4/26/2024 Greg Hoy and the Boys at the Blue Moon Tavern

Gig 2 of 5 in 3 weeks is done.

Last night's venue was the legendary Blue Moon on 45th. It is old, it is grungy, but it is friendly and it is a really great sounding place. No stage pix, but some flavor shots of the venue.

uncomfortable booth with no view of stage

back hall to reach restrooms

stage on other side of that door, men's room to the left

some dork in the mirror

No food pics because I ate at home (take out Thai). Commute to the Blue Moon was 20 minutes longer than usual thanks to a big ass backup on I-90 on Mercer Island. Whatever.

I brought the same gear as the night before, the P and my pedals. Easy enough load in.

Roster of bands was the same as at the NFL, but we traded Matt and the Monsters for Dave's project, the Greenwood Music Collective. Kelly was there, all dressed up like the frontwoman she is. Looked great, sounded great!

First up was Roman Angelos. He says his stage last name with a hard "G," as in "An-Gelos," if that makes sense. Dave, Greg, Kelly and I debated if it should be pronounced with a soft "G," as in "Los Angeles." Who knows?

Greg Hoy and the Boys followed and I had a great time. Highly entertaining, better than the night before. Felt a bit more cohesive and totally pleased with it being only the 3rd time we'd played together. The small crowd liked it enough. I really enjoyed playing through the Ampeg BA-115. It sounded full and round and paired great with my P bass. Totally competent and dare I start looking at one?? Yikes.

these dorks

Speaking of that P bass; something about it is starting to click. I've been playing it more at rehearsals and at these last two shows with Greg. Maybe it's the flats, maybe it's the pickups, maybe it's the amp? I'm not sure, but it just sounds good to me. I've been saving up for a Nate Mendel P, but maybe this P is enough for me? Or maybe I get another less expensive one to have rounds on it. Whatever the case, I have options now.

After we finished, Kelly jumped on stage and just murdered a couple of her own songs on acoustic guitar. She has such a beautiful voice. Power, tone, personality, it's all there. Really love it. AND she plays guitar. Of course I asked about her and yacht rock and she said she'd be interested in the summer, when she's not teaching.

Michela Miller, so good

Kelly did her two songs and then me, Dave and Greg jumped up there. Greg had only played through the songs with us one time on Wednesday, so he was all eyes and ears on stage. We started with a pretty basic song of Kelly's, with 4 chords on repeat. Then it was songs that I knew and had to guide Greg through.

Dave jumped on keys for a few songs and those were a bit more challenging for me as he's still working out the kinks of the song structures. He's also fairly new to playing keys so with the singing, keys and remembering how his songs go, it was tough to follow what he was doing. Luckily we didn't have any train wrecks and got through it fairly unscathed.

We did a quick and fast rendition of "Dreams," which I play in Sunset Grooves, but way slower and true to the recording. With GMC, we sped through and skipped the little middle part. It worked out fine, and we finished with another Kelly original, and then called it a night.

Hotels jumped on stage and they were great. I guess they've had some time to hone their act over the last two years and it's pretty clear. They're good at what they do. The bassist, Blake, played a Fender P/J into a Fender Rumble 500 and that sucker sounded so good. No pedals, just plugged directly into his amp. He's a great player and that sound was something else.

Hotels and the tasty sounding P/J

Good times playing 2 shows in 2 nights. Now it's onto learning about 8-10 songs for Del Vox next Friday again at the Blue Moon, but not before the Sunset Grooves play at the High Dive.