Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast - BONUS EP: Wednesday Night News w/ Nick

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s time to sift through the glittery dumpster fire that is pop culture—where the rich get richer, the famous get canceled, and the rest of us revel in the Doom Scroll of it all. So Buckle up! Cuz our man Nick is going solo on the mic tonight to give you the latest drama, some hot nonsense, and juuuuuust enough credibility to make your mom trust us.  And if you're in Denver why not check out Nick's Trivia Night at Yacht Club (this place ain't really about boats, but there is drinking and plenty of mysterious international laws that apply) Call, leave a message, and tell us what YOU think makes someone a truly GOOD friend: [phone]  We are PSYCHED to partner up with our buddies at Volume.com! Check out their roster of upcoming live events and on-demand shows to enrich that sweet life of yours. Check out our new album!, L'Optimist on all platforms Follow us on Instagram @worldsavingpodcast For more information on Andy Frasco, the band and/or the blog, go to: AndyFrasco.com Produced by Andy Frasco, Nick Gerlach, Joe Angelhow, & Chris Lorentz Audio mix by Chris Lorentz Featuring: Mara Davis

Hi everybody, it's Nick. How are you? You may notice I'm alone in front of my Michael Myers picture. In case you didn't know, actually, Andy got me that Mike Myers picture for my birthday. I think he ripped it down from a restaurant wall and said, I'm taking this. This is the only thing Nick will like. If I get it for him, I was like, you could have just given me the money, but no, I'm just kidding. It's really cool. I love taking this. This is the only thing Nick will like. If I get it for him, I was like, you could have just given me the money, but no, I'm just kidding. It's really cool. I love Mike Myers.

He represents everything I like in a person, a driven man with one goal. Anyway, speaking of serial killers, how's your hearts? How's your minds? How's your souls? How's your bodies? I gotta say, well, I haven't,

just so you know, it's just gonna be me here for a little bit and then into the next part. But I haven't seen Andy in about three weeks. I've honestly barely talked to him. He's been very busy. The band's on a whirlwind tour of the sea markets of America. Also, they're crushing New York City and, and Chicago and stuff, but they've been selling out shows all over, which is, I don't know if you've been paying attention to the music industry at all, but selling out a fucking 300 cap room is hard these days. So the fact that they're doing well is frankly blowing my mind because they're not very good. No, I'm just kidding.

They're doing great. They're busting their ass. I haven't talked to them very much, but I have, they forgot to take me out of the band group chat. So I do know exactly where they're going to get beers after the show or where they're going to grab lunch. They stay on top of that. Looks like Floyd's back for this leg of the tour, which is unfortunate because he's awful to be around. Richie's much cooler and nicer and just more of a relaxing guy. But the only problem with Richie is, and I noticed this, I'll get into Jam Cruise here in a minute, cause he was on Jam Cruise with us. I went on Jam Cruise with the band to

do the podcast. And the only thing I don't like about Richie is he looks almost exactly like Frasco. He's like a slightly, he like if like frasco who's gonna live like eight years longer. He's a little healthier looking but they have that exact same hair that neil evans fucking frasco jimmy law That hair and by the way, I was talking with neil evans about this. Why does everybody I don't have hair. So I was wondering about this like Why does everybody with that kind of curly hair, they always keep it like the same length? Is that because it looks bad? No matter what? Or is it just only one hairstyle that works? Or is it just someone

set that standard? I don't know, maybe, I don't know someone calling that has curly hair and let me know. But anyway, back to Jam Cruise, Richie, you're great. Just can you look a little maybe shave your head or something so you look less like a Frasco? Cause it was confusing me. It was confusing a lot of people and we can't have that. Although it's probably annoying for you. God damn. Frasco's getting so fake. Walk around the boat with him. He's getting stopped every five feet by some boomer in a shiny robe telling him how he changed their life. and a shiny robe telling them how he changed their life.

Jam Cruise was dope. Jam Cruise was hard, you know, felt pretty much like what my dad said bootcamp was like, except harder, you know, way harder than bootcamp, way harder than the military. People don't realize how hard us musicians work. We are basically war veterans, except for better? I don't know. Jam Cruise is five days and it feels like you, by the time you get off, it feels like

you've been on there for, I don't know, six months. By the last day you are craving a real meal. I had a lot of fun. I'll be honest. I played some sets. We did a live pod. I joked around. I saw some old pals from the road I hadn't seen in a while.

And I also met a lot of cool fans of the podcast. Shout out Jordan, shout out Matthew and his wife. One interesting thing I realized, and this is going to sound like, let me come around on this because at first it's going to sound like I'm making fun of you, but I'm not, is that when you get to talking to these podcast fans or listeners, I don't like calling you fans, I don't like the idea of someone being a fan of what I'm talking about because that's weird. I don't know. I should probably be in an institution. They know a lot about your personal life and at first that used to kind of shake me when I was just a musician because if someone knows a

lot about your personal life when you're a musician, they kind of have to like go through your like Instagram stories and like really do some research. But I forget that on the podcast, we openly talk about our personal life as if it's just us two. And that's why everyone knows who my girlfriend is and what my dog looks like, which is fine. You guys are all really positive about it.

So if you do want to bring up my personal life when we're hanging out, I don't have a problem with that. I actually think it's kind of cool because that means you're actually paying attention. So because one person did, they were like, oh, how's your, you know, I don't want to get into what we were talking about, but they were like, hey, how's this person? How's that? And I was like, and then they kind of felt bad. I was like, no, you don't need to feel bad because I talk about that 20 minutes a week to you every week.

So it just means you're paying attention, which that's very nice of you actually. So back to the jam crews. It was basically, you know, it's just a music festival at sea for very rich people, a lot of boomers, a lot of older people, because they're the only people can afford houses right now. So which means they're the only people who can also afford tickets to Jam Cruise. I have no clue how much it costs, but it seems expensive. I didn't pay to go.

You know, the sets were incredible. One thing I thought was really smart that Annabelle or whoever, I think she put the schedule together. One thing I thought that was really smart that she did was, so Snarky puppy was there great band and she put Frasco right after snarky puppy, which I think is really smart, smart, which I think is really smart. Um, if you're not familiar with snarky puppy, they're like a Grammy winning winning jazz sort of almost like an orchestra. They're so big

and they're very precise. they're like a precision thing. It's very arranged and, you know, like perfect almost in some ways, which, you know, has its benefits and its drawbacks. So I think like putting another jam band or funk band or even jazz right after them will kind of be a bad play. So putting Frasco right after them is a great move because Frasco is like, and

they're both great bands. It's just, it's like philosophically two different, like the opposite even where it's like snarky puppy. It's like having a delicious steak dinner, a snarky puppy. And then right after that, you're having a nice, a nice strawberry, a tart or something, a delicious strawberry tart, which is Andy Frasco's van. Andy's being toured it up, toured up both times. They had crazy sit-ins. Obviously I sat in, that was fine. The horn section from cool, cool, cool. They had an entire marching band March 4th, Kenneka, my girl Allie on the Allie crawl on the, on the violence and the violence. She's a great hang by the way. It was good to see her. She

didn't have her kid with her, my friend Thomas, but we had a good time. We kept trying to say when we're going to meet up, but she kept falling asleep because moms have to go to bed early. I think anyway, it was great. Some other, some other of my favorite bands on there, I think, well, obviously Nth power, they're kind of my favorite band period. They're somehow they're getting better, which I didn't realize that could happen. You know, it's Nate, Nikki and Nick Casarino. And like, when I watched that band, I'm like, Oh man, do I, do I believe in God? Is this, am I wrong about all this? But then I go to the buffet and I'm like, nah, no God, there's no God.

By the fifth day, that buffet starts to get to you. Nah, no God. There's no God. By the fifth day that buffet starts to get to you. One thing I do like about jam crews compared to like a regular, like a summer camp style thing is when you get overwhelmed with people or when you're just done with music, you can just like take the elevator down to your cabin and crash for two hours instead of having to take some Uber to a hotel 45 minutes away with some 70 year old boomer white guy telling you how he used to be a good guitar player, but he had to quit because he got drafted into Vietnam or something. I don't know. They always have some terrible story. That's why I'm like always super excited when I get an Uber in Denver and it's someone

that at least looks like they might not speak English. I'm like, yes, they're not going to bother me. They're also better drivers. I don't know that I guess they want to stay in the country and not getting a car wreck. There was, I think, I think I was the 15th best sax player on Jam Chris this year. Holy shit. There were so many good sax players in that boat. It was like Scarik fucking Bob Reynolds and Chris and Snarky Puppy, Carl Denson. You know, Sam was there from Fresco. You got to check out if you haven't seen Fresco, they have a fill in sax player

for the year. I don't know how long he's going to be doing it. Looks like he's going to be in here for a while. Sam's Sam's a crusher. He fits the show really well. He's also sneakily might be the best looking guy in the band, which is I'm surprised Andy. I don't know what the strategy is by Andy there I know he's good for the show, but I'm wondering if he added another handsome guy because Because he wanted you know Maybe he doesn't maybe he doesn't care about being the best-looking guy in the band and he just wants to get the overall Average up but also I'm wondering if maybe he regrets that a little bit because he's supposed to be the hot guy in the band

maybe he can maybe he can comment on that later, but Well, by the way, obviously he's not here with me right now. He's on the tour I will be meeting him in Indianapolis on Thursday For his show at the high-fi my old stomping grounds a circle city Here's a trivia question for you. Do you know why they call it the circle city? It's cuz there's a big circle in the middle of it. Okay? We're Indiana. We're not creative people. Okay? We're not going to come up with the Windy City or something cool like that. Nope. Circle with a beautiful

veterans monument in the middle. So I'm not sure if Hi-Fi sold out. It might be by the time this comes out, the way that tour is crushing. Holy shit. They're selling out like D Markets. They sold out like Vermont, which I don't know if you've, you know, if you've been following the music industry, selling anything out these days, let alone multiple markets around the country is very hard to do. So shout out to Andy Fresc on the UN. I'm so happy for you. It's so nice to see someone else being successful. So yeah, so we'll be doing a full Nick and Andy episode on Thursday for next week

so you guys can get your fucking rocks off, man. I wanna talk a little bit about some things I've been thinking about in the news. Number one, Gene Hackman died. Gene Hackman is one of those guys that you kind of, I mean I'm not like some movie buff, I like movies, but Gene Hackman's like one of those, first of all, one thing I respect about him is he retired. I think he retired around 63 or 64. Unfortunately his last movie is Welcome to Mooseport. I think he plays the mayor, which is, you know, not a great movie to go out on when you

have a resume like Gene Hackman. But I kind of got on a Gene Hackman. Julie was out of town last week, so I had a lot of time to myself with Denzel to watch movies, you know? And this is like the point of the night of the show where Andy, I'm just going to do this for him, he would make a joke about, where are you cranking a hog the whole week? And, you know, hog was cranked, of course, but it was mostly Gene Hackman movies. And I watched a couple good ones. I watched Runaway Jury on Netflix. I forgot about that one. It's like John Cusack and it's in New Orleans. And it's like actually weirdly kind of like ahead of its time because it's about a mass

shooting and it came out in 1993 and mass shootings weren't even popular yet. And it's time because it's about a mass shooting and it came out in 1993 and mass shootings weren't even popular yet. And it's, you know, basically about someone trying to rig a jury. Gene Hackman is sort of the bad guy in it, which is, you know, rare. He's only the other time he was the bad guy. I think it was in like Superman. And I watched Royal Tenenbaum. Anyway, so Gene Hackman, very sad death, I guess. He got to live to be 95.

But you gotta respect an actor that retires because most actors are narcissists and they don't want to retire. They want to be an actor forever. So if you want to watch some good movies this week, get into Gene Hackman. Here's a couple of recommendations. Hoosiers, arguably the greatest sports movie of all time. Not my favorite, not mine, but I'm from Indiana and I know what they got wrong in it. That's why it's Indiana.

People are weird about Hoosiers. They either love it or they're like, that's not how it happened because they actually that team was really good the year before they made the final four of the state. I don't know. You don't give a shit, but anyway, that's a good one. Royal Tenenbaums enemy of the States really good. I don't know. Just anything with Gene Hackman and just give it a give it a chance is he He might be the greatest actor of his like generation. I mean, he's up there. He's got to be it him

I you could say Jack Nicholson's part of his generation He's a little younger, but I don't know Gene Hackman is very good at just being calm and still being effective I I don't know. Gene Hackman's very good at just being calm and still being effective. I don't want to talk about politics too much, except for one thing. The JD Vance Photoshop that are coming out right now. Holy shit. Those are funny. Keep those coming. They're making him look fat. Why is he so much more? I was thinking about this like, why is he so much more Photoshopable than Elon Musk and Donald Trump? And I figured it out. It's because Elon Musk and Donald Trump. And I figured it out. It's because Elon Musk and Donald Trump already look ridiculous. You know what I mean? Like Donald Trump is already

kind of a cart. Like he has the body and face of a cartoon character slash beauty pageant contestant slash farmer slash rich guy. So, so it's like photoshopping him might make him look more normal. And also same thing with Elon Musk. That guy's just ridiculous. You can't even, what are you going to do with him? But JD Vance kind of looks like that guy you went to high school with that like you see him four years later when you're home from the summer from college and he's, he's sadly working behind the counter at a gas station. You know what I mean? He kind of looks like that with a little bit better beard and maybe better skin. So those are pretty funny. I like the one where he's looking, trying to see you in the bathroom or when they make

him look fat and bald. I don't know. I want the drones back. That's the other thing. I want the drones back. I want the spy balloon back. What the fuck happened to the drones and the spy balloons? I feel like they disappeared right after the election.

I don't know about you guys, but I kind of miss them because it felt good to have someone watching over me and like I feel alone now. Now it's just the US. I want every government watching over me instead of just the US government. I miss them. Are they still there? Does anybody live in New Jersey? You guys ever look up?

Are you too busy fucking lighten your crack pipes. Just kidding But you guys are kind of trashy Do you guys ever look up if you if you live in New Jersey or out there? Look up once in a while and tell me if those drones are still out there. I need them back I want them over Colorado. I want to feel safe again. They weren't doing anything wrong Bring back the Chinese spy balloon too. That was at least funny. The news isn't funny right now. That's what I hate. At least when Biden was president, things were a little more, I don't know, normal. It was like normal tragedies and just normal being ripped off and normal being taken advantage of. Now everything's

just annoying. Everybody's like, I don't know, Donald Trump just has this way of getting into the news every day and just taking over people's psyche on both sides. So this isn't like, this is like his supporters and his detractors. For some reason, I do think Donald Trump's syndrome is kind of real. And I just, the way he can inhabit someone's mind is, it's pretty impressive actually. Like to be honest, I'm a little jealous of him. And I think a lot of, a lot of people that hate him are, I, I, you know, I don't agree with most of the stuff he's doing, but I am jealous of his ability to get millions of people to sort of adore him and co-sign every single thing he says and does. That's pretty impressive.

And as a middle-aged white guy, that's sort of the dream, right? I was thinking about if there's any music news right now, and usually I'm here making And as a middle-aged white guy, that's sort of the dream, right? I was thinking about if there's any music news right now and Usually I'm here making fun of jam band fans, but there's a new fan base out there Actually, I might be on the fan base aside this time tool I don't know if you guys have been following this tool thing So they played like one of the like is like Dominican holidays, but for like people who drink Monster Energy drink Down in there was like them and coheed in Cambria It's like one of those like destination festivals and it's tool and a bunch of other rock bands

I think Primus is on it our boys unfreeze were on it and I guess they like repeated some songs the second night, which You know, it's not the most surprising thing of all time. Their tool, they're not really known to like change up the shit. That's not what it is. They're not a jam band. You're not going for that. But apparently their fans started booing them, which I don't know if you know anything about Maynard James Keenan. He doesn't give a shit. He hasn't given a shit about his fans in like 30 years. I don't think he gives a shit about anything but himself. He is a great singer. I mean, I like to, I'm not here to

like disparage them but like Thinking that Maynard James Keenan is gonna care about someone else's opinion is you're already a step behind with that and now There's like lawyers looking into planning a class action lawsuit against the band Of fans that were there that are mad because I think they repeated four songs the whole time It's probably their four favorite songs, too. I don't know. I don't know how to feel about this. I sort of, I think I'm on the fan side because I don't know if it's the only played two sets. They have, I don't know how many albums, seven. They have enough music. So it just seems like they didn't take this festival seriously. It looks like kind of a cash grab, which,

which isn't like something you would think Tool would do. They don't always tour. You know, they've probably left a lot of money on the table over their career. And it just seems like they didn't get together and rehearse for the festival, which is kind of embarrassing and sort of bullshit because there are bands out there trying that aren't doing well. You're out here selling this. People flew, you know, across the country, paid thousands of dollars, you know, and you played 46 and two or whatever schism or whatever fucking tool song you played it both days. I don't know. Seems like a waste of waste of time and money to me. I'm not sure if the fans deserve a refund though.

They still got all the other bands, you know, it's like, so what, so like half an hour of a 48 hour concert wasn't good. So what are you going to get back? 30, like know, it's like, so what, so like half an hour of a 48 hour concert wasn't good. So what are you going to get back 30 like 20? It seems like one of those things where the lawyer is going to make 40 grand and all the people are going to get a check for 250. I don't know, but tool, maybe start giving a shit about your fans more. I don't know. I don't, I don't know. Mayor James Keenan. I do like it. Like I said, I like it singing and I like his like, like the vibe of their music, but he seems like one of the most insufferable tools

I've ever seen in my life, in real life. He definitely like, he's one of those people that like, thinks he's a genius. And there's like, there's people that know they're geniuses and they're pretty cool. They're usually cool. Like I'm sure Stevie Wonder knows he's a genius, but he doesn't like act like he's a genius.

Maynard James Keenan, I don't know if he's a genius. He's a really good rock musician. I don't know what all he contributes to the name musically, but like he definitely like thinks he's a genius. And one sign of that is when guys start making their own wine, that's definitely like a pretentious thing to do. It's definitely someone who thinks they're a genius. They're going to do that.

I've never had the wine. I'm sure it's fine. It's wine, it's alcohol, but I don't know. Maybe Maynard needs like a little wake up call, bring him back down to earth a little bit and realize he's not Donald Trump. He's not a God. He's not here to be worshiped. You're here to entertain people. So maybe just like rehearse before your two day concert, learn your own songs again. I mean you you wrote them you should know them these are your fans and They are your true friends. They're the only true friends you have and I want to wrap it up here. I

Have a prompt for you guys for the voicemail. You guys been sending in some voicemails on Andy's tour I'm not with him so I can't send them. Please stop asking me for guest lists to his shows. I'm not going to get you on the guest list unless you want a contest. Okay? He's out here trying to make money. Get one of those VIP tickets. You get to meet him in person that way. And bring a friend. And speaking of friends, here's your prompt for the voicemail. I was having this conversation. I was at Yacht Club the other day, my favorite bar in Denver where I host trivia every Monday, which has been cranking lately. Holy shit, especially since the time change. Me and my friend, I think it was Anna, we were just in it was Anna and

Jake, they were working on a Monday. And I stayed late. I hung out till close. It was very rare for me. But I, I hung out and I talked to the bartenders for a while and we're talking about what makes a true friend. And my thing I said is someone who will come pick you up at the airport no matter like what time it is. I think that's a good indicator, especially in Denver. Now it depends on where you live, I guess, but if you live in LA or Denver, Atlanta,

and someone's coming to pick you up at the airport, that's a true friend right there. That's someone that gives a shit about you because you could have got a $40 Uber, but no, they're driving through traffic. I don't know if you know the Denver airport, I think it's like a two hour drive from downtown. As someone goes and picks you up there, they are a true friend. And then we were sitting there. We're trying to think of other things that make someone a true friend. And we literally couldn't think of one other thing. So what is a sign to you that someone is like a real friend? Okay. So call in the voicemail, the numbers in the description right below. Sorry, the camera's backwards. I'm new to this. Call in and let me know what you think. I'm not going to offer a prize. I'm not, I don't know. The prize is I'll tell you you're smart on the podcast. Okay, Colin

Tell me what you think makes a true friend. Okay, I Think that's enough of me. Yeah, I can't wait to get with Andy next week in Indy by the way little self promo I'll be an Andy show on Thursday. If you're listening to this and you're gonna be around Indy I'm playing the mousetrap a couple days later on Saturday If you're listening to this and you're going to be around Indy, I'm playing the mousetrap a couple of days later on Saturday. Yeah, just come on out. It's my band, the Coltet. I got my old best friend Sleepy on drums.

You may know him as the drummer in Cosby sweater. We played, I don't know, 600 gigs together. We're best buds. And then I got a couple of local guys, Sean McGowan on keys. He teaches jazz over at U of I, great musician. And then AJ Jones on keys. He teaches jazz over at U of I great musician and then AJ Jones on bass. I haven't even met him yet, but I've, but he's a bad ass motherfucker. So hopefully I'll see you at both shows. Go to Andy show. And then if you have Monday leftover, come to my show, mousetrap Saturday. I have a great band from Philly opening named solar circuit.

They're sort of like a, kind of like a Lotus sort of, you know, they're on the jam band spectrum, but but also electronic and they they have the girl singer and keyboard player Becca. So that's always cool when a jam band has a woman in it. I mean, you barely ever see women in the crowd of jam band shows, let alone in the band. So that'll be nice. And they'll be opening up the show. They're coming up from Philly. Really good people. I met him at Big What last year. Okay. Goodbye. Let you in I spent my life letting you down I spent my time holding my ground I'll testify until I'm found

At least I know who I am Here's to let you down I'm going for another round He is to let you down He is to breaking your heart