John Hendow

On Saturday 10/29 the Dudley Manlove Quartet will be performing our annual Halloween Spooktacular show at the Sunset in Ballard. Every year our Halloween show includes our tribute to some other band, so our second set involves a costume change and we come onstage to play a number of songs as another band. In past years we’ve done such bands as The Talking Heads, Spinal Tap, The B52’s and David Bowie. This year we’re working up songs from another band; technically it’s a surprise, but I think most people have a strong hunch based on the (outright blatant) clues we’ve dropped 🙂

I’ve been transcribing guitar parts and working up the tones to recreate the style of the guitarist in this year’s band. It should be a very enjoyable show and I know we’re all looking forward to playing this special set.

For the gig this weekend I’m planning to bring my trusty Mesa Boogie Lonestar, two Stratocasters (the black custom shop model and the white Eric Johnson model), my pedalboard, and the usual miscellany of cords and stands. Definitely going to be a show to remember. If you haven’t already gotten a ticket, we only have a few dozen remaining, so act now!

About 2 months ago I traded in my trusty Toyota Camry for a 2010 Toyota Highlander. I’ve been wanting a vehicle that had greater interior capacity and was all-wheel drive. After looking at a few options, I kept returning to the Highlander as a good balance between wagon / SUV. Now that I’ve driven this car for a few months I have made some interesting observations:

• The Camry had a 4 cylinder engine. The Highlander is a 3.5L V6, is all-wheel drive, and probably 1/3 larger than the Camry. And yet, somehow the Highlander gets better gas mileage. I’m guessing the new car has better efficiency all around, and its performance is being constantly tuned by the onboard computer systems.
• The interior capacity of the Highlander is astonishing. I recently carried six adults in the car without any complaints for space. The third row of seats in this vehicle is actually pretty decent. It made for an easy local commute (to the banana museum, no less!).
• The acceleration characteristics are very good. It’s been a while since I owned a car that I would characterize as “fun” to drive. The Highlander is fun and responsive.

On Sunday 10/9 the 1 Uppers performed at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. This venue feels like home to me, given the large number of regular performances I have there with the Dudley Manlove Quartet. This was another very enjoyable show with the 1 Uppers, and we’re continuing to develop our musical communication onstage.

When I play at the Sunset with DMQ, I’m over on stage left which means I’m standing more or less behind the PA mains in a dark corner of the stage. I do jump out and stand on the subwoofer for big solos, but most of the time I’m pretty tightly tucked back into that corner. With the 1 Uppers I tend to be on stage right, standing behind Jon Hyde on pedal steel. So this gave me a nice open area in which to play. Always good to have a little room to roam 🙂

The show was part of a triple bill. Fortunately we were on first and it meant that we could get a soundcheck – AND it meant we were done at a mercifully early hour. Our set consisted of mostly originals with a few selected covers. For this show I brought a pretty lightweight rig, consisting of the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and my micro-pedalboard (Line6 M9 + Ernie Ball volume pedal).  I’m working on putting together a new pedalboard base for those two items, which should be small enough to fit into an Anvil briefcase. It’ll make an easy rig for fly dates. During the course of the show I switched guitars several times between regular electric guitar to baritone guitar.  I’m finding that playing baritone guitar is a great experience and clears some space in the mix where the other guitars reside. The 1 Uppers have a number of gigs coming up in the next month and I think it’ll be great for our sound. Always a delight playing music with great friends!