Front Porch Music Festival, TradeUp Fest and Best Concert Memories

very Midwestern. A lot of welps and hopes. Yeah. Was it Puff Daddy? How's he doing?

Producer Chris might be the most interesting person you've never met. I don't think I like being touched by strangers. Chris, look that up. You can I'll look it up. I'm on it.

You got it. You can look it up. I'll look it up. Here we go. We're professionals.

Do they have batting cages at Birdies? Um, not officially. Yeah, he had shingles. I don't know if that played into it or not. So, what do you do?

You can't possibly do this for a living. Hey everybody, welcome in to your favorite podcast, your favorite 60 to 90 minutes, and for some of you, statistically speaking, it looks about like three minutes of your week. I tell you what, we are crushing it on 3 second views on uh Facebook, so we're really doing well there. Um my name is Josh Cecil. This is the Hamco Live Hot Ticket podcast.

We are of course part of the Get In Podcast Network. We want to thank Nate Spangle and his team for all the great work they're doing promoting Indiana and helping us out. I am the editor and chief of hamcolive.com the source for live music in Hamilton County. With me as always, by God, he is a global icon and national treasure. That's Tyler Mechum.

Tyler, good morning, gentlemen. Over there behind Video Village. You won't see his face, but you'll hear his voice. That's producer Chris. Producer Chris, say hello.

Good morning. uh village video village rather brought to you by lmmproducts.com that's lmpproducts.com makers of fine leather goods in Anderson Indiana since 1975 go over there to lmpproducts.com use code hamco save yourself 25% off your order get you a nice new leather guitar strap messenger bag maybe a a cover for your journal I've got one of those. Um, get you a toothpick holder. I'm told those are very popular. Uh, guitar pick holder.

Mhm. You sound more and more like a used car salesman when you do that little ad read every time. I love it. He doesn't want to make any money. He just wants to sell leather.

He'll do. He's doing a great job at it. He'll do whatever it takes to get you in some leather. folks. LMproducts.com.

Use code hamco. Save yourself 25% off. Hey, we've got a banger of a guest, you guys. Huge, huge event. One of my favorite events.

Maybe I'm going to say it. My favorite event in Noblesville. Nay. Hamilton County. In all of Hamilton County.

I agree. Central Indiana in all of the United States of America. I would agree with that statement. It is the front porch music festival. So this is founder, producer, promoter, coordinator, correct?

Um, street sweeper even. I would agree. Jason Pearson. Jason Pearson, welcome to the podcast, man. Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for having me. We are excited to talk about Front Porch again. It truly is. I know I was kind of being facitious there, but it really is my favorite event in Noblesville. Hands down.

For sure. And Hamilton County. Yeah. I appreciate that. It's uh we're really proud of what we put together.

Well, you should be. Spectacular. I mean, you could book better talent. I know you're sweeping the the bottom of the barrel because me and Tyler are playing in it, but Well, I mean, we try to keep it local, you know. Yeah.

I like that I don't have to go very far. That's right. I cross the street to set up and that's pretty good. Yeah. I think I had a wagon with my gear in it last year.

Just kind of walk down there. It's fantastic. Well, we'll talk more about that. Let's talk about weekends. Tyler, what did you do this weekend?

Oh, boy. Uh, I had a gig Friday at Joe's and Fisers. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I went to Joe's Grill in Westfield to watch it. You weren't there? No. Yeah, I was off.

I was way off. Yeah. You would have seen uh Papa Meech and Troy. Who? Yeah.

Your buddy Troy. Oh, did he get released? Good for him. Good for him. Cecil and Troy have a a running ongoing rivalry.

Um Cecil's my first call and he's never available. I am I'm inching ever closer to retirement. Okay. the industry's just kind of forced you out. So, you're calling it a retirement.

Yeah. So, that was they they made it loud and clear they don't want any me. Yeah. Anymore? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that was most of my weekend. That was the highlight. I don't think there was much else. All right.

How's the crowd over there at Joe's? Uh, it it starts out at, you know, 40 50 year old until about 9:00. Then the average age is like 21 and a half. That's when you get out of there. That's when we're like, "Oh, yep.

Got to pack up." Yep. Sorry. Do they get any I would imagine and I've been told this I believe that they get a pretty decent crowd for show nights at RUF. I don't know. Was there a show Friday?

Saturday there was for sure that was Five Finger Death Punch was Saturday. I can't remember if Friday the crowd did not look like they were going to that no show. Okay. I'm pretty sure Billy Strings was playing all weekend at um the event center. The event center.

Yeah, we could talk about that. There's a story there. Uh Chris, how was your weekend? Uh my weekend was great. I didn't do a whole lot Friday and Saturday, but uh Sunday I did go to a really cool event downtown called Cipher on the Canal.

Uh and we set up and sold some records there. It was a dance dance celebration, dance competition. Saw Wampas Milk Daddies. The Milk Daddies were out. Mhm.

Along with uh Front Porch Festival, Sweet Poison Victim. Hey, and uh Clint Breeze in the Groove. Nice. Uh, Sweet Poison Victim, don't they have a record with you guys? Uh, no.

We We distribute their record. We We didn't make it, but I sell it at events and Yeah. carry it. You carry it around with you at all times. You never know.

I have it right here. It's in your back. He's a giver. Perfect. Uh, Jason, how's your weekend?

What' you do? Uh well well speaking of Front Porchfest, we had a popup uh takeover of the first Friday where we had Glenn Sealand and um uh Steve Vanderwater playing and the Copper Pots were playing at Alexander uh entertaining the crowd there getting some scoops of ice cream and we were selling our merch, slinging this year's new shirt and then at the last minute we had uh the OG support live music t-shirts pop up and had some people show up for that. Do you have any more? We might have a few. I regret not getting one.

That was a couple years ago or was it It was the second year. Okay. Uh we we didn't want to sell merch and then somebody stepped up and offered to do it for us and so we've allowed them to do that every year. So now we have the two shirts that are ongoing throughout the year now too. And then we have the day of special event that uh designs created by one of our local Chris Bon.

Oh, nice. So the great shirt the OG is uh is available now. Okay. Where can I get that? Uh, you got to know people.

Are you one of the people? I might be one of those people. Will they be available? What's not left? If whatever we have left over will be available the day of.

Yes. Okay. I definitely want to get one. Ginger has one and she always wears it. I get Yeah, it's a good one.

Such a great shirt. Do you have any large Youth large? Uh, I've got an adult extra small. That'll work. Do you have something in dainty?

Tyler needs a dainty. Slim. I call it slim. It's a petite slim. Yeah.

But I did that. Uh then I was getting some more stuff, getting signs ready for PorchFest. And uh we just moved a handful of weeks ago. So I was uh declutter, reorganizing the garage, if you will. Okay.

Yeah, that was my This is the second week in a row we've had just old guys like talked about and I was playing I had uh Sirius XM playing with Classic Rewind. It was totally totally, you know, Ario Speed Wagon and Bob Seager. That's the vibe there. Yeah, it was a great day. Made me feel like I was, you know, cleaning my dad's garage.

Yeah. Love it. I was actually uh I've been walking Well, I guess I just walked Monday morning, Tuesday morning, but my loop goes to the car. I go It's about a three-mile walk. I go by your house on my my route.

So, nice house. Yeah. Thanks. Looks great. Yeah, we're really proud of it.

It's uh it was not a move that we intended, but uh moving from Connor Street to 10th Street was uh it was we we we fell in love with the house really pretty pretty quickly. Good. Yeah. Yeah. That front porch chatter is really rolling in, isn't it?

Yeah. Time great. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what's happening.

I've seen the Hamco mansion. I've Yeah, there's no question. I think I could take a I bought bought a a doormat with the with the porchfest money. Yeah. It's a labor of love.

Yeah, that's right. It's a hobby. Yeah. Well, I uh we went to it was Ginger's birthday. My beautiful fiance Ginger turned uh 29 this weekend and uh we went over to Cincinnati on Friday and came back here Saturday.

Sunday we went down to Franklin, Indiana. I don't know if you've been to Franklin, but they're doing a great job. That's a cool little town. They they would crush a front porch. They would festival.

I don't know if they're doing one or not, but they should. They should. Yeah. And then Monday, we should talk about this before we get into French music festival. We should talk about uh The Pretender opened up recently in downtown Noblesville.

Now, The Pretender is a hi-fi listening room. So, cocktails, um I mean, food, full menu, but like the sound system in there is topofthe line. They got bass boost. They've got anti- skip. They've got bass boost.

Nice. If ever you think you need a little more bass, bass boost. There it is. Um No, but they're playing in playing vinyl over a a high-end sound system. I guess it's kind of modeled.

Well, I know it's modeled after a place in um San Diego that I thought it was a Japanese like concept. Well, I think yeah, that's the concept. And then Blake visited this um Blake Fogong who's one of the owners of the Pretender visited this place in San Diego and kind of modeled it after that. The idea behind it and I think a little bit of the design. I love the design.

It's like 70s. Yeah, it's real cool. He told me the other night uh it was like he wanted it to feel like you're in your buddy's basement in the 1970s listening to records. But that's a nice buddy. That's a nice I said it reminded me of the jungle room at uh at Graceand Graceand.

Yeah. Yeah. That's my buddy. He's got that vibe. Elvis.

Uh anyways, hold on. So, I want to know about the name. Do you know the the reason it's called The Pretender? Is it the Jackson Brown song? Is it named after that?

I think it probably is. Okay. I don't know if it was like on the menu and like you read the story about it. No, but that sounds super familiar for some reason. Like maybe he told me that.

Okay. When you walk in, there's a a Japanese pressing framed right beside of the pretender. I bet it has to be. I thought it was the Foo Fighters, but I was I was wrong. Yeah.

I thought it was that old 50s great Oh, I'm the great pretender. From your childhood. I don't I don't remember that one. Well, I have fond memories of listening to 50s were an easy time. Um, yes.

So, I went there on Monday. Ginger and I went there on Monday. And who is spinning record, spinning vinyl? None other than producer Chris. That's me.

Oh my word. Back there. I told Ginger, we were just watching him. He was in his element. Element.

Bobby Lee and the Hi Jinx and the wombat milk teeths or whatever. The wombat milk teeth. I don't know what that wamp the wampus milk daddies. I just That was close. Yeah, that's pretty close.

How was your experience, Chris? Did you so much fun? It was great. It was really great. I spent a ton of time preparing.

Yeah, I could tell. And I felt like uh that place lent itself to more instrumental kind of like jazzy, funky stuff and uh so that's what I played. And um I got very little feedback. So I'm going to say that that's good that it went well. Yeah.

Yeah. We often get very little feedback when we play. I mean, yeah, it's a good sign. If someone claps, it's nice. I got some smiles with some nods.

Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, that's great. So, you were creating the vibe in there. You were the vibe master, I suppose. So, yeah, I think so.

In a lot of ways, like Oh, man. That's Yeah. And then also, I noticed this was happening too, that people would bring records on Mondays and Tuesdays. They allow you to bring records. Um, you were forced to play them, which I was okay with cuz it was uh like the people that brought them were super cool and they were just like, "Here's my record.

Play something." And uh and I did and that worked out just fine. Were you Did you ever have to begrudgingly play one? No, but I only had one shift, so I'm sure at some point somebody's going to hand me something that I Yeah. turn my nose up at. Where do you Yeah.

What? I wonder him draw the line. Sorry, this is not weird enough. Yeah. Well, I've heard of this.

This is Come on. quiet down over there. Yeah, I wish I could have been there. I had a rehearsal and I could not, but I would have loved to have seen you in your element. Well, word on the street is that Jason Pearson will be there tonight.

Speaking of I didn't know that Jason Pearson, let's let's talk about this first and then we'll get into Front Porch. You're spinning records tonight. I am spinning records tonight and uh I was up late last night curating my playlist. I love that. We'll we'll see if my vibe is similar to Chris's.

What? Give me some examples of the because Well, Chris, give me some examples of your vibe first. Um, I played the Funkin Machine. Yeah, I heard the Funkin Machine, which we discussed on the podcast last week. I played podcast uh Hyuronomous Duos, which went over really well, which is like a New Zealand um like funk brass.

No, I thought from Greece. They're from New Zealand. No, they're from New Zealand. Uh, they're from the Gold Coast, but I played um Nathaniel Merryweather, music to make love to your old lady by. I love that title.

I played um that should be a top five. Music to make love to your old lady, too. We should make that That's the next category. I played a lot of traditional jazz also uh like uh Stanley Tarantine, Art Blakeley, and the Jazz Messengers. I played local jazz.

um by Brandon Meeks. Um kind of a mish mash of a lot of different stuff. He has just an encyclopedic knowledge of weird music. Just weird random stuff. What kind of vibe are you going for?

Not that. Okay. He's he's we we go down two different paths, but I appreciate what that that's what I appreciate about this is it it's we we uh you get the flavor of the person. Yeah. and and I was given a little bit of a direction uh that they kind of wanted to stay in that bandwidth of the vibe of the place.

So, I kind of went through my my collection to see what do I have and I gave it a plus or minus 3 years of 1976. Okay. And so, I was I'm kind of looking through um gosh, now I got to think about some of these. Uh Jefferson Starship with uh Jane I think is is can be like like I was trying to think about like what if you're listening to the radio what do you want to sit back and and and spin and and go for some deeper cuts maybe some Otis reading uh hard to handle. I think that could be a fun one.

Um and then I'll save save some secrets because I've totally lost my my train of thought of what I put into the crate. 60 albums. Here's the thing. 60 albums. That's that's what you're taking.

That's all I'm taking. Okay. That should do. I'm I'm I'm a I'm I'm a little nervous. I got I've got some also that I'm going off uh you know beyond that.

Like I've got a few secrets in case somebody wants to listen to something that uh outside of what I want to listen to. Well, not what I want to listen to. My my concern is is I know that um my original thought is if I go if Chris is going to be there, I want to listen to what Chris is playing. And if uh I'm going to be there, I know some people like, "Well, what's Jason listening to?" But I know there's a lot of stuff that I listen to that people don't want to hear. That was the problem with Middle West.

So, I'm trying to stay in that like what do I like to listen to that's also sharable, right? Yeah. Because I and I don't know if this is if this rings true for you or not. When I think of you, um, I think of like heavier music. Oh, for sure.

Yeah. That's a spa that's a space that I live in. Yeah. Yeah. I I'll go I'll go I like Chris's suggestions and and uh I've got uh there's a friend lives just down the street, Rod Chandler.

We get together and we spin records and it opens my my eyes and my mind to different things and and he and I expose him to things that he's like, I can't believe that you listen to that. That totally like there's there's stuff that I listen to that he goes, I would have never pegged you to listen to this. Yeah. that well I had the pleasure of hanging out with you and Rod one night at his place and I was like gosh I you brought some heavy stuff and I was like I caught me off guard like did not expect that in the when you were in high school did you have long hair? Uh not at high school.

I started I got a job working uh at a golf course and so my mullet that was growing in 8th grade uh got shorter each year. So, man, that's too I did I was working towards I was uh really big middle school was really into hair metal and heavy metal and I I kind of wanted to be a rock star at that point in time. Yeah. What were you listening? I loved hair metal too.

Oh gosh. Uh everything uh I my Define hair metal for me. I'm everything. Uh, so I started first concert was Bon Joy and Cinderella, but then I really got into like Kicks and Britney Fox and Tell No Tales and Killer Dwarves. Um, didn't get it.

Yeah. Yeah. Those are for those are some deeper cuts. Killer Dwars. They're on my short list.

Great. White. Yeah. White Snake. No.

Favorite band names. Short list of my We get it. Yeah. But there are some prizes. Some surprises, too.

Like I was a big White Snake fan, but then uh going down this vinyl route uh doing some crate digging and finding out that David Coverdale, you know, was in Deep Purple, leaves Deep Purple to do a solo run and then forms White Snake. And they were they had like seven or eight albums before they were hair metal. They were a blues rock. Oh, really? Yeah.

And so it's kind of like the Jay Giles band was very bluesy before they went poppy in the 80s. And so that's been really fun about crate digging and finding these old bands before we knew them as popular bands. Actually were phenomenal musicians doing things that just weren't as popular as what they got known for. Have you ever listened to, speaking of David Coverdale, have you ever listened to Coverdale and Paige? They teamed up with Jimmy Paige.

They got a song called Shake the Sugar Tree, which is awesome. So stinking good. Anyways, yeah. Um, Bon Joy and Cinderella. That was your first concert?

First concert. 1987. Love that. I want to do this real quick. This is a question I like to ask everybody.

I've never asked it on the podcast, though. So, we're going to play a little game. Okay. First concert. Yeah.

Best concert. Worst concert. First concert. First. So, you're Bon Jovian Cinderella.

Along those same lines, um Paula Abdul and Color Me Bad. Ooh, I had to leave a baseball game early to go to that. I'm not going to hate on that. Oh, man. Yeah.

Color me bad. Wow. They were the opener, right? Mhm. All right, Chris.

First concert. Rusted Root. Rusted Root. That's a nice one. Uh, mine was Ronnie Milsap.

You still like Ronnie Milsap? I still like Ronnie Milsap. I don't listen to Color Me Bad as much as I should. Well, it's hard because after that one song, what do you listen to? Yeah.

Were they the uh Were they the I Want to Sex You Up? Was that them? I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Best concert. I would have one of your best. I I was they I've been fortunate enough to see some pretty pretty great shows, but I would have to say my favorite was uh seeing Pearl Jam uh at Rup Arena in Lexington uh in 2016. Okay.

We were about from me from the Faceless Man from the stage. Nice. And uh it was it was a really uh enthusiastic show with a great set list. Yeah. uh best um I I would say it was when Will Hog came and played uh at Miami of Ohio, which is where I was at.

Um it it's the one where I got to stand on the table and play. But that I'd say that one just because I was like, "Oh, that's like the rock and roll I want to play." Yeah. And it was just like a switch went off and I heard everything I wanted to pursue right then. So, I'd say that one. There were a lot of good ones, but Chris, uh, Rage Against the Machine, Alpine Valley, 2007.

Where's Alpine Valley? Wisconsin. Okay. Um, gosh, that's tough. Uh, I'll say Bruce Springsteen, St.

Louis. Man, I should have picked that one. Yeah, Cincinnati. That was probably better. The Rising Tour.

Um, okay. This is a fun one for me. Worst. Who's got their worst? I I know which one I I just left.

Uhhuh. It was And it sounds I I wish I would have stayed now, but it was Steve Miller at Deer Creek. And it just the sound was so bad and so high-pitched and the set design was abysmal. I just left. Really?

Yeah. Wow. I know. Huh. Seems dumb.

Why was the sound bad? The guitars were so high like high rangy that I it was like just painful. Yeah. Yeah. And you were in the lawn lawn for that and still, huh?

Yeah. Wow. You got you got a worst. I I don't know about a worst. I We left one early at the Vogue one time because the the headliners had taken the stage and it was so loud that our our bottles were hopping ac up top and they were hopping across and we were like, "This is just ridiculous." But who was that?

Uh I think it was um Trapped from like one of those early 2000 bands. Yeah. Butt metal or butt rock. Is that what we call them? Yeah.

T R A P T. Yeah. Yeah. Um like 10 Years was the co-headliner that night. That's who Jessica's one of her favorite bands.

So that's who we went to go see. But I I I don't know if I've The worst is tough because it's usually like one band of the night that's just really bad and I can't recall because I they're they're forgettable. Um, can I I got a biggest concert regret. Okay. We were at La Palooa 93 and uh Rage Against the Machine had opened up and no one had heard about them.

And we were just like blown away. And that was back when they would do the the the second stage and the main stage alternated sets. And so we would leave the lawn and go watch the band on the second stage, come back. And we went and watched this one band. And they just took forever to take the stage.

And we were like, "Come on, man. let's go back to the main stage and go watch like Front 242 or Babes in Toyland. And it and we missed uh Tulle before anybody knew who they were. And that was like that like a buddy of mine who was with me that day. He's like, "Remember that time that we skipped seeing Tulle when no one knew who they were?" It's like it's still both of us it like lingers.

It's like a wound that has not healed. Uh Chris, worst concert. I can't think of the worst concert I've ever been to. I saw somebody made me go to uh my morning jacket. been to so many bad ones.

Don't you dare disparage my morning jacket. Or maybe it was Wilco. Well, either one. I also Baby Shark at Clues Memorial Hall. Go that one.

I'm not gonna sit here and let you talk down those bands. Uh mine's easy. I So Ray Laine at Everweise Amphitheater. Um went there, came out. I've never seen someone with less energy, someone who seems to not care about whether anybody's there, doesn't talk to the crowd, doesn't do anything, and just sits in a chair and plays the songs and they sound good, but it's like, man, just like acknowledge that we're here and you know, you're performing or something.

I don't know. And so we left and then I thought, okay, couple years later, you know, maybe he just had a bad night. Yeah, I do like his music. tried again. Same thing, left again.

It was awful. And it's shocking to me. I had I would say that the Ray La Montaine crowd is the least enjoyable crowd to be at a concert with. I saw him at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville. And it was the most uptight, pretentious crowd I've ever been around.

Like so he's playing to his fans, I think. And like if somebody like started singing along to a song, another person would shut them. We we we went and speaking of metal, we went down to Lexington to the Mega Core uh pavilion. It's a really neat They got an outdoor uh the stage is two-sided, so they got an indoor and an outdoor stage. Uh and we were in the outdoor side and it's they got this concrete pit and then there's like four rows of seating and then they've got uh the lawn.

It's not a real big area. And we were in the front row of those four rows to go see uh Gojira and Mastadon. And we stand up because it's a metal concert and everybody's wearing black except me. I like to wear orange or yellow to metal concerts so I could stick out like easy to find. Yeah.

And uh uh security came over and asked us to sit down because everybody in our section that was sitting complained that we were standing. I'm like, what? Yeah. I'm like, how did you sit down during that? I I was angry.

I I I I was not enjoying the the show was great, but because I was forced to sit, I was very irritated and Jessica wanted to leave. That's crazy. Yeah. Huh. I guess Mastadon is sort of a they strike me as like a heady a very technical Yeah.

Um heavy band, but still. Yeah. Strange. Yeah, it was pretty it was pretty interesting to say the least. So now I'm always aware of like I wonder where that rule came from.

If it was like mastadon's like I need everybody to sit down. It was just our section. It was just the people around us. Oh just encouraged everybody to sit and then if you didn't sit they they asked security to ask you to sit. Now to be fair that section does say sitting only.

So I didn't see that sign. Uh okay. Uh let's get into Front Porch Festival. Um, of course this is August 29th, uh, here in downtown Noblesville. We're going to close down Logan Street.

How many blocks does it cover now? Four and a half. Four and a half blocks of Logan Street. I mean, why the hell, you ask? Yeah.

Because if you stop it at the corner, traffic can still drive by. Okay. So, we stop it at the half block because there's still an alley that they can use. But that way because we had a singer uh Joy Collins was performing on the corner and cars were driving by and I thought next year we're not doing that. Yeah.

Good call. Nice. Yeah. Uh where did it come from? I kind of know the story, but great question.

Uh so Jessica and I uh we take a weekend to get out of town in October. It's our anniversary. Uh we call our anniversary month. And she's a hardcore planner. And this year we decided um not to plan.

We just picked an Airbnb that looked good and then we just figured out once we got there of what we were going to do. And this Airbnb happened to be in Evansville and and I have uh never had a desire to to go to Evansville. So I was kind of uh a little like this is going to be fun. Uh and it being a fantastic weekend. I mean it's a lot like Noblesville where there's there a lot of a lot of uh restaurants are coming and a lot of breweries are there and um where were you at?

Do you remember? Well, we were Evansville. Evansville. Like where you downtown? Yeah, we were.

We were Evansville or old. Uh, it was in I went to school there. So, we were It was uh Do you know where the this run restaurant I was not allowed to go to was called the Red Fez? Um, I believe it's run by the Shriners. It was uh I think we were on that side of town uh downtown um near the river.

It wasn't We were on the on the west side. Yeah. And um and and so we went to this coffee shop and uh it's it's just pouring down rain and we're on the Chamber of Commerce trying to look for things to do on their web page. And she said, "Well, there's this thing called a front porch music festival put on by the the the Catholic church." And she said, "It looks like it's going on now for about another hour. We could swing by there if it stops raining." And it stopped raining.

So we we cruised by there. And uh because of the rain it kept a lot of people away but there were 15 16 porches and we walk in and there's a there's a guy that that kind of you know resembles a Josh Cecil with the guitar and playing. We had a little Bose speaker there and and then there was a full brass band playing on somebody's porch and then it was like a husband and wife and she's playing the keys and he's playing the guitar and uh it it it was cool. Uh it was fun. We saw some food trucks in one section, but it was the next day on our drive home, uh, that three-hour drive, I I just I looked over at Jess and I said, "Uh, I I kind of feel like Noblesville needs a a porch vest." And she's like, "All right, what's that going to look like?" And so we we pinged some ideas around for a while and and that was the genesis of it.

Uh, and then that was October of 2019. And then um I started talking to some people because I'm not a musician. I don't I I I'm just blessed to be around people that are great musicians and moderate musicians. Um some that think they are good musicians by name only. Yeah.

Yeah. Uh and and uh and and I've got to I got to talk to a few people like so, you know, how do you pay musicians? What's what's a good rate to pay them? And and I and I started to think about I was just going to put this together for myself, right? Like I'm just going to run this event.

I'm going to pay for everything. Uh because I figured it'd be low low cost. And then uh COVID hit and I sheld the whole idea until the next winter 2020 21. And um I started I started talking with people within organizations of Noblesville to find out like how do you how do you plan an event? How do you get the city to to approve it?

And I got some advice. I had a sit down meeting and I was planning it. Um ironically, one of the things I was told is I had to get permission from the residents. I had to get a petition signed by them to Okay. and and ironically that's where where I met the I met the Faceless Man.

Uh he was one of the first people to sign the petition and uh the that's a key key element to the story of uh the big picture of Porchfest that that um I'll share later. But um fast forward a few months, I'm planning and I get a call from uh the the city the city that said, "Hey, we're here. You're putting together an event." I was like, "I am real proud." I'm like, "Yeah, I am." and they're like, "Yeah, you've done it all wrong." Oops. And and so, uh, after a series of back and forths, I had a sit down meeting with all the department heads of the city. Uh, and I was literally at a table and they were sitting all around like I was, you know, uh, it was like a scene from a movie where I was in trouble with something.

But what came out of it was the city got completely behind it. The the the street the city engineers, the the the fire chief, the police chief, everybody got behind it. And then somebody came up to me and said, "Hey, if you're planning on doing this event, you should talk to, you know, talk to John Gilmore, talk to Jeff Davis, talk to Ken Bup. They're all that that John and and and Jeff are musicians that are are, you know, notable in the community. They've done stuff like this before.

Ken has uh he's he's put together some ideas to do an event like this as well." And I was like, "All right. Well, I I know I've heard of John Gilmore and I and I've met Jeff Davis a few times, but I don't know who this Ken guy is. And so I left that meeting and I went to Jeff Davis's workshop and and I I pitched it to Jeff. And Jeff said, "Man, you got to talk to Kenbup." And I've got this rule of threes that if I hear or see something three times, then I need to pay attention to it. But I realized that I was five and a half weeks away from the event that I had planned that now I'm told I I've done it all wrong.

But now I have their approval. uh that I didn't have time to wait for Ken's name to show up a third time. And so Jeff told me that Ken had been uh reciting his garage and lived in downtown Noblesville. So I started circling the blocks of downtown Noblesville looking for a guy residing his garage. And I found I found a guy as I found him.

I found him. I'm not not no no no no no no no no no joke. And uh and this guy's got his tool belt on and he's hanging some siding and and uh I kept driving to make sure he was the only guy siding his garage. And I circled back and he noticed that I I'd come back and I said, "Hey, my name's Jason." I said, "Are you Ken?" And he said, "I am." I said, "Well, I'm going to put together Front Porch Music Festival." And he said, "Uh, when?" And I said, and it was like in six weeks. And I he said, "Uh, hold on, let me get my notebook." And uh from that moment we put together a pretty we started meeting and we we planned that first year.

I think we had 13 bands on like 12 porches and we had 7 800 people show up. But it it created uh uh an opportunity to to to build what we have today. Yeah. And today so that was first year 13 porches. You said about 7 800 people.

Yeah. What was last year? We think around 8,000. Yeah. It's tough to put a number to it.

Yeah. But but based on some of the the data that we've looked at and some other things that we we think throughout the the total of the day we had 8,000 people come and go. Yep. And how many bands last year? I think we we peaked at uh No, two years ago we peaked at 26 bands.

I think we had 25 bands last year. And how many porches? Uh 15 16 porches. That's great. Yeah.

I'm telling you, it's the coolest. Y'all got to come out August 29th. It is genuinely such an incredible event. And what I like about Vent, and we've talked about this, is there's other porch festivals like this idea. I think kind of I don't know if it happens organically or if there's like a national porch fest person out there somewhere.

I don't know. But other porch fests, everyone has their own oop, sorry, their own different sort of flavor to it. What I like about Noblesville's is that it feels like people are there for the music, if that makes sense. Like it's very much a the crowd brings their chairs, sits down and and enjoys and listens to music. It's not like the music isn't background.

I think there's a primary draw for it. Yeah. Well, and that's so I I love going to events like this and and I've been to several and it and you you you said exactly what I what I think too is that when I go to those I feel like it's a social event that has music playing and and that you you can go in and you'll have a band playing on a porch. The next two porches they're soundchecking and setting up and then the next there's a gap and then there's another porch of a band playing and it's just noise. you can hear everybody playing at the same time.

And and one of the things that after the first couple of years, it's one of one of the things I I I truly is my favorite moment is I have like my war room. I have uh I have a map of Logan Street for each hour and every band's on a sticky note and so I start moving them to where sound there's no try not to have any bleed over of sound. So when you're sitting and you're watching that band, you get to listen to that band. And and that's something that that I think uh I didn't I didn't uh set out for it to be like that, but after a year I realized it's the emphasis the emphasis is on the musicians uh that that that we have a lot of great musicians and and you you pointed this out one time that how many are within like half a mile. Yeah.

So I'll tell the story real quick. We were getting ready to meet to talk about Hamco Live. This is before I ever started Hamco. I was living on Cherry Street, uh, like 13th and Cherry, and I just, just as an experiment drew a quarter mile radius around my house on Google Maps, and then I zoomed in, and I started, oh, well, Tyler lives here. Uh, Rod lives here.

I just started naming every house that I knew of a working musician. And within that quarter mile quarter mile radius of my house in downtown Noblesville, I had over 20 musicians that I personally knew played out and could name, which is wild. So I think that's something very special about Noblesville. And it's like events like this nurture that and help push that. And I think and I think you mentioned too the city like the city is very um they'll get behind something that a a citizen wants to do like to help the city and um they're very accommodating in that regard.

I think one of um last year there was a story um I I play hockey a couple days a week and one of the guys uh there's a core group of guys that comes to has been coming to Porchfest for for a few years now and afterwards this was uh he this one guy had decided to stay in Noblesville and he leaves Porchfest and he goes to he goes to Primeval and there was a band playing there and it was kind of crowded so they decided to walk down to Sids and Sids had a band playing and and and he's like well let's go over to Bar Ellis because we were there's this new restaurant over there across the street and they had a girl playing a guitar upstairs, but they needed a reservation. So, they scooted over to uh they heard there's a new Mexican restaurant across the river. And I mean, this is the story he's telling me. And he gets over there and he's like, "There's a tribute band playing at Federal Hill." And he said the the the Bocata was is was amazing. He said, "But he goes, but when did Noblesville become a musician town or music town?" And I was like, that's that's what what Noblesville is building is is embracing uh music just kind of happened organically.

Someone was asking me about that. Who was I meeting with? Uh I can't remember, but like how did that happen? And I I I don't really know like what it is about. I'll take I'll take credit.

I'll take credit. But I think there you know there's like a weirdness. I our our downtown is authentic. You know, it's been here since the 1800s, right? So, it's got that history and I think there's a weirdness to that that attracts artists.

You know, it's just fun to live in a cool old part of town and that creates that community and art just I think there there have always been pockets like and Jeff Davis, John Gilmore, uh Kevin Hefernon, I think think they've all embraced the music scene in their pockets and so it's always that ground swell's been there. It just needed it needed something to release it. And I think that that as Noblesville was was changing and growing and that give providing opportunities that you just saw you started to see it it just keep coming forward bringing the tribute bands with with the parks department bringing that that that's a big deal. Um and I think too it I don't know if it's a postcoid thing or not but I think people want experiences like you know what I mean like everybody look to get out. Yeah.

I think that's part of the reason why PEFest was well timed. One of those first events postco where everybody wanted to get out. Yeah. And then we followed on the heels of that. Yeah.

I think it's great. It really is an incredible incredible day. Um there's food trucks, there's primevals out there, uh beer is out there or at least in past years. I don't know. We're adding both of those.

And we're adding ash and elm this year because there was that was a request. I try to listen everybody. I I get a lot of requests of you know what what you should do. You know what you should do. Oh, brother.

I know. And and uh I I'm I'm a I'm a pretty agreeable person. Like I I like well I listen to things and I'm like I'll change things because somebody recommended it. But with Porchfest I've drawn a pretty hard line in the sand with a lot of not even sand. I've drawn a hard line that I'm not crossing certain things.

But when you tell me like, you know, we should have cider, and I'm like, yeah, we probably should have cider. Yeah, we need we need portaots. Yeah, we probably should have pora. Um, but but uh I've got I get a lot of people that want to be connected uh but they want to bring a vendor booth and and I think part of the magic of this event is it if you want to bring your own food, you can bring a picnic dinner. You can do that.

If you want to buy, you can. But there's not anybody selling their wares, their goods. And I I think that's I I I fully embrace that. And there, but there are plenty of opportunities to do that throughout the year. That that PorchFest is a free community event that you can bring your kids and you don't have to worry about spending any money.

You don't have your the kids not pulling on your sleeve to say, "Hey, can we can we get that? Can we get that?" Yeah. That you can just bring your family and hang out and and have a great day. Yeah. And it is a a great event for kids.

I I have three boys and every year they're just running up and down the street just hanging out. It's it's so familyfriendly. Yeah. All my kids, same deal. Yeah.

Up and down. Yeah. Just tremendous. I think it's a um I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, but it it speaks to your leadership and your um I don't know, you care about the event. You're organiz like the whole story of you putting sticky notes on a map.

Like that's thoughtful. You're very thoughtful about this and it's your baby and it shows. Well, I I appreciate that. I um Ken Ken, so I I I get accused of having too many ideas. Uh I I I high execution and and Ken was he was the connector that that that he was the the force that helped me put a plan in place.

And so then after after three years when he stepped back and Jeff to Cook filled in, we had we had the outline ready to go. Um, but but it was the two of us I think had the exact same vision of what we wanted. And and the other thing too that uh that I can't I I have to I I don't want to offend anybody, but year one, such a great day. I mean, I felt like it was truly my my George Bailey moment, you know, at the end of It's a Wonderful Life where uh you see the support of the community and it wasn't like this huge success, but we got it off the ground. and we had year one and and um and I was reflecting and I was like, man, what a what a great group of musicians.

I heard the same Fleetwood Max song on four different porches in four different ways. And then Ken and I looked at each other and went, we can't do that again. And so we um decided to work out a way to become more musically diverse. Yes. And um that was a challenge uh that we were told uh that good luck and and I think that it didn't take us very long that uh I think if you're authentic with with the groups um they want to be here and we've had several people come into town uh and say uh we love bringing our music to Nolesville and uh and I think that you know you don't intend to see uh a SCA band on a porch or a mariachi band or uh an amazing blues guitarist that travels the country that lives on Plum Street.

And uh you get and and that's part of the planning is that I know that people aren't coming to they didn't come to watch a mariachi band. They came to watch an 80s cover band because that's what they want to sing along to. But then when you take them from one cover band on this porch to another cover band an hour later on that porch in the middle is going to be that SCA band or that mariachi band that I'm going to make them walk by in route and then they go was one of the greatest moments of the day. The mariachi band was the highlight. They were at my house one year.

It it might have been the biggest crowd I saw all day. It was huge. Um yeah, that the the diversity is amazing. Yeah, that that's you've done a really good job with that. We've played the past three years, this will be our third year, you and I playing, and every year it gets a little more a new flavor gets added as far as music goes, which I think is key.

And one more thing I want to add that is really cool about this, and I don't want to blow a surprise if you haven't been here the first time, but the tradition, I don't know how it developed. I was just getting ready to talk about this at the end of, you know, the event. Can can you describe what happens? Describe what happens and tell like how did this happen? It was it was uh it was Ken's idea and uh so we have um a parade march from uh from Logan Street to Primeval for a post party and it's led by Jeff Davis and the Pickle Stompers and then when uh before uh it was kind of heartbreaking when uh Pork and Beans uh New Orleans Jazz Band before they broke up, they would they would hang around and they would lead when the when the Saints go marching in and there's there's horns and likebody And then hide piper.

Just all start following. The band starts and then anybody that's still lingering follows them down out of Logan Street. And then what you don't see is all of our volunteers then start tearing down as everybody walks out. So by the time that you guys are at Primeval, we've cleaned up and it's so picturesque cuz Logan Street's a brick street. It's beautiful.

And you have these musicians just marching down to when the Saints go marching in. You get into primeval. Jeff Davis stands up on a table playing his trombone. Yeah. And everybody just it's like everybody cheers at the end.

It's it's the greatest example of like community that you're going to see. I think it's the greatest example of the power of music to unite. Right. So the first year that I did it went in Jeff gets up on the table and he's doing like a call and response. Oh the Saints.

Oh win the Saints. And when the everybody is singing along in Primuan, I mean it is packed and it's like the power of that communal singing we were talking about last week. Last week. Yeah. Yeah.

So, well, it's so beautiful. Beautiful to that. Somebody I get I got I get asked like I said for people to participate and and we got asked for somebody that if they could set up a tent and and promote a cause and and I said I I believe in your cause 100%. I'm behind you. Not everybody does.

And the last thing that I want is division at an event that brings people together because music knows uh there there aren't party lines and and like there are bands that I don't agree with their politics but man do I love their music and and and that's and I think that music has that power to bring people together and and kind of just you can kind of forget about you you your troubles are are are flowing into their music and you feel better about yourself like everything feels better when you listen to And uh and and I don't I think that's Yeah. Well, we don't we want to keep that moving. Well, I think that's such that's why I love the day so much is it's it is it brings an entire community together around music and it's just great job. Yeah. Thanks.

It's awesome. Also living in downtown or Oldtown is so neat to see all these people come in and you see them looking at the houses and listen and you're just like watching all these strangers enjoy your community and you you just feel so proud of it. Yeah. La last so the first last year was year five and the first four years you know I logged my steps and it's like 21 22,000 steps and in four and a half blocks it's like it's a lot of walking and it's a lot of back and forth up and down. Yeah.

And so I um cuz I'm always I was troubleshooting like okay I'm constantly looking for problems and like okay what's going to go wrong and make sure you're ahead of this and we don't have problems. I mean, you you it's it's as long as the musicians show up uh and the portaotties are show are there. Yeah. Uh all you do is people show up and they listen. And that's that's the biggest thing.

Uh so last year I intentionally uh I didn't wear a volunteer shirt and it made a few people angry. They said, "Why don't you have a volunteer shirt on?" Cuz I'm not a volunteer. I've I've been working 364 days so I can enjoy this day. And I intentionally just enjoyed the day. Yeah.

I still logged 20,000 steps, but I was walking with a purpose to watch. Yeah. And and I would pause and I would watch people like just just get they're soaking it all in. And and I I got to watch uh our community embrace everybody coming in and enjoying our community. Yep.

Um I think that's important. I'm glad you did that because oftent times we people that organize events and throw events are so focused on the event and the logistics and what could go wrong. Oh no, I got to make another decision. So many decisions to be made, right? Like it's so important for for you to sit back and actually take in what what you've accomplished.

Yeah. So, uh, one of the one of the things that you'll see in on social media and out in the world is how Hamilton County has exploded. And, and there's no denying that. And they say that it's lost its small town feel. Fischers has lost its small town.

Carmel's lost its small town feel. And, and I my my rebuttal I will I will die on this hill that it's it's you that have that have made it not small. That you get out of your house. Yes. get connected to people and your community gets smaller the more and and I made I made a comment uh ironically months before uh I went to this porchfest in Evansville that I was like man I really love love the life I have.

I don't know if I have the headsp space for more friends. I I just love the community that I' that we have. And then fast forward to Porchfest. Holy cow. My my the the people in my network that I know that I can reach out to to hang out.

I need support. It is it it feels like it's all of downtown Noblesville and then spread out throughout. And and it's only because uh I I uh stopped overthinking and just opened up my heart and my mind to to being more connected to people. And and I think I think of the two of you. Um, after meeting Chris, uh, we get connected and they they they purchase a building and in that building there's some some space opened up and the two of you start playing and and it's just the way it all builds because you open a door.

Yeah. To meet somebody. Well, I I'll tell this story. Uh, so this would have been 2023. Yeah.

2023. Um, I got divorced. I moved out of my house on the west side of Noblesville to a rental in downtown Noblesville, uh, on Cherry Street, and I knew I would need community. Mhm. Like I was in a real dark place.

Um, and I I knew some people because I volunteered with Noblesville Main Street. I knew some people down here. Um, so I had what I called an open house, which was really just a desperate plea for friends. Uh, but you came. Uh, Chris came.

You You refused to come for reasons I still don't understand. I was only allowed to go out one night a week and I used it up the night before. That's right. I forgot about that. Uh, but yeah, like it's I think if we peel it back, we have similar stories.

Uh, I think there's I think there might be a common thread here at this table, but it totally is that you get what you give, right? So, you gave to the community front porch fest and in return you received more than I deserve, right? So, it totally is. If you think this, if you think your town is getting too big, instead of not in my backyard, why don't you just go out on the uh front porch, go meet some neighbors, get out, invest, go volunteer somewhere. Like, I promise you, your town, no matter how big it is, will feel smaller and more like home.

Yeah. I and I'm not saying this in a braggish way, but you guys I'm sure will agree. Like I can't go downtown and walk around for more than 20 minutes and not see somebody I know and stop and talk. And that is like probably one of the healthiest things you can have in your life. Yes.

Is just even if it's not a long conversation or a deep conversation, what just being able to walk in Sids or Primeval or just downtown and we ran into you, you know, last week at Barellis. Yeah. just and then we sat down and had a drink and same thing uh with some other neighbors, you know, a couple nights ago. It's it's the best feeling. That's what feels small, but like you're saying, you have to be out of your house.

Mhm. To make those connections. Y and a great place to start. Watch me watch me wrap this up. August 29th, go to Front Porch Music Festival, downtown Noblesville, right on Logan Street.

Um, genuinely one of the best events in the state. No question about it. So, a lot of that is because of you. Real quickly, you mentioned Evansville. Have has anyone ever been to, speaking of events, the Fall Fest in Evansville?

That's was We were there the week they were setting up. Okay. And I didn't know anything about it. That's the big deal. It's one of the biggest events in the country.

Westside Nut Club is who puts it on and sounds like a band. Chris would like. Didn't the Westside Nut Club open up for Wampa's Milk Daddies? Maybe at Coachella one year. I don't know.

Um, yeah, but it's a huge event. Um, I only know that because I went to school in Evansville, but uh, did you go to Bossy? I went to University of Southern Indiana. Oh, okay. Yeah.

My dad is actually from Evansville, so I've been going down there for years. But is your dad Don Mattingley? No, no, but he is from Evansville. Yeah. Yeah.

He's got a little place down there called Mattingly. Yeah. Cleverly named Johnny Baseball. Uh how did Tell the story of you and Chris. You said you were going to touch on that.

You and producer Chris just that Chris Chris's uh stepdaughter and my son were dating. Okay. And uh for for for quite a while and I had never really met uh her parents. And so but I knew where they they just moved to Logan Street not too long before that. And so my daughter and I, Grace, we were we were out door knocking and uh Chris was out sweeping his porch.

And uh I said, "Hey, uh I'm Jason Pearson. I'm putting together a front porch music festival here on Logan Street. I'm just be curious if you want to if you'd be willing to sign my petition so I can talk about it." I said, "But first, I'm Trevor's dad." And he goes, "Oh." He got really excited and invited me in. And I was like, "No, I have petition. I've got a petition.

I I don't have time for chitchat." Uh, but he he insisted and then and Katie came out at about the same time and they both made made sure that Grace and I came in and they welcomed us with I mean it was super sweet to meet them. He wanted you to come in and see his weird records. Yeah. Well, what's really funny is is he walked in and I and I I I think I pretty much said we're going to talk about the petition in a minute, but I want to know about your record collection. Yeah, you guys both have massive record collections.

Uh, well, his his is bigger than mine. Yeah, but what about the record collection? Uh he he's got there's a we've got a what I love about this is we've got an overlap like it's a vin diagram that we that we have a common interest. Uh he goes a further left and I'll go a little further right but there's a common ground right in the middle that's a sweet spot that I really really appreciate. Yeah.

And then so from there it it just a friendship has grown from there as well. Now was all this pre-ac post? Okay. Okay. Because you said you were out sweeping.

I didn't know if that was I might I might have been just sitting there crying. I don't I don't know. What accident are we talking about? Well, once we get to 1,000 subscribers and reveal producer Chris's face, we'll explain the accident. So, that's fun.

Yeah. Um, but you guys kind of bonded over records. Katie, your beautiful wife Katie mentions this a lot, how you would come and pick Chris up and you guys would go to record stores. We we've gone as he was recovering from his accident. We we did uh there were a couple of there were a couple of drives where we went to Dayton, Ohio and uh I know he was not comfortable.

Not with my presence. I was going to say what were you saying? It wasn't the Yeah, it wasn't the the outfit I was wearing. Jason, you don't need to drive naked. The AC was busted and winter.

Yeah. Yeah, it was we had a long run to uh to to to Dayton and we went to up to the Toledo area one time and and uh it was some good some good driving and but but at the same time I know it was not as it wasn't an easy drive for him, but uh it was I think it was a step in the process to see the the guy that's that's that's kicking that's over there running the show producing producing away over there. Sure. Hey, speaking of producing, let's uh play a little Hamco Live Top Five. Hamco live top five top five top five.

All right, Hamco Live Top Five brought to you by Moonshot Game Store. If you uh need a new game, board game, card game, uh if you're one of those Pokemon collectors or a uh Magic the Gathering collector, you should go to moonshotgamestore.com and check out their collection. Get yourself something real nice. We want to thank them for letting us use the studio. Um we're going to do Hamco live top five.

What did we call the playlist, Chris? Porch Sitting. Porch Hamco sitting jams. Porch sitting jams. Hamco porch sitting jams.

So the premise here was front porch music festival. What songs are good to just sit on the porch? Yeah. And listen to. So I had I had fun with this one.

There's some good songs. Yeah. On this list. This one I had to really try not to pick the obscure stuff that I would listen to. Yes.

Because that's I don't know. I threw some of that in here. But I did too, but I'm not going to go with them. Okay. I I thought the same thing.

I I uh a lot of the music I listen to no one near my porch would want to listen to. So uh Chris, did you put some obscure stuff on there? I only contributed two songs to this uh playlist. Wow. I should have put some more work into it.

I was really busy getting ready for my Understood. Time of the Pretender. Understood. I'll go first. Yeah.

Tyler, go ahead. The Wait by the Band. It's our song. I know. It's our song.

It's our song. It's Fanny, right? Sure. I don't We've had this discussion because what happen So the chorus is take a load off. It's either Fanny or Annie depending on who you talk to.

But the f of off I know could go right into Annie, making it Annie, but it could also just be Fanny. I think it's Fanny. I think it's Fanny. Okay. I think so, too.

And I think it's a top five for sure. When they were when they were playing on a porch a few years ago, they said Fanny. Us. Us. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll tell this story to the listeners real quick. Tyler and I hung out first at the Lacy Arts building in downtown Noblesville. And then we met at Sids one night.

This was shortly after my divorce. And I went into SIDS. And it was the night peeled off the bathroom floors. Come on, buddy. There's a better life ahead of you.

up. Whoa. Um there was the pickle stompers were playing and there was a group of us that kind of all downtown folk and Tyler started talking about music and uh someone asked the question of what's your favorite song and I thought said the wait you're like oh I closed my set with the weight and I was like I do too and that's how we started playing together that song. So I love that song. Wow.

Uh Jason what you got? Well, I think uh I'm going to go with uh Pink Houses by Johnny Cougar. Okay. Pink. Just in town.

Little Johnny Cougar. Great set list. He played I I wasn't there, but I looked at what he played. That's what people want to hear. Yep.

He did what they wanted and I It's great. It's about time. Yeah, that's a great song. The first verse is even like about the porch, right? Yeah.

Pink Houses, Johnny Cougar. Christopher, what do you got? 40 Os to Freedom by Sublime. Oh gosh, I It's every other day at least, if not more, that I drive by Chris's porch and there he is sipping on a FOD. Just beard the beer just all over his beard.

Just suds of Colt 45. The day that ODS makes a 40 ounce, I would be so happy. You know what? When I was uh 14, I was way into Sublime. And I thought your way into 40s, but that's a different story.

And and I swore when I turned 18, I was going to get that 40 oz of to freedom, son tattooed, and I was going to move to Jamaica and open a bar. That was my plan. I do not have that tattoo. Never been to Jamaica. Plans change.

Well, yeah. Sometimes that happens. There's still time. Yeah. Um, I'm going to go with I'm gonna go with uh Credence Clear Water Revival, Looking Out My Back Door.

That's a solid one, too. If I understand the story behind that song correctly, uh, Fogerty came off tour with CCR and uh, was basically either making up a story for his daughter or something like that or just sitting on the porch and just put his daughter to bed or something along those lines and wrote that. I could see that because there's something about elephants and Yeah. Yep. looking out my back door.

All right, there's round one. Oh, this is tough. All right, round two. What do you got? Uh, it's between two.

Um, I'm going to go Sundown. Gordon Lightfoot. You guys know that song? Yeah. Backstairs.

It's kind of porchy. Yeah. Most people don't realize that I'm Gordon Lightoot takes up most of my my record collection. I doubt that. You should.

Uh, all right. What do you got, Jason? I'm gonna go with uh Seasons by Chris Cornell. Okay. I was just listening to Oh, it was on our duets.

Hamco does duets. The playlist, not the the not the adult thumb. You didn't You didn't watch the the the show? No. Uh, I was listening to um Temple of the Dog Hunger Strike.

You forget how powerful Cornell's voice is. My goodness, I never forget. He's one of my favorite singers. To have that grit still in that high of range that he has and the power at that high range is unbelievable. No, the the story behind Eddie's involvement is really great, too, because it wasn't supposed to be there.

I mean, he's that's the only song that he sings on that album. Oh, really? and he was in town uh kind of dress rehearsal with with Pearl Jam before they were Pearl Jam and recording and they were recording and and Chris was recording at the same time with the guys in from Pearl Jam and doing Temple of the Dog. And Chris was having a hard time doing the lower register and and he was just really struggling and then while he was while he was doing his vocals, Eddie just walks up to the mic and just starts doing that. Oh, really?

What we know is is he just and then Chris whips over and goes Yes. Like that's cool. Yeah. It wasn't supposed to be uh but that was kind of like that was just the scene then just people just filling in spots. Um and so yeah, before Pearl Jam was Pearl Jam Temple.

They were Mookie Bl. Yeah. Oops. Yeah. Mookie Block.

Former trivia question on this very program. Uh Christopher, what do you got? Uh for my choice, I'm going to go with Find Your People. Oh, I love it. I like that.

Chris. Mhm. which uh which is a song I know because of Tyler. Y uh I'm blanking on the name Drew Drew and the Neighbors. Yeah, that's a good one.

The Neighbors. I mean that's that's portrait. Uh okay. I'm This is tough. I'm going to go with the one I want to go with instead of I know like this is not a well-known one, but I'm going to go with Heaven Passing Through by the Turnpike Trouidors.

don't know because to me, so it's just about um the lead singer had just gotten out of rehab. Um and it's about taking in the moment and realizing, you know, it feels like heaven passing through, like just be in the moment and be present. Um sometimes I like to sit on my porch and just take that in, you know? You have a good front porch. I know.

Yeah. So Chris has the best though. True. Ironically, I don't have a front porch. That's a bummer.

That is ironic. All right, here's All right, we got to get this down to a five. We've got The Weight by The Band. We've got Pink Houses by Melanchamp. 40 Oes to Freedom.

40 O to Freedom by Sublime. Looking out my back door CCR, Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot, Seasons, Chris Cornell, Find Your People, Drew Hulcom, Heaven Passing Through by Turnpike Trouadoras. You want to start with the no doubters? Yeah, I'll start with the ones that are obvious. I think the weight I think the weight has to be there.

Yeah, it was on my list. Um, I really like Find Your People. I mean, we're over here talking about community. Like, that's what it's all about. Okay, I'm I'm good with that one.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Is this like the second time Chris has had one in the top five? Yeah, Chris, he's streaking right now. Don't get used to this. 20 episodes.

I had two two of my songs get recognized. Yeah, this is our 20th episode. Does that prove that I I do watch that I'm one of the 20? Yeah. Yes.

You and my mom, I think, are the Did your mom get her shirt, by the way? Yeah, she's been wearing it. Yes. Hey, we have shirts available if you want to support Hamco Live or the podcast. Go to hamlive.comstore.

Did your mom order the shirt with with your face on it? She did. Okay, just checking. Um, okay. We got the weight.

We got Finder People. Uh, she did say, "I don't like how your face looks in this photo." Did you spoken like a screw mom? It's me. She created that. I know.

It's not my fault. Um, okay. Any other ones? I think House is and Out My Back Door, I think, are both. I agree.

I'm not I'm not going to argue. Um, okay. So, that means we've got we've got to narrow it down to one. Pick one of these. I'll get rid of Heaven Passing Through.

It's a great song, but if you don't know it, there's no point in I can't spell troubador, so I I don't want to pick it. Yeah, I did listen to Seasons by Chris Cornell, and it felt really heavy for porch sitting. I Yes, I'm not going to disagree with you, but sometimes you got to be contemplative on the porch. Just saying. Fair point.

I'm leaning toward I like 40 ounce. Yeah. What I don't like about that is it's going to put two of Chris's songs in the top five. which makes me very uncomfortable. Yeah.

But there's something like I don't know that takes me back to college and do a lot of porch sitting in college. Well, we had apartments. We didn't have dorms. Oh. Um at USI at the time.

So, yeah, there was fair bit of porch sitting. I don't want Chris to get cocky. Can we just pick something else? Who knows? This might actually increase viewership to to get us closer to seeing who's the guy that got two.

And that's right. Yeah, we're up to 162 subscribers. We only need like 800. Yeah, this is dangerously close. I say we give it to him.

All right, Chris. All right, here is your top five porch sitting songs. We've got The Wait by the band Pink Houses by Johnny Cougar. That's John Cougar Melanchamp or John Melanchamp depending on when you saw him. Uh 40 Oes to Freedom by Sublime, Looking Out My Back Door by Credence Clearwater Revival, and Find Your People by Drew Hulcom and the Neighbors.

Hamco live top five. Hamco live top five top five top. Hey, we got trivia coming up here real quick, but I do want to give a quick shout out. Of course, you've got the Front Porch Music Festival again. That's August 29th.

Make sure you're around for that. It is It's incredible. Food trucks, uh, beer, cider, um, how many bands? 25. You said 25.

25 bands playing on 16, I believe. So, porches. Um, what's the time frame on that? starts at 1:00, goes till 7 o'clock. Okay.

1:00 to 7 o'clock. Each band will play a 4550 minute set and then it'll be like a sound check between so you can pick your chair up and move to another porch. Give you some time to to move to move. And then don't forget about the parade down to Primeval at about 7:00 as well after the festival ends. Uh it really is it's a great day.

Great way to get out and experience uh incredible community. I would and stick around for Federal Hill concert. Yeah. Be playing the Billy Joel tribute band after that. That's right.

So you guys are opening for Gar Brooks Tribute Band. So So yeah. Wow. That's a great day of music. What a great day of music.

I know. Spend all day in Nolesville. Yes. So Front Porch Music Festival, August 29th, 1 PM start time. Stay till 7.

then go down maybe go downtown, grab yourself a little bite to eat somewhere in there or a food truck and then go to Federal Hill. That should start I'm guessing I don't really know six maybe I think is when six or seven because I think they have to be done by 10. G Brooks tribute uh No Fences is the name of that outfit. They do a good job. And then the Billy Joel tribute that Tyler is you're playing piano and guitar.

No. Organ and guitar. What are you playing? All this stuff. Okay.

Strings, organ, fiber, slap, accordion, vibro slap, harmonica, background vocals, guitar. Yeah, go check out that. That'll be great. That Brett Wiscon is leading that on the show weeks ago. Few weeks ago.

And I also need to point this out and ask for some help. This is the concert. This is Trade Upfest. It's a good looking poster. Thank you.

Um, Trade Upfest. This is September 19th. Um, tickets are available now. This is a really cool event. I'm very excited about it.

Very stressed out about it. I need some help. Uh, but this is uh we're calling it like farmade for the skilled trades. Um, it's an all day event. Kicks off at 11.

We've got eight bands on two stages out at the arena. Um, the Riverview Health Arena at Innovation Mile. That's where the Pacers G- League team, the boom, the Noblesville Boom play. Again, it's starts at 11:00, eight bands, two stages, and then our Trades Village concept, which is a really cool um area. We're kind of blocking off.

Sponsors are going to have booths there that are going to be interactive. So, if you have a middle school, high school student who's trying to figure out what to do after graduation, I would strongly encourage you to consider the trades and uh skilled trades and electrician, plumber, welder, advanced manufacturing. There's all kinds of options. College is not for everybody and shouldn't just be assumed that that's what you need to do in order to be successful. Not true.

Um, check out the skilled trades uh village try a trade. Uh, I just was talking with some guy this week. Uh, he's got a booth that he's bringing where it's got this welding mask that you put down and it becomes like virtual reality. So, you virtually weld. I am totally doing that.

It's going to be awesome. There's a flight simulator. Um, I think Vincent's University is going to be there with a like a jet engine, like a half jet engine type thing to can fiddle around with that. Uh, it's really cool experiences for your kids and maybe you're thinking about switching careers like um I just was reading this today from the state of Indiana. Um, there are currently how many jobs was it?

80,000 I believe open jobs in the skilled trades industry in the state right now. Wow. With 1 point almost two million jobs predicted in the next 5 years. I sent you an article about how uh plumbers will be needed for like data centers like tooling like all that stuff that uh the skilled trades will be even more required. Yeah.

And that is something that AI can't currently do is uh use a screwdriver. So, some good job security there as well. But come check out Trade Upfest during the day. Completely free. We just ask that you uh sign up for a festival pass.

Come check it out. Um at night, we're opening up the arena. We have Larry Fleet. He's going to be our headliner. Uh the Wilder Blue are opening up.

And opening up for the Wilder Blue is local talent Norah Ree. Um, that is a ticketed event. Those tickets are all online. Everything you need to know is online at tradeupfest.com. If you want to help, I would love some help, some volunteers.

Um, I need to put out the signal, but we'll start here. Um, email me at joshamco.com. I'm going to need help running a little tent that we're going to have at TradeUpfest or I'm sorry, at Front Porchfest, manning that. I'll need some help setting up and tearing down at TradeUpfest. Need some help running merch booths at TradeUpfest.

I need some drivers to u be runners basically for the event. So, lots of opportunities to get involved if you would like to get involved. Um we would appreciate that. We got all these posters. Got 500 posters.

I need to get hanged up all over town. So, um if you could help with that, that would be great. Uh, let's get in to trivia. I've got the question here from Joe Rudy. Give me a song.

Oh jeez. We're playing. All right. Here's how it works. I'm going to give you the category.

category is grunge. Yes, grunge. All in. Up to 30 points. You can bet.

Um, I'll be honest. Last time someone gave the grunge uh monitor. Not grunge. Not going to throw anybody under the bus, Max. All right, here's the question.

In January of 1995, Pearl Jam recorded an entire collaborative studio album with this artist in just 4 days. Due to trademark disputes among record companies, Pearl Jam's name was legally banned from appearing on the cover. I feel like I'm at a disadvantage. I feel like you're you already I think he has it on like every different vinyl pressing. No, no, no.

One more time. In January of 1995, Pearl Jam recorded an entire collaborative studio album with this artist in just 4 days. Due to trademark disputes among record companies, Pearl Jam's name was legally banned from appearing on the cover. Huh? This artist I'm just going to shot in the dark, guys.

I don't like this answer one bit. I don't either. That's a shot in the dark. I'm glad I bet what I bet. It's gonna be really great when I'm wrong.

Yeah, confident. You're very confident right now. Confidently wrong. It's gonna be hubris. Uh, where do we want to start?

You put anything down? Yeah. Everybody got something locked in? Yeah. Why do I feel like I'm forgetting a Oh, that's why.

Hey, our question uh brought to you by Rudy's Recycle Shop in Cicero, Indiana, just right off of State Road 19. We want to thank Joe Rudy at Rudy's Recycle Shop for giving us the question. Um, if you need a new bike or you want to get your bike tuned up, go see Joe Rudy at Rudy's Recycle Shop right there in Cicero. You can go to rudysrecyhop.com for more information. All right, Christopher, give me your answer.

Trent Resnner. Trent Resner. Okay. Uh, it's not a bad guess. I don't hate that.

I don't know, man. Leonard Cohen. Oh, that would be cool. Okay, we're going to come to you last because I feel like you probably have it. Uh, I went with Prince.

Oh, that would also be Prince. I don't know if that's right, but that' be that be a cool collaborator. Okay. They've covered it. Yeah.

I thought maybe, you know, he maybe sat in on guitar or something. I don't know. Wouldn't put it past him. Yeah. All right.

What do you got? Uh I've got Neil Young. Neil Young. And now that you say that, I I remember Uncle Neil. Yeah.

and being a huge influence on he came out during the uh 1994 video music awards and they uh did the rare two songs. They came out and played animal and then Neil Young came out and they played rocket in the free world. Free world. Yeah. Well, that sounds right then.

All right, let's go to the answer. Okay, who is Neil Young? The guest wins. How much did you bet? I went all in 30.

You said grunge. I feel good. You got a cheer over there. There we go. Well, I only bet 18.

Am I right? What do you got? I dropped 30 on it. Yeah. Chris, how did you go?

18. 18. Look at that. 30, 30, and 18. 18.

Uh, okay. I got a bonus follow-up though, courtesy of Joe Rudy. What was the name of the album? Mirrorball. And then Pearl Jam did an EP called Murkham Ball.

Okay. As a follow-up like a pubic wig. Mhm. Oh, Mkin. Mkin.

Sorry. No, Mkham. Like the uh car auctioneers. Yeah, it was the it was the the the EP was titled after the the pubic whip. Whip.

That's a Mkin. Yeah. Merk. I thought you said Merkum. I probably did.

Oh, Mkin. Okay. Merkinball. Oh, I didn't know Pearl Jam was What do you say? No, it's Mirrorball.

You got it. They just re-released that on vinyl. Is that right? Yeah, you got it. I That's the only copy I've got I've ever had.

Never had it on CD. I wasn't I'm I'm not a big Neil Young fan. Okay. There I'll drop in and out, but Neil Young's there's some unlistenable stuff. Totally agree.

I'd say the vast majority of it. I will say this and I was going to talk to you about this, but for Front Porch Music Festival, we have to do Helpless. Okay. We were playing uh Primeval, I don't know how long ago it was. Did someone ask for Neil Young?

Yeah, someone requested Neil Young and you knew helpless and so we just started playing Helpless. I hadn't played it in 15 years, but it was um it was like one of those kind of magical moments as a musician where it just like didn't even play this, but here we go. And crushed it. That's what you get when you're professional. That's right.

That's right. Uh, so we'll play Helpless at Front Porch. Um, okay. Last time. What are you listening to?

Oh, you look like you're going to press a button. What are you going to press? Close out trivia. Yeah. With the trivia theme.

Now, let's get this for the pageantry. Okay. All right. Um, Christopher, what are you listening to? Uh, well, I've been watching the new Fousey music video, Suffering in Pain, filmed entirely in Noblesville.

Hey, by the way, so I've been watching that a lot on YouTube. Good. I've been listening to It's It's more of a podcast week for me. Podcast is called The Constant: The History of Getting Things Wrong. Interesting.

Not my autobiography. It's It's a podcast. It's the Tyler Meechum story. Yeah. No, it's great.

Okay. Partnership with me. Yeah. Constantly getting things wrong. Uh what you listen to?

Uh, so we went to uh Detroit last week to see Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters. So, uh, I've been I've been in a Queens of the Stone Age uh, Stoner, Desert Rock, uh, moment for quite a while. I've been digging deep into that genre, subgenre, if you will. That's great. Yeah.

Uh, yeah, they were just in Chicago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to go.

Foo Fighters is on my list of people I've never seen, but I want to see. One time's good. Really? Oh my. Wow.

Uh, I've been listening to I was telling Chris about this uh I guess it was Monday. Uh, Virginia Coalition. Do you know Virginia Coalition? So, I don't know how popular they ever were, but I saw them open up for Sister Hazel. Yeah.

That's right. And time frame there. That's when they were coming up. Yeah. They were I think maybe the best opening band I've ever seen.

Like you know how in opening band no one knows who you are and you got to come out and just win the crowd over and they did that man like the keyboard player was just insane to watch but and all their songs were had this I don't even know how like very much like a party like college rock yeah college rock feel to them like it just Yeah. And they I guess they just released their stuff on Spotify and I just stumbled across them. Um, but yeah, it's like bringing back all these memories. Yeah. So, Virginia Coalition, go check them out.

And also, if you're on Spotify, check out the Hamco Live Front Porch Sitting Jams or Porch Sitting Jams or just look up Hamco Live and find it there. If you are not subscribed here on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button, um, notification button, follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram. Um, go check out tradeupfest.com and front porch music festival. Noblesville frontfront porchmusic festival.com. We try to make it as complicated as possible.

Is there a limit on number of characters in a URL? noblesville frontpmusicfestival.com. It'll get you there. It'll get you there. Yeah.

So, uh, make sure you're doing all that. Follow Front Porch Music Festival on all the socials as well. And, uh, just come out August 29th. It'll be, uh, well worth your time. It will become one of your favorite events as it is one of our favorite events.

Our favorite event. Yeah. Yeah, I said it there. I said it. Hey, I'm Josh Cecil for producer Chris.

He's over there behind video village. Tyler Meechum, global icon, national treasure. Jason Pearson from Noblesville Front Porch Music Festival. Hamco live. Over and out.

Sticking years on for years. Tiny stage. Big time sound. Every lost kid. Heat.

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