This was one of our only private gigs this year, and even then it wasn't really private. Which was fine, as it just meant more people.
I had thought we'd be playing at the Elliott Bay Yacht Club, but instead, we were playing for the marina, in a common space between two buildings adjacent to the yacht club. Lucky for us, the heatwave that gripped us early in the week and abated a bit and by the time I arrived at 5:30pm, though the sun was direct, the temp was only mid-to-upper 80's, so totally manageable, especially being right on the water.
We figured out where to set up and, since there was no proper stage or sound system, got to assembling the gear.
 |
| Audience viewpoint |
 |
| Some of our backdrop. Seattle is off to the left |
For the show, since I played my butter bass on the last one, this gig called for my gold L1K, and boy does it just sparkle in the sunlight! I couldn't stop staring at it, take a look.
 |
The Goldie in all its glory
|
 |
| Butter bass and Goldie bass |
We had a college kid named Aedean (I am unsure about the untraditional spelling) run sound, who has now run sound for us 3 times. He is perfectly nice and seemingly competent enough. But for whatever reason, even when the gear we use is all our own, whenever we take it from the space, what sounds fine there all of a sudden sounds weird. The main difference being we have PA speakers amplifying our sound to the masses, instead of just our IEMs.
Anyway, my mix was weird. I thought my bass was way loud, that Jen's vocals were over-effected with reverb. Most of the other stuff, like my vocal level, or Dennis' guitar, I could adjust with the iPad I brought. We did a quick soundcheck after setting up, then got dressed and ready to play.
Marci and I stopped at Goodwill earlier in the week after stopping there even earlier in the week. They had some shirts that I thought would be cool on stage, so I offered to pick them up for the boys. I got three and Eric and I wore them for the show.
 |
Notice the matching blue shades on my head
|
The gig was in support of the marina, who puts on Thursday night boat races or something. They set up a bunch of long tables, put out hot dog buns, condiments and drinks. There were two kids manning the gas grills, with what looked like 100 hot dogs on each grill. And opposite the food was the main attraction: free alcohol! I don't drink, but there are plenty that took advantage of the beer and wine available. No hot dog pix, but I ate 1.75 (had to dump the last bite as we were getting ready to play), and that was that.
I stood stage left and had people to my left walking down a path, and then going around the PA speaker to line up for food. Lots of kids dancing, people with dogs, and just general public enjoying the tunes. My mix was still strange, mainly because of the bleed through from the main speakers. I guess having silence at rehearsal does have its drawbacks, especially when you are no longer silent outside of the space.
We played a bunch of new songs as well, including "Love Will Find A Way" by Pablo Cruise (went well enough, but singer came in over guitar solo. I got in front of her to alert her and she backed off), "Come Sail Away" by Styx (love that song, 1/2 of it is a break, the other half after the piano part is riding the C all the way out), "You Make My Dreams" by Hall and Oates (needs some work. The backing vocal harms are challenging and we don't have the feel of the song just yet. I'm not playing straight 8th note octaves as the recording bassist did syncopated octaves with pauses. Maybe I need to straighten it out to feel it better) and "Lights" by Journey. We pulled that one out at dusk and the crowd loved it.
The rest of the set went pretty well, with people sticking around for the free booze. The fact that it was a perfect Seattle summer day didn't hurt either. But, alas, all good things must come to an end and by the time we finished, it was dark, with about 20 people left. Then it was the thankless task of tearing down and packing up. All in all, a fun night, some money was made, and I got to do what I love.
Next up, playing yacht rock on a decommissioned ferry, the Hiyu!
