Maybe a few months ago, Tim reached out and asked if Embers wanted to get back together for a late summer gig. We got together in May to dust off some songs for our release party in June, and then was all done until earlier this month. We started getting together to rehearse for our reunion show, taking place last night.
Earlier this week, they said tickets were low and within the last day or so, the club was sold out! Two sell outs this year for me, that must be a first.
New dragon strap for the new bass
Saturday was spent playing with the new bass, testing out my new bass with my bass amps, heading to Guitar Center to buy a new strap for the bass, then waiting until it was time to head to Ballard for soundcheck as I was backlining my rig. So that meant leaving the house around 4:45 for a 5:30 arrival time.
Marci was coming, and I got her a guest spot, which was great as all sorts of people were hitting folks up for tickets. I had committed to getting Mike and Amy a couple passes because we love them and other issues, so my people were good. Had to do some gymnastics to get Ian in the room for photos as Will forgot to get him one. Luckily my new buds in Seola Station (Ruth) was able to make some magic happen as she purchased extras just in case she had people that wanted to go. Pro move!
Marci and I pulled up to the Sunset right behind Tim and Kay. I gave him a hug and quickly gave him an old Matchbox VW GTI I had. Since I no longer have a GTI, I figured he should have it as he bought one last year when he came into some $$. He and I both loaded in and then reparked our cars and we were good to go.
Imagine my surprise when I got there and Robb's little buddy, Chris, was there (sarcasm). I don't remember him in the previous Embers days, so this may have been his first show. He's just so squirmy, I don't. I am not trying to be mean; I just have no patience for him. As I was trying to get my amp on stage, he was just oddly in the way. Ugh.
Anyway, we set up for soundcheck. I brought my Avatar 212 and Orange Terror Bass. I was supplying bass backline stage right, by the bar and backstage entrance. I strapped up the new P bass and tried it out and immediately, low signal. It may have been the same input jack thing I had happen the other day. After jiggling it around, no change, so I busted out old Goldie and we got to work.
Soundcheck pic featuring the Professor
After soundcheck, Marci grabbed me to go to KAVU down the street, she wanted an opinion on a backpack she liked. She got it and then we went to dinner next door. Ran into Ben London there with his wife and son. He wasn't coming to the show as his son was leaving town the next day so we just said hi. After dinner, we grabbed a molten chocolate cake down the block and snapped a pic.
I was a bit antsy to get back to the club so I left Marci there to finish her treat and ran into Patrick, Kathy and Reb from Golden West. Having played with Kathy and Patrick before, it was nice to be on the same bill with them and their band. I had met Reb a few months ago at the Conor Byrne show and really liked her vibe and energy. Kathy snapped a pic!
After so many years of playing out, I'm finally feeling like I'm part of the scene. I know people, they know me and generally speaking, we like each other. It's really cool!
Finally I made it inside and got to catch a few songs by Seola Station. At soundcheck, when I thought I'd be offering my rig, I spoke with their bassist, Brian, who said he was gonna use his own rig as he likes being stage left and didn't want to move my stuff. Then he busts out the killer Mesa 12/15 mini stack and I figure that I'd want to use that if I had it too.
Epic rig!
Seola Station was cool. There's a description of their music as smoky and sultry, and that's pretty accurate. Ruth, the singer, was a knockout in heels, a slinky dress and really unique vocals. Low register, singing but almost spoken, very neat. Her band was tight and energetic as well. Really enjoyed what I saw and heard.
Seola Station
Marci and I did head backstage and chill for a bit, trying to get people to enjoy some cupcakes for Cass and Tim's birthdays. Her and I chopped it up with Patrick a bit, talking about backyard wildlife, of all things. I shared my Dodo the cat trauma from earlier this summer. It was just nice to chat and hang out and see our friends.
Hooray for cupcakes!
Hooray for Marci and I!
Pro stage plot diagram for Seola Station!
Golden West took the stage next, with Kim V on lead vocals, Patrick on slide, Kathy on lead guitar, Emily on rhythm guitar, Reb on bass and the great Aimee Zoe on drums. Watching her play was a joy, reminded me of my obsession with Anika Nilles. Same joy on her face as Anika's. Really cool! Reb played some great lines and the band was just fantastic. Marci and Emily talked for a bit before their set as she's from Cincinnati, so they talked about Riley's adventures out there, it was pretty funny.
Golden West!
During their set, I got to see a bunch of folks: Steve and Salena, Andi, Howie, Scott Woods, Pete Nordstrom, Dave Place, Lisa Gordon, Will Wiles, Dan Lancaster, Rob Dent, Ben Heege, Charles and Cindy, both Robb's sisters, Renee and Ruthie, Steve Schneider and Michelle from way back, maybe some others I'm forgetting. Just a love in, it was great!
Once GW got off the stage, we got setup and then had a band meeting like Tim likes to do. He gives a quick pep talk and then we jump back onstage and do our thing. All my stuff was working, from IEMs to wireless guitar and it was time to go. Hit the stage running with Game Changer, into Tomorrow, which we never played back in the day.
From Teddy Laabs
Both songs went pretty well. I could hear myself fine, it was the playing that was tough at first. I didn't really warm up and as soon as we started playing, I was just pumped. All the moving around makes it hard to pick accurately, but I think I was likely the only one that noticed. More missed notes than wrong notes, so that's good, I suppose.
For Cass' and Tim's birthdays, Robb and Darla bought some party favors and he passed them out to all the people, so after our 3rd song, Sideline, everyone sang them happy birthday and then blew the blowers. It was pretty sweet.
Happy Birthday to Cass & Tim!
Initially at practices, I was playing all the songs with pick, after never having done so in the past. It was fine, but on some of the slower songs, Break This Down, Pull, Road Song, I decided to go fingers. Same with Boom, though last night I switched to pick mid-song as it was just too fast and I couldn't keep up. I ended up doing Chimp with fingers as well, I think it just flows better.
Overall, pretty pleased with how we played. I think there were some clams here and there by all of us, but for our first show back, not too shabby. A bunch of great pix were taken, let's take a look. First up, Mike Mitchell's pix.
Next up, Howie Cohen's pix.
This might be my favorite picture of the night.
As of now, there are tons of pics of us but not a lot of videos. Funny thing, our friend Bob Mattson came out to shoot GoPro vids as he's done before. He got set up early and then went to dinner. Before long, Cass reached out to me to ask where Bob was. Apparently both SS and GW hired camera crews as well and they wanted the spots where Bob hid his cameras. He was kind enough to come back and accommodate them, but it was sort of a pain.
Speaking of videos, our pals Ted Laabs and Will Wiles posted vids. I'm expecting Bob's as well as Derrick's in the near future, as well as any more that may pop up.
As far as future SE shows go, nothing's in the books. We have talked about it and we feel good about more. As far as new music? Who knows? I know Tim has stuff he wants to bring in but we'll have to feel it out as a band and see how it is. I think we've all grown and if we can settle whatever happened in the past, there may be some hope. Especially if we can sell out shows on the regular? Maybe we play once or twice a year, make it a can't miss prop, vs a "we can catch them next month" type thing.
And now, that's a wrap on gigs. Nothing officially booked for me as of right now. Grooves may have something in a few weeks, more details on that soon, supposedly.
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.
We had booked time last July to go back up to London Bridge to polish off 3 more songs. With the other 9 that we've recorded, we figured 12 would be a great number to put out on vinyl. We've been talking about it over two bands for years, but now we are finally getting close.
But then life got in the way and Robb lost both his dad and father-in-law within a few weeks of each other and the recording understandably got put on a hiatus. We decided to finish the summer and fall with some gigs, then go into hibernation for the end of the year, with a new date booked for January 2025, which happened to be today.
(Un)fortunate for us, it was MLK day, which meant days off for all of us (except Jonathan, but he's doing what he loves, so he gets a pass). The unfortunate part was that it was also frickin' inauguration day, with a new madman taking the place of the American presidency. However, this blog is not about that, so on with the studio recap.
Nice touch by JP!
For the day, I brought Goldie with rounds, and the Butter bass with flats. I grabbed my Orange Terror Bass, along with my pedal board. I also brought my Avatar 212 just in case. I packed a lunch (studio days are notorious for no eating) and made my way north.
Avatar used as a table and nothing more.
After complaining about politics and how cold it was (like 40°F outside, and barely 65°F in the studio), we got setup and then got to work. We went in with the plan to record songs we'd recorded already, albeit in Robb's basement: The Loud Silence (titled as such for now, it may change), Holiday Daydream and Panic Attack.
We got our tones dialed in and we started with TLS. I played the Butter bass via the Orange and got a nice tone. I had my tone dial about 50% with volume dimed. I did use the Tone Hammer for some EQ, but other than compression, it was all bass and the Orange. We had some trouble with a weird overtone sounding like an octave pedal on the 7th fret (E) on the A string. After some troubleshooting, I lowered the gain on my Spark Boost and increased its level and that seemed to smooth it out.
We ran TLS a few times and, as usual, Cass had his parts dialed. He was able to get a great take after one or two tries. Me and Robb had some different challenges, but we were able to make pretty good time. I had a few punches I had to do, but otherwise pleased with the performance. Tone-wise, the flats were cool sounding, the Orange added appropriate dirt and grit, and in the mix (and especially on the studio monitors), the bass sounded fat and full and gnarly. The only thing I would change (but didn't really know how) was how clicky my pick attack sounded. When soloed, it's pretty obnoxious, but on the rough mixes JP provided, with the full band, it sounds fine.
And did I mention the drums? As always, LBS makes drums sound so good. I'm sure JP has something to do with it as well, but man, Cass' drums sound epic. All good stuff.
Cass on the drumzzzz
Pic by Mike Mitchell
On my way up, I reached out to Mike Mitchell and he and Amy agreed to come by for a bit to hang and listen and take some pix. So that was cool! I say this because I didn't take many pix, but did take some vids for IG stories. Mike, however, came in clutch and got shots, including a few of Robb with his new Les Paul, which was cool. Both the pictures and the guitar.
Robb and his new Les Paul (Mike Mitchell picture)
Speaking of that guitar, man, it sounded great! Robb usually plays Teles and they are a little twangy for my tastes. However, this LP had some girth and thickness to it and on TLS, it really worked well.
We finished up that song and then moved onto Holiday Daydream. I thought this one might be challenging because it's pretty sparse and there's not a lot of fireworks, except for at the end. I try to keep my part really simple and lock in with what Cass is doing. I do build with some melodic lines in the second verse and then we all open it up at the end. I played the Butter bass again and played fingerstyle as well, to mellow the sound a little. I kept the tone overdriven, though, and still loved how it all sounded.
Listening back while Robb was doing some guitar overdubs, I mentioned to JP how I'd love to hear a second guitar doing some chord stabs on beat 4 of the 6/8 measures. He brought it up to Robb and Robb was able to pull it off. I also told him to emphasize a double snare/bass hit that Cass and I do and he did it as well, which all sounded great.
As usual, Robb tore through his vocals and this tune turned out really nice as well. When that was done, we started up with Panic Attack. As recent as our last rehearsal, Robb decided he wanted to cut out a little guitar run in the middle of this song. He sometimes stumbles on it and it had gotten in his head a little. So we decided to skip it and pass the responsibility to Cass to throw in a great drum fill, which he did.
For this song, I switched over to Goldie with the rounds for an even more aggressive sound. We did a few takes before JP realized I forgot to mention something and due to the hotter output of the G&L, the bass levels were all out of wack. He got me dialed in and we did a few more takes. Of course, Cass got his takes done and so Robb and I were doing vocals and bass respectively. He had guitar done enough, but this way, we multitask and JP is good enough to handle it all.
As Robb finished up his guitars, I mentioned we should have hand claps and/or tambourine during the solo section, so of course, JP dialed it up and we all jumped in to do the claps. JP did tambo though, as Cass isn't great at it (his words, not mine).
With our instrumental parts all done, Robb finished up some vocals and then JP gave us some quick and dirty mixes. To my untrained ear, especially on his huge studio monitors, we sounded great! I told him in all my years of recording, I think the bass tones I got today were the best I've ever had. Last time we did it, they were OK, but we went a bit overboard with the distortion. I just did a quick listen to some of those songs and yeah, they're a bit distorted, but not bad and maybe with some mastering, it'll tame it a bit.
Anyway, overall, a great day and one that was able to take our minds off of real-world events, despite us seeking that info in-between takes and during down periods. Next up is for me to do my backing vocals, get Jonathan to mix the songs (and two others) and then find someone to put it on wax for us.
