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.