So Yummy: 01/24/2025, Planets in the Ocean at the Sunset

First show of the new year, with a nice line up and venue to kick things off... until one of the bands dropped out day of show.

even AI generated posters are weird

We had set up a show with Guest Directors (with Gary T on guitar from the Navins) and Patrons of Husbandry (with Rusty W on guitar/vox). Having the show at the Sunset was an added bonus. About the only thing we had issues with was the order, which had us headlining. Overall, not a big deal for me, but sort of a nitpicky thing for others in the band.

On the day of the show, I had the day off and soon heard that one of the members of Guest Directors was having a medical issue and as a result, they couldn't play. GD was offering up their bass rig and drums before dropping out, so some pivoting was needed. I ended up bringing the Orange and the Avatar 212.

We tried to get a last-minute replacement band and they were willing to play, but I was vetoed, which was sort of a bummer. We thought the other band might not bring people, but my thought was that's at least 4 more people and possibly more, but whatever, it was all good.

Come gig time, I drove out to Ballard and right in front of the Sunset, there was a spot! However, the car in front of me took it! But then the car right next to it backed out and your boy got the best parking spot he's ever gotten at the club. I loaded in and was gonna get ready for soundcheck...

Only to find out that the Patrons of Husbandry had already setup and bounced for dinner, meaning there was no way to get our stuff up there and we would get no soundcheck. No big deal, I suppose; PoH didn't get a soundcheck either.

Once PoH got started, there was a nice crowd. I had two people from work, who brought 4 additional people. Plus we had Mike and Amy (nice to see them twice this week!), Ted, Derrick and Monica, Nick, Jeff B, the Guest Directors (minus their bassist), Ben and Roger from Coool Babies, Jimmy C, Phil, and others. Those were just the regulars.

I've known Rusty from PoH for a long time, despite not knowing him hardly at all. Musician relationships are like that, unless you're in bands with them. You see them a few times a year at shows and the like, and that's about it. But it was really cool to reconnect with Rusty. He was in Seattle bands like Flop, Llama, the Fastbacks and I'm sure several others I'm forgetting. When I was in the Lund Bros in the 2000s, we played with Llama quite a few times and had all sorts of fun.

With PoH, they were a 4 piece, with both Rusty and Scott playing guitars and trading off on lead vocals. I met Ethan, their bassist, who had a killer P and Ampeg setup. He was solid and provided a great bottom end to the churning washy guitars that Rusty and Scott put out.

Patrons of Husbandry

Once PoH finished, we took the stage to a decent crowd, especially considering we had only two bands on the bill. My work friends, especially the young one (23 years old!), were quite appreciative. The young crew was energetic and noisy for both bands, and we enjoyed having them.

For this evening, I played the butter P and the aforementioned Orange and Avatar combo. Robb played his new Les Paul and had that amp cranked! He was stage left and wow, he was loud. I thought I was loud, but I had to be to hear it over that guitar.

We started off with a new set, one that Cass drafted, which was pretty cool. Nice to start off with different tunes, even though we have been playing the same 10-11 for the past few years. We could have done a few more tonight, but we haven't been practicing some of the original PITO songs from the COVID days.

Overall, the set had nice energy and the crowd seemed to like it a lot. I felt like I was pretty sloppy, missing notes here and there, forgetting that my long hair gets in my way and sometimes I simply can't see the frets and markers. On "Nomenclature," I took a huge dump at the end and missed out on about 2-4 bars where I just couldn't see what I was doing.

I set my phone off to the side and recorded our gig and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. It also caught all the goofy banter between songs. Robb gave me a nice shout out about being a Rush fan and the people also seemed to like that.

Sound-wise, after having nice sounds in the studio, the Orange did fine work at the Sunset. After listening back, I probably could've dialed in some more bottom end (was heavy on the mids for some reason), but overall, it worked pretty well. I should be seeing some FOH videos soon, as my camera was on the floor next to my feet, so bass was pretty up-front.

Nice night all the way around, made about $175 for the band, which is going into the song mixing budget.