It was a gorgeous sunny day for us here, west of the mountains, and the night was going to be clear over the mountains, but likely about 5-10 degrees cooler. It was cold when we left home and as we headed over the pass, it just got colder.
About an hour or so later, we arrived in the small town of Roslyn, WA, to play the Brick, a legendary old bar out there (also made famous by the old TV show, "Northern Exposure"). It was in the high 20s and this old man was cold. We got in the club and started loading in.
I'd never been to the Brick before, but upon walking in, was pleasantly surprised to see it full of diners. It's an old building, with it split down the middle. The side we entered on was the restaurant/bar side, and through a doorway about halfway in was more dining area, but with a stage on one end and a dance floor adjacent. We got our stuff on stage and started the setup process.
Since this was an actual place and not a private party, they had a PA and backline in place, so there was no need for my in-ears or bass rig. The owner, Lucky, was also the sound guy and a musician in his own right. He was sharply dressed, with stovepipe jeans, a henley shirt, and a leather vest. He fit the Western feel of the town, with his handlebar mustache, grey hair, and small gun attached to his belt on the small of his back. He reminded me a bit of my brother-in-law, Todd, manly handsome and charismatic.
As mentioned, Lucky had gear and on stage for my bass was a GK 212 combo, brand new. For a 212 cabinet and amp, it was really small. About the size (or smaller) of my Avatar 210. I picked up the GK and it was super light, too. Lucky said it was 42 pounds. I moved it to my side of the stage and started the setup process.
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| GK 212 Neo Combo amp |
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| Controls up top |
I ended up zeroing out all the controls and EQ, basically relying on it for stage sound. I had my pedals up front to sculpt the sound. Overall, that 212 sounded really great and could be an option down the road if/when I get tired of dragging around my big Avatar 212. Though, to be fair, I have not gigged with it but the one time (and I haven't gigged with my Orange yet), so we'll see how it goes. Good to know the GK is out there, though.
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| The trusty L1k and the pedalboard |
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| Soundchecking in front of the TV (hidden after the game) |
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| Not the best picture, but you get the idea |
Above the kitchen opposite the stage is an upstairs portion called the apartment. Which is pretty much what it is. You go up the stairs and to the left is a kitchenette, a seating area (occupied by a bed), with a bedroom attached that has a window that overlooks the floor below. Opposite to the kitchenette are windows that look out on the main street that the bar is on. On the other side of the stairs is a bathroom/laundry room combo. All the employees have access to these rooms and use it as a break room. It acts as a green room for the bands, too.
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| Fridge in the kitchenette |
After getting changed, we took the stage to start at 9pm but due to some sound issues, we had to wait for Lucky to get us dialed in. He was super nice, but seemingly unfazed by being late. We had a nice crowd hanging around for us, and after about 15 minutes, we hit the first notes for Steal Away (Robbie Dupree).
As far as my monitor mix went, I could barely hear myself (was using my head voice to listen to my singing instead), I couldn't hear Dusty's vocals or Patrick's guitar. I could hear Jen through her wedge and I could hear Eric's keys from his monitor next to me. So it wasn't ideal but understanding that Lucky was a one-man show, we rolled with it. He was eventually able to get me some semblance of monitors and I was able to make my way through things.
Crowd-wise, there was a nice amount of people there. We were expecting an older, retiree type crowd, but were pleasantly surprised to see most people appeared to be in their mid-20's to early 30's. We played through Come And Get Your Love (Redbone) and Listen to the Music (Doobie Bros) before we finally got some dancers on song #4, My Life (Billy Joel).
From there, folks really started getting on the dance floor. We had a nice high stage, so no one was bumping into us or getting in our faces. Despite the cold temps outside, it started off pretty hot on stage, but soon met a happy medium where we weren't sweating too bad. Pretty comfortable, actually.
Music continued with a few new ones for us, Reelin' in the Years (Steely Dan), Swingtown (Steve Miller Band) and You're No Good (Linda Ronstadt). People loved the tunes, but strangely, the floor cleared out during Misunderstanding (Genesis). We made our way to the end of 15 songs and then stopped for a quick break. Since we started a little later than we would have liked, we kept the break short and got back to work.
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| From the bedroom upstairs, after our first set |
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| The setlist |
We got to work with set 2 and the people were back on the floor. Another surprise was, as young as the crowd was, they knew many of the words to these "older" songs. No Matter What (Badfinger) was one of those songs; lots of the youngsters knew it. It was another one of our "new to us" songs and one we play really well. Love Will Keep Us Together (Captain and Tennille) is one for me that is super tricky. I play it with a pick and there are some wicked syncopated backing vocals on it. And we're not doing all the crazy background singer vox; we simplify it a bit, but wow, still tricky.
About 2/3rds of the way through this set, I started getting tired. We do our little disco set, with Jive Talkin' (Bee Gees) and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (Rod Stewart) and especially with that second song, the octaves kill my fretting hand. It's a long song and I'm pretty much playing octaves for all 5:34 of it. It's brutal.
We finished the second set and just stayed out there. By now, it was likely after 11:00 and if we took a break, we'd probably lose the people that were still there. We did end up skipping down to Maggie May (Rod Stewart/Faces) to keep the tunes flowing. That song was tricky to learn, with the original recorded version having bass that just goes all over the place. There isn't really a way to play this one note for note, so once I got the structure and chords down, it's pretty much just go for it. I try to stay true to the tune's original feel, but definitely do open things up for myself a bit. It's a good time.
We wound down the rest of the night with 4 more songs and finally got cut off by Lucky. By that time, we had about 10 people left, 6 of whom were some cougars celebrating a 40th birthday. They were nice enough to stick around to listen.
The rest of the night was us tearing down and loading out in the clear cold night. Overall, the Brick was a success and Lucky wants us to come back. He is booked out until next year and our feeling is we'd like to try coming back in the summer, with some promotion behind it. Hopefully get out there, get some private party bookings, etc.
With that, I have no more gigs this year. Overall, it's been the most lucrative gigging year I've ever had. I don't know if it is the most number of gigs I've had in a year but, I wish I had more!
Next up, Planets on 1/6 at, of all places, The Central.
