We just got home from one incredible day. I love it when we do things that are completely unexpected. Today, we had to run back out to Bangor, Maine for some errands and when we were finished with them, we decided to make a few more stops. Since I had no idea what to expect from these stops, I was slightly trepidatious. I shouldn’t have been though because I have to tell you that Bangor is a really fun town. Much more fun that I had anticipated.
Visiting Bull Moose & Northern Kingdom Music in Bangor, Maine
One of the things I think about on a daily basis is music. I’ve been a crazy fan of 80s new wave music for just over a year now and I’m getting into finding locations that sell this type, as well as all other types, of music in person. You know, physical locations. I’ll admit that music stores are disappearing fast, but even though, there are still many out there. You just need to know where to find them. One such store up here in Maine isn’t all too difficult to locate. They’re rather large and very easily seen from the road. There are also about ten locations of this “chain,” if that’s what you want to call it. The stores are called Bull Moose.
The thing with larger organizations like this that make me nervous is that I think they’re somewhat homogenized. I prefer unique one person owned shops, but really, I’ll take what I can get. Surprisingly, this store may have seemed like a chain from the outside, but on the inside was the uniqueness I was looking for.
Okay, so we were a little shocked when we first walked into this store. First, it was huge. I wasn’t ready for that. Second, it was serious. I wasn’t ready for that either. I thought I was going to enter a store that was trying to do their best but that didn’t really have that much to offer. I don’t know why I thought that, I just did. Take a look at the expansiveness of this place.
There are thousands and thousands of new and used CDs, DVDs, Bluray disks and books for sale. As Laura put it, “It’s like a playground in here!” It really was. We both walked in and just went in our own directions. I’m pretty sure we forgot who we were with. That’s fine. It happens.
I’ll have to bring my “music to buy” list next time, as I totally forgot this time. It’s not good going into places like this without a list. It can be very overwhelming. There are just so many CDs to look through.
You can see the “A” group of CDs in the above photo. I tried to look through everything, but since I already have so much, I got confused. I decided to find what I knew I needed and that’s some Joe Bonamassa. Apparently, he’s so popular, he had his own section on a shelf.
I ended up purchasing two of his performances; one was from the Beacon Theater in NYC and the other was from Carnegie Hall, again in NYC. Both of what I bought were double CD sets, so that was very cool. I could have picked these things up on Amazon, but I felt pretty good about splurging in person.
Bull Moose also has a decent vinyl section. It’s not crazy big or anything, but neither is the audience for vinyl.
For those of you who haven’t seen a record cover in ages, here are two fun looking ones I picked out to take photos of.
I swear, I’ve been sitting on the fence when it comes to making a decision about whether or not to buy a turntable. I have a severe craving to start a record collection. So far, I’ve been able to resist, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to.
Here’s a picture of some random 80s music collection. I didn’t find anything that great in here, but it was nice to see some respect for the era.
Finally, can you believe it? Music magazines still exist in print. This is so great.
We’ll definitely be going back to this place the next time we’re in Bangor. It’ll give me something to look forward to.
Moving on. Now really, I was planning on leaving Bangor to head home after visiting Bull Moose. Since I was in a good mood though, I asked Laura if she’d like to head downtown to see what it looked like. I had studied Google Earth fairly thoroughly the night before, so I was somewhat confident about where we would be going. She responded, “Sure, do you want to go to the guitar store too?” I was like, “Yeah, let’s go there. You don’t need to twist my arm about that one.” I really do love this guitar store. It’s called Northern Kingdom Music and it’s awesome. This is the same place I bought my guitar from.
Let’s take a look inside this wonderful establishment. I wasn’t taking the photography because I was too busy trying out the guitar, but as you can see, Laura was having a grand ol’ time.
Here are a few smaller guitars.
And here is the acoustic guitar selection.
Here are some of the electrics for sale. These are the Epiphones. I’ll be moving toward electric as well some day and I’ll have to pick one up. I think I’ve already decided on a Fender Stratocaster.
Now to the good part. I even have a photo of me playing one of the guitars. I truly loved this guitar, but unfortunately, I already purchased one. I did wonder if I should grab another, just in case something happened to mine. I talked myself out of that. Anyway, here’s me playing.
Here are a few more artistic ones. I think these are my favorites.
In the photo above, can you tell which chord I’m playing? I bet you can’t. Well, maybe you can. It was either a “C” or a “C7.” I don’t remember. Visiting this store was my favorite part of the day. Other parts were fun too, so let’s move onto them.
Downtown Bangor is right around the corner from the guitar place, so it was easy to get to. I didn’t have my camera this time, but I’ll surely be bringing it next time. I’ll show you all the photos of the area then. I don’t want to steal too many of Laura’s photos.
Basically, I almost went through a bunch of red lights and I managed to go the wrong way down a one-way road. I’d say I’m a bit out of practice. I’ll also say that Bangor is like a maze for the uninitiated. Luckily, it’s not very big, so it’s easy to learn.
We managed to find a parking spot and then we walked around some. We went into a place called Mexicali Blues, which was super interesting.
Inside, there was tons of all different types of things. Primarily for the ladies, but I didn’t mind looking around.
After looking around a bit, we headed across the street for some lunch. During my Google Earth research, I glimpsed a real Irish Pub right in the center of downtown that I wanted to visit. It was called Paddy Murphy’s. So awesome. I loved this place.
Again, I don’t want to steal too many photos here, so I’ll just show you a couple more. Here’s one of the bar.
And finally, here’s one of the front of the bar.
Overall, we had an incredibly fun day. I’m very much looking forward to going back to Bangor. It’s the closest city to us at an hour and a half away and I’m beginning to think that we’re very lucky for having it so close. I almost forgot what people were like. Thanks for reading!
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