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.

March 2026 updates

March came and went. Haley moved out with Blake. She left on the 14th and made her way to California, then across the country to Florida. It's weird not having her here, and I think she'll be back in the future, but for now, time for her to see what life has to offer.

We're adjusting to the empty nest thing. Plenty to keep us occupied and busy, the house is just a little quieter. Kody is same old, same old. I'm sure he misses her, but nothing phases this guy.

Riley just found out Hannah got accepted to grad school in Cincinnati and his plan is to follow her out there, I think. He's gonna graduate in May, so we have to figure out going to GJ to see him and celebrate the accomplishment.

Marci is still plugging away at school. Things are going there, I suppose, but it may be time to switch it up in the future. Will leave it at that for now. Hopefully having a master's degree helps.

About a month ago, as I was heading to rehearse with Greg Hoy at Dave Hill's house, Michael Paolantonio reached out to me, asking if I was interested in playing in his wife's new Cake cover band. I knew nothing about it or what she was planning, so I wanted to hear more about it. I do like the Cake hits, but beyond those, I didn't know much about the band.

I talked to Michael and found out that his wife, Cyana, via her theater contacts, had lined up some players I knew. On guitar was Justin Davis. I know him via socials and know he plays with Strong Suit, among others. My main memory of him was once Kathy Moore told me that as Stereo Embers was breaking up, that someone was gonna get a monster of a bass player.

She also had Ric Pentilla on trumpet and keys, who I have hung with at shows, as well as playing with him in Greg's band last month. He's cool and we like each other. On drums was a guy I don't know, and she recruited Jeremy Lightfoot to play bass. But she said he was super busy and she grabbed another guy named Mark. After she set lineup, she said she originally wanted me but thought I was in three bands, so didn't pursue too much.

Anyway, Brett and I went to check her band, Cupcake, out last week at their inaugural show at the Skylark. I figured with all these dudes, they'd be pretty good. I was not wrong. During soundcheck, it was clear that they were gonna be good. They played a great set and everyone was solid. Cy, however, was outstanding. Her stage chops definitely showed and she had great energy and stage presence. She could sing as well and it all just worked.

I had talked to her earlier in the week and we decided I should be on the roster, whether as a full-time member, or a rotating bass, since all the players have other bands as well. She's got some gigs booked in early June, one at Pono Ranch and one at the Blue Moon. I'll have back-to-back, as I'm booked for the Blue Moon, and then the next night at Conor Byrne.

Overall, been working on the Cake tunes and they are quirky. The parts are easy, it's the song arrangements that are what I need to remember. I've been working on them and they'll be fine. Looking forward to getting in a room with those guys and see how it goes.

*edit to add

forgot to mention that Planets had a record release scheduled at the Sleight of Hand with our friends Braly Sangster. We were all set to go for 3/13, with a surprise addition of Tim on a few Embers songs to round things out. We had a bunch of people committed to go, with about 20-25 people that I directly influenced. And then the week of the gig, Robb started feeling gross and come Thursday, he made the decision to call it, so we had to do a bunch of texting and messaging, telling people the bad news. It was a big bummer, to say the least.

As of now, April 4th, we still have not rescheduled and I don't think we're going to. It seems Trey either has better things to do or he's just super busy. I don't know at this point. It's all sort of annoying. Our next gig isn't until May 2nd at Conor Byrne, so at least there's that, but any record release is still up in the air at the moment.

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.

New Year's Resolution: failed

In my defense, Feb was a short month, only 28 days... and maybe I broke my foot in late Jan... but those are excuses and I didn't make it to a show.

Thought about it... but didn't.

Oh well.

I'll make up for it by playing in 3 shows this month. As mentioned in a previous post, playing with Greg Hoy this week. We are rehearsing tomorrow, and then doing it for real on Friday and Saturday, with local horn legends, Max and Ric on trumpet and sax. Thursday we're having Planets practice with a special guest. It's gonna be a fun couple music days.

Next week, we'll do one more practice with special guest, then our long-awaited vinyl release at Sleight of Hand. I've been going nutz making IG posts and the like. I am no pro, but they're cool, mainly because of Mike Mitchell's pictures.

Got a couple more shows in May and June, but that's it. Everything quiet on the SG front for now. Dennis is leaving the country this year, we haven't talked about replacing him, but supposedly we have a gig lined up in August? We'll see what happens...

Sub gig time

Greg Hoy, who I subbed for 2 years ago, texted me recently and asked if I'd do it again. He's coming early March and I said, sure, why not? Dave will be on drums and Greg has also recruited local horns, Ric and Max to play trumpet and sax, respectively.

I recruited Steve Reeve's band Square Peg and Brian Chase's band Full Life Crisis to play as well. We will all be playing at the Skylark on one night, then at the New Frontier in Tacoma the next night. We'll get one rehearsal at Dave's house on Wednesday, PITO practice with Tim on Thursday, then the double-header.

I just got the song list from Greg and there are only 3 songs I know from the previous set. This dude has a lot of songs and I really dig 'em. They are easy and catchy and fun. Great melodies and harmonies, but he gets around, so whenever he comes to town, I'm happy to jump on.

Here are the tunes on Spotify. We're doing a Tears for Fears cover as well, so that should be fun.

Looking forward to it!

2026-01-31 Planets in the Ocean at Slim's Last Chance

First show of the year, gonna be hard to top this one! It sort of fell in our lap. We got our new records and sent some to friends and as soon as Ben in Stag got one, he asked us to be part of this show. Pretty awesome as we've played with Stag many times before and they are not only swell dudes, they have excellent songs and bring a great crowd.

It helped that Slim's had recently announced its closure and as a result, shows were being well attended anyway. When I saw a show there a few weeks ago, it was quite packed and great to be a part of. I expected this one would be the same and was not disappointed.

Prior to the show, last Sunday, I woke up and felt a weird pain in my left foot. Long story short, after a trip to urgent care, I was told that I had a "well-corticated lucency through the base of the third metatarsal on the oblique view." In layman's terms, I guess there's a tiny fracture on my middle toe. Fast forward to the end of the week and I have felt no pain since last Sunday. I wore an orthopedic boot during the workday all week, but had no pain other than the pain in the ass of wearing that boot.

Anyway, I had asked Pete Nordstrom to borrow his bass gear since I thought my foot might be dumb, but in hindsight, it was not necessary. That said, he has an Orange Bass Terror (as do I), so I knew how to dial it up for maximum good tones. Plus, he had a sweet Bergantino 212 (so light) and it was a nice paring.

Pete's Orange, Bergantino and my BASS.

Showing up at the club, there were a lot of familiar faces: Mike and Amy, Lisa and Neil, Ted L., Ben and Brian from the Rallies, Jeff Barlow, Steve and Salena, Alan, Bob W., Steve N., Andi W., Dave and Paul from Pop Cycle, Chris E., Jimmy C., among others. Always good to see these folks and added bonus, more bodies in the door!

Even though it was a rock show, there were only us and Stag on the bill as bands. The opener was a DJ, which was actually quite cool as he played tunes we all knew, and it wasn't super loud, so people could talk and mingle beforehand. Right at 9, we took the stage and as always, I wish I had warmed up a bit. Robb wrote a setlist that started off with a couple bangers, and off we went.

I was a tiny bit concerned about my foot, but after those two songs, I realized it was fine. I didn't do any gymnastics but did my fair share of bouncing around. It ended up being fine, no pain, no nothing, all good.

The new G&L BASS (LB-100 body/L-2000 neck marked "BASS") performed excellently. Pete's rig was great as well, though I think I was pretty loud. Robb brought his two new amps, running in stereo and luckily those weren't blasted too much at me. My biggest gripe was the vocals; I couldn't hear myself really well and I think Robb couldn't hear himself at all. Either that or my own lack of hearing had me hearing things that weren't there. People said we sounded fine, so I guess there's that.

Pic by Mike Mitchell

It's 2026, people need better cameras. :D

We debuted a new song called the Mean Machine, that old SE bassist Ben Brunn wrote the lyrics to. It's our first new song since I think the Unraveled/Sit and Spin/Nomenclature trio from a few years ago. I hope there are more coming, as MM came up pretty quickly. It still needs some fleshing out, like adding more to the second verse, and figuring out transitions, but it has some legs and sounds like PITO.

Lots of fun on stage, lots of people enjoying our stuff. We had a couple flubs here and there, but nothing terrible. Robb did come in early on the 2nd verse of the Loud Silence, and Cass and I had to catch up to him, but we covered fine. I think Robb may have had one pop too many prior to us taking the stage, but it's all good.

We got off the stage and lots of kudos. Michael Markley, as he's said before, really loves my playing in a trio setting. Andrew K, the photographer, said he thought playing in Sunset Grooves elevated my playing. He said that in SE, my playing was much more subdued. I told him I played that way so I didn't intrude on Tim's stuff, but in PITO, that's more how I usually play. I don't know if he was goofing or not; he took pictures of us in the studio, so he has seen how I play, but he seemed genuinely surprised. Maybe he forgot?

Stag took the stage next and showed everyone how a really good band performs. All guys, Ben, John, Pete, Rob and Steve, are all so good at what they do individually. Put them together in a group? Really good vibes, that's for sure. They played a fun, loud and heroic set and we all left satisfied and better for it.

The Mighty Stag!

Overall, we sold a bunch of records, gave away a handful, sold some shirts, and had a bunch of talk about doing more shows down the line. Always positive, but we'll see how it shakes out. It's usually a bunch of talk, but who knows? Let's let things happen how they happen. In the meantime, next up is our actual vinyl release at Sleight of Hand, but before that, in early March, I have 2 sub gigs with my old pal Greg Hoy, coming out from CO to play a few shows.

Stay tuned.

2026-01-09 Thrashed Behind the Eyes, Once For Kicks, Mopsey at Slim's Last Chance

For some dumb reason, I made a new year's resolution to see at least one show a month that I don't play in. When I went to the Sunset at the end of 2025 to see Pop Cycle, Rallies and Royal Blunder, it really was cool and a lot of fun. Plus, making connections will just get people to come to my shows, so, like everything else, it really is all about me.

After talking to some friends about this show, it seemed like there'd be more people at Slim's than at for my own shows. I showed up a little after 8, after having not picked up Mike and Amy since they got hung up on the light rail. The place was fairly packed, what with Slim's recently announcing they'd stop shows in mid-Feb this year. Though rumors are swirling that Mason from Tim's is purchasing the place; I've heard it from multiple people, including in the club that night, but I am a nobody and maybe I'm being trolled.

Anyway, these three bands, Thrashed Behind the Eyes, Once For Kicks and Mopsey, all have their own little legacies and people I recognized. As a result, there were plenty of scenesters in the room. Other bands were there as well, and I may have had a hand in that, bringing out Brian, Tom and Lee from Full Life Crisis. The aforementioned Mike and Amy were there, as was Jeff, doodling his pictures up front. I saw Fred Speakman, who helped me get my amp back.

Brian Hughes plays bass in TBTE and OFK, and he backlined his rig, two Aguilar SL12s and a Mesa Boogie head of some sort. He's seen a bunch of Planets shows and is always super nice. I had never seen him play, so I wanted to check him out.

Thrashed Behind the Eyes

TBTE started things off. Brian played a nice sunburst P and his band was a little garagey, a little grungy and pretty cool. I couldn't hear his bass much, but that changed for OFK.

Once For Kicks

OFK featured Kurt Bloch on guitar and Bill Coury on vocals. I have seen Kurt a bunch, but I only know Bill from when he fronted Thee Sgt. Major back in the day. They were great when I saw/played with them with the Lunds. And OFK was really really cool. Poppy catchy tunes and Brian's bass playing really shined. He played a Stingray and it cut through the mix a lot better. His lines were complex and that band would be a ton of fun to play in.

During one of the sets, a woman asked if I played in "Planets Run The Ocean." At least that's what I thought she said. I straightened her out and she introduced herself as Hennessy and that she has a Planets sticker on her coffee mug. Apparently she loved one of our songs, called it "haunting," but she didn't know the title and when she asked us about it at a show, we didn't either.

Mopsey

Mopsey finished the night with their tight ass guitars and pounding rhythm section. Jason on drums is so fantastic. Their songs are so high energy. Sadly, Brian's amp acted weird for the first song, so I couldn't hear Richard's Jazz bass at all. Then he got it dialed up for the second song but it was too quiet. That is, until someone in the crowd walked up front and asked Richard to turn up. Note to self: if it's too quiet for me, it is too quiet; say something!

Overall, a cool night at Slim's. I have great hope for when we play there in a few weeks that it will be well-attended, with Stag headlining.

Not sure who's playing where next month, but it'll be fun to go to another show!

NBD: G&L LB-100!

This could totally be defined as an impulse buy. It was not in the plans, it wasn't even in my mind. But after a poke lunch in Redmond, followed by ice cream, we headed to Redmond Town Center and decided to check out the Guitar Center. All I wanted was a speaker cable to be able to keep one at home as I only have 2 and those stay at Robb's house.

I headed back to the bass corner and saw an orange P-bass with a black pickguard. Then I realized it was a G&L LB-100, which I'd been thinking about for a minute. There are some great looking Tribute versions, at a not-bad price point of $599 or so, but, with two P's at home already, why would I need another one?

Anyway, I picked it off the wall and was stoked because it had flats on it. Interestingly enough, upon checking the headstock, I totally thought it would be a Tribute, but the price tag at $999 and the CLF s/n plate on the back of the headstock indicated otherwise. The front of the headstock, however, was mysterious. It totally had the G&L logo, but no LB-100 sticker. Instead, it simply said, "BASS."

First play of this bass

I plugged it into a nearby MarkBass amp and played it. And it was pretty sweet. Low action, nice flats, played well through that amp. It was different than either of my Fenders, but it definitely sounded like a P. It was in great condition, no major dings or anything on it. No scratchy pots, nothing weird. After playing a few minutes, I said, nope, I have a new car to make payments on, I don't need another bass, so I hung it back up.

In the meantime, Marci had found the speaker cables, so I took a walk to the back of the store with her. I figured I'd think about it. By the time I got back to their front desk, I decided to play it some more. I messaged my band, trying to have them talk some sense into me, which instead of doing that, they encouraged it.

So I bought it. Marci was down with it, so much so, she picked out an orange flowered strap for me to put on it. The sales guy went off to find a case for it; since the bass is a Fullerton model (I think?), it would've come with a nice case. At first, I didn't want a case, but he was gonna check, but it turned out he couldn't find it. No big deal, I have plenty of cases. I grabbed it and chucked it in the car without a case and off we went.

At the sales counter

In the car, off we go!

After cleaning my prep area, I took the strings off the headstock and got to work oiling the fretboard and cleaning the fingerprints off the guitar. At the store I noticed the strap peg on the front horn was loose, so I attempted to tighten it. When I did, it didn't sit flush because it seemed like the hole was drilled at a weird angle. I found a felt pad in my junk and put it there to make up the difference after I tightened it up. I thought about taking the neck off to check the dates of manufacture, but I didn't as I wanted to play it some more.

I plugged it into the aforementioned Ashdown and it sounded great! I think the action may be a little too low for heavy pick playing; the pick sound is very clicky if one of my EQ sliders is not zeroed out (don't know which freq). Fingerstyle, it sounds just fine. I compared with my other P basses and they all offer something unique and usable.

the BASS headstock

Shiny backside, check the strap

Lookin' tight before wiping it down!

Looking forward to busting it out with the Ashdown on Thursday at practice. In the meantime, will mess around with it at home!

The Story of My Free Ashdown ABM EVO 300 II

I obtained this amp in September 2023, read about it here: https://gwonchang.blogspot.com/2023/09/free-stuff.html

Since then, I didn't get it back until late October 2025(!), over 2 years later, then I dropped it off November 1 at another guy's house, and finally picked it up on Dec. 26th. And guess what? It works!

When I got the amp in 2023, it was Labor Day, and I met my guy Brian at the Fred Meyer parking lot in Kirkland, where he took it from me. I figured since I got it for free and I had a working amp already (the Trace, and I think I had the Orange by then), he could take his time.

So a few weeks later, I checked up on him and he responded something snarky like, "well, since you paid nothing for it, you're getting the same level of urgency." Whatever, that's Brian being Brian, so I let it go (he's pretty sarcastic and spicy at times).

But every time I contacted him, there was something and since I didn't need it, I didn't push it. After a few more months, though, I started reaching out again and it was more awkwardness. Not that the amp is so special that he was trying to hustle me or anything, so I wasn't worried about that. It was more the principle of the whole thing; I just needed a response of some sort. Even if he said he couldn't fix it, that's fine, let me know, I'd pick it up and move on. I told him I'd pay him for his time, no response. I told him to tell me to f-off, no response. I left phone messages, texts, Facebook messages. I asked Tim and others if Brian was OK; they all said he seemed fine as they'd had him work on stuff.

I think it was January of 2025 when I told Brian that I was done with him and he could keep the amp and just live his live. Whatever, I was only out the pickup and drop off time, and he'd lost whatever business I'd give him.

But over the next few months, I talked to some people to let them know about this interesting story. One of the people was Richard Davidson, who plays bass in Wild Rumours, Mopsey, and formerly, the Young Sportsmen. He has tons of bass amps and we know a lot of the same dudes, including Brian. But he had no idea what was going on. He ended up reaching out to another common friend, Fred Speakman, who decided to get involved on my behalf. As it turns out, another guy got ghosted by Brian and Fred reached out to Brian and got some info in July. There was a bunch of drama for Brian, of which I have no details, and I don't really care. All he had to say was, "I can't fix it, come get it," and that would've been that.

Anyway, Fred got my amp in August, he gave it to Dave Thompson. I picked up from Dave in October and then found a guy on Facebook in Magnolia. I dropped it off on Nov 1 on my way to a PITO show and then finally picked it up on Dec 26. And guess what?

Works like a champ!

The repair guy, Mark L., apparently is an engineer of some sort with all sorts of stories about Steve Jobs, comet rockets, and other super secret nerdy stuff. His workshop is full of all sorts of crap, most worryingly, a janky folding table that looked like it was about to collapse, with my amp on it! Luckily it didn't and I was able to get home with the amp. He said there was some oxidation on the pins of a connector cable from the preamp board to the power amp board. He said to spray Deoxit on it, brush the F out of it, and reseat the wire if it failed again.

But since I've had it at home, it's been great. Plugged into the Avatar, it's loud, round, throaty, and seems to work just fine. I wish we were gigging or rehearsing now so I could put it through its paces, but it's gonna have to wait until probably the 2nd week of Jan. We're gonna have to get together just to dust things off anyway since we have a gig on Jan 31 opening up for Stag as we play our last time at Slim's.

Will continue playing with it and give a more in-depth review soon.

Ioniq 5, one month in

So far so good! Let's just do a brain dump. First, the bad:

• Within the first 2 weeks, I scraped the front passenger-side fender backing out of the garage. Super aggravating, but luckily, no obvious damage. First time, just some paint onto the plastic; Blake was able to buff it out with some rubbing spray. Second time, I heard a snap. I sat in the car and didn't want to get out. Lucky for me, the light damage was to the same spot and what snapped was some trim around the garage door. Not too bad for the house, not bad for the car, we are good.
• I'm still, a month in, trying to get used to the dimensions of the car on the road. I feel like I've had to relearn how to change lanes. I'm not sure what it is. The car has so many bells and whistles that I always have to be on guard, it's sort of annoying.
• The car seems to have no soul. It is weird and I can't pinpoint that either. I've been driving pretty much exclusively in Normal mode and while good, it numbs the steering a little. Sport really tightens it up but it's just too fast for daily use, though I should really give it more of a try. With it being so wet out lately, I've been laying off that.
• The native Nav is annoying in that when I touch the screen to move the map, it treats it as me wanting to add a new destination and I can't figure out how to not do that.
• No dials on the dash and a clock that is tiny and impossible to find. There is a different panel for the clock, but it comes at the expense of more info. I wish they would've put in a bigger digital clock on the main dash. And the speedo number is in a weird spot; heck, the entire main dash is weird. I wish there were even digital analog dials.
• Tinted windows are so dark; it's hard to see at night.
• Auto wipers are hit and miss. They work, but they seem to be picky about the precip and whether or not to wipe.
• The "Confirm" message on the screen every time I start the car. It's annoying.
• Homelink mirror doesn't work. Previous owner removed the power dongle to the mirror and I can't seem to find the right one to replace it. :/

There may be more bad, but it's not all bad. I can't remember much else, don't want to play pile on. So here's some good:

• The looks! Love how this thing looks. The aforementioned tinted window? They look great from the outside! And the matte paint? Love it. Glad the gold blends with the silver trim since the gold is so silvery looking.
• The pickup! Just stepping on the pedal and it goes. Always ready to pass or swoop in. The downside is that sometimes it's a little hot when I get to where I'm going and then it's on the brakes.
• All the space. Lots of room inside. Haven't loaded it up with much yet, but it's all good.
• Ventilated seats! Looking forward to using it in the summer when it's swampy down there.
• Remote start and all that stuff I can do on the phone. Pretty cool.
• No more gas stations? Yes please! Just for a month means I have "saved" about $120 in gas payments. Plugging in at home is great, even though the charge is sooo slow.

That's a quick and dirty download. The car is running great and it is pretty exciting to drive on the daily. I am enjoying learning about it and it'll be cool to see how it does over the time I have it. Payments start soon for both insurance and loan, so that stinks, but it's part of the territory.

Weirdly, I haven't taken many pictures of it, so here it is, backed in and charging in the garage.

Record Player Guy

I'm not sure when it happened, but it was sometime this year. Though I got the record player, an Audio-Technica AT-LP60, which I understand is a decent, entry level turntable. Steve Reeves gave it to me 2-3 years ago? I can't remember; I had set it up and was like, "so?" It sounded like music, but it was tuned a little quicker than 33 1/3 RPMs.

Anyway, I put it away in the basement closet, until Haley asked for it to take to college last year. Where it sat in Bellingham. I think she let her ex borrow it, and then she brought it back, minus the Audio-Technica pad on the table.

For some reason, I put it on my new desk setup and started using it? I had a couple Rush records hanging on the wall, so I listened to those. For my birthday, Haley got me the Lady Gaga record, Mayhem, only because I saw her perform on SNL and was blown away. The record itself is pretty good as well.

Since the summer, I've gone a little crazy with the records. I went to Barnes and Noble with Marci one night and came home with Moving Pictures and Weezer's Blue album. The total was like $60 or so. And then a few weeks later, I picked up some records from Easy Street, the Value Village, a bunch at Triple Play in Grand Junction in early October. Though I think I went there before Easy Street and VV. Then last week, in SF, I picked up 3 more records.

On Friday, I met with James Sonderegger, who I worked with briefly at EC One when we moved over there. He got another job that paid what he was used to getting (250k!) and bounced. But he and I hit it off and he ended up giving me something like 50 records. Maybe 10 of those I'll keep or listen to; the rest are pretty much junk, but I may give em a listen.

Who knew this would be so fun? It's pricey, but I'm enjoying this setup with my cheap ass Monoprice speakers. The hisses and pops do give it some excitement. And our new PITO record sounds great on it, forgot to mention that!

2025-11-17 Microsoft Ignite Day 3

Earlier start today, arriving at the Chase Center by 7:45 only to find out they didn't need me until 9 or so. Oh well. When I finally met up with everyone, they had taken the original E450 off the floor and put the CLA 250+ on. They really wanted to show the prototype car. But the problem was that the screens would shut off at any given time, so with that issue, we had to decide which car we were going to use.

I did contribute a little, finally, confirming that we could do a Teams call from the E450, just like the one we have at EC One. Then there was a bunch of sitting around. I'll just FF through the details as there aren't many.

A woman named Teresa, but introduced herself at T, was awesome. I think she was the floor manager or something. I just loved her energy and vibe, don't know how else to say it. She would be awesome to work for. But she commanded a group of dudes to move the cars. That exercise was cool to watch. Very precision, with the dudes working in lockstep with each other.

I got to watch Collin deliver his bit again from the floor. I shot a video of it and Judson came up behind and took a photo of the rear end of the car for the "IGNITE" license plate.

Around 3, I decided it was time to go. I decided to take a Waymo into SF to check out Amoeba Music in the Mission District. I had been there before with the Forest Ray dudes, but I wasn't using a record player. Getting the Waymo was easy enough. It came to Chase, I jumped in and off we went. It drove competently and almost aggressively. I was able to wire in my Spotify and listen to music, which was nifty. Also, no awkward silences and probably the best part, no tip afterwards! Def recommend, will do again.

Got to Amoeba and looked around and as usual, I forgot what I wanted to look at. They had some Rush, only one Aimee Mann (Lost in Space, which I bought), one Juliana (Made in China, which I didn't), one Hold Steady (Open Door Policy, which I didn't) and so many more. I looked in Styx and they had 3 copies of "Paradise Theater" so I examined all of them and bought the most expensive one ($12.99) as it was in the best condition.

And then perusing through a "not yet filed' box, I came across "Chipmunk Punk" by the Chipmunks, and of course, I had to grab that because we had that growing up. When I took it to the counter the attendants were all excited and laughing about it. I bought a packing cardboard, wrapped it up and walked up and down Haight street. So many thrift shops and I didn't stop in any. I don't need anything, so it was just to get some steps and look around. I grabbed another Waymo from the corner of Haight and Asbury, and headed back to the hotel.

I got back around 5:30 or so and then walked down to the waterfront to have dinner at the Boudin Bistro. I got a crab and corn bisque bread bowl and a ribeye steak sammie. Pretty good food. Headed back to the hotel and got packed because Collin said to show up around 7am. Got everything ready and I was in bed and reading by 9:30. Crazy.

More pix, probably in reverse order.

Waymo picked me up at the nearby Ben & Jerry's

Cool van

Cool corner

Outside Chase Center

I guess I didn't take many pix yesterday.

2025-11-16 Microsoft Ignite Day 2

The day started early, and I had time to kill, so I went for a run around the hotel. I took a bunch of hills and stairs and saw some cool sights. I knew Lombard Street was near the hotel, but as I ran, I ended up right at the top of it. I walked down it and took some video and pictures. I headed back to the hotel 2.5 miles later and got cleaned up for work.

The ride in on the Lyft was wet and sunny, with glare off the streets and sun in the sky. Glad I wasn't driving. I showed up and had some breakfast and then headed over to the Mercedes in the bowels of the arena. Sean and Ross were there and they did some tinkering with it. I tried to get the phone Sean provided to connect with the car, but it wouldn't work. I forgot to mention, Mercedes brought over a prototype or pre-release car, a CLA 250+ with AMG stylings. It is chalk grey and fastback style and pretty cool, but ultimately, not my style.

I hung out there and tried to be useful, but ended up blogging the travel day adventures and just sitting around. After that got boring, I tracked Collin down and had lunch. We then went up to the suite level, where he was practicing his talk track for his presentation. I tried to get the Seahawks game up on the TV, but of course, they only had the 49ers vs Cardinals locally. I ended up doing some work, tried to stay busy, read a bit of the Ioniq 5 manual, and just sat around. Collin went to meet up with Leah and the DL guys in a different suite, so I just sat there and read the manual.

Eventually, the Seahawks game ended and I saw no spoilers, so I sat in the suite and blasted my way through it. Sadly, a missed FG to end the game, really lost on 4 INTs by Sam. D looked great and it would have been a fun game to watch in real-time.

Went downstairs around 6 to have a quick dinner. I sat with a young kid named Mohammed, who introduced himself, and he was working the event running cable for a camera on the floor. Nice kid, hope things work out for him. From there I went to the floor to hang and watch the testing and practice for Mercedes. I was not needed, so I bounced to the hotel, walked to In-n-out for a second dinner, then buttoned things up for bed. Talked to Marci for a few minutes and that was that.

I really don't need to be here. I am out of my element a bit, but I've met some cool people. I wish I had more to offer here, but I think I'd just be getting in the way. The lack of communication is annoying as well. I don't want to get back to work and have Paul say I was seen as sitting around the whole time. There has been little to no guidance and the expectations set were quite low. It turns out we may not even do any of the stuff I can help with, which I guess isn't my fault or problem, but it still rubs.

Anyway, more pictures, in reverse order.

The Mercedes in question on the big stage

The view from the suite

5 Waymos in a row

so artsy

Looks like GTA 6

Bottom of Lombard Street

Middle of Lombard Street

Ran to the top of the hill where this court was

Cool house

Running up those stairs after running up some hills

Park sign

Top of some hill

I think that's Alcatraz

Starting off the morning