On Friday 3/19 Dudley Manlove Quartet celebrated our 15th anniversary at the Nectar Lounge in Fremont. This was also the night we debuted the shiny new Plan 9 horns. Also joining us for the anniversary celebration were Matt and Joe, original members of the band who both happen to play a pretty mean sax. At a few points during the night we had ten musicians onstage, rocking the hits. Opening the night were our friends The Hemingway Reference, who played a fabulous first set. I’m sure we’ll work together again.
I arrived early enough to get loaded in and generally situated. The house sound operator is a longtime friend who used to run sound for us in Jumbalassy, and he’s also worked with The Preons. Great to catch up with him as we finished wiring the stage for soundcheck. We started the night with some great standards and the room’s energy was a great source of inspiration for us. At a few points during the night I found myself tempted to turn my guitar amp up, which means the stage volume was a bit louder than usual. My amp is only 40 watts, and when turned up tends to begin introducing some distortion; this is a deliberate characteristic of the amp’s design and not simply clipping due to excessive gain. In order to minimize logistic challenges at this show, Steve borrowed the opening band’s Epifani bass amp. He usually uses an SWR combo for our shows, and it sounds great. I was really impressed at the power and tone of the Epifani setup. It’s pretty tempting as a potential upgrade to my Ashdown bass / Warr guitar amp.
Overall, the gig was a blast and one that I’ll remember as a highlight of my first year with the band.
The Dudley Manlove Quartet is looking forward to our 3/19 show at the Nectar Lounge in Fremont. This event marks the 15th Anniversary of the band and and will be the debut of the Plan 9 horns. The Hemingway Reference will be opening the evening, and during our set you’ll see some surprise appearances by former members of DMQ. Sure, we’re a great five-piece quartet. But with the addition of three amazing horn players and special guests, we’ll be a TEN piece quartet. That’s pretty big for a quartet, you gotta admit!
Tickets are still available for this event, but they’re going fast. Some tickets will be available at the door for $10, but you should definitely consider purchasing in advance for $8. This will be a fun evening of celebrating 15 years of adventure and music with the DMQ crew, and we’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Doors will open at 9:00 PM and we’ll be ready to make the music happen. Arrive early… settle in… get your dancing groove on. This is going to be a great 15th Anniversary party!
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My Bands
I have been hearing some buzz about Jet City Amplifiers lately and have started to look around for more information on them. I know they’re located in Woodinville, WA, which makes them local to me. I have been using a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe for years, and it is a pretty good workhorse guitar amp. I’m interested in taking a look at the 50 watt combo Jet City is making. Not certain this is a perfect fit for my needs until I’ve tried one at a gig, but it’s interesting enough that I’m beginning to do some research.
The trusty black strat continues to be my primary guitar, although I may take the plunge and custom-build a new guitar at some point. My pedalboard project has been an important effort in cleaning up and improving my signal path, and now I’m beginning to explore the other end of the system. Another small step in the relentless pursuit of awesome tone…
Last weekend I ramped up a remodel project in one room at home. Recently a friend helped me rip up the carpet, pad and tack strips. The real messy (and fun) stuff happened on Sunday when I tore out the drywall, insulation and some of the built-in storage areas. That afternoon I took one huge trip to the dump… over 1/2 ton of debris. The room is currently bare studs… a veritable blank slate waiting to be rebuilt. It also means I’m eagerly planning my new space and looking ahead to getting this space re-insulated, re-wired and put the walls back together. As satisfying as these remodeling projects can be, I sure like it when they’re done. With some luck I’ll be finished in two more weekends.
The Dudley Manlove Quartet is playing a few great shows this month. In preparation I’ve been working on my parts and gear. One of the interesting discoveries of recent weeks is that my wireless system seems to be very particular about its power supply. According to the manufacturer it runs on 9VDC at less than 800 mA, but it doesn’t operate correctly when connected to my pedalboard’s buffered power supply. So I have installed the original power adaptor for the wireless receiver and plugged it into the power strip under the board.
The band is doing a few new songs at the 3/13 show, and the 3/19 show will mark the debut of the Plan 9 horns. We’ll be rehearsing material with the horn section for the next couple of weeks. Mark you calendars for these gigs, It’s going to be a fun month!
