Danger of Loud Sex – The Weird Side of the Internet

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October 2, 2024

Danger of Loud Sex – The Weird Side of the Internet – by Liam Sweeny.

I live in a loud neighborhood. Loud with people shouting, loud with dogs howling at each other. I have long ago had to adjust to it, because I sleep early, and thems the breaks when you knock off at nine. But sometimes, and I know this is true for you too, I want to go outside like I was Satan himself, start flipping over cars. Be like Crocodile Dundee with that hand trick, the dogs just go to sleep. And you know damn well every nasty possibility of action you’ve considered yourself when something or someone is keeping you up.

From Reddit, we find a man, a man of peace who simply wants peace at night as he tries to sleep, and a woman in her forties who missed the memo that partying every night with twenty-year-olds is as cringe as me using the word ‘cringe.’ In addition to loud parties, she has loud footsteps, loud phone calls, and, wait for it… loud sex, all in the wee hours of the night.

The last one, the loud sex, well, he did something about that. Because the man in this dalliance was cheating on his wife. Our mystery sleeper noticed a car seat in his car, and went on an epic sleuthing journey to find his wife’s social media account, put up a fake account, and leave a message about her hubby’s cheatin heart.

I mean, license plates, record searches, and everything. Never was a good night’s sleep more earned than that?

Now if we assume that the sleeper is a normal guy, how loud did that sex have to be? For Pete’s sake, play some Poison or something. Not everybody’s into audio porn at 2am. But I leave it up to you to judge whether or not our somnambulist was justified in going all ace detective of a 40-year-old teenager.

Jimi Bell – An Xperience Interview

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Staff

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October 2, 2024

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Jimi Bell – An Xperience Interview – by Dick Beach.

Jimi Bell is a left-handed shredder. A Very Tasty shredder. He’s a member of Beyond Purple coming to the Cohoes Music Hall on October 26, 2024. Autograph, Beyond Purple, and House of Lords. We talk influence, picking, shredding, and Close Encounters of the Ozzy kind.

RRX: So, we’re taking some time with Jimi Bell. I know we’re really excited to have you coming up at the Cohoes during October. And thank you very much for talking with RadioRadioX.

JB: It’s my pleasure. I can’t thank you enough for having me. It means a lot.

RRX: As a kid, in my household, it was a lot of classical. It was a lot of big bands. So, what stuff did you listen to as a kid? What did your parents have on and what about that kind of got you interested in music?

JB: Well, my parents brought me up on big band music and I love big band music. I was very much into Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, all those orchestras. But I used to listen to Benny Goodman more so because I was very much into drums and they had Gene Krupa.

One of my greatest treasures that I have still is I got to meet Gene Krupa before he passed away. He was playing at a Holiday Inn of all places. He came with a Dixieland jazz band and was playing in the lounge. I was sitting right next to him, and I have a photo of me and Gene together, and it’s just classic.

RRX: There were an awful lot of folks who looked to Clapton on the blues side of things or Jimmy Page or the like. While some people were gravitating to more Jimi Hendrix, there was a big chunk of the world that was still gravitating toward that blues sound as opposed to what now is known as shredding.

JB: My influences back in the day were, first, Johnny Winter. Then I discovered Ritchie Blackmore, which really took over my life. Then, the one that really sealed the deal for me was Al Di Meola. There was something about Al Di Meola that I gravitated towards more because he was extremely precise with his picking hand, very clean. I wanted to be that, but I didn’t want to play that style music.

RRX: The other day on Facebook, you put something out. And of course, the comment I made to it was, “You is a’pickin’ and I is a’grinnin’. There was a whole lot of Roy Clark in that.

JB: Yeah. I’m a huge country fan. I love Roy Clark so much. My style has changed throughout. Okay, so I had my foundation with Johnny, Ritchie and Al. Then I discovered Eddie, and then Michael Schenker, and some of these other incredible guitar players. But then I found Albert Lee.

RRX: I find that with so many of the younger musicians, they have completely forgotten guys like Chet Atkins. How do you forget Chet Atkins?

JB: I know! You know, Chet was one of the first guys doing all this fingerstyle and all this other stuff. Then, some people don’t even know that Jerry Reed was one of the most amazing guitar players. He had this double-stop stuff that he was doing on guitar. People just think he’s an actor from Smokey and the Bandit. I’m going like, no, this guy’s an amazing guitarist.

RRX: I saw that at one point, you had spoken about one of those missed-it-by-that-much moments with Ozzy.

JB: Yes. Yeah, that was a big one for me, you know? The Joan Jett thing, that was a whole, you know, being in that movie and everything with her was a great, great experience and that was a very cool thing. Let me just give you an example on that. I’ll just show you.

RRX: Sure.

JB: Okay. So, I’m in the band Joined Forces and we get hooked up – we’re an all-original music band, okay? We just do all original. We get hooked up with somebody in Joan Jett’s camp. He’s starting his own management company and he has a partner that owns a tour bus company. That was his partner.

So, Joan Jett’s doing a tour of the East Coast. We have a three-song set is all we had. They put us out on tour with Joan Jett. We have our own tour bus and everything else. We’re out on the road with Joan Jett in our early 20s and we’re going, what the heck is going on with this? This is great!

One day, I’m at home and the phone rings about 10:00 in the morning. He (Floyd Rose – developed the tremolo) says, “Jimi, Jake E. Lee is out of Ozzy. We sent your tape to Sharon and she really wants you to come to California. So, we’re arranging that.” I said, oh my god! He said, “They already have one guy that they picked already,” which was Zakk. “They already have this one guy, but she saw your tape and wants you to come out.”

Okay. So, there was one other guy that got to audition before me from Sweden. So, he went up on the stage. And they’re doing “Flying High Again.” It comes to the solo section that Randy Rhoads had done. This guy was from Sweden. This guy decided to change the iconic tapping section that Randy Rhoads did, he changed it into sweeping. He was trying to get creative with it.

Well, Ozzy’s standing behind him, making like he’s strangling him to death. So, keep it in mind that I have to go up and play next.

They sat down with me afterward and they said, “Well, it’s between you and Zakk.” That was what it was. They took me out to dinner afterward, this real expensive restaurant in downtown LA.

RRX: Is there any such thing as a cheap restaurant in LA?

JB: No. But you got to understand, this is a restaurant that had probably like all doctors and lawyers. I mean, this was a place that – of course, Ozzy could go anywhere because he has more money than all those people, you know?

RRX: No joke.

JB: We go in there. This was when Ozzy was still a little messed up. I’ll never forget, I’m eating. We had our salads. At the time, I didn’t eat cherry tomatoes. I said, “Ozzy, you want my tomatoes?” because I’m sitting right next to him. He said, “No, no, no.” So, I turned my head and start talking to Randy and the drummer. I see out of the corner of my eye that Ozzy puts his hands in my food and starts eating the cherry tomatoes out of my dish. I’m not making this up. This is real stuff that’s going on here.

RRX: This is great!

JB: So, they get him back, Sharon pulls him out of there. They go back to their chalet or bungalow, whatever you want to call it, right on Sunset Strip. I go over there. We’re sitting in the living room. I mean, this is pretty wild because I’m actually sitting in Ozzy’s living room with Sharon and with Aimee, the daughter that wasn’t in the Ozzy show. She was just a baby.

I’m sitting there and he’s got Aimee on his lap, and he’s bouncing her and the TV’s playing. All of a sudden, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” comes on the TV. Ozzy’s going, “Look, Aimee! There’s Daddy! There’s Daddy!” You know, going nuts because, you know, he’s showing his little girl that her father’s on TV. It was just a great moment.

RRX: No one thinks of Ozzy as a doting parent.

JB: No! I mean, you see how he treats his kids on – of course, that’s all part of the show. But Aimee’s the one that did not want to be in the show, so that’s why that whole thing, that never happened. She stayed clear of it. That was a great situation.

So, I go home. Then, all of a sudden, I heard that they had decided to stay with Zakk.

Somebody had said something as farfetched as, “You know, Jimi, you might not have gotten it because you’re left-handed, like Tony Iommi.” I go, “Well, I never thought of that, but weirder things have happened.” I said, “I don’t really think that that was it.”

RRX: You’re still out there. You’re still producing. You’re still having what I have to gather is a reasonably good time doing what you’re doing.

JB: Yes!

RRX: The one thing you never know is, if this had happened, would I be the same guy I am today?

JB: Well, here’s the other problem. Back in the ‘80s, I was not the most well-behaved person. I was always very polite. I was always this person that you’re talking to like this, but I had some – I had a few bad habits that I was doing.

RRX: Yeah, there was a time for that.

JB: I got an opportunity to go out on tour with a heavy metal band out of Germany in 1999. I had let my hair go all grey already. So, I had to die my hair jet black again and I head over to Germany. I went on a tour with this band, Thunderhead, that was kind of big in Germany.

We were opening up for Metal Church. From there, I met the original singer, David Wayne. He brings me aside and says, “Listen, this is the only tour I’m doing. I was only doing this one record.” He says, “I’m doing a solo record. Do you want to be my guitar player?” I said, “Absolutely.” So, when that tour ended, I got together with my buddy B.J., who plays drums. You know; you met him. He was there.

RRX: I met him. And he’s next on my hit parade.

JB: Yeah, yeah. And so, him and I got together and started doing all these tracks for David Wayne, and we wrote the whole record. And then, that’s kind of like how our working relationship started. It started with Thunderhead because we wrote songs for that. And then finally, then David Wayne’s Metal Church was the whole record.

Then, we worked with this singer, Mike Vescera. Mike was a Connecticut person as well locally for a while. At that point, that’s when I ended up getting in House of Lords. I got a call from James Christian in about 2005.

RRX: Yeah – when I mentioned the name to a couple of the guys at the magazine, they were like, “Wait a minute. I know that name.” They go, “Oh god, yeah! I know them.” You guys just released a new single.

JB: Right, and it’s our tenth record since I joined the band. This album coming out in about a month and a half will be my tenth album with House of Lords.

RRX: When is that gonna hit?

JB: I believe the very beginning of October, actually.

This record, it just worked out so well. For some reason, I mean, I think it’s a great record. Frontiers, our label, is saying it’s the best record that we’ve ever done.

RRX: “Crowded Room” (the first single) has got some serious freaking legs on it.

JB: Yeah, thank you. I had a good time doing that. I wanted to make some of the solos more interesting. So, I actually wrote quirks in. Because I usually just solo over whatever, maybe a verse section, and just call it a day with that.

I’m all about the singing. Guitar playing to me is not gonna sell the song. The song is all about the chorus, the hook, everything else. All these unbelievable guitar players that put out these instrumental albums, I’ll listen to them for about two seconds and I go, I want to hear AC/DC. I want to hear the vocals. I want to hear the 2/4 beat. That’s what I want to hear.

RRX: So, we’ve also got Beyond Purple coming up (October 26 at the Cohoes Music Hall). You’re gonna be here for that. Is there a plan for a House of Lords tour coming up in the future or –

JB: Yeah. Well, I was actually talking to James about that today. We usually go to Europe, but he wants to go out this time. We were talking about it because he said the response on the record, we’re getting so much good stuff, I really want to go out this time. So, we’re gonna work on that. I’m still doing my stuff with Autograph.

RRX: Right. Yeah, I was gonna say, you’ve got a lot going on.

JB: Yeah, I joined them in 2019, when the guitar player had quit the band. And I had a great run with them for three years, almost three. And then unfortunately, the bass player, who was the last member, original member of the band, passed away – Randy. So, we continued on with another bass player. But then Steve, the guitar player that I took his place, decided that he wanted ownership of the name. So, there was all this big battle with everything.

Basically, what we decided is – we had come out with an album on Frontiers called “Beyond.” Randy played on that, and he loved all the songs on it. As a matter of fact, he turned in all the masters to the record company one week before he died, which was really crazy.

So, we got the record out and we figured after this stuff, why don’t we just call the new band Autograph Beyond? And everybody agreed that we could do it.

RRX: So, I’m gonna do what I traditionally do as I end an interview. I always ask the folks I’m speaking with, if there’s one thing that you could say, I don’t know, to your neighbor or the world at large, what’s the one thing that you would like people to take away and what’s the one thing that you would like people to hear from you that you think’s really important?

JB: Oh man. Well, to me, that means just be good to each other. Treat someone the way you want to be treated. I’ve learned that kindness goes an extremely long way as opposed to, like we were talking about earlier, all the fighting you see back and forth. People losing friendships and everything on social media and stuff. Basically, that’s my thing.

I practice that every day, just being extra kind. Going the extra distance to everybody. And I do that with all my fans. I will always shake somebody’s hand. I will come out and say hi to somebody, if they want. I’ll always take pictures. I’ll always do this. And I have no problem doing it at all. I’m always right there to show an act of kindness.

RRX: Thus endeth the official interview. Thank you so very much.

JB: Oh, you’re very welcome. As a matter of fact, my wife was just calling me again.

Extra! Extra! Xperience Monthly October Digital Edition! Get it here!

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Staff

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October 1, 2024

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This month we’ve decided to have an early Christmas and give you a 64-page issue! Featuring shredder Jimi Bell, horror composer Fabio Frizzi and Grammy-winning percussionist Zakir Hussain. Also, Albany back rooms, dumpster kats, and good times in Antarctica!

Of Spirits and Secrets – An Xperience Article

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October 1, 2024

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Of Spirits and Secrets – An Xperience Article – by Will Mukrdechian.

“Justin” wants to be called “Justin” because—he asks, with a rhetorical flourish—“What good comes from revealing what’s in a hot dog?” I’m here at the New Scotland Spirits Tasting Room, Center Square’s newest installation at the intersection of Lark and State Streets, to probe how Albany’s sausage is made. To do so, I’m interviewing a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-roommate. He’s a self-described “policy advocate,” whom less charitable circles would call a “lobbyist.”

The sausage at issue is of the political persuasion, and it’s worth noting that Justin ain’t merely a lobbyist in the eyes of those less charitable circles; he’s also a lobbyist per his annually mandated state registration with the Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government. Yet he’s adamant that the term “lobbyist” is pejorative and, in any event, irredeemably sullied.

“Yeah, I get paid pretty well for my services,” he says. “But what I do for clients is still in the public interest. I like to say that my second client is the community.” (The cynic in me waits a beat so Justin can laugh at his own outlandishness, but he declines the opportunity.)

This tasting room is the first retail outlet for New Scotland Spirits, a Capital Region-based “farm distillery” named after the founder’s Albany County hometown. It distills the “Helderberg” line of rye, wheat, and bourbon whiskies which have become ubiquitous seemingly overnight. I’ve intercepted Justin at this place so he can help answer a pointed question: how did a venue that launched just three months prior so quickly find itself at the intersection of politics and influence-peddling in New York’s notoriously insular capital city? Or, to borrow social media’s phrasing: how did such a plucky little upstart become “Albany’s newest smoke-filled backroom” (sans the smoke)?

That distinction first appeared on TikTok. In a since-deleted video captioned “Official Home of Pre-Session Machinations,” three supposed legislative aides say they’re “prepping the battlefield” for the approaching legislative session. “Zoom may be secure,” one of the babyfaces says, “but it’s hard to find common ground without all the cocktails.” Following that initial video, the Reddit commentariat ran with the implication that this strange new venue was expressly designed for booze-fueled dealmaking.

But how did that reputation get so quickly entrenched? Aside from a newly installed restroom, a food preparation area, and a utility closet, the New Scotland Spirits Tasting Room is true to its name as a single room—one barely big enough to contain the bar that for 80 years was situated a few doors down in the historic Larkin Restaurant, which was itself once patronized by the state’s political class.

In short, the Tasting Room’s intimacy doesn’t exactly make for clandestine conversation.

“Unless,” Justin says, “you just rent the room.”

Bingo. Turns out New Scotland Spirits is just dusting off a playbook perfected by the long-ago dispatched Governor’s Inn Motel: if you want to do your dirty in private, you rent a room. Duh.

Among the features that make the Tasting Room different from almost any other bar or lounge in the Capital Region is the fact that it’s practically designed for private parties. Modeled after a Prohibition Era speakeasy, it for sure has a vibe. It’s elegant yet understated, boasting all the accoutrements of a high-end whiskey lounge. And its walls are tastefully adorned with authentically period-appropriate photos, news articles, and other ephemera. The ambiance is determinedly perfect for smaller and more exclusive events.

Yet there’s something really odd about that entire premise. For example, the website offers would-be reservees a rate structure (fine so far) alongside a notice that Tasting Room staff are obligated to countersign “airtight nondisclosure agreements, available for review and execution upon request.”

Um, what?

Prior to meeting Justin, I asked Tasting Room proprietor Rosamaria Luppino about the purpose of those NDAs. She minimized and deflected, explaining that her “business partner is an attorney, and he just likes covering all the bases. You know how it is with lawyers.”

Actually I don’t, and apparently neither does Ms. Luppino’s business partner, Jesse Sommer, if his unconventional in-your-face social media antics are any indication. Since founding New Scotland Spirits eight years ago while still in the Army, Mr. Sommer has delighted in courting controversy from his perch on the company’s Instagram account. It’s not exactly the “under the radar” approach you’d expect from a venue soliciting the inconspicuous.

But Justin thinks that might be the strategy: “He sucks up all the attention, so people in here are invisible compared to whatever bullshit he’s up to online.”

Ms. Luppino conceded that part of the reservation fee entails a contractual option to turn off the security camera system and maintain guests’ confidentiality. But she insists there’s no nefarious intent.

“Stop being paranoid,” she scolds when I ask if she’s overheard anything juicy. “We serve cocktails and whiskey flights. Unless there’s a lovers’ quarrel at the bar, I’m not interested in private conversations.”

Whereas venues like the War Room Tavern pay homage to Albany’s “colorful” political legacies, the closing of Jack’s Oyster House has left New York’s capital devoid of an authentic hangout for the political class. Sure, you can likely find insular collusion in area Country Clubs or the Fort Orange Club, but these jaunts are for the locals. As that notorious TikTok video made clear, out-of-towners are increasingly making the Tasting Room their “discreet retreat.”

Ms. Luppino disputes even this assessment. “Mostly our patrons are from right here in [the] Center Square [neighborhood] or from just down the road in our native Town of New Scotland,” she says. “We’re seeing more downstate visitors, but that’s probably because our labels are making inroads there. We’re focused on expanding distribution beyond the Hudson Valley and into New York [City].”

New Scotland Spirits may now be the Capital District’s most recognizable distilling outfit. Its whiskies and award-winning vodka have become staples in area bars and liquor stores; expanding awareness of the Tasting Room is reportedly driving interest in the company far beyond its Center Square digs.

Still, I’m curious as to how such an otherwise inauspicious location even ended up on the apparatchiks’ radars.

“You’ll just have to come to one of our private meet-ups [at the Tasting Room] to see why,” Justin tells me. “Go ask the bartender for an extra NDA.”

Reeves Gabrels’ Blues Episode @ Mojo’s Cafe, 9/30/2024

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Staff

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October 1, 2024

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Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (The Cure), Tin Machinist and David Bowie collaborator (1988-1999), and frontman for His Imaginary Friends, Reeves Gabrels and his blues trio delighted the crowd again at Mojo’s Cafe.

Just a random Monday night in Troy…

Photography by Mike Stampalia.

Joe Mele – An Xperience Interview

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Staff

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October 1, 2024

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Joe Mele – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

Photography by: Stephanie J. Bartik

JM: Okay so this is how the Troy Music Mafia began. Art Hilton asked me to open Hilton Music on 3rd Street in Troy in 1968. I was running the store, and all of a sudden all of these younger musicians started gathering. There were five music stores in Troy: Miller’s, George’s on King Street, Romeo’s, the 2nd Drome Sound (the first one was at the Aerodrome), and Hilton’s.

Everybody was hanging around when I first got to meet Dave Costa, Gary Tash, Eddie Powers, Gary Sagendorf, Joe Montarello, Bobby Etoll, Chris Garabedian, Keith Stenhouse, Craig Ruhtz, Dan O’Brien, Ed Powers, Rick Rourke, Peter Iselin, and Adrian Otero. This is the Troy Music Mafia. All of these guys came in, hung around, became friends, and got bands going, Mystic Haze, Coalition, Sweet Silence, Back Bay Brew. Then all of these guys started interweaving different bands. Nobody lost track of each other. Dave Costa named it the Troy Music Mafia. So that’s what started it.

RRX: I love the name, it really reels you in!

JM: I wasn’t hip to it at first but now I’m just used to it, you know? So, the store was happening and everybody is becoming really good friends. Everybody is joining bands. It kept going and going and within a year’s time, kids wanted lessons.

RRX: Right.

JM: We figure we should open up a music school and we called it Troy Music Academy. Years later when Kenny and Lori of Super 400 opened their music school, they kept that name.

RRX: Yes, that’s right.

JM: So, when we started Troy Music Academy at the time, Nick Brignola was teaching. Mark Galeo, Gene Garune … Nick Brignola was upstairs teaching and he was on the cover of Downbeat magazine as he got nominated for best player. You’ve got these unbelievable teachers upstairs and we were downstairs being goofy guys on amps playing Beatles songs. That’s how it started, with the music store.

RRX: Of course.

JM: The first Troy Music Mafia lunch was five months ago. Chris Garabedian is the master of messaging people. I hate the interwebs. I had a flip phone until about four months ago. My wife made me get this new phone. I tried to smash it a couple of times, it wouldn’t smash. I hate it.

RRX: That’s a quality product though.

JM: So Chrissy, thank God … he’s the most beautiful person. Chrissy is a big reason this is happening. He messages, texts, and emails people. I don’t do any of that stuff. He started reaching out to people and the first lunch was basically the Emerald City guys. There were eight of us.

My wife Jenn put it on Facebook and people were commenting, “It’s great to see you getting together, mind if I come?” And I said, “Yeah, that’s cool.” Then the second lunch we had around 12 people. The third one we had 18 people, and the last one a couple of weeks ago we had 28 people.

RRX: It’s growing for sure.

JM: Yeah, it’s a beautiful thing. It’s the same as how I feel about my son’s memorial concert; we’re just doing something positive. I sit there and look at all of our friends. They come in, it’s all hugs, “Good to see you,” “I haven’t seen you in a while.” I sit there and go, “This is great!”

Matt Smith is in Austin, Bobby Etoll is in LA, Danny O’Brien is in Florida. They’re all seeing this and flipping out. They say “I’ve been out here for 40 years and I have friends and acquaintances but it’s nothing like home.” All of these people grew up together. Not just friends, but grew up as musicians, which is a little deeper than just being friends. You grow up as a musician and you experience so much more than just being a friend.

RRX: This I can relate to, being in a band is like family.

JM: Exactly!

For our next lunch, Craig Ruhtz is coming in from California and Matt Smith is coming in from Austin a day early because we’re recording that week.

RRX: That’s awesome, where is this next one taking place?

JM: At The Ale House again. At the last one I stood up and said, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

RRX: Like across the street?

JM: I’ve got some ideas. When this thing grows, like I do with my son’s memorial concerts, the wheels start spinning. It’s kind of overwhelming. I think this time there’s going to be another 10 people which would be 38 to 40.

Chrissy is really the catalyst for nailing people down. That’s how great Chrissy is … last time he said “I’ve got a surprise for you,” and Art Hilton walked in. I haven’t seen Art in 40 years. Art came in and everybody freaked out and applauded, laughed, and hugged. So I sat with him and he said, “Oh this is really cool” and everybody came over saying things like “I remember I bought my first guitar,” or “Bought my drums and you gave me a really good deal, you let me pay $10 a month on it!” That’s the stuff we were doing back then.

I tried getting through to him with, “Art, this is really because of what we did by opening up the store. This is really how everybody met, became friends and here it is 50 years later, and we’re all together because of the store!”

RRX: That’s true, that’s where it all came together.

(Joe takes out his laptop and pulls up a group photo that was taken several years ago at The Dustin Mele Memorial Concert.)

JM: These are all of the guys. This is the Troy Music Mafia. There’s Jack Daley, he came up from Jersey.

Another major reason why we started this thing is to honor the ones we’ve lost:

Frank Daley, Dave Costa, Dave Quinones, Gary Brooks, Chipper Austin, Nick Brignola, Josh Bloomfield, Tom Flynn.

That is why we do this. When we get together at lunch, everyone sits down. Chrissy and I stand up and Chrissy says a prayer and honors the ones we’ve lost. Then I say to the crowd, “Speak up about anybody in your life,” and you’ll hear people include others like Charlie Smith and other musicians and friends. That’s the core of this. Not to just get together for the lovefest, but to honor the ones that we lost. These losses are happening around us really fast.

RRX: Yeah you don’t know, it could be totally unexpected. So when is the next Troy Music Mafia Lunch?

JM: October 2nd, it’s always on a Wednesday. You gotta come down.

RRX: I’m totally gonna come.

JM: Artie is invited too. He told me he’s so honored to be included to hang around all of those old cool guys or something like that.

(both Laugh)

JM: You see there’s certain people that stick. Artie sticks. He’s been supporting music locally forever. So he needs to be there. He’s a Troy guy, this is as much him, even though he wasn’t around back then.

Like Tess Collins, she’s from Troy. She used to sneak out her window to come see us guys play when she was a kid. So she’s got that connection too.

RRX: Tess is great, I love her. I’ll be at the next one for sure.

JM: Also, I want to thank Brian Gilchrist, Joe Daley, and the rest of the staff at the Ale House for putting up with the Mafia each month!

Let’s Sing Taylor – A Live Band Experience Coming to Troy

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Staff

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October 1, 2024

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Let’s Sing Taylor – A Live Band Experience

TROY, NEW YORK: The Troy Savings Bank Music Hall is excited to announce the popular Let’s Sing Taylor show returns on Saturday, February 8th! Pre-sale for the show starts Wednesday, October 2nd at 10am and tickets will go on-sale to the public on Friday, October 4^th at 10am. Learn more below about Let’s Sing Taylor!

Let’s Sing Taylor – A Live Band Experience – is the ultimate tribute to the music of Taylor Swift. The most faithful and lively covers of Queen Taylor’s expansive and sacred catalog. Taking the country by storm, bringing the communal experience of celebrating Taylor’s music in a live setting to Swifties near and far. So, let the games begin. Calling all Swifties to sing your hearts out and sport your Taylor- inspired attire.

Tickets are on sale at 10 am, October 2nd to Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Members. Anyone can become a member and gain access to the pre-sale. Single tickets go on sale the general public Friday, October 4th at 10am via phone, (518) 273-0038, in person, or online at TroyMusicHall.org. More information on the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and upcoming programs is also available on the website at www.troymusichall.org.

“Pearlpalooza” 9/21/2024

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Staff

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September 30, 2024

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Rober Delong headlined a fine afternoon of music, which also featured Jakob’s Castle, the Ramona Flowers, Laveda, and the Sugar Hold.

Photography by Timothy Reidy.

“Meet the Xperience Monthly’s Authors” @ River Street Beat Shop, 9/28/2024

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Staff

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September 30, 2024

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Saturday, in front of the River Street Beat Shop in downtown Troy, several of Xperience Monthly’s writers assembled – for the first time – to autograph the books they’ve worked so hard over the years to put together.

Photography by Stephanie J Bartik.