So Yummy: Gig report: 5/12/23 Sunset Grooves at the Aurora Borealis

Finally, another gig. Seems like it's been a bit, and now, back-to-back shows. It was my first time with the Grooves where we played a club, instead of a party or private thing, so I didn't know what to expect. Also, first time playing at Aurora Borealis, which, even without traffic, is about 30 min away. But of course, Friday night in Seattle means traffic, so it took about 45 minutes to get there.

Show started at 8pm and I had to be there by 5:30 or so for load in and soundcheck. I decided to go light for this show, no amp or cabs for the first time ever. The club did have a MarkBass 12" combo amp, just in case. I brought my 2 L1Ks (in a new Protec double bag!), my Zoom B2 Four, and a garment/clothing bag. Easy load in!

Soundcheck was great. Tim, a former guitarist/singer for Sunset Grooves, ran sound and did a great job. I don't have a wireless IEM receiver, so he ran a line to my spot on stage, where I had my Rolls headphone amp and then I boosted that signal to my ghetto instrument/headphone extender cable. He gave me my specific IEM needs (my vocals and bass way high, drums middle, lead vox, guitar and keys just enough for reference) and then we sat for the first band.

Ordered a burger, was decent, not photo-worthy. And it was on the house, so that's always appreciated.

The first band was a Prince tribute band called DSMR, which stands for Drugs, Sex, Music and Romance, and evidently is in a Prince song somewhere. Admittedly, I am not super familiar with Prince and his music, but of course I recognized a lot of the songs in their 90-minute set. The band was great, with a guy named Robert playing a Jazz bass. That dude had serious chops and was super solid. Some of the tunes were fairly boring on bass, but when he got to shine and riff, he did not disappoint. His tone was killer as well.

Our new guitarist, Dennis, also plays in DSMR, and it was great to see him from that perspective. He is great in our rehearsals, but to see him performing as an observer, I could really see how talented he is. Played awesome, sounded awesome, good stuff.

We took the stage after them and I debuted my beautiful new vintage polyester shirt, complete with JC Penney tag still intact! With my white pants and shoes, definitely a great look! Because DSMR had folks dancing, we shifted our opening song from Baby Come Back (slow tune) to something with a bit more energy (Come and Get Your Love). That was the right move, as people loved it and were dancing the whole night.

Aurora Borealis has a great stage and lighting setup. They also have cameras all over the place and screens onto which they broadcast those cameras. While playing, I could see the screens and it was a little distracting, but ultimately cool. Plus, they provide us a copy of the videos and audio tracks if we want them, so that will be a good learning/promo tool in the future.

I felt good while playing. My mix worked well in my IEMs. Prior to starting, though, I adjusted my Zoom, trying to get a little more grit in my overdrive pedal setting. I upped the mids and we started the show. As it went on, however, I found there was too much grit, so I had to back off on how hard I'd hit the strings. Overall, it was OK. I didn't end up using the MarkBass combo, as my IEMs did what they were supposed to do.

The crowd was really energetic and into what we were doing. They were singing along and dancing and just having a great time. I heard the bartenders said they had a great night as well, so hopefully they'll have us back in the future.