Gang, I’ve got a wild music tale to tell from winter. It starts with my seven-year-old son’s heartbreak, but leads to one of the coolest surprises—the kind of encouragement that could fuel him for the rest of his life.

Part 1

Two years after my daughter and I had a totally heartwarming experience in Dec. ‘23—which saw us go from sadly having no tickets to see JD McPherson’s “Socks” tour, to my desperation for tix leading to a near scam, to magically getting front-row seats—my wife was set to take our boy to see JD this past December in Madison. He was surprised with the tickets as a St. Nick present—kid *loves* this record—and was so pumped he’d get a chance to go!

The big day finally came, and the mom-and-son duo headed off on the 2.5-hour drive to the concert. Since it was general admission, they got there a bit early to stand in line in the cold to get spots at the front of the stage. They managed to hang onto that bit of floor space through the opening act and all the way up to JD’s set (which involved my brave boy working his way through the crowd [and back] by himself to go to the bathroom).

Then, when someone came on to make an announcement—presumably, “Ladies and gentlemen: JD McPherson!!!”—the announcement was, unbelievably, that everyone needed to evacuate the venue, due to flooding in the basement. Wow… all that planning, early departure, and staking out a spot up front had been for nothing; all attendees were kicked out onto the sidewalk to await an update in the cold.

It came 10 minutes later: the show was off. “Check your emails for further information.” (A full refund was soon issued, but that’s so beside the point.)

Absolute, gut-wrenching shock. Weeks of anticipation—all the way to the front row, at the very moment he was supposed to see his favorite singer—dashed.

I guess the lil guy took it okay, outwardly anyway. My wife found some restaurant to get him a consolatory piece of pie, but come on: how do you actually cheer up a 2.5-hour drive home through the middle of the night/winter/nowhere. He’d fallen sweetly asleep for the last leg of the trip, and when they pulled in the garage and I carried him in and up to bed.

Part 2

I’ve zero idea what to tell my son; it was as if the JD McPherson miracle his sister had experienced was completely inverted for him. What good could possibly come from this? What lesson? I was at a total loss beyond the equivalent of “Hey, sorry this sucked, but at least everything doesn’t always suck.”

Incredibly, the boy kept listening to “Socks” every day; my fears of a thenceforth dreadful association were unfounded.

After Xmas I was still cosmically bothered on my son’s behalf. How could I possibly turn this around?

Meanwhile, I personally had a very, very cool thing happen: my man Cory Chisel asked me to be part of a small choir of background singers for Fountains of Wayne’s New Year’s Eve concert at The Vic in Chicago. Kidding me? I’d been an FoW fan since my good pal Chris Wong put “Sink to the Bottom” on a mix CD for me in high school. Way too wild!

I get to the venue for soundcheck. Turns out the choir is Cory, me, & this hip couple from Chicago, John and Dani—nice people, but pretty much just got introduced before jumping into vocal rehearsals with Chris Collingwood and Gina Romantini. Absolutely righteous experience.

We broke away back to the hotel for a spell and got some food/drinks there. I end up sitting next to John, and he asks me what other kind of music stuff I do, and we’re just off to the races: turns out we have all these similar tastes for the good rock’n’roll, and have a pretty wild number of mutual friends. From first meeting until this way-too-fun chat, it’s been about two hours. Only at this point does he mention, casually as all get-out, that he is the touring drummer for one JONATHAN DAVID MCPHERSON. And Yes, he was at the ill-fated Madison gig, Yes he remembers the unceremonious cancellation, Yes he and the band were totally bummed.

My mind is absolutely blown—all the more so when he tells me to get him my address so he can mail up something cool for my son. How in the… was there actually gonna be a cool ending to this “Socks” debacle after all?

Part 3

NYE with Fountains of Wayne was maybe the most fun gig I’ve ever gotten to be part of—just unreal! We got to do a 2nd vocal rehearsal with Chris and Gina beforehand. I got to meet Max Collins from Eve6, who plays bass for FoW since Adam Schlesinger tragically passed. Talk about big shoes to fill. Backstage after the show, I absurdly had the chance to literally fill Max’s shoes, as he had me try them on to show me how comfortable they were, ha!

It was nuts. A big group with everyone tried to go to another bar by the hotel afterward, but everywhere was jam-packed being NYE.

I did get to see Chris and Max the following weekend at Joey’s Song, but I’ll save that for another ridiculously delayed post.

I managed to hang with Ian Olvera in Milwaukee on my way back home to GB—turns out he was the lynchpin for how Cory got in touch with John. For how wrong it felt when my son missed that JD McPherson show, the universe suddenly felt wonderful. I was maximally excited for my son. My wife and I somehow managed to keep it secret.

At most I thought maybe John would write a letter to my boy, who’s been taking drum lessons for almost 3 years; John said when he was younger, other drummers were cool to him and wrote him letters.

But John did way, Way more. He also sent a handful of classic 45s: Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Clarence Henry, Gene Vincent and the like.

He also included one of his signature drumsticks that he’d used on the “Socks” tour.

The crazy centerpiece, though, was the bass drum head from his tour for JD’s “Nite Owls” record—are you kidding me?? John signed it, and even had his musical compatriot, the insanely talented Alex Hall, sign it, too.

Madness! Utter madness, this whole chain. Damn near life-affirming. John Perrin, you are an absolute LEGEND. My son sent his thank-you card not long after, but this gratitude’s eternal.

Cheers to John and to Dani—so glad to have met you both, that you’ve got each other and you’ve made it real matriomonial-like now!

Thanks for reading, gang; hope it brightened your day.

-Matty