Gig report! 8/27/22 Sunset Grooves at Stoup Brewing

Gig number 2 with the yacht rock crew and things are coming along nicely. This gig was on the books for at least a month, maybe two, and at the last gig, our guitarist let us know he couldn't do it. Bummer, since he knew about the gig and knew he couldn't make it, just didn't let us know in time.

Enter another guitarist. Luckily our keyboard player is well-connected and introduced us to a guy who came out one Sunday and pretty much had 10 songs dialed. The following Sunday, he came out and had 10 more dialed. So in two weeks, guitarist had us feeling good enough to play the show.

The thing was, with 20 songs and a 3-hour window to fill, that meant we were playing the same set twice. It was a little worrisome, but we would come to find out, no one cared.

We weren't sure what to expect for the crowd. This place, if I recall correctly, hasn't had live music before and the photo we were showed of where we were supposed to play did not inspire confidence. We also had potential weather to worry about as it was outdoors and uncovered. It has been hot and beautiful in the Seattle area lately, but yesterday was the one day that rain was in the forecast. Though it did rain overnight, by the time we took the "stage," all we had to worry about was clouds and some humidity.

With regard to the aforementioned stage, we were able to convince the manager to allow us to setup rotated 90° from how they wanted us, so we would face the crowd, instead of playing in the corner. They were great and helped us get the space situated properly.

They had wanted us under that area to the right, we moved to where you see now

I've been having second thoughts about my bass rig for a few weeks now. So much so that when I was in GJ last week, I randomly hooked up with a guy (that sounds wrong) that I met on the internet (even worse) because he owned a bass cabinet I wanted to try. Found him on TalkBass and reached out and he was kind enough to let me come over.

But, I digress. I bring that up because I decided to go with my Avatar 210 cabinet and Trace only, no 15" cabinet underneath. I would have PA support, so the 210 was more just to have something behind me. Here's what I brought:

G&L L-1000 CLF reissue > SABDI > TE AH200 GP12 > Avatar 210

I have been using my wired in-ears for monitors and I think I need to use a wedge instead. I do like the sounds I get but I have such a hard time dialing in all the vocals and stuff. I had my vocals and the singer's vocals up but could barely hear my drummer and keyboards, who also sing. Some songs I am strong on, others, not so strong and I hate having that lack of confidence on stage. I will try to use a wedge at practice next week to see how it goes.

Setlist

Anyhow, we started the set and problem #1 for me is last week, we switched a harmony that I've been singing just fine to something else. I can do it to the recording, or by myself on bass, but man, I had a hard time doing it live. Part of it is because it's an octave below the note the drummer is singing and the other part was I couldn't hear him in my mix, so double whammy.

Problem #2 was in song #2, Baby Come Back, where I sing the high harms on the chorus. I can barely hit them as it is and without much of a warm up, it was rough to my ears. Also, I forgot to grab a pick, so I had to play fingers on this, but that wasn't much of an issue.

Overall, a good time was had. I stopped by Goodwill in the morning looking for some yachting appropriate pants and I think I found some. I wore an old shirt with sailboats on it that my late father-in-law (RIP Ted) gave me, as well as his shoes. Overall, it looked pretty good, until I saw how our new guitarist showed up. He had tassels on his shoes!

Crowd-wise, we didn't know what to expect. We thought it would be mainly people sitting and talking with us being background music. For some, that's what it was; there were people on the other side of the fence in the above picture, drinking, hanging out, talking. However, in front of us, we had a nice crowd, maybe 75-100 people drinking and dancing and really enjoying themselves. We were pleasantly surprised about all that.

We finished the first set, took a quick break, and started the same set all over again. I felt looser this time around and surprisingly felt more comfortable. I didn't realize I wasn't comfortable until the second set. Huh. But still had some troubles with the mix and hearing my notes. Sometimes I get mixed up because the drummer and I will gravitate towards the same note. I take notes and am pretty sure I'm singing what we've decided on, but during the song, it's hard for me to switch on the fly.

A great day for playing outdoors! The crowd loved us and we got some great feedback. My drummer from my originals band and his family came to watch, as did my wife and daughter. We all met up at my drummer's incredible house after for dinner and some nice hang time. A great way to spend a Saturday!

Alcohol and me

Speaking of Grand Junction, last week when we were there at the pizza joint, Marci got a hard cider. I, a non-drinker, asked for a sip and, it wasn't bad.

I don't drink/drink very very little because I am allergic to alcohol. My face turns red, I get hot, my heart pounds and generally I feel cruddy. So if and when I drink, I tend to drink very little, maybe once or twice a year. And only one drink at a time. Not beer, usually something sweet.

Anyway, the hard cider she had, I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't bad. I generally do not like the alcohol taste after swallowing, so not drinking also gives me that benefit.

Fast forward to the weekend we got home and we were grocery shopping. I figured, why not, let's pick up some hard cider. We got something with lemonade and guava and brought it home. That night, her and I split a 12oz can and it was not bad. It was hot out and the drink tasted nice enough. I didn't get a buzz or anything but I could feel my face get warm and my eyes feel tight (don't know how else to explain it).

A few nights later after dinner, I was settling down to watch the Mariners' game and figured I'd be ok having another can. Full one this time. I figured I had food in my stomach and things would be fine.

Little did I know that after drinking it like a soda (way too fast) that things would not be fine. I started feeling weird, my heart felt like it was pounding out of my chest, my head felt stuffy and fuzzy. No buzz, just felt physically gross. I laid down on the couch and tried to rest and it was tough. Heart pounding more than anything else. Soles of feet were itchy, too, I remember.

Anyway, eventually after an hour or so, it wore off. After looking at the box the cider came in, I realized the alcohol volume was 6.9%! No wonder my ass was kicked. That cider had more alcohol in it than I drink in a year.

Blah. Felt gross.

Then tonight, I figured I share one with Marci; that seems to be more my speed. Had it at dinner, polished it off and Haley said she wanted to try it. There were a few drops left, so I let her do it. Then she's all, "That's not so bad," which in my mind meant, "I've had worse," and we just sort of let it go.

After a few more minutes of internally trying not to freak out or anything, she came out and said that she'd done shots of vodka before, as well as had cider. I'll spare the details of how the vodka made her feel, but let's just say she didn't feel great.

It was cool to have an "adult" conversation with her, though, without either Marci or I freaking out. Nice that Hay trusted us to tell us about it. It was less of a confession and more of her sharing an experience.

I did go slightly Dad mode and told her to be wary of drinking stuff offered from strangers, but she seemed pretty aware of that sort of stuff. At least she didn't roll her eyes or get grumpy about it.

I think once these ciders are done, I'm also done with cider. I'll stick to water and pops and a sip here and there of other people's drinks.

Off to college

While I can still remember it, wanted to drop a recap of last week, when we took some time off to drop Riley off at college. Memory was never great, but it definitely ain't what it used to be... Let's rewind.

In high school, Riley fell in love with theater, both performing on stage and doing tech work behind the scenes, so scientifically, that meant using the following search terms in Google:

• good theater college near WA

Super complex, right? So that meant, over the past year and change we took Riley to visit Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR; Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA; Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA; and, of all places, Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, CO.

Rather than going through all the schools, let's cut to the chase. Riley ended up choosing CMU after he and I visited there this past April. Back then, we flew from Seattle to Denver (broncos country, let's ride [so dumb, thanks russ]), then drove 4 hours west to Grand Junction.

Having never been to Colorado, it was pretty cool, though I could've done without a 4 hour drive. Unfortunately, though there is a little regional airport in GJ, there are no direct flights from Seattle to GJ. Instead, one must fly from SEA to PHX to GJT, or to Denver, as we did. However, now that we've done the drive, we told Rye that if/when he wants to come home, he/we're gonna have to split the cost and pay the extra $$ to fly.

But, as usual, I digress.

Last week, Marci and Rye flew out first, then Haley and I followed on Wednesday. Originally I was going to drive to CA with Haley again, but due to her choosing not to return to Concordia, we ended up crashing Riley's goodbye party in GJ. Luckily, we had booked an Airbnb for them that had enough room for the 4 of us, so that worked out well.

After Hay and I arrived, we got situated at the Airbnb and went to (checks pictures 'cause I can't remember), ah yes, dinner, at a local pizza place called Pablo's Pizza. The girls got their gluten free on and Riley was pleased to learn they offer student discounted special for CMU kids.

Airbnb room for the kids

Wide angle pix are weird

I got to take a run the next morning. Having been to GJ in April, I remembered the layout a bit. We stayed just north of their downtown area. Think of Old Bellevue, only bigger. The main street, called Main Street, runs east-west and many of their shops and restaurants are right there. Just south of there is the Colorado River and then beyond that, who knows; we never ventured that far. But on my run, I got to the river and ran down it for a bit before heading back for our big day of college shopping.

First thing I saw was a tipped over car

Cool Little Free Library

Unsure why this Land Cruiser is parked up there, but it is

The rest of the day, we spent going back and from the school to stores to prep Riley's dorm. His room is on the 5th floor of his dorm (top floor!), and is in a suite format. Main door opens to a small shared hallway, off of which are two separate dorm rooms. At one end of the hall is a bathroom counter/sink/mirror, and off the side of that is the shower/toilet. Four students get to share that with two students per room.

We loaded up our rental car with what Marci and Riley had picked up already and got moving to his dorm. The school had a bunch of other kids there helping with the move in. We all grabbed stuff and then got on the world's slowest elevator up to the 5th floor. Evidently this building's elevator is notorious for being slow and has a bad reputation because of it. Because I'm a dad, I timed a trip down and it took 3.5 minutes. The kids said sometimes it stops at every floor even if no one presses the buttons. Maybe it's haunted.

Sometime on one of these days, we met Riley's roommate Justin. We had heard he was from Namibia but moved to the US a few years ago. He was a strapping young lad, blond haired, blue eyed and super polite and friendly. I'm excited for Riley to get to know this guy and vice versa. They appear to be a good fit.

While we were in GJ, despite having an Airbnb with a kitchen and the ability to buy food to prepare there, we ate out SO MUCH. In fact, the whole time we were there, I think we ate in the house one time. The rest of the meals were out and about. Part of me was horrified (there goes my budget), but part of me was thankful that we were able to just enjoy and not worry too much about it. As I get older, I am starting to justify spending $$ instead of having it just to have it. I attempt to remain judicious with important stuff, but I'm trying to balance more around experiences and events. After all, if we have more $$ and choose not to utilize it to enrich our lives and experiences, then why have it?

The rest of our time in GJ was spent just hanging around and making sure we set Riley up as much as possible to be on his own. We ended up getting him a bike and took him out to brunch on Saturday for his 18th birthday. Haley spent a lot of time with Riley meeting his new friends, it was pretty cool. Marci and I took some time to walk around GJ and did what empty nesters do: visit antique shops. We also, without Riley, got to drive through the Colorado National Monument. That was wicked and cool and confirmed that I still hate heights.

Test riding a used bike

After purchasing said used bike

Haley was too close to the edge for my comfort

Instagram's version of BeReal

Pins found at an antique shop, did not buy

Figurines found at antique shop, did not buy

We finally left Saturday afternoon, for a quick 30 minute flight to Denver, then a 2.5hr flight back home to Seattle. Before leaving, of course, we said our goodbyes to Riley. Me and Haley made it through ok but Marci was pretty sad. She's had a rough year with a lot of transitions and changes, plus, now she's losing her baby boy to young man-hood. But she was able to tough it out after some tears and we got home in one piece.

Now, a week later, we haven't really caught up to Riley yet. At least Marci and I haven't. Hay talks to him on daily basis. I've been texting pictures of Kody and about the Mariners games (he finally is understanding and enjoying baseball: thank you J-Rod!). He's been super busy with first week stuff and meeting people and going to classes and auditioning for things. He's also not the best conversationalist with Marci and I, but we'll force some words out of him.

For now, it's dinner time and we'll call him later to see what's up.

Go Mavs!

Pictures from Tony V's Garage

that stage was super hot

taking off or landing, can't tell

 

Gig report! 8/6/2022, Sunset Grooves at Broadmoor Golf Club

Last night was my debut voyage with my yacht rock cover band, the Sunset Grooves. I joined them sometime in April (?) as my originals band was breaking up. We've had a good amount of rehearsals to get geared up for last night, a private booking at a swanky golf club a few miles away from the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

Beautiful weather for the gig, perfectly sunny and warm, with temps in the 75-80° range, as well as a nice breeze throughout the night.

 
I don't golf, and I am not swanky, so I was out of my element x 2, but I was plenty impressed with the sights.

The BL and LS, who are also partners, had the lion's share of the work. They had to haul out his drums, as well as the PA, sub, mixer, lights and all sorts of cables. The rest of us loaded up and got set up in an hour or so.

I was able to see how the other half of the other half lives at this golf club. Lots of beautiful people with their swanky gear on. Lots of food, and you'd think they'd be able to give us some. Don't get me wrong, they did, but it was not as great as we thought it would be. No pictures, so use your imagination: piece of halibut, piece of steak, asparagus, salad, tomatoes. At least they got us some food.

We were doing two sets of tunes, 26 songs in all. I neglected to take a picture of the set list, but for me, it was the most songs I'd ever played live. Not only that, I was using IEMs for the first time live, as well as my bass rig for some thump. The sub was adjacent to me, so having that reinforcement was pretty cool too.


We all put on our yacht rock garb and took the floor right around 8pm. We started with Steal Away (Robbie Dupree) and into Baby Come Back (Player). I get the pleasure/torture of singing the high backing vox on BCB and I had a hard time hitting them. Don't know if it was not being warmed up, nerves, being outside, or what, but it's at the tippity top of my range and even on a good day, it's pretty thin sounding.

However, for those that know the song, it's the $$$ note on the harmonies, and we gotta have them. And remember the IEMs I mentioned? They worked great, but there's something about hearing yourself super clear and not the other vocals that throws me off. Something about the mental aural math isn't clicking just yet, but I did settle in throughout the set.

We had a guy running sound for us and he was great. We did have one little trainwreck in Rich Girl (Hall and Oates) where half of us transitioned to one part and the other half kept trucking along. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but somehow we made it out alive.

People were on the floor dancing and really having a good time. The dance floor was sort of small so they were right up on us, but for the most part, we were there to provide a vehicle for their movement; we weren't there to be watched.

After 13 songs, we took a quick break and enjoyed the ambiance for a bit, and then dove back in with the rest of the set. It all went really well until Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (Rod Stewart). I can play it, but the repeated octave disco riff for the nearly 5 minute song is quite the challenge. My hand was aching at the end of it.

At the end of the set, we got the "one more song" chant, but sadly, we don't have other tunes dialed in yet. Due to schedule conflicts and travel, our practices have been sporadic and only based on running our set. The crowd wanted us to play some requests (we don't) or have someone sing with us (no thanks), so we played a song we had done already. We also busted out a hack version of Freebird, of all things, which the drunk crowd enjoyed.

Finally, at the end of the night, we tore everything down. The poor BL/LS combo not only had to take two carloads of gear home, they had to move it into the house to keep it all secure. I, on the other hand, drove in the garage and went to bed. I don't envy them.

All in all, a fun night for me. Tiring, but had a great time playing songs everyone knows and loves.

Gig report! 8/5/2022, Kathy Moore Band at Tony V's Garage

First gig in August is in the books. Made the 35 minute drive to Everett, WA (north of Seattle) for a show at Tony V's Garage. It was to be a night of hard rock, with me in Kathy Moore's band, alongside the bands Aisha and Trip The Wire. All 3 bands featured women fronting them, which is pretty dang cool. Here they all are in a pre-show photo shoot.

I showed up around 7:30 and found Kathy and Gregg, the drummer, pretty much all set up. I then had the ultimate pleasure of meeting the security guy, Steve, who, resembling a Samuel L. Jackson from the Pulp Fiction days, proceeded to go over his rules with me.

1. No Glass On Stage. That we could have the plastic water bottles they provided, but no glass on stage. And then he pointed at the sign:
2. First note starts at 9pm. Not before, not after, but at 9pm.
3. When you are done, you break down side stage and then move your stuff to the side.

There were other rules, like no talking on stage before your set, and only leaving as a group, not individually, but it was good to have ground rules. It sort of made me wish all clubs had a Steve. He was stern without being arrogant, and he really had everyone's best interests in mind, not just his.

But I digress.

Though I have played with Gregg dozens of times in other projects, this was only our fourth time playing together with Kathy. We had an hour long practice on Thursday to prep for last night's show. We did a quick soundcheck with the glacially slow sound engineer, who, despite asking what we wanted to hear in our floor monitors, didn't do much to make that happen. I wanted vocals, bass and guitar in my wedges and don't think I got much of any.

Kathy is an incredible guitarist (she gets frequently commented on her FB page by one of her idols, Robert Fripp!) and me and Gregg basically lay back and support her by seeing/hearing what she's doing. In most songs, she will go off, which gives us license to do so as well. What it's made me realize is that I need some more chops. I tend to rely on the same patterns and moves to get by. I'm trying to use space (dropping out) and simplicity as well. It really is challenging and a lot of fun.

Additionally, since it was a hard rock show (lots of cut off sleeves and torn jeans last night), I had to bring some energy. I tend to move a bit but I like it to be organic and not forced. My greatest fear is that I come off like I'm trying too hard. As I couldn't see myself, I'll have to wait for pix and or video (there were a bunch of photogs last night) to see how it looked.

Overall, the performance was fun and I'm hoping to develop more stage chemistry with Kathy. We tend to do our own thing on stage, but it's always cool to have interaction between bandmates.

Here's my gear and the stage.

After tearing down (per Steve's rules), got some nice comments from the crowd and other bands. We then sat through an incredibly awkward setup of the next band, thanks to the slow sound guy (lots of dead, quiet air), and then watched Aisha destroy with her band. Diminutive singer behind a sparkly guitar who just belted. Her counterpart on bass played through a P and an Ampeg cab (didn't see the head) and was super solid and competent, if a little subdued. They did the hard rock thing well. I'd love to hear Aisha in a different context, though; she has an incredible voice.



We all left before the last band, but based on what I heard from the web, they should have been pretty good as well. Overall a great night and happy to share the stage with Kathy and Gregg again.

Next up, a gig with my yacht rock band, the Sunset Grooves. This is our debut show and we kick it off tonight, at a local golf club. Should be really interesting! Will save the details for the next gig report.

Trip to Boston

In the middle of a Seattle heatwave, I traveled to Boston in the middle of an East Coast heatwave. All for work, so outside of the painful travel time, everything was paid for. I have been to Boston before, but it was sometime in the late 2000s and I don't remember much of it at all. There are pictures of us at Fenway, but that was about it.

Flight was uneventful, but long. 4.5 hrs in the middle seat, with babies in front and behind me, but really, they were great. Hardly knew they were even there.

Note to self: download more music/podcasts onto phone before traveling. I keep forgetting to do so and end up trying to d/l a bunch of stuff while waiting to take off. Luckily, I had two Elle Macho records to keep me happy. A handful of podcasts as well. Turns out, I didn't end up reading much, or sleeping, so I have no idea how I passed the time, to be honest.

Boston was HOT. Like 93° hot, and muggy too!  A quick Uber ride got me to the beautiful Omni Seaport hotel and off I went to the 19th floor, where my window looked directly at the BCEC (Boston Convention and Event Center). I had a late dinner at the sports bar in the hotel (tasty burger and fries) and then called it a night.

Day 1 started early, with call-time at 6am. I met up with Crystal, Brittany, Ashiana, Amanda, Ashley, Marisa, Mari and others, but those were the main players. There were other folks there as well, but I can't remember them all.

The days were long and fairly uneventful and I'm not gonna focus on work stuff here. After work, however, I took my stuff to the hotel and then took a walk towards the water, where I found a seafood restaurant called Legal Sea Food, right on the water. I couldn't see it, though as I ate at a bar facing the kitchen.

I got a lobster roll at market price. It was big and tasty, but I don't know if it was worth $39.00.

$39.00?? I'm paying for labor here, not the food.

My plan was to make it back in time to watch Better Call Saul, but I was about 20 minutes late, so had to wait for the later showing, which started at about 10:15 or so. Trouble was, I was whipped from being up so early, so I didn't make it through, so I went to bed instead.

Day 2 was early again and after work, a dinner was planned about a mile away. Another beautiful day and I ended walking to the restaurant, which was called Shojo, located in the Chinatown district. I thought it was a Japanese restaurant, but I was wrong. Awkward.

The walk was nice; breezy and warm, but ultimately fine. That area of Boston around the BCEC the way to Chinatown was clean and fairly free of homeless people. Lots of things to see and I enjoyed the walk there, the hang at the restaurant, and the walk back at night.

The enormous BCEC.

One entrance to Chinatown.

Chinatown flavor.

Picture of photoshoot.

The BCEC.

First course at Shojo.

For day 3, I was told to come in a little later, this time at 8. I showed at 8 and was told I could come back at 9, so I hit up the Dunkin' Donuts around the corner for a cinnamon bun and maple bar and coffee and it was great.

Work came and went and afterwards, I had to get a run in, so I ran to Fenway Park, about 3 miles away. The run took me through some cool-ass neighborhoods and areas. Left with some daylight, got back about an hour later in the dark. I cooled off, went up to the room, showered and packed.

Rando church.

Left the next day, took a long flight and got home. Enjoyed my time in Boston, spent a bunch of Am@z0n money to sleep and eat and looking forward to next time.