So the last two weeks have been wicked hectic, but before I get into that, I want to mention that this Friday at the Midway Cafe the Tony Brown Band is performing, celebrating the release of the new album, Music for a Shrinking World. So come on out if you can, it’s $5 to get in and $5 for the album (one-time special this week!)

Now, continuing on with my currently crazy life, we (Tony Brown Band and Zili Misik) were in Buffalo & Rochester, NY, on the 15th & 16th. We were scheduled to play the 14th in Toronto, but we had some trouble with the work visas required to perform in Canada, and were turned back at the border. Disappointing, but you live & learn. The upstate NY dates were great; we played Nietzche’s in Buffalo, which is a great place that’s got a great built-in crowd. In Rochester, which is Tony’s home town, we performed at the German House, which is this big old theatre-type place, with a balcony and dance floor. First time I’ve ever performed on an actual stage! The PA and mix engineer were spectacular, and while the vibe at that gig was completely different from the previous night in Buffalo, it was still great. And I have to mention that Zili puts on a fantastic show, so if you enjoy roots, reggae, Caribbean, African, or just good dance music, you should definitely check them out!

In addition to all of this, I’ve joined the Video Game Music Club at Berklee. We ended up being invited to play a gig in San Francisco at the G.A.N.G. awards, which were held Feb 21 at the GDC at the Moscone Center. Very very cool to be flown all the way out there for that gig and put up in a hotel, even if it was only for a day & two nights.

I would’ve liked to stay longer, but the reason for the short stay was, of course, another gig, this time in NYC at the Living Room, with Tony Brown again. Unfortunately, due to the weather and some car trouble, Tony and Zili had to cancel that date, so Shota (a fellow member of VGMC Band & Tony Brown Band) and I arrived at JFK and proceeded to catch a Fung Wah bus back to Boston. A long day purely of travel, which, while no fun, was humorous because of just how much Murphy’s Law was called into being. I mean, we started off our day at 5am PST, had the gig canceled, couldn’t change our flights to stay in San Fran for anything short of $300, left San Francisco International at 7am, landed at JFK, spent 20 minutes just sitting in the plane on the tarmac because JFK was partly shutdown due to the snowstorm, finally walked out of the airport & headed to the subway at 4:30pm, spent 20 or 30 minutes waiting for an A train, then finally arrived in Manhattan in Chinatown at 6:30pm, where we got on a 7pm Fung Wah bus to Boston, which took an extra hour to reach Boston because of the snow on the way. And finally, to top it all off, RIGHT as we were rolling in to South Station, the front right tire on the bus blew. At that point, we just laughed, ‘cause what else could we do?!

So for now, I’m going to try to stay close to home.