There is a house on Forbes Street in Worcester, Mass., where the punks have loud shows in the basement. My own loud punk band has even played there with our pals Jacob the Terrible. So when I first began planning a tour of New England, it was only natural to try to play a show with those guys, even if my own band is a mere 1/4 the size of JTT.

As the out of town act, I got mid-bill placement, and I wondered how my relatively quiet acoustical style would fit in with the electrified rocking. But it was fine. The audience for my set was quiet and attentive, in ways audiences usually aren’t with amplified music. It also seemed like people came down to the basement to see what this absence of noise was all about. And stayed.

Then things really heated up, when Jacob the Terrible took the stage. They’re a really fun band, onstage and off, and the audience really got into it. And although my friend and I were utterly unsuccessful in finding beer before all the area stores stopped selling, the vast majority of the audience clearly had no similar trouble. I was almost moshed down!

After the show, we headed to Providence, Rhode Island, where half of JTT lives, and they put us up in splendid fashion. We gabbed until quite late, then got a decent night’s sleep—for being on tour, anyway.

The next morning, we breakfasted in a Providence café, where Jacob expounded on Bigfoot, ghosts, and the Berenstain Bears theory. Bellies and heads full, we headed to Montpelier, Vermont.