Slim's is a biker themed bar in south Seattle, 3-4 miles from the stadiums. The bar/seating area does have a stage, but the cool thing is in the summer, they host shows outside in their "backyard," where the outdoor stage is an old flatbed truck.
Usually they backline equipment and this time, I was glad they did as my Trace Elliot amp took a dump last show. For this gig, I had an Orange Bass Terror and an Ampeg 410 at my disposal and needless to say, they functioned loudly and I left quite satisfied.
The first band up was the Kathy Moore Super Power Trio (please excuse the sound guy and obscured bassist). Aside from an excellent band name, the three women that make up the SPT are stellar musicians as well. Kathy is quite the shredder and threw down on many of the songs in their set (including one in 7/4!). The matching outfits were the cherry on top!
We followed with a powerful set of our own. As I was sharing equipment, I left the amp where it was (high hat side) when usually I'm on the ride side. It doesn't affect me much, but my guitarist is not a fan of being on the opposite side of the stage.
As we started our set, it wasn't dark out yet, so I could see fine. Trouble was, just in front of me on the floor was a LED light that was blasting on and off and was in DIRECT LINE OF SIGHT to my fretboard. It really became an exercise in muscle memory and hand/arm placement by feel for many songs. Add in the fact that I wear my long hair down at shows (not in practice; i should change that!) and I had a definite recipe for not being able to see much of my fretboard.
On a couple of our songs, we hit certain points and I get a little hoppy. The suspension on the aforementioned flatbed truck definitely took the hits of me jumping up and down and transmitted directly to my drummer, who said he had to bolster the snare by squeezing it between his knees! Oops!
We finished our set and reassembled in the crowd to many handshakes and backslaps and selfies. 99% of us were mask-free and going with the flow. I must admit it is a little weird, but I'm getting over it, being so close to everyone and yelling in their ears to be heard.
STAG followed us and, as always, they blew the joint up. They have very finely crafted pop/rock songs and, for Stag Fest, bust out a couple of horn players to supplement. So cool and so well done. So well, in fact, they blew the power for a second and had to source different power about 3 songs in. After that was done, the show continued with more lights, fog and high leg kicks.
Rounding out the night was Mark Pickerel and the Peyote 3. Very excellent alt-country story rock with a very vintage, thumpy bass offered up by Drew Church. They were a nice little post-rock dessert with their pompadour and professional delivery.
Great to be back amongst the hopefully vaccinated masses. Luckily where we live and perform, that is most people and so far, no one is making a big deal of it at the venues yet.
I did get a wildly effusive compliment (possibly enabled by several adult beverages consumed by the complimenter) saying that my playing reminded him of Ronnie Lane, Jack Bruce and Paul McCartney. I can't say I'm influenced directly by any of those men (didn't know who Ronnie Lane was; never got into Cream; only know the big Beatles hits as a casual fan), but was quite humbled by the compliment.
For 18 months away from the stage, I missed it a lot. Having 2 shows in back to back weekends is a great way to get back in the game. We're doing it again in Sept, with back to backs once more. Maybe next time I'll remember to take more pictures (and of food) instead of borrowing off of friend's facebook feeds.
