Keeping Score

Merlin

Went to Maryland this weekend.

Although we had a good time, it felt more like a mission. We flew out of Chicago on Saturday morning and we were back home by Sunday evening. This included about 8 hours worth of airport/flying time and 6 hours of driving time thrown in there.

The raison de etre was that we were visiting our friends Linda and Rob, otherwise and henceforth known as Secondsight. They were having their national record-release party down in Salisbury (home of the steak!), Maryland. The show they gave was excellent, and I'd like to take this time to highly recommend everyone go take a look at their site and buy a CD. Do it to spite me, help them, or just enjoy good music. Pick a reason and go buy a CD :)

I know a lot of people have personal friends who have bands and they plug them all the time ad nauseum and people (much like you) reading these plugs think to themselves that it's not really all that good and it's not even worth the bother. Trust me when I say this: if you're thinking that this time, you're wrong.

I found myself increasingly frustrated that I was listening to them in a smallish church turned concert hall. It feels like they should be opening for Sting or R.E.M. Their sound is amazing. You'll feel like you're listening to the soundtrack of the year's biggest break-out indie movie that never was. I've listened to them grow over the years and I have to say that they seriously deserve to make it big, if not huge or at the very least inordinately large.

And at the very least, you need to do yourself a favor and listen to the way Robert can make the electric guitar sound like a freaking violin. There's guitar artistry going on here that I never even dreamed possible.

But enough of my gushing.

The rest of rural Maryland proved entertaining if only for our riffing amusement. I will post pictures along with said riffage just as soon as we get our camera back that my beloved wife forgot in the rental car.

A quick apology to my friends in the Maryland area: I'm sorry I didn't even mention we were going to be in Maryland this weekend; our schedule was so tightly packed that there wasn't any room for visiting, and I didn't want to dangle that "Hey, we're going to drive right by where you live, but you can't see us!" carrot in front of you. I mean it when I say that we didn't even have 10 minutes to spare.