01/03/2024
Happy New Year Friends! It’s been a wild ride these last few weeks with Christmas, New Years, and everything in between. As you can imagine, we’ve had a lot of live shows as well as some big releases. This week I checked in with Matt and Rhey about all the shows they did this last week. Then I talked to Doug and Troy from Troy Story Band, Loose Affiliates, etc. about their New years shows and the Thadon release party at Frogees.
First in from the art cave, NOTHING! So damn metal, I know. So I’m going to do my own fun art for a while and catch up on a few things I’ve been wanting to do while I look for a fancy new day job. Unless of course someone needs something? JK, I really just want to draw stupid stuff before I have to go back to the grind. I will still be available for work through The Lost Octopus and blackhat Studios, but my calendar will be much tighter.
We sure ended the year STRONG with a string of shows. Starting off with the 30th of December we had two separate shows at 18 Taps and Frogee’s. I got the usual “It was cool” from Matt about the shows, but Rhey had this to say about the show’s she went to:
Jb from local band Smokeout hosted the frogees finale on December 30th which was an absolute blast. The musicians he booked brought such a great energy to frogees and the crowd was loving it. Packed house, great music, good vibes, and Chris was selling his street dogs so overall I’d say it was one of the better nights out of the year.
I’m not too sure about how New Year’s Eve went since I was only there for about an hour so Matt will know more about that. (uh huh)
On New Year’s Day Troy Story released their EP Thadon so we had the release party that night. Order of the Fallen Stars, Crystal Gift Shop, and Loose Affiliates were invited to perform and brought a great crowd with them for it being a Monday. I haven’t seen the parking lot that packed on a weekday in quite a while! The night ended with a double encore and people were still begging to hear more music. It was great to see them play as a full band.
I spoke with Troy about the release party for Thadon that happened Monday 01/01/24 at Frogee’s. When I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to say about the release or the show he said, “well they wouldn’t let us leave after our last song (lol) so I guess you could say they loved us.” He also mentioned that they got, “…an overwhelmingly positive response from people who could make it to the show.” It’s the first time they’ve performed as a whole band in quite some time so that in itself was an extra special treat. The crowd was into the music so much that they ended up playing a double encore with some awesome solos by their resident face melter, Doug Strange and others, if I heard correctly. Nothing makes me happier than successful release shows. Everyone works so hard on these projects that nights like these really stoke the fire for future successes. Thank you to everyone who went out and supported Troy Story Band this week. Don’t forget to check out Thadon on your favorite streamer today, and next time you catch them at a show don’t forget to grab a fancy tie dye shirt, sticker, or a button from their new merch line.
Doug and I chatted about multiple shows. He played several of the shows blackhat was running LSR for this last week. I think he played for a whole lotta bands too. Loose Affiliates played new years eve at BBB&G along with Surreal Faces, and the new but already fantastic Revolver band. If you didn’t get a chance to catch Revolver at this show, I suggest you try catching them soon. Two members of the Examiners are back playing together in this new band and I’ve always enjoyed the hell outta Mike Bailey and Greg Paz’s shows together. After all these groups played, Whiskey Flats took over for the rest of the evening. Doug admitted they went too hard on New Years eve, but how can you help it when it’s such a blast to hang with Peter and the gang.
Doug also gave me some insight into the release party show for Thadon. He mentioned that Order of the Falling Stars played a set and that it was his first time hearing them. He really liked their sound and now I’m anxious to try catching them somewhere. Loose Affiliates also played a set since most of the band was already going to be there playing in TSB. They are always really fun to see. The last band that Doug mentioned having been invited to play at the release was Crystal Gift Shop, another blackhat alumnus you should check out if you haven’t heard them yet. They are the most punk rock, jazz pop band you’ll ever hear and they put on a good show. If you like reminders that Boy George is doing heroin for your sins and…well, Parrots (if you know you know), this is definitely your band.
Essentially, from the three members of Troy Story I did talk to after the show, it sounds like it was one hell of a night.
Matt did actually mention a snippet about playing bass for Marty. Mostly that it was cool to play again, but he’s too busy with everything else to make it a regular thing. If you want to play a game you can go poke around a few of our artists albums and try to guess which ones he may have played bass on. Could be more than you think…could also be none, but if it gets you over to their pages, let’s play.. Comment on this post if you can find me a song or an album you think he played on. If you’re the artist, pfffft….no honey, that’s cheating. If we get some engagement and a correct answer or two I will send/deliver the winner a lil prize. If not, well we can try something else next time. We’ve only got 6 ‘published’ artists so it shouldn’t be hard to come up with a guess.
Hopefully I didn’t forget anything, but I probably did. Thanks for checking in this week friends. Until next time…
blackhat 