Enjoying my coffee on a Saturday morning, thinking about music and bass. My last show was a few weeks ago now, with PITO at Slim's. Still thinking about how these last two shows with that band have gone well, but with lower turnout than I'm used to.
Having the luxury (for me, at least) playing in a semi-successful band was a welcome change after having only ever played a handful of shows with more than a handful of people at them. When I joined Stereo Embers in 2018, my first show with them was in June, at the Sunset. I'd be lying if I said I remembered a full house, but if it wasn't a full house, it was at least 75% full.
This band introduced me to many new friends, most of whom I'd never met before. Having Tim in the band really helped put us on the map, especially with the Pearl Jam crew. Those fans are rabid for anything PJ related and having Mike McCready wear our shirts and put out our records (all before my time, sadly) got us on the fans' radar.
As SE built their following, the PJ fans started coming out. They pretty much all became SE fans, and especially Tim and Robb fans, and I was able to join that club when I started in the band.
Over the next few years, we played more shows, but did get hit with the COVID shutdown, where we just stopped for 18 months. In all those shows pre- and post-shutdowns, they were well attended. Actually, we had one show at El Corazón on a weeknight, opening for an old hard rock guy (Graham Bennett?), where we didn't have many people there, but overall, they were well attended.
And now, with PITO, we are starting over. Our first show was at the Sunset and we had a good turnout, but it felt light to me. Part of it can probably be attributed to first show jitters, new music, etc. Everything has been revamped, all the way down to number of people on stage. Not having Tim by me meant having to bring the energy and vibe when Robb was tethered to the mic.
Our next show at Slim's a few weeks ago was pretty sparsely attended. Maybe 20-30 people there? We were outside so it definitely looked light. But, there were tons of bands playing that night and Slim's is a bit out of the way. Also, that weekend, I90 westbound was shut down so it's possible people stayed away from traveling because of that.
Anyway, people know about PITO and we have connections. We have to go out and prove it now and with Cass doing Love Battery, it being summer winding down, and other issues, gigs seem to be hard to come by these days. Our next gig isn't until Jan 6, but hoping to get something lined up between then and now.
We did some demo tracks at last rehearsal and hope to be able to put those out for consumption soon, get the word spread that we are progressing. Here's the rough tracks, straight to my phone. I played my L1K for the first time at PITO practice, along with my new Orange Terror Bass amp. Sound was overdriven and gnarly. Robb recorded with a mic right at my cab (no DI), and it sounds pretty great.
