Paths, roads and routes are pretty unique things. On the one hand, there’s only a finite number of ways to get from Point A to Point B. But there's about a bazillion different combinations when you add a stop at Point C, or when you just want to take your time, or when you want to take the 'scenic' route, or when you run into something you didn’t expect…
Even if we share a common destination, our personal paths are going to be different from person to person. Maybe we got a late start, or maybe there was a traffic jam.
Or maybe we’re all just different people with different goals, different baggage, and different perspectives.
Life is a unique adventure for each of us. No two people live the same life the same way, and I’m sooo thankful for that! Sure, some of us have similar experiences along the way; we develop similar interests and passions that help us find commonality with others. But each one of us is as different and unique as our own fingerprints.
Sometimes I start to wonder how other people “succeed” (air quotes totally intended) while I “struggle.” It can be pretty tough to watch other bands and other performers get great gigs that I just can’t seem to get. And sometimes it gets me jealous; I freely admit that. But then — thankfully — I’ll snap out of it! That ugly, green, petty envy monster is destroyed when I remember that I’m not on the same journey as other people. They’ve got their path, and I’ve got mine. And those other bands and other performers are my friends; they’re my community! I'm happy for them -- I get excited when they succeed — I want us all to succeed!
But you've got to be real. Don’t let other people define what ‘success’ means to you. Don’t compare yourself to others in order to determine what your ’success’ should look like. When you do that, you always fail. If you want to measure success, try comparing the ‘old’ you to the current you.
Succeed. And do it your way.

Mike got hurt yesterday at work. It's not life-threatening, but he mangled his ankle pretty bad.
It's funny how life occasionally throws a spike strip right in front of you -- makes you slow down and think for a minute: you can try to plow through it and take the risk of hurting yourself really bad; or you can stop, assess the situation, and move on when it's safe. Sure, it would've been a lot of fun to play today -- St. Patrick's Day weekend -- but we were sidelined. It's not the end of the world, though...
Now we have a little bit of time (maybe a week or two) to play catch-up on all the things we've been meaning to do but haven't been able to fully wrap our arms around. Making merch. Designing new merch. Learning new songs. Going to more open-mic events. Seeing other bands and networking with other local musicians. Looking for new gigs.
You can't let an injury be an excuse to set you back. Be flexible; bounce around to whatever else needs your attention. By the time you're back to 100%, you'll be ahead of the game.

It's hardly surprising that people who share the same interests seem to gravitate towards each other. Wine aficionados probably start to see a lot of familiar faces after a few trips to the wineries. Dog lovers seem to meet the same people whenever they're out for a walk. That's what our little micro-communities do -- they bring us together in a common experience.
It's the same thing with the local music community. Whenever we can, we come out and support each other. We come to each other's shows; we meet at open mic nights; we talk amongst ourselves and find that we have other common interests; we help each other out if we can; we share information with each other; and sometimes, if it's needed, we'll even play in each other's bands!
Sure, it's kind of like a big social club. But I think it's a little more than that. In my little circle, I think that most of us realize we're not going to be rock stars -- we just love to play, and we want to keep doing it.
And we want our friends to keep doing it, too. That's what community is all about.

Some pretty cool things happened in January with our performances as well as behind the scenes.
We got to play at Crush & Brew in Old Town Temecula with our acoustic project, and it was a ton of fun! In addition to having a lot of high visibility and foot traffic in the middle of Old Town on a Saturday night, it's a beautiful bar with some of the funnest staff members I've ever seen!
We were invited back to play at Wild West Social. I was really looking forward to playing on their big stage outside, but this time we played indoors at the bar. I thought the big stage was fun, but Whoa Nellie! The bar was packed with a party crowd, and we had a GREAT time!
Behind the scenes, we got a pair of subwoofers to add to our onstage sound. They bring a lot more punch to the low end of our sound -- you can feel the bass & drums more, and they just round out our sound more fully. Come see us and you'll hear what I mean!
We're excited about what the rest of 2025 is going to bring, and we hope you'll be right there with us!

Well, that was quick -- move over 2024; make room for 2025!
Looking back, 2024 was EPIC! Not everything went our way along the journey, but the places we went and the people we met were unforgettable!
In January, we started building some great relationships with Jorge Sanchez and Robert Rankin Walker. These guys are not only great musicians; they're awesome human beings as well! We got to know the American Patriot Band and Sons of SoCal. We started doing open-mic nights every once in a while, and continued to meet other great people!
We met Mike 'Magoo' Davis in February -- such an awesome guy, and a genuine pleasure to be around! We also got more involved with the American Patriot Music Project, learning to build guitars. We also met Pat and Christina Dooley, who are those forever-friend kind of people! We were supposed to play at Baily's, but it got rescheduled (the first time).
In March, we met Rex at O'Hara's, who gave the band our first 'real' paying gig. 
April: we played at O'Hara's, and it was a great gig! People dug what we were doing, and we seemed to go over really well. We did our first guitar build with the American Patriots and met some really great people with the most beautiful hearts you could imagine -- Didi, Fernanda, Tee, Charlotte, I'm talking about you! We reconnected with Marie, which was a high point for us. We also played at Bastards, where a lot of other bands would have loved to play but never got the chance.
In May, we played at Teakwoods for the first time. This is one of our favorite, most cozy places to play. We also played at Baily's in Old Town Temecula as our acoustic project, Unplug Betsey. We reconnected with Mike in May -- we hadn't played with Mike since the previous November or December, and we thought he'd fit in well with our acoustic project.
In June, we got fired from O'Hara's. C'est la vie, right? We said goodbye to James and brought in Mike as our full-time drummer. We rounded out the month doing another 3-day Patriot guitar build in Big Bear, spending time with great friends!
We rehearsed in July. Not much more than that. Now that Mike was in the band, we wanted to re-tool our repertoire -- keeping some songs; losing other songs; adding new songs that fit our new dynamic.
The maiden voyage of our new lineup was in August. We played at Teakwoods and had an awesome time! We had our first test-drive with a lot of new equipment -- new mixer; new speakers; new wireless systems. Thankfully, Jorge was there with us so everything went nice and smooth! We also played a private party for a friend's birthday and rehearsed some more.
In September, we finally got to play at Taylor's! We had to cancel our July gig there, and we were ecstatic that Mike invited us again; Taylor's is a really fun bar with some great people, and we can't wait to get back there next February! To make September even better, we met some truly beautiful people -- Jeanine from Rockaholix hosted an all-day music fest at Wild West Social, where local bands played and showed some great support for each other within our small musical community. We also got to know Gary, Sean, Derek and Mark from My Dad's Band.
October was absolutely phenomenal! We played on Wild West Social's huge raised stage, Baily's amazing courtyard, and on Halloween weekend we got to party at Pepe's!
We returned to Teakwoods and Pepe's in November, and had a great time playing for fun party crowds!
December capped off the year with a really fun private party with some great Marine friends at Camp Pendleton, and an unbelievably incredible Christmas-weekend show at Vail Lake KOA -- what a way to end the year!
2024 was a really fun, busy year for Patch of Gravity; I wouldn't trade it for the world. But you know what? 2025 says, 'hold my beer.'

Wow -- this weekend was one of those don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it weekends!
We had just loaded our gear into the vehicle to leave for a gig on Friday when I got the phone call -- another band had a last-minute cancellation, and we suddenly got a golden opportunity to play Saturday night at a venue we'd been trying to get into for months! Was this really happening? Could this be our very own Christmas miracle? 
Friday's gig was a private Christmas party with some great Marine buddies. We got to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and just have a good time playing music and hanging out. It was going to be our last show before we'd finally be able to catch our breath and get ready for Christmas -- this was the last weekend before Christmas. Hold that thought -- the last weekend before Christmas. Christmas weekend, you might say.
Saturday's gig (which quite literally fell into our laps) was at the KOA Campground. A family-friendly, always-fun place where there's always a great crowd of party people and their kids. On Christmas weekend. One of the, if not THE absolute best, most awesome family party times and places you could imagine!
I still can't believe we were given such an awesome unexpected opportunity! Christmas weekend. Outside. Party people. Kids being kids. We gave away so much merch that I completely lost track -- beanies, coozies, ball caps, shirts, mugs, tumblers, and especially stickers! I can honestly tell you that this show was one of the most memorable ones I've ever played. I don't know if it was the Christmas spirit, or the fact that most of the kids thought I was Santa Claus, or what -- but I saw some real magic this weekend!
But there's a back story here. At first, I had doubts about taking Saturday's gig because of all the personal stuff I had going on -- another Christmas party with friends; last-minute shopping to do; getting the house cleaned up for family Christmas. Sure, I missed out on some fun with friends. But I almost allowed excuses and changing plans to talk me out of a great experience that showed up out of the blue.
The lesson for me in all of this is pretty clear. When a great opportunity shows up on your doorstep, do whatever you have to do to make it work out. Your future self will thank you.

I'm not sure if anyone's ever completely ready for the holidays. Even if you think you're ready, you're not. This world has plenty of surprises up its sleeve, and they usually come at the worst possible moment. Job loss. Government shutdown (get ready for it). Death.
I think it's critical, especially during the holidays, to get our priorities in order. All the shopping, spending, wrapping, partying, and A Christmas Story marathons can be huge distractions to take your eyes off of what's really important. And two of the most important things I can think of are love and time.
When I say love, I don't just mean romantic love or family love. I mean compassion and care for our friends, neighbors and strangers. This time of year should bring out our personal best; our kindest consideration. Our friendliest patience. Our most selfless personal sacrifice. Sure, not everyone gets it -- but that shouldn't stop us. And if our love and holiday spirit extend into January or February or next December, that's the goal! That's the prize!
Time should be our other big priority. There's no guarantee that any of us will make it to tomorrow, so it's important to take full advantage of the time we've got! Your legacy shouldn't be uncertainty about whether or not you loved people.
While you're at it, watch Scrooged and try not to cry.

The nights are definitely getting colder! We played an outdoor show last weekend and got a pretty brutal reminder about just how cold it can get with winter fast approaching! The low temperature that night was 45°, but it felt colder than that. Regardless of the cold, it was a really fun night!
We had the opportunity to give away some of our new merch; Patch of Gravity beanies! As you can probably imagine, they were a huge success (thanks to Mike for the idea)! Warm ears are usually happy ears, and we certainly warmed up more than a few sets of ears...
​We typically give out a lot of merch at our shows; ball caps, drink coozies, t-shirts, coffee mugs, hot/cold tumblers, totes, stickers, magnets, and now beanies! But you have to come to one of our shows if you want to get your hands on any of this stuff.
Stay toasty. Support local live music.

Mankind has struggled for decades for victory over technology. From "where's the 'any' key?" to "what's the IP address of my router?" to changing your 30-character password every 120 days, I've come to realize that technology is rarely, if ever, 'user-friendly.'
I've been fighting for months over music technology. The wireless systems we use for our guitars are constantly either the cause of, or the victims of, signal interference. Our digital mixer's built-in wifi consistently loses signal. The separate router we use for redundancy doesn't always provide that redundancy. I have to admit that a lot of times, I've wanted to throw it all out the window and start from scratch. But after a while, my inner nerd decides to give it another try.
We've made a few changes to our equipment, and hopefully that'll push us across the goal line in our current tech battle. Right now, I'm cautiously optimistic. The real test will be next week when we play at Teakwoods.
But technology is an enemy that never sleeps. There will certainly be more fighting, and more chasing after solutions. Sometimes I feel like that coyote trying to catch the roadrunner, never knowing whether a safe is gonna fall on me...
For now though, I'll just enjoy this win.

Whew! We're coming down from a fantastic weekend, and getting ready for a fun Halloween weekend show! Our dance card was pretty much filled up this month, and we feel really blessed to have gotten so many opportunities to play over the past several weeks.
We've had a few 'firsts' recently, and we're really thankful to the people who made them happen. We played at Taylor's in Redlands a few weeks ago, thanks to Mike Magoo and Linda! We played at Wild West Social this weekend -- thank you, Jeanine! We had a great time at Baily's, thanks to Nick for getting us in there! This weekend, we'll be at Pepe's for the first time, thanks to Erin!
Along the way, we've met a lot of great people and made some very cool connections! We met Gary, Sean, Derek and Mark from My Dad's Band; we met Jeanine from Wild West & Rockaholix; we met Mike from the Pub & Grub and Lester from Crush & Brew. These awesome people have helped us as musicians, and we're more than happy to help them out whenever we can. Because that's what it's all about -- helping each other succeed!
When you're on stage, be a rockstar. When you step off stage, be humble and thankful.