I did a series of shows as “The TickleBomb Orchestra” with Mark Leighton, Jon Gryckiewicz, Willow, Derek Meade and Larry Wilson this weekend starting Wednesday night in Worcester at my friend Jenny’s tattoo group meetup. It was stupid fun, and the place was SWARMING with beautiful tattoo’d people. No complaints here! :)

The group started as a reaction to a pretty dim-witted and ignorant article about tattoos on women (no, you didn’t just go back in time to the 1950’s) by a local journalist in Worcester Magazine. I don’t fault WoMag for printing the article, and I certainly don’t fault the author for having her own opinion on the matter…but you can’t say dumb things without people reacting, y’know?

The night started off with Cowboy Matt playing some tunes with Larry and Mark to a full house packed with new and old friends alike…then I hopped on the guitar to give Mark a break and we did a version of “Wanderer’s Lament” - which is one of my favourite songs to play, so that was fun.

Then we blazed through a great, extended, set of all the songs we practiced and a few we didn’t. It was an AMAZING start to the weekend.

Then we hopped in the van (thanks to Peter Fuller Van Rentals) on Friday and headed down to the Space Palace to rock out with Ellis Ashbrook and the impeccable Many Mansions (whom I’ve seen in more slimmed down lineups at the White Haus many times…great folks, amazing music).

The place was absurd, as usual. Steve Grise was doing live video-mixing, including mixing in the painting that Anthonty P. Cerretani was working on in real-time! The place is a great environment, with creative people in spitting distance at any time. Seriously, if you want to spit on a creative person, that’s the place to do it. That would make you something of a fuckhead, but dowutchyalike.

Then we left at 4am to hit the road for DC, where we were going to play Six Flags for a 2.5 hour chunk in the middle of the day. The stage setup was RIDICULOUS and set the mood for the performance, which honestly felt very out of place. Through it all, the amazing Liz Metelsky had our backs and provided a comfortable and warm environment.

One of the highlights for me, though, was going on the Mind Eraser. I had a very personal moment that reminded me of my family on one of our only “vacations”. Since we pretty much lived on the road, “staying home” was more of a vacation than a vacation tends to be for most.

I could go more into that but it’s personal, sad and likely very boring. You can ask if you like. If you’re reading this blog, you know I’m an open book.

Then we made the trek home and Monday night I played an amazing house venue, doing a rap set, called The Burrow in Allston. Met so many lovely and amazing people there, I can’t wait to go back! Ira Lee put on an amazing show and was a great dude. I wish him luck on the rest of his tours and travels, and I’m sure we’ll meet again. Emoh Betta was there, doing the DAMN thing like usual…actually, no. Not at all like usual. He was extroverted, having a great time, and clearly LOVING performing with Ira. I’ve seen Emoh kill it with my man H.W. many times, but I’d often naively attributed it to a special relationship they shared, being something of an outsider in that social circle. It turns out that Emoh is like one of those crazy ass lizards made of colours never meant to go together that can still camouflage themselves when necessary. There to shine when it’s time, out the fuckin’ way when it ain’t. The dude is worth looking into if you like sonic art, period.

All in all, it was 4 very different - yet similar places. All of them providing a familiarity of their own…I can’t wait to do it again. :)