Every once in a while you play a bad gig, and though we didn't play poorly, it was a rough gig. But I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand, it's a gig and I love to play out. It's why we rehearse, it's why I practice, it's why I search for cool stage wear, it's why I buy gear to enable playing out. On the other hand, when things out of your control don't go the way you want them to, well, it can make what's usually a great experience into something not as great.
After struggling with COVID this week, I was a little concerned about how I'd perform at this show. Additionally, it was to be the hottest day of the year, likely hitting mid-80s or higher. And though this venue's stage is outdoors, with shade, it is also walled up somewhat, causing a bit of a greenhouse effect. Luckily, one thing that did go right was the venue had a couple big fans they let us put on stage, so that helped.
Anyway, I have been feeling better and started a steroid treatment yesterday, which had me feeling really great today. I am still a little short of breath, but figured I'd be able to perform fine (spoiler alert: I did perform fine, happy with that). I packed up and headed out to White Center at just around 2pm for a 2:30 load in/soundcheck.
After our soundcheck debacle last week, which left us with no time to really check our levels, let alone get in the zone, I wanted plenty of time this time around. Which I got, as I showed up at about 2:20. I loaded in my basses, pedal bag and clothes and waited. Dusty was able to get his drums set up in record time, and Eric had his keys set up shortly after. Still no sound guy, but he literally rolled in (on a long board) just as Dennis showed up.
Because sound guy Tim had STAG sounding great last week, I figured we'd be OK this week. As it turns out, I was quite wrong. I don't know the whole gist of things, but it seemed he only had 4 auxiliary channels to pipe out monitor feeds, which meant two of us (me and Dennis) were going to have to use the same feed. And that also meant one of us (me) was going to have to use a floor wedge.
He also had the wrong or not enough cabling and there was a bunch of him running back and forth from the stage to the sound booth. It was weird and a little unprofessional. Not being a sound guy, however, I could only empathize with him as he was one guy trying to dial in a bunch of stuff. Weirdly, I did fill out a stage plot form earlier today (was only asked to do it then) and after the gig, I found out from Tim that he never saw or got that. Sounds like there was a lack of communication from booker to sound guy (just like last week!).
We were supposed to start playing at 4 and had prepped about 30 songs to go through. 4pm came and went and we didn't hit our first note until about 4:45. By then, we were pretty grumpy, and we were playing for free, but we didn't make too much of a stink; there was nowhere to hide and we are not so big that we can afford to burn any bridges.
We pretty much played all 15 songs of our first set. There were maybe 15-20 people in the outdoor area where we were. It was pretty sparse and most people just sat and listened. We did get nice applause after each song. I felt pretty good. I had my gold bass going into my B2Four FX pedal and I think the FOH sounded pretty decent. It sounded fairly crappy through the wedge, that also carried Jen's vox super loud, as well as Dennis' guitar. I could hear myself enough, but used my head voice to carry me; I think it was OK.
Performance-wise, I think we played way better than at the High Dive last week. Maybe it was because of no pressure and/or no people. Or maybe we were all annoyed by the time we played that we didn't care. I don't know.
Overall, I can think of worse ways to spend 5 hours on the nicest day of the year. If I wasn't gigging, I would've probably mowed the lawn. As it is, Marci and I mowed the front and side (she actually did most of it), as well as set up the deck. We'll do the rest of the yard tomorrow on Mother's Day (it's what she wants to do) and Hay is supposed to come visit as well.
