2026-07-21 Sunset Grooves at South Whidbey Community Park

What's this? Sunset Grooves first show since November! Over the last few weeks, we have gotten together to rehearse for some summer shows, but also to get a new guitarist in the mix as Dennis is moving to Poland in the fall. We had no gigs, so there was no big rush, but with these gigs coming up, we started moving forward with a kid named Robby. Early 30s, came out with a blue Ibanez and a fun, youthful energy. Helps that he's a solid player and a cool dude.

Fast forward to yesterday, when we played our first gig this year, on Whidbey Island, of all places. We got drafted to play on a Tuesday night, outdoors at the South Whidbey Community Park. Logistically, it was sort of a pain. We had to be there around 3:30 to setup the PA and stuff. But we also had to catch a ferry. I could have worked half a day, and then left for Mukilteo, but instead, I took a few days off to hang out with Marci at home instead.

Headed out the door about 12:30 to catch the 2:05 ferry. Got to Mukilteo around 1:30 and got on the ferry about 1:50, which I guess was the 1:30 ferry, which was running late. Whatever. I ended up on Whidbey Island around 2:15 or so, it's a short ride.

A ferry from the ferry

Did I mention that this would be the hottest day of the year? I got to the park and there was 0 shade. Trees all around the place, but none where we would be setting up and playing. I parked under one tree in a corner and waited for the other guys to show up.

After 45 minutes or so, Dennis and Eric showed up, followed by Robby, his girl Terry, and then Jen and Dusty. We parked and proceeded to set up in the blazing sun. I brought my bucket hat just in case and boy am I glad I did that.

My view from the stage

Before the gig, during soundcheck

Had a tent during setup to take shelter and hide the guitars

Before setup, we were on top of that retaining wall

We finally got dialed in, then did a quick soundcheck. Jen's daughter Erika ran sound. Too bad Riley isn't in town, he might be able to do the same thing for us, make a few bucks. Helen, Jen's other daughter, was there as well and she sang a few songs with us. Her and her pal also ran around on the lawn getting the crowd hyped, it was pretty funny.

I went in with my new wireless rig again and this time, I put the pack on my strap at a thicker part. Happy to say it lasted the whole gig and had no drops. I was able to move around and it was really cool to not worry about the cord. In-ears sounded pretty good and I had a nice show. But for real, it was so dang hot. By about song three or four, I had so much sweat pooling up in my eyes. Luckily, I brought a bandana to wipe sweat, but instead, I tied it on my head during the intro to "Hooked on a Feeling." That thing saved my eyes, for sure.

So hot out

I also brought a fan and had that blowing behind me for the whole show. Poor Dusty had nothing. He got a blister on his hand as well, wrapping it up with gaff tape during one song, then getting it stuck on his hand during one of his acoustic numbers. It was pretty funny.

Robby did great; he and Dennis have great chemistry when they play and it is really cool having a second guitar to fill things out. But, Dennis' last show with us is in a few weeks, when we hit the Aurora Borealis for his goodbye party. He'll be missed, but Robby is a more than adequate replacement. Like I said earlier, he is energetic, eager, and loves to play. He kept saying how much fun he had yesterday simply setting up gear.

With him in the band, he may bring in a new network of fans and friends to check us out. As it was, he had a friend and his wife from work come to check us out. This guy may or may not be affiliated with the Seahawks and he really liked us, so we'll see if that pans out to be anything interesting.

As it stands now, if we can get some gigs and if Robby can inject some new life into the band, I will stick it out. I was thinking of bailing, but then these gigs showed up, so that's cool. I will have to miss a gig for the first time; I have an Embers reunion scheduled at the same time, but I found a sub for them, a guy who played in the other yacht rock band in town. Hope he works out (I don't think he sings, though).

We finished up and packed out in the sunset, which was way nicer than doing it in the dark. And then I bailed. The guy that booked us said to catch the 9:30 ferry, otherwise we'd have to wait an hour for the next one. I jumped and got there in time to get on. And then it was 45 minutes to home from there.

Anyway, it was fun to play the show, it was a hot long day, and I hope we get a decent payout soon.

2026-07-18 Planets in the Ocean at Hidden Hall

There's an old something or other out there that says that you never mention your mistakes or poor performance on stage. In yesterday's case, there was no need to mention it because it was so obvious, it couldn't have been missed.

We were asked to play a power pop fest, at the Hidden Hall, for an afternoon show. A five-band bill with our bros from Square Peg, Full Life Crisis, Royal Blunder and the Rallies. Seemed a little weird since it was a daytime gig and we aren't really a power pop band, but it was with friends and at a new place we'd never played.

On the way there I realized that parking would likely be weird since the show started at 3:30 and went until about 9. Long story short, both Cass and I paid $14/each to park for 10 hours or so. This is not relevant, but it's all part of the experience, I suppose. It's interesting to keep a tally of time spent, money spent, money made (or not made) and see how it all shakes out. Since we're keeping track, I left the house at 2:04, the venue is about 15 miles away, and by my arrival, I was already down $14.

Cass and I showed up at the same time and loaded our gear in. The headliner, Royal Blunder, was providing backline and had already set up at the early, early time of 1pm or so. Crazy timing for a daytime gig, but we had a 9pm curfew as the venue had a DJ coming in for the late shift.

For this show, I brought the LB-100 and my IEMs. I recently also bought a wireless guitar kit as I had extra gig bucks and it was on sale. I've been using it, the NUX B-8, at rehearsals recently and though it works, it would drop signal a couple times over a couple hours for 1-2 seconds at a time. Not a huge deal, but last week, it dropped twice in a song and that got annoying. Turns out, it may be related to a hot input signal from the bass. I think both times I was playing one of my L1Ks and as always, had the volume dimed. I was all set to return it but read that if you lower the input volume of the bass, that should mitigate the signal drops. I did so and after practicing and playing at home, maybe that is the case?

Anyway, Square Peg kicked things off with a nice set. They had Rick Friel do "Hello There" by Cheap Trick to kick things off, then did their own songs for the rest of the set. During one of their songs, someone came up to me and said the song reminded her of "C'mon Feel the Noize" and it was Julie from Guest Directors. I didn't recognize her in the moment but caught up with her throughout the rest of the bands. Was nice to see her and chat a bit.

No picture of Square Peg without me in it

After a quick changeover, Full Life Crisis took the stage. Another band of bros, they are great. I really love how Brian plays guitar. He has mastered his tones and his playing is outstanding. Really nice band with cool tunes and great harmonies.

Full Life Crisis

We were on next so we took the stage and were already at a deficit as Robb forgot to print setlists. No big deal, as he usually just calls out the songs anyway. I went with my IEMs and the sound guy, Rainen, who ran sound for us at the Blue Moon a few years ago (he was wearing our shirt), got me dialed and it was fine. I had the wireless set up and we were good to go.

Robb started with "Unraveled," which is a fine opener. However, at the hold of the note going into the intro, I whipped my guitar down and the transmitter came off my strap. It was dangling next to my leg, but luckily, the signal was still there... that is until about 3/4ths of the way through the song. All of a sudden, no bass.

I checked the plug and everything was plugged in. I noticed the receiver on my pedal board still was showing a signal, so evidently the bass was still getting into the board. I decided to ditch the wireless just in case that was it (it wasn't) so Steve brought me an instrument cable. After a few more moments between songs, I noticed the amp had no power to it. It seems something had knocked the power out to the amp; once we reset that, we were off and running. Until we got to "Nomenclature," the third song in the set.

It started normally and we got through the first chorus just fine. Cass and I continue with a basic drum beat and my droning bass line. Robb does the riff four times and then starts singing... but he didn't. Cass thought Robb had forgotten the second verse and was jumping to the second chorus, but he wasn't. Robb was lost and I got lost and I just stopped playing, so we all stopped. Then I shouted in the mic, "second verse, same as the first," and we got rolling again. It was all so stupid, but I think the song ended up OK despite that.

Robb also had an equipment glitch, one of his pedals seemed to be low on battery or signal. He started "Sit & Spin" and it sounded so quiet and down. He futzed around with the pedals for a sec and it came back. Not sure what the issue was, but he had it at rehearsal the other night as well.

The rest of the songs were likely fine, but I was feeling a little off. It was fun, sure, but all I could do was laugh at what a trainwreck it all felt like. It didn't help that the sound of my bass in my IEMs seemed clicky, as well as what I heard from Bruce's GK rig behind me. It was just all a little uncomfortable. But we plowed through it and eventually finished a little grumpy at ourselves.

pic by Mike Mitchell

Interesting guitar necks

At this point in our playing careers, nevermind time in Planets, we should be nailing every gig. But instead, we are nearly guaranteed some sort of error that goes beyond missing a note here and there. Missed sections, disjointed notes, simply madness. We are better than what we showed last night and it stinks that that happened. Luckily there were not many people who saw it, but those that did did seem entertained.

The Rallies followed us and played a competent and professional set, as always. If any of these bands will make it to the bigger stages, it's them. Solid, ear-friendly songs, hooky choruses, good looks. Don't know if there are many bands as consistent as these guys.

The Rallies

Rounding out the afternoon was Royal Blunder. We played with them early in 2025 and they were a four-piece, heavily Beatles-influenced. I saw them late last year and I thought they had gotten a touch more heavy, as well as being a trio. Fast forward to Saturday and they were the same trio, and quite good. Admittedly, I did spend a lot of time in the green room choppin it up with Lee and Steve from the Rallies, but what I did see out front was good. Still a lot of Beatles sounds, even playing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as well as "I Am the Walrus," but still good.

Royal Blunder

The aforementioned green room

After the bands were done, Cass and I chatted for a bit about the performance. Of course, we are our worst critics, but man, we should be past this type of stuff. Equipment is gonna fail, sure, but we should not be missing entire sections of songs. Saturday's stoppage in "Nomenclature" was pretty egregious and was my doing, but I thought it beat having an entire breakdown mid-song. Let's stop and cut our losses. The problem is, nearly every show we play, there's a part of any song where it's a really obvious error. Watching other local bands, or actual pro bands, that simply doesn't happen. I don't think that will hold us back from anything, but my ego and pride gets bummed out when it happens.

Overall, a pretty forgettable afternoon for me. I loved seeing friends and chatting and hearing the other bands. But playing was challenging even without the extraneous issues. I did get to see a couple vids and we sounded good from up front and for "Panic Attack" and "Sit & Spin," they were decent performances. I saw another clip of "Loud Silence" and that sounded pretty good, so I think we may have been fine, but man, so many weird moments for the actual full gig.

After the show, talked with Bruce via text and he indicated that all 5 bands, after the club and soundguy took their cuts, split $10.36. Pretty incredible, if you ask me. I was out $14 for parking and 7 hours for my time, plus mileage (30m round trip). Good thing we aren't in it for the $$.

Onto the next! A big-time gig at the Tractor playing with early teens powerhouse, The Divorce, with our buds Chimestone opening. Looking forward to that one.