Justin and Adrienne's Music Life Weekly

Performance High has a huge showcase, and random strangers attend. Justin plays with Howl2Go with no rehearsal again. Justin is surprised to be loving the "hang" at gigs. Perfection is the enemy of killing (your audience). Justin advises against thinking about form at game time. Adrienne fangirls over Tyler Morse at a Murder by Death concert. Joe won't keep his hands off Adriene's authentic Yeti f...

Adrienne decides to go grey (again). Justin gets goosebumps when client Louisa paces the room like a caged animal at showcase rehearsal. Adrienne and Justin go to a bar where they light drinks on fire and have a portrait of George Costanza sexy-posing in his boxer shorts. Adrienne and Justin watch a guy almost get run over by a truck.   Performance High takes a risk of bringing on new teachers. Ju...

Justin and Adrienne realize these are the good old days. Adrienne returns to beginner level on bass. Adrienne and Justin play a gig in a lumberyard. Adrienne's vocal range changes. Adrienne and Justin film a music video on West Colfax. Adrienne compares a bad set list to being served courses in the wrong order at a restaurant. Justin talks about the difference between a concert and a SHOW. Justin...

Justin goes to every jam he can find around town for two months, but doesn't get to play even once. Adrienne takes a hot air balloon ride the morning after playing at the Moffit County Hot Air Balloon Festival. Justin fights extra hard to "get" the audience. Justin recalls how an "anti-fan" goes berzerk when a stadium-size rockstar walks into a local venue. Justin says your insides get bigger when...

Adrienne drinks Coors Light for the first time since high school. Adrienne and Justin do a duo gig for a backyard party, using a looper pedal, but his guitar breaks during sound check.   A&J recall the excellent Hungarian goulash they used to enjoy annually at a birthday party gig. Justin pumps Spaceman Guitars. Adrienne talks about when it's okay to join a performing musician at a gig. Adrienne i...

Adrienne finds it harder to play bass and sing now, than she used to before. Justin and Adrienne bake in the Colorado summer sun at a gig. The Petty Nicks Experience plays at a wedding. Adrienne bowls badly, including with her left hand. Justin explains how a sound can be louder if you're further away from it. Why Adrienne is hoarding a particular model of in-ear monitoring system. Justin and Adri...

Three more Petty Nicks gigs this week - Southglenn, Wyoming, and Colorado Springs. Justin goes down with the ship on a failing pro audio company. Justin misses the very beginning of a show. Adrienne completely loses her cool during set break. Two muscle-bound tough guys with face tattoos sing every word to Gypsy. Adrienne gets hit on with the "negging" approach. Justin repeatedly kicks sweaty male...

Six gigs in nine days in three states. Adrienne takes a page from Cody Qualls and tells more stories to the audience, even though it requires stepping out of character. The crowd cheers for Adrienne's dad in the audience. The Petty Nicks Experience blows some kids' minds. "Warm Cherry Blossom-flavored LaCroix" gets added to future gig riders. Why you should always carry a bunch of trash bags. Adri...

*This episode was recorded on Tuesday but not released until Wednesday because Justin and Adrienne did not, in fact, board their flight home immediately after recording this podcast. Instead, their flight was delayed overnight in Fargo, ND, and Adrienne did not have her laptop on which to edit the podcast.* Justin and Adrienne record in the Fargo, ND airport. Adrienne sings with the Jacob Larson B...

Adrienne debates what to do with her grey hair. Justin meets a fifth drummer who lives in their neighborhood. Adrienne has a pin-drop moment with a field of 700 people. Justin explains his theory of performance. Adrienne returns to her terrible old stage banter habit of pointing out what's wrong. Justin plays a 3-hour "by request" Howl at the Moon gig. Justin talks about the one thing working musi...

**This episode was recorded in the green room of the Oriental Theatre before a show with Cody Qualls and the Brand New Ancients.** Justin is forced to join the Petty Nicks Experience when the previous guitarist ghosts the band with a show four days out. Cody talks about his new song "Dishes in the Morning." Justin and Cody talk about the dynamic of writing songs about your partner. Justin gets adv...

Adrienne gives a shout out to someone who exemplifies "you get what you give." Justin says a gig is worth 100 rehearsals. Justin doesn't care if he plays in front of 10 people or 20,000 people. The Petty Nicks Experience plays at Parker Days Festival. Bandmate Julian gets to sit in the second row to see Paul McCartney at Wrigley Field. The Petty Nicks Experience does free events a little different...

Justin and Adrienne talk about what it has been like to be in six different bands together over the last 11 years while also working together at the studio… and what it has been like to be in bands with other couples. Adrienne figures out how to get the audience over the tipping point at Nissi's. Justin gets flummoxed by 168 vs 170bpm. Justin and Adrienne make mistakes at last weekend's gigs. Adri...

Justin finds proof that your brain modulates what you hear based on what you see. Justin tricks a sound engineer at Boulder Theatre. Justin defines what a good performance is and why some performers can freely break the rules. Adrienne reveals why she hasn't gotten bored of playing in the same tribute band for seven years. Adrienne and Justin talk about how they mentally prepare for each performan...

Justin and Adrienne drive through a spring storm to play at an old renovated theatre in Rifle, CO. Adrienne is, unsurprisingly, biased in favor of women - and so is Justin. Adrienne accidentally drinks Justin's whiskey on stage. The applause meter gets stuck after Rhiannon. Adrienne plays a country club gig with Jenny Shawhan. Justin uses a side-chained multi-band compressor. Justin talks about le...

Shanti purrs into the microphone. J&A play at the Boulder Dinner Theatre with Cody Qualls. Justin is surprised to find that singing isn't miserable this time. Adrienne finally releases the "What What What" music video. J&A search for the vision for the next two music videos. Justin talks about various songwriting processes. Adrienne's "islands of knowledge" on bass start to connect and her mental...

Justin uses a technique from David Bowie's producer Brian Eno ("oblique cards") to work on a new song with Cody Qualls. Adrienne discovers she lost the last year of band demo tracks. Adrienne's "airplane arms" from the music video make it to the dance floor of last weekend's wedding. Justin talks about visual hooks for music videos, the importance of being strategically lazy, and the main differen...

Adrienne gets a bass gig with Jenny Shawhan. J&A have a student showcase where they run into their favorite stage manager, Chloe. Adrienne comes up with an obvious solution to a challenge she's been having on bass. Pamela's drummer falls off the stage during the show. Justin's lead singer falls off the stage during a show. Justin's bass player falls off a catwalk before a show. Justin almost gives...

Justin gets COVID for the third time. Justin explains why you don't need to put a hat on a hat. Justin and Adrienne film a deadpan music video with crazy dancing at five sites all within 500 feet of their house.

A rush-hour breakdown on the way to a gig. Vomiting between solos. Running through Epcot Center being chased by security on the way to a show. Sharing a bed with the bass player and his wife. A totaled car in a blizzard on the way to a show. A mortifying incident with a fingernail. A band member dies ten minutes before a show. Bloody fingers from a 5-hour gig after a gig-free two years. Playing mu...

One of Justin's client bands gets voted Best New Band of 2022 in Westword. Justin complains about having to edit out hundreds of mouth-smacking sounds. Adrienne is frustrated about how her brain works differently on stage. The showcase band has to stop playing a metal song at the showcase and start over because of technical difficulties. Justin and Adrienne rave about the lead singers of Beatles/S...

Adrienne and Justin compare their methods for learning 35 songs for one gig (the other 15 are for a different gig). Justin talks about why he can't use charts for some songs. Adrienne hates on the phrase "all-girl band." Adrienne plays her first gig with Pamela Machala's all-woman band, with opener Shanna in a Dress from Nashville. Adrienne makes fun of how Justin sings. Adrienne uses a glass of w...

Adrienne gets a 110-year-old piano tuned and luckily the strings don't break. Adrienne stomps across the front of the Boot Barn Hall stage waving a tambourine. Justin can't keep a straight face during Landslide when he overhears a loud whisper. Justin is surprised to gain a new respect for Adrienne's cover project. Justin fails to learn a lesson from last week. Justin produces music for KCHB, Half...

Adrienne attends a Fleetwood Mask show and meets their Stevie.   Adrienne spends far too long recording cover songs but learns to put overdrive on everything in the mix.   Justin talks about how learning solos kills the magic in songs, but still offers valuable rewards. Neither Justin nor Adrienne can remember the name of Houdini. Justin talks about pretending to be Mike Campbell pretending to be...

Justin calls Adrienne a "dude" in Northern Florida musician vernacular. Adrienne has another all-women rehearsal. Adrienne attends her first high school musical since... high school. Justin and Adrienne watch Ryan Elwood play jazz and actually take drum solos. Justin (re)learns new lessons about working with certain types of clients. Adrienne gets ready to play bass at the next student showcase.