8/16/25, Sunset Grooves at El Sid

We played the big room at Kings Hall a few months ago and made enough of an impression to get us invited back, this time to kick off their new, smaller room downstairs. El Sid opened last week, a "punk" themed room in the giant building known as Kings Hall.

outdoor decorations at Kings Hall

We saw a local business rag's post about El Sid last week. It was a nice enough little fluff piece, but there were some disparaging comments underneath about the "punk" aesthetic. The room itself isn't punk, necessarily, but more of a vintage vibe bar with a bunch of framed photos of punk pioneers. Some cool art and lighting and that was it. The comments were lame, the room was cool enough and the people were great.

Punk or not?

I did enjoy this wallpaper, yes.

Lucky for us, and unbeknownst to us, a local high school was holding their 20th year reunion there, for the class of 2005. It sort of blew my mind that 20 years is a long time, and then I had an additional 15 years on those grads. I count it as lucky because without the 60 or so people there, it might have been a pretty lonely night in that room. Side note, as I was walking to our green room, I heard my name and turned and saw a woman I used to work with about 13 years ago. We work for the same large tech company, only she's thriving and I'm simply surviving. Turns out she was attending that class reunion with a friend, only because the friend was giving her "cool bird facts."

We did a quick setup on stage and then absconded to the aforementioned green room, where, as they did last time, hospitality treated us all to dinner and drinks. As with last time, I got the burger and it was great.

Lots o fries.

Cool stool.

After eating, we got dressed and did a quick sound check. Awkwardly, we didn't do it before the reunioners showed up, so we had to do so as they were all lined up next to us getting drinks from the poor single bartender in the room. Also, being that this is a newer room, they don't have a permanent PA set up yet, so it's akin to what we use when we do private parties; a couple Mackie PA speakers on stands and I think a sub in the corner. The mixing board is awkwardly also in that same corner and the poor sound engineer needs to squeeze himself past whomever is on stage right there to access it.

Stage is to the left of the arch.

Our stage. Me, Jen and Dennis stood on the floor most of the night.

Played the Hog all night. There's the sound mixer to the left.

My setup was same as usual, B2Four with the G&L L-1000. IEMs for monitoring audio and Ethan, the sound guy, dialed me in pretty well enough. It's tough when the PA speaker was right next to my head, but I could hear what I needed to. In fact, I thought my vocals were more prominent than I usually have them at rehearsal.

I felt like I played pretty well. I had planned on running some songs during the day but ran out of time. As we started our set, though all the songs are memorized, I had to let muscle memory take over; if I thought about it too much, that could've been a problem. Luckily, things worked out fine.

The stage setup was a little snug. I had to be aware of Jen next to me, I didn't want to hit her with my headstock. When I wasn't singing, I'd jump on the stage, so that gave her some more room. For the first time in a few years, Marci and Haley came to the show, mainly because Hay's roommate Siri and her family (they live in the area) came by as well. I guess Siri's mom had bought 8 tickets, but only 3 people (her, Siri and Dad) came. Oh well, we still get paid, I guess.

We powered through set one, took a quick break, then made our way through set two. The class reunion pretty much flowed in and out between our barroom and the room adjacent. Sometimes it was light, but Jen did a great job interfacing with people and bringing them into our area.

Not sure what our take home was last night, but we ran into the owner and he liked what we did, so we'll probably be back. He admitted that he's a construction guy and knows nothing about marketing and promotion. I think they could have a nice thing going there, it seems to be one of the few spots in town, but he really does need someone to help him figure out that aspect of things.

Nice night, happy to play for my girls, run into an old friend and play tunes with my mates.

Up next, Planets in the Ocean at the Central.