Good morning good morning. Running late this morning, runnin’ hot. Got a revenue meeting in 10 minutes Gott knows when I will get this thing out today. But I may as well start.

NYT emailing me again this morning to tell me my Omega-3 isn’t doing any good. Man why you gotta do a thing I just want some good cholesterol in my body. I am getting so desperate I’ve agreed with Emma to actually face my childhood trauma and (shudder) try and eat salmon again. I don’t know how you people do it. That shit is so gross. So oily. With fish oil. Filled with Omega-3… wait a minute.

Yogurt journey is going okay, though. Stevia makes it great. And Emma and Jane got a metric ton of blueberries at one of those New England blueberry-picking experiences (thank you Craig and First Jane and Ada) while I was off at a funeral. My god this family has eaten so many blueberries this week my antioxidants must be through the roof. I am currently working through this hippie yogurt I got from the hippie co-op in Chapel Hill because it’s the only yogurt in the world that does not come in plastic. Friend, it is runny. Pretty gross looking. But it tastes fine. Especially with a dash of stevia and fresh-picked blueberries.

Also: IMPORTANT FOOD ALERT: Pepperoni flavored turkey chomps are BACK. I just got some in the mail. Hello old friend. You were missed. yes I know that processed meats are killing me and the sodium is insane. You are just too delicious. Oh my god I need to stop eating meat.

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We’re listening to the Sheila Divine again this morning, their masterpiece of male middle agedness, The Beginning of the End is Where We’ll Meet Again, not to be confused with their more recent masterpiece of make middle agedness, This Middle Ages. This one hits me harder. I need that this morning. I need that.

Woah good morning for music news! Ida is touring, coming to Durham, very exciting. Reissuing their second record. Heavens to Betsey is coming too. That’ll be a hoot.

Live music, man. The best. The best.

Speaking of which: we had the BEST night last night. All the feels, as the tour is called. Thirty or so Canadians who have all been friends for like 25 years. Metric, Broken Social Scene and Stars.

Oh my god what a great show. ‘Twas at MGM Fenway, which I didn’t want to go to until Sean assured me it was a very good venue. Man he was not joking. We have written in GMHHAY much in the past about my thesis that we are in a golden era of music venue design and construction. Virtually every newly built music venue I have been to in the last few years has been amazing. Amazing acoustics, amazing sight lines. I mean, I know they’r corporate, and I do love a good converted auto shop or something (looking at you, Motorco) but holy shit to the MGM Fenway, Roadrunner, Sinclair, Brooklyn Steel, etc. sound fucking awesome. This makes me very, very fucking excited for the new larger live room Cat’s Cradle is building near their current location.

I got really upset upon seeing this amazing place about not having gone to see the Bauhaus show there, but Bradley told me it didn’t happen, got cancelled. Whew. This place, man. It sounds so good. Not only that, our friend Kenny is the bartender in this sort-of secret bar there and that bar has comfy seats and a screen and they play the soundboard mix right into the bar so if there’s a band you are sorta curious about between bands you love, you can just chill with friends and talk and listen.

Stars are a weird band, incredibly all over the map, and some people love them for it. I am more of a “I like my songs that I like by Stars and don’t care tons for the others” but in their very short set they managed to play most of my favorite Stars songs, including two from their first album 25 years ago that Amy Milan handed me at a party at my house. Talk about kicking the night off with nostalgia.

Briefly saw Ashley and Suzy but not enough because I needed to pop in and see Kenny between the bands. Thought I could find them again. MGM Fenway is HUGE. Capacity is FIVE THOUSAND Google Kagi tells me. But so well designed. One of those “party in the front business in the back” new venues with a very large GA area surrounded by balconies of seats. Choose your flavor.

Broken Social Scene are my band of the three, I have seen them maybe a dozen times through the years, in five states that I cans think of offhand. I have seen them in rooms the size of bodegas, I have seen them on the main stage at Lolla. They have never sounded as good as they did last night. Is it the seniority? Their sound guy? The room? All of it? I do not know man, but it was fucking amazing.

Plus they had Amy from Stars and Emily from Metric, so they could do things like play “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-old Girl” with Emily singing it. And Amy for good measure. And Jill who has been in the band for a while now for good measure. My god. “Wrote this song twenty-five years ago in a basement with two of my best friends and here they are,” Kevin says as Emily and James from Metric come on stage.

Reader, I cried. And when I turned my head away in shame to wipe away a tear, the stranger standing next to me was also turned his head away, toward me, wiping his tears away too. We looked at each other and started laughing hysterically.

ALL THE FEELS.

Turns out he was a friend of a friend, in a band I liked back in the 90’s. The friend used to road manage BSS. She agreed this was the best they’d ever sounded. WE WERE FEELING IT.

Kevin introduced the horns section of BSS by saying “friends from elementary school, friends from summer camp, from high school, from college, from LIFE: The horn section.” So many odes to friendship with the banter of these three bands with mixed members who have been doing this for decades together. Members wandered on and off the stage constantly. BSS ranged from 7 to 19 members from song-to-song. SO GREAT. ALL THE FEELS.

Back to Kenny’s secret bar, got to meet a Boston punk rock legend, in a band I was listening to before I moved here. SO GREAT.

We had peeked at the setlist and Sean, Emma and I decided we could watch the first couple Metric songs from the comfort of the bar before we headed back to the floor. But as we were doing this, Kenny grabbed us and escorted us to a VIP table that had gone unsold, or unattended, our purchased by early bird Stars fans. So we got to watch all of Metric from the VIP first row of the balcony. Fucking awesome.

Once we were up there I took a look at my texts. My 70-ish uncle is out of the hospital, neck surgery, lucky guy now has a fused neck like his nephew. My 84 year uncle is apparently getting married again to a woman named JOYCE. My friend was plotting to get more injured kids out of Gaza. Texting with my sister, with friends all over the country.

ALL THE FEELS.

Metric obliged me by playing two of my three favorite Metric songs, from mid-career albums a decade-plus ago, after their first wave of hits, before this current wave. No chance of playing my second-favorite Metric song, because it has Lou Reed on it. But I did get to see them do that once, at Lou’s last live appearance ever, and I am forever grateful. Metric came onstage with Lou playing as tribute.

My god I had no idea Metric were so big now, and I had no idea “Help I’m Alive” was such a big hit. One of the few the balconies showed any energy for. But hey, I get it. I go see GREAT bands sometimes, sit in the balcony and just chill. It is a different kind of vibe but it’s also a great one.

After the show, we doubled down and Sean, Emma and I went to Man Ray for the goth Karaoke night which now has more than twice as many attendees as the last time I went. Lindsey the bartender sang “Tell it to My Heart” – Lindsey has such an amazing voice, Sean did People are People. Man Ray’s new head of security did “Sometime Around Midnight” and man, I don’t even like The Airborne Toxic Event but that is a top-ten song in my life. Some petite little librarian-looking woman belted out a near-perfect version of Alannis’ “Ironic.” An Asian man belted out a stunning version of some Drops of Jupiter song (I am informed, I have never heard of them) and a group of women he did not know started clawing at him, mesmerized. Two girls with scene hair – are scene girls back? - did a Panic at the Disco song not well but it was still fantastic. A moody woman put a couch on the stage and sang a Lana Del Rey song with her back to us. A+.

ALL THE FEELS WHAT A NIGHT.

Back in bed by 1

Got eight hours of sleep. I might need a nap.

And now I am staying home for a few nights.

Oh shit I shoulda bought a shirt.

Jane’s being amazing this morning. Let me sleep till 8:55, was super kind all morning, we had long discussions about kindness and being mean and her feelings, while we snuggled and it was just the best.

I did not develop that middle aged ability to just stay home when things are going on because I moved the woods and it is very hard to me to stay home in Boston, especially since dozens of my old dirtbag rock and bar friends are, a decade-plus later, still at it. And Boston doesn’t forget you. Once you’re in, you’re in for life. Welcome home. Have a beer.

No playlist today. I mean shit it’s now almost 1 PM. But hey, here. You need this.

Until tomorrow!