John Hendow

On Saturday 3/5 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at The Triple Door in Seattle. This performance marked the 16th anniversary of the band. The show was sold out over a week in advance, and we knew this one was going to be a great party. When we arrived for load-in there were already people in the bar waiting for the main room to open. Loading into The Triple Door is a bit of an adventure. It starts in the alley between between the venue and the parking garage, pulling equipment up a short ramp into an elevator vestibule. From there it’s down the elevator into the back of the main room, and then you snake your way back and forth through every level of the booths to make your way to the dance floor in front of the stage. Then you hoist gear up onto the stage. Fortunately, all my equipment fits onto my cart, so at least it’ s only one trip.

With the horns playing on this show it meant adding another riser on stage right, putting them behind our keyboard player. The venue does provide bass and guitar amps, and a drum set. They do have a Fender 65 Twin Reissue, which is the same model of amp that I use with this band, but the last time I performed at The Triple Door I found the house amp was badly in need of retubing. My amp just returned from being retubed, rebiased, and generally cleaned up. So I brought my own amp to the gig. Steve played through an impressive GK stack bass rig that put out a whallop of low frequency. Every time I walked by that amp it was like getting a massage…

We kicked the night off and never looked back. It was probably our best musical performance since I joined the band. Everyone sounded really solid and we played really well. With such a big crowd there wasn’t much room for dancing but everyone managed to find places to boogie in the aisles and in front of the booths. I’m sure the wait staff was a little annoyed at having to dodge their way through exuberant dancers, but hopefully everybody made up for it with nice tips!

This was a very satisfying show and one that I’ll remember as a peak moment for the band. A high school classmate of mine, Chris Joss, is substituting on keyboards with us. He has done a very good job of covering the complex parts in our songs and is a pleasure to work with. Anybody ever in need of a great keyboardist should look him up! At the end of the night I spent time chatting with friends in the audience and didn’t get my equipment packed up until about an hour after the end of the show. Since Jeff and Steve had both used the house equipment, their loadout was very easy. I was the only one with a big pile of gear to haul back to the alley… fortunately the house sound operator helped me get as far as the elevator vestibule at street level, which left me only needing to fetch the car and load up.

Friends of ours joined us back at the house to celebrate the night with a few bottles of wine and snacks. I woke up the next morning with a sore back and slight headache (from perhaps one too many glasses of wine after the gig!). All in all, I’d say that is a successful evening.

On Wednesday 1/19 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at a private corporate party. This show marked the debut of substitute keyboardist Chris Joss, who is filling in for a few months while Mack Grout is off exploring the world. Chris and I went to high school together, performing in jazz band and occasionally noodling around. He was without question the most musically talented person in my high school – voted so by peers – and was always a lot of fun to hang out with. I’m delighted that he was available and interested in acting as a substitute for a few months. He was so well prepared that I actually had to remind myself it was his first show last night. Great music and great fun.

We played the usual assortment of jazz standards, pop hits and rock classics. It was an interesting audience composed of technology developers from around the world. The French members of the audience were quite attentive as we played (indicative of their taste and sophistication), but they were also thoroughly amused by Stefan pretending to herd invisible sheep – to the point where they repeatedly asked him to perform this odd little pantomime throughout the night (again, indicative of their taste and sophistication).

My Twin acted up a bit during the show and I think the tube sockets might need tightening. I plan to drop it off tonight at a newly discovered electronic repair shop in Burien. More information on this process will be forthcoming. All in all, great show and always a delight. Our next show is this weekend, also a private party. Those of you looking ahead to our next public performances should mark you calendar for Saturday 2/5 at the Showbox, and Saturday 3/5 at the Triple Door.

We’re nearly ready for another amazing New Year’s Eve show. The members of The Dudley Manlove Quartet are putting the final polishing on our new songs, along with some classic faves. Join us for a crazy fun night and ring in 2011 with style!

Ring in 2011 with the Dudley Manlove Quartet and special guests Rat City Brass at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard! Tickets for the New Year’s Eve bash are $20 in advance and are available at Brown Paper Tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/136479 .

The show begins at 10PM, but get there early to stake out a spot and enjoy some delicious Flying Squirrel pizza!

On Saturday 10/30 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at the Sunset in Ballard. This was our annual Halloween Ball. When we arrived for load-in, the bar manager told us the show had sold out in advance! That’s a great start for this kind of event. Following our tradition, we always perform part of the night as another band; we usually do this as a surprise by put on costumes for the second set and perform a number of their songs. This year we decided to just announce the tribute band in advance: David Bowie. It took us a few weeks to narrow down the song selections. David Bowie has a massive catalog of hits, and it wasn’t easy to decide which ones not to play. We eventually got the list down to:

Ziggy Stardust
Suffragette City
Rebel Rebel
Ashes to Ashes
Changes
Heroes
Modern Love
China Girl
Blue Jean
Let’s Dance

I put a lot of effort into programming the tones for these songs and I think they came out pretty good. The audience reaction was wonderful, with lots of people singing along as we ran through the hits. One nice bonus this evening was the pre-gig feast on Flying Squirrel Pizza, now for sale at the Sunset! It you haven’t tried Flying Squirrel Pizza yet, I’d strongly recommend doing so. Halloween is my favorite holiday and this event always is a fun party for our friends and fans. Getting to rock through that set of Bowie was a treat. The gig was blast. We’re already looking ahead to New Year’s Eve. Tickets are already on sale! Make sure to buy yours in advance.

On Friday 10/29 the 1 Uppers performed at Conor Byrne in Ballard. This gig was an interesting challenge for me; the band’s other guitarist – Kris Geren – was unavailable so I was covering both of our parts as best I could. On most of our songs the guitar parts are interleaved and form a kind of dialog. I was a little daunted by the challenge of  (1) re-arrange the two parts into something I could do alone and (2) trying to cover the solos that Kris usually plays. It was a busy week of practice since I was also preparing for the 10/30 Dudley Manlove Quartet performance. The night before the 1 Uppers show we held a rehearsal and I was still feeling that I needed more preparation time. Whew… lots of pressure!

The show itself was a lot of fun. One of the opening bands didn’t show up, which allowed The Blackberry Bushes to extend their planned set. They were fantastic and played a great set of bluegrass that got the place happily stomping. My first instrument is 5 string banjo and I’ve got say that was some great playing! We followed with a fairly regular set of 1 Uppers favorites and I’d say it was a great night. Jon Hyde’s amp suffered from some seasonally appropriate haunting, possible a side effect from a pretty major tumble that amp suffered a few weeks ago. Fortunately it made through the show.

Another fun show with the 1 Uppers. I felt the evening went quite well despite the absence of Kris, and I look forward to having the band back at full strength for the next one.

This Saturday the Dudley Manlove Quartet will be taking the stage at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard, hosting our annual Halloween Ball! Every year the band performs part of the night as another band. This year we’ll be performing a number of David Bowie songs, which is going to be a lot of fun. Bowie has had some formidable guitar slingers in his band and I’m enjoying learning their parts for these songs.

Come on down to the Sunset and join us for a fun night for costumed madness. We’ll dish up some GLAM to make the night warmer!

On Thursday 10/14 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at Experience Music Project in Seattle. From 2000-2005 I worked for Experience Music Project in the IT department, and it is always a pleasure to return to the museum to see the latest exhibits. During load-in and throughout the evening I encountered familiar faces. Bonds of friendship with co-workers are always wonderful, especially among those who participated in the construction and grand opening of the museum facility. We played in the Sky Church, a large performance space with beautiful lighting and sound. The stage was generously large and we made good use of the free space to roam. I discovered during our first set that my wireless guitar system was giving me trouble; it should have occurred to me that the museum is very high-tech and there are a lot of wireless signals bouncing around inside the building. My wireless system is a pure digital bitstream but relies on a carrier signal at 2.4 Ghz, one of the most crowded consumer frequencies. During the set break I switched over to a guitar cable and had no further problems.
We played a fairly typical set for this kind of show. The audience seemed interested in the music but no on really danced until late into the second set. By the time we hit the stage for the third set everyone was happily dancing and enthusiastically shouting requests. If you made a graph of “patron enthusiasm vs time since no-host bar opening” you might discover a meaningful pattern…

On Thursday 10/14 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at Experience Music Project in Seattle. From 2000-2005 I worked for Experience Music Project in the IT department, and it is always a pleasure to return to the museum to see the latest exhibits. During load-in and throughout the evening I encountered familiar faces. Bonds of friendship with co-workers are always wonderful, especially among those who participated in the construction and grand opening of the museum facility. We played in the Sky Church, a large performance space with beautiful lighting and sound. The stage was generously large and we made good use of the free space to roam. I discovered during our first set that my wireless guitar system was giving me trouble; it should have occurred to me that the museum is very high-tech and there are a lot of wireless signals bouncing around inside the building. My wireless system is a pure digital bitstream but relies on a carrier signal at 2.4 Ghz, one of the most crowded consumer frequencies. During the set break I switched over to a guitar cable and had no further problems. We played a fairly typical set for this kind of show. The audience seemed interested in the music but no on really danced until late into the second set. By the time we hit the stage for the third set everyone was happily dancing and enthusiastically shouting requests. If you made a graph of “patron enthusiasm vs time since no-host bar opening” you might discover a meaningful pattern…The event had another stage in the Science Fiction Museum area, where the Michael Powers band was playing. He is a great guitarist and I’ve always admired his playing. A friend of mine (also a former EMP employee) is his bassist. We shared one large dressing room with the other band, so there was the traditional swapping of strange road stories and musical jokes. Always a pleasure to spend time with friends in other bands. At the end of the night we managed to load out and get home at a fairly reasonable hour. Another great show with the Dudley crew, and we’re looking forward to our big Halloween extravaganza!

On Saturday 8/28 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at a wedding reception in Seattle. It was a very nice day for this event and because it was being held right on the water, we had a beautiful venue to work in. Part of the “adventure” was simply getting there. The two most logical approaches to this location were both closed due to road construction, resulting in a fairly significant detour. I must have driven 5 miles off my planned route just to get to the location. Once we arrived and loaded in, we discovered the room had a permanent stage built into one corner. It was pretty small and we had some doubt whether we’d fit, but we succeeded in cozying ourselves onto it.

The event itself was a lot of fun, with a lot of great energy from the audience. The bride and groom informed us we’d been identified as a requirement for the reception. In fact, they told us that the first words exchanged after the proposal were something to the effect of  “…and we HAVE to get Dudley Manlove Quartet to play the reception!”. That kind of information always makes us feel very happy and honored to be part of a wedding event.

So, great food and an amazing view, plus fun dancing and happy people. Total winner for us.

On Saturday 8/21 The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at a private wedding reception on Bainbridge Island. The event was planned for the early evening on what is usually a dry August weekend. However, the weather deities chose to befuddle us with some randomization. The event was outdoors on the grassy yard of a beautiful house. Our host had wisely pre-arranged for a large tent to be set up over part of the dining area. We set up in one corner of the tent and after a quick soundcheck we left the site to change. Upon returning it was clear that rain was coming our way. We pulled everything under the tent (as best we could) and hung a tarp behind Jeff to keep the rain from blowing in on him. The performance was fun, and we enjoyed ourselves. Once the show was over we scrambled to pack up our cars and bolted to catch the ferry back to Seattle. We arrived just in time to pile aboard before it sailed. Overall, a fun show. Always a good time with the DMQ crew.