2026-06-06 Planets in the Ocean at Conor Byrne

Last night was way too fun. I wish I had a reality TV crew following me around to capture all the people that were there, the music made and the good vibes overall. I made a strong effort to pump the socials and text and reach out to folks. It worked out well, let's see who came for me (or at least confirmed they were coming with me): Michael P, Taylor H, Elizabeth D (+2), Jose C (+3), Evan C (+1), Marci!, Christian S (+3), Dusty H, Eric J, Brian H (+1). Maybe there were more? But overall, there were so many people for us. Hell, with Stag and the Rallies in the building, we couldn't help but have a good draw.

Marci came out and I was stoked for that, but it was gonna be a long night. I-5 north was closed from I-90 all the way to 45th, so we left about 4pm for a 5pm expected arrival time. It was lame. She shopped for a printer the whole time. Cheaper to replace the stupid thing rather than buy new ink, I hate that.

Stuck in traffic with my favorite person!

Anyway, an hour later we arrived at my new favorite club, Conor Byrne. As mentioned in last month's recap, the room sounded so good. Would it be the same for this show? Unsure. Last time, I played through Charlie's Ampeg 610 and it was thunderous. This time, I provided backline with my new Orange 112 powered by the old Ashdown, for its first show. Despite Mark the repair guy saying to not trust it at a gig, over the past 10+ hours of rehearsals and home practice, it's been fine, so I figured why not? I did tell Pete Nordstrom to bring his Orange Bass Terror just in case...

I pulled up and Ben London was unloading his car. Lee Brown pulled up after us. Ben Heege was already inside. Cass showed up a few minutes later, as did Tim. It was like reunion day at the old folks home. All the homies were there. Not only that, we had all the Embers heads show up: Charles and Cyndy, Lisa G and her husband, Lisette, Stephanie P, maybe some others. Tim had Kim and Chris show up, Rebecca Young, Kay, probably more than that. I got to talk to Cathy Pants (I don't know her real last name!), Jonathan Plum, Bob and Tina Lang, Steve Reeves, Alan W and Dan, Jan Fox from Model Shop (who was just walking by), Elizabeth, Jose and his family. It was all so great.

I got the little baby rig on stage and of course I forgot to take any pictures. It powered up and Ben got his bass plugged in, a hollow body Washburn and it sounded round and full. Pretend this picture is from sound check instead of the show:

Check out the cool Ashdown VU meter!

After I set up, Marci and I went to grab a quick bite. We went to a place called Situ Tacos. I had a taco salad bowl of some sort and it was tasty. And not a comment on the food, but I noticed afterward that a tooth that had been intermittently painful for months had broken. Don't know where the rest of it went, but luckily it doesn't hurt and a call has been made to the dentist. I'm guessing a crown is in my near future.

Dinner before my tooth broke.

We walked back to Conor Byrne, but not before stopping in a doorway to have Marci look into my mouth. Surely we didn't look any weirder than the other people walking around in Ballard, right?

Back at the club, it was just a nice party. I socialized with as many people as I could, like I mentioned. I helped set up our merch table. I spent some time this week creating a QR code and price sheet for stuff. I guess it helped, we generated about $200 in Venmo purchases, so that was quite cool.

Gotta take some lessons from the Rallies on how to do merch

A sweet woman named Dineen (don't know the spelling), who is a friend of Stag's, ran merch for us all and she was fantastic. It was nice to not have to worry about running merch. My only regret is not getting a Rallies record and some more Stag stuff. And after seeing all their stuff, we should look into more swag. Or maybe after recording again.

Enough small talk. Rallies took the stage and show us all how a real tight, professional, harmonic band plays. They are just fine gentlemen and musicians and they played to a very appreciative audience. Check out the crowd!

The Rallies!

I regret to say I didn't see much of their set due to getting my social on. But what I heard did sound excellent. Bradford, the sound tech at Conor Byrne, is so good and the room just sounds great.

Stag took the stage next and of course, they just destroyed. And they are fine folks, each one of them. I've said things about them before and it's still true. Nice dudes and wonderful performers!

STAG. And the club was packed, just not from this picture.

Once Stag got off the stage, we got the ball rolling. We decided to play all the songs from the record, including Darla's Song, which meant Robb had to get his keys setup. Which was fine, but there were problems. He had no sound, so that meant I got to get on the mic and be stupid. Did a bunch of talking because he couldn't figure out what was going on. I thanked people, the bands, a bunch of nonsense. Sad thing is, I sort of love the attention. Doh! We finally played and then he had to switch to his guitar rig. And of course, something went weird. His guitar didn't sound right, so I jumped back on the mic. A few minutes of that and he finally got things up and running.

Cass did up the setlist and had us starting with The Loud Silence, which is a nice, chill way to get into things. I tried warming up a little, mainly by stretching my hands and arms, and not starting with something like Nomenclature helped.

Audio on stage sounded great! The Ashdown/Orange baby amp was fantastic. I could hear my bass and it was lovely. Robb's amp was to his left and leaned back 45°, pointed right at his ear, which also meant it pointed right at me. It was ok, loud, but not too terrible.

We worked our way through the set, there was a full house, and it was fucking awesome. I wish I took some pics from the stage, but I didn't. We had Derrick Miller and Devin Creisler in the house and they always shoot full vids, so those should be upcoming. But Mike Mitchell was there taking pics, as were a bunch of others, so here's some of those. All the PITO pix are a bit too red so imma fix those before posting.

Full house!

Mike Mitchell with me and Tim

The set was fine. I could've been tighter on stuff I did. I felt sloppy. Monitors were better last month but still good; I could hear myself pretty good. I think we all had some awkward moments, but overall went well. People loved it, they really did and it felt so good.

They especially went nuts when Timmy jumped up there. We started with All Amounts to Something and it hit when he started the riff. Really fun to play that with him and get the Embers train back on the track. The cheers were loud and a pretty good preview of what to expect when we play at the Sunset in September. Should be great and well attended.

Next up is Planets with our pals Square Peg, Royal Blunder, The Rallies and Full Life Crisis at Hidden Hall on a Saturday afternoon. Will be a great time!

Gig report: 2/2/24 Sunset Grooves at the Tractor Tavern

Two months into the year, two gigs at the Tractor Tavern. Not a bad start to the year so far, same as it ever was.

We were asked to play this show via Dennis, who also plays guitar in Coool Babies, a Talking Heads tribute band. Maybe Seattle is a tribute band town, but I find it quite interesting that one of the best clubs in town, the Tractor, makes a habit of booking bands like CB, the IRS (REM tribute band), Wild Rumours (Fleetwood Mac), HalloQueen (Queen), and now us, a yacht rock band. Though we aren't the headliner, still a nice get for us.

As always, soundcheck is scheduled 4 hours prior to first note, which seems excessive. I left the house at 4:45 for a 5:30 arrival and the CBs hadn't finished setting up yet. An astounding 9 members to this band: singer/acoustic guitar, 2 backing singers, bassist, keys, drummer, percussionist, guitarist and guitar/keys. Outside of high school band, I have never been in a band that big. Imagine the scheduling drama! But they got their sounds checked and they sounded great.

Coool Babies

We finally got to sound check and it was what it was. I had my IEMs with me and my Zoom pedal; no onstage rig for me. All the sounds were working, I could hear Jacob (the sound guy), as well as my mates, but to me, it seems like getting sounds dialed in an IEM setting vs floor wedges takes more nuance and time.

Lucky for us, Jacob had worked with us before at a couple of private gigs and is also super patient. He got my bass and vocals up front, with everything else lower for reference. Adding to the difficulty of getting a perfect mix was being right next to Eric, who does not use IEMs, and had a floor wedge blasting up at him. It seemed quite loud and I could hear it in my IEMs, but I was able to work around it.

We did a couple song run-throughs, then got off stage to get some food. Headed a few doors north to Hattie's Hat for a burger and a water (no pix), chatted with Dennis, Jen, Dusty and Jacob (Eric stayed behind with a salad) for a few, then headed back to the Tractor.

We were unsure as to how many people to expect. I hardly ever, EVER, have people come out, and my mates don't have many either. We were hoping to have a built in Tractor crowd, and whatever Coool Babies/Talking Heads fans there were. Getting back inside, there was a nice crowd milling around. We got changed into our denim tops/white bottoms, and then hung out for a few more before hitting the stage.

I was pleasantly surprised at how large the crowd was. I'd be fooling myself if I thought they were there to see us. Regardless, it was excellent to play to that many people. I had sunglasses on and though I could see what I was playing, I couldn't see the crowd that well. The few times I peeked over the lenses, I was excited to see how many were out there.

We started with Don't Stop (Fleetwood Mac) and I felt really good about it. Nice, easy start to the show with a crowd pleaser. Folks were dancing, but still a little shy; they stood about 3-5 feet from the stage. No stage banter to start, or after that song, as we jumped into Brandy (Looking Glass). After that tune, we said howdy and we were off. The crowd really got into the songs; I could hear them singing along and having a great time.

Because we were the opener, we had a relatively short set, around an hour. We blasted through I Feel The Earth Move (Carole King) and Couldn't Get It Right (Climax Blues Band). Things felt and sounded great. Jen looked great in a little white dress, denim shirt and cowboy boots. She held it down and did her thing. Dennis ripped up his guitar parts, Eric threw down on Evil Woman (ELO) and Dancing in the Moonlight (King Harvest). Dusty and I locked in the grooves in Maneater (Hall & Oates) and Reelin in the Years (Steely Dan). We finished the night with Hold the Line (Toto) and Ride like the Wind (Christopher Cross), and before we knew it, we were done.

I got my stuff off the stage and got a Mexican Coke from the bar. A few people offered some nice words and thanks for our efforts. Getting back through the crowd was challenging; so many people, no room to maneuver and did get an accidental elbow to the cheek by a guy who was energetically dancing to one of the Coool Babies songs.

Once I got back to the side-stage, I got a few pictures of the crowd.

After we got off the stage.

Coool Babies on the stage.

I have never been a Talking Heads fan. I know the hits from the radio and pop culture, but never got into what TH music is about. I did go in with an open mind, but to me, the songs are fairly static, and the vibe that is created is lost on me. Clearly it's a "me" issue and not an "everyone else" issue as the joy and happiness on the crowds faces while they sang and danced along was very evident. I really enjoyed watching Lauren and Kathy, the two background singers, on stage. They had some choreographed moves and great, fun energy. The other musicians were all excellent and they played really well and did the songs justice. Roger, the singer, even came back later with the trademark HUGE suit (no pix).

At the end of the night, we got to all chat a bit and trade numbers, etc. The members of CB are all quite cool and us in the SG hope to collaborate with some of them to fill out our sound more from time to time. Don't know what the payout is yet, but hope it's a nice chunk. Hope we get some leads as well; I heard people were asking about hiring us for future parties, etc.

Really fun night at the Tractor. I talked to a young photog who had a giant Canon pro lens on her camera. She said she was an apprentice shooting with a "famous concert photographer" named Wayne. I didn't get their info, but she said she'd be getting us pictures soon. Hopefully that's the case, we seem to never get pics or videos unless we do them ourselves. I'll post them if I get them.

In the meantime, up next, Planets at Darrell's Tavern in a month with our pals, the Pop Cycle, and new friends, the Rallies (of which their bassist is the same guy, Ben, that played with Coool Babies).

Gig report: 6/8/2023 Planets in the Ocean at the Sunset

Our first non-weekend show as PITO. We did do a Wednesday with Embers a few years ago at El Corazon. That was an interesting night.

Last night, it was us as the middle band between an artist called Tsubaki and then Knathan Ryan and his band. We had mixed feelings about playing on a Thursday, not necessarily because we think we're better than Thursdays, but more because we weren't sure if we'd have much of a draw on a weeknight.

When I got there after a 45-minute drive, I was surprised to see something like 5 guitar/bass amps on the small stage. I thought it was going to be a stripped down gig as Tsubaki, was simply playing her keyboard (albeit through a Fender Bandmaster amp). Turns out, Knathan's band had 3 guitarists and a bassist, plus Tsubaki on keys as well, so, well, there you go.

I wheeled my Avatar on stage and stuck it off to the side. No sound check for us, but would line check before playing.

Tsubaki, aka Akaiko (may have butchered that spelling), was a super talented singer/pianist. She was accompanied by a guy on trumpet, who also played acoustic and trumpet in Knathan's band. It was a quiet and cool set by her. Really excellent on piano and her vocals suited it well.

Tsubaki and trumpet, at sound check

During her set, I counted about 13 people in the room, which was about 13 more than what we had. Robb was quite nervous about the turnout. Both Cass and I tried to reassure him but it ending up not being too bad.

For the show, I brought my Avatar 2x12 with my Trace head. I'd done some back and forth during the day at home with the Trace vs the Orange and I just felt like the Trace won out. The tones I got at home were pretty gnarly and I liked them. However, once I got on stage, with earplugs in, too much bottom end, not enough mids. Really boomy. I adjusted the EQ on the Trace and that seemed to help (note to self: practice at home with earplugs in to sort of emulate sound on stage)

The rig

Once we started playing, there were more people in the room. I actually had 4 people come out, David and Paul from Pop Cycle, Dennis from SGs and Patrick also formerly from SGs. Knathan, who was also celebrating his birthday, had a handful of people there, so we gladly absorbed those people.

We started the night with our set closer, Darla's Song, because it's on keyboards. We pivoted that to  opener as Tsubaki had done a keyboard set, so we thought that would be a good flow. It was a nice warmup for us. During the keyboard switch, I jumped on mic and worked on my stage banter. I think it's working? I just hope Cass and Robb aren't inwardly cringing. I guess it's better than dead air.

Anyway, we blew into Nomenclature from there and we were off. Unlike the last show at Tim's, I could really hear my vocals and felt good up there. We generally played quite well and had great interactions on stage.

Knathan and his band took the stage next, 6 pieces, with Aiyako on keys, Knathan on guitar and vocals, a drummer, bassist, lead guitarist and acoustic guitar/trumpet. I was not expecting them to be as powerful and tight and melodic as they were. Soundcheck wasn't super exciting, but once they unleashed, they were awesome. Knathan reminded me of the Hold Steady a bit, with lots of words, some horn and really thoughtful rock. All of us enjoyed them quite a bit and hope our paths cross again in the future.

Knathan Ryan and band

Also, I don't know who I am any more. I wore white shoes.

Drummer and yours truly.

Best bathrooms in any club in town.

General updates

Work: still looking. Though I did speak with an old coworker last week. She was someone that was at MS, then went to Amazon and she reached out to me via LinkedIn. I was surprised to hear from her, but she gave me some great ideas. One of which was to join LinkedIn premium. It's $39.99/month but you get some perks and weirdly, since I did that, I've been getting some action, but still no jobs.

Yesterday, another former MS worker reached out to me and we chatted for a bit. His company is hiring and the role sounds totally like something I could do. It's 100% remote and a full-time gig and based on what he said, would pay me what I'm seeking. That would be cool; I've emailed his hiring managers but have yet to hear back.

And then, while I was on that call, my last manager texted me and asked if I was still looking, and then said a colleague of hers was gonna reach out to me to see if I'd want another contract with Amazon. I did see that he looked at my LI profile, but I have not heard from him yet.

Music: no gigs until May. Working on some new songs with PITO. Cool ones. Tried my new pedal with PITO and I think I'm gonna stay with my old rig for that band. It does work great with the SGs though, and that's been fun to get dialed in.

My guy Jim from Facebook has also reached out. Last year he messaged me out of the blue to play bass on a song that he submitted to some compilation by a band called the Pencils. That got great feedback and he loved what I did, so he asked me to do some recording on some tunes. I just got one guitar/drum/vocal track and I'm gonna try doing some recording today.

I also got double booked for 7/21 somehow. I got PITO booked at a place on Vashon, but then found out last week that SGs are looking to book that same date. With a nice fat payday for the band, I didn't want to jeopardize that, so I asked PITO if we could back out of that Vashon gig. Luckily they were really cool about it and said sure. Even though they were going to pay us $500 total + ferry tix to play, after staying overnight and paying for that, we'd likely each be losing money.

Books: Just finished Don Winslow's City of Dreams. Danny Ryan in California and it was great. Next up is City in Ruins, but that's not coming out until next year. :( So instead, I'm reading The Power of the Dog again. My notes indicate I've only read it once, but I swear this is my third time through it.

Gamez: Finished Hi-Fi Rush last night. What a great freakin' game. So awesome. Loved it, but some of the boss battles were tricky. Gorgeous art direction, great music, fantastic characters and levels and gameplay. 10/10. And now Star Wars Jedi: Survivor comes out in two days. The question is, do I buy it for PC or wait for it on GamePass? Jedi: Fallen Order runs OK on this PC; I have to dial down to 1920x1080, but it plays good enough. Hopefuly SWJS isn't too taxing, even on this beast of a computer.

Life: We celebrated Ted's one year passing on Sunday. Haley came home for her birthday on Sat and we went to dinner at Grillbird in W Seattle. Sunday, we met with my friend Steve, who took us out on a 26' sailboat in the wind to remember Ted. It was windy and cold, but so great. We spent the day in Ballard, enjoying the Farmer's Market, had lunch at the Matador, found out Hay was chased around Seattle by some mystery BMW, had some molten cakes, shopped at KAVU, and then headed home. It was a good day.

Gig report: 9/6/2022 Kathy Moore and the Super Subs at the Tractor

Ah, the rare Tuesday night gig. It's been a minute since I've played an early week gig, but we went in hoping for the best. This show marked my 4th time playing with Kathy and it's been a nice little run. Though I've written about her in the past, I haven't really said anything about her.

Kathy is quite the local legend, playing in seemingly every band in town and also knowing all the musicians as well. She gigs several nights a week and teaches guitar during the day. She's a multi-instrumentalist and is always creating. I was super stoked when I got the call a few months ago. My phone rang, we chatted, and then I was like, "of all the bassists, she picked me?"

There are some hot shots in town that would certainly pick up the phone for Kathy and play, and maybe they were busy or maybe they cost too much, or, maybe she wanted to throw me a bone. Whatever the case may be, it really is a privilege to play with and for her and I am excited anytime she reaches out.

I was planning on showing up around 5:30pm for load-in, but traffic was kind of busy so I showed up around 5:50 instead. I heard Raoul (drums) and Kathy soundchecking so I hustled my stuff in, set up, and was able to get a quick soundcheck as well. I hate showing up late!

With my newly acquired Avatar 212 on stage, I was really stunned at the thick and growly sound I got. Normally, via my 212/115 setup, it's good sounding, but the 212 was a different animal. I did try to dial the volume back as we weren't expecting a ton of people, but I really liked how it sounded.

After the soundcheck, Kathy and I headed out to check out the vintage clothing shop next door. Though I couldn't tell if it was really vintage or not. Tons of "vintage" (reprinted) band t-shirts (VH, Billy Idol, Ozzy, PF, the Doors, Motley Crue, etc) but for eyewatering prices (>$50). Very stylish, too expensive, IMO.


Kathy is so dang stylish!

Walked up the block and I had a greasy burger at Great State. No picture, but it tasted dang good. Got to know Kathy a bit more as we've never really gotten a chance to chat outside of a band setting.

Back at the club, the first band, the Paula Boggs Band (only a trio this time), started 30 minutes early. It was Paula on vocals and ukelele/acoustic guitar, Darren on acoustic guitar, and Alex on upright bass. That bass sounded spectacular and Alex was a genius playing it. So beautiful.


Paula Boggs Band

PBB had a fun set, punctuated with her wry lyrics and easy going style. The gents on guitar and bass were no slouches either and I had a smile on my face the whole time.

Next up was Michelle Malone, a singer-songwriter from Atlanta. Evidently she makes her way around the country playing gigs and doing in-home private shows. Her sideman was Doug Kees and they were both excellent. Michelle was a little hoarse, having just spent a few days in the desert, which apparently really messed with her throat. Nevertheless, she put on a beautiful, emotional and funny show. She played some slide and harmonica and she was a true professional, a road warrior. Really loved how she performed.


Doug and Michelle

We were up last and there were maybe 10 or so people when we took the stage. As per usual, me, Kathy and Raoul had one rehearsal the day before so we could dust off the cobwebs. No real curveballs for this gig, other than a quick little 3 chord "gospel march" to start a little quieter. We did that, then did our rock thing.

Before my rehearsal the day before, I had found someone selling an Avatar 212 cab for the stupid low price of $100. I raced over there before practice, tested it and bought it. I dinked around with it at home in my basement and it sounded like a cab in my basement. But when I got it on stage at the club for soundcheck and then performance, well, wow. Lots of bottom, more growl than I'm accustomed to, and just thickness and a sound that is new to me. Really excited about this cabinet and can't wait to try it with my other gigs.



We played about 7-8 songs, kept it shorter since there weren't a bunch of people at the show. I shot a video but my phone was full and only got about 4 songs.

Next up: Sunset Grooves for Nordstrom's fund raiser on 9/16. 33 yacht rock songs or bust!

Gig report! 7/23/2022 Planets in the Ocean debut at the Sunset

On the heels of a gig the previous night, I had a show with my new band, Planets in the Ocean, at one of our favorite places, the Sunset, in beautiful Ballard (Seattle), Washington.


This was going to be a cool night for several reasons, bulleted in no particular order:

• my wife was attending (she comes to maybe a show a year)
• it was the debut show for the new band
• it was the debut show for my newest bass, a 99 Epiphone Thunderbird
• it was the first show I would be playing exclusively with pick (except one song)
• and 9 brand new songs that we had never played out

My wife and I headed in and I got my gear on stage. We were playing second due the first band having to bail for COVID reasons. The sub was a guy named Shaun Crawford and he was doing a solo guitar thing. We would follow, and then our pals in Electric NoNo were up to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first album.

We got a quick sound check and it was my first time playing the T-Bird "in space" and not simply "in place" at practice. Never having played that big beast in a more physical manner, I was pleased to find out it was not going to be a problem. And it sounded GREAT, not gonna lie.

No food at the club, so Marci and I ordered poké and walked around the corner to pick it up.

Shaun Crawford kicked off the night to a small (20-25 people) but super-appreciative crowd. He was funny, charismatic between songs, and very very talented. He said he's been in Seattle for 3-4 years by way of Texas, and has been in many projects since then. He looped some backing chords and would solo over those, as well as singing some great autobiographical words. I enjoyed him quite a bit.



We were up next and lucky for us, the crowd grew a bit. I was previously in a band called Stereo Embers and we had a nice little following. We wouldn't necessarily sell out a place like the Sunset by ourselves, but with a great rock bill, we could definitely pack the place. The members of Planets in the Ocean are all ex-Stereo Embers (me, singer/guitar and drummer), and as a result, I think a lot of SE fans wanted to see what was up. That, and we're all nice guys and, dang it, people like us!



Another big part of it, though, is because we are in Seattle, we just have people who love to see live, original music. Last Saturday was crazy with its musical choices (Cap Hill Block Party, for one), and for us to draw what we did was pretty cool.

We started the night off with a song titled, funny enough, "Planets in the Ocean." My BL/LG has a double amp setup, running stereo and more effects than he ever did before. He had mentioned how nervous he was, this being a new project and closer to his heart than likely anything he'd done before. He's quite excitable and a really accomplished songwriter with a lot of local cred, so it was cool that he had some nerves.

The nerves did translate to a handful of clams for the first song, as well as throughout the set, but overall, we all had a good time. I also busted out a pedal I picked up a few weeks ago, an Ibanez SB7 Synth Bass pedal. Still trying to decide if it's a cool sound or a distraction, but that's one of the cool things in this band. I get to do what I want, whereas before, we sort of had to support the "brand," if that makes sense.

Another exciting thing about the band is we were playing songs that we dialed in within the last week or two. One really odd timed one called "I Fought a Bear," and another one called "Darla's Song," with words written by the BL's wife. Not only that, he busted out a keyboard, which he just picked up earlier this month. Yet another cool thing to evolve my playing to.

Really excited about this band. Since we started in May, 9 original songs, *some* play on local radio, a write up in American Songwriter, and lots of positive feedback from all over. Hoping to get into the studio soon to do a couple more singles and put those out when they're done.

Last up was Electric NoNo, featuring Jared on guitar and vocals, and his brother, Dominic, on drums and vocals. They have a real indie power pop vibe, tons of energy, super catchy hooks, and a whole lot of fun. Jared wears fairy wings when he performs, and somehow, it works. I stayed for a few songs but had to jump early as I was traveling across the country the next morning. But what I saw was really great.



One of our fans from the SE days was very excited about the PITO potential. He saw how free we all were to explore our sounds and our playing, without a big rock guitar we all had to work with. We all loved what we did in that band, but this band is definitely more liberating and has a lot more potential and momentum, despite the other bands ability to bring people to the club.

Next up: 8/5 with Kathy Moore Band, and then 8/6 with the debut of my yacht rock band, Sunset Grooves, for a private golf function. Loving all the music, but the schedule juggling is pretty annoying.