John Hendow

Last night’s show at the Triple Door was a good one. We always enjoy playing there and the house support crew is top notch. During out soundcheck we played “Red Skies at Night” by the Fixx, which has a great texture and always helps us dial in our stage balance. The sound man commented that he happens to be the front of house audio engineer for the Fixx (!) which was an interesting bit of information. He seemed to approve of our rendition of that song. I spent a little extra time after soundcheck reprogramming my tones and it made a positive difference during the show. Once we were underway I made a mental note to correct the balance of the distorted part in “The Metro” versus the rhythm section. It’s a little louder than it needs to be. Easily corrected with a twist of a knob.

The band’s energy onstage was very even last night. We were all dialed in and focused throughout the night, but it also felt slightly subdued. Maybe that’s just my perspective. I was pleased that we kept the overall stage volume somewhat low; this keeps feedback under control and allows me to hear my guitar more clearly. My vocals seemed a little lower in the monitor than I usually like, but it wasn’t any trouble. I made the decision to leave my in-ear monitor system at home for this gig since the club has such a great sound system. Zach did some on-the-fly vocal arranging with me by indicating he wanted me to switch to another vocal part in “Situation” (where he wanted me on the low part) and “Lies” (where he wanted me on the high part). Guess I did need those in-ear monitors after all! For last night’s gig I just asked for a bit more in the floor monitors. At the Triple Door, the stage monitors are hidden beneath a grate at the front of the stage. It keeps them out of the way and improves the audience sight lines. Generally speaking this is a good thing. My only concern is that the grate is a bit of hazard. I wore my Fluevogs onstage last night and the spacing of the grill seemed perfectly suited to grabbing the pattern on the soles. So for those of you who thought I was performing some kind of spasmic 80s dance, it was (mostly) caused by my shoes.

After the gig I had some time to visit with friends in the audience before heading backstage to change and load out. Because we had an early start, I was able to get loaded out, drive home, pack my gear into the house, and make it to bed before 11:00. Hooray for a decent night of sleep! Thanks to everyone who came to the show last night. I’ll look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Here’s a nice review from the Seattle Weekly

All this time I’ve been using the plain old “rock and roll” grade duct tape. 3M has been holding out on me. Behold NUCLEAR GRADE DUCT TAPE. It’s like +5 duct tape with extra awesomeness.

TONIGHT 2/24
Come on down to the Triple Door tonight for the 80s Invasion Mardi Gras party! We’ll see you for a night of great music and fun. We’ll start playing at 7:30 PM… after all it’s a school night. See you there.

My trusty telecaster has been doing a reasonable job since I got it years ago, and it’s a workhorse guitar. It’s always seemed nasal, bright and twangy, which is what I normally associate with those guitars. Lately I’ve really been paying attention to the awesome playing and guitar tone of friend (and fellow 1-Upper) Kris. He’s a very talented guitarist and no matter how good a day I think I’m having as a guitarist, when we play country together I’m eating his dust. The more I listen to his playing, his tone really strikes me as being supremely great and beefy. I’m aware that tone is a function of the musician as much as the guitar, but my telecaster sounds thin and has poor intonation… it seems like there must be a few adjustments that could help it along. So a few weeks ago I asked Kris to take my guitar home with him and make any recommendations toward improving it. I received his response via email within hours of handing it off. His laundry list of recommended changes included new pickups, new bridge, new saddles, and a new output jack. Fortunately the wood parts seem OK 🙂

So I have ordered a set of Lollar Vintage T pickups, the Joe Barden replacement bridge with 3 compensated saddles, and an electroset jack to replace the pesky standard tele jack. Kris is also a good guitar tech and has kindly offered to install the new components. I’m really looking forward to putting it through its paces at our upcoming gig.

Over the weekend I went to the Pacific Science Center to view the “Lucy” exhibit. The fossil was the first discovered Australopithecus afarensis and is designated AL 288-1 in the catalog. Lucy is 3.2 million years old and is a crucially important specimen as she reflects bipedal posture but has the smaller cranial capacity associated with apes. This fossil is considered extremely fragile, to the degree that the Smithsonian declined to accept it for display on its US tour.

The balance of the “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia ” exhibit contains historical and cultural artifacts from Ethiopia. Some of the displays reflect the varied history of this unconquered African nation proudly reflecting that is the birthplace of coffee and Rastafarianism, and is reputed to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

One gallery contains several comparative studies in anatomy and locomotion, exiting onto a nicely designed ramp exhibit with display cases containing skulls of hominids, starting with very early species and moving forward through time as you ascend the ramp. All the items on display are quite interesting, but the star of the attraction is held until the final gallery.

If you have not viewed this exhibit I’d strongly recommend getting tickets before it leaves Seattle on March 8. You may never get a chance to see this fossil again.

Two flakes does not a snowstorm make. This morning a scant few tiny snowflakes prevented one of the bus runs from even occurring. There wasn’t enough “snow” on my windshield to even obscure the view from inside my car, and with all the latent heat in the road any random flakes were instantly melted. It’s well above freezing and the roads are bare and wet. Meh. With one of the bus runs apparently canceled it’s a mad wrestling match to even get aboard, and there are no seats available. So once again I found myself trying to stay balanced as the bus hurtled through traffic on its way to Seattle. For the second time this week I find myself wondering if there isn’t a better way to get to work. The option of switching to the commuter rail line is beginning to sound interesting. Once the trains start running later this year I might investigate that as an option. Until then I’ll continue to ride the bus. And occasionally gripe about it.

This month we’ll be installing cabinets in the dining room and new interior doors for all rooms / closets in the upstairs portion of the house. It’s great to see this project coming together. We’ve been planning to do install cabinets in this area for some time and the additional storage space will be a big help. I’m going to be pulling new audio, power and network lines to this part of the house, so it seems like a perfect time to make holes in the walls.

At some point I hope we’ll take a few moments to actually enjoy our house…

Riding the bus isn’t particularly delightful under the best of conditions. My morning commute involves searching for parking at an already overcrowded park-and-ride lot (at 6:45 AM!), waiting for the bus to show up, and then a mad scramble to get a seat before they’re all full. Today I was one of the unlucky people standing during the commute. On an articulated bus the entire structure tends to oscillate and bounce; if you’re standing you will be thrown around for 30 minutes while the beastly vehicle rumbles toward Seattle. Many of my fellow commuter seem perpetually sick, and their coughing / sneezing makes me wish I could hold my breath indefinitely. Ah… the smells… the noise… the physical thrashing… these kinds of experiences leave me wondering if there isn’t a better way to get to work in the morning. I know the bus is the better choice for the sake of the environment, and I do want to support the Metro system though ridership. But at the same time I feel it could be better.

Last night was the second full rehearsal where I played Warr guitar. It feels a little more natural to me and I’m getting better at re-voicing my bass parts on the fly. I’m still on the fence about using it at the upcoming gig on 2/27, but I have a few weeks to make a final determination. I will definitely take my 5 string bass to this gig as a backup. There are some songs where I really like the percussive attack of the Warr, but on others I prefer the more round and warm sound of my bass. This might be a function of effects programming and so on. I’ll do some programming this weekend to see if I can tighten up the tones.

Over the weekend we continued work on our latest house project. One of the subprojects was the doorbell chime which we decided to replace since the existing unit was (1) ugly (2) plastic and (3) mounted in a place were it was an eyesore. As long as we were replacing the chime I decided to simply reroute the wiring a better location. I looked into the stud space where the old unit was mounted and discovered a few pairs of low-voltage wiring that I assumed where related to the alarm system. Tracing the doorbell wires it was clear that I would not be able to access the wiring via the attic. It happens to be quite far toward to edge of the roofline which means there is zero clearance in the attic at that point. I spent a few hours scuttling around up there trying to find a way to do it. Eventually I had to simply cut a new access hole in the wall and pull the wires over, then drill up into the attic and feed the wires far enough that I could reach them. Back in the attic I finally got enough of the blown-in insulation (curse whoever invented that stuff) out of the way to confirm that those low-voltage wires were not actually connected to anything at all. I spent probably six hours just pulling the wires and patching holes related to the doorbell, and it’s not even hooked up yet! I still need to run the feed to the new transformer. Sheesh. When people push the doorbell and get a satisfying ding-dong, I hope they appreciate the amount of effort involved in wiring the accursed thing.