Every time I’m interviewed by Rolling Stone, I always tell them that I consider Billy Joel to be my first voice teacher. I’m sure you’ve read that by now.
Billy Joel was my first rock and roll love, and I spent many, many hours singing his stuff at the top of my lungs in my bedroom from about 6th grade through college. Now I sing his stuff in my living room, and next week I’ll get to sing and play his stuff at the New Candlelight Dinner Theater in Arden, DE, along with 2/3 of the Joe Trainor Trio, Kerry Kristine McElrone, Chuck Kuzminski, and Steve Manocchio.
We did this show for one night in August, and we knew we wanted to do it for a full weekend when people weren’t away for the summer, so here it is!
On Friday November 4th and Saturday November 5th, Hot Breakfast! will once again join forces with some of Delaware’s best musicians to bring you a night of music by Billy Joel.
We aren’t allowed to divulge the set list (Joe has threatened our lives), but we can tell you that we’ll be singing a “full band version” of a song we’ve been known to cover… so that’s a hint at least. Matt will be playing guitar, alto and tenor saxes, and singing his fabulous lungs out for this show, and I’ll be singing, playing saxes and playing a bunch of percussion, too. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to play triangle, and I’m totally serious.
Tickets are $20, and you can buy them in advance here. It’s general admission seating, so sit where you want. The venue doors open at 7pm, and the show starts right at 8pm. There’s no opening band, in typical Joe Trainor fashion. GOD FOR-FREAKIN’-BID he have Hot Breakfast! open! That would be just insane, wouldn’t it?
Anyway…
Hope to see you there. This really is my favorite music ever, and it’s a childhood dream come true to get to play this for you.
It’d be funny to chalk it up to old age, but I’ve been super-sensitive to loud sounds since I was a kid. When stuff is too loud it’s painful, annoying, and can even be disorienting for me, so I always keep a pair of drugstore foam earplugs in my pocket. As a FREAKIN’ ROCKSTAR, I never know when I’m gonna be in a noisy situation or asked to give an impromptu concert to a crowd of 25,000, so it’s nice to be prepared. Foam earplugs are handy, disposable and cheap, but sometimes they make things too soft, and they always muffle sounds making it hard to hear what musical things are happening. Muffling is great sometimes– sleeping on airplanes, snoring pal, drag racing, weed whacking… but when I’m listening to or making music the muffling is a buzzkill.
Two of my musician pals, Dan Schnelle (a full-time jazz drummer from L.A.), and Kevin Niemi of the Joe Trainor Trio own custom earplugs that are made exclusively for musicians and they both love them, so I decided to look into them.
I made an appointment with Dr. Michelli at Handelman Hearing Aids (my local hearing aid shop) and told him what I was looking for, and he recommended the Westone 49, which is a custom-made earplug with snap-in noise reduction filters depending how much quieter you want your surroundings. The filters are made by Etymotic Research and come in 9dB, 15dB, and 25dB sizes, and they all snap right into your custom earplug. A pair of these earplugs comes with one set of filters (your choice; I went with the 9dB), as well as a snap-in plug that blocks almost all noise (similar to what a good foam earplug would do)– I think I paid $225 for these, and then another $50 for a second pair of filters (I chose the 15dB filters). So overall, we’re talking about $275 for everything, which ain’t chump change I know, but what good is a deaf musician? (Just look at Beethoven, Pete Townshend, and Evelyn Glennie. Completely worthless!)
So here’s how it went down: Dr. Michelli looked in my ears to make sure they weren’t gross, and then he placed a small piece of foam as far into my ear as it would go. (I was worried this would hurt, but it didn’t.) Then he took what looked like a silicone caulking gun and filled my ears with pink silicone and also stuck a thin plastic tube in the silicone so we could remove the molds once they set. I couldn’t hear a thing with all that pink stuff in my ears, which was pretty cool.
This is what my ears look like on the inside. This is way more information than you ever wanted about me, I’m sure. But it’s still kinda cool, right?
And then he sent the molds out to Westone to get created. He asked if I wanted my initials etched into the earplugs, so I said sure. The earplugs themselves are clear, but they each have a different colored teeny dot on them so you can tell them apart. I figured in a concert situation with nutty lighting it would be hard to see the dot, so I took Kevin Niemi’s advice and got two different filter colors to make them easier to discern. I asked for the 15dB ones to be clear (figuring I’d probably use them less often), and the 9dB ones to be red and blue (R for Red/Right, and B for, um… Blue/Bleft?).
About 10 days later, I got a call from the doc to pick up my earplugs. Aren’t they cute? The 9dB filters are in the earplugs in this photo, but you can see the clear 15dB filters in the baggie. And they come with a little carrying case.
He had me try them on in the office just in case they needed to be adjusted or in a worst case, re-done. But yay– mine fit perfectly!
Please forgive the lack of makeup; instead, just look at the earplug. Isn’t it cute?Extreeeeeeeeme closeup!
So how well do they work?
They freakin’ rule; this is one of those “I don’t know how I survived without them” kinds of things. I wore them out dancing to a loud thumpy club and I brought both sets of filters (the -9dB and the -15dB) since I wasn’t really sure which ones I’d want. The music wasn’t as loud as it’s been in other clubs, so I was very happy with the 9dBs. The music sounded great– I heard all of the highs, all of the thumpy bass, all of the tasty midrange just fine. I also use the 9dBs when we’re rehearsing Billy Joel stuff in Jeff’s basement– it’s smaller-sized basement with drums, saxes, four singers, and the Trainor boys with their amps cranked pretty good. I haven’t had a chance to try out the 15dBs, but I imagine next weekend while standing in front of Jeff’s drum kit during the Billy Joel tribute I’ll want them. I’ll keep you posted!
UPDATE:
So I’ve had them now for a while, and they continue to be a must-have. Even as an acoustic duo, there are times when I really need them. (Of course, we’re not a typical James-Taylor-playin’ acoustic duo… we’re an acoustic duo that rocks Violent Femmes tunes in addition to originals like “It Only Takes Two to Rock.” So we definitely turn it up to 11.) For those smaller (but loud) venues, I’ll stick the -9db in one ear and either the -15db or the silent plug in the other, which kinda gives that “finger in your ear so you can hear yourself” effect so I can hear myself. For street gigs where we have very minimal if any amplification, sometimes I’ll throw the 9dB in one ear so I can be hyper-aware of my pitch while not losing any of that “stay connected to Matt” thing. So yeah… these plugs were totally, totally, worth the $275 investment.
We are really, really, really excited about this show. Which isn’t to make other shows feel like second bananas or anything; but when you hear about how awesome this show is, you’ll see why.
First off, the show is so awesome that we had to get INSURANCE. Insurance! Why? Because they know that we rock so dang hard that we could probably (and let’s face it, most likely will) set fire to all of the incredible artwork with our FACE-MELTING AWESOMENESS.
So what’s the gig?
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)’s program called “PAFA After Dark” reminds people that art can be fun and lively and social and unpredictable. So expect cocktails, scavenger hunts, gallery talks, hands-on projects and of course, music from HOT BREAKFAST!… all right on Broad Street in Philadelphia.
On October 27th, the theme of the night is “Home Grown,” which applies to the local beer being served (om nom nom!), the exhibition on view, the demonstrations by an urban farming community. (Jill is hoping there will be chickens.)
Tickets can be purchased at the website above; adult tickets are $10 if you buy them in advance, or they’re $15 at the door. The exhibition is geared more for grown-ups, though it’s not like there’s gonna be real live breastages or anything (unless Matt has more than 3 beers, then all bets are off). We’ve been told we don’t have to keep it clean, so we’ll be singing a new song I wrote called “Fuck You, Fucking Fuckface.”1
PAFA has several buildings, and our spiffy event will be in the Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building at 128 N. Broad St. in Philadephia. See you there!
—- 1 No, we don’t have a song called that. But hey, sounds catchy (and classy!), doesn’t it?
