Lucky - FOR YOU - I keep chatting up all these hot men

I never get to talk to you all about the hottest rock n roll band on the planet, J Roddy Walston and the Business, because this isn't a music blog or anything and in my years as a fan they have not seen it fit to visit CT, so I've been forced to travel to New York and Boston to see them. As we've noted before, it's a good thing Hartford is so "conveniently" located - it only takes a couple-to-several hours and many dollars to reach destinations in either of those cities. We're lucky if cool bands even stop here for snacks. Well, this week I took a walk on the wild side and traveled to Brooklyn on a weeknight to see them play at my new favorite venue, Brooklyn Bowl, a giant bowling alley/music venue with obscenely portioned food and great beer on tap that plays cult films (like The Warriors and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) projected on the wall and on big screens over the bowling lanes... J Roddy is doing a "residency" there this month, playing every Monday night. You all should go and see them up close and cheap before they are hugely famous and won't be available to humor silly questions while soundchecking their own instruments like "Is there a dollar amount you can tell me that would get you guys to Connecticut?"

The band is from Baltimore and they play rock n roll with classic blues and southern influences. They are charismatic as hell, with dirty, catchy lyrics about fucking and fighting, and everyone in the band does what they do really well and they all do all these great backing vocals and falsettos and stuff, but why should I describe it when you can just listen? First time I saw and heard them I walked in on them playing this song and I was immediately hooked. The room was packed - we couldn't see shit, so I'm not being superficial here, I didn't even know they were handsome for like another year - I turned to my friend and said "OMG I want to sit on their face - METAPHORICALLY"**

But before J Roddy played last night, there were these opening bands, and all this idle time. I was already hanging out with more or less the coolest guy in the room (you remember professional donut model Will... omg he always has the craziest work stories like "and so now this beautiful androgynous Dutch chick is totally licking glaze and sprinkles from the contours of my exquisite washboard abs..."), so it's not like I was trying to meet peeps. But then Will disappeared for a bit, and the next-best-looking man in the club happened to sit down near where our group was sitting, so I asked him if he was a fan of the band.

He didn't know them, but knew they were playing Bonnaroo, and his band was playing Bonnaroo, so he was curious... So OK, this guy is really cool, obvs, but I'm really cool too because I dress badly and know more about J Roddy Walston and the Business, who are about to be his favorite too. And then he casually mentioned that his band played with the Allmans, so I was like "blah blah blah...Matt Zeiner...?" and lo and behold he and I have a mutual friend in Connecticut! And this guy's band, The Jamie McClean Band, is actually gonna be in charming little Colinsville for a gig next month - so it's a good thing he happened to meet Hartford's second favorite local blogger, right?!

He just happened to have a CD on him ("Is that a CD in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Oh! It is a CD! Give me!") which I checked out on the ride home. And what do you know, this guy is really good. We've occasionally mentioned how challenging we Scenics sometimes find it to describe art or music that isn't about being tortured or miserable without sounding like we're being insincere. And here I have that challenge again, because this guy reminds me of Steve Miller or the Black Crowes, and I mean that as a compliment, because I grew up on classic rock radio like anybody else my age, and it's rockin and catchy and he has a nice voice and these great guitar solos. A quick Youtube perusal finds him sitting in with everyone from Govt Mule to Blues Traveler to Gavin DeGraw. But is it my fault that reality has conspired to make me identify most closely with songs about boozing up, fucking up and inner rage, and not so much with songs about this great, total package guy who is not at all ashamed of expressing his sexuality and how he loves this chick and isn't trying to keep it on the DL or also go after some other chick? Whatever. I'm looking forward to checking this guy out June 18th at Bridge Street Live. And don't worry, we'll remind you about it again before then!

**(I cannot emphasize enough the importance of saying what you really mean and differentiating between literal and symbolic language, and neither can this guy)