Greetings from Ohio, or as my friend Joanna calls it “The Ohizzle”. I’m out here visiting her while she’s on spring break from school. The road trip out was good with the exception of one overzealous cop that tagged me doing 80 about 4 miles from Pennsylvania’s western boarder. That certainly was a buzz-kill. What was even more amazing is the fact that I got to see that same cop pull over someone else behind me as we were getting ready to cross the border of the state.

Yeah, I guess it’s quota time again.

I should have some tales of one kind or another for you to digest. The plans right now include trips to Cleveland and Pittsburgh, though they are loosely drawn and the fabric of their reality has yet to be stitched together. Regardless of what comes to pass, I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

Before we get into the finite feedback loop of my past week’s dealings, the management wanted to let you know that through the kindness of tapers and the magic of BitTorrent you too can share the sounds of the very concerts I attended:

• The 2004 Jammys – Theater at Madison Square Garden – New York, NY
• Nick Oliveri – Southpaw – Brooklyn, NY
• Brant Bjork and the Brothers – Southpaw – Brooklyn, NY

Now with that out of the way, onto the story. We jump back to last Tuesday….

Tuesday
The day would begin with a drive into a sea of white and calm. It would end with the same white, this time mixed inside black, washing over me with all the gentleness of a freshly washed blanket. The in between would ramble between frantic and fantastic as an evening of sublimely sonified music was waiting for me after a go-go day at the office. Not too often do I make mid-week shows, but this show is the kind you make exceptions for. Yep, it was time for me to renew my faith in my music and visit the 2004 Jammys.

For the record, this brings my batting average up to .750 (i.e. I’ve now been to 3 of the 4 Jammys). I guess baseball season can’t get here soon enough for me. Anyway, I digress — back to the recap.

My partner in crime for this for this event was Kristy, a smart and upwardly ambitious young woman I’m having the pleasure of getting to know. We had made a start to the evening by grabbing a bit of Indian food at one of the many fine Baluchis restaurants that reside in Manhattan, taking our time not to rush through the meal. As such, we didn’t get to the Theater at Madison Square Garden until a little after the show had started. Of course, I wasn’t worrying in the least about any of that. I was a little more anxious about what kind of vibe the new venue would give to the show.

As those of you who read this brain dump of mine with some kind of regularity might already know, the last two of these events had been held in Roseland Ballroom, a venue that offers a very relaxed attitude (once you get past security at the door, that is). Who knew what to expect from the staff at the theater — I mean, this is MSG, right? They’re gonna be a lot more stringent on certain things, right? Isn’t that gonna kind of kill the atmosphere? the buzz? The vibe?

Walking into the theater itself, we were nearly bowled over by the distinctive smell of marijuana that hung in the air. Ok, I think this new place will work out after all. ^_^

We made our way down to the general admission area at the front of the stage. Now when I got the tickets I had the option of paying more to grab an actual theater seat, but I doubt they would have been any better than where we ended up. We found ample space just to the right of one of the boom camera platforms that were set up to record the event for something (TV, DVD or both — who knows? Really, who knows? I want to see this!). This gave us not only a great sight line of all the action on the stage, but also plenty of dancing room and even the occasional glance of the cameraman’s monitor with close-ups of the action. The topper was having a mixed drink bar mere feet away that served up quite strong drinks for a reasonable $5 a glass. The rum and cokes flowed as frequently as the gin and tonics did, and beleive me that was quite frenquent.

Those who were sharing in our personal space were as nice as could be, which is the rule more than the exception at these events — it’s a very relaxed scene you know. I even managed at one point of the night to get into a scatting contest with one of them (don’t ask how it happened, because I forgot what happened to get us to that point).

We settled in durring the middle of the set featuring Reid Genauer & The Assembly Of Dust, Dickey Betts, Edie Brickell. They were busting through Ramblin’ Man and doing a damn fine job of it. That would only serve to set the stage for some more great performances. Like the Disco Biscuits being joined by Slick Rick. Or how about Brian Stoltz, George Porter Jr., Matt Abts, Dr. John and Toots? Care for some Derek Trucks Band with a side of Solomon Burke server in an oversized thrown at center stage?

And that’s not even the half of it! String Cheese Incident and Perry Farrel, Chris & Rich Robinson joining Gov’t Mule on stage, Oteil Burbridge, Derrico Watson and Victor Wooten throwing down on one of the sickest jams I’ve heard in years, and so on. Damn what a night for music! Too bad I missed Soulive, but I’ve got the Memorex on that slice of history.

But then clincher on the night was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award — Steve Windood. All I had to hear was the opening of “Mr. Fantasy” (which I have heard countless times in some NFL Network commercial but never knew the composer) and Mr. Winwood had a new life-long fan. In fact, when I got home that night I went out and grabbed myself a Traffic album. My night was now complete.

I walked Kristy across town to her frineds apartment before finally making my way back to the PATH station, Hoboken, my car and points south. The snow continued to fall throughout, but at least the roads were in decent shape. A little damp perhaps, but certainly not the whiteout conditions of the morning drive. I went home and slept very well, if not long.

Wednesday (St. Patrick’s Day)
The first half of the day seemed somewhat of a blur to me, mainly because of the slight sleep deprivation I was suffering through from the night before but also because it was just a very nondescript day at the office.

Earlier the week before a few of the braver souls from my office — namely Chris, Andy, Ellen, Mark and Lauren — had decided that we should try to celebrate this holiday properly. Never one to miss a chance to learn more about the people I work with, I gladly accepted. Yeah, it was all about the camaraderie. The drinking had nothing to do with it. Honest. ^_^

The first place we hit was called Shebeen, a very rusticly modern place. Somewhat devoid of customers when we walked in, it certainly didn’t seem to have that St. Patty’s day feel to it. We decided to double back and hit this place we passed called Gatsby’s, which from the outside seemed to be a decent spot.

We drank, conversed, gossiped and cavorted for the next few hours. I threw back a few Guinness’s and wound up wearing part of a car bomb (it was the fault of the shot glass – honest!). All in all a good night out. Always nice to make friendly with the people you work with, and these people make doing that real easy. Yes, I think I fell in with a good group again.

Thursday
I had the day off from work to take care of some errands in my home town, but still I’d manage to find my way up to NYC before the day was through. Concerts wait for no man’s errands! This was going to be a memorable night for many reasons. The original plans were to have my friends Jesse and Eileen accompany me to a show out at Southpaw in Brooklyn, but Jesse fell ill and decided to duck out. Eileen and I were still of fair health and ample will so we made our way up to the bar with problems, showing up just in time for the first of four acts on the night.

The first two acts were decent but I was more interested in my beer and conversing with good friend David and his acquaintances Jay and Melody about this and that. Melody was a particularly interesting character; a 35 year old bar owner who had the body of a 25 year old yet proudly proclaimed her age at ever turn.

Finally Nick Oliveri hit the stage with his acoustic guitar for a solo set. I was very interested to see what he would play; surely nothing for his days with Queens of the Stone Age, as that would seem to be a sore topic in my opinion. But then BAM! — second song into the set he hits us with “Another Love Song”. Talk about shock — well, to me anyway. The performance was raw and for my money one of the greatest show going moments I’ve been privy to. I’ll look back upon this 10 years from now when Nick and whatever band he goes on to put together are playing the Garden and remember that night I saw him play that lonely looking six-string.

Brant Bjork and the Brothers followed, throwing down with all their hearts and soul and giving a great performance. I know I heard a Fu-Manchu song here and there, but as to what was actually play I have no clue except that it kicked rocks. I was holding David’s Mini-Disc recorder for both of the shows, so all my whoops and hollers of approval are all over the recordings. Sorry ’bout that. I’d like to say that mother nature made me pay my penance that very night by having me drive home in a ridiculous snowstorm that started when we hit Hoboken and kept increasing in intensity in ten minute increments — at one point getting so bad that I was doing 40 in a 65 and using all four lanes of the Garden State Parkway as I saw fit. Thankfully it was the last time this winter that I’ll have to deal with driving in the snow — I know I’ve had more than my share already.

The Weekend (at rest for once)
With all of that activity, is it any wonder I spent most of my weekend pent up house trying to fight off a cold? The freakish weather, the late hours and the lack of sleep certainly did their parts to ground me, but at least it gave me some time to watch a couple of good movies and drink plenty of NyQuil. Yum!

I did want to drive out to Philly to watch the implosion of Veteran’s Stadium, but alas a man’s health must come first in these situations. All in all I’d say it was a very successful week and I can’t wait to see what the next one will hold for me.