Mario Di Sandro

The Sunset Tavern Seattle, WA 12.10.25 [Acoustic and electric set with looping pedal and effects pedals] 1. ‘The Night I Met You’ 2. ‘Wet Socks’ 3. ‘Inconsequential’ 4. ‘Shattering The Hourglass’ (Deep Sea Diver)[only first two verses, new cover debut] 5. ‘Ruminate’ 6. ‘Impetus’ 7. ‘Connection’ 8. ‘All I Have To Do Is Dream’ (Everly Brothers) [with Tyler Hamilton, performing as the Cleverly Brothers for the night] 9. ‘Love My Way’ (The Psychedelic Furs) 10. ‘Swingin’ Party’ (The Replacements) All photos taken by Megan Bullard (@meg.photto ) It was so great to be back in Seattle and playing at my favorite venue, The Sunset Tavern in my favorite neighborhood of Ballard. I’m so happy that so many of you took the time out of your schedule to come to our show. Big thanks to Bigfoot Curious (@bigfootcurious ) and Nate Bullock (@nate_sings_sometimes ) for joining me on stage, and to Colin for running sound and making us sound great up there, and all the Sunset staff. Special thanks to Tyler Hamilton (@guiltytyler ) for joining me on that Everly Brothers song that we didn’t rehearse, but totally nailed it. Another special thanks to Megan Bullard for taking these really wonderful photos during my set! And to all of my friends, near and some who traveled far, to be at the show! It was such a fun night with such a good crowd!

Conor Byrne Pub Seattle, WA 06.04.25 [electric guitar setup with looping, acoustic guitar, and electric kalimba] 1. ‘Walking The Cow’ (Daniel Johnston) 2. ‘The Night I Met You’ 3. ‘Wet Socks’ 4. ‘Impetus’ 5. ‘Connection’ [new song] 6. ‘Ruminate’ 7. ‘Calendar Days’ 8. ‘Walls (Circus)’ (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) 9. ‘I’m On Fire’ (Bruce Springsteen) [with Tyler Hamilton trading off vocals] 10. ‘Infinite’ [with electric kalimba] First off, thank you so much to Sheldon for putting together this wonderful showcase full of very talented singer-songwriters. It was an honor to be able to share the stage with them and be on the same bill. Secondly, thanks to everyone who came out to the show or came early and stayed until the end for my set. This music community has been one of the best parts of my time in Seattle and I will forever cherish it. Thirdly, Conor Byrne Pub for giving us the space to play and Mark behind the bar holding it down by himself all night on a busy one. Fourthly, many thanks to Tyler Hamilton for joining me unrehearsed on that Bruce Springsteen cover of ‘I’m On Fire’. I love spontaneous collaborations like that and it was one of my most favorite moments in my time here in Seattle. And lastly, but certainly not least, many many thanks to Casey (@callmecaseyy_ on IG, smileordont.com) for photographing the night on 35mm film, some on digital, as well as some of my set recorded on VHS (yes, that VHS). Check out his site, he does great work and is really fun and easy to shoot with. A fitting and fun send off as my last big show from Seattle before I move down to LA later this month. All photos by Casey (@callmecaseyy_ ), except last shots of me playing the electric kalimba and of the setlist

The Sunset Tavern Seattle, WA 05.12.25 [electric guitar setup with looping, acoustic guitar, and ukulele] 1. ‘My My, Hey Hey (Outta the Blue)’ (Neil Young) 2. ‘The Last Thing That You Said’ 3. ‘Wasted Stories’ 4. ‘Ruminate’ 5. ‘Wet Socks’ 6. ‘Impetus’ 7. ‘Entropy’ 8. ‘A Lot of People On My Mind’ (The Moondoggies) [for Kevin Diers, R.I.P.] 9. ‘But Life Doesn’t Always Go That Way’ [on ukulele] Thank you to everyone who made it out to my show on a Monday night. I love playing at The Sunset Tavern, and Ron on sound had it dialed in just right. Many thanks to Matthew Lindley for adding me to the bill, alongside with Opaline (pronounced Opa-lean, as I later learned). All photos by Brittne Lunniss, except the last shot of me playing ukulele

Here’s the poster I designed for one of my earliest live performances in my life. It was back in high school at our yearbook distribution event (2000). My name isn’t on the poster because I was helping to host the show and decided I wanted to play this Violent Femmes song and Pearl Jam’s Nothing As It Seems, and I think one other song… 🤔

It’s a learning The Moody Blues on a Friday night kinda mood… Using my @ehx Mel9 Tape Replay Machine Mellotron simulator pedal to create that haunting vibe.

‘Nothing As It Seems’ (Pearl Jam) [audio only] Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood - Los Angeles, CA - 05.12.26 Note: I forgot to hit record on my phone to capture my performance so all I have for this song is the audio from the voice memo I recorded on my Apple Watch. It was a bit dry and needed some love since it was behind the sound mix, so I added a tad bit of reverb to liven it up. ‘Nothing As It Seems’ came out in April of 2000 off of Pearl Jam’s Binaural record. It was my favorite song on that album and the first single they released from it. I remember waiting by the radio to time the cassette recording and wearing out my tape with each replay. Thankfully cds were out by then and I got the single, which had ‘Insignificance’ as the B-side (at least mine did), when it hit store shelves. I think I got it from Best Buy way back when. I mimicked my at-the-time slowly growing pedal board after the sounds that guitarist Mike McCready was making on this track and still do in my current format. He was getting these haunting and tortured sounds flush with delay and reverb that were so good. I decided to try it out last night at Hard Rock Cafe. It’s technically the second time I’ve played it, even tho I said it was my first. The real first time was back on May 25th of 2020 at West-Fest, a music festival that I helped organize at my high school at Morton West. I still have the poster for it that I designed. Anyway, for you fellow Pearl Jam diehards, like myself, I hope I didn’t butcher it :)

Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood Los Angeles, CA 05.12.26 [Electric guitar setup with effects pedals and looper] 1. ‘Nothing As It Seems’ (Pearl Jam) [new cover debut] 2. ‘Entropy’ 3. ‘Oh, To Be Such A Fool For You’ 4. ‘Saudade’ Tried out a new cover of one of my favorite Pearl Jam songs. Naturally, I played it better than I expected it to go, but fucked up the video portion of my setup and forgot to hit record to capture it, ugh... Oh well, life happens. Thanks again to Brett for hosting the night and to Q for running sound.

Friendly’s Berwyn, IL 05.06.26 [Acoustic set] 1. ‘Hypernormalization’ *^ 2. ‘Dakota’ (Stereophonics) *^ *Jimmie Sit on violin ^Doug on lead electric guitar Last Wednesday I stopped by @friendlymusiccommunity in my hometown of Berwyn, IL and ended up playing some songs unexpectedly. Thank you to Phil for hosting the night and lending me your guitar, and to my impromptu bandmates Doug on lead guitar and Jimmie on violin, who joined me unrehearsed on stage to play my favorite @stereophonicsofficial song. Thanks @groovekris for the footage.

@cubs sweep the Reds! Bleacher bummin’ it today! Fun win for their 15th straight at home!

Vibrato

‘The Vampyre of Time & Memory’ (Queens of the Stone Age) Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood - Los Angeles, CA - 04.28.26 The QOTSA album ‘…Like Clockwork’ has a lot of cool songs on there, but most are in weird tunings. Thankfully this one is in standard tuning, so I learned how to play it yesterday. I flubbed a few lyrics, one very major one 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’d like to try this one out again on the electric guitar with a band and add the lead guitar parts and some extra texture.

Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood Los Angeles, CA 04.28.26 [Acoustic set] 1. ‘Impetus’ 2. ‘Razor Love’ (Neil Young) [with harmonica] 3. ‘The Vampyre of Time and Memory’ (Queens of the Stone Age) [new cover debut] 4. ‘Poisoning The Well’ Tried out some new covers. Thanks again to Brett for hosting the night and to Q for running sound.