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We had a good rehearsal tonight, adding new tunes for O'Reilly's on Saturday. We did these:

Mess Of Me - Switchfoot
E-Pro - Beck
I Want You To - Weezer
Symphony Of Destruction - Megadeth

Also on the radar - 'Between The Lines' from the forthcoming STP album and 'I Hate Everyone' by Say Anything.

I'm so glad there's some rock stuff still left to play.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry100114-190019
We're kicking off the new year of gigs this Saturday at our home away from home, O'Reilly's Pub. Here's hoping y'all can come out and support.

We have some new stuff to play for you - but it's not 'new' new, as we've come to the conclusion that most new rock sucks pretty hard. So we've got some 'old' new stuff for you this time.

And there may be an addition coming to the band that you might want to know about. Once that starts rolling, we'll clue you in.

That's it for now. Stay tuned.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091027-165625 Thatch Meadow Farm in St. James, where we'll be playing on Saturday night. We had been under the impression that there was a private party going on, but we just learned it's open to the public! There are only two conditions to be met:

1. That you come in costume - after all, it is Halloween, and

2. That you come ready to make a donation to the entertainment.

The venue itself is pretty cool - 20 acres nestled at the headwaters of the Nissequogue River. It's a collection of buildings forming a court yard, and we'll be playing on the outdoor stage. The band Forensics will be in the smaller inside venue.

The crew at the farm was hard at work today making the place as spooky as possible for the party. So if you guys are up to it, come on out on Saturday and party with us at one of the most unusual venues we've ever been booked into.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091022-140100
And no, we're not telling you everything he's doing. you have to come out and see for yourself. ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091015-170500 Tommy O'Reilly, who ran down a bunch of new tunes to sing with us. We worked on some Alice In chains, Rollins Band, Velvet Revolver, and a couple of songs that will drop your jaw. Trust me.

October 24, O'Reilly's Pub
Anthony Gordon's Birthday Party
Featuring Nurse Diesel

]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091013-163219
So I went to the Guitar Fetish site and ordered all the parts needed to build a Tele-style guitar. Here's the result:





This Tele is loaded up with GFS Fatbody pickups (recommended!), a Wilkinson compensated bridge, Wilkinson true mechanical lock tuners and heavy-duty strap locks. And it wails. Happy birthday to me!

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When I bought the Ibanez Artist I mentioned in the last post, the guy selling it also had a Line 6 Spider I combo amp that he insisted he wanted to sell with the guitar. Since I wanted the guitar, I paid the extra dough and got the amp as well.

I tried the amp on a couple of gigs, and it was just horrible. Probably the worst idea Line 6 ever had. So I put the amp up for sale or trade on craig's List, and I got a response from a guy who had one of the most unusual guitars I've ever seen.





This guitar is made by a Korean company named Spear, and it's an odd one in a few respects. First off, the body isn't wood, it's a dense plastic compound called luthite. It was developed by Cort guitars for use in bass bodies, and Ibanez also used it for some Jem models and the Joe Satriani 'Silver Surfer' guitar. It's heavier than a comparable wood body would be, and it's got pretty nice resonance. Spear has been winning awards for a couple of years in Europe, and while this guitar is on the lower end of their catalog, it's still pretty cool. The molded design on the top of the body is just pretty cool, although the bronze color isn't among my favorites. A paint job may be necessary, but probably not for a while.

I don't have many shredder guitars in my collection, but I grabbed this one just for the novelty of it all.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091013-000315
This used to be a black and white Squier Strat, which I bought new in 1995. I decided to mod the guitar after (briefly) considering buying a Les Paul body and putting together my own LP replica, but then finding out that there were QC problems with the kit I was going to buy. Instead, I ended up refinishing the Strat in a retro color and setting it up with a pair of P-90 pickups.





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During the summer, I started gigging with a Clapton tribute band, and my old Ibanez Artist is the #1 for that gig. I was looking at Craig's one day and saw an ad for another '80 Artist, and I bought it to be the Clapton backup guitar. It needed a little TLC, but it's a rock-solid guitar. Ibanez sure knew how to build them in the day.




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More to come.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091012-214212
Just click the 'Video' link at the top of the page. It used to just bring up the 'Blue Sky Blue' video, but now it'll bring up all of our YouTube vids. Enjoy... ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry091012-200809
Well, soon is now. We moved to a spiffy new server today, and this one should work a whole lot better than the old one. Hell, even this blog is on the same server as the rest of the site, because things just work better with this hosting company.

So... we have some catching up to do. Lots of new gear, gigs in the works, the whole bit. Check back, because now that the site is working right, I no longer have a sense of dread about posting here. ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090814-173057
I know that some of you find the site to be very slow, and I've got issues with the communications tools that the current host offers - for instance, it takes me 3 hours to send out our mailing list because I have to break it into thirds so I don't violate the hosting company's spam policies.

So... it won't happen today and definitely not tomorrow, but we will be moving to a newer, faster, more spacious home that will let us set up software that will contact everyone at once but won't get us accused of being spammers.

Stay tuned. ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090812-000812
This Saturday, we're celebrating the birthdays of TD's wife Colleen and Donny at O'Reilly's. We're going to have food, birthday cake, and lots of new tunes.

Showtime is early this time - 9:00. Come by early, have some food and catch the band at a special early start time.

And this on'es just the beginning. We've got a month of shows coming up. I'll fill you in tomorrow...]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090614-182410
We put together set lists pretty heavy on the newer material, and about halfway through the first set we noticed it wasn't really working - so we started asking for requests. We played a lot more Classic Rock - SRV, Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, like that. We even got talked into playing one of our favorite songs that we don't do - 'A Girl Like you' by Smithereens. I totally cocked up the lyrics, but the music actually sounded pretty good. We might end up adding that one to the list after all.

The second set was more requests and Classic stuff, then we veered back into the newer stuff for the last set and a half. The third set was off the scale - STP, Nirvana, Motorhead, RATM, Chili Peppers and more. By the time we got done I felt like I got physically beaten, but that's a sign that we were rocking hard enough.

We will be back to Brock's. That club was just too much fun. Thanks to Randy, Kristen and Phil for making us feel so welcome. ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090604-170847
After rehearsal, TD and I stopped in at Brock's, where we'll be appearing on Saturday, June 13. Met Kristin the bartender, had a couple of pints, put up signs. The club is a little small, but we shouldn't have a problem fitting in there.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090602-001138
We got a call from our old friend Randy from the Double R Bar. Randy also owns a bar in West Sayville called Brock's Bar And Grille, and he contacted us because he needed a band to play the club's fifth anniversary party.

Naturally, we said yes.

The show will take place on Saturday, June 13, with a 10:00 showtime. I'm told the place is a little on the small side, so there's a real good chance we're gonna pack it out.

Hopefully, a lot of you guys will turn out to support us in a new club. You know we're gonna rock it.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090514-165006
We're going to try a couple that we put together earlier this year and for some reason never got around to doing, which brings us back to an even dozen - and if you missed us at O'R's last month, you'll be getting somewhere around 20 new songs if you come out this Saturday.

It'll be like seeing a whole new band, except for the same three guys playing thing...

See y'all on Saturday.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090514-164611
We went and set up a group on Facebook to better keep the FB world informed about our carryings-on.

If you're a FB member, visit that page or do a search for us, and join the group. Thx. ]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090507-160957
We'll wrap up the remainder of them next week, and barring one or another of us forgetting how to play, we'll roll into O'R's with a whole bunch of mew material for y'all to enjoy.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090504-032545
It was our friend Rob's 50th birthday, and we were asked to play the party about 6 months ago. It was held at the Suffolk Boat Club, right on the water out in Patchogue. Even though the weather was kinda nasty in the morning, we caught a break and the skies cleared for most of the afternoon.

Our first set was pretty subdued - there were a lot of older people (besides us!) there, and we kept the volume down so as to not scare everybody away. We let loose a little in the second set (and featured our frined Nancy Goetz on vocals for half the set, and by the third we threw away the set list, cranked it up and took requests from the crowd.

Rob was happy that we did the party, and his guests had a lot of great things to say about the band. We had a really good time playing for a bunch of friends and helping Rob turn 50 while rocking the night away.

Back to work this week - we have two rehearsals to get that new set of tunes ready for O'Reilly's.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090430-184928
And we had our friend Nancy Goetz over - she's a friend of the birthday boy, so we're going to do about a half-set's worth of stuff with her. As always, she sounded really good. This party should be a lot of fun.]]> http://www.nurse-diesel.com/dieselblog/index.php?entry=entry090426-162122
Speaking of venues - if any of you know of a club you think we should be playing, leave the name in comments. We'll be hitting new clubs this week, so any suggestions would be quite helpful. Thanks!]]>