductor. It was astonishing. To put it mildly, I was shook.

I really don’t even know what else to say. I don’t know enough about the genre to make comparisons. I don’t know the HOW of it all, what sort of musical sorcery he conjured to make it happen. All I know, is I really, REALLY enjoyed it. And I’m open minded enough to admit, I’ve been wrong to cast such a wide net of derision over an entire genre.

So, big thanks to RJD2 for an amazing night and the eye and ear opening experience. I was unexpectedly surprised and quite delighted with his entire set.

Thanks for stopping by!