So Yummy: Gig report: 5/13/23 Planets in the Ocean at Tim's Tavern

Another day, another gig. I love gig days. I hate the waiting.

Anyway, headed over in the afternoon to Tim's in White Center. Second time playing there this year, first time with Planets. Tim's Tavern was located in the Northgate area, but the owner's of the building sold it or something, which left Tim's owners without a location... until this one, formerly Drunky's Two Shoes, became available. So TT's owners purchased/leased the DTS location and fast forward a few months and Tim's Tavern is a go in White Center now.

The bill consisted of Tiny Jackets (from Portland) and Guest Directors, with Planets in the Ocean headlining. We pitched it as our digital EP release show, but really, it was just a headlining show for us. We had competition all over town, with Fleetwood Mac tribute Wild Rumours playing at Sleight of Hand, and the Pop Cycle, Tripwires and Boss Martians playing at the Sunset in Ballard. Throw in the nicest, warmest day of the year, and getting people to go to indoors shows might have been tough.

Luckily, Tim's has a covered outdoor space, so we were good to go either way. Though the stage was hot, the outdoor area was super comfortable. Water cooler nearby, I was happy. I brought my Avatar 212 cabinet and went with the Trace head. It was the debut of the new casters I got for my birthday and I am happy to say that they worked great. I will have to use the wheel locks pretty much at all times when not moving it, as the wheels really glide easily; on any unlevel surface, the cab wanted to take off.

Soon enough, Tiny Jackets jumped on stage. They are a 4-piece from Portland and they looked like they were from Portland. 4 handsome, thin and stylish lads. Bassist fronted the band with a black P bass, sporting a Mike Dirnt body, with a Japanese neck that he put on it. Through my rig, his bass sounded great, if a little quiet. Vocals were a little quiet too; not sure why the sound guy was dialing in things like that. But, despite those issues, the band was great. 3 part harmonies at times, with really tasty guitar pop.

Robb knew Kelly (the bassist) from a band he was in 20 years ago called Thistle. Many of the songs apparently were old Thistle songs and Kelly and crew continued performing them. There's a lot of interesting history there, but Kelly was a very nice dude and I really enjoyed their songs and performance.

Next up was Guest Directors. I have heard these guys' name all over the place but have never seen them. One of their guitarists is Gary Thorstensen, who I played with in a band called the Navins from about 2014-2018. In that band, Gary played Rics; in this band, he's playing a powder blue Fender Jaguar. He did some lead vocals as well and it was great. The other guitarist, Julie, sang lead on most of the songs and I liked her vibe a lot. Their drummer was powerfully creative and tasteful and overall, their vibey, shoegazey rock was super cool.

Since we were headlining, we had a bit of a longer set. Over the past few weeks, we learned and added 3 new songs to our set, and would be debuting them. I tried to get my stage sound dialed in and it just sounded weird. I don't know if it was because I had IEMs the night before and was expecting clear sounds, but the bass just sounded super boomy, with no definition. I thought it was due to the 212 cabinet, but I've used it before and hadn't had that problem. I had the sound guy put some bass in the wedge in front but that didn't help too much. Vocals were hard to hear as well, but I just trusted in what the sound guy was doing and what I could hear in my head.

I think we played pretty well, considering. I felt sloppy at times, mainly due to trying to put on a performance, rather than just playing. I always have a tough time trying to balance the two. By being more physical, it can affect the accuracy of the music. But overall, I think the performance was positive.

The new songs went over pretty well also. One of them, Misguided Head, is tough because I play a bunch of melodic lines and when I was trying to learn them, I couldn't believe I was playing them off the top of my head at practice. It's a bit busy, but I like it and it's fun to play.

After the set, I talked to the sound guy about the boominess on stage. He said it was because I was standing right next to the main PA speakers, which had a subwoofer at the bottom. That was really adding to the bass and he said it was an issue he was aware of, but didn't have the budget to address. Next time, I may bring IEMs or adjust my EQ (I was a dummy; I increased my mids instead of bringing the bass down on the amp) differently.

We finished the set and it was over too soon. It's such a joy to play and perform for people and I'm always happy to finish, but then bummed it's so long until the next show. But lucky for us, the next Planets show is June 8 at the Sunset. Good times!