A Weekend to Remember

This is the incredible tale of the weekend of the Utica Music Festival. Most things will be discussed and the names will be changed to protect the guilty. The picture to your left is the 257 Steakhouse in downtown Utica, NY. We were scheduled to be on stage at midnight on Friday. We hit the road at 4pm, with a 4 hour trip ahead of us and all our gear and personal effects neatly packed. After about 30 minutes, Jay looks at the speedometer and we are apparently traveling at 95mph. Pretty sweet. The radio and everything died. Who needs a battery anyways? Oh how close but so far away we were. Ok, we were just far away at that point.



Anyways, to make a long story endless, with the van on the side of 495, we had to go back and all get our own cars. Roadside assistance came and we were able to get a new battery into poor old Daisy, but then we thought to ourselves: how do we know it's not the alternator?! The roadside guy, Jake I think his name was, was the man and told us where the nearest garage was. We left it at the garage and transferred all our gear in the rain. By this time, we are cutting it close. We hit the road together (in separate cars) and made it to the steakhouse with 15 minutes to spare. How's that for cutting it close?! A huge shoutout to Autumn who played before us at the steakhouse (sorry we missed it Autumn!). She is an amazing singer/songwriter from Texas that we exchanged cds with. Lovin the cd!


After an awesome show at the steakhouse, we hit the road for another 10 miles to get to our cabins, in a campground in Poland, NY. We awoke the next morning to the sounds of yelling kids dressed up in halloween costumes. Did we sleep until halloween? No, it's just halloween in Poland, NY. Dozens of campsites all decked out in cobwebs and beware signs. Children marched by a groggy and confused Jeff, scaring the poor chap half to death. Later in the weekend, our neighbor asked us 'what was in season?' The whole campground had assumed we were fisherman. We informed them that we were rockstars, chilling at a halloween campground to save money on hotel costs. Such a strange combination.



We then searched the streets of downtown Utica for food for what seemed like hours. Everything was closed. For a moment, we thought Armageddon had happened and we would be living a real life "Jericho" in Utica, starting out with nothing but our instruments and our wits. Luckily, we eventually found the main drag with all the good stuff.....we found several other hungry bands at the one and only Dennys. After eating 1500 calories, we headed back to the cabins for pre-show rock skipping and showed the other campers that we were clearly no fisherman. Somewhere along the way, Ben ended up with a flat tire. While changing the tire, we saw Amash people and a rainbow with a clear ending in front of a small tree. I am not making this up.

We finally headed back to town and found the venue of our 2nd gig. The stage area was outside and had flooded, so we had to squeeze onto a tiny room. Good thing we get along with each other and had an ample supply of TAG at the cabins. At the venue, I met the owner's brother Jay, who taught me how to play buckhunter and floss Cadillac Escalades and also Sick Rick, a cool biker dude who was concerned I was going to hit my head on the ceiling fans. We rocked hard and won over the crowd. Ben had to split at 10 and drive all the back to Manchester, NH...he had a flight to catch the next morning. I learned a lot about my bandmates on this trip....two members of the band snore louder than I sing...1 wears an irish kilt on occasion (he wore it at the show)....and other things which I'll leave up to the imagination.



Not sure why I put this last picture up here....this was on the ride back, with no coffee in my system....I was ready to keep going south and do a tour! Hopefully someday soon!

Jeans + Rock Music?

Well, my internet has been down for the last 8 days, but here I am once again. I'd been meaning to write an entry about our acoustic gig at the Gap in Harvard Square, but the interwebs just have not been cooperating. As you can see by the picture, we played at the Gap and it was actually an excellent time. I didn't really know what to expect going in, but we really enjoyed ourselves. People would walk in and look really confused by the random band playing next to the racks of jeans. It was hilarious. Ben and Jay even strolled around the store while they were playing. We were able to play some rare acoustic songs that we don't normally do at the clubs...like "Fire+Ice" a smooth love song that's the perfect soundtrack to trying on jeans and also "Abminor", which clearly needs a better title.

We also spiced up some of our songs, like "Best Thing" which normally goes "The best thing you've ever had", which we reworded as "the best jeans you've ever had"....it was a catchy little number that hopefully stimulated jean sales. The coolest thing about this gig was that it was the largest ever simultaneous acoustic concert. At every Gap in the world at the exact same time there were acoustic performances happening. It was pretty cool to be a part of it. Special thanks to everyone who stopped and listened as well as the excellent Harvard Square Gap employees who put up with the additional racket and set us up with a nice store front location!

ZM

Maine Trip 2009

Last week, Justin (drums) and I each had our vacations up in Maine. Justin spent his time in southern Maine on the beach, getting a sweet tan...meanwhile, I paraded around the northern and midcoast areas, staying ghostly white, and ending up more drained than I was before the start of vacation! Next time I think I'll try the beach. The above picture is quite clearly a picture of me jumping off a mountain....I have great high range diving skills, so no worries..the landing was smooth. The next picture is of a road in northern Maine (location: Grandfalls Township, Population: 0 or a few when we visit). The road is clearly washed out thanks to some pesky beavers. Luckily, my trusted truck Clifford made it through with only a couple of rocks stuck inside the wheels.



The driveway to my family's camp is also quite developed. As you can see by the picture to the right, it is more or less a tunnel through the woods. This is the same driveway that my mother was chased by a bear on in the late 90s. Don't worry, she only jogs now with a 'anti-bear' necklace around her neck. It has bells that jingle as she runs and you know how much bears hate the sound of bells.

After doing some fishing and camp firing, it was off to Hope, ME, to see the famous moose who goes by the name "Hamilton." "Everett" the cow also made an appearance and a good time was had by all! After more hiking and more boating, I was all vacationed out. Justin and I both returned from our vacations in time to rock the house at the Precinct in Somerville. It was good to be back on stage again, but also sad to leave the state that I have so many great memories in. I caught up with the family and saw lots of old college friends. Now that I'm back in town, it's time to finish mastering the album so that we can release within the next month. Stay tuned for an update on a more specific release date.

Zac Mac

Where I Come From...

So where I grew up in Maine, apparently Moose just show up at work. The following article tells the story of how a Moose wandered into the building where my Mom works. Only in Maine, haha.

Moose at Work

Hard Rock Cafe - Boston

We had an excellent set at the Hard Rock on Friday night, opening for "Captured", an amazing Journey Tribute Band. Seeing all of the greats that have graced the stage made it all the more special for me. It's pretty humbling to know that Aerosmith and countless others have played on the very same stage. The below right pic is actually Jay, Ben and Jeff in the green room backstage before the show!



We had an excellent turnout and I'd like to thank everyone that came out and supported us for our biggest gig to date. It's really all about the fans and you're what make it all worthwhile. Stay tuned for the release of our first full length album, "Don't Look Down", which should be out by the end of the summer!

ZMB to play 3 sets!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the good weather we have finally been getting. It's about time summer came.

The band is playing at the Chit Chat Lounge in Haverhill, MA, tomorrow evening. We'll be playing our longest show ever, as in 3 sets of music. We'll go on at 9:30 and play through 12:30, though I think we'll have to take a couple of short breaks. Anyways, if you can't make the Hard Rock gig next week, this will be a great opportunity to check out our full catalog of music!! Hope to see you there!

We'll also be debuting 2 brand new original songs..."Don't Believe the Rumors" and "Heal"!!

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What were you doing yesterday, specifically at 12:34 and 56 seconds?.....In case you missed it, at that moment the calendar looked like this:

12:34:56 on 07/08/09

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And do you know what this means???? Do you realize the significance of this??? Absolutely nothing. It happened yesterday and won't happen again for 100 years, but that's about it. Mark your calendars for the next one!