Show 4 is in the books? Sunset, Slim's Central, Substation and now Sleight of Hand Winery, so let's make it 5.
There's a local guy who is a huge PJ fan. His winery is in Walla Walla, but he has a place in SODO as well, where he sells his wine, has tastings and hosts bands. Embers played there in 2021, and Trey was kind enough to have us come back as PITO.
After our last show at Substation, we've been feeling pretty good. Lots of good feedback and it *sort* of feels like there's a buzz? Hard to say; I'm out the outside looking in but it seems like the music tastemakers in town may be talking about us a bit.
For this show, a sort of Seattle supergroup was playing after us. Richard Stuverud (a guy I was unfamiliar with) and the Bad Scene (made up of Kurt Bloch (who I am familar with) and his brother, Al (who I am unfamiliar with). I thought the three of them were a band, I think Richard has his own tunes, the Bad Scene are a separate band with their own tunes, and together they all have tunes.
Kurt was a founding member of the Fastbacks, a band I only know by name and couldn't name a song. But he's been around forever and I've played shows with him before. After some quick research, turns out Al is based in Virginia/DC area and may have flown in for the shows? Anyway, more on them later.
We had this show booked for a bit now, for a Friday, which started early, at 7pm. For whatever reason, I had a little anxiety during the day, not sure why. Maybe due to having to get there by 5pm or so? It ended up being just fine.
Note to self: next time we play SOH, bring some extension cords and a power strip. As it's not a traditional music venue, some of the normal music venue items are not available. But, as mentioned in my previous SOH recap, they make up for what they lack in other ways.
We got a soundcheck and then hung out and waited for the peeps and the other band to show up. Eventually, the place started filling up. I actually had at least 6 people there, and at least one other person who later said he had car issues. But again, more new faces, some familiar faces seeing PITO for the first time as well.
7pm came and we started the night. Robb asked if I wanted to create the setlist, so I did. The room was chilly and I didn't get to warm up a lot but luckily, starting with The Loud Silence, it was all about the groove for that song. In fact, the first three songs, TLS, Perspective and Decisions are all fairly chill, with Perspective being a little quicker. This way, we sort of ramp up and the warm up is built in. Song 4 is Fought a Bear and that's a bit higher energy, especially at the end. With Dust Cloud after that, maybe I need to rethink that for next time. It's fast and with an intricate bass rhythm, so that gets tricky.
I put Holiday Daydream next and maybe that's a good one to put in front of DC, as it's nice and slow. The songs after HD are Splinter, Panick Attack, Nomenclature and Darla's Song. Though PA has some fast bits, the ending is nice and slow. Nomenclature just pounds for the whole song, but since I play with Cass' bass drum now, instead of straight 16th notes, it's a little easier to play.
We got done and tore down. Robb got some nice words from another Fastbacks member, legendary bassist Kim Warnick. There were tons of photographers and people recording videos. As of today, there are some great pics from our pal Mike Mitchell, with hopefully more from another guy who I don't know, but saw with a bunch of pro gear.
After saying hey to Marci and Ann Ross-Clark and Brett and Elba and Aaron and Dawn (!) and Kim, it was time for RSATBS to start and, yikes, they did not disappoint. Both Kurt and Al had black blazers on over striped button down shirts. They sort of looked like college professors, but man, they thrashed like punk rock superheroes. Richard played THE SHIT out of his drums and Cass and I were just watching him and shaking our heads.
Al, the one member of the band without a Wikipedia entry, played an orange Epiphone bass and sang and was solid. He looked so out of place, but it was clear he knew what he was doing. Kurt was Kurt, goofy and wicked and just so fun. And Richard! As mentioned, he was fantastic and really went for it on every tune, it was something to witness!
At the end of it all, we got a decent payout, we played pretty well, and people seemed to really like it a lot. Had a lot of great comments and feedback by the end of the night, all our shirts were sold out. It's rare that I'll play a show and feel like we were not the best band on the bill. Last night, we definitely were the playing second fiddle to Richard and the Blochs. Great night!
