Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I bought candy that sucks this year (suckers - ha! sucks!) so I wouldn't eat it all.

I used to be a gigantic fat man and still cannot resist a bag of individually wrapped chocolate and peanut butter treats. I could down a bag of peanut butter cups in an hour right now...

I bought suckers so I wouldn't.

My girlfriend, Danielle, is a teacher in the city. She's dressed up today as the "Operation" game patient. She sent me this with her phone:




And this is Buster's costume:




This is my pumpkin:















I think I'll put on my Fireworks Hard Hat and a flannel tonight and call myself a construction worker.

This was our costume last year: The Publisher's Clearing House Prize Patrol and Sweepstakes winner:





Here are some of my "little" relatives all dressed up for the occasion:


































































HAVE A GREAT HALLOWEEN!!

Umphrey's McGee : Class Act

Up All Night Concerts hosted Umphrey's McGee at the Harro East this past Monday, October 22nd. It was awesome.



Umphrey's has become one of my favorite acts to see live; now they're one of my favorite acts to produce the event for. I have worked a bunch of Umphrey's shows in Rochester but never really listened to their live show recordings until recently. It's hard to pin them down to a genre besides "progressive". They can easily transition from a sick, down-tempo trance beat to a raging guitar driven rock solo in seconds. So seeing a live show is a lot like a sonic roller coaster. It's not for everyone. They seem to attract jam-band type fans and definitely have a following that FOLLOWS them around the country. They constantly tour with Chicago as home.

Monday was great. I enlisted one of my buddies to run errands for the band during the day. He is a huge UMPHreak and had the time of his life chatting it up with band members, watching the show and then eventually hanging out with them at Salingers long after the show was over.






Pictures taken by myself, Mike Yates and Jeff Rhodes.

Yates & I get Hippy

Sharptoe Brothers are busy. We've recently hammered out eight posters and three different multi show handbills you might see around town. Looks like Rochester is going to be on a big hippy / jamband / groove rock trip for October & November.

Making posters is kind of fun. Some, you just create out of thin air. Others are semi-complete from the management of a band and you just fill in details. Either way, it's cool to see them all blown up and in print ready to be scattered across the county landscape.

Not many people do color posters for shows. Thus, some of the fans of these acts seek out the posters hanging up and STEAL them for their dorm room / basement bar / whatever. It's flattering on one level and irritating on another.

Here we go: Click to make 'em bigger










































































































































































































































This is where the magic happens, my home office. I am a pig, as you can see. The ones sleeping on the job are my co-workers. They don't do anything except take lunch and bathroom breaks.

Billy Joel was right

I got a phone call last Friday night from John Chmiel, the owner of the Water Street Music Hall. He was out of town but got some horrible news he needed me to relay to the community of Rochester Groove Rockers that I am close with.

Tony Cavagnaro had been in a car accident and he didn't make it. He hit a tree on his way to a gig, sustained major head trauma and died.

It was like something from a bad movie. A mysterious late night phone call relaying truly unbelievable news. I just sat there and stared at the TV. I don't know for how long. Then came the tears that have been oh so familiar for the last week.

Tony Cavagnaro is the lead singer, guitar player and brain of local band The Buddhahood. If you've never seen The Buddhahood with Tony, you missed out. They are a jamband / reggae / groove outfit that blows my mind every time I see them. I get to be witness to a lot of music. A lot of legends have cross my path in the ten or so years I have been part of ticketed events. The Buddhahood was one of the, if not, THE best act in Rochester. They played at everything. Every festival around, every music venue, opened for some big touring acts and held their own headlining themselves. Go to their website and listen right now: DOWNLOADS

So it was after midnight on Friday. And I started to do what John had asked me to do. Called mutual friends, people in the local music business, casual acquaintances in bands, other music hall owners. I sent out text messages and posted on a local message board. Then the flood came. In comparison, I took the news a lot better than some of the people I told. My phone rang until 3:30AM with disbelievers. No one wanted this news. It's awful.

And it's not just awful because he was 41 with wife and child. It's not just awful because he was a band leader and director of a local outfit whose future was then in question. It's not just awful because he has given light and hope via his music to thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people. It's awful because this was a great man. A person you could not meet and walk away from. He stuck with you after only a few minutes in this giant's presence.

I remember talking with Tony after they had played a long set in front of about 30 people. This happens sometimes, no one shows up. Not often for The Buddhahood, but sometimes, it did. We had shop talk about concerts, local bands and musicians for over an hour- long after the doors to the Hall had closed and everyone was gone. And I took just about everything he said with me - and applied it - in my business and actions thereafter. I couldn't put my finger on why everything he had said made so much sense... but it did. Now, I know. He was the most honest man in music. There was no ulterior motives with Tony. You could just tell that he meant what he said and it was right and true.

And now he's gone.

At his wake, one of our mutual friends told me he could feel the vibration of the world had grown stronger when he passed away. I usually don't subscribe to such hippiness, but I feel it too. I can still feel Tony. I still hear him. And, sometimes, it hurts.

"Send up a signal I'll throw you the line
The stained-glass curtain you're hiding behind
Never lets in the sun
Darlin' only the good die young
Only the good die young"

- Billy Joel: "Only the Good Die Young"



Goddammit if Billy wasn't right.

This really, REALLY sucks. It's always the bastards of the world who live to be 100 and the truly good, righteous people who leave us way too early. And we're all crushed.


I guess Tony can put it better than Billy Joel:

"Cause once I'm in my dirt sleep, There'll be trouble no more."
- from "Dirt Sleep"

There will be some sort of benefit for his family / tribute to Tony in the coming weeks and months. Please check with the Buddhahood website for details.

Dog's in chairs: Camping in VT

I like to try to get away at the end of each summer. I bust my hump putting on concerts and shooting fireworks and need a break by mid August. Usually, I go camping.

This year, Danielle (my girlfriend) and I, along with our two dogs, made a plan to go to Vermont and camp there. We saw a commercial on TV last winter for a free Vermont camping guide and called the 800 number. They sent us a lot of stuff.

Immediately, we see there is approximately 321,965 campgrounds in Vermont. There are two types of campgrounds: State Parks and Private. We made no reservations and thought it would be cool to take a week or ten days in Vermont. The plan was - no plan. Just head into Vermont, find campgrounds and stay for a night... two if we really liked the spot.

We took the Thruway to Albany. Is there any drive more boring than the NYS Thruway? Past Albany, we cross into southwest Vermont. Our first pick was an omen. It was a "Private" campground that turned out to be an open field with 50 RVs in it. Not our style of camping. We like woods, silence, scenery, campfires... you know, real camping. So we went to the next spot, a State Park called Thompson. Real small, quiet and nice.

From there, we drove to Springfield, VT. This is the town that won the Simpsons Movie contest. About a month before we got there, the Simpsons Movie marketing people had a contest to hold the Simpsons premier in which ever "Springfield" was most like the Simpsons' Springfield. So everywhere, there is Simpsons stuff. Signs in every store window. Bart and Homer EVERYWHERE. I love the Simpsons, so I got a kick out of it.

The best thing was the movie theater. They had a ten foot trophy in front of the theater as the prize for winning the contest. The trophy was a gigantic hand of Homer holding a pink doughnut. Matt Groening had signed the trophy and drew a Homer on it himself.

In Springfield, we stayed at a "Private" campground. This place made us think "Private" campgrounds were awesome. Secluded, woodsy, trails, night time fires.. and ... HOOK UPS. We are in a pop-up camper Danielle got last Spring. It's nice to plug them in and have water, but not a necessity. Private Campgrounds all have electric and water hook ups, State Parks have zero. This would be the last private campground we saw and liked.

In this guide we got off TV, every single place had glowing reviews. From reading the descriptions, you'd think there wasn't a bad spot in all of VT. Wrong. The State Parks, all awesome. The Private Campgrounds usually were a big field with RVs in it. Some of these RVs looked like they'd been there for years. We saw some with additions, built of plywood. Weird. And some of these "campgrounds" were just the backyard of enterprising mountain person with a bunch of land. Stupid.

It was about at this point my phone went dead. No signal, no battery. What a fucking blessing. My phone is like an electronic leash. As soon as I am out having a good time, a work call comes in and yanks me back. No phone, no yank-back. Loved it. Every time I did get some signal / power, I'd check voicemail and see I had 7-10 new messages. I just laughed and flipped it closed.

Next, we drive to Groton State Forest. Jackpot. HUGE State forest with FIVE State Parks inside it. I went solo one morning to check it out and hung out with this worker who had been there since the 50's. He was showing me old pictures of the place, spinning yarns of yester-year. I ate it up. In the days following, I'd spit out history of the park and Danielle would say "How the hell do you know that?"

At Groton, we stayed at a place called "Big Deer." Ideal camping. Except for our trashy ass neighbors. Oh my god these people drove me nuts. Yelling to each other at 6:30AM. Hogging the shower. Five cars their friends showed up in. And, I don't know why this urks me- but they would douse their fire with lighter fluid every five minutes. If you can't start and maintain a goddamn camp fire without an excellerant, then DON'T HAVE A FUCKING FIRE YOU TRASH MONGERS. So I started to act like them to try and annoy these idiots. I'd yell "CHARLENE!!!!" when Danielle was walking to the bathroom. Or just swear real loud in their direction. They didn't get the hint.

Next we head to the Burlington area. Cool place. Lot's of hippies. My people. But we didn't stay there. We drove a bit South of town and found another State Park. Button Bay, right on Lake Champlain. Now the dogs can swim.

Speaking of dogs, I should introduce you. First we have Luna, the pitbull. Oooooh.. scary pitbull. WRONG. She's the one who's scared. She's a co-dependant weenie who wouldn't hurt a fly. Maybe a chipmunk... but not a fly. And then we have Buster- the spectacle. He's a Bulldog and just about as adorable as they come. Everywhere Buster goes, he's the star. It gets kind of ridiculous sometimes. Little kids come by all the time just to see him. He's the mascot for a local bar. He has a MySpace page and is in my favorite band's top friends. I'm not, he is. He does this peculiar thing- sitting in chairs. He loves those canvas, fold up chairs. Climbs on in by himself and will sit for hours. People I do not event know, who live near me, know Buster. Buster and Luna are in love, it's clear. They make out. They -ahem- get loud on Sundays. I don't know why it's always Sunday when they are in the mood, but it is. They're both fixed so I just let 'em go. Danielle does not approve.

Button Bay was nice. We had our own little spot on the water and no one was around. This State Park was run by some sort of college program. There were college kids running the place, pretty neat. One caught us taking wood from the shed (which we were told we could do and pay for in the morning) and he was said in a stoner voice "Yeeeeeah. Thats fiiiine, man."

Neither Danielle or myself had ever been on a Ferry. They have a bunch of them that cross Lake Champlain into New York. So we took one that dumped us right in the Adirondacks. We drove across the Adirondacks all the way to Watertown. Great drive.

We wrapped up our trip at my Uncles place... or should I say PALACE in Henderson, NY. It's right on Lake Ontario and gorgeous. My Uncle said we could stay as long as we wanted; he and my Aunt were going to be at their house in Syracuse. It was the perfect wrap-up to the perfect vacation. We spent two nights there and went home the day before moe.down to drop the dogs and get back on the road.

moe.down 8 : Outstanding Festival

My favorite band performing live currently is moe. That's m-o-e-period. No one knows why the period is there or why the band name is spelled out lowercase.

If you're not familiar, moe. is from the area. They are from Buffalo and Utica and used to play around here A LOT in the 90's. moe. is a jamband in the same vein as the Grateful Dead and Phish in that they use their studio album recordings as a jump off point for their extended live, improvised performances. They now play all over the world. Check them out at www.moe.org or www.myspace.com/moe

moe.down is a 3 day festival moe. throws every year on Labor Day weekend in Turin, NY- north of Rome. I go every year. It's a nice wrap-up to my summer. Working at so many concerts makes it almost impossible to see live music as a patron. I make time for moe.down.

This year, I went with my buddy / business partner, Yates and my girlfriend, Danielle. Yates loves moe. more than anyone. Last year, I got him in VIP and I think he started hyperventilating backstage. This year, we got the VIP again and met up with our buddies, Joe, Willie and Chrissy.

moe. plays SIX sets over the course of the weekend. Other acts play on two stages when moe. is not melting faces. This year, the other acts were Lotus (my other fav's), the Roots (the best hip hop on the planet), Perry Ferrell's Satellite Party, Medeski, Martin & Wood w/ John Scholfield, Peter Prince & Moon Boot Lover, Strangefolk, The Meat Puppets, Uncle Earl and The Brakes to name a few. No matter if I have heard of the other acts playing or not, I always love all the music at moe.down.

You camp out at moe.down for the three days and get DIRTY. Last year it rained. Mud everywhere. Cars stuck all over. People covered in disgustingness. This year, no rain... but DUST. Covering everything. Nasty. People bring tents and tarps and set up little communities of hippydom. We brought our pop-up camper and went to the RV section. Love the pop up.

Danielle had serious knee surgery in May and has recovered nicely but is not 100% yet. I was worried about her walking and standing for long periods of time. I was WAY wrong. She bounced (on one leg) for the entire Roots performance, ROCKED with me in the front row for Lotus and danced at all of the night time moe. appearances. Incredible. She now has bruises on her knee that appeared from the INSIDE. Gross.

The best part about moe.down might be the patrons. These are serious music fans that get down and party like no one else. Beer flows like water. And so does everything else. But it isn't ever out of hand. Everyone seems to be getting along like we're friends. We camped out next to "The Red Team" (pictured left). The Red Team set up a disco ball under a shelter and had a dance party Sunday night. And people walk around and sell the weirdest shit. Rocks. Jello Shots. Hemp Jewelry. Baked Goods. Glass art. Other art. Pickles. Yep, Yates and I saw someone set up with a little table with just condiments on it, presumably selling them. "Deli Style" we chanted for a good day and a half.

We also saw signs that read: "DO NOT EAT THE MUSHROOMS PER THE MEDICAL STAFF"

There's also some weirdos. They're harmless for the most part... but weird all the same. We had these numbnutts set up a giant generator next to our camp so their 3/5ths of a band could practice at 3:00AM on Sunday night. WEIRD. There was a guy with a megaphone shouting strange montras like "Please be advised, tomorrow is labor day, you dont have to work, get crunked" He started every announcement with "Please be advised" and ended with "lets get crunked" At 8AM Saturday, there was a guy being dragged around on a rickshaw, throwing fortune cookies, with a trombone shouting "REVOLUTION!!" And the people selling condiments.

They have a mayor of moe.ville election that candidates campaign for all weekend. It's pretty silly. Last year, I think a picture of a squirrel humping a can won the election. There are people trying to get your "vote" all weekend via campaign posters, debates and flesh pressed begging. This year someone named "Hodge" won and quit after 4 minutes in office to give the seat to Perry Ferrell.

Fireworks wrap up the weekend after moe. plays their sixth set on Sunday night. It's pretty much my idea of a perfect weekend. I highly recommend moe.down.

Pictures by Myself, Jeff Rhodes, Mike Yates and Danielle Ruhlen. Check out all of Yates' pictures from moe.down at: CHUCK SIIIIIDE.
































Setlists:

8/31/07 Snow Ridge Ski Area - Turin, NY
	Stranger Than Fiction, Bearsong, Bullet > Tailspin, Kyle's Song, Opium > lylelovit., She > 32 Things
E:	Don't Do It*, She Sends Me
	* First time played.

9/1/07a Snow Ridge Ski Area - Turin, NY
	Buster*, The Road, Shoot First**, Down Boy, The Ghost of Ralph's Mom , So Long#, Mexico##
	* With The Kid Zone Buster parade to the front of the stage. ** Rob on upright bass, Al on acoustic guitar. # With "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Pink Floyd) intro. Al on acoustic guitar. ## With Curt Kirkwood of Meat Puppets on guitar.

9/1/07b Snow Ridge Ski Area - Turin, NY
1:	Lazarus > Skrunk, Ocean Size*, Okayalright > Wind It Up, Plane Crash
2:	Big World > [Meat Puppets] > Big World, McBain > George, The Faker > Timmy Tucker
E:	Spine of a Dog** > Spaz Medicine
	* First time played. With Perry Farrell on vocals. ** With Al solo intro.

9/2/07 Snow Ridge Ski Area - Turin, NY
1:	Crab Eyes, Hi and Lo > Kids, Tubing the River Styx > The Pit > Tubing the River Styx > Meat, The Weight*
2:	Blue Jeans Pizza > Recreational Chemistry**, Not Coming Down > Wormwood > St. Augustine > [moe. crew] Everybody Knows This is Nowhere# > Rebubula
E:	Akimbo, Letter Home
	Fireworks followed "Letter Home" with Rainbow singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America". * With KC Groves, Kristin Andreassen, Abigail Washburn, Bryn Davies of Uncle Earl on backing vocals, Rayna Gellert of Uncle Earl on fiddle, and Zach Djanikian of The Brakes on vocals. ** With Chuck on bass guitar and Rob on guitar for part. # With Jeff Waful on Chuck's guitar and vocals, Frank Robbins on Al's guitar, Hector Jimenez on bass and vocals, Steve Young on keyboards, Cass Libbers on drums, and Ken Richman on percussion.