thick shakes

Moving day? 4

This entry was posted in 2012 cotton candy dirty truckers jenny dee kevin stevenson mike gent music pete hayes phil aiken planning Q Division sidewalk driver the upper crust thick shakes TRiPLE THiCK upper crust and tagged 2012 cotton candy crash safely dirty truckers jenny dee kevin stevenson MAybe Sump'ms mike gent music planning sidewalk driver thick shakes triple thick on by

Moving day. No matter the reason, the actual act of moving can be both good and bad at once.

Sometimes, bad news can lead to a dramatic positive change. Bad news in this case had to do with internal situations at Church. I didn’t want to deal with the major changes they decided they need to go through with.  My unhappiness about that situation lead me to wonder aloud, “where else can I go at this point?”

Charlie Brown

I have a lot more hair, though.

That somewhere, it just so happened, was the Davis Square Theater (the artist formerly known as Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway).

Except… they didn’t have the same dates I had booked originally for this show. They did, however, have a Friday/Saturday reserved for a friend of mine two weeks later.

Here’s where it get interesting.  Did you know that BikeMS NYC pushed back the ride from September 30th to October 21?  I booked Crash Safely thinking it was going to be closer to the ride than it ended up being. The theater had also hosted another MS event last year and mentioned that they’d like to host Crash Safely sometime.

All of the bands were/are able to move to the new dates, two weeks later.

New ticket links are on the way, but the change in venue comes with a few pluses:

First of all, there are seats.  While this may not matter for most rock shows, seating can be a make-or-break thing for MSers.  Last time I was at Church, there weren’t many chairs left on the club side.

Secondly, the parking/Red Sox/general weirdness of the Fenway is now in the past.  Spend enough time in that area, and even the most hardcore Red Sox fan will become loudest voice of dissent against them.

Third, the 21+ thing. That goes hand in hand with the strangeness of the Fenway.  Last year, the shows were 18+.  This year, they would have been 21+ by default, as the city has decided the club is in a residential area and….I guess they blame 18 year olds for the mayhem generally caused by drunken Sox fans?

Moving to the theater means new ticket links as well.  Don’t worry if you’ve already bought tickets; those are still good.  The nice thing with the new ticket system is that you’ll be able to make a donation as well as buy the tickets (after all, the tickets are donations to the National MS Society). There are also a lot more options in terms of how you get your tickets (will call, print at home, on your smartphone or mailed to you).  I’m looking forward to seeing how many different ways the tickets will be ‘printed.’

 

While the details are still be (re)worked out, know this:

Crash Safely is being held on 9/28 and 9/29 at the Davis Square Theater in Somerville, MA.

The only thing that’s changed is the date and the venue.

S’alright?

Duc D'istortion

S'alight.

Good news, the Rumble and Kevin Bacon

This entry was posted in 2012 dirty truckers gene dante jason bennett jenny dee john powhida kevin stevenson mike gent music sidewalk driver the in out thick shakes titanics TRiPLE THiCK and tagged 2012 crash safely dirty truckers gene dante and the future starlets jenny dee mike gent music planning sidewalk driver the in out thick shakes titanics triple thick on by

It’s always good to be able to update with positive things, and positive surprises are even better.

First off, Thick Shakes got the wild card for the next Rock’n’Roll Rumble round! They join a well heeled group of Rumble veterans at Crash Safely, including last year’s winner, two of  last year’s semi-finalists, both of the runners up in 2009, the winners in 2002, participants in 2008, participants from last year, participants from 1988, participants from 2001,  and a member of the band that won in 1989, as well as members of bands from 1999.  Now that I’ve put more hyperlinks in one sentence than a human normally does, thus sending this into the spam-alert zone, I can also mention we got some love from the third band to win the Rumble as well.  There were 10 bands that played last year and about the same amount getting ready for this year.

Now that should keep you clicking around the internet for a good amount of time.  While I never set out to ask Rumble bands to play these shows, it turns out that many of them have the Rumble in common. It also points out just how many people are affected, in some way, by MS. In a way, it makes sense; It doesn’t take long to be within six degrees of anyone.  We have friends, family and coworkers; our friends have friends, family and other coworkers etc., etc. No wonder you’ll be within 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon; the number of people these folks know is astounding!   If you’re feeling particularly dorky, check out this lecture where Harvard Professor David Malan talks about Facebook and the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and actually uses some small (for Facebook) numbers to see exactly how that plays out.

Kevin Bacon

and now your Bacon number just went up.

 

We’re a lot more connected to each other than we’d like to imagine.

There’s more good news, but it’s still in process.  Being a believer in chance, I don’t want to mention what those things are until they’re a bit more solid, but trust me… it’s really amazing.  Not as amazing as bacon, perhaps, but amazing nonetheless.

bacon

The Amazing Bacon Dispenser.

So really, who’s playing?

This entry was posted in 2012 cotton candy dirty truckers jenny dee mike gent pete hayes phil aiken planning sidewalk driver thick shakes titanics TRiPLE THiCK and tagged clamdiggers cotton candy crash safely dirty truckers jenny dee MAybe Sump'ms mike gent satanics sidewalk driver thick shakes titanics triple thick on by

Spots on this year’s dates filled up fast. There were folks who wanted to play last year but couldn’t, so as a result, we’re just getting some details down right now.   Looking at last year’s emails..we’re a full month ahead of schedule (and can nearly beat the Rumble in terms of announcing who’s playing).  When the specifics are finalized, You’ll see the full list here, as well as links for tickets, donating to and joining the Maybe Sump’ms and more.  Last year’s Friday headliners were a reunited Titanics; that crew is on for this year, although they haven’t decided if they will be the Titanics, the Satanics, or as the pre-Upper Crust band The Clamdiggers. Don’t know the Clamdiggers?

Nat Freedberg

Maybe you’ve heard at least this song by them:

or perhaps you’ve seen Nat elsewhere….

but chances are, you’ve never seen him with these guys.

At least, you haven’t seen that…yet….

Friday’s just about spoken for…

This entry was posted in 2012 mike gent music pete hayes planning thick shakes titanics and tagged 2012 dirty truckers mike gent planning thick shakes on by

The weather outside is perfectly springish.  Seeing as we’re in the habit of skipping seasons, I’m OK with skipping right to the end of summer/beginning of fall with news about the Crash Safely shows.  Last year featured 5 bands each night (well, OK, 5 1/2, there was a mini Figgs set on Friday).  While that was an amazing amount of music, it left little time for the raffle and silent auction. That was a shame, because we had some great stuff up for grabs (as the folks who won can attest to).

The shows were a big success!  The entire Maybe Sump’ms team landed in the top 20 for fundraising, rubbing shoulders with the financial giants who probably force people at gunpoint to ride have the cash to spare to match donations. Our scrappy little team is 100% friends, family and fans.  The shows helped the team more than double the amount we raised the year before.  If you went to the shows, you did that.  If you played the shows, you did that.   If you sent in a donation, you did that. You’re Maybe Sump’ms, too!

We’re an “elite” team now, which means..

Duc D'istortion

It's cool, right?

…maybe we should get the Upper Crust to come along and serenade us in the super special team village this year. They played Store 54, after all…

I’d love to see the looks that would get.  Sweaty riders coming in, being greeted by this:

 

 

 

 

Speaking of the Crust, Jackie Kickassis has penned a tune that’s being recorded at Woolly Mammouth Sound thanks to the silent auction from last year. Really.  I’m hoping to get a sample of the dirty little ditty to share here.

 

In the meantime, we’ve just added our buddies The Dirty Truckers to the mix!  They wanted to play last year, but couldn’t make the dates work. I’ll be adding a video of them to the main page soon.