5/2/2024 Sunset Grooves at the High Dive

1:20. That's how long it took me to get from work to the High Dive, a meager 17 or so miles away in Fremont. Sadly, I left work at 5:15 or so and despite taking the "toll road" at the cost of $6.50, traffic was insane.

Nevertheless, I showed up when I showed up and had a couple tacos next door at Red Star.

Carne asada taco, good. Carnitas taco, so-so.

I have not played the High Dive for maybe 5 years? Embers played there and that was a good crowd on a Saturday night. With Sunset Grooves and the Aqua-Nets going on a Thursday, no idea how the turnout would be.

Upon arrival, Jen had some old yacht rock clothes from the previous bassist: a couple pairs of jeans and a pair of shoes. There were women's white jeans (if I wrote "white women's jeans," it would look weird) and though they fit my waist and legs, they were cut weird and I took 'em off pretty fast. Dusty commented that it was always weird when Drew (former bassist) would wear them. There were some blue bell bottoms that fit me as well, along with a pair of green loafers of some sort. A size 9.5, so a little roomy for me, but workable. So, instead of the white pants/shoe combo, I wore the blue pants and green shoes.

Shoes had a lift, felt weird.

Eventually we got up for sound check and that was a bit of an event. The sound guy was nice enough, and competent, but he had to check the Aqua-Nets first, which comprised of 2 guitars, bass, drums, 2 keyboards, trumpet, sax and lead singer. They took a while. And with us, three of us used IEMs and that sort of made things a little more complicated for him. He indicated he was more mad at the booker (didn't tell him about the first huge band?) than frustrated with us (he was a little spicy), but ultimately, he did his job and got us dialed in eventually.

We changed into our costumes and realized that instead of the 100 minutes we planned for, we were getting 60, so we did some set editing on the fly. We kept the between song banter down and, not purposefully, started many of our songs several BPM faster than we should have.

I'm trying to institute a new way of communicating rushed tempos when playing a song. Last week, Dave told me to lean my body back as a way of telling him to slow down. I mentioned that to Dusty at rehearsal but didn't remind him at the gig. I don't know if it would have helped, but we started the set really fast. A two-song mashup of Styx's "Too Much Time on my Hands" followed by "My Life" by Billy Joel. Both a little too quick, if you ask me.

We haven't been on stage for 3 months and it showed a bit. Also, I may have to resort to stage volume/monitors instead of IEMs at clubs. I just can't get a great mix for my IEMs it feels like. I had some challenges hearing myself or too much of other things and it made for some sloppiness. Also, I do love wearing sunglasses on stage, but maybe not on the darker stages, like the High Dive. I couldn't see my notes at times and that also added to the mess.

Looks like this was during "Last Train to London"

But, I wasn't alone! Each of us made errors that were pretty audacious. But we made it through, cut some songs in the process and then got off to the stage to our adoring fans.

I actually had a couple people from work come out, as well as Sherri from Del Vox, who I'm playing with tonight for the first time. One guy was really effusive in his compliments. Usually I get a, "good show!" or a, "nice job," or something like that. This guy I think was fueled by maybe one or two too many beverages and was complimenting me like I was some sort of bass god. It went something like this (his name was Jason):

Jason: you were great!

Me: Thanks!

Jason: no, seriously, I'm in a band, my buddy over there is the drummer, and we could tell that you were awesome. You were the best person on stage and

Me (interrupting): Well, there are 4 others on sta--

Jason (interrupting): no, I know, but you were so good. Where do you play?

Me: I play around town, I'm playing tomorrow at the Bl--

Jason (interrupting): do you have a card? You were just so good...

And on and on. We had a couple handshakes and I was finally able to get off the stage to the greenroom, where I put my stuff away and got back into my normal clothes. I headed out to the bar a few minutes later and felt a tap on my shoulder:

Jason: are you that bass player? You are that bass player!

Me (chagrined): yup, that's me.

Jason: oh, man you were so great. Me and my friend over there...

Only this time, he had his companion take pictures of he and I, as well as some not so discreet selfies of her, with he and I behind. It was all sort of weird and comical at the same time.

Anyway, soon afterward, the Aqua-Nets jumped on stage, all 9 or so of them. I know Ric (trumpet) and Max (saxes) a little and mainly chatted with Ric before the show. Both of them had contributed on horns on one of our early Planets songs that Robb wrote. Ric is very friendly and always makes time to chat with me.

Having never seen the Aquas before, I had heard of them as a popular cover band around town. Dennis, the SG guitarist, used to play with them for years. They play hits from all over and generally were pretty good. In particular, Gretchen, the front woman, was excellent. She had excellent pitch and tone, and great stage presence. Apparently ehe'd recently had hip surgery (or something with her legs) and was a little hobbled, but otherwise, you'd never know if she didn't say anything.

Songs such as "September" by EWF, and "Don't Stop Believin'" were really elevated by Gretchen's vocals. I really loved what she brought to the band. Ric and Max are awesome too, especially since I never get to hear horns at any of our gigs, so it was fun.

The Aqua-Nets

After the set, I chatted some more with Ric, then packed up and headed home. 7+ hours away, apparently $50 generated ($250 total), taking away $6.50 for 520 toll and $15-ish for dinner. Don't want to think about the hourly rate (let alone buying gas this morning for $51.50), but I can't wait to do it all again tonight with Del Vox.