The Pour House, Raleigh, NC

It would make sense to me if by common law, bands were considered "broken up" if a year goes by and they haven't played a show. By the skin of our teeth, MG4 made the cut off. We're still a band. We played a show on Saturday, July 22nd at the Pour House in Raleigh with Rob Watson.

The main reason we haven't played a show since last August has been that we've been busy with other things. Still, everyone agreed after the show that it was a good time and that we played fairly well.

This particular show was deemed an "after party" for the across-the-street event: Raleigh Downtown Live. We loaded it at 5 p.m. and checked until about 7 p.m. I was surprised at how easy it was to load in even with the rather large public event across the street. Raleigh's public works has the whole parking thing pretty much down pat.

Angie Aparo was finishing up his set when we finally made it across the street. If you think you haven't heard of him, you have. He wrote Faith Hill's "Cry." It's kind of funny to hear him perform the song now-a-days. You see a lot of perplexed people looking around at each other asking themselves "Why is he playing a Faith Hill song?" Dillon Fence performed directly after Aparo. I used to play with Scott Carle in Collapsis, so it was good to see him play.

We went on at around 10:45 p.m., just as Butch Walker's show was letting out. I have never seen the Pour House that packed. It was a good night, especially for whomever owned the bar receipts.

Our set was:

Don't Fade Away
Automatic
Sour Milk
Another Day in Paradise
Walk in Circles
She Alone
Rusted Radio
Sister Havana
Gravity Affects Me
Superhero
October

I broke a string about two lines into "Sour Milk." I tried to make it through the rest of the set, but after "She Alone" I played the rest of the set on my tele (the yellow electric guitar I usually play).

Rob Watson went on shortly after we finished. Rob's set was great. If you're in the Raleigh area, I highly recommend his show.

In addition to the show being fun and fulfilling, it also served as a good warm-up gig for the Athenaeum reunion shows that are coming up at the end of August. Playing this show made me realize that I need to dial in my guitar tones a bit more before doing a band gig again.

Warren, OH

I don't tour that much now-a-days. Clubs don't book original music as much as they used to, so it really doesn't surprise me. There just isn't as much opportunity as there was five years ago. Other musical activities, like studio production and freelance composition, fill most of my time of late. Although, when I get a chance to play a worthwhile gig, I usually take it.

For four years now, in some way, shape, or form, I've managed to make it to Warren, OH to play a show on a local bar patio for those who are interested. The first year, Athenaeum played it. The three following years, I've played the patio as a solo acoustic act. Each year, I am greeted by friendly, open-minded, music fans. I'm very thankful for this crowd.

It's an easy 9 hour drive from Greensboro, NC to Warren, OH. Most of it is on I-77 through West Virginia and southern Ohio. With the exception of a few hills and a few stretches of mountain travel, the route is surprisingly flat. My car is on the fritz, so this year I rented a car for the drive. I drove a 2006 Ford Focus that had a total of 5 miles of life on it when I picked it up from the airport. This was it's maiden voyage. How fun.

I like to spend time alone. I'm an introvert. The trip afforded me the opportunity to listen to quite a few albums. I put my iPod on album shuffle and ran the battery out. Highlights from the trip included David Bowie's Heathen, Sunny Day Real Estate's LP2, Anthrax's The Sound of White Noise, Weather Report's Heavy Weather, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. The car ran like a dream. Not even a single studder of the engine was heard.

I arrived in Warren around 6:30 p.m. I chilled for an hour at the America's Best Value Inn on Mahoning Ave. Then Jimmy and Uncle Butter (the promoter and club owner for the show, respectively) took me out to eat. I am always impressed by Jimmy Martin's hospitality. We went the the ITAM local 29, a Warren Italian-American club, for dinner. They had quite a tasty fried fish on special that night. We sat and talked for a good three hours. It was a good way to end the day of travel. I turned in around 11 p.m.

I've been to Warren so much that I practically have a day-of-show routine now. I woke up at 7 and worked out at the YMCA, a half-mile from the motel. I got cleaned up and then had a nice breakfast at a Panera a few miles down the road towards Niles, OH. Then, I visited the CD Warehouse and Best Buy to look for media. One year I found three INXS albums for three dollars at the CD Warehouse. The year after that I was a semi-finalist in the INXS Rock Star show competition, but that's a different story altogether...

With the afternoon ahead of me, I opted to see a movie. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was on my list of films to watch. I didn't realize that it was almost three hours long, so I had to head back to the motel immediately after the movie. I had to change my strings and prepare a set list before 6 p.m. I barely had time to do that. I liked the movie, but I should have checked the running time before viewing.

Things were set up at the club at 6 and I was told to arrive back around 8 or so. I did a brief sound check and then there were three opening acts, all of which I watched. First was French Blue, an acoustic duo from Warren. They do a great cover of Concrete Blonde's "Joey." Next was Jimmy Martin. I had the privelege of producing and mixing a few songs for his latest CD. It was good to hear him in an acoustic context. He played well. Then, a local band called The Zou played. When a heavy rock band shows up with banjos and mandolins, it's bound to be interesting. I thought they did well. I'm looking forward to hearing the CD they gave me.

I went on at around 11:30 p.m. It had been so long since I had played a show that the time seemed to just fly by. I made it half way down my set list and I asked Jimmy what time it was. It was already 1:00 a.m. One of the draw backs to having written so many songs is that I can never quite have a show long enough to play all the songs I want to play. I ended the show at 2:00 a.m. after having played for two and a half hours straight. All in all, the patio was about half full when I started and about a quarter full by the end of the night. It was a decent crowd, for sure.

I sold a few CD's, packed up, and made it to the motel by about 3:00 a.m. I wasn't very tired. I got a few hours of sleep. I hit the road at 6:30 a.m.

The trip home was somewhat of a daze. I didn't get a full night's sleep. That began to take it's toll around 10:00 a.m. Thankfully, I had the complete Star Wars Radio Drama from NPR on my iPod to entertain me. The program is about eight and a half hours long. I listened to almost all of it. For some reason I forgot to put the last episode on the iPod, so I left everyone hanging before they could blow up the Death Star.

Returning the car was quite easy. I just pulled into the rental spot and a nice clerk checked the gauges. That was it. 1035 miles total.