This gig fell into our laps due to Dennis' other band (Prince tribute) not being able to make their schedules work. We normally wouldn't play the Central as it's more of an originals rock club, but there was a pay guarantee and it would be an easy short set.
I showed up around 7 and parked around the corner. Always a little sketchy in the Pioneer Square area these days. I don't love parking by the beggars and addicts, but it's a free spot and generally, if I leave them alone, they leave me alone. I packed light, with my bass and pedal bag and wore my stage get up as I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of changing in the bathroom at the Central.
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| Grunge wall |
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| Just in front of the stage |
We were playing with a band called the John Hughes Experience, where the band played 80's songs with projected content behind them. They did a sound check and seemed to sound OK. While they were up there, Dennis mentioned he had had the sound guy at a previous show there and had some issues. He said the guy wasn't great and that he was sort of not easy to work with.
Sound check seemed to take longer than we expected, but eventually, they finished. We then got up there and started our setup. As usual, I brought my Zoom B2Four pedal, a few cords, my IEMs, a bass, and that's it. While setting up, Ben, the bassist for the JHE offered his Ampeg Portaflex and 15" cabinet, which I appreciated. I didn't think I'd need it as I was going to use my in-ears, but sadly, that wasn't to be the case.
As mentioned earlier, the sound guy was struggling. Don't know if he had an off day or what, but when I told him I also had in-ears (as do Jen, Dusty and Dennis), he responded, "You guys have 4 IEMs?" As if being a sound guy wasn't in his job description for the day. He plugged our transmitters into a console behind the bass rig and then scooted back to his sound booth to get us dialed in.
He went first with Dusty, then Dennis, Jen and me, and for each one of us, he had troubles. We could hear him on the wedges, but he couldn't hear us speaking back to him via our mics. Or he could hear us speaking, but we couldn't hear him on stage. Back and forth it went. When he got to me, I could hear him in the in-ears, but he couldn't hear me out front. It was stupid. Finally, I just decided to use the floor wedges and the Ampeg and try my luck. I did ask if I could use the DI he had plugged in to the Ampeg, and he acted like it was a huge deal. I plugged it into the Zoom and we were good to go.
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| Ampeg on the right. |
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| Getting ready to play. |
We had a quick 1-hour set, and we stuck to some heavier tunes due to it being a rock club after all. Soundwise, I could hear myself pretty well with earplugs in. Even though I don't usually like hearing bass in the floor monitors, it didn't sound too bad and I augmented it a bit with the Ampeg behind me. Vocally, I didn't have much in the monitors, but luckily I could hear my head voice via my earplugs.
Many, many years ago, 20 or more, I played the Central with a little power trio called Ethyl. Back then, I had just started singing background vocals. One night we sound checked and then we played. I recorded all our shows back then and upon watching back, I realized I did not have enough of my vocals in the monitor mix. Everything I sang was flat and really rough. These days, I sing a lot more and am a bit more confident in what I'm doing. Last night, without much vox in the mix, I made an effort to hear the note I was playing on bass and stack on top of that. I think it worked out ok.
Performance-wise, no glitches or trainwrecks. We dusted of Toto's "Hold the Line" for the first time in a long time. We just practiced on our own at home and trusted that we'd get it right, and it was pretty good. Everything else was pretty well received also. Nice Friday night crowd for us.
Following us was the 6-piece John Hughes Experience. They started their set with "Video Killed the Radio Star," which would've been great, if the sound guy had the keyboards dialed in. For whatever reason, there were no keys on this keyboard heavy song. The poor keys player (who looked a lot like a skinny Kevin from "The Office") just banged on his keys, but the sound guy didn't go fix it until AFTER the song.
Aside from that glitch, the set went pretty well. They played along to videos and had vintage 80's videos between songs. To me, it brought the mood down a bit because everyone had to quiet down to watch/hear those videos. It's a cool idea and the executed it pretty well, but it was a weird dynamic for everyone to have to pay attention between songs without banter.
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| John Hughes Experience. |
Ben and his Ric sounded great out front. He played some really great lines and was true to the songs bass parts. I do wish he had done the galloping bass part in "Don't You (Forget About Me)" instead of playing it straight, but I'm picking nits. Otherwise, they were really good and, for a first show, impressive. There were some deep cuts that had me and some others looking on our phones to see what the songs were, but I'd play with them again, for sure.
Next up: Sunset Grooves at the Sleight of Hand SODO winery.
