MBB Syndrome

As my friends know, I'm generally a pretty laid-back, mellow and unflappable fellow...am cool under fire, confident and perhaps even a bit too cocksure of myself. However, yesterday I experienced a few minutes of MBBS brought on by a telephone conversation I had with a guy in New Jersey. I don't feel completely embarrassed because I'm fairly confident that everyone has experienced or does experience MBBS from time to time. MBBS is, of course, Momentary Beavis and Butt-head Syndrome, and is characterized by brief moments of slightly increased heart rate; vacant cerebral function; unintentional nervous laughter; vocal emissions, also unintentional, that sound like "uh...uhhh...haha...uh...haha...uhhh...cool"; and a distasteful though undeniable urge to name drop and excitedly advertise the source of the pathology.

Ok, the guy I just got off the phone with was Pat Dinizio! Yes, Pat Dinizio of the Smithereens! He of a truckload of hit songs, videos, sold-out concerts, and three decades of consistently excellent rock music. I was a fan of the Smithereens in my college days (although I was also briefly miffed that they stole the name I had settled on for my own never-realized band...c'mon, there's not even a guy named Smith in their band! But I got over it and claimed them as my own band anyway).

So, I've been daydreaming and talking about getting Pat to play the Stump since we opened. And now it's gonna happen. Pat and I talked about a few things, including the concept of community...people connecting with one another in an increasingly technological and at times disconnected world. He talked about why he does his "Living Room Concert Tour," about how much joy, friendship and inspiration these small, intimate shows have given him. The guy was just what I had hoped he would be...direct and honest, generous, funny and bold. How many other legitimate rock n' roll stars would hop in a van with a few pieces of equipment and a road map to unassumingly drive across the country to play in people's home living rooms and backyards, for literally a fraction of what they get paid doing full-blown stage concerts? It's heartening is what it is. I would think that you'd have to have a very healthy combination of ego and humility to pull something like that off successfully.

I'll talk more about this later, but for now here are a couple of videos with Pat's solo material. Do a youtube search to get a lot of Smithereens and Dinizio vids and music.



I love this song - "Any Other Way" - from one of his solo albums. It's got a tangible early '60s European spy movie vibe (the track that accompanies the shots of the steely-eyed hero driving his sports car, top down, through the French countryside and into the city) or "summer on the Riviera" feel to it. Love the jangly guitar and bluesy undertone.


One of the great voices in rock...earthy and rich. I told Pat how much I liked this particular song and video, the directness and simplicity of it. He said they recorded the video at his old high school. He had always wanted to perform on that stage as a kid, he said, but had been too afraid to do it when he was young. "So we went back there to my old school, set it up, and and I finally did it." How cool is that.