We got to have two rehearsals together and met at a place called Drunky's Two Shoes in the White Center region of south Seattle. It's a BBQ place that has a covered outdoor stage and a real good biker/dive bar feel to it. Men's room is completely outfitted with sad/creepy clown paintings, but I have a thing about whipping out the camera in bathrooms, so use your imaginations.
Traffic was a breeze getting there, took about 30 min. Contrast that with Kathy, whose commute took around 1.5hrs and I felt quite good about things. I grabbed a quick plate of pulled pork and cornbread (sadly, not as good as I hoped), and settled in for the night.
I was a little surprised to see a bass rig already in the place as I had discussed letting everyone use mine. It wasn't until just before the show started that I saw a text indicating that the bassist for the first band was out with the 19 and the bassist from the last band was sharing his rig and pulling double duty. No big deal, however. I didn't get a picture of the rig, but here's a video capture. Little Genzler ministack.
The first band was the Tyler Hamilton Band, singer/guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and they were quite good. Though the bassist, Dylan, was not part of this band, he had charts and was a great fill-in. He held it down quite well despite the unexpected circumstances. The keyboard player was fantastic and he also pulled double duty, but I think he is actually a member of both bands. Their set ran a little long, which cut into our set, but it wasn't too big a deal.
I plugged my L-1000 and we got to work. We started with a song called Swallowing, in drop-D. Stage was wide and roomy, but it took me a bit to get into it. I felt exposed and not 100% comfortable. I was playing the music but not feeling it just yet.
What's cool about playing with Kathy is that her songs are basic and really open to the musician's own interpretations. Though admittedly, I am not a great improviser or jammer, to be free to do my own thing has been quite liberating and challenging. It's great getting out of my comfort zone a little with this project.
For the rest of the set, Alyssa, who is Kathy's usual bassist, sat in on sax. Alyssa is a super talented multi-instrumentalist (sax, keys, drums, bass, HARP (?), banjo and more) and I'm just keeping her seat warm when she's out on one of her many other projects. Having her sit in on sax was very cool, but I couldn't hear her all that well as the sound guy didn't have her piped in the monitors.
Speaking of sound, FOH sound was great. Everything sound pretty good out there. On stage, I could hear the bass, but as the 2 cabs (15's or 18's?) were so low, I couldn't hear as much as I wanted to. I kept turning down because it seemed my bass was really boomy, but on the video playbacks, seemed quieter than I would have liked.
As we progressed, on one song, Kathy brought up a couple singer friends, Annie and Shaina. I saw Annie in soundcheck for the last band, and she was fabulous there. Shaina is a local star on the verge of breaking big (or she has already, I don't know). Anyway, they got up there and we were all improvising on a poetry thing Kathy did with loops on her guitar. I busted out my new-to-me Ibanez SB7 bass synth pedal and noodled around in Am. My pal Ted caught it on video, check it out here:
I felt better as the night went on and I got warmed up. We played through Moonage Daydream and the rest of our set and I got off that stage. Overall, having only played with Raoul, the drummer, two times prior, I felt really good about what we did. We will likely play more in the future and that will just strengthen our chops together.
The final band, Nick Taylor Band, got on stage and layed down some sweet sweet harmonies and tunes. Nick, and his wife, Annie, sang beautifully together and I was smitten with their sounds. The rest of the band was good too and overall, very enjoyable.
The gigging continues tonight, with my band, Planets in the Ocean, playing our first show ever, at the Sunset in Ballard. I'll be traveling tomorrow morning to Boston but hope to have a gig report sometime soon.
In the meantime, here are some pix.
The final band, Nick Taylor Band, got on stage and layed down some sweet sweet harmonies and tunes. Nick, and his wife, Annie, sang beautifully together and I was smitten with their sounds. The rest of the band was good too and overall, very enjoyable.
The gigging continues tonight, with my band, Planets in the Ocean, playing our first show ever, at the Sunset in Ballard. I'll be traveling tomorrow morning to Boston but hope to have a gig report sometime soon.
In the meantime, here are some pix.
