Darrell's Tavern was the venue up in Shoreline, a suburb north of Seattle and a stone's throw away from Robert Lang Studios, where a lot of bands you all know have recorded. Darrell's is known for its dive bar vibe and, now that I've finally played there, I can confirm that rep.
If you think the outside is dated, wait until you see the inside. Like a timewarp into the 70s, only minus the smoke (indoor smoking in Seattle has long been a no-no). Walk inside and you are greeted by a pool table, a bar, some tables and a tiny stage in the corner. No TVs, one arcade game and pretty much just a place to hang out and drink drinks.
The night before, I asked my drummer to contact the other band's bassist to see about borrowing his rig. I was lazy and didn't want to load my 3 piece out in the rain from my BL's basement. Luckily, the other bassist obliged and I was fortunate enough to play through this:
with this:
No soundcheck that night, which I found odd, but whatever. We also deviated on our setlist, calling audibles for the first 3 songs. We ended up debuting two "new" old songs. These were tunes that the BL recorded on his own, but we repurposed to spice up our set.
One of the tunes, To The Field, was written a few years ago as a tribute to the BL's dog, who had passed. We did it that night, having learned it the night before, as his other dog was also not well and was scheduled to cross the rainbow bridge the following day.
As a result, in the moment, I found some parts of our show to be a little rough, possibly due to scattered minds and hearts. On a technical level, I couldn't hear my vocal monitor very well and didn't think of saying anything until 75% through our set, so I ended up saying nothing. I'm also trying to pick tunes to play with a, er, pick and am starting to realize I need to practice more. Or practice with more verve. At rehearsals, I can manage fine, but on stage, everything is juiced up and while trying to pick and perform, I find I'm missing strings and generally being less precise.
Overall, our energy was good and the crowd (all masked when not drinking) was appreciative. If you are so inclined, here's a bunch of our set recorded by a fan. If her phone's audio is indicative of how it sounded, we might have been SUPER LOUD.
Next band up was an old Seattle favorite, the Radio Nationals. I don't know much about them other than they sounded really cool and were super tight. Richard, the bassist, I knew from way back, when he was in a band called the Young Sportsmen. He's out and about these days in many other projects, including a Fleetwood Mac tribute that played last night at the Tractor.
The final band was called the Shivering Denizens and I think they were a rockabilly outfit. Regrettably I didn't get a picture of them, which was a bummer, because the bassist rocked an upright. I saw him lug it in, it was huge!
Overall, a fun night. Dry out, so we could talk outside sans masks and still hear the bands well. Unfortunately, that also led to all 4 of us leaving separately assuming the others had gotten paid... which none of us did. Time to reach out to Darrell's to see about getting made whole.
