Gig report: 8/26/23 Planets in the Ocean at the Blue Moon

I'm guessing in any town where there's bands, there's that one legendary club/bar that everyone has played, but no one really wants to play. That's where we ended up playing last night.

The Blue Moon is in the University District of Seattle and is pretty much the picture-perfect definition of what a "dive bar" is. Opened in 1934, it looks like it hasn't been updated since then. I'll spare the details, but when Marci is even saying she wouldn't go there (and she doesn't go to many shows these days), that's saying something.

That said, aside from it being a bit grungy inside and outside, the spirit and sound were good, as were the people. But, no food there, so prior to my arrival, I stopped by Dick's for a couple Specials, fries and a Coke, and devoured them using my trunk as a table.

Better than In-n-Out. Fight me.

Tummy satisfied, I drove the .5 miles to the Blue Moon, loaded in, parked around the corner, and headed in. There was some confusion around start times prior to the show; the poster said doors were at 8, show at 9, but Robb had wanted to start earlier, with doors at 7 and show at 8. Then the club wanted us to do what the poster said. It was dumb; ain't nobody got time for that.

Anyway, we ended up not starting until about 8:45 or so, whatever. Sun Tunnels kicked it off with some mellow indie rock. Three-piece: guitar, bass and drums. The singer/guitarist was under the weather and either he felt really gross or he was just not super demonstrative on stage. Nor was the bassist. Both dudes pretty subdued. The tunes were decent and unique enough and there were moments of glimmer in the tunes that sounded good.

The bassist played an old P through an old GK and a 15" Schroeder cab. He had some pedals on the floor and his bass sounded nice and gnarly. Dug it.

We jumped on stage next and got setup. I brought the Avatar 212 and Terror Bass, along with the Hog. The night before at practice I had a pretty aggressive sound dialed in, but that was with the Trace and the 210/115 setup. I like the flexibility of having the Orange/212 setup, but I don't think I've had enough time with it to fully understand it.

We started playing and it was just so boomy. I immediately realized it was because I was right next to the subwoofer. Anytime I'd play a note and let it ring, it played some deep bottom underneath the note. I tried to turn down my bass and increase the mids, but on stage, it sounded pretty muddy. But I soldiered on.

With Planets and me playing with pick on nearly all the songs, we have some fast ones and the picking is tricky. I use heavy picks, both from Fender and Ernie Ball and I have mainly been using the pointy side of the pick to, well, pick. Recently, I've been rotating the picks so that I'm picking with one of the round sides. It mellows the sound a little (less attack) while allowing me to pick faster. It's an interesting trade off, but on songs like Dustcloud or Nomenclature, where it's fast 8th notes, it's really helpful.

Vocally, the sound guy had me pumping through the monitors. I was also close to the mains, so I could hear from those as well. I also got right up on the mic and just sang, trusting the sound guy to adjust me as needed. Whatever he did evidently worked; I had some nice comments about the vocals, from someone getting goosebumps from hearing us, to another guy saying I was like Michael Anthony up there (I'll take it). Some old friends came out (Brian, Michael) and it was nice to see them and catch up.

When we finished, the Giving Moon from Chicago jumped on stage. They were fronted by what looked like a 18 year old kid. He was skinny, in a tie dyed Grateful Dead shirt, playing a Hamer guitar. The rest of the band looked a little older, but not by much. They started playing and it was clear that the kid (he actually turned 26 yesterday) was a shredder. Robb showed us a clip of him at practice the other night and the guy's playing reminded all of us of Tim: bluesy, fluid, really competent.

The rest of the band was really tight as well. They have been touring pretty regularly and it showed. I've played in a lot of bands over the years, but never in one as polished and tight as these guys. But, having said that, and as good as they were, they were really boring.

Lots of energy on stage, plenty of bouncing around, sounded great, but maybe it's an age thing. They didn't really click to me. I felt like as good as he was on guitar, those types of shredders are easy to come by. However, he did have great stage presence, really great voice and mad guitar skills. Really a total package, but his tunes need to grow a little.

They also did three covers in their set. Not sure if they don't have many originals or if that's a Chicago thing. Here in Seattle, we are spoiled for original music, good and bad, but they sprinkled in a Black Keys tune, Hey Joe by Hendrix and Yellow by Coldplay. All done well enough, but three covers in a 40 minute set?

The Giving Moon

Of course, being the petty, grumpy old man, I just sat back and talked mess about these kids. Though it was mainly tongue-in-cheek. Me and the boys and others recognized that these were talented dudes and really good at what they did, and more likely the issue was with us and not with them. Let's face it, we are old!

After the show, I chatted with Jack, the tour manager/roadie for the Giving Moon. He did play acoustic on a couple songs, but primarily he drives the van, sets up and tears down and basically plays Tour Dad. They played Eugene the night before, and were headed to a place called the Chicken Shack somewhere in mid-eastern Washington. Having just embarked on the tour with Forest Ray, I commiserated with them a little, but man, I don't miss that. They are young men doing young men things.

All in all, a nice night. We made a few bucks to put towards recording in a few weeks. We got to connect with some bands we've never played with before. Oh, and we got the performance live streamed! I cut out the other bands and uploaded our portion of the video to Youtube. Not high res, but it is free from Facebook.

Otherwise, if you have Facebook and want to see it with better resolution (and the other bands) click here: Facebook

Gig report: 8/23/23 Sunset Grooves at the Seattle Aquarium

We got booked for this really cool gig at the Seattle Aquarium, where we were the featured entertainment for a 21+ event on a Wednesday night. They closed the aquarium to the public and sold tickets for the privilege of being in the aquarium after hours, with food, drinks, music, and free run of the exhibits.

Stage just on other side of the windows

I arrived at about 3:30 and was pleasantly surprised to see a stage set up for us. I was expecting to be on the floor, but it was not their first rodeo. In fact, it may have been a little overkill, but it was great to see and have at our disposal.

20' x 16'!!

As usual, we spent an hour or so setting up. That meant PA, lights, mics, etc. I traveled light, with 2 basses, a pedal board, and a clothing bag. That's it. Poor Dusty and Jen pretty much bring a SUV full of stuff, with drums, the aforementioned PA and lighting stuff, sound gear, various odds and ends. It's pretty rough.

After setting up, we had a few minutes of downtime as they finished closing up the aquarium and setting up the room with some tables and food and drink stations. We went upstairs to the "green room," a regular meeting room, and chilled for a few minutes before soundcheck.

A few weeks ago, I purchased an Xvive wireless transmitter/receiver for in-ear monitoring purposes. It transmits the signal from our sound mixer to my ears. I had a wired solution that worked, but it was kind of a pain to use and have to detach every time I was taking off my guitar, etc. I've been practicing at Jen's house with the Xvive and though it works, there are some clicks and pops from time to time, depending on where I stand (even within 3' of the transmitter).

At soundcheck, I could hear and the Xvives were doing their job, but there was a lot of interference. Not sure what that was from. It basically sounded like someone was hitting the mute/unmute very quickly. It was annoying and I tried changing channels, but it still happened.

Doing some quick research indicates having the transmitter right next to the mixer (where there's a WIFI component) may be an issue. For me, I was pretty much all the way across the stage as the mixer was in the back left corner and I was on the front right corner of the stage. I didn't notice if it got better when I was next to it or not, but a solution may be to run an XLR cable to my part of the stage as if I was running a wedge, but then plugging in my transmitter instead. But, thinking out loud, if that was the issue, then the other guys would've had the same issue as their transmitters were all right next to the mixer as well.

For the show, though, the sound was good enough for me. I sang right up on mic and trusted Carl, our sound guy, to do what he needed to do. We got on stage and started playing. There were quite a few people in the room, but I didn't take any pictures.

As usual, we started the set with some "slower" tunes, even though that seems to lead to a slower start with the crowd. Trouble is, if we start with a banger and it is still received slowly, then we are down a song that we know would kill in the second set.

That said, the first 5 songs went great. "Brandy" was sort of a mess, at least for me, and I think Dennis got lost as well. I have had some trouble with this song, despite knowing the song really well. I don't know what it is, maybe the yips or something. I know my parts, but for some reason, my fingers just get lost and goofy in the verses at times.

The rest of the set went pretty well. We had a few dancers here and there and definitely got good responses from everything. I'm always surprised when I see people singing along to "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Come and Get Your Love," which, to me, at least, aren't super popular songs. But I think both of those got some juice from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.

Took a quick break after the set and Carl asked me about changing my bass tone. I played The Hog and I thought it sounded fine, despite the wireless issues I had with my IEMS. He said it sounded muddy and without definition, so we looked at my pedalboard, which I had doing an amp emulation of a Trace Elliot. For some reason, the treble was at 10 and the bass was at 0, and my treble was off on my bass. I ended up playing my gold bass, diming the treble and then adjusting the treble and bass on the B24 pedal, which helped with the bass definition.

I also tried to change the channels on my Xvive and it seemed to work, but then it didn't. It was still a pretty choppy and lame connection. But off we went anyway, starting with "Don't Stop," which always kills. "My Life" was a winner as well; I always love playing that song.

"Maggie May" was a bit of a mess though. Not only is it a challenging bass song, it also has a strange structure to it, with 3 verses before the chorus, then another verse. Or something like that. We can usually make it through a few verses and then before the third verse, Jen missed her cue and sat out like it was the instrumental part, which it wasn't. I shouted "third verse" at her and she jumped in.

She has a tendency at times to go off of audio cues, rather than going off the structure of the song. In the case of MM, there's a bass riff that leads into the 3rd verse and if she doesn't hear it, she thinks we're going somewhere else. I'll have a chat with her, because we've done the song fine before.

Dennis also broke a string in the song so he had to switch guitars right before his solo, so we extended it a bit, and it was a bit clunky, but in the end, we got there. "You Can Do Magic" was next and Eric had mentioned we were playing it too slow in practices and we ended up playing it way too fast this time around. It was almost comically fast, but like MM, we got there and it was fine.

The next few songs were great and people were really into it. There was a group of women at the front of the stage and they were dancing and having so much fun. It was almost like comic dancing, as they were cracking each other with their moves, but the thing was, they could actually dance. I had such a great time watching them and enjoying themselves.

As far as the setlist goes, we played all the tunes except "Fox on the Run" and "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," as they were more for encores than anything else. The aquarium was looking to get people out and as we started tearing down, it was time for them all to bounce. We finished the teardown and we bounced as well.

Overall, a really fun night, despite the technical issues with my receiver/transmitter and having to pay $24 to park at the end of it all. Not sure what my take home will be, but I'm already looking forward to getting back on stage again.

Photo dump!

Opposite the Aquarium. My car in the foreground (not the Prius)

The Seattle Wheel, as seen on sporting events

Backside of the stage

My basses for the night

Looking at a fish

Next up: Planets in the Ocean at the Blue Moon, of all places.

Let's talk about something no one wants to talk about

Jock itch.

Late last year, maybe November-ish, I started getting a rash on my waist, right where my boxers' elastic band goes. I had it on the top part of my tummy, and, sadly, in my groin. Mainly on either side of the scrote, right on the inside part of each leg.

Not sure how I got it, but my skin is usually quite sensitive and maybe it was from running every other day. Since it was cold out on my runs, I'd be wearing spandex pants. I have two pairs and would wear them twice each before washing, so that could have been the culprit.

I tried over the counter solutions, mainly Lotrimin cream, but it didn't help. I ended up traveling to Las Vegas with it and it wasn't until December that I finally went to a local urgent care since the regular doctors were all booked out. The nurse there was able to prescribe me medication that took care of it pretty quickly, so that was all good.

Sometime in June? I don't know, but the rash came back. I don't know the exact date but when I was on my road trip with Forest Ray, I definitely had it back. I remember scratching and generally being uncomfortable.

When I got back in mid-July, I tried the Lotrimin again, but that didn't help. I bought some specialized soap and cream off of Amazon that was highly rated (and priced!), but that didn't help either. I finally made an appointment with the dr. and he was 2 weeks out, so I decided to wait it out.

Friday I went and he basically prescribed me the same thing. Two 200mg pills of some sort of anti-fungal. I took one pill that night and one more yesterday, as prescribed, but so far, no real change. I'm a little annoyed because it's annoying. Evidently the rash is contagious as well, which means no Special Adult Time either, until that's cleared up.

(Speaking of which, it's been a dry summer, so to speak. With the kids home, my road trip, Marci being at her mom's and this rash, let's just say our frequency is way down.)

Anyway, the doc told me to see how it went for a few more days. I'm being impatient. I seem to remember the last time it went faster, but what do I know? Hopefully by the end of the week it's better and we can get on with our lives.