07/18/2024
Days late and a dollar short as usual lately, many thanks for your patience friends. It’s been an interesting week. We had a show last Friday night at Frogee’s with JB and company that also happened to be Rhey’s birthday. I missed calling out birthdays to a lot of our Blackhat family the last few weeks. Total fail, but alas, I am only human.
We also had a show at Townsend booked with the Lilies on Saturday. Also on Saturday was the release party for Trippin’ Sober, the first solo release by the one and only Andrew English. I had been collaborating with Rizz, Andrew’s wife and partner in crime, for a few special things for that show so that is where I spent my Saturday evening. There was a raffle for some fun stuff including an epiphone SG bass guitar courtesy of B & S Guitar Co, a gift basket of great merch from Andrew and Rizz’s booths, and a couple of tie dye bundles from yours truly. So let’s get into the details.
shows
JB Birthday Bash – This weekend was a busy one for the blackhat crew! On the 12th we had Local Band Smokeouts very own JB hosting his album release and birthday party featuring Lyonz, Heart Divided who came all the way from Boston, In Your Absence, GHippy, Papi Salvi Covid, Qurfew, Humble Crumb, and of course JB Music. The night was full of laughs, drinks, great music, and great energy from all around. -Rhey
Lilies at Townsend – The following day Marty Calderon and The Lillies played at Townsend Distillery and from the reactions everyone received, I’d say it was a good night. Marty always puts on a good show so I was very excited to see him play again. The Lillies have always been a favorite of mine to see perform and getting to work with them again was an absolute pleasure.
-Rhey
Trippin’ Sober Release – Speaking as a spectator this show was super chill and the music was a surprisingly fun mix of genres. The evening started off with Teddy Bob Rides Again, playing some southernish songs about substance abuse, and moved right along into an acoustic set from Chris Gonzales. Following that was Heavily Discounted, a killer band of teens playing some alternative rock favorites from the 90’s and early 2000’s. If you haven’t seen them yet, check them out, they are taking SoCal by storm. GHippy and the one and only Mahdski also did solo sets. I had never heard Mahdski before and I was told this was a special performance, but I’m surprised because he was really good. I hope I see more of him around at shows. The headliner, the reason we were all there, the man himself…I knew he was a good solo artist. I’d heard him do acoustic covers and things at Frogee’s years ago, before I knew who TDP was. To say I was surprised and impressed with his set would be an understatement. With a live band, a little live show engineering, and the right marketing this guy is going somewhere. I must say Andrew, your songs were unequivocally fucking bussing sir. Hat’s off to you. Congrats guys, I can’t wait to see how far you can take this.
art
I decided to go to this show and give selling off a bit of my old merch stock another go. I didn’t have high hopes, not because of the possibility of low traffic or anything else, but because I’ve been sitting on this stuff for ages and it barely moves. I had two good events where I made a few hundred bucks on shirts, but currently trying to sell them for $10-15 vs the $25-60 I used to list them at has done little to move anything significant. I did sell 5ish things, but the sheer volume of varied patterns and colors seem to bother people. I don’t have most of my setup for vending anymore, so everything is really slapdash when I do events. Frankly, it sucks, and I know I’m breaking all of the rules of retail. How do I fix that? Add logos or characters to the random colored shirts? Don’t get me wrong, the dye jobs look great, they are just really intimidating to shop through. I dunno, but I’m no longer the actual tie-dye lady. I sold all my supplies to Patricia Strong, who also happened to win the bass at the show. I will still take special orders, but not singles, only bulk makes for merch lines or events. Aside from that show and the tie dye I did for the raffle and Andrew’s table runner I have wrapped up all the bigger projects I had backed up.
The last two months have been a wild ride. All of the events both tragic and magical, have made me think quite heavily about mortality and what things I want to invest the rest of my little time with. I know I probably still have a lot of good years left, but they will go by all too quickly. I want to do more art, I want to sew more, I want to actually get that damn podcast off the ground… That’s the plan for the next few weeks, write more podcast episodes. We’ve spent weeks cleaning and reorganizing my house to try and feel as though we have some small amount of control over our lives and I think we’ve finally gotten to a place where I can start adding new things again. I can’t wait to share whatever the heck ends up falling out of my imagination with you guys. Until next time Gadget…
blackhat 