Three pics of the sun setting during the show…I finally got to do this in between songs. The view from the stage is absolutely breathtaking.

Then Spinal Tap stepped in.

Supernova has played Lentini Farms in the past, and this was my third time playing here. I truly enjoy it, even when the sun dips behind the horizon and things get chilly. Far cry from the gigs we did back in July and August at Charley’s Tavern; I personally miss the humidity!

Last night was definitely one of those times where you just had to shurg and say “Shit happens!” First set was great but starting from the second set, call it gremlins, Mercury Retrograde, or just dumb luck but while the band sounded really damn good, the power gods had other ideas.

My pedal board shut off and then back on. HUH? Then it happened again. And again. Tony came to my side and said “Check the lights on the back of the PA when that happens.” Well, they shut off and back on too. But the rest of the stage was fine? Had to stop the show briefly to check voltage and sure enough, there wasn’t enough power from the outlets on the stage. Moved everything over, kept playing, still some hiccups but we had a show to do.

Of course, a group of young kids rushed the stage and started dancing, carrying on, and that would feed anyone’s ego. And of course…BLAP! No vocals. Then they came back on. We tried to do “Cult Of Personality” twice and both times, the power shut off. “Call it!” was all I heard and then “Show’s over, we’re done.” We had 20 minutes left but made the right decision.

Started packing up and the kids asked “Is your band done?” and we said “Yeah, the power just isn’t happening.” They really liked us, which was cool. Again, chalk it up to whatever you want. It was disappointing but you know something? We played well, and that’s what mattered. And til next year, let’s hope they get the wiring figured out.

As for me personally, in the past I would have been depressed and spitting fire about this and that. I no longer do that. It sucks but learned that when something’s out of my hands, all I can do is smile and nod. I will be honest as always: shutting down early was the best thing we could do. Packed up and was outta there by 10:15.

BUT OF COURSE…

Driving towards 23, there was construction so I had to take a detour. Think it added 20 minutes to my ride but whatever. Just me and the sound of the voice from my GPS coming through the speakers…yeah that works. There’s a weird quiet that creeps in but at the same time, it’s a necessary one. Was that detour supposed to happen? Again, in the past I would have panicked. Now I see it as “Okay time to reflect, think of a new blog, and appreciate the silence.”

And that’s the only downside to performing: the loneliness afterwards. But I am not here to bring anyone down.

Safe to say the gig, in all its slightly unhinged glory, was pretty good! Supernova is off for a week but not me! I have a gig on Halloween night with Rubber Duckie Riot at Mason Jar in Mahwah…a full 7 minutes from my house!

And there better not be any detours!

Ah the perks of getting older. I am proud to be advancing in age, as soon I will be 57.

You know you’re old when your back goes out more than you do.

The past couple of gigs, standing on hardwoor floors for a few hours can really do a number on your lower back and legs. When either Supernova or Rubber Duckie Riot played on stages with carpeting and rugs, I noticed a huge difference in my performance. After playing Mason Street Grille last week, it was pretty obvious that it was time to make a couple of changes. First of all, the Orange Crush 60 is 47 pounds so I bought a small Anvil dolly at Home Depot for $11. Best I ever spent! But finding a rug was a challenge. So who did I turn to?

A student’s mother. I am serious.

His famliy is moving soon, staying in the same town but their garage was filled with stuff for either donations or garbage. I asked if they had any rugs they were willing to part with and she supplied me with the one you see in the pic. It’s bigger than I expected but worked to my advantage. It’s not 100% soft but after last night’s show at Black River Barn, I didn’t drive home feeling my spine in my eye (10 points if you get the reference).

But now I am facing another small dilemma. Not sure if it’s just Black River Barn, but lately I’ve had some trouble seeing the fretboard and strings. Lighting can be tricky, as it’s either too blinding or too dark. When I played Mason Street or any of the campgrounds, I had no problems. I chat with a friend about struggling to see, and she said “Other bands say that too.” If I have to start wearing my reading glasses on stage, fine with me. Geddy Lee rocks them, so why not I?

The true test will be the next few shows I have lined up. If I can see the guitar fine, then I know it’s only Black River Barn and its lighting that’s the problem. (No I don’t have a problem with that place AT ALL! Just want to see, dammit!)

So with Lentini Farms on Oct 23, Halloween with Rubber Duckie Riot at Mason Jar, and Now 6 at Jefferson House, let’s see what happens. I also think that past a certain time, my eyes just tend to get weird, even if I nap earlier in the day. These upcoming gigs are earlier, so my eyes might be fine.

Wishful thinking, I know.

But the show last night was quite good, some technical snags but they were resolved soon enough. Black River was PACKED, and that was around 6pm or so. By the time we hit the stage (well, the floor) at 10, the place was jumpin’! Tore through the tried-and-true songs, added new ones, dusted off tunes that we’d not touched in ages. Overall, a pretty good performance and evening overall.

Now if my eyes cooperate…

Not every day you see a funky vehicle in the parking lot. My dad would know the model of the car in the pic above. I call it the ZZ Top car.

RIP Dusty and Frank!

The pic on the right is the new (to me) Orange CR60 combo amp and let me tell ya, this thing pushes some serious air. I ordered it last Thursday from the Guitar Center in Commack, L.I. and it arrived at the Paramus store Monday 10:30am! Speedy service!! Raced to the store, made sure everything worked and brought it home. Didn’t get to tinker with it too much but aside from separate volume controls, much like the Crush amp heads, I could dial in my sound relatively easy.

Oh it’s 47 pounds. Time to get a dolly.

The only slight drawback is that the plugs for the cables are UNDER the inside of the amp. HUH?! I looked like a pretzel trying to put the cables in but once I did, I realized “Hey I can leave these inside, and just uncoil them for future gigs.” Once in a while, I have more brains than luck. What about the tone?

Yeah like I said, it moves some air. Even at a low volume, it sounds massive. Once I fired up my Behemoth Board, some tweaking had to be made as the songs were going along. That’s the beauty and chaos of live performance…anything is possible. The band noticed a tonal change but it wasn’t too drastic. Going from the 10″ speaker of the CR35 to the 12″ of the CR60 meant more bass EQ, so I had to dial that back a bit. No biggie. Each room is different so I will have to tailor the amp accordingly.

What about the damn show, Steve?!

The band as usual sounded GREAT!! Pulled out songs we’d not done in a bit, but added two new ones to the mix. “Found Out About You” by Gin Blossoms was a nice touch, was nice having two distinct guitar melodies intertwine. And the mind-melter was “Devil Went Down To Georgia”. Yep, I had to learn all those fiddle parts…poor me 😉 Thankfully, my wanna-be Paganini/Yngwie ideas came flooding back, and everything worked like a charm. For a first time playing these songs (and we never rehearse), they came out quite well. Nobody in the room booed or left, so that’s a good sign.

Two things I need to get soon to relieve my back: an anti-fatigue mat and a dolly. Home Depot awaits!

Played three sets, ended around midnight, had the car loaded by 12:30, and was home by 1:30. The drive home can be a bit numbing but I’m not complaining. Thankfully when a show is that high energy, those feelings follow me as I apply the rubber to the road. Somehow I got 5 hours of sleep but a nap is imminent.

Like right now…

I seem to be playing a lot of farms and barns lately. Am I in New Jersey or North Dakota?

Well, NJ is the Garden State, right?

I wanted a life of arena, stadiums, ampitheatres…but hey, playing barns is pretty friggin’ cool! Plus the acoustics are amazing.

Now that I’ve had my Titanium Tour Bus back for a week, and things are pretty solid again, I took to the open road for Great Divide Campground and “reunited” with Supernova. Yeah I missed playing with them last Friday as you know, and this was a return to form. And how!

Much like Blue Arrow Farm, this place had a nice-sized stage, a killer sound system, cool lights (that’s always a plus) but one small twist…A GREEN ROOM!! And it was actually green!!! Complete with a chihuahua named Roseann (no I am not making this up). Such the rock star life! Everyone were very accommodating, making sure we were comfortable, well-fed and that we all sounded good.

And again like the aforementioned barn, the crowd was great, pretty packed, dancing around all night. The energy we gave came back to us, and made us step up more and more. So much so that we kept playing until 11. We were supposed to stop at 10…oops? Nobody complained, right? Kept playing song after song, pulling stuff out and going with the flow.

That’s how all shows should be!

The drive home was nice, empty streets, and the silence was deafening as they say. It’s hard to come down from all the euphoria but the sound of the GPS female voice coming through my Bluetooth pulls me back to reality. Sometimes I don’t mind, other times I want to bottle that feeling and take a swig here and there.

Today is my do-nothing-and-like-it day! No show until next Friday at Mason Street Grille.

The fake tour rolls on…

The first pic is from this past Wednesday night’s show with Rubber Duckie Riot at Blue Arrow Farms (Warwick, NY) and the second is from tonight’s gig with Evolution at Pompton Lakes VFW (Pompton Lakes, NJ).

So where’s the Supernova pic at the gig?

Oh that’s right…my car shit the bed the day of that one!

Friday morning as I was taking my son Julian to work, while sitting at a red light, the check engine light went on. Hadn’t seen that in a couple of years. Then the car started trembling. “Oh no!” was all I thought. I called my mechanic right away and told him what happened. He said, “Drop your son off and get your car to my shop ASAP!” That’s not a warm and fuzzy pep talk.

I was told “I am down a man so I will try to get to your car today so you can do your gig tonight.” Well, that didn’t happen. And while it was really nice of the guys in the band to offer to pay for an Uber and that drummer Christian offered to drive me home, I declined. I really wanted to play but where my head and heart were at, it was impossible to think straight. Made a post about possibly not doing the Supernova gig as well as Evolution’s. All I could think was “I’m fucked!” (Sorry to be so blunt…) No car, no gig, and I felt like I let everyone down yet nothing was my fault.

Today I get my car back at noon and said to Louie from Evolution, “I’m good again, so you will see me later.” Now I can talk about the two gigs…

The RDR show was OFF THE WALL!!! Easily one of my personal top 10 best shows of all time, and the band even said they felt it was the best show they ever played. Blue Arrow Farms is PHENOMENAL!!! We played in a barn, great acoustics, soundguy was terrific, and the crowd…on a Wednesday…was PACKED!!! Dancing all night, singing at the top of their lungs, feeding us their energy and we were all too kind to fire back. We didn’t want the night to end. Everything was flawless.

Tonight’s gig was pretty good. Evolution sounded fine, sound was balanced nice and there was a twist: the drummer who sat in is the son of a drummer I played in a band with back in high school! So history repeated itself, or maybe things went full circle? You tell me. But it was nice catching up with John and was great jamming with his son Jack. Like father, like son, he displayed great skills on the kit. And this was his very first show ever!! WOW! He done good!

But attendance was light. I think the talk of a nor’easter scared people off. Plus a LOT of gigs were being cancelled/postponed due to the weather. Even AC/DC moved their show…so when a band like that changes their date, you know you’re in trouble! Guess nobody wanted to be thunderstruck?

I’ll see myself out.

But before I do that, let me just say that I am grateful for ANY gig that happens, regardless of attendance. I learned over time to appreciate one person watching or 100. I have the spark again, enjoy playing live more than ever before. No pressure, no bullshit, just show me an outlet and let me have fun for a few hours.

October will be very busy with Supernova playing a gig every Friday, along with RDR playing on Halloween night at the Mason Jar like last year. And this time my car better behave itself.

Or I’m giving it a stern talking-to!!!

Last night was perfect, amazing, cool weather. So rather than post the usual pics of my gear, why not show you all how lovely the night looked?

All together…OOOH AHHH!

The last time I stepped foot inside Black River Barn was August 28, 2025! Amazing how fast the time goes. The drive up and back was really smooth, zero traffic. The gods were smiling on me as I found a great parking spot too. That’s always a plus.

After chowing down a delectable dinner of butternut squash soup and a dish of cookies and cream ice cream (no mint chip?!), we started setting up for the show but there was a new wrinkle awaiting us. The small space got smaller due to a speaker cabinet installed next to the pizza oven. For what reason? So we took advantage of this and put Mike’s rack up there for his wireless mic. When life hands you lemons…or in this case, speaker cabinets…you get it.

I enjoy playing this place but will never understand for the life of me why they insist of making bands start at 10pm. The crowd was great last night but started thinning out around 12:15. Most of our clan stayed, and some took off after the last notes of the second set were fading away. Now that I got that out of the way…

The band sounded really good last night, things are getting tighter and we’re all grooving to each other better and better. I tend to introvert when I take a solo though; my fear is that people are judging me and thinking “This guy’s fucking WEIRD” but I’ve been proven wrong time and time again. I definitely don’t play normal guitar, even if it’s a Georgia Satellites tune. Whatever I play, it’s still me. The most important thing is that the band sounds good, and the crowd are receptive. Win/win for all.

It was nice seeing old friends as well as meet (melt?) new faces. Good to catch up on things, and two women said to me “We never saw your band before and this is great!” Potential repeat fans/friends? One never knows!!

Don’t blink because I have three shows coming up this week. You can peruse the UPCOMING EVENTS page for all the shows coming down the pike.

I better contact Jake over at Strings By Aurora for more sets. The Fake Tour continues!!!

Never again will I use the words “hiatus” or “break” ever again! HA!

Aside from one weekend in August, I’ve gigged EVERY weekend since July 31st. Pretty staggering for someone like me. Might not be a big deal to some of you but lest you forgot, I used to gig a lot between 2015-2019 with my own band, as well as the cover band I was in, and helping a punk band. When I stepped away back in May 2019, I convinced myself “You’re done, just stop!”

Little did I know…

I eased back into performing very tentatively back in 2021. A gig here and there. Getting home anywhere between 1-3am some nights was going to cause havoc on my physical and mental health, right? Did I really want to do this all over again? Once I started getting more sub gigs, the feelings of “Yeah this could be good again” crept in.

But for those who may recall, the one Facebook message from Supernova singer Mike McCormick altered my path: “Feel like filling your dance card for the rest of the year?”

I thought “Yeah why not!” Plenty of Supernova gigs await me. And then other bands suddenly asked for my skills, namely Rubber Duckie Riot and Evolution. “Hey can you fill in this weekend?” and “Are you available in two weeks?” filled my inbox and it was a wonderful feeling.

Being in-demand is pretty damn cool.

I did another fill-in gig last night with Evolution, this time at River Grille in Chatham, NJ. Small room as to be expected but I make the most of it. I brought both the Behemoth and the Fly boards, in case space was limited. The Behemoth won again! I was told “When this place gets packed, watch your pedals, someone might trip over them.” Thankfully that didn’t happen but some people enjoy brushing up against the microphone stands. Do they not see them?!

The night started off mellow, and we were entertained by a cute couple who were dancing and singing alone. Turns it out was their very first date! And they are both Black Sabbath fans, so doubly cool! Towards the second set, a wave of people showed up, dressed to the nines. Gowns?! SUITS?! Did they come from a high school reunion? No, they came from a wedding! I guess that party ended early so we were treated to everyone dancing up a storm and singing at the top of their lungs. One woman tried to put a cigarette in my mouth?! That’s a first. I backed up and said “Sorry, not my thing” and she apologized. Still the night turned out to be a great success!

But my September is growing more and more…

Louie from Evolution asked if I was around to fill in for a gig on Saturday September 26th at Pompton Lakes VFW. I said I have a gig the night before with Supernova at Thirsty Farmer, and he told me that the event goes from 4-8. So I can live with an early gig! We’re done, right? Nope…

Bob from RDR sent me a text asking if I was free on Wednesday (!) September 23rd for a car show gig at Blue Arrow Farms in Warwick, NY. I normally teach but since my private students are in marching band, and their rehearsals are Wednesday nights, I have free time. Decently early show from 6-9pm. And I get outta NJ for the first time a year.

THE FAKE TOUR EXPANDS!

This is the busiest I’ve been and will continue to be for quite a while. Yes I pace myself, know when to rest up, am up on my gear, making sure things are still working and in tune. Who knows how long this train will run? I am just going along, picking up gigs as they come, and finally having the life that I wished for.

Wait til you see the list for October though.

Not bad for someone who thought he was done.

**Seven dates have been confirmed so far in 2027 for Supernova. I can’t say anything yet but when the band posts things, you know I will too.

Last Monday I received an FB message from Louie of Evolution asking if I was around for a double-header this past Saturday. I turned down the first gig which was a private party in Port Jervis (which got cancelled anyway) and said yes to playing at Blackjack Mulligan’s in Woodland Park.

I was supposed to be on hiatus!

No I am not complaining, not at all. I had to laugh because I knew a gig would pop up unexpectedly. And since the gig I did with them back in June was great, why not indulge again?

First time at this place, and aside from a local drunk named Dave who almost cracked his head on a table, the room was quite cool. Nice staff, good chicken fingers (that’s a plus!) Very accommodating with moving tables but to be fair, it WAS a light night due to Labor Day weekend. And maybe something to do Iron Maiden playing in Harrison? Hmm…get back to me on that.

We set up, did a quick soundcheck, and we were off and running. Two sets of songs ranging from Abba to Donna Summer as well as Ozzy and Jimmy Eat World got the people dancing pretty much all night. The band sounded really good, things flowed well, and if I may say that my guitar tone was absolutely MINT! I think the hardwood floors aided in things.

I am kinda shot this morning but for you, the public, I typed this blog. But I am thinking about shutting down this website for good, as it really doesn’t get attention. If anything, I may downgrade to making this site cost me $0 but I might lose some privileges. Unless anyone wants to “gift” me a payment through this site so I can keep everything for at least another year; I never ask for things like that but if someone anyone can pitch in, please do.

So now I am on a hiatus at least for a weekend.

Maybe?

I better not assume anything.

If you assume…you know the rest.

The first pic is from Friday’s gig with Supernova at the Beacon; the second is from Saturday’s show with Rubber Duckie Riot. I forgot to take gear pics at the RDR show because…well, I just did. But these are proof that I rocked out this weekend!

Two times the noise…more noise, more fun!

Let’s start with Friday’s show. Singer Mike McCormick had a family obligation which always comes first, so Tony’s girlfriend Deb stepped up to sing the first set. And she knocked it out of the park! The set list was altered with songs ranging from Amy Winehouse to…Deep Purple?! Yep, she and I used to do “Perfect Strangers” in a previous cover band, and it definitely turns heads. Also chucked in some Zeppelin, Elle King, and Dobie Grey’s “Drift Away” (NOT Smash Mouth…sorry, people!) Mike showed up to finish the night, and of course he was great, ran around the room since he didn’t have a guitar around his torso. He and Deb would trade vocals on some tunes and it was so much fun

Saturday’s gig with RDR went quite well, decent turnout, gorgeous day, played on a nice big black stage. And the best part? My hands weren’t stuck to the guitar necks! This show was special because it was a charity for the fire fighters who sadly never survived 9/11. It was my honor, as well as the band’s, to pay it forward and acknowledge how they put their asses on the line. All the while, everyone there were digging the songs from Ozzy, Rage, Ramones, and yes…Neil Diamond.

The most interesting part of the day happened when someone approached me with “Hey do you know The Star Spangled Banner?” I said “The Hendrix version, why?” The guy responded, “We would love for you to play it to open the cornhole tournament.”

Yes that sentence actually happened.

I said “Well, I don’t want anyone thinking I’m disrespecting the flag if I do the Jimi way” and was told “Nah, they will LOVE it!” Oh boy did they love it! After I played it, I was getting hugs and “HOLY SHIT” from people but I didn’t do it for my own vanity. I did it because I was asked to show support for this great country. No I will never come close to how Hendrix did it, but the people enjoyed the sonic squalor, and that’s fine with me.

(BTW I messed up one part but nobody noticed!)

I had fun at both shows, felt great to let my fingers and hair fly around for a few hours. Now I am in hiatus mode until Sept 19 (the schedule is on the UPCOMING EVENTS page) but as I always say, anything can happen.

Now what will I blog about between now and Sept 19?!