Thoughts On The Preons Gig 5/23
Last night’s Preons show at The High Dive went fairly well. Originally there were going to be three bands on the bill:
- Monostereo
- Mercurius
- The Preons
At about 8:00 we were informed “Monostereo” had dropped off the bill, so we adjusted the set times a bit. Ultimately this meant pushing back our start time by 30 minutes. The guys in “Mercurius” were cool and fun to chat with. I always enjoy meeting musicians who play for all the right reasons. These guys had taken the ferry from Bremerton on a Wednesday night, just to play in Seattle. That is a refreshingly unjaded attitude.
Our set wasn’t much of a surprise in terms of song selection. There was a bit of a ryhthmic hiccup in the beginning of a song, but overall it was a very satisfying musical experience. “Grove” is always fun to play because it has majestic passages where I can use more of an upright bass-style phrasing. The long outtro in “Discovery” was especially good, with all of us exploring new sonic territory. At just the right point, we all felt that we’d reached the end of the song and let it go. The band is becoming more intuitive and tuned to each other onstage. “Charlie Munden” continues to be the big crowd pleaser. It’s the only song on which I use a pick; I’ve switched to a Dunlop .88 “Tortex” pick which delivers a nice punchy attack on the five string. For the rest of the gig I play fingerstyle with some right-hand tapping to flesh out chords or double up low passages. I need to start using a bit of compression when tapping with both hands; even with active electronics it’s challenging to get consistent output levels. As I’ve noted before, Brad is really the musical star of our band. He delivered a number of solid solos last night and is always finding new sounds.
I’ve decided my Behringer BXL3000A amp isn’t beefy enough for rooms like this. It does have 300 watts, but on a medium / large stage there simply isn’t enough headroom to ensure clean tone and good coverage. Not that it reflects poorly on the design of the amp; I purchased it as my practice amp and it’s great for small stages too. At the High Dive, the house sound system has McCauley enclosures which sound great and have tremendous definition and depth. So, fortunately, I didn’t need to rely on my amp to fill the room. But I’d still like a little more oomph on stage and I’m thinking I will need to get a 4×10 cabinet eventually.
A big THANK YOU to the friends and co-workers who attended the show last night. We’ll look forward to seeing you again soon.