A glimpse into the soul of a man.

Sunday Funday...

The plan was to have a slumber party with our new jam buddy/man crush Jackson Price. Jackson had just gotten out of rehearsal and invited his bass player, Tony Swanson, back to the house to BBQ (my first ever BBQ in February). Tony came over with shrimp kabobs and Reece's Pieces and we consumed way too much food and jammed the night away. Like we do. It was clear that Tony was an Affirminator.

Somewhere three-quarters through the Pieces, Tony mentioned that Bob Schneider was coming through San Diego to play Anthology, where Tony runs sound (and lights and 7 cameras). He said he could get us in FO FREE if we wanted to go. Now, I'm completely under-exposed to Bob Schneider. But people I trust musically recommend him very highly. My NY friend Natalie Newman has been inviting me out to shows of his for years, but it's never happened. Last night it finally did.

The show was completely SOLD OUT so Tony told us to go to the back of the club and he'd get us in. At this point Allie the intern shows up and asks if we were The Yes Team.

"Yes, as a matter of fact we are," we replied. She then escorts us into the classiest music venue I've ever seen. For you New Yorkers, picture The Highline Ballroom on steroids. She takes us directly to the sound booth to meet Tony. Tony then introduces us to the booker and tells us that WE ALMOST OPENED FOR BOB SCHNEIDER. Tony highly recommended us for the gig, but Schneider's peeps insisted on a lady at a piano. Tony assured us that we will be playing Anthology before too long. Like I said, he's an Affirminator.

Since the show was sold out we basically took some wall right next to the stage. The show was about to start and just like that, we're talking to Bob Schneider. He cracks a hilarious joke. He realizes the joke is hilarious and admits he'll probably crack the same joke at some point during the set. He then takes the stage. We collect our collective jaw from the floor.

Like I said, I knew nothing of the man's music. But the things that man did for the next hour and a half truly changed my world. He is the epitome of a one-man band. A master of the loop pedal, he creates a series of simple parts that add up to one giant cacophony of musical madness. My brain hurt trying to keep up with all of it, but he was under quiet control every moment. The man pulled trick after trick out his sleeve. His songs ranged from soul-seering ballads stripped down to simple strums on his beat up old nylon-string guitar to alcohol-inspired white trash hip-hop stomp songs. To say that this man wears his heart on his sleeve is a vast understatement. He wears his soul on his sleeve. I've never been let in to such a deep, dark, beautiful, ugly, real honest-to-God human place before. It took this road-heavy vagabond and gave me fuel to keep fighting the best of all possible fights. It gave me greatness to aspire to. After all...

"It’s the little things that separate
The good from the great."


All I know is it didn't take long. We open-mic'd at Longboard's in PB after the show and I've never felt such electricity on a stage before. We took a crowd of drunken college kids and turned them into Affirminators. I actually saw two girls singing the chorus of "The Inspector" before the song was finished. It was probably the single best performance The Yes Team has ever put together. And I will gladly say we have Bob Schneider to thank for that.


See you in Austin, Bob.

Yes Team, GO!
The Mess