I have become lazy with my blog. This will not happen again I promise.

This summer has been my busiest so far. I have performed more this summer than I have ever before. I have been able to travel more than I have before, therefore I have received more speeding tickets this summer in a short amount of time than, you guessed it, ever before.

This past weekend I performed a myriad of interesting shows around the northwest. On Thursday July 16th I played a rather awkward show in Sandpoint Idaho at a venue named Three Glasses wine bar with my band mates pianist Parker Moosman and Bassist Dan Spalding. Why was it awkward you ask? Well, when we showed a couple hours or so before the show there was a rampous game of drunk-ass bingo in full swing. So naturally we sat down bought a pitcher and some Bingo cards and had ourselves a great time until it was time to perform. Unfortunately, once the bingo balls stop rolling the once raucous packed bar emptied out very quickly. Luckily, there was a small pack of amazing dancers that stuck around and everyone ended up having a great time!

The following night I performed with Sub Pop mega star Tiny Vipers at the Empyrean in Spokane WA. It was a good show with a solid crowd and no bingo cards (Thank God).

On Saturday, it was time for me to fulfill my duties as guitar player for Joel Smith and the Hands of Pleanty. We performed at the Basin Summer sounds festival in Ephrata, WA at 9:15 in the morning (that's right you heard me, 9:15 A.M.). I must say this is a very well put together event. Large stage, large beer garden, 3-on-3 basketball tourney, inflatable castles! The highlight of this show for me was that Ephrata has a great independent bookstore named the Bookery that I was able to peruse around in (I purchased the new Dave Eggers book which I am pretty excited about). Later that night we drove to Sandpoint ID and performed a crazy bar show at Downtown Crossing, and I drank Absinthe for the first time....my arms felt funny.

On Monday we performed at Zola in Spokane, and it was.....fun.

On Tuesday Parker, Dan and I performed outside at the Rocket Market, there was a great crowd there and a ton of energy whisping around the parking lot/music venue, and then a neighbor called the police and complained about the noise which meant that it was time to unplug and perform completely un-amplified. This was a new experience for me. I felt like the many street buskers across the world clamoring for attention (and money). It turned out to be one of my favorite shows I have ever played! Everyone in the audience was very understanding and just plain nice and I feel we played very well.

On a side note I have begun work on my first full length album, stay tuned for updates.

Thanks to everyone for the support,

Mark