Thoughts On The 10/29 1 Uppers Performance
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.