Gig report! 8/5/2022, Kathy Moore Band at Tony V's Garage

First gig in August is in the books. Made the 35 minute drive to Everett, WA (north of Seattle) for a show at Tony V's Garage. It was to be a night of hard rock, with me in Kathy Moore's band, alongside the bands Aisha and Trip The Wire. All 3 bands featured women fronting them, which is pretty dang cool. Here they all are in a pre-show photo shoot.

I showed up around 7:30 and found Kathy and Gregg, the drummer, pretty much all set up. I then had the ultimate pleasure of meeting the security guy, Steve, who, resembling a Samuel L. Jackson from the Pulp Fiction days, proceeded to go over his rules with me.

1. No Glass On Stage. That we could have the plastic water bottles they provided, but no glass on stage. And then he pointed at the sign:
2. First note starts at 9pm. Not before, not after, but at 9pm.
3. When you are done, you break down side stage and then move your stuff to the side.

There were other rules, like no talking on stage before your set, and only leaving as a group, not individually, but it was good to have ground rules. It sort of made me wish all clubs had a Steve. He was stern without being arrogant, and he really had everyone's best interests in mind, not just his.

But I digress.

Though I have played with Gregg dozens of times in other projects, this was only our fourth time playing together with Kathy. We had an hour long practice on Thursday to prep for last night's show. We did a quick soundcheck with the glacially slow sound engineer, who, despite asking what we wanted to hear in our floor monitors, didn't do much to make that happen. I wanted vocals, bass and guitar in my wedges and don't think I got much of any.

Kathy is an incredible guitarist (she gets frequently commented on her FB page by one of her idols, Robert Fripp!) and me and Gregg basically lay back and support her by seeing/hearing what she's doing. In most songs, she will go off, which gives us license to do so as well. What it's made me realize is that I need some more chops. I tend to rely on the same patterns and moves to get by. I'm trying to use space (dropping out) and simplicity as well. It really is challenging and a lot of fun.

Additionally, since it was a hard rock show (lots of cut off sleeves and torn jeans last night), I had to bring some energy. I tend to move a bit but I like it to be organic and not forced. My greatest fear is that I come off like I'm trying too hard. As I couldn't see myself, I'll have to wait for pix and or video (there were a bunch of photogs last night) to see how it looked.

Overall, the performance was fun and I'm hoping to develop more stage chemistry with Kathy. We tend to do our own thing on stage, but it's always cool to have interaction between bandmates.

Here's my gear and the stage.

After tearing down (per Steve's rules), got some nice comments from the crowd and other bands. We then sat through an incredibly awkward setup of the next band, thanks to the slow sound guy (lots of dead, quiet air), and then watched Aisha destroy with her band. Diminutive singer behind a sparkly guitar who just belted. Her counterpart on bass played through a P and an Ampeg cab (didn't see the head) and was super solid and competent, if a little subdued. They did the hard rock thing well. I'd love to hear Aisha in a different context, though; she has an incredible voice.



We all left before the last band, but based on what I heard from the web, they should have been pretty good as well. Overall a great night and happy to share the stage with Kathy and Gregg again.

Next up, a gig with my yacht rock band, the Sunset Grooves. This is our debut show and we kick it off tonight, at a local golf club. Should be really interesting! Will save the details for the next gig report.