2026-08-08 Sunset Grooves at Aurora Borealis

When I left for this gig, I forgot the freeway heading north was closed, so all northbound traffic was routing other ways, including down 119th. Added 20 minutes to my drive, so that was great. Luckily it was still early enough that I got there in plenty of time.

Tim was running sound at Aurora Borealis. He was a guitar player for Sunset Grooves before I joined years ago. I hadn't really talked to him, but he was super nice and accommodating to all of us. We got set up and did a quick soundcheck and it was fine.

We were offered another gig in September that I couldn't do, so I reached out to Dave, who played in another YR band in town. He came out last night to check out what he's gotten himself into. He was nice to chat with, so we chopped it up for a few.

Got some food and chowed down, free from the club, then got dressed for showtime. I rolled with the new wireless pack, the pedalboard, Goldielocks and the HOG. I figured I'd play Goldie for the first set, with a couple slapping tunes (Somebody's Baby and Peg) and the HOG for the second set.

Exciting pictures. I need to switch back to the square format, these tall 16:9 style pix are lame.

We started the set and the crowd was pretty chill, as usual. After a few songs, they started dancing. I thought the first set went pretty well. I could hear what I needed to hear for the most part. I kept an eye on the wireless input. With my 2 hottest basses, I didn't want to drop signal due to a fat input, so I dialed it back a little on the pedal. Happy to report there were no issues with signal drop.

First set went pretty much without a hitch. Felt good, get distracted with the screen in the back, projecting us on it like a live heat check. We took a break and then got back on for the second set.

We started with Caribbean Queen, which went pretty good. Then we started Maneater and though I was playing the right rhythm, for some reason I started in the wrong key. Once Eric came in, I figured it out and adjusted. We had a goof up in Don't Get Me Wrong; Jen forgot to come in on the quiet bridge part, we continued on and she came in doing the bridge, so we had to adjust on the fly. She also came in early on Tide is High. Most everything else was OK. I recorded on video and watched a little back. I think the vocals were a little tough, as usual, though hard to say who it is.

Nice comments from folks afterward. I didn't stay to chat much, was tired and wanted to get back home. Only took me 25 minutes to get back, so that was fantastic, I guess.

Next up, Snohomish Block Party on Saturday, with Planets at the Tractor that same night. Gonna be a fun and busy Saturday!

11/30/2024, Sunset Grooves at Aurora Borealis

Fun night at the Aurora Borealis last night, with our pals the Post Punks. I showed up around 6 for soundcheck, only to find the sound guy had car problems and wasn't there yet. I started setting up my stuff (Zoom B24, butter bass, IEMs) and got ready. Spencer on sound showed up shortly after, and then it turned out that Jen and Dusty had forgotten their IEMs. Luckily, Jen's daughter was at home and was able to bring them up to the club.

Earlier in the week, I found some flats in my gear box and swapped out the rounds that were on the butter bass. Those rounds were super zingy and I just felt like it was too much, even for non-yacht rock stuff. I spent some time getting used to the flats and found they sounded pretty good.

We soundchecked with a song or two and got our levels dialed in. As a band, we got at $100 tab so it was dinnertime. Grabbed some not so great fish and chips, and then it was time to watch the Post Punks do their set of 80's songs. My new-ish friend, Ben, plays bass for them, as well as the Rallies. He brought an Olympic white P with tort, and an Ampeg amp and 410 and sounded great. He played fingerstyle and with a pick depending on the song and it was great stuff. He's solid and I really enjoyed his band's set.

OK fish and chips

Ben with the Post Punks

Cathy also sings with the Post Punks and she sat in with us for a few tunes later. She has great stage presence and voice control. The rest of the band was decent and did fine, if a little disconnected. Bonus points for the keyboard player who also busted out a sax!

Ben and Cathy!

I was fortunate to have some friends come for a change. Mike (with the photos) and his partner Amy, Brett and Elba and their friends, and then later my boy Aaron showed up. Seven people out for me is pretty good. Eric had something like 10 and overall, it was a pretty nice night for us, attendance-wise. I'm sure the club would have liked double that, but the crowd was into it, dancing and singing along.

I set up my phone again stage right, hit record and hoped for the best. IEMs sounded good, though my bass was pretty hot after some time. I was able to deal with it. I think I played really well. My main issue was with singing. For the past 3 weeks or so, I had bronchitis, which then turned into pneumonia. I'm feeling better, but my lungs are definitely still healing. I can sing, but some of the high notes can be tricky. I forgot to hit my inhaler before we started and on some songs, I struggled.

Upon watching the video back, I was really pitchy. I felt like I was good in the moment, but woof, there were definitely some challenging moments where I was close, but not quite.

Stage was nice and big, lighting was decent. New shirt was on point.

video capture from phone

Dennis and I interacted a bit during the set. I'd go over to him and he'd come right up on me. Good times!

Me and Unc getting close

Cathy jumped on to do some ELO songs with us

Last 3 pix by Mike Mitchell

We got to play all 23 songs on our setlist and had a great time doing so. Both bands were on point and the crowd was well entertained. As always, I can't wait to do it again. We don't have anything lined up, though, so there's that.

Now it's time to get to work on the private party in a few weeks.

Gig report: 5/12/23 Sunset Grooves at the Aurora Borealis

Finally, another gig. Seems like it's been a bit, and now, back-to-back shows. It was my first time with the Grooves where we played a club, instead of a party or private thing, so I didn't know what to expect. Also, first time playing at Aurora Borealis, which, even without traffic, is about 30 min away. But of course, Friday night in Seattle means traffic, so it took about 45 minutes to get there.

Show started at 8pm and I had to be there by 5:30 or so for load in and soundcheck. I decided to go light for this show, no amp or cabs for the first time ever. The club did have a MarkBass 12" combo amp, just in case. I brought my 2 L1Ks (in a new Protec double bag!), my Zoom B2 Four, and a garment/clothing bag. Easy load in!

Soundcheck was great. Tim, a former guitarist/singer for Sunset Grooves, ran sound and did a great job. I don't have a wireless IEM receiver, so he ran a line to my spot on stage, where I had my Rolls headphone amp and then I boosted that signal to my ghetto instrument/headphone extender cable. He gave me my specific IEM needs (my vocals and bass way high, drums middle, lead vox, guitar and keys just enough for reference) and then we sat for the first band.

Ordered a burger, was decent, not photo-worthy. And it was on the house, so that's always appreciated.

The first band was a Prince tribute band called DSMR, which stands for Drugs, Sex, Music and Romance, and evidently is in a Prince song somewhere. Admittedly, I am not super familiar with Prince and his music, but of course I recognized a lot of the songs in their 90-minute set. The band was great, with a guy named Robert playing a Jazz bass. That dude had serious chops and was super solid. Some of the tunes were fairly boring on bass, but when he got to shine and riff, he did not disappoint. His tone was killer as well.

Our new guitarist, Dennis, also plays in DSMR, and it was great to see him from that perspective. He is great in our rehearsals, but to see him performing as an observer, I could really see how talented he is. Played awesome, sounded awesome, good stuff.

We took the stage after them and I debuted my beautiful new vintage polyester shirt, complete with JC Penney tag still intact! With my white pants and shoes, definitely a great look! Because DSMR had folks dancing, we shifted our opening song from Baby Come Back (slow tune) to something with a bit more energy (Come and Get Your Love). That was the right move, as people loved it and were dancing the whole night.

Aurora Borealis has a great stage and lighting setup. They also have cameras all over the place and screens onto which they broadcast those cameras. While playing, I could see the screens and it was a little distracting, but ultimately cool. Plus, they provide us a copy of the videos and audio tracks if we want them, so that will be a good learning/promo tool in the future.

I felt good while playing. My mix worked well in my IEMs. Prior to starting, though, I adjusted my Zoom, trying to get a little more grit in my overdrive pedal setting. I upped the mids and we started the show. As it went on, however, I found there was too much grit, so I had to back off on how hard I'd hit the strings. Overall, it was OK. I didn't end up using the MarkBass combo, as my IEMs did what they were supposed to do.

The crowd was really energetic and into what we were doing. They were singing along and dancing and just having a great time. I heard the bartenders said they had a great night as well, so hopefully they'll have us back in the future.

Not the most attractive venue, but to be fair, this is on the backside of the building.

I played the 84 L1K tonight. Vintage tunes get a vintage bass!

Soundcheck and us on the screen opposite us.

My Zoom B2 Four and the Rolls amp. Cable mess.

Unused MarkBass combo, which sounded good when I plugged it in.

DSMR before us.

Setlist

Me and Jen.