2026-03-06 Greg Hoy & the Boys at the Skylark

Last night was night one of what I'm calling our SEATAC tour. It was the Seattle portion, of course. I left plenty early, at 5:30, expecting horrible traffic. Instead, it wasn't too bad, so I showed up close to 6. I figured I'd get there early since we were sound checking at 7 and I wanted to eat before I lost track of time.

I pulled into the lot and the Full Life Crisis boys, Lee, Tom and Brian, were there loading in. I headed in and it was my first time back to the Skylark in I don't know how many years, maybe 2016 with the Scheme?

Part of GHTB included Max and Ric on sax and trumpet, respectively. It all came together quite nicely, with me doing most of the coordinating. Greg had a booking agent get some clubs on the tour, but he asked if I knew any horns. Of course I thought of Max and Ric and luckily they could do it. Then he asked if I knew any bands, so I asked FLC and Square Peg, both of which could also do it. So that was that, easy peasy.

I caught up with Dave, Ric, Steve and Steve from Square Peg. Greg's wife and his daughter were there as well, since it was all ages until 10pm. Greg's wife worked at Open AI and she brought a bunch of people. FLC is from West Seattle and they always bring a small crew. Overall, it was a pretty good draw.

I grabbed a smoked chicken sandwich and tore that up before hitting the stage for soundcheck. I hemmed and hawed on what bass to bring and ended up bringing the butter bass to play through Tom's Ampeg combo.

tasty chicken sandwich

The gear

Half of Max and Ric

Dave and Greg and I practiced a few nights ago and it went fine. We didn't practice with Max and Ric and it was fine. They had charts and we did a quick soundcheck with "Highway 101," which starts with horns, and it was great. The amp sounded great and overall, I was happy with what I heard.

Greg was hurting a bit; the night before, he fell on a sidewalk in Seattle and twisted up his ankle. He had a brace on his foot and was hobbling around a bit and hurting, but he soldiered on. It didn't affect his voice or guitar playing, so we were good on that front.

Before long, we hit the ground running and it was great. Despite the injury, Greg has fun stage presence. Max and Ric were center stage and I was in the corner. I could hear everything pretty well, except Greg's guitar, which was OK. We banged through some songs and they were all pretty good. No real trainwrecks or screw ups. The horns sounded great and were a lot of fun to play with. Overall, happy with the performance and people ate it up.

Greg and the Boys

Full Life Crisis followed us. They put on a solid set, with all 3 dudes singing a song during the set. Lee said it was his first time singing lead on a song; the guys had written a song and told him he had to sing it. Tom played a Ric and it sounded great. I don't know if I'd want that Ric clank and growl to be my sound, but it worked for him and he played it really well. Brian is a great player and a suprisingly good singer as well. He's cool and I've really enjoyed getting to know him the past year or so. They put on a great set with a wide variety of musical influences.

FLC

Square Peg closed out the night with an energetic and loose set. Dan on drums is fun to watch and listen to. He seems to be close to losing at all times, but it always works out. Steve N. surprised me with his vocals. There was a few times when he had to hit a big note and he did. Bob and Steve R. were solid, as expected. Those guys have been around a bit and know what's up and how to best compliment their songs.

Square Peg

When it was all said and done, I loaded out and headed home only to find I-90 east was blocked off. Had to go around and pay the toll on 520, so I wasn't thrilled about that. Next time I should check the GPS before making the drive. Don't know what the band made, expect I'll get paid by Greg tonight when we do it again at the New Frontier.