Silver bass post practice report

Before heading to rehearsal tonight, I played the IS bass a little. Yesterday, after I took it apart and put it back together, I plugged in and found that the input jack was a little weird. The signal was super low, despite it playing fine earlier in the night. I fussed around with it and it seemed fine.

When I tried it again tonight, it did it again. I had to crank both my Ashdown and Orange amps to hear it, which wasn't right. I tried a different cable and got the same result. It wasn't until I jiggled the 1/4" end that I heard the full signal.

I had dinner in the stove so I took my e-screwdriver (what a delight to have) and undid 13 screws in no time at all. I redid the washer and nut for the jack, moving the textured washer underneath the pickguard (I didn't clock where that went yesterday when I put it back together). After that, I put it back together and tried and it was fine. All fixed, I guess.

I ended up taking Goldie as a backup in case the jack fritzed out at practice. (dinner was fine, btw: Costco black cod in the oven)

Rehearsal was fine. Robb was a little tired and it showed in his playing; I think his brain was fried (he said so himself). We were all super loud, but none of that mattered because the new P sounded very good. It seemed to ring clear and true, and I really liked that. The intonation may be a little wonky, some notes sounded a little pitchy at times, so I'll check that out before the show.

As I thought, it was a little neck divey, but while I'm playing, it doesn't matter. It's when I'm not playing, but it's easy enough to put a hand on it to keep it steady.

I may have to pick up a new strap for it this weekend, will hit up Guitar Center or something. I don't like the b/w Fender strap I got with the MIM P a few years ago.

Overall, the bass was great and I will be excited to play it at the Embers show on Saturday. Maybe I'll switch out the pick guard for the black one... who knows??

The waiting is definitely the hardest part

I have been a bad boy again. With a few gigs under my belt and about $800 in fun funds as a result... I've been looking at basses again.

I was keeping it chill, though. Mainly looking at getting a "true" LB-100, with a matching body and neck, not a mongrel like the one I got in January (though it is a killer bass!). I was thinking of that to justify getting another bass. Keeping it on the cheaper side, looking at the Tributes, with an Olympic White/maple neck in my sights, free shipping, for $439, which was the cheapest one I could find.

I would've preferred the rosewood neck, but those are long gone and this is what's out there.

Then on Saturday night, I was scrolling around eBay and happened across this guy who was selling a Fender American Standard P bass, in what I thought was also Oly White, but with crappy pictures.

Could this be Oly White with terrible white balance?

I took closer looks at the photos and fired off a message to the seller about it after asking Copilot a bunch of questions. The bass is from 1997 and looked to be in fantastic shape. Seller had great feedback over something like 4000 transactions. All the case candy was there, original case, and the best part? Priced at $950. Searching on Reverb and Copilot, it seems any American Standards were going for $1300-1500 or so. This guy wanted $950 + $30 for shipping.

I was prepared late Saturday to make an offer of $900 and see what he'd say, but I wanted to sleep on it, so I did.

Come Sunday morning, I saw someone else had made an offer and after thinking about making a $925 offer, then making said offer, I said f-it and hit the Buy it Now button. This was after he said it was actually a silver-colored bass, which meant it was Inca Silver, a color offered by Fender at the time, which also made the bass an even better deal!

YOLO baby!

I waited until Monday night to ask for a tracking number as I didn't get one. Apparently the seller had to go get a burly box to put the bass and case into. It shipped out Tuesday morning and it's estimated to come in Tuesday next week. That will give me two rehearsals with the Embers crew before our big 9/12 reunion show at the Sunset.

Can't wait!

7/25/25, Planets in the Ocean at Tim's Tavern

Fun night at Tim's last night. Left the house around 5:55 for a 6:30 arrival time and pretty much arrived right on time. Best part of these early arrivals is the ample parking. I was backlining my amp for the other two bands, Full Life Crisis and the Riffbrokers, so I wanted to be there early enough. I brought the Orange and the 212, as well as the butter P and the SB2 as a backup.

Robb and Cass showed up shortly and we had a good time chopping it up, getting caught up on the past couple weeks. Cass's son Beckett broke his leg in San Diego last week playing soccer, so that was good to get caught up on. He's gonna be rehabbing and recovering for the next several months but should be OK.

I got to chat with Brian and Tom from Full Life Crisis for a bit, then with Heather and Nick of the Riffbrokers. I've played shows with them for the past 20 years or so. We aren't close necessarily, but we are always friendly when we see each other at shows. Great to get caught up with them, albeit briefly.

Last time we played Tim's, the stage was outdoors, but evidently some adjacent businesses have been less then neighborly when it came to the outdoor music after 10pm. They would complain and raised enough of a stink to force Tim's to move the stage indoors, where the sound could be better controlled. They took out half of their dining room and reconfigured the layout of the entire property to support it and it was actually really cool. They included a green room this time around!

Tim's Tavern: Together In Music!

New stage setup

The new green room

After some pre-game chit chat, Full Life Crisis took the stage. With 2/3rds of the band made up of 1/2 of the Rallies (Lee on drums, Brian on guitar), they hit the ground running. Tom on bass played a beautiful Rickenbacker and held it down quite admirably. He played with a pick and sang leads on some songs. All three of the guys sang great together and they had a nice solid set. Lee is great at laying down a beat and Brian is a nice guitarist, he plays great leads and solos. Overall, very well done!

Full Life Crisis

Before they started, I was surprised by my friend Chelsea, her husband, Brendan, and their friends, Breann and July (pronounced Julie). I've known Chelsea through work and I used to work with Brendan as well. They are huge music fans and I was really happy to see them and have some new friends to meet as well.

Friends new and old

After a quick set change, we started off. It was business as usual, but due to a conflict (had to pick Marci up at the airport) we bailed on practice the night before. As I started "Unraveled" with the band, I had that horrible realization that maybe we shouldn't have skipped. I missed notes, I felt out of sorts. It took about 3-4 songs before I felt better. I think part of it was also the monitors. Though the new Tim's setup is great, I couldn't hear much beyond Robb's vocals and guitar. I was right next to my amp so the bass sounded weird and I was futzing around with it all night. I had a camera set up on a nearby table and though my backing vox were loud in the mains, I was pitchy all over. Ugh. Overall, though, as they say, I am my worst critic, so I have to look at it through the crowd's eyes.

As far as the bass is concerned, I played the yellow P and maybe it's been too long since I've played it. The past several shows I've played the gold L1K and I figured I'd hit up the P. Something about the action I think was also throwing me off. The action is super low and picking at the strings, I kept missing notes and generally being uncomfortable. Or maybe I should've practiced the songs once or twice this week.

Anyway, all three of us slogged through mistakes and errors. There were stick drops, there were missed choruses, it was pretty funny. But on video, we looked and sounded good, so there's that. Our little fanclub at the table was vocal and gave us great energy. The people overall were quite enthusiastic, despite our self-inflicted wounds. Here's a screen capture of the video.

Nice bright stage at Tim's!

After us were the Riffbrokers. Married folks, Nick and Heather, have been in the Seattle music scene for decades and their obvious familiarity and comfort comes through beautifully. Nick has this low-key clever stage banter, and Heather plays great bass lines and adds so much with her pretty backing vocals. It was her first time playing this Guild bass, which belongs to her pal Scott Sutherland.

The Riffbrokers

During the RBs set, Nick kept shouting me out, going on about "GWON CHANG" this and "GWON CHANG" that. It was pretty funny. I think he realized that Robb was Robb Benson and he was amazed at how young he looked (Robb and Cass's band, Dear John Letters, had played with the RBs a lot in the past). Nick also called out the Lund Bros, since we played with them a lot in the '10s.

After the show, it was high-fives and hugs all around. I sat with the table and chatted via text and shouting in ears, enjoying the Riffbrokers and the company. It was great catching up with Chelsea and her hubs, hanging with Cass and Robb and talking with the other bands.

Brian from FLC came up and mentioned that he had played with the Lunds at the Skylark but I thought I wasn't in the band by then. However... after checking my info today, it turns out we did play together in 2010. Pretty cool stuff, just no recording of that one, other than a quick blog entry up in here somewhere.

Packed it up after that, drove home and in bed. The 4 gigs in July are over! Up next, 8/16 in Everett with the Sunset Grooves. Stay tuned.

9/6/2024, Planets in the Ocean at Darrell's Tavern

Since our last gig in June, I think we've only rehearsed once or twice. Maybe once? Much of the reason was life getting in the way, mainly for Robb. In July, both his dad and father-in-law passed away within 3 days of each other. His wife was in WI tending to her dad when Robb's dad passed, so he was alone for that, and then her dad passed and he couldn't support her in-person.

Just a sad time all around.

So in mid-August, we finally got back together to rehearse and see each other, and that was really great. Group texts are fine to stay in touch and all, but in-person is where it's at. We ran the tunes and it went fine.

For Friday's show, I headed to rehearse one last time on Thursday and that was a mess. I got stuck in traffic on the freeway, all 4 lanes blocked due to a traffic fatality (RIP), and it took me about 1.5 hours to get to the next exit to turn around and just go home.

All that to say that we'd have a show with only one rehearsal in the past 2 months. Lucky for us, we are pros.

Darrell's, where your dad used to drink!

No traffic jams the night of the show, so I was way early, around 7:30. I was backlining my rig, so I wanted to be there in time to set up. Last time I backlined at that June show, I was late getting there and it was awkward.

Cool to have Bruce Lee behind me, I wish he could've adjusted my stage volume.

Cass showed up a few minutes later so we got caught up on the last two months. Before long, everyone else rolled in and it was a good ol' band hang. Some of my old pals showed up, Aaron, Kevin, Steve and Salena, Andi, David. And the mates from Mopsey, old musical pals Richard, Ryan, Wesley and Jason. And the Kings, though I only know Ric from them. Great to catch up and chat with everyone, including my own mates.

Before long (no soundcheck, weirdly), the Kings Seattle kicked things off. They're a 7 piece ska-ish band, with 3 horns, guitar, big boy Zeke on bass, drums and singer/keys. They were great! Lots of energy, lots of peppy tunes. I only wish the sound guy had dialed things in as the keys and horns were a little quiet.

The Kings Seattle

After their fun set (they'd be a great party band), we took the stage. I brought my P bass as Steve was there and he's a bit of a P bass aficionado. Since I got the bass, I thought the action was a little low, but since I don't have a good reference point, I had him check it out and he said it was dialed in. I trust his judgement, so I felt good about that.

Having my amp off the ground about 2 feet, I thought I'd be able to hear it pretty well. Turns out, I was wrong. That bass gets very strong mids sounds and not as much in the bass. I tried to adjust the EQ on the amp a little, but mainly ended up turning up my master volume. It worked out for the most part. I also ended up standing just in front of it when I wasn't singing. I think having crash cymbals right next to me didn't help either.

Despite not having a practice recently, I thought we played pretty well. There was a trainwreck in one of our songs (not me), but otherwise not bad. The sound guy had my vocals really loud; the only interaction I had with him was him telling me the wedge in front of me was mine. I guess I could've asked for some different boosts, but I just went with it.

I think the P was fine. What little I could hear in some videos was that it was definitely there, but dialed a little quiet for my tastes in FOH. Any character or nuance was not really heard, but you just knew the bass was there. The bassist for the Kings had a more thumpier sound (he played a PJ Fender) and it fit the tunes but same thing, not much character or bite to the sound.

The strings on my bass may be a little too new, despite on me having the bass since May and playing it fairly frequently. Or maybe I just need to put different strings on it. My boy Steve said I should only play this bass with this band; he said the character he heard out front fit perfectly with Robb's guitar sounds. That said, he is a bit of a fanboi with the P basses, so he is quite biased!

After we finished up, the incredible and muscular Mopsey took the stage. They are 3/4ths of the Young Sportsmen back in the day and 1/4th drummer Jason. They are all bros from way back and they are fantastic, if a bit loud. I saw them a few months ago at the Belltown Yacht Club and I thought it was the club just having a bad night; all the bands were just so loud. But no, it's Mopsey. They are an arena band playing clubs. But they do it oh so well!

Wesley plays a Firebird and for such a nice and warm dude, seems out of character but simply gives some great attitude. Ryan moved back from Colorado recently and replaced Eric O on guitar, as the commute for EO is just too great from Tacoma to Seattle (I get it). Ryan sings as well and he and Wesley are just wicked together.

Richard on bass used to play with Cass and Robb in the Dear John Letters years ago, so they have history. I've know Richard for a little and he is a gear aficionado (there's that word again). I asked him about his stuff, he said he has something like 40 pieces of amps/cabinets/combos at his place. Nuts. He and Jason compliment each other so well as the rhythm section. Jason is sneaky good and powerful and they do good ass hard rock.

Richard on bass!

Frickin' Mopsey!!

They had great between song banter, great stage presence and great humility. I can't gush enough about how much I love these dudes and their music. Wesley said he'd play with us anywhere anytime, so we'll have to cash in on that in the future for sure. I had a great time talking to each of those dudes.

Afterwards I had a couple people mention to us how we as a trio compliment each other so well. That our music is very reminiscent of other bands, but not so much that we sound like a copy of anyone. I've heard that type of comment before and it is pretty gratifying. As a more traditional rock band in our previous iteration, we were more support players of the band. In this band, it isn't so much "everybody go solo" but we have more breathing room in the songs, which does allow each of us to stretch our legs a bit, but within the confines of the tune. It's quite fun.

At the end of the night, Darla, Darcy and Rose got a photo in front of "Mom." It wasn't until after I got home that I realized it was the first time seeing both D & D since their dad passed. I did offer condolences to Rose but neglected to with the girls. But I was able to talk to them both and give hugs, so that was good.

Up next, Planets at the Sunset on 9/21. Stay tuned.

Playing the Buttercream in the bands

I finally had the opportunity to play the butter bass at band rehearsals this past week. With my indie rock power trio, I plugged through my pedal board, which features a compressor as well as a Tone Hammer 500 (AGS off). That all fed into an Orange Terror Bass v2, which powered a 2x10 + 1x15 stack. I wear earplugs when I play, so any audio I got was filtered through that as well.

Overall, compared to my usual basses, G&L L-1000s, both with rosewood boards, I felt the butter bass with its maple board sounded fuller on the upper registers. I don't spend a lot of time up there, as I always feel like my basses just lose a little body and vibrance when I do so, but the butter bass didn't seem to do that. Call it honeymoon phase or whatever, the butter P felt stout and strong when I played up high. The notes felt like they were singing; I can't really explain it.

I play with a pick in that band and everything felt and sounded great. I would flick the tone down on some of the more mellow tunes, and then dime it when going hard. The butter bass performed admirably.

Fast forward to last night, with yacht rock band rehearsal. We use IEMs and one guy does use a monitor speaker. I play through a Zoom B2Four multi-effects pedal and call up whatever patch I need for whatever song we do.

Much the same as with my indie rock band, the butter bass was wonderful to play. Everything sounded full and clear in my IEMs, and also sounded super tasty when I noodled around with them out (listening via my mate's monitor speaker). The bass sounded great in nearly all the songs we played, except for the brief (yikes) slapping I do in the song "Somebody's Baby." I may need to choose a different patch or hit a boost button or something. I felt like all the bottom end dropped out when I slapped.

I did raise the saddles a tiny bit prior to practice. Mainly because I'm a super heavy striker and I found I was getting a lot of noise. Even though I do play lighter with IEMs, eventually, I will go for it, so having a little more clearance works for me. I thought it played great, even better than the last rehearsal.

In between rehearsals, I did some more light recording. I took an old song that I played a '93 G&L SB-2 on, used fadr.com to create stems, imported it all into Audacity, and then used my Trace-Elliot GP12 Series 6 to feed my Scarlett Focusrite. Using the line out from the TE into the input jack of the Focusrite was a bit of a revelation. I turned OFF the "instrument" button on the Focusrite, thereby removing the boost it would otherwise give to the instrument's signal. This gave me room to increase the input gain on the Focusrite without blowing out my signal.

Overall, the TE performed great and feeding the butter bass signal into my PC was a lot of fun. I did compare the butter bass (Mojotone 70's clone PUPs) with my black bass (62 Custom Shop PUPs) again, and the reality is, they sound very similar to my untrained ears. The signal coming off the butter bass is hotter for sure, but adjusting my input when playing the black bass seemed to address that.

When I adjusted each bass track I recorded in the confines of the song, either one sounded really awesome, even with my super limited engineering skills. Both basses have rounds on them and both were full, aggressive and a pleasure to listen to.

Ultimately, it seems that it took me approximately $900 to realize that I already had a $400 P bass that would be really great for me. I was already starting to fall for the black bass, yes. But the butter bass had some upgrades, as well as that maple neck, that pushed it over the edge for me. I have no regrets in buying it. It is really making me appreciate the black bass though.

1999 Fender Standard Precision Bass

I forgot to write about this bass!

After playing a few shows last year and then having some fun bux saved up from Christmas and Chinese New Year, I thought I wanted a bass. In the $300-700 range, there's a lot of options, but mainly, I was looking at getting a P bass.

Back in the early 2000s, I bought a purple P off of eBay. Someone had repainted it and when I got it, I tried to use it, but for whatever reason, I could never get it to feel right. Maybe it was the wide maple board on it, but I think more likely, it was because I couldn't get it to sound how I thought it should. I ended up selling it somewhere to someone and I can't remember where or when. I do have a video of it, I think, in the Ethyl days, maybe at a club in the U District? I did do a recording with Starchief with it, take a look:

That's a purple P with a black pick guard.

Listening to it now, with one of my favorite Johnny Low songs, And You Lean, and the bass sounds freakin great. Sits in the mix and is fat and round. Maybe I shoulda kept that bass.

Then sometime in the late 2000s (?), I traded away my Sterling for a Lakland Skyline (Korean) Duck Dunn P bass. It was beautiful! Candy apple red, rosewood neck with block inlays, matching red headstock. The original pickguard was white but the previous owner put a black guard on it and it looked incredible.

That's a good lookin' bass!

Same thing happened with that DD, though. I couldn't figure it out. I'd bring it to shows, but I'd end up playing the SB-2 instead. Since I was in 2 bands at the time, Lund Bros and the Scheme, I ended up using the DD with the Scheme (LB would tune down to Eb, so it was easier to have a bass per band).

I did do an EP recording with the Scheme and though not as fat as the Starchief song, it still sounds pretty good. Maybe I shoulda kept that one too. I ended up trading that one straight up for a Lakland Skyline Decade, which I just did NOT bond with, so that ended up getting traded in and cash for the Reverend Thundergun.

Anyway, all that to say, I decided I wanted another P.

I started looking at Reverb.com, Facebook Marketplace and, ugh, Craigslist. There were plenty of options, but I was thinking if I wanted something worthwhile, maybe I needed to buy new, like a Squier or something. Lots of great reviews of the new Squiers, but I also sort of wanted something "vintage."

After some searching, I found a really cool looking black P with a killer pickguard and pickup and bridge covers. The seller was in Tacoma and he was letting it go for $400. I ended up going down on a freezing late January night and met him in his garage.

He had some old flats on it and I played it a bit and really liked it. He said he put in some '62 Fender Custom Shop pickups in it (though I couldn't tell one way or another). I was a little bummed to see that though the bass was black, it was spraypainted that way. Not a great paint job, but from far away, one can't tell.

After a few minutes, I bought the bass. He threw in the Fender strap it was on, as well as a white pick guard. But the whole reason it caught my eye in the first place was the cool aftermarket pick guard he put on it.

As I brought it home

Paint run

I went through a quick phase of buying some tools and the like to set up the bass. I kept the flats on it as I kind of liked how they sounded and felt. It was never meant to supplant the L1K, but man, I kept playing the P and I liked it more and more.

When I checked the serial number, it indicated it was made March 1999 (despite leading with an 8, which would mean 1988), which I love.

It is Mexican and it just sounds great. The s/n also says that the original color is brown sunburst, which equates to this:

I don't hate that, but I do hate what I'd have to do to try to unearth that. Maybe I'll leave it to the professionals. Or maybe I'll try it sometime. I just don't know. Right now, that bass is a great #2. I'll most likely use it in the Sunset Grooves as I'm really riding the T-Bird hard in PITO.

The P did get its moment in the sun when I played it at the SE final show. Bob M. made a cool GoPro video out of it.

Gig report! 4/9/2022 Stereo Embers at the Sunset

Welp, that's a wrap. Just after 4 years of joining my band, we called it a day last night at the Sunset.

There are some dynamics involved as to why the band is no more, but to me, it had run its course and the pandemic and lockdown certainly didn't help. But this is about the gig, not why we stopped.

We had this gig planned for March of '20, and then it got put on pause, and then the Sunset remodeled and then pushed us back from December until last night. I showed up at load in time (5:30) as we were backlining our gear and wanted a sound check as well. We were headlining and had a solo act (Caleb Thompson) and band (Kathy Moore Super Power Trio) playing before us.

Setup was pretty breezy. I brought my usual rig and my black P and L1K. I learned the night before that I'd be sharing my rig with a local bassist named Julie Slick. The regular bassist in KMSPT was out sick and Julie was called upon to play. I looked her up and, guys, she's what I call a "professional musician." She has gigs and plays with artists we've all heard of. I searched her here and she's been mentioned a few times on this site. I also checked her on YouTube and was floored by how she played. Pickstyle on a Lakland DD (I think) and just shredding that thing to bits. Super technical and fast and wow, just great.

After setup, it was to a burger joint down the street (Great State Burgers). Very good and greasy. I added the caramelized onions for .50, no pictures, though.

Back to the club and a nice turnout was happening as it was our last show. And maybe first show since the lockdown for many clubgoers. We had some old friends fly in from as far as Tennessee and Arizona to see us play, that was pretty cool. The opener was an old soul; it looked like he rode in on a horse-drawn carriage. Sadly, no pix of him, but if you saw The Power of the Dog, imagine someone from that era. Voice as clear as a bell, effortless fingerstyle on acoustic guitar. Really excellent.

Following Caleb came KMSPT. We have played with them several times and they never fail to excite. As mentioned earlier, their usual excellent bassist had to sit out and, well Julie just killed it. Seriously, look her up.

As my drummer, Cass, and I watched them, their drummer, Faith, kept looking over and shrugging and mouthing, "I'm sorry," about something. After all, she was playing Cass' kit. Once they were done, I helped her off the stage as her hands were full and she mentioned that she had hit her finger on a drum and cut it, which caused her to splatter blood all over the snare and floor tom. It was pretty epic, not gonna lie. No pictures of that, sadly.

I had a friend come out who records some shows, and has recorded some of ours as well. What bass is to us, videography appears to be to him. He brought something like 8 GoPros, stands, clamps, etc. He had a little rig to clip on the end of my P bass. Due to that, I ended up opening the show with the P and swapping to my L1K a few songs in. The camera really messed up the balance of the P, but it was manageable. I just had to make sure not to whack anyone or anything with it.

People were super excited to see/hear us. The new stage at the Sunset is bigger and sounds fantastic. We played SUPER LOUD and it was almost too much (even with earplugs), but we soldiered on. Literally the 3rd note I played was wrong and overall, it was a pretty sloppy night, despite practicing twice this week. I really amp up the physicality of playing when I'm on stage and that can cause some problems at times. Also, my hair gets in my face and makes it hard to see, but overall, I think the performance was pretty solid.

We played 16 songs, which is the most we've ever done. Even that amount makes me realize what a marathon it would be for bands doing sets that last a couple hours. Gotta pace yourself!

The videos I've seen from the crowd made me feel good about the bass sounds I got from my stuff. Signed a few posters after the show (always weird to me), talked to a lot of friends old and new, and made a few bucks too.

Onto the pictures!

Outside the Sunset.

Fresh new green room at the Sunset.


My stuff and setup.

Merch stand.

KMSPT

Julie Slick and her matching white Lakland.

Gig report: 3/12/2022, Stereo Embers at Slim's Last Chance

Last night, Stereo Embers returned to form with our first show and second to last show in 2022. We were asked to play a 50th birthday bash for a friend and local scenester. The theme was Elvis vs Elvis (Costello vs Presley), but we just did our set, as requested.

One of our favorite places to play, Slim's Last Chance in the SODO area of Seattle.


I was loaning my rig for the backline, a Trace Elliot GP 12, powering an Avatar 2x10 and Ashdown 1x15. Believe me, it's buried back there somewhere.


I showed up a little early to get set up and get some dinner, which was sort of a disaster. I ordered a chili dog at 7:45 and waited, chatted with friends and others. Then I saw a couple who showed up 20 minutes after me get their food. I told the bartender and she apologized profusely and said it would be ready shortly. About 10 minutes later, someone at my table also got her food, so I said something again. The bartender apologized profusely again and said my ticket was the only one that was messed up all night. Not much of a consolation, but I didn't care too much, wasn't there to make a stink, just wanted to eat before I played.

Finally, after some more time, my chili dog came out. I sat down to eat and realized... there was no chili on the chili dog. I checked the menu to verify that indeed, it should have chili, and yes, it should've had chili.

One more apology and I had my chili dog, finally. Sadly, no photos of said dog.

At this time, though, I just had to power through the meal as we were gonna hit the stage soon. But, enough about my food adventures. Let's just say there was no intestinal drama or food related mishaps.

Onto the show!

Tonight was the first time playing my MIM P at a gig and it performed wonderfully. Super thick and full via my rig.

We started the night with a ballad. Singer and guitarist start it, it's a little blues based number. Drummer and I come in at the second verse and we close it out with a nice build. From there we started some rockers. As this is our second to last show, we were determined to make it a slobberknocker.



Not only that, since it was our first gig in nearly 6 months, it was great just to be back on a stage (no matter how small or cramped it might have been). March 12th was also the day our state's mask mandate was rescinded so masks were optional inside. Though I did some grocery shopping earlier in the day (what a rock star!) and wore a mask, at the club last night, I didn't wear one off stage at all. There was plenty of yelling into peoples' ears and faces and also the same right back at me. It was a little weird, but the weirdness quickly wore off and it felt like old times again. So awesome!!

As it was our 2nd to last show, turnout was great and there was a lot of love in the air. Couple that with the fact that I had to put my 14 year old dog to rest the day before and it was just a cathartic evening.

The next acts to follow were a bunch of Seattle scenesters getting on stage to play Elvis or Elvis tunes for a local legend's aforementioned 50th. A wonderful time was had by all. Take a look.



And one last one of my girl Bella, RIP.