The more I support local music in downtown Albany, the more it makes me want to get a band of my own. I could see myself rockin’ out on bigger stages like that. Maybe someday it’ll happen but if not, that’s still cool. If I were to ever get a band, my idea of the band is to be a loud, tight, and in your face, no bullshit rock n’ roll band. It’s gonna be hard rock mayhem, for sure. Those few garageband songs I did, full band, will kind of give you that hint. I want to be a hard rockin’ band. Someday I will get my own band going, I’m just trying to improve my playing here. Need to get my sense of timing down better, and trying to improve my improvising skills. So I’m not really rushing to get a band going. I do have professional enough sounding gear for a band, so that’s a step closer. I know some of you guys want to see me have a good career in music, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here. Gotta be careful with that. Don’t want to rush things.

Kev

Yes, so I decided to go to “Pearl Palooza” fest in Albany. Someone that I knew was going, so I decided to go with this person. We tried to make EBJ’s set but we got there too late, they were just finishing up their set when we arrived, but that’s okay, I’ll always see them again another time.

I also wanted to check out some of the local bands on the local stage. I supported most of the bands on the local stage, ’cause the main stage had a bunch of indie bands I never heard before, although, I did catch the indie band, Oberhofer, on the main stage, and they were pretty good, I might look into them more.

For the local stage at Pearl Palooza, I did catch Wild Adriatic (Travis Gray’s band), and wow, they were absolutely phenomenal and pretty sick. Wild Adriatic played a really tight set. They are kind of like a dance and soul band, but they add a lot of rock n’ roll into the mix. The musicianship was very good. I got to meet Travis himself briefly sometime before their set, and met the rest of the guys in the band, and they were very friendly. I think Travis knew who I was too from the local music forums over the years. He seemed pretty happy that I came out. They played a killer set and I plan to see them again soon.

I also caught this local band called, Mirk, and they killed it too. They are a soul, R&B and hip hop band. There was a lot of rapping in this band, and they were just fun.

I saw Phantogram for the first time ever, finally. Sarah Barthel’s and Josh Carter’s band, who are now heading into fame, and they played a hometown show. Sarah and Josh are Greenwich natives actually. That’s one thing that I liked about Pearl Palooza, GREENWICH musicians, EBJ and Phantogram. My hometown, Greenwich, are taking over local music, and yes, it’s kind of killing me inside a little bit admittedly but in a good way. I want Greenwich to get recognized in music. Phantogram played an interesting set. They were good, of course, but they were different live. Something about them.

The festival got rained on, toward the end of Phantogram’s set. They didn’t play a very long set, it seemed kind of short, but they did good. I didn’t get to meet Sarah and Josh ’cause of the large crowd, but hopefully sometime though.

It was an awesome time. I’m glad I finally got to see Wild Adriatic ’cause I’ve been praising that band in this blog for quite a while. Travis Gray is a pretty talented guy. If there was another band that I can think of that deserves to hit the big time, and go national, Wild Adriatic could get there.

It was a good evening. I enjoy supporting local bands. It’s a good feeling to do. Local musicians are interesting people.

The festival was interesting ’cause there was people watching the festival from the rooftop of buildings and there were people watching the show from their apartments that were above the bars on Pearl St.

I think I took several photos of the Fest with my cell phone camera, I’ll have to figure out how to get ’em on here, ’cause I’m still not good with cell phones even if I had a cell phone for a while now.

Kev

Last night, nobody made any big announcements on who the big winner is for this year’s SPAC Battle of the Bands, finally, Andrew Gregory made this tweet  on who won. Some crap cover band named, Crush, from Glens Falls. From what I understand the band are full of 10 -15 year old kids. Not bashing the kids, but the fact that an unknown cover band won the whole thing. Margo Macero should have won it, oh well, I’ll still support her though ’cause her music is good. See how awful Battle of the Bands competitions can be? They usually turn out to be disappointing results. They’re a popularity contest nothing more, just to show you how big of a fanbase a band have, and their talent is usually ignored and overlooked. Well, that’s how local music is these days. Everyone seems to concentrate on the popular and well known bands and ignoring the talented artists around here. This area is bullshit with local music and I’ve been saying that from day 1.

Kev