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| Stage just on other side of the windows |
I arrived at about 3:30 and was pleasantly surprised to see a stage set up for us. I was expecting to be on the floor, but it was not their first rodeo. In fact, it may have been a little overkill, but it was great to see and have at our disposal.
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| 20' x 16'!! |
As usual, we spent an hour or so setting up. That meant PA, lights, mics, etc. I traveled light, with 2 basses, a pedal board, and a clothing bag. That's it. Poor Dusty and Jen pretty much bring a SUV full of stuff, with drums, the aforementioned PA and lighting stuff, sound gear, various odds and ends. It's pretty rough.
After setting up, we had a few minutes of downtime as they finished closing up the aquarium and setting up the room with some tables and food and drink stations. We went upstairs to the "green room," a regular meeting room, and chilled for a few minutes before soundcheck.
A few weeks ago, I purchased an Xvive wireless transmitter/receiver for in-ear monitoring purposes. It transmits the signal from our sound mixer to my ears. I had a wired solution that worked, but it was kind of a pain to use and have to detach every time I was taking off my guitar, etc. I've been practicing at Jen's house with the Xvive and though it works, there are some clicks and pops from time to time, depending on where I stand (even within 3' of the transmitter).
At soundcheck, I could hear and the Xvives were doing their job, but there was a lot of interference. Not sure what that was from. It basically sounded like someone was hitting the mute/unmute very quickly. It was annoying and I tried changing channels, but it still happened.
Doing some quick research indicates having the transmitter right next to the mixer (where there's a WIFI component) may be an issue. For me, I was pretty much all the way across the stage as the mixer was in the back left corner and I was on the front right corner of the stage. I didn't notice if it got better when I was next to it or not, but a solution may be to run an XLR cable to my part of the stage as if I was running a wedge, but then plugging in my transmitter instead. But, thinking out loud, if that was the issue, then the other guys would've had the same issue as their transmitters were all right next to the mixer as well.
For the show, though, the sound was good enough for me. I sang right up on mic and trusted Carl, our sound guy, to do what he needed to do. We got on stage and started playing. There were quite a few people in the room, but I didn't take any pictures.
As usual, we started the set with some "slower" tunes, even though that seems to lead to a slower start with the crowd. Trouble is, if we start with a banger and it is still received slowly, then we are down a song that we know would kill in the second set.
That said, the first 5 songs went great. "Brandy" was sort of a mess, at least for me, and I think Dennis got lost as well. I have had some trouble with this song, despite knowing the song really well. I don't know what it is, maybe the yips or something. I know my parts, but for some reason, my fingers just get lost and goofy in the verses at times.
The rest of the set went pretty well. We had a few dancers here and there and definitely got good responses from everything. I'm always surprised when I see people singing along to "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Come and Get Your Love," which, to me, at least, aren't super popular songs. But I think both of those got some juice from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Took a quick break after the set and Carl asked me about changing my bass tone. I played The Hog and I thought it sounded fine, despite the wireless issues I had with my IEMS. He said it sounded muddy and without definition, so we looked at my pedalboard, which I had doing an amp emulation of a Trace Elliot. For some reason, the treble was at 10 and the bass was at 0, and my treble was off on my bass. I ended up playing my gold bass, diming the treble and then adjusting the treble and bass on the B24 pedal, which helped with the bass definition.
I also tried to change the channels on my Xvive and it seemed to work, but then it didn't. It was still a pretty choppy and lame connection. But off we went anyway, starting with "Don't Stop," which always kills. "My Life" was a winner as well; I always love playing that song.
"Maggie May" was a bit of a mess though. Not only is it a challenging bass song, it also has a strange structure to it, with 3 verses before the chorus, then another verse. Or something like that. We can usually make it through a few verses and then before the third verse, Jen missed her cue and sat out like it was the instrumental part, which it wasn't. I shouted "third verse" at her and she jumped in.
She has a tendency at times to go off of audio cues, rather than going off the structure of the song. In the case of MM, there's a bass riff that leads into the 3rd verse and if she doesn't hear it, she thinks we're going somewhere else. I'll have a chat with her, because we've done the song fine before.
Dennis also broke a string in the song so he had to switch guitars right before his solo, so we extended it a bit, and it was a bit clunky, but in the end, we got there. "You Can Do Magic" was next and Eric had mentioned we were playing it too slow in practices and we ended up playing it way too fast this time around. It was almost comically fast, but like MM, we got there and it was fine.
The next few songs were great and people were really into it. There was a group of women at the front of the stage and they were dancing and having so much fun. It was almost like comic dancing, as they were cracking each other with their moves, but the thing was, they could actually dance. I had such a great time watching them and enjoying themselves.
As far as the setlist goes, we played all the tunes except "Fox on the Run" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," as they were more for encores than anything else. The aquarium was looking to get people out and as we started tearing down, it was time for them all to bounce. We finished the teardown and we bounced as well.
Overall, a really fun night, despite the technical issues with my receiver/transmitter and having to pay $24 to park at the end of it all. Not sure what my take home will be, but I'm already looking forward to getting back on stage again.
Photo dump!
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| Opposite the Aquarium. My car in the foreground (not the Prius) |
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| The Seattle Wheel, as seen on sporting events |
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| Backside of the stage |
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| My basses for the night |
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| Looking at a fish |
Next up: Planets in the Ocean at the Blue Moon, of all places.
