Gig report: 9/23/2022 Planets in the Ocean at Slim's

Looks like all I ever write anymore are gig reports. Such is life!

Back at it last night with Planets in the Ocean, our second gig as this trio. Old pal David asked us to play a little while back, with his band, The Pop Cycle, and then grizzled Seattle veteran supergroup, Mopsey. Weather was nice so there was a great possibility to play outdoors on Slim's flatbed truck stage. I offered my rig as backline and off we went.

However, complicating matters this weekend was the I-90 westbound bridge closure (separating where I live to where I needed to be is a lake with two bridges. The one closest to me was closed heading west, the direction I needed to go), as well as a whole bunch of great shows happening simultaneously. Add in the fact that this club, Slim's, great as it can be, is sort of isolated in south Seattle (no other clubs around, no restaurants, etc), and we could have had a challenging night for a good draw.

Anyway, it didn't take me too long to get around the lake to the club, so that was good. As I mentioned, since it was a nice night, we did end up outside, which meant better sound, larger stage and natural breeze. I got my stuff set up and left it there. We went first, so that made it easy.

Parking lot at Slim's

Bathroom door

My setup at Slim's

I got a chance to hang with some bros before playing (seriously, aside from some wait staff, it was all dudes at first). Some bros were from the Pop Cycle, David's band with my old homey Brett (both of whom I've played with in two other bands), as well as Jim and Paul. The boys from Mopsey were there as well. The bands they've been in are too numerous to name, but some of the more noteworthy are Young Sportsmen, Dear John Letters, Radio Nationals, Twink the Wonder Kid and the Riffbrokers. Pretty awesome.

Come showtime, it was still a light crowd, but amazingly, there were people that literally came to see us from parts unknown, and then left when we were done. I always am blown away by people who do that. Take the time to drive down, pay $8-10, listen to music, say hi, and then bounce. I'd rather stay the whole night, or not go at all. But whatever the case may be, it is appreciated.

Anyway, we had a 10 song set and overall, it went quite well. It is a little weird these days as a veteran band that is starting over to play to small crowds. Embers drew well and had regulars and with PITO, as of now, we do have old friends seeing us, but not a lot just yet. What's cool to see, though, is the comfort with which Robb, Cass and I have with playing with each other. Other people are seeing that as well, indicating that the trio format really lends itself to us all stretching our legs a bit. That's been cool to hear.

Sound-wise, I've been really leaning on my pedals for a change. Also, using the mids pre-shape and EQ on my Trace. I used my Tone Hammer with AGS engaged for some grit and occasionally used the Spark Booster in front of it for even more hair. With the Octaver clicked on at strategic times, I was pretty happy with the sounds I got. The T-Bird sounded very aggressive and up front and, not gonna lie, I LIKED IT.

The little switcher next to the THDI is to engage/disengage buttons on the Trace

We powered through the set with decent crowd response. I'm still trying to figure out the physical nature of playing in this band. I play only with a pick in this project and found that the muscles in my arm are used differently than with fingerstyle. Usually I'll stretch my hands and fingers out before a show and I didn't for this for whatever reason. It took me a few songs to get comfortable, so I will have to try some warmups in the future. And with the big bass, as well as these indie rock songs, movement on stage is also different. The energy is different so the presentation is also different. Let's not forget the stage we were on has springs (it is a truck bed, after all) so there was some bouncing if we got too active.

Speaking of that, I noticed during some songs that my amp would be sliding across the top of the cab. It's a pretty heavy amp and I think in most cases, it should be fine. But since the truck stage was not 100% level, I had to keep sliding it back. I'm gigging out again tonight with the Grooves, so we'll see how that goes.

We ended our set and got off the stage and were followed by the Pop Cycle. They had a real nice mix of power pop and sort of Motown pop with one country pop song thrown in there. Brett and David handled most of the singing duties and also showed off some new tunes. Jim and Paul held up the rhythmic stuff and, though I wish Jim would've played his bass with a little more conviction (he has a light touch), what I did hear from his beautiful P (with pickup cover) sounded good. A solid set by them.

The Pop Cycle

After TPC came the wonderful Mopsey. As mentioned above, these 4 dudes are Seattle scenesters from back in the day. When I was cutting my teeth with Lund Bros., we played with all these guys and their bands. All of their projects were great and Mopsey is no exception.

Wesley fronts the band and busted out his non-reverse Gibson Firebird last night. He sort of looks like Jon Stewart and did such a great job singing and just being cool. He is also the sweetest dude and I was really happy to chat with him for a bit. Eric, aka Oly, aka The Swede, was on guitar and he just looks cool up there. Tall bald dude with a goatee, with a big bodied guitar, throwing down leads and solos and I've always enjoyed seeing him play. Richard plays lefty (always looks weird to me) and has a beautiful white P with black PG. Plays with a pick too and was just so good at providing the bottom to this band. His bass sounded fantastic via my rig. He had a preamp made by Pike Engineering (can't remember, he said it was an ex-Darkglass guy that made it) and the thing sounded aces. We talked gear afterwards and that was pretty cool. Jason on drums had a spanking new Ludwig kit and was super excited to play it. Incredibly, after the show, everyone but Oly jumped in Jason's Subaru to get home. Gear and everything, quite impressive.

Screen cap of Mopsey

After the show, I stayed out way too late chatting with my bud David. But around 2am, when we heard a woman screaming, saw a couple of dogs running around, heard her screaming some more, realized she was OK and simply trying to get her dogs back, we decided it was finally time to call it a night. Good times by all.

Next up: Sunset Grooves, tonight, with the same bridge drama. Pray for me.