Last night was my third gig with my yacht rock band, the Sunset Grooves. We hired/recruited our third guitarist in these three gigs, and as they say, third time is the charm. The other two guys were good enough, but the new guy, Patrick, looks the part, plays the part, can sing the parts, and added bonus, is a quality dude (full disclosure, he's a contact/friend of mine that I recruited, had never played with him before).
We were hired a few months ago to play at a local seafood restaurant, Duke's Seafood, where they were hosting a fundraiser for the Fran Nordstrom (yes, that Nordstrom) Guild, looking to raise money for Seattle Children's Hospital, with a focus on their mental health support.
At the time, guitarist #1 was ready to go, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we've decided to move on from him. Guitarist #2 was great at our last show, but he had a conflict for this gig, so enter Patrick. He's had 2 rehearsals and his own time to learn about 33 songs. We had a 5 hour rehearsal last Sunday and crossed our fingers for last night.
Load in was 3pm, soundcheck was 4pm. I brought my new Avatar 212 and all my bits and bobs. I've been spending time at TalkBass reading about gear and sort of revamped how I've been using my Tone Hammer DI. I played with the AGS circuit engaged for the whole gig, light on gain, low mids boosted. That DI signal went to the mixer and the 1/4" went to my amp for some stage audio. Overall, really dug the sound I got via my IEMs.
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| New guy, Patrick, loading into our performance area |
I also mixed my vocals super hot in my in-ears, with Jen's leads up, and just a touch of Dusty's vocals. I found that that worked better for me, where rather than trying to sing to Dusty and harmonize with him, I was instead just trying to sing my note to myself. I'll have to do that next week, see if that continues making it easier.
I set my stuff up, helped set up some lights and speakers, and then we got to chill in the green room for a bit, which was nice. Since the restaurant is on the water and we were playing outdoors, Seattle's seasons are changing and it was a little cool, about 65°F, with a brisk breeze off the water. We warmed up, got dressed, then hit the "stage" right around 7pm.
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| All my goodies |
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| The green room and some of Patrick's guitars |
After a quick intro, we started into our first set, about an hour's worth of music. It warmed up a bit as there were people under the canopy with us now and the breeze had pretty much stopped. I didn't do much warming up or hand stretches, but luckily I felt fine. I think it helped having my bass really up in my IEMs as well. I usually play with a super heavy hand but since I could hear everything, I didn't dig in as hard as usual.
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| Set 1 |
Looking back over the set, I feel pretty good about how we did, especially since Patrick was joining us for his first time (but he is a seasoned player for sure). For some reason, we did skip Steal Away at the top, but played everything else as posted. I backed off of singing backgrounds on Baby Come Back; those are simply too high for me and sound really strained. However, Patrick filled in and did great. Rich Girl, usually a challenge, went really well. We did skip Misunderstanding, and end the first set with Escape, due to time constraints. The party goers had to get down to their serious push for donations. Their goal for the night was $125k, and we felt with all the well-heeled participants, that it would not be a problem.
Breaktime consisted of us all trying to find food and drink. It was buffet style, with waitstaff also walking around with finger foods. Drinks were hard to find as there were 2 small bar tables, staffed only by one bartender each. Open bar meant long lines, so I stuck to water (don't drink, anyway).
During the auction portion of the fundraiser, evidently they smashed their goal of $125k, raising $160k! Pretty incredible and a great cause, happy to be part of it!
We headed back out for the second set and had to pad it a few songs as we needed about 70-75 minutes or so. We did Stuck in the Middle and Sister Golden Hair, which were both new to us. Dusty, our drummer, jumped up front to sing leads and play acoustic guitar. Eric rotated from keys to drums, and we did a nice job with those. Dusty got back behind drums and we revisited the first 3 songs of set 1, added in Misunderstanding, and were off to the races again.
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| Set 2 |
Maggie May is a tricky new one for us. I don't play it note for note as the recording because I think it would be impossible to memorize. Lots of notes, lots of chords and turnarounds, but ultimately, a lot of fun.
We did one more new song to us, Maneater, and just had a great time with the others. The crowd was pretty chill for set 1 as they were all waiting in line to get drinks. Set 2 had the crowd much more interested in us and dancing. We were all on the same floor, which led to some "too close for comfort" moments with dancers in our space, but overall, they appreciated us and we appreciated them.
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| Lots of folks wearing stripes last night, including yours truly |
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| Eric on keys playing drums |
