Gig number 2 with the yacht rock crew and things are coming along nicely. This gig was on the books for at least a month, maybe two, and at the last gig, our guitarist let us know he couldn't do it. Bummer, since he knew about the gig and knew he couldn't make it, just didn't let us know in time.
Enter another guitarist. Luckily our keyboard player is well-connected and introduced us to a guy who came out one Sunday and pretty much had 10 songs dialed. The following Sunday, he came out and had 10 more dialed. So in two weeks, guitarist had us feeling good enough to play the show.
The thing was, with 20 songs and a 3-hour window to fill, that meant we were playing the same set twice. It was a little worrisome, but we would come to find out, no one cared.
We weren't sure what to expect for the crowd. This place, if I recall correctly, hasn't had live music before and the photo we were showed of where we were supposed to play did not inspire confidence. We also had potential weather to worry about as it was outdoors and uncovered. It has been hot and beautiful in the Seattle area lately, but yesterday was the one day that rain was in the forecast. Though it did rain overnight, by the time we took the "stage," all we had to worry about was clouds and some humidity.
With regard to the aforementioned stage, we were able to convince the manager to allow us to setup rotated 90° from how they wanted us, so we would face the crowd, instead of playing in the corner. They were great and helped us get the space situated properly.
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They had wanted us under that area to the right, we moved to where you see now
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I've been having second thoughts about my bass rig for a few weeks now. So much so that when I was in GJ last week, I randomly hooked up with a guy (that sounds wrong) that I met on the internet (even worse) because he owned a bass cabinet I wanted to try. Found him on TalkBass and reached out and he was kind enough to let me come over.
But, I digress. I bring that up because I decided to go with my Avatar 210 cabinet and Trace only, no 15" cabinet underneath. I would have PA support, so the 210 was more just to have something behind me. Here's what I brought:
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| G&L L-1000 CLF reissue > SABDI > TE AH200 GP12 > Avatar 210 |
I have been using my wired in-ears for monitors and I think I need to use a wedge instead. I do like the sounds I get but I have such a hard time dialing in all the vocals and stuff. I had my vocals and the singer's vocals up but could barely hear my drummer and keyboards, who also sing. Some songs I am strong on, others, not so strong and I hate having that lack of confidence on stage. I will try to use a wedge at practice next week to see how it goes.
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| Setlist |
Anyhow, we started the set and problem #1 for me is last week, we switched a harmony that I've been singing just fine to something else. I can do it to the recording, or by myself on bass, but man, I had a hard time doing it live. Part of it is because it's an octave below the note the drummer is singing and the other part was I couldn't hear him in my mix, so double whammy.
Problem #2 was in song #2, Baby Come Back, where I sing the high harms on the chorus. I can barely hit them as it is and without much of a warm up, it was rough to my ears. Also, I forgot to grab a pick, so I had to play fingers on this, but that wasn't much of an issue.
Overall, a good time was had. I stopped by Goodwill in the morning looking for some yachting appropriate pants and I think I found some. I wore an old shirt with sailboats on it that my late father-in-law (RIP Ted) gave me, as well as his shoes. Overall, it looked pretty good, until I saw how our new guitarist showed up. He had tassels on his shoes!
Crowd-wise, we didn't know what to expect. We thought it would be mainly people sitting and talking with us being background music. For some, that's what it was; there were people on the other side of the fence in the above picture, drinking, hanging out, talking. However, in front of us, we had a nice crowd, maybe 75-100 people drinking and dancing and really enjoying themselves. We were pleasantly surprised about all that.
We finished the first set, took a quick break, and started the same set all over again. I felt looser this time around and surprisingly felt more comfortable. I didn't realize I wasn't comfortable until the second set. Huh. But still had some troubles with the mix and hearing my notes. Sometimes I get mixed up because the drummer and I will gravitate towards the same note. I take notes and am pretty sure I'm singing what we've decided on, but during the song, it's hard for me to switch on the fly.
A great day for playing outdoors! The crowd loved us and we got some great feedback. My drummer from my originals band and his family came to watch, as did my wife and daughter. We all met up at my drummer's incredible house after for dinner and some nice hang time. A great way to spend a Saturday!
