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In this episode of 'Tales From the Green Room,' the hosts welcome guest co-host Paul McCaffrey ("Paulie Mac") - formerly of the 'Murph & Mac' morning sports radio show on KNBR - for an engaging and wide-ranging conversation with members of Boston-based band, Bearly Dead, Nick Swift, Michael "Butzy" Butler, and founder Tyler Brooks. Recorded backstage at the iconic Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, the discussion traverses topics from the evolution of their musical journey, the influence of the Grateful Dead, and their unique approach to setlists and performance. The episode also touches on Boston sports, the local music scene, and the camaraderie within the Grateful Dead tribute band community. Butler's reflection on the band's musical journey, touring, and relationship with its fans is met with a surprise voice from the past from their greatest influencer, adding an interesting dynamic to the discussion!
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What is Tales from the Green Room?
Welcome to Tales from the Green Room - Backstage conversations from popular music venues around the country curated by Mount Tam Media.
Buckle up and listen in, as host Dennis Strazulo and Mount Tam Media founder, Tami Larson, dig up conversations with artists - before and after shows - in the exclusive confines of the green room. Barriers are down with stories abound!
Tales from the Greenroom Special Edition (Sweetwater Music Hall's 50th Anniversary Series)
Mount Tam Media is thrilled to launch its Tales From the Green Room Podcast with a special series of episodes celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the iconic Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California. The roster of artists that have crowded onto the club's little stages, first at the original Sweetwater location two blocks away, and now at the new location which opened in 2013, reads like a Who's Who of roots & rock music: Bob Weir, Aaron Neville, Big Mama Thornton, Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, Etta James, Greg Allman, Van Morrison… the list of musical luminaries is endless. In the 80's, the Times of London hailed Sweetwater as one of the best nightclubs in America and the legacy continues! Mount Tam Media has been granted special access to Sweetwater’s green room during the venue’s 50th anniversary year to interview musicians, photographers, managers and the like, and capture their favorite moments and memories, preserving the untold secrets of what has graced these hallowed walls for half a century, before they are lost forever.
Welcome to Tales from the Green Room. Backstage conversations from popular music venues around the country curated by Mount Tam Media. Listen in as host Dennis Truzzillo and Mount Tam Media founder Tammy Larson dig up conversations with artists before and after shows in the exclusive confines of the green room.
tami:Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Tales From the Green Room. We have, a great one for you. Couple surprises, but, you're gonna love it.
dennis:We interviewed Barely Dead at Sweetwater Musical and this is the episode that came from it and it was awesome.
tami:It was awesome. First, you should probably mention our incredible co host.
dennis:We had a co host. We'd had a great cohost, Pauley Mack. Pauley Mack is a San Francisco Bay Area radio personality. He's been for over 20 years, and he's mostly known as a sports guy. But the fact is, he's a music guy at heart.
tami:Yeah. He really is. But I mean, he had a lot of questions and let's not forget that they both had their salted hats on and, and because he's a sports guy and because he has a lot of Boston experience, he brought a whole new sort of, you know, the the sports meets music and they talk a lot about that.
dennis:So great. And the thing is, let's just give him a plug for his, podcast that's coming out soon with creative Tony. In January.
tami:Yes. And the name is Polly's Particles and that's, Tony Rain.
dennis:And it's gonna be sports focused but with a slant on music. And this
pauly mac:was a
dennis:great warm up for it because this was music focused with a slant on sports. Yeah.
tami:And that all gets talked about. Now let's keep in mind, I was, doing the video for because we ours our guy didn't show up or he he couldn't and so, so I'm not part of this but it was really cool being on the outside listening and then editing because it really was an amazing interview. I loved it.
dennis:I liked it and we loved those guys. Nick Swift, is the guitar and vocals. Michael Butler, vocals and percussion, mostly vocals. Mhmm. I mean, Michael was just awesome.
tami:No. Vocals and dance. I I mean, he had a leather jacket on, a scarf, and he was spinning and jumping and trying to get the, you know, the crowd. But she was already excited, more excited. I mean, he's it was a little bit theatrical.
tami:I liked it.
dennis:He was. And and so that was fun. And then the founder of the band, Tyler Brooks, the drummer, popped in after we gave him a recommendations for some vegan food in the area. Buku. Listen, we recommended Buku.
tami:For you for sponsorship.
dennis:That's right. And, he loved he said the best food he had on tour so far. Yeah. So I just gave that away.
tami:Takes him to California.
dennis:Yeah. So anyway, they you know, the great what we found out about Barely Dead is they pride themselves in actively not being like the Grateful Dead yet honoring their songs. Mhmm.
tami:And they really do. I mean, when he said that, I was like, okay. Where where are they gonna go? And no. I mean, they definitely honor the songs but they just they do have a they're not too upbeat but it's it's interesting.
tami:It's different.
dennis:It's different.
tami:And they talk about the jazz influence in their lives. Yeah. I think there's it's all part of it, but I don't wanna give too much away. But they they I mean, Michael goes into some really cool stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I do. I did.
dennis:Listen to the I I think I said it. Alright. There is a sound bite for the ages, in there. So listen to Michael Butler talk about and let's not forget though Owen Finley who has recently joined the band on bass and vocals. He was badass too.
dennis:But not but and, Chris Juncker on the keyboards. Man, we didn't get to talk to him, on the interview. I spoke with him afterwards. He said, yeah. He had some stuff going on.
dennis:But remember, he he was playing so hard his hand his fingers started bleeding.
tami:Oh, that's right.
michael butler:Very first song.
tami:That's right. You're just like looking for a Band Aid. That's awesome.
dennis:Yeah. So this was part of their Harvest the Wind tour
tami:Mhmm.
dennis:Which goes on until the end of October 2024. And there are a couple of dates on the that's in on the West Coast, and there are a couple of dates on the East Coast in, I think, November, December, certainly in November. So check them out online to get their tour and go see them. We're gonna start off with, a track from them, a bit of a track from them to get you warmed up, Carina.
tami:No. I think we're gonna start okay. No. We're gonna start with
dennis:Carina. Yes.
michael butler:Start with Carina.
tami:You're absolutely right. Tell them.
dennis:I'll tell you what. Because I read, in one of the articles I read about them getting prepared for interviewing them, they mentioned how Carina was a very good example of how they put their own twist Mhmm.
michael butler:On a
dennis:Grateful Dead song. Right. So, have a listen and go see, Barely Dead if they're in your area and listen to them in the meantime.
tami:Yeah. Definitely. Okay.
dennis:Alright. Barely dead. Welcome to Tales From the Green Roof.
nick swift:Thanks for having us.
dennis:Welcome to Mill Valley. Welcome to Sweetwater. We got all kinds of welcomes for you. And, you're actually people. You're not barely dead.
dennis:You're individuals. Welcome, brother. Good to hear. Yeah. Thanks for
nick swift:having us. Yeah. Yeah.
dennis:And, Michael Butler. That's me. Alright. We saw you up there in
nick swift:Soundcheck. It was awesome.
dennis:Thank you.
nick swift:And,
dennis:let me introduce our cohost, special cohost tonight, Paulie Mack, Paul McCaffrey.
pauly mac:Cheers, boys. Good to see you both. Good to see you. Good to have a couple of Boston boys here in the Bay Area. Yes.
pauly mac:I got some Boston experience myself. In fact, we should let our listeners know that, there are hats being worn as we're rolling tape tonight. But great to have you guys in the bay, and you're here actually one basketball note. It is opening night. Celtics are playing right now.
michael butler:So when
pauly mac:you guys are out on the road, do you can you keep up with scores?
michael butler:We didn't see the game, but they, were up 35 on the Knicks with, an entire 4th quarter left to play. So I'm pretty sure they're
nick swift:Yeah. I think we had a 128 points 12 minutes ago.
pauly mac:Because we're on the eve of the, and I know about Boston sports fans because I lived there in the late eighties, early nineties, and, you know, Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics. How do you guys feel about this Dodgers, Yankees thing? I mean, like You know? It's your worst nightmare to have the Yankees in the world, but go ahead.
michael butler:I'll I'll feel this one. I think it's, terrific. It's the bet if you want to inspire the Boston market to do something about their current situation Maybe.
dennis:Maybe. Maybe finally.
michael butler:Watch the Dodgers and Yankees have all the fun to make all the money. It's like and drive the fans crazy until, like, if they were tolerating the Red Sox not being competitive this long, like, maybe they'll stop tolerating it.
nick swift:It's I
pauly mac:like what you're saying.
nick swift:It's no coincidence. This is the best thing that could happen. The, you know, the height of Red Sox nation was when the ownership cared about its team. Yeah. They cared about fielding a competitive team, and it's pretty easy, formula.
nick swift:So Just care, and we'll come back.
pauly mac:I did a boarding sports show here in San Francisco for 18 years, and one of our biggest questions was how and why did you guys let Mookie Betts go?
dennis:Like, we
pauly mac:don't it's for the liking.
michael butler:Well, let's just dispel the myth that, like, me and Nick had anything to do
pauly mac:with put your hands in
dennis:it. Right?
michael butler:No. No. No. It was a it was a franchise, and it was a terrible decision. Mookie has cursed us before a different one, you know, and now it's
dennis:Oh, yeah. 80 6. Yeah. So it was like probably take some bad
michael butler:bad luck with Mookys at this point. We could
dennis:we could probably take something from that, Pauley, to, the as Giants fans to learn what
Speaker 4:it's right?
dennis:The the Dodgers us watching the Dodgers and That's the problem. Yeah. Thing. Yeah. No no bueno.
nick swift:Yep. Yeah.
dennis:Well, you
pauly mac:know, this is how we
michael butler:turned it around in the first place. There is there was a point in Red Sox history, especially after, I mean, it led up to us being competitive when we lost in 2003, but even still Right. Along the way, we had nothing. And the fans, like, really made a lot of noise at that point, And that's what inspired them to go out and get Manny Ramirez and go out and spend money on Pedro. It's like, if you don't want, you know, it's like it was clear then if you didn't spend money, you you weren't gonna win.
michael butler:So, like, it's no different now. We're back to those times.
dennis:Our fans might be a little too passive.
pauly mac:Well, the but yeah. No. It's a totally different animal out here. The fans are willing to kinda let things unfold a lot more patiently, I would say, in the Bay Area because Boston sports fans, they don't have the patience. Yeah.
pauly mac:Well, give me the win.
michael butler:Give me the a's. What's going on? The
pauly mac:A's fan,
dennis:but I'm
pauly mac:really sorry to see them. We do. Because we've watched Oakland lose everything. Everybody.
nick swift:I have family.
Speaker 7:To Las Vegas.
nick swift:I've been to the Coliseum multiple times. It's a
pauly mac:great spot. There's a lot of history over there. Is it the town has a lot of hearts. So, no, I think it sucks that they're leaving.
dennis:And we're a couple of Giants fans, and we my I hate got days to go. I hate it. Me too. I really do. I hate it.
pauly mac:It's not easy to do. Like, Vegas doesn't really even want them. Like, there's a lot of resistance coming from Las Vegas. So it's a mess, dude. They you talk about bad ownership.
pauly mac:This guy who owns the ace Fisher, he's like a nightmare.
dennis:Yeah. So And this is a good segue into, Paulie's upcoming, sports music ish. I love radio.
pauly mac:Yeah. So we're gonna launch a new show in January. It's gonna be a and we're like a sports show, but we talk a lot of music. I'm a big deadhead. We have a lot of musicians on the show.
michael butler:I had the opposite radio show once.
nick swift:Yeah.
dennis:Where oh,
michael butler:we're a bunch of musicians who talked a lot about sports.
pauly mac:Yeah. No. It really is. It's interesting. Like, I was just talking about when Bob Weir was on our show.
pauly mac:We had one of the one of the ways we were able to book Bobby was by offering him to sit right alongside Ronnie Lott, one of the great 49ers.
dennis:Oh, that's nice.
michael butler:So once
pauly mac:we told Bobby, hey. We got Ronnie Lott coming in. Bobby's like, I'll be there. Right?
nick swift:Yeah. Yeah.
michael butler:So What
nick swift:time, y'all?
dennis:Yeah. So
michael butler:one of the best players on tech mobile. Alright.
dennis:So we're kinda doing that tonight, music program with sports. Right? Kinda like your old thing, Michael. Right?
michael butler:So let's show this. I love it. We're just
dennis:shooting the breeze. We're shooting
Speaker 7:the breeze.
dennis:This is not an interview. This is a a breeze shooting session.
pauly mac:No question.
dennis:But I gotta say, the first thing I saw I I thought of you guys coming here into the epicenter, the the Grateful Dead, to the lion's den, whatever you wanna call it. Do you feel that? I mean, what's the what's the emotion coming not only to the Bay Area, Marin County and this nightclub here in Sweetwater?
nick swift:Well, as soon as you step into this sort of radius, you definitely feel, oh, we're home. We're we're where this is all from. This is the birthplace of of everything that we do, and we're obviously 3,000 miles away most of the time. So being here, there's this reverential element. You're like, we're we're not that far from the house on Haight Ashbury, you know, in Haight Ashbury.
nick swift:And all the historical venues and landmarks that the dead grew up playing, all the acid tests and all that sort of stuff. And there's, you know, that element of, like, you really wanna bring it. You wanna show that we've that we're we belong, that we're part of this family as well, and we're someone to be paid attention to a little bit if you want to. And but at the same time, we we know that our approach is quite a bit different than most people's. Like, we're not try we actively are trying to not sound like the Grateful Dead.
nick swift:I don't have an envelope filter on my board. We've got Butsy as a lead singer who is very different from many of the the vocalists you hear in the proper Grateful Dead.
dennis:You're no got Donna Gotcha. I mean, no. But, you know,
michael butler:it's only, when he needs to be.
pauly mac:Right. Yeah. Sure. Actually,
michael butler:you know, I I try to incite the band, like, I mean, the the crowd, like, in playing in the band to, like, you know, when she does her big scream, like, I want the crowd to give you the best song.
nick swift:It's a
dennis:good idea.
pauly mac:Let me give you the best song. Yeah.
dennis:We were watching the sound check. We looked at each other. Wait a second. They they got a singer. And, the test there's one thing that's different among others.
nick swift:Right? Only one guitar player. Yeah. And Chris, our keyboard player, is a funk machine. And, you know, is he we all bring our own flavor to it.
nick swift:I think, you know, we all come like, I I grew up listening to Grateful Dead through my dad, but also through listening to a ton of other stuff. And, you know, butts and and and and Young definitely come from, like, a funk background. And and, Tyler, kind of a world music, is our drummer. Tyler, our drummer, has, like, sort of a world music, almost and sometimes, like, a punk rock kind of aesthetic that he he really goes for. So everyone kinda brings this own unique flavor to the music, and our whole approach is just take these songs because they're so good.
nick swift:Yep. They're so well written. They're like, the the when you start to break them apart and you start to realize even the simple songs aren't that simple. There's little things. And, and the lyrically, they're, you know, second to none.
michael butler:Second to none.
nick swift:Yeah. Robert Hunter, I think, is the greatest American songwriter lyricist of all time. Yeah. It's just unbelievable to me. And and Jerry and Poppy wrote really great chord progressions and and and tunes.
nick swift:And you can just take those and use them as a springboard for your own sound and your own style.
pauly mac:So as you guys are putting your own stamp on the music, which I think is a really good idea because there are so many bands now playing Grateful Dead music all over the country as you guys know. And when you have your own approach as you guys do, it's gonna help you kinda pop from the crowd. But a question I have about you're talking about how well written the songs are, and you're right. Their catalog, it's pretty damn incredible. I mean, like, what Bob Dylan is calling Robert Hunter and saying, hey.
pauly mac:Help me write some songs.
nick swift:Yeah.
pauly mac:I think you're a pretty damn good lyricist. But when it comes to the jams, like, what's your philosophy, feeling, or approach when you guys say you're doing Scarlet Fire. Do you have, like, a traditional jam, or can it go anywhere?
dennis:You can
michael butler:just say what you wanna say.
nick swift:That's funny you should say that.
dennis:Yeah. Okay.
michael butler:Well, honestly, I mean, we, posted, like, a reel over, like, we were playing Scarlet Fire, then this happened. Do you know what I mean? It's like, we try, like, we we as a band really believe in uncharted territory.
nick swift:Yes.
michael butler:You know what I mean? I feel like that's how we play in the spirit of the Grateful Dead is to try to, like, push new ground musically, to use our improv's, to create some sort of combination of sounds that people go, what was that? Yeah. You know, where did I just go? Like, places that you might not expect.
michael butler:I mean, to and to echo what he was saying before, it's like a songbook. You know what I mean? And plus, it includes, like, you know, an equal portion of some of the greatest songs ever written by other bands as well is what they've opened their book to. So it's not different than how a jazz artist goes through a real book Yep. And, like, reinvents that those tunes.
michael butler:Here's the chart. Here's the tune, but make of it what you will. Well said.
nick swift:And and that's definitely the approach we take. I mean, we we've got, Owen on base with us, for this tour, Owen Finley from Florida, and he's been awesome. And
michael butler:Great player. Great dude.
nick swift:And he he came in, and we were like, don't sound like Phil. Just sound like Owen Yeah.
dennis:To yourself. Beautiful.
nick swift:And, you know, we we will create some cool stuff together, and we'll see what happens.
pauly mac:And it's been working.
dennis:The dead did in a a different way. You're improvising.
nick swift:You're you're
dennis:running with stuff. Nothing's the same.
nick swift:And I think that that is what excites us the most about being in a Grateful Dead cover band. It's it's not about trying to emulate a sound. It's about trying to, like, really get the spirit of what they're going for and continue that forward in whatever that means to you.
pauly mac:Do you, as a guitar player I mean, like, that's the hot seat, man. That's everyone's always gonna gravitate when you're listening to Grateful Dead. Alright. Who's on guitar? Who's doing the Jerry stuff?
pauly mac:Like, how even though your approach is different, do you feel somewhat, you know, obligated to honor what Jerry's doing? Or is it more about capturing, like, the essence of what he's doing?
nick swift:I I I think for me, it's more about capturing the essence because I I love Jerry Garcia. He's one of the guys who taught me how to play guitar. He doesn't know it, but he he he literally taught me how to play guitar. I would my my buddy showed me some chord shapes and some and, you know, here's a pentatonic box. Now go.
nick swift:Go. And, and I would throw on the Grateful Dead. I'd throw in Friend of the Devil. I'd throw on Bertha, whatever, and just try to make it work and just play along with Jerry. And so it wasn't so I wasn't necessarily trying to play what Jerry was playing.
nick swift:I was trying to play around what Jerry was playing. Yep. And so that's I think a lot of my style comes from that, if I can talk about my style.
dennis:You can.
pauly mac:You should. What else? You can
nick swift:ask him.
pauly mac:That's why I'm
dennis:asking. Yeah.
nick swift:Get to cook. But that's that's
dennis:Good style.
nick swift:My, my my approach I I find myself I I I love to play around what other people are doing. And and so I'd there's definitely some pressure, sure, as as the only guitar player in a in a guitar driven band. But, you know, Chris Yunker on keys, I mean, he gives me a lifeline every time I need it. He's so good. And playing with him is
michael butler:Phenomenal, truly.
nick swift:Is so easy. And, and and also but easy, but also difficult in the sense that he's pushing me in all sorts of new musical ways, that I hadn't been pushed before. And, and he can really come in and be a star Yeah. In, you know, in the song because he can just take it to another level. So it's it's less about me being Jerry and more about how can
michael butler:especially It's it's about we. It's
nick swift:about Yeah. Yeah. And it's cool. Especially from, like, the melody, you know, high end part of it, me and Chris. You know, is how can we create these sounds?
nick swift:Because half the time, he's doing a lot of the Jerry licks on a clavinet with with a wah pedal to kinda emulate, like,
pauly mac:the that during sound check.
michael butler:He was doing that.
nick swift:Yeah. So so, you know, we that's part of our approach too is to, you know, we'll we'll gladly rewrite a little bit, you know, or or or re what's the word? Like, reinstrumentize. Yeah. Like, if I pass it around,
dennis:you can play this nice.
michael butler:Yeah. Right.
nick swift:Right. Like, maybe the the bass plays this lick or something like that. So I I don't know.
pauly mac:Yeah. I I bet there's
dennis:no pressure. You guys don't you don't feel pressure, do you, when you're up there?
nick swift:And I You know, I mean, you
dennis:know, if anything that you know, it is
michael butler:like you said it before. It's a little different to come from there and come here and, you know, like you said, into where it all becomes we feel, like, humbled. It's not so much pressure.
nick swift:Yes.
michael butler:But it's just very humble and very grateful to be in this position and just, like, you know, we don't we are trying to be pretentious about it. Like, we're storming in here. We're just like, you know, totally.
nick swift:We're just gonna we're cool.
pauly mac:We're gonna give this up. You know what I mean?
nick swift:You know? It's a very
dennis:forgiving and understand forgiving might not be the right word, but It's a good word. Okay. The forgiving audience. And this audience
Speaker 4:will let you any artist that we,
dennis:interview here, it says when they come in this room, they feel like they could try stuff out. Yeah. You guys are trying stuff out all the time. Yeah. Right?
dennis:And it's so it is forgiving in that sense where this audience is cool. Whatever you
nick swift:that's you. Absolutely.
dennis:It's it's a bit sophisticated in that sense.
michael butler:I feel like that's, like, been a tradition because, like, the Grateful Dead themselves, like, would just go for it.
nick swift:Yeah.
dennis:You know
michael butler:what I mean? And not really care if, like, you know, not everyone hit the bridge. You know? That's right. You know
nick swift:what I mean?
michael butler:It's like, you know, we'll get through that.
nick swift:Way is going. We're racing here at the river. Whatever.
michael butler:You know, like, the fans, like, feel the energy. That's the most important thing. Yeah. And, you know, like, they also relate to the humanity of the of and and, you know, the, just whatever that is, that the humanity. Yeah.
michael butler:Like Yeah. That's true. But that's a good
dennis:word of of
michael butler:of the people, playing the music. If they, you know, stumble over something, it almost brings the audience closer to the band because they were there for that. And you're like and then they see them shake it off, and it's like
nick swift:I'm fully excited to that. Yeah.
michael butler:They they enjoy that.
pauly mac:That's probably why the crowd used to always cheer when Bobby Bob Weir would forget lyrics on stage. The crowd would always cheer.
nick swift:People That's right. Yeah. To see
pauly mac:because it's real.
nick swift:Their hero become human for
michael butler:a moment.
dennis:That's what that is.
nick swift:Yeah. That yeah. But, like, you know, people just like it I I'm a big fish guy. I know I've been to a 1,000,000 fish shows, and I know that that generally the biggest cheers are when, oh, we forgot the oh, I screwed up.
dennis:Oh, yeah.
michael butler:That's what I'm trying to
dennis:do is
nick swift:because people are like, yes. They're human like me.
michael butler:They're not
nick swift:these gods. On a stage.
dennis:Yeah. You see Phil when Phil sort of, forgets words sometimes Yeah. Or gets a little a little trouble. The whole crew just picks them up.
nick swift:Here's a here we go. We're all together.
pauly mac:We got you. You know? Yeah. It it's interesting talking about, you know, audiences, Bay Area audiences, because I think Dennis is right. Like, this the the Bay Area audience is probably California audiences are really good listeners.
pauly mac:Like, these people will listen to what you're doing Yeah. And they'll get excited. Yeah. I remember when I lived in Boston, you know, it's a totally different kind of crowd back there. Like, it was really fired up crowd.
pauly mac:Like, when the Grateful Dead came back to Boston Garden in 91, they hadn't played there, I think, since 82. It had been a while. They were doing a lot of shows at Worcester, But they came back
michael butler:to shows. What's that? I was literally at one of those shows.
pauly mac:The garden shows? Yeah.
dennis:Yeah. And
michael butler:that's what I was.
pauly mac:Me too. I was at 3 of those. Yeah. They were just crazy.
michael butler:I was young when I was like
pauly mac:Yeah. Hornsby, it was like, you know, during the Hornsby. Hornsby. But those
michael butler:were really exciting. Love Hornsby.
nick swift:We do too.
pauly mac:I love Hornsby. So so do I. And I think Jerry did too. When when Hornsby first joined the band, I think Jerry got reinvigorated. It was like exciting.
Speaker 4:You can
nick swift:see it in the video.
michael butler:Well, all his his side projects too. He just loved playing with the cats.
dennis:You know?
michael butler:It's like when he gets the cats in on it, oh, this guy's a killer.
pauly mac:Like, he's bringing me
dennis:the cats in.
pauly mac:Boston area now. Because, like, when I was there, it was a major hub for Grateful Dead, you know, activity and fans because you could get to a variety of towns within 2 hours. You had Boston, Hartford, Worcester, Providence. You're looking at all these places. You go down New York, see them down there.
pauly mac:What's it like in the Boston area now and their appetite for bales like yourselves and just Grateful Dead music? It's wonderful.
nick swift:It's strong. Yeah. I mean, Boston has always been great to us. We we had a residency in Somerville, weekly Wednesday night residency for 7, 8 years.
michael butler:Which venue? We basically insist because of the love that Boston has.
nick swift:Yeah. You know?
michael butler:That's why we're here.
nick swift:This whole this whole project started purely as a weekly residency, and and it's it underwent a lot of lineup changes over the the early years and stuff like that. And co we were going strong up until and through or up until COVID, and everything closed down as we know. When we came back, the residency was strong for a minute, then Delta came and kinda scared everyone away again. And and it just never quite could recover Right. In that early time.
nick swift:And and we're all kinda looking at each other like, we've been doing this for a while, and I think we have something really cool and special that we could bring elsewhere. And we had been doing some, you know, a little bit of shows in New England, you know, Hartford and Yep. And Burlington and, you know, Maine and New Hampshire, all that stuff. But it was it was like, what what if we really got out there and stayed in a hotel one night? You know?
nick swift:Yeah.
pauly mac:I'll match it. Yeah.
dennis:I'll match it. Yeah.
nick swift:Will we will we kill each other, or will we have fun?
pauly mac:Let's see what happens.
nick swift:And we found out that we have fun. And so we've been, doing everything we can to be on the road as much as possible ever since, and, it's been an absolute blast.
dennis:And it's one thing to come to that realization or that decision, but easier said than done. I mean, touring is no easy or inexpensive task.
michael butler:It is
nick swift:not. Right?
pauly mac:And so, I
dennis:mean, quit your day jobs, so to speak. Yep. Or whatever it was you I
michael butler:tend to look at being a musician as much like being a monk. You know what I mean? It's you do not do it for the money. You don't necessarily expect to get money. You're basically, like, people donate to you through tickets and however they support your band, to sort of keep the to keep you on your spiritual path.
michael butler:I they afford us the ability to sort of and then we offer them what we do. And hopefully, in the end, it's an even exchange. You know? It's like, that's what it is. It's just you're devoted to it
Speaker 7:one way or the
michael butler:other. You So what do you do? You go play shows.
dennis:That's Michael, I love that. That's a fucking sound bite right there.
Speaker 4:Okay. This is Dennis. I'm gonna butt into my own interview here. We we rarely do this, but I I remember when we were interviewing Michael at this point, while he was talking about likening his, journey as a musician to being a monk, I was thinking, man, what a great sound bite. I even said it here in the interview, but I really did.
Speaker 4:It's not, this is amazing, the way he's explaining this. It was very it really touched me. So that's all well and dandy and cool. But after completely unrelated. After this interview and episode was recorded, somebody, one of our listeners had come to me and said, hey.
Speaker 4:You gotta check out this interview of Jerry Garcia from 1975. It was done before the snack Sunday concert. And I thought, well, that's kinda cool. And I think Rich Marini, who was the listener, did this because he heard I was at that snack Sunday show. So, anyway, I'm just moseying along.
Speaker 4:I just decided the other day to check out this interview with Jerry Garcia. And it was done by, Peter Simon of Rolling Stone Magazine. And it was sort of a tales from the green room style situation where they were interviewing Jerry Garcia before he went on stage. And all of a sudden, they launched into this discussion about how it was it was really about how the dead they had been on the hiatus and but they had some success, and they were talking about the money they were making and how they put it back into, the music and into the fans. So he talked about this whole reciprocal process between the fans, and the music getting better for them.
Speaker 4:And I listening to that, I immediately thought of what Michael was saying here, and I really found it to be uncanny. These guys were 50 years apart, are speaking, about the same journey. And, by the way, that recording was lost. The Peter Simon interview with Jerry was lost for about 40 years. I think it just turned up about 10 years ago.
Speaker 4:So perfect timing here for us to share this with you. I wanted Michael to hear it. It's a little surprise for him the first time he's listening to this interview and for you listeners. So check it out.
Speaker 8:That's really the best part about what we ever did. I mean, in terms of, that was the best part. It was certainly certainly, relating to the people and, relating to each other on a friendly basis and and closely in a in a family sort of ways. It's more rewarding to approach anything that way than it is do it, you know, for success reasons or that that sort of thing, you know. It just is better.
Speaker 8:It just feels better. And and and I think it produces better music too. I mean, in terms of commercial success in the sense of, making a fortune or anything like that, we certainly never were that. And, our effort is has always been to, sort of plow back the proceeds from our gigs back in into, expanding the quality level of the equipment and that sort of thing. In an effort to improve what we're doing, that's what where it's really gone in terms of the energy and the money that we've made rather than distribute it to individual wealth, you know, that sort of thing.
Speaker 8:That's just been our focus has been that way all along and, there's no I mean, that seems to work out pretty well. It also seems to be most fair in the sense that fans who or people who are coming to hear our music are are, in a way promoting and paying for supporting the the thing of making it better, which I think is fair, a good, you know, reciprocal, you know.
Speaker 4:I don't know. Maybe it's just me, but I thought that was pretty awesome. And the timing was strange too in that I just heard about this interview right after Michael said that. So, hopefully, you enjoyed it because I did. Let's get back to the interview.
dennis:That was good. Let me ask
pauly mac:you about Thunder Road for
dennis:a second because it struck me. Is that where neighbor, did their
michael butler:Yes. As well
dennis:as show there.
nick swift:Tuesday and we were Wednesday.
michael butler:Is that where it was?
dennis:I thought so. Okay. Because we We're friends
nick swift:with all those guys.
dennis:Yeah. Yeah. And we met them a couple of years ago, Tammy and I. We went to, Martha's Vineyard. They were playing at the, the beach, the beach road festival or whatever.
nick swift:Beach road weekend. Beach road weekend.
dennis:Beach road weekend. Beach road weekend.
Speaker 7:Beach road weekend. Yes.
dennis:Didn't know him, and we go and my buddies there, oh, man, this is your kind of band, and it was. We love neighbor. And they ended up coming out here, couple months later. So I just texted, or did a DM to, Lyle. Yep.
dennis:And, sure enough, we went and interviewed him at the the chapel. But they they had, 10,000 people at that show and maybe 90 at the chapel. And I was like, wow. I mean, that's it kinda struck me, you know, not easy.
nick swift:It's a difficult world out here.
pauly mac:It's a difficult world.
nick swift:You know, you sell out one night in in a town you'd never expect, and then the next night where you think it's gonna be packed, it's empty, and
dennis:you
nick swift:don't know quite why. And then you find out, oh, there are 8 bands playing down the street.
michael butler:Right. And there's that.
dennis:Oh, okay.
michael butler:Also, it's a leap of faith. You know what I mean? It's like we come out here for the first time, you know, and play, and then we have to wait a year Yeah. Until we get a chance to build on that.
dennis:Do you
Speaker 7:see what I mean?
dennis:So it's
michael butler:like we hope that, like, the people we played for a year ago are like, oh, yeah. Right? You know? And wanna come right back, but, you know, and it creates some sort of momentum that there's more people the second time. And then the third time, there will be more people.
dennis:Yeah. I didn't realize you had played here last year. So now I at least I figured it out this year, thankfully. Yeah. But the reason I found out is because Bella Rain, told me that she sat in with you guys a year ago.
dennis:I said,
nick swift:oh, shit. Absolutely.
dennis:So how did you guys hook up with her?
nick swift:Bella reached out on Instagram. Ah, lovely. That. Wow. Which, you know, shows the power of just, you know, being persistent and and and and going for what you want.
nick swift:And, man, she is impressive. Gotcha.
dennis:That wow. She'd reach out and do a DM.
nick swift:She just was
dennis:like, hey.
nick swift:And and, you know, you we occasionally get a message that, you know, someone wants to sit in or and and you don't quite know. And, you know, it's like, I'm a I'm a 15 year old girl from from California, and I would like to sit in. And I'm I'm like, okay.
dennis:I'm I'm Is this legal?
nick swift:Like, I'm 30 we're all in our thirties, forties, fifties at this point. You know? Like, it's it's an odd Yeah. You know? It's just that
michael butler:airing, but in the neighborhood.
Speaker 7:It's not
dennis:It's not at odds. It's not
nick swift:that bad. Bad word. But, like, it it
michael butler:it's music.
dennis:It took me by surprise.
nick swift:And but I look for I've watched videos. I was
michael butler:like, wow. She is good.
nick swift:And we're like, you know what? Yeah. Let's do it. I see her playing with all these other Grateful Dead bands. I'm like, okay.
nick swift:Yes. Whatever. Let let's let's see how this goes. And she came in. I think we played dance on the street.
nick swift:She tore it up.
michael butler:And then I
nick swift:was like We
dennis:asked her tonight, what are you gonna play? She goes, I don't know yet.
nick swift:Yeah.
dennis:And you may not still know.
nick swift:Yeah. We we're
pauly mac:still trying to figure
nick swift:that out.
pauly mac:On that note, actually, one of the questions I have is set list. Because I've been checking out some of your set list online, and I noticed that it's not a traditional kind of crinkle that format. 2 sets, but any it seems to me like any song could pop up at any time in either set, which is different from, like, a Grateful Dead kind of blueprint. So I guess what I wanna know is how collaborative are the set list, or is it one guy who who writes them up?
michael butler:And Yeah. How most me, it's Nick, and he'll come up with the basis. And if any of us have some input on the set
nick swift:Yeah.
michael butler:We, at that point, will, like, offer it, maybe shuffle a couple things around, pull a song out, you know.
pauly mac:And for you as a singer, how do you feel about just kinda getting a list of songs? Because I know how it is singing. It's like you really wanna know what you're gonna be singing, when it is
nick swift:It's meant to yeah.
michael butler:I'm an animal.
pauly mac:You know what I mean? Like Yeah. I look forward to I just
michael butler:I just I just wanna I, you know, I just I'm like a pack fan when it comes
nick swift:to this. There'll be a set list written, like, 6 hours ahead of time and about 5 minutes before we go upstairs. Like, so what are we playing? Oh, yeah. Well, I thought I told you, but yeah.
nick swift:Yeah. Here you go.
dennis:Sing them. Throw them. Every now and
michael butler:again, you know, I have a tough time with, stuck inside of mobile because it's
dennis:A lot of verses.
pauly mac:9 verses. Desolation World
nick swift:is like
michael butler:9 verses. And they're all the same. You know? It's like
pauly mac:it's a
michael butler:little tough. Do you
dennis:guys have any help in
pauly mac:that sense? Like, you can not have a teleprompter, do you? I mean, like, is your wife?
michael butler:That's my joke. No. I actually
dennis:I I have a cheat
michael butler:sheet, you know, for some especially for songs like that.
dennis:You know,
Speaker 7:it's like,
michael butler:you know
nick swift:You you it's you know, I'll have, some charts available to me, but you find yourself looking at it, like, 3 times a show.
michael butler:Like, my theory is is that, you know, you know, and plus, you know, Bobby's using them these days.
Speaker 7:Oh, yes. And it's like
michael butler:if the technology was available back in the day, I think for certain these guys would
dennis:have Who's not using an iPad these days? Right?
pauly mac:Yeah. Exactly. The iPad
michael butler:is It's
nick swift:you don't wanna be reading. Like, you still want the the important thing is to know the tune and know it and be performing and doing your thing. But, you know, for me, it's nice to be, you know, in that moment where you're like, oh, god. Mhmm. What's the next chord?
nick swift:You know, crash. And I
michael butler:honestly think there's a difference there between, like, you know, if you're playing someone else's music, you know how to get it right. Yeah.
dennis:Do you know what I mean?
michael butler:I do. It's your own music. It's like screw it up if you want to, but,
Speaker 7:like, you know, like, let's let let me
michael butler:like, if I'm, like, in a zone, you know, I'm like, 3rd bar, so there's 5 100 song.
nick swift:And I'm like, there
michael butler:it is. Yeah. I
pauly mac:just take a peek Yeah.
michael butler:And I see where okay. That's it. And then I'm back. You know what I mean? It's easy.
michael butler:It's it's helpful.
dennis:I wanna, ask you something before I forget about playing here and the the the bevy of cover bands not only here, Boston everywhere. Right? Sure. Dead cover bands. How well do you know the the guys in this market?
dennis:The Stu Allens or the I'm just gonna throw some names out of it. Sure. Stu Allen.
nick swift:Certainly familiar with all of them. We I don't think we've really had to. Joe Marcinick is from this neck of the woods. He's he's a buddy of ours. He's sitting in tonight, which will be awesome.
nick swift:Nice. And I I'm certain as soon as you get into this scene and you start looking out of your own little market to try to book things, you become well aware and familiar with all the other bands that I'm playing. Because, I mean, frankly, you'll you'll look at their schedules to see where there where do the clubs that Yeah. You know, the Grateful Dead bands play out. Oh, right.
dennis:So you don't know them personally, but you know of them most Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
nick swift:I mean, but
dennis:I love the the neighbor guys are the I used to go back to them. Yeah. Those are just such great guys.
nick swift:Yeah. Absolutely. Lyle's I've taken a number of guitar lessons from Lyle Brewer. He's a awesome player.
michael butler:I sang with, in one of Ricky's side bands called Crew Orleans. He brought together a bunch of people to do a tribute to New Orleans, and we, I think Lyle was a guest with us at that time. I worked with, with him. They hadn't created Neighbor yet, but
dennis:He is a bandist. Tell that,
michael butler:like, Ricky was trying to really work with Lyle and was, like, bringing him in. We got we, guitarist for that project was Johnny Trauma, who's also very great.
nick swift:He's a
dennis:great Boston player. Nice Savance.
nick swift:Yeah. And and Tyler, actually, our drummer, was the drummer for Rick Richard James.
Speaker 7:Richard James. Right? Yeah. We call it Ricky.
nick swift:Yeah. It was the Richard James band or Richard James and the name changer.
dennis:Richard James. Of course. Yeah.
pauly mac:He's gonna be he's gonna be just We had,
michael butler:he had a name. I had
dennis:I think I was I was
michael butler:that was I you guys were
dennis:all young then. Right.
nick swift:You know?
dennis:I'm like,
michael butler:I'm a little older.
nick swift:I think
pauly mac:he'll be happy.
nick swift:I just
michael butler:walked in this little perfect timing.
pauly mac:We had
dennis:pink talking fish here. Tyler and I
michael butler:share birthday. Yes. Correct. Birthday was yesterday.
nick swift:Oh, yes. Birthday.
michael butler:And I have my
pauly mac:3 years old. Alright. Now you're gonna
dennis:share a microphone. Here you are. Hey. Here's
michael butler:Tyler. Silent birthday butts. Yeah.
dennis:So they the drummer's in town. We're all in town.
michael butler:Yeah. Right on,
dennis:man. Nice to meet you here today.
Speaker 7:Nice to meet you too.
dennis:Did you get your food?
Speaker 7:I just ate it was probably the best food at Torso far.
pauly mac:There you
dennis:go. Where'd you go?
michael butler:BuCu right next
dennis:door to the
pauly mac:Oh, no. You're the Bu guy. Yeah. The Buku guy.
dennis:That was my recommendation.
michael butler:Oh, well, thank you. I, I really,
dennis:really
Speaker 7:best food on tour so far.
pauly mac:Yeah. Okay. I feel
Speaker 7:really good about that.
dennis:This Buku will be sponsoring this, episode. Sure. Why shouldn't they? Yeah. Okay.
dennis:So let's just repeat all the questions, to Tyler. What do you think?
pauly mac:Well, I wanna start with the for all, you'd be in the single drummer in a band that's got a, you know, the rhythm section with the Grateful Dead, the 2 drummers and fill. It's like a wall Yes. It's just motion and groove and all that. So how do you feel about tackling that whole thing?
dennis:Well, when
Speaker 7:we started the band, we started as, like, a 9 piece band, and we had a percussion player and 2 drum set players. Yeah. But when we started touring, you know, that's not really a feasible lineup to travel with
dennis:Right.
Speaker 7:For many reasons. Cool. So we decided to grow the kit a little bit just to give the audience a little more drums, and then, you know, hit the road with 1 drummer.
pauly mac:Do you guys do any version of, like, a drum space segment of the show? Definitely. We just
Speaker 7:did a, drum space with Adrian Charmentano from Kung Fu the other day at infinity hall. We did a drum space with Bill Carbone at FTC also in Connecticut.
dennis:That's gotta
pauly mac:be a fun section of the show. Right?
dennis:Just let
pauly mac:it all go, man.
Speaker 7:Whatever. Super fun. Yeah. We we mostly tend to do more of that with the larger ensemble. But every once in a while, you might get a solo, Tyler.
Speaker 7:You never know. Hey.
pauly mac:Stick around tonight. We'll see.
tami:I have a question.
Speaker 4:Yes. Oh, yeah. Go.
tami:No. I mean, so a lot of the not just cover bands, but a lot of the bands that play Sweetwater jazz influenced. Do you guys have any jazz background?
Speaker 7:And saw Elvin Jones with my drum teacher, but it must have been freshman year of high school at a tiny club, and he knew him. And I got to sit behind his kit and, like, tap on the drums and see the Elvin Jones experience, like, this far away. And it was one of the most incredible shows I've ever been to. There might have been 50 people there. Oh.
Speaker 7:It was awesome.
dennis:Yeah. Follow-up to
michael butler:say that, for many years, I sang, the music of Frank Sinatra as a local thing to do in Boston. There's some great players out there, like Ronnie Ronn poster, who's the organist for the Bruins, was someone I got to work with for a while. They do really good, his a lot of, you know, people who do the the trio vibe. And so I got to do, you know, real book, you know, standards, like, with him singing a classic Wow. Great American songbook.
michael butler:Sort of why I gravitate to the Grateful Dead in a way because whereas I don't think I think feel like they're both polar extreme opposites, especially the way they're done. Like, the way for not the way Sinatra approaches the craft is almost like the complete opposite of the way the Grateful Dead do. But each band represents, like, I mean, each each act represents so many songs. They've got it's just like a universe of music for Sinatra as well as the Grateful Dead. Hundreds and hundreds of songs, and that really excites me.
michael butler:And I got to learn all of them on each side. It's just like it's really
pauly mac:Well, on that note, you know, one of the things I read about you guys and just trying to get familiar with your story is that I believe you guys said something like, if the Grateful Dead played it even once, we'll we'll take a run
nick swift:at it. More than just that. It's if the Grateful Dead touched it. So if if Jerry Garcia sits in with Sammy Hagar at at Sweetwater, they're going down. No.
nick swift:That's cool. Going down. You know? That is
pauly mac:a really interesting
nick swift:that's that's a good idea. And it has led to some questions about, like, well, now who is in Grateful Dead?
dennis:Yeah. Yeah.
nick swift:Because we know the core, you know, members, but does Bruce count? Oh. Who is this?
pauly mac:With Clarence many, many times. Right. Clarence Clemons. So there is a, like, set degrees of separation kinda thing.
nick swift:Does does, does Trey count? Because he was the guitar player for the Grateful Dead at Fairview Wells.
dennis:Fairview Wells. Yeah. Good.
nick swift:So we, you know, we we debate that sometimes to get how far we wanna go with
michael butler:it. Exactly. Well, that's kinda
pauly mac:how we do it.
nick swift:That's Just
michael butler:because we
pauly mac:fairly and are there rules at all?
michael butler:No. There aren't. Because, like, we we play that out because we like that concept. But at the end of the day, if we wanna play like Zeppelin, we'll play Zeppelin.
pauly mac:For example, there in 88 I don't know if you guys remember this one. They there was a big rainforest benefit the Grateful Dead did at Madison Square Garden, and they had a shitload of special guests like Suzanne Vega, Paul and Oates, believe it or not, was on stage with the Grateful Dead. And they played some Marvin Gaye, which was really neat. But they had Mick Taylor, from the Rolling Stones up there that night, which leads me to the question of, so if Mick Taylor sat in with the dead, does that if an adore No. No.
pauly mac:No. No. No. No. No.
pauly mac:No. No. Or or does that have to be what they play?
nick swift:It's it's if you're a member of the Grateful Dead. And so that I think that's where it gets because in the, like, in the nineties, there are some members that are there sometimes and, you know, like, Bruce is sort of the obvious example. And I'm a massive Bruce Hornsby fan. So I'm team
michael butler:Bruce is
nick swift:in the band. Yeah. We play as all the other family.
michael butler:Yeah. You know? We got Valley Road in
dennis:the book.
nick swift:We got Valley Road in the book. That was good too. We got Valley Road. Yeah. We're we're we've been listening on the car ride, we listened to some of the the Hornsby tunes that Jerry played on
Speaker 8:in the studio.
pauly mac:So we're like, what
nick swift:are their counts?
pauly mac:Just Jerry
nick swift:played on those books.
dennis:Nice. So it's
nick swift:so it's if if Mick Taylor sat in with the dead and the dead played this specific Rolling Stone song, that counts.
michael butler:We played
nick swift:that stone song. I'm glad
pauly mac:I asked. This is cool.
michael butler:And I
nick swift:think we did play the Hall and Oates song
pauly mac:years ago.
michael butler:You know? But but I I don't know
dennis:about it.
nick swift:This is a James. This was this is
Speaker 7:this is on the song. 60.
nick swift:It's it's in there. Yeah. There we did play 1 hall in outside.
michael butler:That's so funny.
nick swift:You don't remember? Every time you go away.
michael butler:Oh, they're well, they
pauly mac:did play that, man. They did. They played that.
nick swift:Every time they you go away. Yep.
dennis:Wait a minute. Who wrote that?
nick swift:The crowd kinda went away.
michael butler:When we play that. Speaking of,
pauly mac:you know, which is why It
nick swift:could work for the playing it.
michael butler:But That's good stuff.
dennis:What, what do what do we, expect tonight? Do we, since this won't come out, until after the show, what what do we expect tonight?
nick swift:I saw you know, I have a list of tunes of which I can't remember any of them off the top of my head right now.
michael butler:And don't
dennis:tell us the set list because I I actually don't want one of those set list. Order. Yeah.
nick swift:And they're probably gonna it's probably gonna change within you know, as soon as we're done here, I'm probably gonna have to go rewrite the set list. Right. Okay. But, so, yeah, some some days I have it 3 3, 4 days in advance. Here you go.
nick swift:It's ready to go. Some days it's, oh, here's the seller's. Alright. Let's go and see. Like so so tonight is kinda one of those fly by the seat of our pants nights, but I kinda prefer that in a way because it just feels more spontaneous and interesting to me.
dennis:I think
Speaker 7:we also have we also have special guests tonight. So that Mhmm. Also will determine a little bit about how we approach our show.
michael butler:Right. We
dennis:talked about Bella before you came.
Speaker 7:And we also normally are, like, a 2 set band, but we have an opener today. So we're gonna do one long set. Oh, is that right? Okay. There's
pauly mac:something that's expected.
Speaker 7:That's gonna be the vibe for today. Okay.
dennis:That's kinda
michael butler:what I was looking for
dennis:as opposed to the actual
michael butler:Yeah. As opposed to the actual, set list.
dennis:If we had a trans well, we do have transcripts of all our shows, but if we did a a search, Tammy, of, how many times the American songbook came up, those words, it would be, endless. That and the jazz influence Yeah. With everybody. And we're not just talking about the dead related bands, but especially the dead related bands. The American songbook and jazz and I mean it started with Jay Layne, one of our first interviews.
tami:Berkeley School
michael butler:of Music.
dennis:Berkeley School. You know, and Jay Jay said he didn't know a damn thing about the Grateful Dead, you know, when they they pulled him in. And, it was perfect. Right? And there's there's so many
nick swift:That's that's exactly what we would want. Right? Yeah. I've always found the film like, if you when you look at those post Jerry acts, the the the film and friends, acts were always the ones I gravitated towards towards the most because the band was clearly made up of non Grateful Dead musicians.
dennis:Yeah.
nick swift:And I I believe there's some story of Joe Russo when he got tapped for it. He was, Phil, I don't even like the dead.
pauly mac:He was like, that's what
nick swift:I want.
dennis:Yeah. Hold on.
nick swift:And I think that that makes it so much more interesting. You know?
dennis:Jackie Green. Jackie Green. Jackie Green. He sat here. He goes, I know.
dennis:You know, they tapped me on the shade. They had no idea. Hey, Phil Lesh is gonna come watch you play at Bonnaroo. He goes, who's he?
pauly mac:Right. It was that kind of thing.
nick swift:And I saw I saw that film Friends with Jackie Green. I remember back in 2009. Something like that?
pauly mac:They had a
nick swift:good lingo
pauly mac:on those 2. It was
nick swift:a wild night for me.
pauly mac:You know
nick swift:what I was kinda odd
pauly mac:one was was when Ryan Adams started gigging with Phil 10 years ago or something like that, 2008, it was somewhere in there.
dennis:I I
pauly mac:was like, wait. Speaking of odd combos, I'm like, well, that's that's a
michael butler:different one.
nick swift:Nobody Girl was a tune we played for a little while.
pauly mac:You guys mentioned earlier today I think it was you mentioned, an element of, like, a punk rock mentality in the presentation of some of the stuff, you know. And I I just wanted to ask, have you guys ever heard, Lee Ronaldo from Sonic Youth play any Grateful Dead stuff? Because you should check it out. There is a punk thing going on there.
Speaker 7:Yeah. It's funny that you mentioned that because earlier today or maybe it was last night, we were hanging out at the house, and, Nick had mentioned that he felt like my playing and a recording we were listening to was very punk rock. The same time we were talking about how I love Sonic Youth. I love Sonic Youth. They are one of the bands I grew up with listening to all the time.
Speaker 7:Sublime, like, all sorts of, like, cool, punky,
michael butler:gay gay
Speaker 7:type of stuff. And and I have never heard the Sonic Youth Grateful Dead anything. And the fact that that exists Oh. And I don't know
Speaker 4:It's really weird.
Speaker 7:Is upsetting.
pauly mac:Well, here after
Speaker 7:the gig It's upsetting and now Nick, experimental jet set is on the sentence. That means it's fair game.
nick swift:That's in.
pauly mac:But it is like the way so they do a great version of and it's not Sonic Youth. It's Lee Reynaldo with a bunch of his buddies just playing Grateful Dead music, but it's it's not your typical presentation of dead. There definitely is a punk thing going on. Yeah. Like, they do a play
Speaker 7:it in the band. I have to check that.
pauly mac:You do. You do. On Spotify. Just let's leave it all though. You 100%.
nick swift:Absolutely. That's Tyler in a nutshell. I mean, tie Tyler is the founding the founder of of Bay of the Dead, and he set the tone way back in 2015 that this is high energy. This is uptempo. Yeah.
nick swift:This is approaching punk rock levels of of thrashiness from time to time. Yeah. And and there are you know, it's not we don't take every 2 and and, you know, put it on amphetamines, but We take a lot of them. We put them on amphetamines. Every other one.
nick swift:And, and we just find We're
dennis:getting the old Heavo, guys. Well, this is part of our charm of Tales from the Dream. We're keeping our house on that.
nick swift:There you go.
dennis:Keeping it real. We got, we got the we're in the production room here.
nick swift:Yeah. We're gonna start playing a show.
pauly mac:Okay. We'll let you guys go.
dennis:And, but anyway, guys Where are we next?
pauly mac:Goes out. Good.
Speaker 7:We're at Toast Alley in Santa Cruz. Tomorrow. You'll
pauly mac:love Santa Cruz.
nick swift:And we're at the dip in Red Air.
michael butler:We've been there, we we've been there, for the last few days. We had 2 off days. Oh, good. So we've been up in Santa Cruz. We're staying there for 4 days.
michael butler:We've been down for this gig. Nice. We had the best off day yesterday. Isn't it? It's just I
dennis:don't know.
michael butler:All of our birthdays.
pauly mac:Yeah. Cheers boys. Well, welcome and thank you. Thank you.
dennis:Take care. Thanks for listening to Tales from the Green Room, a presentation of Mount Tam Media. You can hear more spontaneous stories from the secluded confines of green rooms on our next episode. To experience all Mount Tam Media productions, including the Woman Are Smarter podcast, log on to mount tammedia.com. We'll see you at the next show.