Rocktober definitely ROCKED! I can’t believe all I accomplished in one month that seemed to zoom by like lightning! It’s a long one, so I better get crackalackin!
It all started off with a last-minute decision to go to the P!NK concert at Hersheypark Stadium. Thanks to Seatgeek.com, I scored a great ticket for less than $20! That’s definitely my new trick for any show that I might like to see, but won’t break my heart if I miss it! It’s super simple, and talk about a huge money saver! I’m so glad I went because it was one heck of a show! We got there in time to see The Script. I’m absolutely terrible at knowing what artist I hear on the radio, but I knew every one of The Script’s songs! DJ KidCutUp did a great job at playing crowd favorites keeping us entertained between artists. Sheryl Crow played right before P!NK, and absolutely killed it. I was already amazed by the show and the headliner didn’t even start yet. P!NK’s performance was unlike anything we’ve ever seen! Her combo of acrobatic stunts all while still never missing a note was insane! Flipping, Spinning, Twirling, and then of course FLYING! The flying was insane and so cool! You truly had to be there to see it to appreciate it! Craziness. I don’t go to a lot of National shows because I’m usually too busy with my local stuff, but I am glad I went to this one!
Wednesday night was a Cash Raffle benefit for United 4 Animals. Tons of money was raised with Raffles, Games of Chance, and just a lot of donations. Matt Jameson and Faith Noel both played solo sets and some songs together. I haven’t heard Faith Noel for quite a while. It’s been awesome watching her musical adventures online, but hearing her in person is pretty amazing. Her confidence and professionalism on stage is awesome to see! It’s very cool when you see a young artist just starting out, and then watching them hone their skill over time. Faith Noel has been playing all over the place from Nashville to the beach, and everywhere in between. Get out there and catch a show, you won’t be disappointed.
The benefit was done early so there was still time to bop in to Flinchy’s for the tail end of Shine Delphi. I’m so glad he’s been playing more in the area. He’s so much fun to watch. He truly has some magical moments with his guitar that make me sit back and listen! What a great night of music!
Thursday night was a super special night because Matt Jameson and Dave Gates both had a night off, and what better thing to do, than go support live music! The Elovaters were playing at HMAC, and it was like all the stars lined up perfectly for a cool night of music. Unfortunately their opener Cisco Adler put on a terrible show, but to me, that just made the headliners sound even better! The Elovaters had us all just grooving to the music and having an awesome night. I never knew white boys from Boston could play such cool Reggae music! Definitely some music I’m adding to my playlists for sure!
Friday night “The Funnel of Fun” was back together, for at least a little bit. We all met up at Copper Pub to see the Keara Rose Trio. It was a beautiful night out on the deck for good food and great music! Since Megan is back to work it’s harder for her to come out and play with us! But it felt good to all be together again! After some shenanigans we split ways for the rest of the night. Michele and I headed to The Glorious Sons at XL Live, and Megan and Cindy headed to the Beerded Goat for Colin Alvarez.
The Glorious Sons are a touring band from Canada. Angie and 105.7 the X got us hooked on these guys, and now we can never miss a show! Derek and Matt both cover their song “Sawed Off Shot Gun” for us, and we all sing a long. They’ve definitely built their following here in the midstate and always pack the house at XL. All of the Glorious Sons put on a great show and have the crowd fully engaged the whole time. It was a great night of music.
Little Buffalo Festival of the Arts is a long-standing yearly tradition for me. Little Buffalo is my happy place. I have so many fun family memories at Little Buffalo that I like to get out there and support their events every chance I get. My good friends Jen and Chris Auxt were on the volunteer committee this year and even though volunteers were low in number they still managed to help pull off a successful event! Since I was dealing with car crap I didn’t make it up there as long as I wanted, but I at least was able to make an appearance. I made it in time to see Jessica Batz on the acoustic stage, see the Kid’s Parade, and then finish the day off with Blitz Dynette. My good friend, and 2nd Dad, Dave Russell was also there with his Cigar Box, and License Plate guitars booth. It was cool to catch up with him and see all of his latest and greatest inventions. He’s such a talented, creative guy! If you want a unique gift for the musician in your life, check out DP Russell’s Guitars and Entertainment on Facebook. Jessica Batz had all the hay bales full at the acoustic show putting on one heck of a show, I couldn’t help but stop and listen! Blitz Dynette had the amphitheater lawn packed full of spectators. They don’t play very often, but when they do their fans show up to support them. I love hearing Amy Simpson sing! She is one powerful vocalist! I’m so glad I made it up to this sunny, amazing Little Buffalo Festival day! Such an awesome event every year! Kudos to all of the organizers and volunteers!
After the festival I started my 2nd half of the day. My first stop was to Copper Pub to have a quick bite and meet up with Cindy. Allegro & Friends were playing on the deck and while we ate some dinner we enjoyed their music and awesome harmonies. After dinner we zoomed down to The Vineyards at Hershey for The Unusual Guests (TUG). These guys were rockin’ the outdoor stage. It was a little chilly, so it was a good night to get up and dance to stay warm! Unfortunately Cindy had a little asthma attack with that lovely country air, so we couldn’t stay too long. We decided to zoom over to the Horn Pub for Hank the Buffalo. Hank the Buffalo had the party in full swing at the Horn Pub. They even surprised us with a special new addition to their show, a full buffalo mask! So now they truly can “Be the Buffalo”.
Sunday Funday was in full force at Flinchy’s when the Eagles had a day off. Crash & Cross were rockin’ the trainwreck deck! It was a gorgeous October afternoon and the deck was packed! Crash & Cross have really been adding in new songs, and developing their show more and more. They love every second they get to perform, and sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s have more fun them, or us! Crash & Cross are filling up their schedule with lots of shows throughout the midstate. Check out their schedule and get out there and support these guys!
Wednesday night it was back to Flinchy’s for Derek Henry. He was playing with John Staz on percussion. It’s cool to see Derek playing with someone else. It adds some energy to the show, and adds a whole different dimension to the music. It was awesome to see the local music scene come out in full force to support Derek too. It was a great night with lots of laughs and good times had by all!
On a special Thursday night our friend Brad invited over a bunch of us to enjoy some chili and chill time by the fire. After filling our bellies the instruments came out quickly. It was awesome to hear everyone just jamming and having a good time. I even saw Crasher playing guitar! I also noticed a strange pink glow in the sky, and the ladies of the group jumped in my car and we went to a big field to check out the Aurora Borealis. It was so beautiful! What an amazing night of good friends, good times, and good food. Thanks Brad for getting us all to pause a minute and just enjoy some quality time together.
On the way home I swung in to Sturges to hear Tommy B’s last set. I haven’t seen Tommy for quite a while. He’s one of those crazy talented looper musicians with all kinds of cool effects on his pedals to make it sound like a one man band! Tommy is still managing a full time job with lots of crazy shows, so even on this night he had to pack up and leave so he could go work a full night at work! His dedication to his craft is crazy! He’s got quite a few original songs, cool merch, crazy ideas, and he can play too many instruments to list! Tommy is one of a kind for sure! If you’ve never seen him, do yourself a favor and check out a show sometime!
Friday night before we headed off to vacation I wanted to see as much music as possible so I decided to go down and do another Carlisle tour. Carlisle is cool because you can literally walk to so many different venues. Holly and I started off flopping between Matt Jameson at Back Porch Brewing and Dr. Nyce at Hook and Flask. It’s awesome enough just listening to those two. They are both amazing in their own rite, and both put on a great show, but then I also found out Derek was at the Carlisle Moose, so it was time for a walk around the block to go check him out too. We harassed Derek for a little while, but since we missed the kitchen, and we were starving, it was time to move on. We went and had some dinner and finished up the night with Matt and Dr. Nyce, and yet another special guest Megan from Megan & Dave. We were able to hear her sing a couple of songs with Matt, and hang out, dance, and have a good time! Carlisle never disappoints. Lots of cool venues that support live music! I was trying to see as much music as possible so next I zoomed to Flinchy’s for the last set of Hank the Buffalo and to meet up with some friends. Overall it was a super successful Friday night with lots of friends and great music.
Sunday I headed right back on the scene and swung in to see Matt Jameson jammin’ at Wolf Brewing Company’s Brunch. Michele met up with me and we had a nice visit, catching up, eating yummy food, and listening to great music! Matt does a great job at adjusting his show to match the venue. Wolf’s is a great place to see the mellow side of Matt. I know it’s hard to imagine a mellow side, but it’s there! Check out Matt’s full schedule in this issue and get out there and support live music!
I hit a big milestone this month.. October 20th I hit 1 MILLION MINUTES sober! When I first started on my journey I created that goal in the app thinking it was a joke, and won’t be possible.. But yet here I am still sober! 1,012,284 minutes later! That’s absolutely crazy to me. I personally like setting weird personal goals for myself and celebrating as many victories as possible. I love to see and hear how many people are on the sober train with me. It’s been quite the journey, and I’m so glad we can all still have fun, be social, hang out in bars, and have a good time without alcohol. It is possible! It’s hard to believe I’ll be celebrating 2 years sober on November 26th. Time flies when you’re having fun!!
On a Wednesday night Cindy and I got the party started early at Boomerang with Jason Carst. Jason has joined on with some new fancy HD live-streaming. It’s pretty cool to see how many people he gets watching his live streams. Then when you can add in the link for people to send Virtual Tips and make requests, it’s all kinds of fancy, but also profitable for him. He’s made quite a few fans while performing on islands and boats at Raystown, so since some of those people live far away they can’t make it to his actual shows, so the live streams provide a great way for him to stay connected with his followers! Jason is another magical looper man too! It’s always interesting to see him get the magic started, and build the loops! Even though I see quite a few acoustic musicians and they all play a lot of the same songs, it’s still interesting how all of them are quite a bit different in their approach and delivery to their songs.
After Jason we zoomed over to Flinchy’s to finish the night with Matt Jameson. It had been quite a while since he was at Flinchy’s! It was awesome to see him back on the trainwreck deck! This was the first show I saw him sporting his new kilt! He recently signed a “sponsorship” with Metal AF Jewelry, where he got his kilt when they were a vendor at the Children’s Miracle Event. So you’ll be seeing Matt wear kilts quite frequently! If you want to be more like Matt, check out Metal AF Jewelry on Facebook and get yourself a fancy kilt to wear!
Friday night was another long, but super fun night! I gathered up my 3/4s of my Funnel of Fun and headed up to our first stop at Grandpa’s Love Shack for Matt’s last set. I never saw so many cars there! It was literally standing room only. He had lists of requests and everyone was sticking around til the end! Shermans Dale is one of those middle of the road kind of places. He had followers there from Duncannon, Carlisle, Millerstown, Harrisburg, etc. It was awesome to see so many people out supporting the Love Shack and Matt.
After his show we went to Shermans Creek for Stricken. Turns out they actually had two opening bands, so we didn’t get to stick around for Stricken, but we did get to see Alice-In-Sane and Illusion: A Tribute to Creed. Both bands had awesome sets. It was again crazy to see so many people at Shermans Creek Inn! The parking lot was packed! And inside again it was standing room only! It was exciting to see so many people Out and About! I saw a lot of familiar faces that I haven’t seen in quite a while! Shermans Creek always has great entertainment, and there is never a cover! Check out Shermans Creek Inn’s ad in this issue and plan your next night out on the town!
We unfortunately had to keep the party funnel spinning, and we had to head to Flinchy’s for Megan and Dave’s 100th Show! We heard Flinchy’s was having a costume party, so we swung into the Dollar General for party supplies! The ladies in the Shermans Dale Dollar General were so helpful and kind! It was by far one of the most organized Dollar Generals I’ve been in! Earline and her co-worker were top notch! We got our funnels, balloons, flowers, etc.. and off to Flinchy’s!
We stormed Flinchy’s and we brought in the celebration!!! We definitely surprised Megan and Dave, and we had a blast helping them celebrate their 100th show! It was also their first time playing at Flinchy’s after lots of time of being a patron supporting other musicians, so it was cool just seeing them playing there. Megan and Dave are constantly adding in more songs to their set list, which is hard to believe since they already play a wide variety of music, spanning 7 decades! Megan has been busy with school, but hopefully we will see her pull out her guitar more at future shows where she has a little bit more room. Congrats again guys! I can’t wait to see you hit the milestone of 1,000 shows!
The last show of the month was up to Mifflintown for Chad and Krissy’s Halloween Party, where we could Let the Ghoul Times Roll! Matt Jameson, Derek Henry, and John Staz jammed the night away. Chad and Krissy created a set list of 20 songs a piece for the guys to play, and John joined both of them on percussion. It’s always cool to see the songs that they pick. I love the Danzig song Matt plays now, and Derek did acoustic version of 2 MCR songs that made me really crave a Dead! Show!!! I hope I can convince Derek to play more MCR at his acoustic shows. He does such a great job covering those guys. Matt and Holly dressed up like Derek and Dylan in one of the Observe the 93rd videos, and I dressed up like an OT93 fan! It was a lot of fun on a Saturday night!! I’m glad I’ve met so many awesome people Out and About! Music truly is the bond that pulls us all together! And like Chad and Krissy always say, “Music Made Me Do It!”
Before I sign off for the month, as many of you have I’m sure read throughout this issue, last month one of our own, Chris Rider lost his house, and his 2 precious puppies, Guinness and Porter in a house fire. It was a devastating hit to the whole community, but most definitely to Chris, David and Wendy. A Go Fund Me was started, and multiple benefits have been happening. Nov. 1st there is a benefit at HMAC, and November 17th another one at Lovedrafts. Come out and support this family that needs us all to get through this difficult time.
That’s all for this month. There is so much to see and do! Flip through the pages, check out the schedules, and plan your next night out on the town! Get out there and Support Live, Local Music. Check out our website at www.pamusician.net.
