Atmosphere @ House of Blues, Jan 23 2026

 Steve and I went to this stacked line up including some real OGs

Mr Dibbs started us off with a dope DJ set including Max Romeo, PE, James Brown and Sepultura (roots era). 

OG Kool Keith hit us up with medleys from his entire career, from Ultramagnetic through Octogon and his solo work.  He had good hype guys to work the crowd and give him breaks.  He's pushing mid-60s I think.

RA the Rugged Man was next and hit us with some Phantom of the Opera shit, cloak and all. Banger set. 

I've known about Sage Francis for a LONG time but have slept on him TBH.  He came out with a folding chair and a mic.  No hypemen. No DJ.  He throw down the hardest set I've seen.  

How do you follow that?  Atomsphere figured it out. 

Year in Review 2025

In 2025, I made it to a total of  8 shows, almost keeping pace with 2024.  So much for slowing down.

Favorite Show: Herbie Hancock with Ben.  Runner up: Slomosa (their just so damn good live)

I also had tickets but missed these shows:

* Obituary, Nails, Terror @ Paladium - went to Maine with kids.

* K&D reunion - just too much happening

* Cave In / Jupiter - ditto 

* Deltron 3030 reunion - Yom Kippur

 

The Beths @ Royale, Dec 2 2025

 

Musical triangles, recorders and a banana

The new album has some slow tunes, less guitar solos (not that they had a ton), and some fun experimentation with instruments.

Not pictured: they setup a mechanism to launch the recorders into their hand from the floor.  Neat trick.

Mirror angle:

Winner of best shirt:

Herbie Hancock @ Wang Theatre, Oct 29 2025

Still tearing it up at 85 years old! 

(View from our seats, Orchestra section C)

Ben and I went out for a rare mid-week show to see the legend himself along with an amazing backing band tear up the Wang Center music hall. 

Herbie started the set off with a little improv over something he called "prehistoric predators" (insert his joke about him being prehistoric).  Dude was funny!  They did an improv covering a few more songs (including Chameleon).  It was here that the drummer really shined, keeping pace with Herbie, who was banging on the keys, playing some wild dissonate avant-garde bits.  Herbie's line after that improv set was "I was so cold so I had to keep moving".  

They also did a version of Footprints by Wayne Shorter and an improv on Actual Proof from "Thrust".  The guys behind us had first listen to Thrust on repeat when they were young and that's what hooked them back in the 70s. 

He also talked about his use of a vocoder on the album "Sunlight" and how it was kinda a flop... but he still liked the tech and got into a 20 minute skit/social lecture about AI, large language modules [sic], asking everyone to be good to each other and reminding us that we are all 1 family on this earth.  He went a bit long in this robot spoken word section, with the crowd getting a bit bored, but you know, they should have been patience because then they slayed for the few close out songs of the night. 

(Dancing not included here)

The last song with a full version of Chameleon, with Herbie on the keytar; dancing like he was 45 years old.  AMAZING. 

Pilfers @ Taffeta, Oct 10 2025

OG lineup returns - Elevation! 

(The Steve Foote with Caitlin)

Old friends and new came out to see the best ska/reggae/rock band of the 90s. 

Winner for best T-Shirt goes to Caitlin, with this attention getter, all the way from 1998: 

(2nd annual New England Ska festival tshirt)

Winner of best cross-over music fan goes to my homie with the Dopethrone battle jacket:

Taffeta stage is low and easy to get right up front.  That means I got blasted all night by Vinny's trombone 🤘

(Vinny and Anna)

I realized watching from up front that Anna is the Joe Lally of ska. In the back, near her amp, stoic but rocking the amazing bass lines. 

The set list: 

Punk in the Parking Lot @ Palladium Outdoors, Sep 27 2025

10 hours of punk rock and hot asphalt - Lets Go!!  

Steve and I made the trip out to Worcester for an amazing all day punk rock fest, which should have taken place in Green Hill park but was instead planted in the palladium parking lot. Womp Womp. 

Pro tip - go to Moynaghs before, during and after outdoor shows.  You can hear music and practically see the stage from the bar which is directly across the street from said parking lot.  Bartender was super friendly and showed us the autograph book of bands that have rolled through.  Some heavy hitters are in that book.  No pics though.  You need to visit and see it for yourself.  We ordered "nanners" which is what Steve's bro Kevin calls Naragansett.  HA. 

Here are some great t-shirts from the show:

(👀 zebrahead!?) 

 

(Descendents casual gear)

(Hell yes!) 

The winner of best T-shirt goes to this homie: 

Shout out to homie Joel with the Death shirt.  We talked about Death To All tour (that I missed last year) and Carcass.  Dude is a fan of Swansong, so I took this pic for Sol, who is the second person on earth to love that album. 

Did we actually see any bands? 

The Vandals replaced Propaghandi who bailed on the tour date. 

(Anti-Fascist since 1980, take that Dropkick Murphys!) 

They played an amazing set including this classic: 

Pennywise rocked! 

Bad Religion played for an hour and half.  Did not disappoint.  The pit was super fun and I was super sore the next day. Worth it! 

Terminal Stereo @ HCA, June 21 2025

 Terminal Stereo plays Hopkinton Pride celebration

My fav punk band played a blistering 60 minute set, including two cover songs (Pink Pony Club and Psycho Killer) and some tunes I have not yet heard. It was a scorchah but we had fun anyways. 

Miho Hatori @ Myrtle (Providence), Apr 23 2025

Solo show for the Cibo Matto founder.

The space had an amazing design and aesthetic, the shows are free (although you can pay for seats), the audience size is limited to provide breathing room and space and overall it's the best new club I've been to in 25 years.  Looking forward to seeing more shows there in the future.

Bonus:  the bar tender was the opener

Miho (pic above) covered a lot of lyrical ground - whales, AI, her mom, and her favorite city.

Slomosa @ Paradise, Mar 20 2025

Horse heads unite! 

(I don't understand the photo effects going on here but love the horse heads in the crowd)

It was a midweek show and I don't want to see Helmet made up of just Paige Hamilton so I bailed before they went on.  The middle act was one of my favorite desert/stoner rock bands (along with Domkraft). Slomosa has taken the slightly more mainstream sound on the Kyuss/QOTSA split record and made it their own. 

The full set is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoJyp4msFxs

Set list:
Afghansk rev Cabin fever Rice In my mind's desert Battling Guns There is nothing new under the sun Kevin Horses

Terminal Stereo @ The Worthen, Jan 11 2025

My favorite punk band...

... plays the coolest music spot I've been to in a while.  

In the attic of the oldest bar ever, is a small music space where the bands run the PA and the booking agent has diverse taste. 

TS just released their first proper recording "Cognitive Dissidents" which was recorded and mixed in my basement.  This is the first time I've seen the band after having REALLY listened to their songs.  It was awesome! 

The first band was from CT.  They covered a lot of genres (emo, punk ,ethereal) which was cool but also did a lot of talking, including talking about how they are just going to get right to the music and not talk.  HA.  Drummer was gnarly though.  Lots of open handed grooves.  They also did a Napalm Death "You Suffer"-like song, 3 seconds of grind.  Wasn't actually that song but still cool.

Second band, Bricks of Boston, really needs to give up on the guitar driven rock and just do OI covers and originals.  Bass player had an Orange amp and wore a TS shirt.

Terminal Stereo was awesome.  Super tight playing and it was a blast actually knowing the songs! 

The last band had an insane drummer who got all of his cymbals to jump off their stands during each song.

Year in Review 2024

In 2024 I made it to a total of 9 live shows.  That's one better than 2023! 

Favorite Show: The Pist, runner up: The Beths again! (seen also in 2023)

I also bought tickets to these shows but couldn't make it for one reason or another:

• The Pist, record release show on Feb 16 in CT.  Going on vacation the next day.
• Ministry, at Roadrunner on March 18.  Family stuff going down.
• Death to All, at Middle East down on May 25. It's Memorial day weekend and I saw John Garcia on Monday.
• Metallica, at Gillette Stadium on Aug 5.  Caitlin's birthday.  Duh!
• Sour Widows at Deep Cuts (Medford) on Sep 14. Coming back from Desert Fest NYC.
• Testament at House of Blues on Oct 6.  Spent all day at CT Ren Faire. 🧙‍♂️

2024 was significant for the fact that my hearing was permanently degraded.  I listen to everything with Headphone Safety enabled at 80 decibels.  I've recently noticed that its getting harder to hear things.  

I can think of two things that were the potential cause:  

A) practicing drums with IEMs that were too loud for a few months (D'oh!) 

B) being upfront for the BTBAM Paradise show which was the loudest show in a long time (Ooof!). 

Will be slowing things down in 2025 until I get with an audiologist. 

Pull @ Newt's Backyard, May 1996

Here's my second band "Pull" with the amazing Marc Boggs on guitar and Will (from Chelsea) on bass.  Both of these dudes had no business playing with a mediocre drummer like me.  But we had fun for sure.  

(First band was "Horse of a Different Colour", covered previously on this blag)

Here's da cops pulling up to ruin everything. We covered Hendrix and maybe one other song before we got shut down.

The Pist @ Middle East Upstairs, Nov 9 2024

 My Glod.  What a day.

Full Missionshifter reunion! All 5 versions of the best north shore punk band hang out and skip all the opening acts. See: "Ho Chi Minh" song for the hypocrisy. 

(L-R: Chaps, Jeff, Newt, Stinky, Springfield)

Next - our favorite street punk band has reformed and is kicking ass again.  They re-released "Right to Choose" from 1994 on vinyl this year, and sadly it's still very much applicable in 2024.  THIRTY YEARS later.  FUCK.

Because I'm a maniac and because I appreciate Steve (of Steve-Fest fame), I did a double header and saw a folk punk/ska bill later that night at the weird "The Rockwell" venue in Davis Sq.  It's right next to The Burren, but underground and no one even knows it's there.  

Hans Gruber and the Die Hards were the winner of the night for me - a bunch of scantily clad gnarly musicians. 

Desert Fest @ Knock Down Center (Queens), Sep 13 2024

I finally made the Pilgrimage! 

Even though the fest was 2 1/2 days I only stayed for one night due to my buddy Sol having tickets with his bro-in-law for Megadeth on the second night of the fest.  Even with a truncated show schedule, I saw some amazing bands. 

First up in the main room was Blackwater Holylight.  Great doom sound.  The drummer had HUGE drums (Grohl style) and the keyboard and vocalist had nice interplay. 

Next was hanging with Sol and other concert goers.  Lots of great battle jackets and t-shirts.  I also met a few folks from Mass, including an older couple who had 72 shows on their list for this year.  Damn!! 

I caught a few minutes of Belzebong and need to see them more next time.  They all were synchronized in their head banging.  Super awesome.

(Portal to Domkraft)

Domkraft from Sweden was on just before High On Fire and performed in the smaller second stage room.  The room was PACKED because this band kicks ass.  They were the band I wanted to see the most and did not disappoint.

(more Domkraft)

Headlining was The Matt Pike and High on Fire.  I was thrilled to see him but also surprised and so stoked when I realized that Coady (from Big Business) was drumming.  I woke up the next day with Matt's riffs and Coady's drum beats in my head, they stayed their all weekend. It was an awesome set!

The night would not be complete without a post-show adventure when Sol left his wallet in an Uber.  After sending him home on the LIRR at around 2:30, I finally got in touch with the driver and had wallet in hand around 4am.  NYC never sleeps. 

The Beths @ Treehouse Brewery (Deerfield), Sep 5 2024

 The Beths. The Beths. The Beths. 

Caitlin and I celebrate our 30 year (first date) anniversary with a magical show at a fantastic outdoor venue. 

Let me set it in stone now.  My favorite rhythm sections:

1. Fugazi

2. Only Living Witness

3. The Beths