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.

2026-03-07 Greg Hoy & the Boys at the New Frontier Lounge

Night 2 of our SEATAC tour is in the books. Another long evening/night at a club, but so much fun, that I didn't care. Once again, the night started with me jumping in the car. The NFL is about 30 miles away from home and I was a little nervous as it was going to be my longest roundtrip in the new car when it wasn't properly charged up. I've been trying to save some money on electrical by not charging every night. Monday and Tuesday nights I didn't charge, and on Wednesday, I had my normal commute to work, then to Dave's house for rehearsal and back, which added another 25 or so miles total. I charged that night, then had Planets practice, which adds about 35 miles to the daily. Same with Friday night, playing in West Seattle. After charging Friday night and driving Marci's car around Saturday, I left for Tacoma with just about 100 miles on the battery. Lucky for me, the route for the gig was about 60-65, so we made it home just fine. But, I digress.

Traffic wasn't bad getting down there, I made it in good time, but I did have a terrible time finding parking. I heard there was high school basketball championships at the Tacoma Dome across the street, so where normally there are hundreds of streets spots on any given night, last night, there was next to nothing. I tried squeezing the car into a fenced in tiny lot behind the building, but after a few tries, it was just too tight, so I moved on. I drove around the area for about 10 minutes before I found a spot about a block away, so I lucked out. I only brought my bass and a cord, since Tom's amp sounded so good the night before. Dave ended up parking about half a mile away, so no complaints from me!

After the brief load-in, I said hi to some of the fellas and ordered some food. Hot dog for me, no picture. I took to the stage and got set up, quick and easy. I decided to bring the Hog. I didn't even bring the pedal board as I didn't use it the night before at all. I brought my stupid clip-on tuner and a cord and it was pretty cool to travel so light, not gonna lie.

This beautiful beast

As we line-checked, I played a few notes and Brian from FLC was in front of me and marveled at this bass. Planets had recorded a video at his house in October and I played Goldie. He sort of did a double-take and was all like, "you have to bring that bass over and we are going to record it." All from a few notes, I thought that was funny.

I brought another phone to record the festivities, set it up on a table near me and hit record. I figured, "how often do I play with horns?" and wanted to let it rip. Max and Ric had nearly matching blue shirts and I got to stand next to Max this time. They are a great combo and they have tons of gigs. It was really cool to connect and play with them for these two nights. I'll see them again down the line.

I really enjoyed playing with Dave too. When we were kids in high school, he was decent enough and he really grew into a solid and quirky drummer. His jazz-type roots over the years really defines his style. His fills and feel are so different to me but they work and I loved how he added to what the band did.

Both nights, it was tough to hear Greg. We sort of blasted through sound check and I neglected to tell the sound guy to put guitar in my monitor. I could hear his vocals for the most part and everything turned out fine. I had a trainwreck in one song, forgot to go to a B-section, but figured it out quickly enough. I also forgot to warm up, so for the first song, a pretty quick bouncy number, I made it out alive, but it was tricky.

Oh yeah, before all that, Sean Lundblad and Val showed up. Was great to see them, even if Val didn't want to be in our picture! They are great and really enjoyed catching up with Sean. He said they'll try to make it out to Seattle for the Planets show on Friday.

Lund Bros. rhythm section, 2026.

Following us was Square Peg and I thought they sounded better on this show. Maybe it was the room, who knows? Steve said he didn't play that well, but I thought they did just fine. I guess I forgot to take a picture of them, but just scroll down to yesterday's post.

The night before, Brian said they were going to do their grunge set. They kicked it off with a blaster that I didn't remember hearing the first night. It was a cool tune and set the tone for their set. Steve R. said Brian had crafted a different set, their heavier one. And it was! Tom sang a bunch of the songs and inspired me to want to sing more. He was great and Brian was great and they were all great. Nice tight band and cool songs. I personally like the heavier FLC better and they'd pair good with PITO, but Brian is trying to move in a less heavy direction, more dynamics, etc. All good, they were great and such good dudes.

Wanted the sign in the shot

After the show, I talked to a bunch of the dudes for a bit. Love talking to FLC, Dan from SP is a cool dude, a very friendly hugger. Met a cool guy named Dave who plays drums for a Latino rock cover band. Hope he can make it out next Friday. Stereo Embers/PITO fan Nick Kennedy was there also; I guess he lives in Tacoma and was happy to see me/us in his town.

All in all, a fun two shows, fun four days of music for me. Wish more weeks were like this! Now I have two more next week and then some chill time until what, May? Who knows. Let's get after it!

Next up, Planets at the Sleight of Hand SODO to release our record! I'm feeling like the turnout is gonna be good!

2026-03-06 Greg Hoy & the Boys at the Skylark

Last night was night one of what I'm calling our SEATAC tour. It was the Seattle portion, of course. I left plenty early, at 5:30, expecting horrible traffic. Instead, it wasn't too bad, so I showed up close to 6. I figured I'd get there early since we were sound checking at 7 and I wanted to eat before I lost track of time.

I pulled into the lot and the Full Life Crisis boys, Lee, Tom and Brian, were there loading in. I headed in and it was my first time back to the Skylark in I don't know how many years, maybe 2016 with the Scheme?

Part of GHTB included Max and Ric on sax and trumpet, respectively. It all came together quite nicely, with me doing most of the coordinating. Greg had a booking agent get some clubs on the tour, but he asked if I knew any horns. Of course I thought of Max and Ric and luckily they could do it. Then he asked if I knew any bands, so I asked FLC and Square Peg, both of which could also do it. So that was that, easy peasy.

I caught up with Dave, Ric, Steve and Steve from Square Peg. Greg's wife and his daughter were there as well, since it was all ages until 10pm. Greg's wife worked at Open AI and she brought a bunch of people. FLC is from West Seattle and they always bring a small crew. Overall, it was a pretty good draw.

I grabbed a smoked chicken sandwich and tore that up before hitting the stage for soundcheck. I hemmed and hawed on what bass to bring and ended up bringing the butter bass to play through Tom's Ampeg combo.

tasty chicken sandwich

The gear

Half of Max and Ric

Dave and Greg and I practiced a few nights ago and it went fine. We didn't practice with Max and Ric and it was fine. They had charts and we did a quick soundcheck with "Highway 101," which starts with horns, and it was great. The amp sounded great and overall, I was happy with what I heard.

Greg was hurting a bit; the night before, he fell on a sidewalk in Seattle and twisted up his ankle. He had a brace on his foot and was hobbling around a bit and hurting, but he soldiered on. It didn't affect his voice or guitar playing, so we were good on that front.

Before long, we hit the ground running and it was great. Despite the injury, Greg has fun stage presence. Max and Ric were center stage and I was in the corner. I could hear everything pretty well, except Greg's guitar, which was OK. We banged through some songs and they were all pretty good. No real trainwrecks or screw ups. The horns sounded great and were a lot of fun to play with. Overall, happy with the performance and people ate it up.

Greg and the Boys

Full Life Crisis followed us. They put on a solid set, with all 3 dudes singing a song during the set. Lee said it was his first time singing lead on a song; the guys had written a song and told him he had to sing it. Tom played a Ric and it sounded great. I don't know if I'd want that Ric clank and growl to be my sound, but it worked for him and he played it really well. Brian is a great player and a suprisingly good singer as well. He's cool and I've really enjoyed getting to know him the past year or so. They put on a great set with a wide variety of musical influences.

FLC

Square Peg closed out the night with an energetic and loose set. Dan on drums is fun to watch and listen to. He seems to be close to losing at all times, but it always works out. Steve N. surprised me with his vocals. There was a few times when he had to hit a big note and he did. Bob and Steve R. were solid, as expected. Those guys have been around a bit and know what's up and how to best compliment their songs.

Square Peg

When it was all said and done, I loaded out and headed home only to find I-90 east was blocked off. Had to go around and pay the toll on 520, so I wasn't thrilled about that. Next time I should check the GPS before making the drive. Don't know what the band made, expect I'll get paid by Greg tonight when we do it again at the New Frontier.

Gig report: 10/19/23 Planets in the Ocean at Conor Byrne

This gig was a fun one. I wanted to play Conor Byrne in Ballard as I never had before. I'd seen some shows there before, but always as a spectator. I reached out the booker a few months ago and put together the bill with my friend, Steve's band, Square Peg. They're new, having only a few gigs under their collective belts, but have all been around for a minute. And I also got the Zack Static Sect on the bill. I'd heard cool things about them and saw them do a vinyl release at Easy Street in August and thought they were great. Plus, old Seattle music vet, Scott Sutherland, is in the band, so that was cool too.

As we prepped for the show over the last few weeks, Steve N. from Square Peg was kind enough to pay for some posters. We used a guy that Zack had used before and the guy banged out some great images for us to print and post.

I left the house around 6, just in time for rush hour. These Thursday shows start around 8-ish, so soundcheck is a 7. I got to Ballard about 50 minutes later and loaded in, which consisted of my bass and pedalboard. Steve R. from Square Peg was kind enough to backline his sweet Aguilar Tone Hammer rig with 2 12" speakers. Small and tasty.

Prior to the gig, Cass offered his drums to backline and I thought Zack said his drummer would use them. Apparently he said he wanted to use his own drums, not Cass', so there was a little confusion, but we worked it out.

After sorting that out, I hoofed it a few blocks away to grab some ramen, which I brought back to Conor Byrne to eat. I got a chance to talk to my mates, as well as some friends who were there: Michael M., Jeff B., Mike M. and Amy D., Andi W., and others. All friends, but more fans of music than people that come specifically for me. These days, I don't care as much as I used to. I put out the info, if they come, they come, and if they don't, there's always next time.

Zack Static Sect took the stage first. A three piece, with Zack on vocals and guitar, Scott on Fender Bass VI and Duane on drums. Garage punk, 3-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust and a lot of flair to go with it. Not snarling, tattooed punk, but almost surf/50's influenced punk. A lot of fun and I had a smile on my face the whole time.

Really enjoyed Zack's song about his wife, called "Mari Likes to Ride (the Subway Train)," about Mari taking subways in Tokyo, where she's from. Both Zack and Scott liked to jump and levitate during songs. Duane bashed the heck out of Cass' drums and they just put on a high-energy, boot-stompin' show.

Zack, Scott and Duane (who is invisible).

After ZSS played, we were up next. Since Steve had his rig there, I didn't play with my Tone Hammer pedal. Scott's bass sounded fine through it and I figured my L1K would as well. I brought the Hog as Goldie got the last show (man I hate having named my basses, but it's more about the color than a name).

We played the same set as last time and I thought it went pretty well. I get a little sloppy on the high energy songs, like Sit and Spin, specifically. There's a lot of weird picking on that one, and syncopation, and energy, and it just gets sloppy at the end. I hope it doesn't come off wrong when I play it. I'll have to get a recording sometime and see what it sounds like.

Mike Mitchell with the pics, yet again!

Square Peg followed our set with a nice little set of their own. I saw their first gig way back in March and they've really grown since then. Steve N. on guitar and vocals writes tidy little rockin' power pop tunes. Steve R. on bass locks down the bottom with tasty licks and solid foundational parts on his Fender Jazz, and Dan on drums really brings some frenetic energy and provides backing vocals.

Square Peg!

At the end of it all, we made some new friends and fans. We talked about future shows. Scott had some real kind, bass player type words to say to me. He and I played on bills in the mid-2000's, early 2010's, when I played with Lund Bros. and he was in all the bands (Llama, Paul Lynde Fan Club, others that I forget). He came up and asked, "When did you start playing with a plectrum?" I told him I taught myself over the pandemic and he was just blown away by that. He remembered me as a finger player (which I was) and thought he'd be the only bassist with a pick.

When it was time to settle up, the bar wrote all three bands separate checks for... $38.00. I left the house at 6pm, I got home around midnight, so 6 hours got me about $12 and change. About $2/hr and I also bought dinner for $21 after tip. Not to count gas money, too. Good thing I'm not doing it for the money. I'd do it all again right now if I could.

Next up, nothing! No gigs on the radar, but may have something just after the new year.

February recap

Let's see.

Tried to start a little business. More of a proof of concept, than anything else. In the month of Feb, I figured if I got a few calls, I'd call it a success. As it turned out, I had 4-5 calls, and made a few bucks. So that's good news!

No jobs have come calling, no interviews. Lame, but not unexpected. I did have lots of people reach out, as well as meeting with some people from the EBC to celebrate a former co-worker's departure. It feels good to see those folks; I'm still held in high regard over there and that is encouraging.

Book-wise, I finished 3, I think I'm at 6 for the year.

Musically, saw a few shows (Square Peg and Close Seconds, both Steve Reeves' bands; Kathy Moore and Thaddilac), played one show with PITO at the Substation (ugh). From that show, though, we seem to be making a name: people asking about us, seeking us out. Have some gigs to announce on the horizon that seem cool.

Not much else going on. Just going through day by day, trying to stay busy, manage our money, make sure we are taken care of. So far, so good still. Let's see what March has to bring.