Weekly Roundup 3/23 - 3/29

Welcome back, very busy week this week. 6 days in a row, one is technically a meeting, but still having to be at work six days in a row is not gonna be the most wonderful thing. That paycheck is gonna be craaaazy though (money tongue emoji x5). Anyway, enjoy my words.

3/23/26 - Westerman w/ Otto Benson

I was really excited to work this one, and it was really really easy. 64 ticket sold, but ended up being about 100 in the room with people from guest list and a promo list. Ridiculously chill crowd, literally nothing at the door and the crowd inside was pretty sedate. Otto was really really good, the songs on record are very quiet and intimate, but live they had a very fuzzy, warm, cozy quality that doesn't come across as clearly on the record. His friend was also up there with him and I don't quite know if they were improvising or if these were songs that were written for two guitars, but either way it sounded fantastic. Very beautiful, really happy I got to watch.

Westerman was alright, nothing crazy, but I also wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Sounded like some "adult contemporary" stuff, but it wasn't offensive. Maybe it sounds better on the record. He is on Partisan Records, who have put out stuff that I do like, so maybe I do just have to try the record. Super easy shift, good music, no problems. Couldn't really as for a more painless shift. Did not get another beer, though. Still 2/9 beers.

3/24/26 - Bryant Barnes

To be completely honest I'm writing this on Friday before I leave for my shift, so my memory of this night is a little fuzzy. Sorry, been a little busy. However, I do remember walking in during the meet and greet and as I was grabbing my walkie and walking back towards the restaurant to sit until the show actually started, I heard Bryant Barnes say "Oh, yeah, San Francisco let me down, man. They just let me fall." Had to hit the iShowSpeed emote to stop myself from laughing out loud. Embarrassing enough to be dropped (I assume while trying to crowd surf), but even more so being asked about it in a city 3,000 miles away. Generally pretty chill night, though the funniest fake ID related thing I've heard yet happened where a guy and his friend came in, both with Xs on their hands, and she seemed to be intoxicated so my colleague pulled them aside just to see what's going on. When asked if either of them are 21 the guy says yes and proceeds to pull out a fake ID and had it to my coworker. They were already inside and this guy decided now would be a good time to try and present a fake. Hilarious.

The music itself was kind of whatever. Honestly, the opener (I am forgetting his name completely) wasn't bad. Both artists were that kind of modern R&B music that's increasingly popular, but I do not often listen to that kind of music so I wouldn't even be able to tell you if an artist was good or not, I just don't know enough about it. However, the sound or the microphone or something went out during the opener's set, and he wasn't able to use his monitors while singing for the second half of his set and still managed to put on a good show, so props to him on that. Bryant Barnes was another story. He was doing the same kind of thing Ben Quad was, referencing memes and trends in an apparent attempt to keep the audience's attention or something. He got up on stage and said "We eatin good noodles every day", referencing the parody video of Tay-K that's been popular again on Tiktok. Lord. Then later he said something along the lines of "Shoutout Roblox, Shoutout Minecraft". Right. Later took his shirt off. Alright man. He also came out for an encore to Fein. Typing this out I remembered how much I actually disliked his set. 

It really does feel like there's more and more artists that are coming through Sinclair for the purposes of people just being able to see in person the people that they follow on Tiktok. I feel like that's an increasing thing in general and I really really don't like it. The music industry (Barnes is signed to Mercury Records, an imprint of Universal; According to wikipedia he was picked up after the label noticed his cover of an XXXTentacion song) was able to figure out a way to monetize and capitalize off of music and merch sales from online personalities, but it's really scary that they're able to put that into the live music space. Really kind of feels like people are being paraded around as puppets. It's detrimental to all music. 2/9 beers.

                                            Not a phone in sight heart emoji :)

3/25/26 - SECURITY MEETING

It's what the title there says, it was just an internal security meeting. Was in and out in about 2 hours #bang. Nothing much to talk about, so instead I wanted to talk about some singles I'd listened to. First the Snail Mail single that came out. I'm just so incredibly disappointed at the way the quality of Lindsey's music has gone down. I still consider Lush to be my favorite album of all time, and the songwriting prowess that was present has been completely supplanted with bland, overly palatable arena rock tropes. I can literally hear the off-white floodlights slowly sweeping across the stage. On the other hand, the new Bladee singles are incredible. Love is a State and Eyelash are just absolute earworms, it's really ridiculous how consistently good he's been since the release of Cold Visions. St. George the Martyr, Evil World, Ingen Hor, Magic Misery, and now Love is a State and Eyelash. Complete mastery of his craft. Just had to step in and put the """hyperpop""" people in their place. Amazing stuff. Maybe I should incorporate a little music review thing into this, maybe like what I've been listening to the past week. No bartenders were in, so 2/9 beers by default.

3/26/26 - Boys go to Jupiter

Gonna be honest, guys, don't remember a whole lot of this one. Writing this after working on Saturday night, last of the week, and I just don't remember too much. Oh, you know what, I am remembering that there were 2 Berklee openers, and I just simply did not care for them. The first band was one of those First name Last name but with a full band bands and it just was so strange because the levels of everything were just so off. The tone knob on the bass was too high, the lead guitar sounded like it was too loud in the mix, the sound just wasn't blended well, which is funny considering these kids pay out the nose to learn how to play "properly". Also very funny to me that the vocalist was trying to do the whole performance thing, like relax bro you're not all that. Second band had the Nailed Shut vocalist do a guest spot. Lol.

Main band was alright, nothing crazy, but very musical theatre. Hamilton-era type of stuff, and that theory was confirmed when the vocalist said something about having been rejected from every musical theatre program they applied to. No surprises there. The place was sold out, too, which was really surprising. I was literally thinking on the bus on the way there, "Watch this be one of those shows that's sold out and it makes me realize there's worlds out there I know nothing about." And that's exactly what happened. Confounding stuff. Managed to sneak off with a beer, 3/9 beers.

3/27/26 - Old 97s

This one was relatively easy, just one drunk guy kicked out like 20 minutes in. I was up front wanding the whole time and missed the opener entirely, don't even remember the name of the opener. However, I was in there for most of the Old 97s' set, and it was pretty enjoyable. Nothing I'd listen to on my own, but it was enjoyable enough while working. Huge alt-country, western, blues-y vibe. Think wood grain and a picture of a cow skull in the desert kind of thing. Fuzzy 90s MTV behind the scenes/music documentary confessionals vibe from the guys. If it means anything, every member of the band was wearing straight cut blue jeans and a button up shirt. However, the bassist (I think it was the bassist) came out afterwards wearing a Discharge shirt and when I said I liked his shirt he said he saw them in Dallas on Christmas Eve, 1982. Cool stuff, would not have expected him to be making that kind of music. The crowd cleared out insanely quickly for a sold out show, but it makes sense it was an older crowd. However, like 6 people were sticking around for over an hour afterwards just talking away, even after I told them like twice we were closing up and to please start making their way to the door. Eventually got them out. Not a bad show, all around, liked the band they seemed to be really nice. I got a beer, but I drank it. So still 3/9 beers.

3/28/26 - Addison Groove Project

Jam band. Ugh. Always hate working them. This one wasn't that bad though, the ended on time (hallelujah!) and we only had one very light ejection. I think I worked them last year when they came through because I remember thinking the same things I was thinking today e.g. the bassist is really young (the original bassist died, she's the daughter of one of the other bands, the show seemed to act as a cancer fundraiser), and AGP is an unfortunate acronym for the band. They were kind of jazzy and I didn't hate what I heard and the crowd seemed to be mostly friends and family and people who knew them back when they were more active instead of the normal jam band type of crowd. Not really much else to tell about. I got burgers with my friend in Southie at Shhh Burgers, killer. Ordered a dope Red Sox jacket that I'm waiting for to come in, excited about that. Sox lost in extras, but Wilyer was fantastic. Got a beer. 4/9 beers. 

Next Week

3/30 - Tigers Jaw

4/3 - Glitterboys

I saw Tigers Jaw at Something in the Way in February, they were cool. A little before my time and I didn't love them, but the show will at least be easy enough to work. Glitterboys I don't love the idea of working, but I might pick up the venue side that day too for some extra cash. However! I am going to be attending the Wednesday show at Roadrunner and the Nothing show at Sinclair on the 2nd. Left the day open to work Nothing, but didn't get scheduled so I'm attending. Pretty excited about these shows. Ok, see you next week.