The first night of the annual Raven Events Listen Up Awards was the Hero Ceremony, honoring those local legends whose reputations define them as heroes to the area music community. Music was provided by 2025 Listen Up Award winners, and photographer Timothy Reidy captured some of the performances:
Photography by Timothy Reidy.
The Year of Storms – Xperience Fiction – by Liam Sweeny.
Rust and iron. Piss. Shit. Vomit. The cries of the incarcerated. Clanging metal. Endless disembodied voices bouncing off of hopelessness.
But there was none of that, unless Cellie counted an old television series that was playing on the wall panel. Everything, save that, was a sterile dream tinged with an industrial lemon scent.
The intake officer was dressed in a white jumpsuit, immaculate. Her nametag was stainless steel, emblazoned with one word: Miller. Last name, perhaps. Cellie had heard it before, but she didn’t know where it came from. Scandinavian, maybe. Fuck if she knew or cared, in honesty, because the woman spoke with the careful pronunciation that all Municipal workers had to master before being allowed to talk to the public.
She slid her finger down her pad. Cellie watched as a map illuminated in the glass of her desk’s face.
“Not bad,” Miller said. “Any special meaning to the air refinery? Political, anything like that?”
“Nope,” Cellie said. “Just a nice surface.”
“Convenient, too.” Miller didn’t look up. Cellie waited for her to explain why it was convenient. She didn’t.
“What do you mean, convenient?”
Miller swung her finger across her desk, and even though Cellie’s view was upside down, she could see that Miller had pulled up the selfie from Cellie’s phone.
“It’s not private property, so no civil cost.” Miller tapped the desk again. “It’s on public infrastructure, but it’s on a Grade 3 structure. Not sabotage, hell, they may not even bother to clean it up. And it’s a Priority 3 neighborhood.”
“So that’s good, right?” Cellie said. “Or is it bad?”
Miller pulled a nebulizer out of her pocket. Cellie didn’t know anyone so bad off as to need a nebulizer for Go, and she couldn’t think of anything else they were used for.
“Do you want to play games?” Miller said. “Like I don’t know what you were doing? We got enough real criminals without having to deal with day-trippers clogging up the system. You want to up your ExP rank, you can go base-jumping or play chicken on the highway. Smoke Emeny. Be a prostitute for six months. Stop getting arrested for nuisance crimes.”
“I’m an artist. I swear. An underappreciated artist.”
“Clearly. And if I drive by and see you taking care of that air refinery twenty years from now, I’ll hop out of my hearse and apologize. But if someone walks free because you want to go up a spot on the board and you’re taking up their cell, maybe you can cash in the guilt you’ll feel over whoever they go kill.”
“I’m just an artist.”
“I don’t care if you tell me the truth or not,” Miller said. “You notice how clean it is in here? How sanitary? How quiet?”
Cellie didn’t answer. Her arms were wrapped around her. She didn’t expect to like jail. But this was worse.
“Real jail is terrible,” Miller said. “But you’re not going to real jail. You’re going to a special facility for people just like you.”
“I’m not going to jail?”
“You’re still in detention. Try to walk off and you’ll be locked in a dull room. And trust me, that’s not the kind of ExP you want.
Miller became downright cheery after that. Which was the point. She was babying Cellie, robbing her of the experience of being incarcerated. She even brought out herbal tea, which she explained was a drink popular before the Collapse. It was bitter, but not altogether bad.
Miller walked out to get Cellie’s jail uniform. She was bummed, because being stripped searched and hosed off like a diseased animal was a big part of the experience. If she had known they were going to skip that, she would’ve stuck an entertainment pod up her rear end.
Miller came back with a faded peach jumpsuit, and pointed to a door, a changing room. Cellie went in and discovered that, surprise, surprise, it fit. In fact, the whole process was diabolical in its design to be average and comfortable. This was going to be a waste of a weekend.
Miller called her back to the desk.
“Cellie, you could’ve done a hundred different things to get in here. One broken window would’ve got you a week in the real hotel. So why go through all this trouble?” She tapped the desk, the selfie. “I’m supposed to be a hardass, but this is really good. And don’t tell me it was for your ‘show’. You’ve got two million fans; you don’t need this.”
“Thanks. That the real punishment, huh? Be disappointed in me all weekend?”
“I’m saying you have better ways to up your ExP. Your ranking isn’t a life path, or shouldn’t be, anyways. Some of the biggest assholes in jail are just banging out the dark half of their ranking, and the only thing they can trade with their ExP now came in up someone’s ass. Don’t be that.”
“I know you mean well,” Cellie said, “but ranking is everything. This whole city is run by Movers, and you only get there through being top ranked in your feed for six months.”
Miller glanced side to side. “I don’t see too many Movers that have come through these doors,” she said. “If it means that much to you, maybe you should give your strategy a rethink.”
“Guess you’re right.” The inside door opened without a sound, and a guard dressed just like Miller stood there waiting. Cellie got up.
“Thanks,” she said.
The man took her through silent hallways to her cell, which was far more spacious that she would have assumed. It had a bunk bed made of mid-grade kinematic foam and a blanket that wasn’t too soft or too rough. The cell reminded her of a story she found in her Pre-Collapse Mythology course at Anchor-Alpha. It was about a young woman that trespassed on the home of three bears, and, having tried food that was two hot and too cold, and beds that were too hard or too soft, she finally found food and a bed that were just right.
But the bears came back. She couldn’t remember if they let her go or not. In fact, she didn’t get the point of the myth. But myths ran the world back during that time.
She looked out a window that would’ve offered very little resistance to freedom. Maybe all those old myths still ran the world, but in secret.
The first night of the annual Raven Events Listen Up Awards was the Hero Ceremony, honoring those local legends whose reputations define them as heroes to the area music community.
The 2026 class of heroes comprised:
and music was provided by 2025 Listen Up Award winners:
Photography by Sara Busone.
The second night of the fifth annual Raven Events Listen Up Awards was the Award Ceremony, honoring your favorites across a multitude of categories, as voted by you.
The 2026 favorites (we don’t have winners and losers here) were:
and music was provided by 2025 Listen Up Award winners:
Photography by Christopher Ebbs.
More coverage of the Listen Up Awards here …
“Troy is for Lovers” was an anti-Valentine’s Day show featuring Bad Heart Burlesque at No Fun.
Photography by Timothy Reidy.
Greetings – Not a lot of tickets left for this great week of music! Seems like we snow weary upstaters are needing our live music right about now. We have plenty of it, along with poetry, kids’ fun, opportunities to learn and jam. We even have jobs for you–in the kitchen, or ushering, or carrying trays. As my local firehouse says in their ongoing drive for volunteers: “We’re hiring! Weird hours! No pay!” If the season has you hungry for something new, volunteering may be for you. Learn more here.
Over the past few days, our members received a paper copy of our calendar in their mailboxes. We are proud to have delivered it early this time. We are less proud that the covered contained a whale of a typo. The Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser for the School of Music will take place on March 28, not March 22 (that was last year’s date). Here’s a printable version of the calendar, with errors fixed, for your fridge or office bulletin board. Our Pancake Breakfast has delicious pancakes with this year’s maple syrup, and great live music! Please come!
See you at the show,
Sarah
Monday
7:00 PM – Open Mic Night
Tuesday
7:00 PM – POETRY OPEN MIC FEATURING MAGGIE GREAVES
8:00 PM – “Live From Caffè Lena” on WEXT 97.7 or 106.1 FM
Wednesday
10:30 AM – Folk Club Kids: Stories, Songs & Sing-Alongs (Infants to Pre-K)
7:00 PM & 12:00 AM – “Live From Caffè Lena” on Folk Music Notebook
Thursday
1:00 PM – Slow Jam
7:00 PM – RYAN MONTBLELAU (SOLO) WITH OPENER LYLE BREWER
Friday
9:30 AM – Music With Miss Deb
12:00 PM – Captain Fun Lunchtime Listening Hour
8:00 PM – RYAN MONTBLEAU (SOLO) WITH OPENER LYLE BREWER
Saturday
8:00 PM – MOMENTUM SERIES : THE MALLETT BROTHERS TRIO
Sunday
1:30 PM – Playwright’s Jam
7:00 PM – SISTER SADIE
Canadian Scientists Grow a Lab-Grown Heart for Transplants
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/06/heart-liver-organoids-research-regenerative-therapy
Chinese Artificial Wombs Raise Lamb to Full Term
Scientists Create an Injectable Oxygen Foam for when Someone Can’t Breathe.
Rob Beaulieu – Xperience History – by Rob Smittix.
Originally published in July 2023.
RRX: I’ve had your name on my desk for months, so I’m finally glad that we connected.
RB: I appreciate it.
RRX: So just for the back story, the abridged version… if you don’t mind if you can tell us a little bit about yourself, about the bands and the music?
RB: I’m pretty much local, I was raised in Niskayuna. I was a hockey player, I played semi-pro hockey in Europe. I was a huge music-head, a huge music fan, like all of us. I learned to play a couple chords in college. After I was done playing hockey I decided to take that obsession and put it into music. So I got going in my mid to late twenties. I got in a Grateful Dead cover band, I had no idea what I was doing but that was a good experience. Then I ended up with a more original project. Things just started snowballing from there. I played in Kim Buckley’s band, that was a really good turning point, we had a pretty good thing going for a while. I also played in Slipknot for a while, I did that for a stint. I’ve now been with Raisinhead for 22 years. I’ve always had things that came in along the way. I’ve played with The Stone Revival Band. A band called Council Fire which is closer to what I’m doing now. Lots of shows with different bands and different people. It’s been an amazing run. So I just put this band together, it’s a little more on the Soul/R&B/Rock side of things. Very Tedeschi Trucks (kinda).
RRX: I love it.
RB: We’ve got a female singer (Sherry Jean Waite) and Tony Perrino on organ, Chad Ploss on drums, James Alanson Kirk on Bass and Dave Spadaro who I’ve been playing with for years; we started together in Stone Revival Band and we became close. We’ve written some stuff together and have probably been playing guitar together for almost 15 years now. So that’s where we’re at. I’ve written more songs this past year than any other year I bet.
RRX: Oh really? That’s cool.
RB: I still have a few songs I’ve written for Raisinhead over the last year. We’re just cooking along, it seems like I’m in a good space creatively.
RRX: That’s awesome man that the writing is coming along so well. That’s one of the funnest parts of the process, I think.
RB: Without a doubt. I’m always writing but sometimes it’s about finishing songs and having them at least, reasonably good. That’s always the trick.
RRX: Right! For real. I’m sure there are more unfinished songs written in the world than completed.
RB: Oh my God, I have so many on my phone. All of these little ideas, literally hundreds of them. At some point I hope to go back and listen to what the hell is on there. It’s probably nothing but there might be a couple of things. You know?
RRX: It reminds me of the Tenacious D song where they wrote a tribute to the greatest song in the world because they couldn’t remember how it went. That’s the cool thing nowadays that an artist of any type but especially song-writers can save their ideas. Years back, I wrote what I thought were the greatest lyrics I’ve ever written but because I wrote them on paper, I lost the melody. Then it became nothing more than words on a piece of paper. So having a phone and being able to record ideas in segments is a great tool to use.
RB: No doubt about it. How many things have we thought of that the next day we couldn’t remember? It could’ve been something that was pretty good too.
RRX: It used to happen all of the time.
RB: Well I hope you find that melody.
RRX: I wish, it’s long gone. Now the jamband scene is hands-down the greatest community scene there is. No-one pulls in heads like jambands. I like all genres, I’ve always liked a little piece of everything but it wasn’t until I met Lucy that I really took to jam music but I’m a punk rocker at heart. I’ve been really vibing with the jam community these last few years, so I’m into it.
RB: What are the punk rock bands that you like?
RRX: If you talk to Art Fredette (RRX) his era of punk are The Ramones and bands like that. Of course I like them too but my era of punk is more like NOFX, Rancid, Bad Religion and bands like that. Then at the same time I was always down with 90s Hip Hop and stuff like that. I thought I hated country but then I realized that real country music is actually pretty damn good.
RB: F**k yeah. That’s the thing, it’s like that water downed s**t that you hear, like the country-pop, it’s not that good.
RRX: It’s friggin ridiculous. I can’t get down with pop anything.
RB: I go in all directions. I really like Dead Kennedys, Sex Pistols, 70’s Genesis and I love hip hop. If there’s something that gets me, it gets me. I like sappy love songs, I love the grungiest Neil Young “Tonight’s the Night,” sleep under your covers kind of s**t, you know? I love it for myself but sometimes it sends me in a lot of different directions simultaneously. Some people ask what’s my music? I have a hard time with it sometimes, to say that it’s this or it’s that. It all depends on the song.
RRX: Why put yourself in a box, you know? I don’t know about you but I’ve never written a song for an audience. If they like it that’s cool, if not that’s just what I was feeling at the time.
RB: Oh definitely, if you’re writing for the audience man… it’s sticky. You just got to write your own thing and if it’s there, it’s there and if it’s not, it’s not. You just got to make art and express yourself, the rest of it, don’t worry about any of that. Maybe that’s why we’re not selling out Madison Square Garden.
RRX: Exactly, but at least we can look at ourselves in the mirror.
(Both Laugh)
RRX: Well what about Rye Bread man?
RB: Oh my God, I can’t say enough about Rye Bread. I love Rye Bread, everything about Rye Bread, I love. I was not hooked up into the Rye Bread thing until about 6 or 7 years ago, maybe. I don’t know exactly when it was but I’m not an OG, like my friends in Dr. Jah. I’m like second generation with Rye Bread. I’ve played in a number of different incarnations at Rye Bread. Nick Batto has been tremendous with me and to so many people. It’s just the whole community, they come out they support, they support one another. We’ve done a lot of benefits for people. Everything about it is community and having fun while genuinely supporting one another. It’s something I’m really happy to be a part of.
RRX: Yeah man and you’re playing this year.
RB: Indeed!
Rye Bread Music & Arts Festival
July 27-29 Schaghticoke Fairgrounds
The first night of the annual Raven Events Listen Up Awards was the Hero Ceremony, honoring those local legends whose reputations define them as heroes to the area music community.
The 2026 class of heroes comprised:
and music was provided by 2025 Listen Up Award winners:
Photography by Christopher Ebbs.
Read about the origin of the Listen Up Awards here …
The Galentine’s Day party kept on going at Lost & Found, with DJ Fearless, Keegan James, Shannon Tehya, and Hunter Frost.
Photography by Timothy Reidy.
RadioRadioX & The Xperience Monthly
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