The summer of John continues with more adventures. I took a quick trip upstate over the weekend because my brother Jim was in town from New Mexico to visit my parents, along with my nibling Virgil. I drove up Friday afternoon and arrived in time to go see the band Steam Powered Giraffe, Virgil’s favorite group. They’re not just a rock band but also combine mime and improv comedy with the music. The whole act is framed on the premise that the members are actually performing robots, and the songs, costumes and visuals all have a heavy steampunk vibe. (They started as street buskers.) The show was really good and lots of fun. Everyone in the group sings so there’s lots of harmonies, and the two guys who sing lead the most have nicely contrasting styles. They all switch instruments too, and there’s a pair of dancing girls that are part of the act, and a sexy dancing robot giraffe character too. Blue hair abounds. After we arrived, someone gave Virgil three front row seats, so that made it extra fun.
The venue was a place called the Electric City, and it used to be the old Tralfamadore Cafe. The Tralf was a famous and historic jazz club that closed during the pandemic, so it’s nice to see it back in action as something new. When I went inside I hardly recognized the place. The stage is much bigger and fills one whole end of the hall rather than just a corner like it used to. There’s now rows of seating with risers where there used to be small tables, and I think the bar got moved back.
I stayed with Lizzy and Josh since Jim and Virgil were in the two spare rooms at my parent’s house. She lives in north Buffalo, not far from the neighborhood I grew up in. I brought my bike with me, and Saturday morning I took a bike ride up into Tonawanda. I passed by my old house, elementary school, church, library, and fire station. Then up to my middle school, the house we moved to later, and my high school. There’s a bike path running thru the town that used to be railroad tracks. I hopped on it and rode north to the end, to the City of Tonawanda where the Erie Canal meets the Niagara River, then turned around and took the trail all the way back to the south end and into the city, where it passed conveniently near Lizzy’s house. Twenty-two and a half miles, a pretty good ride.
Josh works nights at the hospital these days, and by the time I got back he was getting up, so I took him and Lizzy out to lunch at a bar in their neighborhood. I discovered a new kind of sandwich called a stinger, which is a combination of a steak hoagie and a buffalo chicken sub. Yum. In the afternoon Lizzy and I went went down to my parent’s house for a barbecue with the family.
Sunday I met my old friend Larry for lunch at a bar in East Aurora, and we hung out and talked for quite a long while. It was good to catch up, since I missed him last couple times I was in town. Larry is a really amazing drummer and percussionist, and Neil Peart was one of his big influences. I remember the summer between 10th and 11th grade the two of us learning La Villa Strangaito from start to finish. Rush was playing in Toronto Sunday night, and I almost convinced him that we should drive up and see the show. Unfortunately, we both had grownup things to do Monday morning.
In music studio land, I’ve been trying to improve the sound of my mixes. I recently got a book called Mixing with Impact by Wessel Oltheten, and it’s exactly the right book for me right now. It’s super well written, and goes into a great deal of technical detail about the physics and perceptual aspects of sound in the electronic and acoustic realms, as well as the human hearing apparatus. The first few chapters break down balance, panning EQ, and reverb. Everything always relates to how the music is heard, and how to make it communicate better, create clarity, space, focus, and all that. Highly recommended.