Happy Birthday, Johnny Avilla!
Despite getting the date wrong for my friend's birthday party, driving to Pasadena, realizing my mistake and driving the whole way back for the event that was taking place 2 blocks from my home, I made it on time. "On time" being relative in these contexts....
Johnny Avilla (of Oingo Boingo and now Mutaytor among many things) turned 50 and his friends threw him one hella deserving jam bash of a party at Smashlabs. As one can imagine, the music was beyond belief. These are the musicians that other musicians come to see. People from bands he had played with 20 years ago showed and it was virtually a non-stop jam of the best live players I've seen in a long time if not ever...especially that close. I think I could safely say that there wasn't any better music going on anywhere in the city. It was an honor to be there.
And John, despite all of his success, is one of the most genuine and down to earth people I have met. He radiates gratitude and a child-like joy that is infectious. He camped with us at Burning Man and you couldn't get the grin off his face with skill saw. Buck shared my now favorite story of how John got hooked up with Mutaytor. He had come to see them play and left his number in Buck's notebook, which Buck then circled with the note "He doesn't know it yet, but this man is going to be in the band."
A side note on gratitude...those of genuine success have it in abundance.
Happy Birthday, Johnny....
Pics are HERE
Happy Birthday, Johnny Avilla!
Despite getting the date wrong for my friend's birthday party, driving to Pasadena, realizing my mistake and driving the whole way back for the event that was taking place 2 blocks from my home, I made it on time. "On time" being relative in these contexts....
Johnny Avilla (of Oingo Boingo and now Mutaytor among many things) turned 50 and his friends threw him one hella deserving jam bash of a party at Smashlabs. As one can imagine, the music was beyond belief. These are the musicians that other musicians come to see. People from bands he had played with 20 years ago showed and it was virtually a non-stop jam of the best live players I've seen in a long time if not ever...especially that close. I think I could safely say that there wasn't any better music going on anywhere in the city. It was an honor to be there.
And John, despite all of his success, is one of the most genuine and down to earth people I have met. He radiates gratitude and a child-like joy that is infectious. He camped with us at Burning Man and you couldn't get the grin off his face with skill saw. Buck shared my now favorite story of how John got hooked up with Mutaytor. He had come to see them play and left his number in Buck's notebook, which Buck then circled with the note "He doesn't know it yet, but this man is going to be in the band."
A side note on gratitude...those of genuine success have it in abundance.
Happy Birthday, Johnny....
Pics are HERE