Fun night at Tim's last night. Left the house around 5:55 for a 6:30 arrival time and pretty much arrived right on time. Best part of these early arrivals is the ample parking. I was backlining my amp for the other two bands, Full Life Crisis and the Riffbrokers, so I wanted to be there early enough. I brought the Orange and the 212, as well as the butter P and the SB2 as a backup.
Robb and Cass showed up shortly and we had a good time chopping it up, getting caught up on the past couple weeks. Cass's son Beckett broke his leg in San Diego last week playing soccer, so that was good to get caught up on. He's gonna be rehabbing and recovering for the next several months but should be OK.
I got to chat with Brian and Tom from Full Life Crisis for a bit, then with Heather and Nick of the Riffbrokers. I've played shows with them for the past 20 years or so. We aren't close necessarily, but we are always friendly when we see each other at shows. Great to get caught up with them, albeit briefly.
Last time we played Tim's, the stage was outdoors, but evidently some adjacent businesses have been less then neighborly when it came to the outdoor music after 10pm. They would complain and raised enough of a stink to force Tim's to move the stage indoors, where the sound could be better controlled. They took out half of their dining room and reconfigured the layout of the entire property to support it and it was actually really cool. They included a green room this time around!
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| Tim's Tavern: Together In Music! |
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| New stage setup |
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| The new green room |
After some pre-game chit chat, Full Life Crisis took the stage. With 2/3rds of the band made up of 1/2 of the Rallies (Lee on drums, Brian on guitar), they hit the ground running. Tom on bass played a beautiful Rickenbacker and held it down quite admirably. He played with a pick and sang leads on some songs. All three of the guys sang great together and they had a nice solid set. Lee is great at laying down a beat and Brian is a nice guitarist, he plays great leads and solos. Overall, very well done!
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| Full Life Crisis |
Before they started, I was surprised by my friend Chelsea, her husband, Brendan, and their friends, Breann and July (pronounced Julie). I've known Chelsea through work and I used to work with Brendan as well. They are huge music fans and I was really happy to see them and have some new friends to meet as well.
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Friends new and old
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After a quick set change, we started off. It was business as usual, but due to a conflict (had to pick Marci up at the airport) we bailed on practice the night before. As I started "Unraveled" with the band, I had that horrible realization that maybe we shouldn't have skipped. I missed notes, I felt out of sorts. It took about 3-4 songs before I felt better. I think part of it was also the monitors. Though the new Tim's setup is great, I couldn't hear much beyond Robb's vocals and guitar. I was right next to my amp so the bass sounded weird and I was futzing around with it all night. I had a camera set up on a nearby table and though my backing vox were loud in the mains, I was pitchy all over. Ugh. Overall, though, as they say, I am my worst critic, so I have to look at it through the crowd's eyes.
As far as the bass is concerned, I played the yellow P and maybe it's been too long since I've played it. The past several shows I've played the gold L1K and I figured I'd hit up the P. Something about the action I think was also throwing me off. The action is super low and picking at the strings, I kept missing notes and generally being uncomfortable. Or maybe I should've practiced the songs once or twice this week.
Anyway, all three of us slogged through mistakes and errors. There were stick drops, there were missed choruses, it was pretty funny. But on video, we looked and sounded good, so there's that. Our little fanclub at the table was vocal and gave us great energy. The people overall were quite enthusiastic, despite our self-inflicted wounds. Here's a screen capture of the video.
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| Nice bright stage at Tim's! |
After us were the Riffbrokers. Married folks, Nick and Heather, have been in the Seattle music scene for decades and their obvious familiarity and comfort comes through beautifully. Nick has this low-key clever stage banter, and Heather plays great bass lines and adds so much with her pretty backing vocals. It was her first time playing this Guild bass, which belongs to her pal Scott Sutherland.
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| The Riffbrokers |
During the RBs set, Nick kept shouting me out, going on about "GWON CHANG" this and "GWON CHANG" that. It was pretty funny. I think he realized that Robb was Robb Benson and he was amazed at how young he looked (Robb and Cass's band, Dear John Letters, had played with the RBs a lot in the past). Nick also called out the Lund Bros, since we played with them a lot in the '10s.
After the show, it was high-fives and hugs all around. I sat with the table and chatted via text and shouting in ears, enjoying the Riffbrokers and the company. It was great catching up with Chelsea and her hubs, hanging with Cass and Robb and talking with the other bands.
Brian from FLC came up and mentioned that he had played with the Lunds at the Skylark but I thought I wasn't in the band by then. However... after checking my info today, it turns out we did play together in 2010. Pretty cool stuff, just no recording of that one, other than a quick blog entry up in here somewhere.
Packed it up after that, drove home and in bed. The 4 gigs in July are over! Up next, 8/16 in Everett with the Sunset Grooves. Stay tuned.
