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.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!
Over this past weekend I spent some time working on the David Bowie songs we’ll be playing at the Dudley Manlove Quartet’s “Scary Monsters Halloween Ball”. We’re doing a bunch of great songs and it’s always interesting to learn the guitar parts from these classic tunes. Over the year, Bowie has been visited by pantheon of guitar deities: Mick Ronson, Earl Slick, Robert Fripp, Carlos Alomar, Peter Frampton, Reeves Gabrels, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Torn, and Adrian Belew. Recreating the tones and notes of such distinctive guitarists is a treat, and it’s something I approach with respect and admiration. I’m always amazed to look at the long career Bowie has had, and consider that during all these varied decades, he’s remained musically relevant and a trendsetter. I regard him as one of the most influential and important musicians of the past 50 years. Halloween will be great fun and I am really looking forward to playing these songs. Join us for a fun night of music and dancing.
Well, it’s been a few months since I completely reconfigured my guitar pedalboard, which means it must be time to do it again 🙂
I decided to work on downsizing my setup as much as possible and with the acquisition of the Line6 M13, I should be able to get everything on the next smaller size of Pedaltrain board. I’ll be working on this project over the weekend. Always a good exercise to smallify they rig!
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.
