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I’ve been getting lots of photos and messages telling me people are getting their Better Than Nothing records which makes me super happy, thanks you guys. I keep starting to write something about how humbling and emotional it is to feel so supported after like a decade and a half of making songs, but then I feel dumb and delete it. So, like, thank you?

The vinyl release party’s November 17th in my hometown of Ottawa. Hope to see you there! Here’s the gig poster by Geoff Gibson (@sisc_daily) who also did the awesome Better Than Nothing album artwork.

Waterloo solo show went pretty good I think. Compared to Ottawa bars it was pretty surreal playing for people who were already pretty into my songs. All the laptop stuff went ok. Some show notes:

• I needed to run 6 1/4" outs into the soundboard. The soundboard was unfortunately at the back of the giant room and the sound fellow only had two DI boxes on stage and was running an XLR snake to the back. Luckily I brought along my Behringer UB1204 mixing board (just in case) that I was using for practice. So I wound up doing the sound from the stage, which was an interesting challenge when you’re playing guitar. The word is it sounded OK so I guess like… I’m a sound genius.
• It is weird to mess up your own lyrics in front of people who know them and are singing along.
• In rehearsals my song switching method (via a Nostromo n50 I found in a box) worked flawlessly. On stage however as soon as I finished a song I completely forgot what song I had just played and where I was and what was happening. So there were some false starts which nearly blew my whole ruse.
• I need to edit the songs so they cut the vocal delay effect off when they’re over. Too many times I was like "thank you! thank you! thank you! .. thank you! … thank you! what the- thank you! what the- .. what the- thank you! … what the-"

Those are all pretty minor things it seems judging by the people who came up to get CDs signed or whatever afterwards. So I feel pretty good about it. Waterloo U. students are very smart, friendly and attractive and I was given a Waterloo hoodie by the residence council so now I can pretend that I’m one of them.

And as for travel notes:

• The Super 8 should legally be forbidden from using the word "super" to describe their hotel services.

Thanks to the folks at Waterloo for having me out, everyone in the audience and anyone I met that I of course have immediately forgotten the name of. Fun!

Welp, I’m off to the Waterloo show tonight. I have shown due diligence in making sure there are limited glitches in my laptop live show so now it’s all up to my lord and saviour Jesus Christ who I have always believed in without wavering, amen, am I right guys.

And I guess maybe I’ll visit City 7 on the way.

Been getting some confused emails from Waterloo University students. But I’ve double-checked: the show is still on: 10pm this Friday at the Student Life Centre. See you there!

The GT-8 + Power Engine combo got a tryout in rehearsal last night. Verdict: thumbs up. It was sorta touch and go with levels and patches for a first try, so I don’t think I’ll be using it at tomorrow night’s show, but with some tweaking I think it’ll be a big improvement.

The 60 watt Power Engine puts out more than enough juice to keep up. At only half gain it’s as loud or maybe louder than I ever got my Delta Blues 210 up to (my loudness demands are not very high).

The biggest difference is the amount of tone control available. It’s wonderful and horrifying at the same time — so many choices! Also there’s a fair amount of difference between what the tones sound like at whatever level I can manage in my house and band levels. That’ll take some adjustment — as well as probably me sitting in the garage diddling with settings and being eaten by mosquitos.

Thanks to everyone for coming out to the Rainbow tonight for the gig. It was a small crowd but there was rock and a girl fell down which is about all I can ask for. Also thank you to the mystery dancing blonde girl. I will always remember the yelled conversation we shared:

“Play another song!”

“Another one? Do you see how sweaty I am?”

“I know, you’re disgusting! Play another one!”

(We played another one.) Over and out.

Scott asks where Touring 2.0 is. Eventful’s okay but he’s right: it could be so much better. Things that suck about Eventful:

• It hassles people to sign up for Eventful accounts. People tell me it’s required, but like for Louisville, Kentucky there are 13 demands but I can only see that 3 Eventful users are demanding it.
• Regarding the above — how am I supposed to contact those other ten people if I wind up in the area? Why don’t I see their email addresses? It can’t be a spam thing — they signed up!
• The Eventful interface is cluttered as hell, I never know where the hell I’m supposed to be looking for things. Could use some serious streamlining.

If it didn’t annoy me in those ways I’d think about running my whole gig list off of them. But not if they’re going to be all stingy and into the lock-in.

The show last night (first as a three-piece) at the Live Lounge was super fun, thanks to everyone who came out, especially Brad Sucks Live Show MVP Donna (I think) for dancing almost through the entire set!

Richard’s bass amp died right before the show so we had to improvise, which sabotaged him for the entire show which I believe was the Lord’s plan.

The three-piece was cool. Having only one guitar thinned out the sound, which I liked but some people didn’t. But then other people had previously complained there was too much guitar before compared to the album. So I think I’ll just… go die.

Getting ready for the show tonight, regular nerves, tequila shots, etc. Tonight will be the first show I’ve done as a three-piece, where I’m the only guitarist. My new bassist Matthew is unavailable so the previous bassist Richard is filling in. Our one rehearsal went really well so I’m feeling good about it.

I miss Rob, but so far it’s been pretty fun to be the only guitarist. I mean I can’t tell if it sounds good or anything but it’s kinda cool when all the guitar noise that’s being made is yours. Unless of course you’re totally fucking up and then it’s lame as hell.

The show tonight is being recorded though I’m not sure if it’s a soundboard recording or what.

My Eventful page is going okay but the numbers are pretty thin and spread out all over the universe. Regardless I’ve been dutifully checking out airfare. Is it worth $600 to rock 5 people in Seattle? Maybe if the tickets are $120 each. They should have an Eventful exclusively for millionaires. How many millionaires would like to see a Brad Sucks show in Seattle? If it’s one, here I come!

LiveAPI is an open-source third-party Ableton Live API, so Ableton Live is now hackable via Python. Create Digital Music has a write-up — very cool.

Here’s my idea: let your audience control cowbell levels of your set via text message. Make millions off of cowbell volume fights. Retire.