Good morning friends, greetings from Somerville. My last missive from this fair city, before we head back to NC on Sunday. There is rain still. There is construction noise from them tearing down the building next door. I love this city.

It is April 3: Happy birthday Jamie, one of the few birthdays I remember.

And the day of the last Galaxie 500 show in Boston, their second-to-last show, April 3, 1991, opening for the Cocteau Twins at BU’s Walter Brown Arena my god am I lucky to have seen that show.

Some call-back items:

The little wooden cubes from the play space were actually awesome. What it is is indoor sand for an indoor sand pit. They had a giant pit filled with those things, so it’s sorta like a ball pit, but also like a sand box indoors, and it was kind of genius. I kind of want to make some. It wouldn’t be too hard, but it would be tedious to make it in bulk. The stuff was brilliant.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES: Last weekend of Girl Scout cookies for the year, I know right, I can’t believe this shit is still going. But also ANOTHER FREE SHIPPING WEEKEND, so get your last fix of cookies now until next January.

I misspoke when I said my old work was on Berkeley Street. It was actually on Arlington. It was here. And Google Maps tells me it’s actually a ghurch again, not a private residence, so that is cool. They seem a bit mysterious, though. Hipster church. May or may not be homophobic. Unclear from its website. But it is very weird to see a video of a woman preaching in my old office.

Do you think Donald Trump or any member of his cabinet has ever known the joy of a rock show? The catharsis of being part of a community that all embraces some weird thing? Do you think Stephen Miller has ever seen a mosh pit? Do you think these people know anything about the shit people get up to in this country? People speaking in tongues in churches, diving into the pit, dancing with ecstatic abandon in a theater or nightclub? Have any of them ever danced? Have they ever known the joy of a communal online moment that has nothing to do with politics Leeeroy Jenkins? Shit do we think they have ever even gotten excited about an amazing feat in a sports game?

Went to a show last night. It really was something. It was a redemption of sorts, because it was a show I skipped out of sheer laziness in Chapel Hill and then immediately felt bad about it. Sent me into a spiral of thinking about going to shows in Chapel Hill vs Boston and going to shows alone and all that. When I got tickets for the show up here, I assumed someone would come with me, I could rope some friend into going. And I probably could’ve, but it was logistically different due to a lovely dinner we had at a friends’ house in the burbs before it.

I had told myself that going to shows alone in Boston is very different than Chapel Hill because I know a ton of people here, so when I go to a show here, I am apt to run into people. And that was technically true — I did run into one dude I kind of know who is a sound dude at a nightclub and another dude I kind of know who is a tour manager, and they were both my age. And that was enough to make me feel like I wasn’t “alone.” But other than that, my god. This crowd was young.

It was one of those shows from that scene that is blooming that’s the merging of shoegaze and metal. Such a fascinating world. Four bands. I knew the first and the fourth. I did not know the middle two.

It didn’t make me feel old, though. It made me feel… proud. Like this little scene from the 90’s has grown and become a thing. There was “shoegaze,” ‘91, ‘92. Then the fallow years. Where were all these shoegaze fans in 1997, I ask you. Rockets Burst from the Streetlamps and Mellonova needed you. How much cooler would it be to be known as a has-been musician compared to being known as a has-been businessman.

We had lyrics you could understand, though. Without effort. Four bands last night, very different in styles, but I could not discern a single lyric all night and that was just fine. Four vibes bands.

But I do like lyrics. Brooding, sensitive, yearning lyrics.

Weirdly, also not a lot of delay or echo, which were defining effects of shoegaze 1.0. There are these “shoegaze” bits of the songs where they use some delay, but then they switch right back to no echo, no delay. Because you can’t really do that metal stop-start thing with a bunch of swirling echo. The metal is there, the metal is there. That and the vocals almost act as signifiers that this whole thing is metal and not wussy or something. It is weird.

Also the tech is so much better. Not just the soundsystem. They had a projector that all the bands used for awesome visuals, and the third band of the night had these super-posh looking LED lights in sync with the music. None of that shit was possible back in the 90s. We tried, but projectors were huge and expensive, playback from the computers of the day was laggy, lights were expensive. Rockets had its little blue rotating light, though. Loved that little guy.

Kinda want a T-Shirt that says “Shoegaze 1.0” on it.

Kinda thinking I might press 250 or so copies of a Rockets compendium LP with the best songs from the two albums and live stuff. Except Annie’s not around to design it.

Man I missed her last night.

First band — Violent Magic Orchestra — were from Japan and dressed like death rockers and sounded like a Japanese version of Atari Teenage Riot and it was just amazing and hilarious. They are popular — filled more than half the Sinclair for an opening band of a four-band set. There was a pit. There was a lot of death metal growling vocals from two men and a woman. It was glorious.

Second band coulda fit right in during the 90’s. Not too shoegaze, actually, but more like a slow-core band from the 90’s — Milkmoney or Shallow a little bit or maybe more mellow Velocity Girl or Tsunami. They were called Cryogeyser. Kinda an icky name, but I liked them. The singer said they were a “lore band” which added a nice Gen Z touch. She also called Boston the land of “The Drop Nineteens and Pixies” and shouted “who else?” and the one other old dude shouted “Galaxie 500!” Props.

Third band was great, total metal shoegaze, friends of the headliners, both from Philly. Came on stage, said “We’re Full Body 2, fuck ICE, free Palestine,” started rocking. Whole crowd cheered. These aren’t even remotely controversial views amongst significant portions of America’s kids. Moments of perfect auditory ecstasy, the exact sonic genius that a great shoegaze band can do. Of the MBV “Soon” ilk with mysteriously emanating synth chimes but mostly guitar. They were called Full Body 2 and they rolled into actions slowly, first couple songs a little sloppy but eventually hitting their stride and the divine. Got the sense they were up late on the tour bus and just getting going for the day.

And the headliner, Nothing. Giant pit. The scene is sort of figuring out how to be a scene independent of the shoegaze and metal scenes at its root. Nothing sounds pretty straight-ahead shoegaze on album but this was far more metal-ish. There was a giant pit. You don’t see a pit at a shoegaze show very often, or you didn’t, “in the old days,” except for that one at the Lush/Ride show in ‘91, back when there was a pit at almost every Boston show.

Shit maybe we were ahead of our time.

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We are listening to the new Neurosis this morning. I did not listen to Neurosis back in the day, I was too delicate and wounded and sensitive to listen to such macho rock. I sometimes wore women’s clothes sometimes and sometimes make-up and I had very hollow cheekbones. Man I miss those cheeks. This album is pretty good now. I am old and jaded and macho now and listen to the soulful moaning of other men in angry pain. I’m gonna have to go listen to all this old Neurosis now I guess. Raaaaaaaage.

The Sinclair is a very good place to see a show. It is about 75% of a Music Hall of Williamsburg. It has sound as good as the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Say what you want about Bowery Presents but they are still a booking company slash venue-owner that cares about a good soundsystem. They tried to make the Sinclair like MHOW or Bowery Ballroom (which they no longer book. It is confusing) just as they made Roadrunner like Brooklyn Steel. But the Sinclair lacks in several key ways: It only has one staircase to the balcony. The balcony “bleachers” sitting area is too small, and that stupid step-up at the back sucks. I do like the “hang out and chill” bar being in the back as opposed to downstairs, though, like it is at MHOW or Bowery Ballroom.

They sure run a tight ship, though. Four bands: 8PM. 8:45PM. 9:30 PM, 10:15 PM. Right on time.

During lunch yesterday I took the T to the MFA and met up with my old friend slash old true-love Abigail and we wandered around amongst our old friends the Sargents and the Monets and caught up on our lives. It was lovely. Love her, love that place, hadn’t been in years and years. Coulda spent forever there. Didn’t get to do my usual thing of wandering through the decorative arts and musical instruments sections and whatnot. They have changed the place so much since I was last there. The big main entrance is open again and I was perpetually turned around. But it was still pretty great.

While I was at the show my sister texted me and told me I should get a copy of my best-in-class wedding planning guide for men, Man Nup, to Travis Kelce. So if anyone wants to do a little internet sleuthing and figure out where fans send him shit for his podcast or whatever, I will send a book along. Because if there’s one thing that gives me massive anxiety, it is those moments of sudden, out-of-the-blue momentary fame the internet gives you. Yeah those don’t fuck me up at all.

Jane Jane Jane. Do I have a good anecdote for today? Didn’t see much of her yesterday, she and Emma went to the Museum of Science. She was great at the dinner, though. Played very well with two younger kids. She is excited to see her friend today. She has been halfway decent stopping using her screen the last few days since the big three-hour blow-up last saturday. OH. She said something really interesting yesterday. Well, it wasn’t that interesting, but she actually shared it with us, which is always a rarity. She said the reason she always asks for iPad when she has some free time is because everything else she likes doing she has to see it in front of her to want to do it. Emma said that there’s this technique with some types of neurodivergent kids where you leave everything out for them to find and experience. And we do do that in her bedroom but not in the living rooms. We should find some way to leave other things out so she “discovers” them more.

So, you know. One more thing to improve upon.

God, Rick. Be a better parent.

Actually have a playlist for you, the show inspired me to finish up this noise and metal one, so you can hear some of the bands from last night aren’t I nice? And this new Neurosis I’m listening to now. And this great band Fórn that Nick alerted me to in the Bell Witchian style.

All right. Have a lovely day and if all goes well you will hear from me in North Carolina on Monday. Have a lovely weekend.