We have not been on stage since late November 2024. No gig offers, no party offers, it's been pretty dry. We didn't even rehearse again until Feb or something. When this gig came in, we weren't sure what to expect. There was a guarantee on pay ($1000), but it was a Thursday night free show, at a place far away from our normal spots.
I got the day off work and left home about 2:45pm for a 4:00 arrival time in Everett. GPS was pretty spot-on for timing as it took an 1:15 to travel about 35 miles. Dennis was there first and shared our name on the marquee.
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| Big stars, us |
Got primo parking in the big lot, loaded in via the elevator and got back in the big room. Which I remembered was the old Club Broadway, a place way back in the day where I played with one of my old bands, Grasshopper. We were in a battle of the bands, sometime in the mid-90s, I think. Story for another time.
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| Giant stage! |
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| P for set 1, G&L for set 2 |
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| Setting up for sound check |
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| Giant mirror |
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| Not part of the GR but adjacent |
I got upstairs and started getting set up. Evan took our order for dinner (burger for me), and shortly after soundchecking, we ate in the green room and then got changed.
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| Came to the green room, dinners were on the table! |
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| Burger: good. Bun: burnt. Fries: overdone. Overall, B-. |
As pictured above, I brought the 99 P bass in black and the L-1000 Gold. I would've likely played the P all night, but I wanted the detuner I have on the L1k to play "What a Fool Believes." We drop it down a full step and as a result, there's an Eb I have to hit, where I don't want to do a weird octave jump.
Anyway, when we got on stage, we didn't know what to expect from the crowd. Evan was very transparent while we were downstairs; he basically said they've been slow some nights and wouldn't be upset if we didn't draw well. He was cool about it, said we were guaranteed the $$ and just wanted us to have fun.
It's not like we had hundreds of people there. In fact, it was probably closer to 50-60, but after a few songs, they got into it and we had dancers for the second half of the first set, and then the entire second set. Mike and Amy were there, Marci's co-worker Tim, and then Bryan from work and his partner, Brenda. We had some SG regulars come (Allison and some others). The crowd was appreciative and had fun.
I had a good IEM mix at first. Loud on my own vox, bass sounded good. As the night wore on, and after I switched at break to the L1k, the mix got weird or my ears got tired. No clue. I could barely hear Dennis or Dusty's vocals, which is OK so I don't sing their notes, but I like to hear them for the most part. The L1k was quiet as well, so I had the sound guy bump that up.
We played decent. We started the first three songs super fast. Dusty counts them in and then commences playing faster than he counted in. We need to figure that out. I played decent. My vocals were decent. I still have a mental block on "Baby Come Back" for whatever reason. It's the starting note under the main vocal in the chorus. I can hit it by myself, but I have a hard time in the moment, even at rehearsal. Once I get past that part, I can sing the rest of the phrases, as well as the second "Baby come back," and the bridge. It's weird.
We played a few new songs, "Tide Is High" and "What a Fool Believes." Both were good, but WFB has such challenging vocals. As I couldn't hear Dusty & Dennis (I don't sing on that song), I don't know how it went, but my guess is that it still needs tightening up.
On "Ride Like the Wind," I had something weird happen with my right hand. It wasn't a cramp and I wasn't playing particularly hard or anything; maybe it was a stamina issue. But my middle finger wasn't working right. It felt like something was locking up (no pain) in my forearm, which kept me from being able to move my middle finger. Luckily I could do most of the playing with my index and ring fingers for a bit, and then my middle finger unlocked. I thought maybe it was because I was wearing a wristband on my forearm to keep from sticking to my bass. Come to think of it, something like that has happened before, but why do I think it was on my left hand?
Overall, it was a good night. Evan was very pleased with the turnout and our performance. He said we'd definitely be back. I think the Kings Hall has a lot of potential. It really is a cool venue and if they can get some great acts up there, I think more bands will want to play there. I hope he can keep growing it for us and the area.
Oh, last thing I forgot to mention. I've been having drama with someone about a free amp I got. I had BR try to repair it. It's been about 1.5 years now and I've written it off. Someone reached out to me and offered a free Peavey MiniMax 600 amp. He lived in Everett and met me at the venue to hand it to me. I played it a bit today and it is loud and will be a great addition to the amp fam. Thanks SharpCat!
