This party popped up fairly recently, like within the last month or so. A woman wanted us to play her party, having found us on Gigsalad or something that we post on. She wanted 70s and disco but after seeing our set list, she decided to give us a try. All we knew was that she lived in a huge house and the party would be in her backyard.
Lucky for me, it was a rare local gig, being only 6 miles or so from home. I made the 15-minute drive and got there first. After doing some Zillow snooping earlier in the week, we saw that the client's house was valued at $6 million, after having purchased it for $3 million a few years earlier. Not a bad increase, I suppose! It definitely was very nice, with a nice sized yard, but not my style, who cares?
I brought the same gear as the night before, Goldie and the Hog, same pedal, all of it but wardrobe. As this was a disco themed party and I don't have any disco gear, I brought my flamingo suit and would play it by ear. Lisa showed me to our "green room," which was their guest bedroom with en suite and we were ready to get ready.
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Back of the house, view from the "stage"
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The rest of the crew showed up and we did the thankless job of loading our gear again. Luckily, they had a cart and a relatively direct way to the backyard that wasn't too obnoxious. We were told they had a food truck on the way and to me, that was the most exciting part of the night. And the weather, it was perfect, definitely less cool than the night before.
We had Isku, the sound guy who ran our show at the Central last week, and he was great. Personable, super helpful in all ways (setup, sound, teardown) and wasn't weird about anything. We'll be using him again.
Setup was fine, we had a quick soundcheck. My main issue with where we were staged was the uneven lawn. I mean, I could stand fine, but it was a little lumpy in spots; it just made it awkward at times. Not a big deal. IEMs were the MVP again, as the mix was untouched from the night before. We really should bring our rig with us. It makes it so much easier and more efficient.
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| Still getting ready. |
Following setup, it was time to get some grub. The food truck was there and we were helped by a wonderful order taker. No picture of her, but she was super kind and friendly. I ordered the quesabirria plate and vowed to return for churros after our first set.
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| Thank you Isidiro's! |
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| Eric with the burrito stank face. |
Dinner conquered, it was onto getting dressed and then on with the show. The set was a three-pager, pretty daunting. My fingers were still a little tender from the night before, but what are you gonna do?
Fortunately for us, we didn't do them all. We were a little concerned going in as the party was disco themed, even with the words "DISCO FEVER" spelled out in huge letters on the lawn. We are not a disco band and though we did a few, we were left to present the songs we know. That being said, this truly was more of us simply being background noise as the partygoers were just on the lawn talking, drinking and partying. We never had more than 2-3 dancers at a time and for the second time (the first time being last night), we had people from the crowd join us to sing some songs. Both nights, it was "My Life." At Sand Point, the guy was pretty good, could keep a melody at least. Last night, it was more comedic; no melodies were kept but the effort and energy was an A+. Highly entertaining.
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| DISCO FEVER |
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| Earlier in the party, guest of honor on the right |
It was a long night. Being pretty close to the lake, any of our bags and cases on the grass were a little damp by load out time. No lighting made it awkward too. Everyone not in the band was pretty well toasted. I was walking into the house and I hear someone say, "Steve Aoki." I looked over at a woman who then says, "You look just like Steve Aoki... That's a cool thing, he's awesome." I wasn't sure how to react. I'm not one to get offended, and I her intent wasn't to offend, but it was just weird. Plus, I'm not that great with small talk in a party situation. My bro came by and he talked to her, so I bounced.
Sound-wise, I watched a video back of what we did. Instrumentally, Isku had us dialed pretty good. Vocally, I was really down in the mix. I like to hear how I do overall, good or bad, but it seemed pretty quiet to me. From what I could hear at nearly 1AM after I got home, it was ok. I'm putting it on the PC now to take a closer look and listen.
In the meantime, it was a fun and busy weekend. I hope to be +$800 in my band bank account in the next few days as a result. I love to play, but man, by the end of last night, I was feeling it for sure. Jen did a great job with the limited energy she was getting back from the crowd. She's gotten great at clever segue ways and putting herself out there with her wireless mic. Eric was on night 3 in a row of shows, he had his Dream Commander thing on Thursday night, so he definitely was feeling it. Dennis busted out the slide guitar whilst Dusty sang and played acoustic on a couple songs. Eric moved to drums for those as well. I just wanted to play and sing well and I think I generally accomplished it, as long as the crowd was as inattentive as they were.
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| The flamingo suit strikes again! |
Overall, I'll take it! Next up, Planets at Tim's Tavern on Friday!
