So Yummy: Guest Directors

Monday, May 04, 2026

2026-05-02, Planets in the Ocean at Conor Byrne

Last year we had a show booked with Guest Directors at the Sunset. One of the GDs got sick and had to cancel, so we played with two bands, it was fine. Julie reached out a few months ago and asked us to play this show. I'm really glad we did!

Took about 45 minutes to get to Ballard last night, GPS took me some stupid way that got me stuck at the Fremont bridge, then every light after. No big deal, found some parking, got there and had a quick soundcheck. I got to play through Charlie from GD's Ampeg, no big deal.

I mean, look at that thing!

Weather was beautiful on Saturday. Sunny, warm, between 70-80°. Perfect, really. It brought out some people. At the club it was the bands at first, but then our pal Ted Laabs showed up. I got to talk to him about life and that was entertaining. Steve, Salena and Bob showed up, so I talked to them. Paul from Pop Cycle and his wife Serena showed up. Michael Markley brought a bud. Ben Heege showed up all the way from Kenmore! Chris Elko and his camera and his girl. Ron from Love Battery and his friend were there. Mike and Amy of course! Besides my friends, there were a good number of people in the club, I feel it was pretty well attended.

After all the chit chat, we jumped on stage and got to work. No warmup or anything, so I was a little nervous, but it was all good. We started with "Nomenclature," which is always a bit of a workout. I was quite pleased during soundcheck and actually playing that the monitors were delightfully audible. I could hear what I was singing and I didn't even have to ask!

When we soundchecked, I did play bass on the floor and the rig sounded sweet by itself. On stage, it was very boomy, but it was so visceral, I didn't care. As long as I could hear what I needed, it was just fine.

Throughout the set, I jumped on the mic a bunch, simply because I love the attention and also to keep the awkward silences less awkward. Luckily, people seemed to like it (that's what I keep telling myself). I enjoy having a captive audience to do my bits for and they seemed to enjoy it as well. That's what happens when the sound guy dials in the background mic loud and clear.

Speaking of Mike earlier, he shot pix as usual and caught a great one of me. I've had the jumps captured before, but he got this one in focus and high-pointed, check this out:

Like a bunny.

We had a decent set. No major crash outs, I didn't record, sort of wish I did based on how the room sounded, but gah, maybe next time. After the I got to catch up with people and got a bunch of great comments. People were extra complimentary and super nice about my backing vocals. Steve said it was the best he'd ever seen us. Cass' friend Matt said our first few songs reminded him of XTC, where I was playing the chords without playing the roots, or something like that. Later in the night, Julie from the GDs said I was her favorite lead bassist.

Anyway, enough about me. Model Shop took the stage next and I was quite surprised. I was expecting the singer to be Jen, the bassist. Turns out all three sing leads and the drummer, Kevin, stands and plays up front. Sort of weird, but they were poppy and great and had great 3-part harmonies.

Jen plays a Ric!

They finished up and Guest Directors jumped up. As they started, we heard birds. I guess they play a background track of nature sounds so there's something between songs. Sort of neat!

A professional band

When we played with GDs at Tim's a few summers ago, they were good. But I forgot how good they actually were. With Julie and Gary on guitars and vocals, there's nothing they can't do. Julie has that sort of voice that I just love: clear, honest, pure and beautiful. She sounded so good on stage. AND she's a wicked guitarist as well. With Gary playing lead (and Julie could too, she's that good), her creative rhythm layers are so complimentary to what Gary's doing and it just works.

Rian on drums is a monster. He plays with so much authority, but he is also so tasteful and deft. And Charlie is solid. He doesn't get to do too much, but what he does is very appropriate and just works with his band.

We all finished up and I had a few bucks from getting a referral bonus for Daniel at work. I bought records from both Model Shop and Guest Directors, and also a Model Shop t-shirt, only because it wasn't black (baby blue).

Support local music!

This was probably the most fun gig we've played in a long time. At least for me it was. I was really impressed with how the club sounded and was also quite happy with the number of people that came out for us. We definitely had the biggest draw and I can't wait to do it again in a month from now. Tim will be on the bill and it's pretty much an open secret at this point. We may as well put it on blast and get as many people out as we can.

In the meantime, I just made this, so whatever, here it is.

Sunday, May 14, 2023

Gig report: 5/13/23 Planets in the Ocean at Tim's Tavern

Another day, another gig. I love gig days. I hate the waiting.

Anyway, headed over in the afternoon to Tim's in White Center. Second time playing there this year, first time with Planets. Tim's Tavern was located in the Northgate area, but the owner's of the building sold it or something, which left Tim's owners without a location... until this one, formerly Drunky's Two Shoes, became available. So TT's owners purchased/leased the DTS location and fast forward a few months and Tim's Tavern is a go in White Center now.

The bill consisted of Tiny Jackets (from Portland) and Guest Directors, with Planets in the Ocean headlining. We pitched it as our digital EP release show, but really, it was just a headlining show for us. We had competition all over town, with Fleetwood Mac tribute Wild Rumours playing at Sleight of Hand, and the Pop Cycle, Tripwires and Boss Martians playing at the Sunset in Ballard. Throw in the nicest, warmest day of the year, and getting people to go to indoors shows might have been tough.

Luckily, Tim's has a covered outdoor space, so we were good to go either way. Though the stage was hot, the outdoor area was super comfortable. Water cooler nearby, I was happy. I brought my Avatar 212 cabinet and went with the Trace head. It was the debut of the new casters I got for my birthday and I am happy to say that they worked great. I will have to use the wheel locks pretty much at all times when not moving it, as the wheels really glide easily; on any unlevel surface, the cab wanted to take off.

Soon enough, Tiny Jackets jumped on stage. They are a 4-piece from Portland and they looked like they were from Portland. 4 handsome, thin and stylish lads. Bassist fronted the band with a black P bass, sporting a Mike Dirnt body, with a Japanese neck that he put on it. Through my rig, his bass sounded great, if a little quiet. Vocals were a little quiet too; not sure why the sound guy was dialing in things like that. But, despite those issues, the band was great. 3 part harmonies at times, with really tasty guitar pop.

Robb knew Kelly (the bassist) from a band he was in 20 years ago called Thistle. Many of the songs apparently were old Thistle songs and Kelly and crew continued performing them. There's a lot of interesting history there, but Kelly was a very nice dude and I really enjoyed their songs and performance.

Next up was Guest Directors. I have heard these guys' name all over the place but have never seen them. One of their guitarists is Gary Thorstensen, who I played with in a band called the Navins from about 2014-2018. In that band, Gary played Rics; in this band, he's playing a powder blue Fender Jaguar. He did some lead vocals as well and it was great. The other guitarist, Julie, sang lead on most of the songs and I liked her vibe a lot. Their drummer was powerfully creative and tasteful and overall, their vibey, shoegazey rock was super cool.

Since we were headlining, we had a bit of a longer set. Over the past few weeks, we learned and added 3 new songs to our set, and would be debuting them. I tried to get my stage sound dialed in and it just sounded weird. I don't know if it was because I had IEMs the night before and was expecting clear sounds, but the bass just sounded super boomy, with no definition. I thought it was due to the 212 cabinet, but I've used it before and hadn't had that problem. I had the sound guy put some bass in the wedge in front but that didn't help too much. Vocals were hard to hear as well, but I just trusted in what the sound guy was doing and what I could hear in my head.

I think we played pretty well, considering. I felt sloppy at times, mainly due to trying to put on a performance, rather than just playing. I always have a tough time trying to balance the two. By being more physical, it can affect the accuracy of the music. But overall, I think the performance was positive.

The new songs went over pretty well also. One of them, Misguided Head, is tough because I play a bunch of melodic lines and when I was trying to learn them, I couldn't believe I was playing them off the top of my head at practice. It's a bit busy, but I like it and it's fun to play.

After the set, I talked to the sound guy about the boominess on stage. He said it was because I was standing right next to the main PA speakers, which had a subwoofer at the bottom. That was really adding to the bass and he said it was an issue he was aware of, but didn't have the budget to address. Next time, I may bring IEMs or adjust my EQ (I was a dummy; I increased my mids instead of bringing the bass down on the amp) differently.

We finished the set and it was over too soon. It's such a joy to play and perform for people and I'm always happy to finish, but then bummed it's so long until the next show. But lucky for us, the next Planets show is June 8 at the Sunset. Good times!