John Hendow

 On Friday night I had 2 great shows with the Dudley Manlove Quartet at the fabulous Triple Door in Seattle. The night was officially dubbed “Yankee Doodle Dudley” and we played a tasty collection of songs celebrating the nation’s birthday including “America” by Neil Diamond, “American Girl” by Tom Petty and of course the themes to “Love American Style” and “Greatest American Hero”. The audience was enthusiastic and did some great dancing and singing along. Excellent participation during “Venus” and “Sweet Caroline”! The band is a lot of fun to play with, and I’m looking forward to doing more shows with them. Steve Okimoto (Dudley bassist) is an amazing dancing machine and his awesome moves were a highlight of the shows. The crew at the Triple Door is always 100% professional and very easy to work with. It certainly makes it a pleasure to play there. Oh, and the Seven Flavors Beef is mighty fine too!

Yesterday’s gig at the High Dive in Fremont took place on the same day as the Fremont Solstice Parade, which involves all manner of fun and big crowds. I enjoy the atmosphere of these events because everyone is always in such joyous spirits. Our show was earlier than the usual bar gig; we played from 6:00 PM until 8:15 PM for a pretty solid and enthusiastic crowd. It’s clear that Mona and Paul are becoming more confident in their roles as lead singers. Both of them are developing some faithful fans in the audience who know them by name and chant for more when songs are finished. Good stuff. I’m finding myself more “present” during our set, with a stronger connection to music and bandmates.

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This weekend was a great run of activity:

• 2 gigs – Both with 80s Invasion, one in a bar and one at a private party
• 2 ferry rides
• 1 evening rehearsal – For another band that I’m sitting in with for a few shows
• 1 UW graduation party – For one of my best friends who has recently joined the ranks of officially papered college grads
• 2 instances of equipment entropy – Fortunately limited to cases

Friday night at the High Dive we had a great show. The band seems to be attracting a regular following and this particular venue is a great place for us. It was fun to see so many familiar faces and to chat with some of them. One table full of 20-somethings were very interested in the music, having an apparently encyclopedic knowledge of 80s pop hits. Lots of great dancing and crazy sing-along activity.

At our previous show in this bar, my guitar rig exhibited some strange behavior and I wondered if the power might be to blame. For this show I used a fairly sophisticated power conditioner and it seems to have resolved the issues. Chalk one up for technology. So from the perspective of equipment performance, this was a perfect gig. I was very happy with the band’s playing at this show. Zach and Shane are consummate professionals and always do their parts well. Our vocalists are coming along nicely too. Mona and Paul are both becoming more confident in their roles.

On Saturday we got up early and headed over to Bainbridge Island for a private show. It was a birthday party with plenty of great food, awesome friends, kids and dogs running everywhere, and of course some fun music. We were playing outdoors with a fabulous view of the water. The band played a similar set to the one from Friday night, with a few minor changes. Again, a great time.

During the course of the weekend I noticed that two of my equipment cases are beginning to fall apart. One is a plastic box that I’ve been using for cords and mics, and it’s at least 15 years old (maybe 20!). It’s beginning to crack and split, and I think I may need to finally admit it’s time to recycle it. The other case that’s wearing out is my pedalboard case. This one is also 20 years old and has seen tens of thousands of miles of road use in Jumbalassy, and I purchased it used 20 years ago so who knows what its previous life might have been like. Technically it’s a keyboard case for a 3-octave synth, but it happened to be a perfect fit for my pedalboard. The hinges, latches and corners are all falling to pieces and I don’t believe this one is fixable. Might be time for a replacement. A long time ago I knew someone who worked for a flight case manufacturer but he’s long since retired. I need to find a new contact in that industry.

80s Invasion will be playing next weekend on Saturday June 20, at the High Dive. Come on out and get your 80s groove on!

This weekend I played back-to-back shows with Black Celebration. Our first show was in Portland at the fabulous Wonder Ballroom. My trip to the show was somewhat frantic due to unexpected horrible traffic on I-5 between Seattle and Portland. Granted, we probably should have left an hour earlier, but I’m not entirely certain that we’d have missed all the mayhem. And so having arrived exactly one hour later than I needed to, I didn’t get a soundcheck and had to go with only a quick line check before the show. Fortunately the house sound crew are consummate professionals and made everything work perfectly. By the time we took the stage they had dialed in my guitar and vocals, and the show went very smoothly. The Wonder Ballroom is beautiful and spacious, and they have one of the nicer backstage areas. The band’s “green room” (which was actually green!) was very comfortable and clean. Awesome snacks and good beer were provided in abundance. And they even helped us load our gear. That venue is really great and I look forward to returning in the near future. Our set for the Friday show included the usual hits and I really enjoyed the way things went. I found myself a little uncertain on some songs like “Master and Servant” because I’m playing a guitar line that doubles the main synth part. On songs without a distinctive guitar part I usually try to support the main theme with a simple melodic unison. After the gig I did some re-listening to the original recordings. Our set was well received and the audience clamored for an encore. Sadly we didn’t get to do one because the set times were so tight. Oh well… always leave them wanting more, right?

Our show Saturday was at the Showbox, near Pike Place Market in Seattle. The drive back to Seattle was uneventful and much faster. Parking in the Pike Place Market area is always challenging. I usually just give up and pay the steep fee to park in the small lot next door. There isn’t an official loading door for the club, so being right next the venue means once you’ve negotiated the uneven sidewalk / parking lot pavement, you’re in the front door and it’s a straight approach to the stage. As always, the house production crew was ready for action when we arrived and the night went smoothly. Our set was great, and I think this was the best show we’ve ever played. After reviewing the original DM recordings I made some changes to my guitar parts for this show, and it felt much better to me during the entire set. The vocalist from the Morrissey tribute commented that my tone was dead-on, which is nice coming from a fellow musician hearing us for the first time. When recreating studio recordings in a live setting, the devil is definitely in the details.

Overall, a great weekend of gigs. I’m looking forward to the next ones.

One of my ongoing music projects is Black Celebration – a tribute to Depeche Mode. I’ve spent some time the week getting ready for 2 upcoming shows. The first is Friday night in Portland at the Wonder Ballroom and the second will be on Saturday at The Showbox in Seattle (near Pike Place Market). The band is currently working on adding songs and there will be a few musical treats for loyal fans. At our last performance at Neumo’s we had a sold-out house, and we expect to see a large crowd for this one as well. Come on down and join us for a night of great 80s music.

Last night the Preons held our weekly practice session and I found myself fumbling to execute my Warr Guitar parts. I think the core issue was that it had been about two weeks since I last did any actual playing on that instrument, and it was frustrating to see how quickly the muscle memory was lost. My facility on Warr Guitar (such as it was) resulted from a few months of consistent practice, and it didn’t take long to get rusty. We replayed some of the more problematic areas and it seemed to go better on the second repetition, but throughout the night I felt fairly clumsy on my parts and will need to spend time this evening working on them. Other than that, I’m rather satisfied with my experience with the instrument. It’s opening up my playing to include greater complexity in counterpoint, and I like the added range of notes on the treble side. It’s also interesting to develop some effect patches specifically for this instrument, just to leverage the percussive aspect of the note attack. We’ll be playing tomorrow night at the Mix in Georgetown, and I look forward to our set.

This past weekend the 1 Uppers spent a lot of hours in the recording studio putting down tracks for a CD. We managed to get through four takes (each) of six songs on Saturday despite losing a few hours to ProTools gremlins. Our intrepid drummer and engineer Eric Eagle did a great job of getting all the electrons in line, and once we got underway we had a very productive session. One of the interesting setup exercises in the studio is capturing good tone from all the instruments, and since I’ve spent the past year really massaging my sound, this was something that meant a lot to me. The most common approach to putting a microphone on a guitar amp is to use a Shure SM57 slightly off-axis. For decades I carried a pair of SM57s for this purposes, but they were a casualty of my car being broken into a few years ago. Kris loaned me a Sennheiser e609 for my guitar amp which sounded really great. I’m thinking of ordering the e906, which is a slightly upgraded version of that microphone. It has a smooth openness to its sound that isn’t present in the SM57.

I’m pleased with the results of this weekend’s recording and I look forward to getting back into the studio to work on additional elements (solos, fills) and more songs. The 1 Uppers was originally started with the intent that we’d cover some country favorites just for fun. At some point the creativity started to flow and we began to write originals. I’d say we probably have a full CD of material to put down, and it’ll be a fun summer project to realize this project. Bits ahoy!

Saturday night was an unusual early show for 80s Invasion. We played at the High Dive in Fremont, which is a great venue with a fun regular crowd. Zach surprised me by including “Kiss Them For Me” by Siouxsie and the Banshees. I’ve always wanted to add that one to our set list and I thought it sounded good. Also fun was the late addition of “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. The High Dive has a particularly aggravating issue with their stage power. I discovered this the first time we played there, and have pointed it out to the house sound man every time. There is a persistent ground buzz throughout their PA system, and it’s very bad onstage. And I suspect their line voltage fluctuates throughout the night. I swear if I ever own a bar, clean stable power will be a priority.

One especially interesting aspect of this gig was the presence of dozens of merry Greeks (!) dancing and drinking and yelling “OPAH!” pretty much throughout the gig. I don’t know what “OPAH!” means, but I suspect it’s the national salute to whoever founded the first Mediterranean distillery.

Saturday night was an interesting and fun night. I sat in with The Dudley Manlove Quartet at an event called “Hops and Props”, at the Museum of Flight. As a sub, I had about a month to learn their set which is filled with great classics – many from my junior high days. As the gig approached, I felt pretty confident and was really looking forward to it.

On Saturday morning I was continuing my endless remodeling work at the house (actually, we’re in the home stretch… pun intentional…) and was routing some slots in new built-in bookcase. As always I was wearing safety goggles and hearing protection. Somehow a bit of wood debris got into my right eye and caused an immediate and painful scratch on my eyeball. It was so irritated that I spent a few hours flushing my eye with water and eyedrops. 

So that evening when I arrived at the DMQ gig my right eye was puffy, red and swollen. It had been watering all afternoon from the irritation so my sinuses were all stuffy and my nose was runny. Basically I looked like I had a headcold and/or pinkeye. Nice. But the show must go on. So during the first set I was supposed to start “Right Back Where We Started From” on guitar as a solo, then after 16 bars the balance of the band joins in.  I looked (blurrily) at the chart and saw a fuzzy shape which appeared to be a C, and thus began the song in the key of C. 16 bars later the band joined in… in the key of D. Nice. The band ploughed ahead and we finished the song without a problem.

During the set break I explained my newfound love of polychromaticism and recommended that the rest of the band get hip to playing in multiple keys. They were very cool about my mistake. I was mortified. I take music VERY seriously and mistakes like that, even when caused by funky vision, really gnaw at me.

The rest of the night was awesome and I had a great time. They guys in the band are funny and great musicians, and the music was a blast to play. Singing along to “Xanadu” was silly and joyful. Good stuff all around.

Friday night the 1 Uppers took the stage at Conor Byrne in Ballard. It was an opportunity for us to perform a number of new original songs. My newly simplified guitar signal chain (guitar + 1 effect + amp) really sounded and felt good. I had a minor challenge with my output jack on the tele which seems to be problematic… may need another go-round with the guitar doctor. The set went very smoothly and I enjoyed the way the new material flowed. It’s difficult for six musicians to play together without creating a muddy dense sound and I think we’ve gotten into a good habit of leaving plenty of space for interplay and dynamics.

As always, Jon Hyde and Kris Geren positively rocked the house. Those guys are both incredible players, and they fully deserve the accolades and attention at our gigs. Conor Byrne is the kind of bar musicians love to play… it’s comfortable, the bartenders are easy-going, the band gets drink tickets that can be redeemed for awesome microbrew beer (most bars restrict the band to crummy beer), and the regulars are supportive of live music.