Archive for the ‘My Bands’ Category

Thoughts on the 5/30 BowieVision Performances

June 2, 2015 by John No Comments »

bandOn Saturday, May 30, BowieVision performed two shows at The Triple Door in Seattle. We initially had planned to perform just one show that evening, but within a few days of putting tickets on sale, it was clear there was enough demand to justify adding a second show. We wound up with full houses for both shows, which was fantastic.

In advance of the show, I upgraded the firmware of my AxeFX to v 18.12, which definitely breathed some new dimensionality and life into the amp models. Part of this firmware update is a new generation of amp modeling, and it’s significantly bigger / better than ever. I really love my AxeFX, and BowieVision is a perfect application for this kind of flexibility and power. Another great upgrade before this show was the MFC-101 firmware v 3.08, which allowed me to move my preset controls to the second row of switches, and reassign the bottom row to scenes 1-5. It’s the most flexible configuration for this band, and lets me get around within / between songs much more easily. john2 john

These shows also marked the performance debut of three new songs: All The Young Dudes, Hang On To Yourself, and I’m Afraid Of Americans. These are all great songs. “All The Young Dudes” is a classic rock anthem, and it was fun to have the audience sing along in the big out-tro chorus. “Hang On To Yourself” is a rocker, and gives us a chance to really blow off some energy. I could see that one becoming a great show opener. “I’m Afraid Of Americans” is one that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and we finally put it together for this show. It’s a huge, menacing song. I prefer the version from Bowie’s live performance in Paris from 2002, so that was the basis of my transcription and arrangement for the band. Part of the challenge on this song is that Bowie had multiple guitarists and keyboard players on that tour, and we have to recreate that massive sound with only one guitarist and one keyboardist. I wrote out a line for our sax player Brian, which helped beef up the guitar part when I’m summoning the Banshee. Our keyboardist Chris also helps by reinforcing the distorted guitar part on the chorus. I’m pretty satisfied with the initial performances of this song, and we’ll continue to refine it as we go forward.

Logistics
Logistically, a double-header gig introduces some challenges for the musicians in the band.

  • We arrived for load-in at 3:00 PM. It takes about 15 minutes to get our equipment from the alley, through the side door, into the freight elevator, down two floors to the main showroom, snaking our way through the booths down to the floor in front of the stage, and finally up onto the stage.
  • It takes another 30 minutes to get everything set up and ready for microphones.
  • Line check and sound at The Triple Door are pretty simple, because they have a full-recall board. We usually have the basic levels established within a few minutes, then we run 3-4 songs to fine-tune everything.
  • Then we have about 60 minutes before the doors open for the first show. This gives us just enough time to eat dinner, and return to the dressing room to get changed for the performance. There are eight people in the dressing room (six men and two women), so it’s crowded and fairly chaotic, with everyone putting on clothes / makeup / doing hair, etc.
  • We hit the stage for the first show, power through the entire set plus an encore (or two), then run back up to the dressing room to change for the second show. Most of us wear different costumes for early / late shows, so once again there is a frenzy of clothing / makeup / hair.
  • After the first show, we did some quick meet / greet visits with the audience to say hello, and to thank friends who attended. Then we all have to get back to the green room. We have just enough time to eat a quick bite, then we need to be ready to return to the stage.
  • Each of our performances is 2+ hours in length, so the total performance time for the evening was close to 5 hours. This is not a factor for me as a guitarist – I often practice five hours a day in preparation for shows – but it takes a toll on our vocalists. We try to give the singers breaks whenever possible, and everyone on the band takes care not to wear perfume / cologne (throat irritant), use aerosol hairspray (also a throat irritant), smoke anywhere near the band, etc. Most vocalists also take the time between shows to give their voices a rest, so we minimize chatter with them. One of our backup vocalists has a big suitcase full of costumes and accessories. She decided against wearing a pair of black furry / sparkly leggings with her costume. She asked if anyone else wanted to wear them, and no one answered, so I said “give them to me”. I put them on over my jeans, and wore them for the whole show. It turned out to be a bold fashion choice, and a warm one.
  • Hitting the stage for the second show it deja vu for us, but as far as the second audience is concerned it’s their first show. There are always some people who attend both shows. At the Triple Door, we offered a “double header” price for anyone wanting to attend both performances that night, and we sold a number of those packages. In addition, a number of people from the first show decided to purchase tickets for the second show. We made a point of mixing up the set lists a bit to give those people some different material.
  • The second show ended around midnight. First order of business is the post-show backstage huddle with the band, usually accompanied by a toast. We then have some time to go out into the room for meet / greet purposes, saying hello and thanking friends. At that point I try to get backstage to change into comfortable clothes for packing up and loading out.
  • The pack up / load out process is the reverse of loading. From the time I start, to the time when the gear is in the car, is usually around 45 minutes.
  • By the time I left the venue at 1:15 AM, I had been on site for over 10 hours, and had changed clothes three times. I had moved my gear (around 200 pounds total) into my car at home, then out of my car in the alley, onto the cart for in-building transport, into the venue, off the cart, up several stairs onto the stage, back down the stairs off the stage, onto the cart, back off of the cart in the alley, into my car, and back out of my car at home.

That’s the glamorous aspects of being in a band. 🙂

As far as the performance… wow! We had a really great time. The first show was very good. I thought we hit the ground running and delivered a great high-energy performance. The audience at the first show was all-ages, so we had to slightly modify the lyrics of a few songs to make them PG-13. The first show was absolutely sold out, and the audience gave us a lot of energy. We had a number of people join us onstage at the end of the show for some singing and dancing. Always a blast!

Once we were reset for the second show, the audience had grown. We initially were told that only about 120 tickets had sold for the second performance. When we hit the stage, the room was full. Apparently there had been a large number of walk-up sales, plus those people who had attended the first show and decided to purchase tickets to stay for the second. I would say the second show was easily the band’s best performance to date. It was very high energy, and the performance level was superb. I was very satisfied with our whole night.

First Show Set List

  • Heroes
  • China Girl
  • Rebel Rebel
  • The Man Who Sold The World
  • Changes
  • Hang On To Yourself
  • Ashes To Ashes
  • Fashion
  • Absolute Beginners
  • Golden Years
  • Life On Mars?
  • Space Oddity
  • Under Pressure
  • I’m Afraid Of Americans
  • Young Americans
  • Suffragette City
  • Fame
  • Let’s Dance
  • Ziggy Stardust
  • All The Young Dudes

Second Show Set List

  • Space Oddity
  • Jean Genie
  • Beauty And The Beast
  • Starman
  • Blue Jean
  • Hang On To Yourself
  • Fashion
  • Life On Mars?
  • The Man Who Sold The World
  • Changes
  • Ziggy Stardust
  • Absolute Beginners
  • Golden Years
  • Ashes To Ashes
  • Under Pressure
  • All The Young Dudes
  • Suffragette City
  • I’m Afraid Of Americans
  • Young Americans
  • Let’s Dance
  • Fame
  • Heroes
 

Thoughts on the 7/16 Dudley Manlove Quartet / BowieVision Performances

July 22, 2014 by John No Comments »

On Saturday 7/16, I performed at the Bite of Seattle with two of my bands: The Dudley Manlove Quartet, and BowieVision. We had the opportunity for both bands to perform on the same stage, in adjacent time slots, so it was actually very easy from a logistic standpoint. The Bite of Seattle is a food and arts festival held every year at Seattle Center, and I have often performed at this event over the past thirty years. The stage crews have been all be around for that length of time, so I get to work with the same bunch of great engineers and stage managers who have made these shows successful and easy.

I arrived at about 11:30 AM with the few items that I actually needed for this gig: my guitar, my pedalboard, and a bag with a few cables and change of clothes. Each stage at this event is equipped with rented backline equipment including a drum set, bass amp, guitar amp, keyboard stand and amp, and so on. It makes the changeover between bands very easy, and allows us to travel pretty light. My equipment was driven to the stage in a Gator (basically a 4WD golf cart with a small pickup bed), and I got to ride along, doing my best parade queen wave as we wove through the crowd.

The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed first, charging through a high-energy set. I was particularly delighted that we played “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees, as it got everyone up and dancing. Disco music allows people to pretend they’re making fun of disco dancing, when in fact they are enjoying themselves doing it. We also delivered some classic rock hits to keep the crowd moving. Following a short break and wardrobe change, we returned to the stage as BowieVision and played another 45 minutes. We definitely had some Bowie fans in the crowd, as there were several people singing along who knew all the words.

The overall experience of working at these events is always fun. It’s a big festival with happy people enjoying food, beer, and fun energy. I did spot a booth selling elk burgers, which sounded really good, except it was so hot that day and I was already pretty overheated from playing two sets in the sun. Maybe I’ll get that elk burger next year.

 

Thoughts On The 5/24 BowieVision Performance

May 26, 2014 by John No Comments »

Bowievision 2014-05-24On Saturday 5/24, BowieVision performed at the Triple Door in Seattle. This was our first run of new shows at this venue, and it was a great opportunity to show off our full production.

This was also my first big stage performance with my Fractal Audio AxeFX II XL system. About a month before this show I purchased the AxeFX unit along with its dedicated MFC-101 Mk III controller. It took me about a week to program my tones for the BowieVision show, and I was glad to have a few opportunities to make tweaks at rehearsals before we embarked on this performance. The AxeFX does a beautiful job of delivering the tones from a myriad of amps / cabinets, plus has very deep effect chain management. I was able to dial in very accurate recreations of the classic guitar sounds in Bowie’s catalog, which left me with the equally daunting task of playing those great parts accurately!

Managing my guitar rig during this performance was amazingly simple, which is a big change from the complexity of my previous system. I was able to move easily between the sections of the songs, recalling appropriate tones for each part. It was also much simpler switching presets than ever before. I’m very pleased with the Fractal Audio system and already looking ahead at programming bigger / deeper patches.

The show was very satisfying on many levels. It was a sold-out house, with some familiar faces present. The Triple Door has perhaps the best light and sound system in the state, which let us show off both the sonic and visual quality of the band. Overall,I thought it was one of our best performances to date. The band was very prepared and delivered a polished show.

Here is the set list that we performed for the Triple Door show:

  • Changes
  • China Girl
  • Suffragette City
  • Starman
  • The Man Who Sold The World
  • Life On Mars?
  • Jean Genie
  • Ashes To Ashes
  • Space Oddity
  • Absolute Beginners
  • Blue Jean
  • Rebel Rebel
  • Fashion
  • Golden Years
  • Ziggy Stardust
  • Fame
  • Young Americans
  • Let’s Dance
  • Under Pressure
  • Heroes
 

Split Brain – Playing 2 Parts At Once

July 18, 2013 by John No Comments »

In just a little under a month, The Dudley Manlove Quartet will take the stage at the Triple Door in Seattle for a fun night of music. I’ve been going back to listen to some of our songs to make adjustments to my guitar arrangements, especially where I’m covering two simultaneous parts. It’s an interesting process of deconstruction to take multiple parts and attempt to coalesce them into something that a single guitarist could perform.

In Jumbalassy, I experimented with covering multiple guitar parts by using a digital delay. In reggae songs there are usually a few separate distinctive parts:

  • The “skank”, a partially muted chord occurring on 2 and 4 in the measure
  • A rhythmic line providing interplay

These occur at the same time so there wasn’t a practical means of simultaneously recreating that effect as a lone guitarist. My solution involved a hall of mirrors: I’d tap the tempo into the delay using quarter-notes and set the delay for a whole note so it would take a full measure and repeat it once, remaining locked to the tempo of the song. Then it was just a matter of switching between the parts each measure… I’d play the skank one measure, then let the delay repeat it while I played the rhythmic picking part, then switch back the the skank while the other part repeated. It actually worked pretty well as long as the song didn’t have very complex chord changes. 

In DMQ I can’t get away with that kind of approach because the songs have complex arrangements and the guitar parts have significantly different timbres. It means my approach to layering the sounds has to be more of a compromise between the two parts, and sometimes requires a little technical trickery… one of my Stratocasters has a factory-installed Roland hexaphonic synth pickup system. I use it to drive a guitar synthesizer but one of the sneaky side-benefits of that system is that I can map different sounds to specific strings or zones on the fretboard. Again, it requires a careful arrangement of the parts to ensure I’m triggering the appropriate sounds.

The most challenging approach to this is in playing Warr Guitar, where my hands are independently performing on their own sides of the fretboard. It’s much harder for me to play this way. It might be due the fact that I never played piano with much facility, and I believe that type of hand independence would translate nicely to Warr Guitar. It takes me a bit of time to work out my parts on this instrument, but it’s very rewarding and fun. I’ve been considering using this instrument in the Dudley Manlove Quartet when we perform Depeche Mode songs; since I can independently route the signal paths for the two sides of the  instrument I could double the bass line and trigger a synth line at the same time.

In an upcoming post I’ll detail some of the songs that will involve a split-brain approach and discuss my approach to performing them.

 

Thoughts on the 6/15 DMQ “Under Pressure” Bowie Performance

July 8, 2013 by John No Comments »

under pressureOn Saturday 6/15, the Dudley Manlove Quartet performed our big “Under Pressure” show  at the Crocodile in Seattle. Also on the bill were our friends “Halloqueen”, delivering their tribute to Queen. I had been working hard on the guitar parts for these songs over the past few months and created detailed transcriptions for my own reference in learning the parts. My objective was to do more than merely delivering a credible bar-band version of the songs; I wanted to absolutely recreate the original studio performances and tones. I’ll provide detailed notes on my transcriptions in another post.

The show involved setting up both bands with all equipment onstage and ready to do. This was necessary due to the number of songs where we combined elements from both bands. Multiple rehearsals were held to polish these songs involving guest performers. We knew it was going to be something special, and the show was a blast.

Here is the set list DMQ performed during the Bowie portion of the evening:

  • Ziggy Stardust
  • Rebel Rebel
  • Space Oddity (with Brian Bermudez-sax)
  • Suffragette City (with Sean Bates-vocals, Tim DiJulio-guitar, Brian Bermudez-sax)
  • The Man Who Sold the World
  • Life on Mars?
  • Ashes to Ashes (with Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Changes (with Brian Bermudez-sax, Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Golden Years (with Brian, Kim, Nikol)
  • Fashion (with Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals, Chris Friel-drums)
  • China Girl (with Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Fame (with Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Blue Jean (with Brian Bermudez-sax, Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Young Americans (with Brian Bermudez-sax, Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Let’s Dance (with Brian Bermudez-sax, Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)
  • Heroes (with Brian Bermudez-sax, Kim Virant-vocals, Nikol Fiala-vocals)

I wound up using my trusty black stratocaster for this show. During rehearsals I experimented with using my Les Paul, but due to the range of guitar tones involved, the strat seemed like the best overall fit. I brought the Eric Johnson strat as well, fully intending to use it for the later material, but once we got underway there was just no time during the set to make the switch.  That black strat and I have been together a long time and it never fails me. Honestly I don’t know why I even own other guitars 🙂

Overall I was very satisfied with the performances during the show. The most difficult material for me to really nail was the ferocious Robert Fripp guitar solo in “Fashion”, and the delicate guitar work in “Life on Mars”. For tone building I relied on a combination of the Wampler Sovereign distortion, Way Huge Pork Loin overdrive, Line6 delay, TC Electronic reverb, and Strymon Lex rotary pedal. It was also the debut of my newly reconfigured pedalboard and I was happy with the outcome. For our next public performance, DMQ will be performing more of a standard mix of material, but I suspect a few Bowie songs might sneak their way into the set.

 

Surviving The Unexpected : Your Backup Kits For Gigs And Touring

April 29, 2013 by John No Comments »

Playing gigs with a band is really all about the music… except when it’s not. As a professional musician of 30+ years, I am something of a road warrior and have done a lot of successful touring with my bands. As a professional Project Manager, I can tell you there are a number of things you should have with you to help mitigate risk and let you to focus on the music. In this post, I will outline the contents of three handy road kits and describe where they should be stored. With only a few exceptions (spare guitar and spare amp) these are not expensive items and you can probably pick up everything in a single stop at a department store.

KIT #1 : For Onstage Emergencies

These are things to have within reach while you’re playing. Everything other than the first item should be in a small, well-organized bag near the stage. I’m partial to “alice” (military surplus) bags, but you can find plenty of options that have small interior pockets to carry the following items:

  • Spare Guitar : Someday your primary guitar will have some kind of issue… you’ll break a string, have a sudden wiring problem, or heaven forbid something worse… put your spare guitar on a stand next to your main guitar and tune then both before starting your set. Test your backup guitar during soundcheck to make sure it’s ready to go. 
  • LED Flashlight : Get a decent, reliable LED flashlight. This should be right at the top of the bag in case you need it.
  • Spare Strings and a String Winder
  • Spare Cables : You should have an extra 1/4″ instrument cable at the ready, on stage, near your amp. If you use a MIDI control pedal, have an extra MIDI cable.
  • Spare Batteries : For your pedals, wireless transmitter, LED flashlight, etc.
  • Spare Fuses : Look at the back of your amp and find out what kind of fuse it takes. Buy spare fuses for anything in your rig that takes a fuse.
  • Spare Amp : If you play through an amplifier, it will someday fail onstage. Get an Electro Harmonix 44 Magnum pedal and keep it in your emergency bag. That little pedal puts our 44 watts of usable power. When your amp dies at a gig, use the 44 Magnum to drive the speaker in your amp until you can diagnose the problem. This pedal is cheaper than carrying extra tubes and frankly, a lot more likely to be an effective solution onstage. I’ve had very few amp failures in my career, but they’re guaranteed to occur and you can be prepared to survive if you have this handy pedal. My trusty Mesa Boogie Lonestar died on me at a gig once; I was extremely fortunate that (1) this happened to be an early evening show (2) it was less than 15 miles from my house and (3) I was able to get my backup amp (Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) before show started. The next day I bought the 44 Magnum.
  • Ear plugs : Buy a bunch of pairs of foam earplugs.
  • Multi-tool : Get a Leatherman tool. This will provide pliers, knife, screwdrivers, a file, and other handy stuff including a bottle opener. If you play a guitar with a Floyd Rose tremolo, have extra hex wrenches as well.
  • Sharpie pens : You should have at least six of them available at all times. Great for set lists, autographs, etc.
  • Business cards

KIT #2 : For Minor Inconveniences

Your second kit should be offstage somewhere but inside the club rather than “out in the van”. The point is, you may need these items without warning and having them in your dressing room is a gig-saver. Keep track of your stock on this kit since it contains consumable items. For this kit I recommend getting a hard-sided plastic tote box.

  • First Aid Kit : This should be a basic first aid kit with tweezers, band-aids, alcohol swabs, antiseptic ointment, sterile gauze pads and surgical tape. Throw in a styptic pencil to staunch bleeding from minor cuts. Bonus points for grabbing a few instant ice packs.
  • Over-the-counter drugs :
    • You should have an ample supply of Ibuprofen, Immodium, and Dramamine. You will be thankful you stocked this stuff if you’re ever  on the road and suffering from diarrhea or nausea.
    • Theraflu or other cold medicine.
    • Cough drops.
    • If you are prone to mild allergic irritation, bring some antihistamines.
    • Sunscreen.
  • Saline solution. Eyes get irritated. Stuff gets in them. Saline solution is a blessing. Absolutely required if somebody in your band wears contacts.
  • Super glue
  • Basic sewing kit
  • Nail clippers
  • Travel-size packages of Kleenex for sniffles, sneezes, and emergency TP use.
  • 8 x 12 foot plastic tarps and a package of bungee cords : Get four of these tarps and leave them in their packaging. Carry a variety pack of bungees. Someday you will be playing an outdoor gig and the weather will turn. You’ll be glad you have some way to protect your gear while you’re figuring out what to do. After you use them, let them dry and fold them neatly again.

KIT #3 : For Maintenance and Repair

This is the gear you can leave “out in the van”. You won’t need it often but pack it in a small container you can easily find.

  • Soldering iron, solder and flux
  • Multimeter
  • Power strip and extension cord
  • Electrical tape
  • Basic tool box : Pliers, blade + Phillips screwdrivers, utility knife, crescent wrench
  • WD-40

Your Lifeguard

Have a lifeguard on duty. If you’re playing in your home town, chances are some of your musician buddies will be coming to your gig. So take stock of who is there and if you need their help during the gig, holler their name and ask them to come to the stage. You might have a good friend willing to come to the gig just for that purpose. For your big local shows, this is a great insurance policy. Most of the time things will be fine and your friend can just enjoy the show. Reward them with a beer and return the favor by supporting them at a gig.

When you’re on the road this is obviously more challenging. Sometimes I play on a bill with other bands, and I make a point of getting to know other musicians backstage. That’s a great source of support in case a problem arises onstage. If it’s just my band playing the whole night then I work the crowd. As a guitarist I am at the front of the stage. When setting up and doing soundcheck, I keep an eye on the audience and see if anyone is checking out my pedalboard or my guitar rig. My guess is either they’re a musician or they’re considering stealing my gear. So I engage them in conversation and establish a person-to-person rapport with them. I have met some really fantastic people this way and made great friends from this beginning AND now I have identified a fellow musician who might be recruited as a lifeguard in the event of an onstage emergency.

I can tell you from personal experience that it’s awesome to have some help in case of a blowout. It’s also awesome to be able to help a fellow musician. My band “Jumbalassy” was once performing at a club and the guitarist in the opening band broke a string during the middle of their set. It was obvious he didn’t have a backup guitar. He limped his guitar through to the end of the song and started to look around for his guitar case so he could dig out some strings and begin the process of doing an on-stage string replacement… but before ten seconds had passed I was at the foot of stage with my guitar, which I exchanged for his. When they finished with the next song I was back with his guitar, freshly strung and tuned. After the show we introduced ourselves and shared a beer. A good friendship was established that night. Help your brethren.

 

Thoughts on the 2/16 1 Uppers Performance

February 20, 2013 by John No Comments »

telecasterOn Saturday 2/16 the 1 Uppers performed at the Highway 99 Blues Club in Seattle. We were on a 4 band bill with Liam Fitzgerald and the Rainieros, The Roy Kay Trio, and the B-Stars. One of the guarantees of a multi-band bill like this is that it’s going to run late and be chaotic. It’s always interesting to me to hear other country bands. The B-Stars are based in San Francisco, but the other bands are all local and well-known to us. It was a great night of fun music.

In the past several months I’ve increasingly been focusing on playing baritone guitar in this band. It fits more cleanly into the sonic landscape with so many other instruments. It gets me out the guitar range which allows Kris Geren to stretch out, and it gives me a distinctive range of my own to work within. The more that I play baritone guitar the less I’m inclined to add much in terms of effects, so for this show I didn’t bring my pedalboard. I spent a great deal of time sitting in the bar waiting for our turn to play, and during that time I wondered if I had made a mistake by going without pedals for the show. Once we got into our set I was quite satisfied with my tone and didn’t miss having my pedalboard for any of my baritone guitar parts. I had to do a bit of amp knob twiddling to adjust the reverb for some songs, but overall it was great. I brought the trusty black strat because I knew we’d do a few things that just require me to have a regular electric guitar, including “How Soon Is Now”. For that one I switched my amp into its lead channel – the FIRST time I have ever used it at a gig – to get the grind that I usually evoke from my Wampler Sovereign. That might have been the only time during the night that I really missed my pedalboard. Otherwise, playing “naked” was refreshing and challenging.

Our next show is coming up 2/21 at the Royal Room in Columbia City. I’ll have the challenge of being the band’s only electric guitarist that night since Kris will be out of town. It means that I’ll definitely be bringing my pedalboard and filling up some additional sonic landscape in the mix. A new challenge is always just around the corner! Hope to see you there.

 

Thoughts On The 3/15 1 Uppers Performance

March 16, 2012 by John No Comments »

On Thursday March 15 the 1 Uppers kicked off our “Third Thursday Twang Royale” at the Royale Room in Columbia City. This will be a recurring monthly event in which we will host a night of great country music with special guests joining us for the middle set. For this first occurrence our special guests were Liam Fitzgerald, Johnny 7, and Susan McIntire; all are familiar musicians in the local country / rockabilly scene. We went with the theme of “A Salute To George Jones” for these cover songs, which gave us a wealth of music from which to select.

Set list for 3/15:

SET 1
Punch It In
Maybe Probably
Ophelia
It’s Late, I’m Tired
All Over
Semi-Truck
Costa Brava
Halfway Home
Cadillac Truck
Your New Friends
Motel Time
Bottle, Bottle
The Rest
3 Picks
Said I Would
Nothing Can Stop Me
How Soon Is Now?
SET 2
Relief Is Just A Swallow Away
Tall Tall Trees
Just A Little Boy Blue
Mister Fool
Golden Ring
‘Til I Get It Right
Rootbeer
Why Baby Why
Ragged But Right
Race Is On
What Am I Worth
White Lightnin’
Just One More
SET 3
Lookin’ At The World Thru A Windshield
Silver Drawer
Just Destroyed The World
1 Uppers Stomp
The Path Not Taken
There Stands The Glass
What Made Milwaukee Famous
Waymore’s Blues
Sunday Morning
Buck’s Polka
Fall Back
Let Her Go
Always Seem To Get Things Wrong
Luxury Liner

I played the doubleneck Gretsch for the entire first set, then switched to the Danelectro baritone for the rest of the night. That doubleneck guitar is seriously heavy but a lot of fun to play.  I think I prefer the tone of the Danelectro, and it is a lot more comfortable to wear onstage as it probably weighs about 30% as the Gretsch. Because the Royale Room has an all-ages policy, there were a lot of young people in the audience. Several of them told me how much they liked the crazy silver doubleneck guitar. Always good to have the younger scene give you the official seal of approval 🙂 Oddly, I still cannot find a case for that guitar, despite searching online and asking people on the Gretsch forums. It’s good to have a quest I suppose… We had a great time with this first event and look forward to the next one!

 

Thoughts On The 7/21 Dudley Manlove Quartet Performance

July 25, 2011 by John No Comments »

On Thursday 7/21, The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed an outdoor show at Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood. This is both an unusual weekday evening for us to perform, and an unusual venue. The stage was outdoors near the South side of the mall, situated on patio that is sloped to help water drain away from the mall entrance. As a result, everything on the stage had a peculiar forward lean. I arrived early to scout the performance area. Once I was set up I ran through some scales to warm up. A few young skaters wandered by and one of them yelled “IRON MAN!” which I happily obliged him by playing. I found him later and asked why he had requested that song. His response: “because Ozzy fricking rules!”  Difficult logic to refute.

 

Once the rest of the band arrived we were set up and ready for action pretty quickly. It was a bit chilly playing outdoors. One might expect a late-July outdoor gig to be warm, but this *is* the Pacific Northwest. It’s a bit of a challenge to keep a guitar in tune when it’s cold outdoors, and I had to tune a few times each set as the instrument reached a stable temperature. This is the second gig we’ve done since I pulled the buffer pedal from my pedalboard. I expected it would provide a quiet signal boost but it seems to be injecting significant RFI into my signal path… it sounds like I’m getting a radio signal. I haven’t attempted to troubleshoot the device and it’s currently sitting on the bench in my garage. Since removing it I’ve noticed my rig is much quieter.

 

I’m still on the hunt for a Boogie Lonestar, but the Fender is doing a great job of delivering the goods. Overall, another successful outing for the band, and certainly a memorable one as mall gigs go…

 

 

Thoughts On The 6/18 Dudley Manlove Quartet Performance

June 20, 2011 by John No Comments »

On Saturday 6/18 The Dudley Manlove Quartet played at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. Our keyboard player Chris Joss opened the show with his accordion stylings, much to the enjoyment of the appreciative audience. We hit the stage and kicked into our regular set. We had a fantastically great show and the sold-out room was enthusiastically dancing all night. I had two minor gear gripes…

Gear gripe #1: My Fender Twin has been acting up for a while, to the point where I’ve become suspicious of its reliability. I actually brought my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe as a backup amp, and parked it onstage where I could easily get to it in the event of a problem. During the soundcheck the Twin seemed OK despite making some odd crackling sounds, but once we got into the full set the amp suddenly dropped about 50% in volume. I unplugged from the reverb channel and went into the other one, which at least had normal volume despite making some crackles and odd distortion. It did get me through the night, but that amp is headed back to the shop (again) to see if we can’t get it working happily. I’ve had these symptoms from the Twin since I bought it and it’s been in three different repair shops, all without any success at diagnosing the issue. The issue seems to be something very difficult to isolate, likely a circuit board issue. I’m working to convince my amp technician that we should simply pull out all the circuit boards and replace them with a hand-wired point-to-point turret board. This essentially would turn my 1965 Twin Reverb Reissue into an actual 1965 circuit. It would be a serious effort but I think the project would be fun and the outcome would be wonderful.

Gear gripe #2: My newly rebuilt pedalboard was perfectly behaved at the gig and I’m really happy with the way it sounds. My gripe is actually a little silly, but it’s for real. A few of my pedals have intensely bright blue LEDs on them, and since my corner of the stage is especially dark, it’s tough to see where things are on the board with those blinding blue lights in my eyes. I fumbled around in the dark trying to find some of the pedals and eventually gave up and just felt around with my hands to turn things off. The solution would be just to have a little light on my side of the stage (seriously… there isn’t a single light pointing in that direction) or to have some light at my feet.

All in all, a fun show! It’s a blast to see so many familiar faces at these local shows. Thanks to everyone who showed up.