Just Another Night

It started with Bootleg Willy picking me up and heading up toward Danvers. We were heading up to Tequila's on Rte. 1 to watch the Prides Of Malden: Preacher Jack and the Cherone Bros. Who tribute band, SlipKid.

Between the onset of sleet/snow, needing to stop at an ATM for a cash infusion and looking for parking, we got in late and only caught the last 2 songs by the Preacher. He was playing solo on an electric keyboard - and he was favoring us with a medley of Christmas carols, which seemed a bit odd given it was Feb. 2nd (but as my wife told me today, it was Candlemas). After a short rap thanking the crowd for its time, he switched over from synth to piano and played his finale.

Have mercy.

Preacher Jack pounded out the boogie-woogie good and hard and dirty. Willy and I looked at one another and started laughing...he was great. During intermission, Jack walked by and we said hello and complimented him on the set. He's a very nice guy and told us he'd been playing since he was 12, which gives him 53 years experience. He's definitely worth catching and I'm definitely checking him out again soon.

SlipKid played two good sets, marred by a horrendous sound mix. At times, the drums were the most defined instrumentation coming out of the speakers. It's a shame because the band does a good job with the songs and Gary Cherone sings the hell out of them. We caught the two sets and headed out just before the encore.

We headed back to Malden and hit the locals and finally called it a night around 2. I got home and logged in to check my email before turning in. That's when my cellphone buzzed....I checked the number, didn't recognize it and answered.

It was work.

Sod me.

Turns out there was a problem monitoring some of our application nodes, so the data center called out. I wound up on a conference call, desperately hoping I didn't sound as drunk as I felt. This went on for a couple of hours, until we concluded it was most likely a monitoring issue, not the app, and to work on it Monday. Finally got to bed after 4am.

Fun, fun, fun...another example of the glamorous life of a sysadmin.