Got to visit the City of Destiny for my latest gig. Been excited about this one as it was at the Spanish Ballroom, a place I'd heard was awesome to visit and play at, but I'd never done before. I didn't get any photos of the exterior or anything, or even tour the rooms much, but suffice it to say, it was like being at a theme restaurant or bar, like the Rainforest Cafe or something.
I loaded my stuff and made the 30 mile or so trek under gorgeous blue, but quite cold, skies. Bass cab, pedals, bass head, 2 basses, a wardrobe bag, some blazers, a tripod and a guitar stand. I had put the mp3s of our last Sunset Grooves practice onto an SD card and put them in the car, singing along on the way down.
I showed up and the rest of the band was already there. I rolled my cab into the place, only to find stairs and no elevator that got us to the ballroom. But that's what drummers are for, right? Dusty helped me get my stuff in the room and I started to get set up. Here's the stage just before getting setup.
I was to be stage right, with Eric and his keys behind me. Patrick was way over on stage left, which suited us fine as he was just getting over COVID and had finally tested negative in the morning. Jen was between us and Dusty, of course, would be in the back.
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| I took a few minutes getting set up and once I was done, here's how my corner looked. |
I decided to bring the rig as I haven't gigged with the Orange yet, and after the poor sound at the Central a few weeks ago, I wanted to have better control of how I sounded on stage.
The sound guy, Aaron, was great and we had a nice soundcheck getting the vocals sounding good in the monitors. I had him add some of Patrick's guitar and kept the bass to just my amp and cab. He took a DI from the bass amp and from what I could hear from the stage of the house sound, everything sounded really nice.
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quick pic as we set up
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After getting dialed in, we had an hour or so to grab a bite. Patrick and I grabbed gyros at the adjacent bar. A little bummed to find they don't comp food, or even drink tickets. They do, however, offer bottled water and a really cool green room to hang and get dressed, etc. This was the downstairs part of the green room. Just off to the side was the bathroom, with a shower, if one was so inclined.
We took the stage right at 5pm and started forging our way through our first 90-minute set. I could hear everything great on our first song, Listen to the Music by the Doobies. After that, we did Player's Baby Come Back, which features pretty much bass and drums at the beginning. I thought the bass was SUPER LOUD, but really, it was because I was standing right in front of the cab. As I moved over to Dusty's drums, the bass was not nearly as loud.
As we made our way through the set, we had a couple hiccups. On LTTM, we started a bit too early and Jen wasn't ready with her in-ears and stuff yet, so we cycled through one extra verse, no big deal. Baby Come Back had some technical issues with a keyboard being unplugged. We went through the next few songs with no issues, until we got to I Feel the Earth Move, where we got a little discombobulated during the outro and ended a little early.
For You're No Good, we do play it down a whole step, but even so, singing the backing harmonies are tough on that. Very high for me, and either I need to get better or we ditch them as most people won't notice (I'm talking about the high harms going into the second chorus).
We got to the break in the set and took 10 minutes to catch our breath. As I was putting my bass down, the middle finger on my left hand went rogue. The finger pad was locked to my palm, like Spider-man shooting his web shooters. I couldn't open my hand! That had never happened before. I could feel a small twinge in my left forearm as well. No pain, just no control. I used my right hand to unbend my middle finger and massage my arm and it started to get better. After about 3-4 minutes, it was back to normal. Unclear what that was all about, but I'm glad it was short lived.
After our break, we hit the second set and the crowd of 50 or so finally loosened up a bit. They started hitting the dance floor and pretty much stayed there the rest of the night. As far as performances go, the second set was a lot better than the first. One song in the first set was a bit of a train wreck, which is a shame, as we usually play it quite well.
After the show, though I didn't get any comments, we did have several people approach Dusty and Jen, telling them how much they loved us. Two of them had just seen Yacht Rock Revue a few nights prior in Seattle and they thought we were better than them and had better song choices.
Overall, I had a great time, but pay wise, we will be lucky to have $100 per person. We'll have to add in tips to reach that amount most likely. Hoping some of the people who really dug it follow through on their requests to be our biggest fans.
Next up: 2/25/23 with PITO at the Substation
