As mentioned in yesterday's post, I-90 west was closed all weekend for repairs. And of course, as with all my gigs, I needed I-90 west to get to Seattle to play. My show was at 8pm and I wanted to arrive around 6-6:30, just in case. To complicate things, only 520 was open westbound, which would have been busy as the Huskies were playing at 7:30pm. So add the football traffic to the massive influx of cars using 520 due to the I90 closure and you can see why I was checking my traffic apps all day.
Come travel time, what should normally take about 30 minutes was estimated at close to an hour. I loaded up my gear and hit the road, Mariners baseball on the radio to take the edge off. About 65 minutes later, I was there.
Gig was with the Sunset Grooves, playing a local private school fundraiser called the Bite of Broadview. It was a neighborhood-type party, with vendors, food trucks, inflatable climbers and play areas for kids, a beer garden for adults, and a nice large stage for us performers. Weather was nice, about 70°F to start, with a little breeze to keep things crisp. Walking around was a little cool, but nothing a light jacket couldn't handle. I was hungry, so I hit up a food truck before my bandmates told me we had coupons for some free food.
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| Paid for a couple slices. Not bad, pretty average. |
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| Free dog. Also pretty average. |
The stage was pretty big and really well-lit and covered. When I got there, a band called the Undertones was up playing some nice covers. Bassist had a G&L L-2000 on stage, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him about it. Sound was good and I could only hope that we sounded as good once we got up there.
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| Not the best picture, but you get the idea. |
For this gig, I brought my gear as we were not needing our own PA since it was provided. I ran my amp on the floor again as this stage was also not perfectly level and I didn't want to deal with a dancing amp. We didn't get a soundcheck so it was get setup, make sure everything worked, and then start playing.
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| The gear. |
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| The pedals. |
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| The setlist. |
I had my amp for stage sound and had FOH sound plugged into the THDI. I thought the amp sounded great but I need to get accustomed to dialing in for yacht rock instead of indie rock (loud is fine). For Brandy, I felt like I was too loud, so I played super gently on that one.
For the most part, all the songs felt good. Maneater was OK, but we just haven't played it enough to get 100% comfortable. The ending call and response vocals are tricky for timing while playing and singing, as well as knowing when/where to sing. And then we did Jive Talking, which I forgot to learn last week, so I worked on it during the week. Playing it on stage was the first time I did it with the band and it went just fine.
Right after that was my nemesis, Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, as it's one of our longest songs, and having to do octaves on it for the duration of it really wipes out my left hand. I made it through, but with this song at the end of the set and basically playing for two hours up until that point, I was done.
We had a responsive crowd, with a pretty full beer garden to our left, and a bunch of energetic kids dancing up front for much of the night. It did feel a little weird to have kids dancing to Hot Child in the City or Do Ya Think I'm Sexy, but to them, it's just music and a beat.
Overall, another good night. Definitely room for improvement, but not a bad performance. Lots of fun, decent money, and an appreciative crowd. After the night before and last night, I am pretty bushed, so taking a week or so off will be good. Currently, no gigs lined up for at least a month or so. Looking forward to resting, but will want to get back to it soon.
