Gig Diary - 2003

Sunday, January 26, 2003
Sunset Tavern
Theron has decided to leave the band for other pursuits, and we will miss him greatly. He is a wonderful guy, and we loved having him in the band. The Sunset was his last show, and it went off well. It was Superbowl Sunday, unfortunately, and when we arrived at the appointed load-in time, there was no one there and the door was locked. Finally someone arrived during half time, and we got set up. Running over an hour late. Opening the show was Sarah Severson, she and her band were good. Then we got up there. I was so excited to use my new Bergantino rig, now that I'd gotten two of them to compliment each other. Wow, did it sound great. I could hear myself perfectly in every register, and I didn't have to crank the volume too loud. It blended perfectly with everything to my ears, and we were well balanced on stage. Very happy with these cabs. After we played, I was approached by a gentleman who, after "talking" with me (he wouldn't leave me alone, actually, nor anyone else), informed me he was the drummer for Incubus. Uh huh. And he wanted Susan to give him a free CD. Sorry dude, you gotta pay like the rest of 'em!

Saturday, January 18, 2003
Starbucks, Kirkland
Yet another Starbucks gig. Some friends and family there, and as always the coffee is good. I played through my brand new/used Bergantino 2x10 cab and it sounded incredible.

Friday, January 17, 2003
Stanwood Hotel Tavern (with Safety Skirts)
Stanwood is 60 miles north of Seattle and a bit of a trek. Our friends in the Riffbrokers invited us to come play with them at this gig. Their singer, Nick, likes our song "Everything's Alright" so much that he wanted to sing it with us. He played his Rickenbacker 12 string and man did it sound nice. As if that song didn't already sound REM-ish…I played the drums belonging to the Riffbroker's drummer, a vintage Ludwig jazzy sorta kit. Not really my sound, but it did sound nice. The shallow kick had no muffling, and his kick pedal was very springy with a big soft beater, so I wasn't used to that. But I managed, and we did rock. Michele has taken a liking to Pete's Les Paul (it's black, you know) so she has played it at the last couple shows. It really suits the sound of the band, nice and thick on those drop D power chords. And it looks darn cool too. Fun show!

Saturday, January 11, 2003
Broadview House Concert
We were planning to play this living room acoustic show with me and Theron on acoustic guitars, since there are no amps allowed. Then a week before the show Theron was informed by his bosses that he would need to spend the weekend in Las Vegas on a business trip. So I showed Pete a bunch of songs on guitar, and he and I accompanied Susan, with Pete playing an occasional handdrum or shaker. He even rubbed his hands together on one song to make a sandpapery sound. In such a small room it was heard by the audience loud and clear. We still think Theron was making up the business trip thing. Maybe he went off to Vegas to pay for that new Les Paul his wife bought him for Christmas! The show was a great deal of fun, as the intimate ones usually are.

In the studio!

This is going to be interesting! Susan Robkin and I are entering the studio this month to start on the new album. She and I are flying to Woodstock, NY to work with producer/guitarist Elliott Randall and the all-star lineup of musicians he has rounded up. Including one of my favorite bassists, Tony Levin (see this picture of me and him a long time ago). We will be working at Jerry Marotta's studio, and he will also be playing drums.

Sunday, February 2, 2003 Click here to see the photos!

Arriving in Woodstock.

Susan and I arrived in New York City (JFK) on Sunday afternoon. Susan's manager, John Velasco picked us up and drove us to Woodstock, about 2 ½ hours drive. He entertained us the whole way with stories about some major musical icons he has worked with in the past. We found our hotel, a bed and breakfast type place that really looks more like a motel. The place is empty, and we have to ring the doorbell to get the owner to come out of their house across the way to check us in. She directs us to a place to eat dinner (it was about 8:00), which John drove us to and headed back to the city. We enjoyed a delicious meal and took in the atmosphere. This place is cool, very artsy and lots of hippies. We called a cab to get back to the hotel, and the gentleman who picked us up was very nice and showed us where the natural foods store is. He also told us which pizza place is best.

Back in our room, which is actually a sort of "apartment" on the second floor of the house where the owners live, we discover something terrible, and yet wonderful at the same time. There is no phone. And no cell phone service. There is a pay phone booth in the parking lot, which I went to to call Pete to let him know we'd arrived, and that we didn't have a phone! Chilled out watching a movie starring Jack Black called "Shallow Hal" which was kind of enjoyable. Slept well. Elliott Randall, his wife Jane, Simon Hanhart our engineer and the keyboard player Chris are due to arrive at the hotel tomorrow morning.

Monday, February 3, 2003

Day 1 in the studio.

I don't know where to begin. Susan and I were not sure what time Elliott and co. would be arriving, and we contemplated walking to the store for some groceries. Figured as soon as we set off they would drive up, and in fact, they did. We met them driving in as we were walking out, and they stopped and I was introduced to Elliott and Jane and Simon. Elliott informed us the keyboardist Chris is very sick, so he lined up a guy called Kenny Ascher instead. He's played with James Taylor and Paul Simon and I don't know who else. I GUESS he'll do…!

When we got back it was finally time to head to the studio, which is owned by drummer Jerry Marotta and is called Jersville. Jerry himself came to pick us up. He's lived in Woodstock since the mid-eighties. His studio is right across town about 5 minutes drive. It's a house in which each room is part of the studio. The living room with a big picture window is the control room, a garage is the drum room, back bedroom house guitars and additional world percussion instruments. We walked into the control room and there is Tony Levin holding a Fender Jazz bass getting set up. I have to hold myself together…I was rather nervous being in a room with these people and having difficulty feeling normal. It got better, but I definitely had a few stutters before I got comfortable with everybody.

A word about who these people are: Elliott Randall is producing and playing guitar. He is well known for playing with Steely Dan in the seventies, and more Top-40 sessions and commercials than I even know. He is very down to earth and a bit of an old timer in that he has been in the music business a long long time, and has seen it all. His wife is Jane, and she is English. Very delightful lady!

On drums is Jerry Marotta. I know him as having played on all the older Peter Gabriel albums of which I am a huge fan, and lots of album sessions. His studio is very relaxing and comfortable. It's not a sterile sort of place, like big commercial studios. It's just like hanging out at someone's house. On the walls in every room are gold and platinum record awards for albums Jerry has worked on. Indigo Girls, Hall and Oates, 10,000 Maniacs, the list goes on.

Tony Levin is playing bass, at least for this week. I have long admired his work with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and numerous other sessions he's done, including with members of my favorite band, Yes. He is one of the most respected players and very in demand. I do consider him an influence on my playing, and greatly admire his ability to groove, play melodically and tastefully, and his phat tone. He is nominated for a Grammy this year, for his recent solo album that Jerry also played on.

On keys is Kenny Ascher, also a studio veteran. At this writing I don't know his background, but he talked about playing with Paul Simon on a gig with Tony (there was lots of reminiscing going on) and working with some major players and producers.

The engineer is Simon Hanhart who is also English and through sheer luck was able to rearrange his schedule to fly in for this project. His credits include Marillion and Asia, two of my very favorite bands. He's currently nominated for 5 Brit awards. He is very sweet. A guy named Pete is assisting, and is the regular engineer at Jersville.

So I'm sitting in a room with all these legendary people, hardly believing that we're really here. Every once in a while I'd look around, and see Tony Levin, who is SO recognizable, and just ask myself if this was really happening. The guys are trading stories about the sessions and gigs they've done, many of them with each other, and it was just a joy to hear them reminisce. We all talked about how much the industry has changed, and how music is so disposable these days, and how refreshing it is to have a group of musicians actually in a room together to play. Instead of one at a time.

The first song to work on was 13 Days. Elliott pulled out his famous Strat. I said, "ooh, it's the Strat!" and he immediately handed it to me to check out. I showed him the 13 Days riff, which nobody seems to be able to play properly but me. Tony walked over and played along a bit. That was kinda cool.

Once they got the sounds together, Elliott played the demo Susan had sent of us playing. Then they ran through the song a couple times. I was very pleasantly surprised to hear Tony play my bass line. I found out later he thought it was really good, and didn't want to change it. He complimented me on it, even. WOW. It's such an honor to have them play through a song that I wrote, and Elliott proposes something and then looks to me to make sure it's ok. We all talked a lot about arrangement stuff, and worked out things like the bridge and coming out of it and what exactly should be there. A few different things went on, and eventually what they ended up with was almost exactly what I first envisioned for that spot.

Simon proposed slowing the tempo down. They settled into a nice groove, then later when Susan went to sing along for the scratch vocal, it was too slow so they sped it up again. Jerry's drums sounded HUGE, and he did some really cool things. He played almost the exact same thing Pete was doing on the demo on the bridge. Kenny started out playing a very similar part to Dave Loy's part on the demo, but then Elliott had him change it a little. He also decided to lay out on the verse, then he got inspired by Susan lyric "don't you love this place in winter?" and threw in a flourish-y thing that was just perfect.

A few takes and they got it down. We took a break and they did a couple more takes. Then Simon and Elliott did some Protools editing while everybody hung around socializing and trading stories. Tony re-did a few bits, and then Elliott called it a day. Tomorrow we go in around 10:30-11:00 and begin the next song, which will be "Wonderful" (the song AND the day I'm sure!)

Elliott's vision for this project is all about vibe. It is so important to him to have musicians who jive together, and we are really getting that great feeling you get when the music just happens freely. Even though I am not playing, I am listening and watching and absorbing. It's just amazing, and as cool as I hoped it would be. The guys are sweet people and so warm and friendly. I think we got the vibe.

Tuesday, February 4, 2003

Day 2 in the studio

Long day, went from 11:00 am til almost 12 midnight. The guys laid down the basic tracks for "Wonderful" and "Surfacing To Breathe". There is just too much for me to remember about the day to write it all down. Just a great feeling from everyone. The musicians like the music, and are all very conscious about their parts and wanting them to work for the song.

Wonderful came together fairly easily, more on that later.

Surfacing To Breathe: Elliott played the demo, which was done in Pete's studio and Dave's in various sessions. I announced as it started playing that "a drummer wrote this tune". They all seemed sort of impressed…and all really liked the song, and the vibe of the demo. Especially Jerry. Tony asked me about how I played the bass pat on the intro, which I fingerpicked. He said "oh, well I'm not so good with my thumb, so I'll have to figure some other way to play it." He changed it to a kind of tapped thing, and it worked really well. He paid very close attention to my lines and complimented me on them. Later he actually thanked me for the great bass lines, saying it helps him a lot to not have to come up with something. This is about the most flattering thing someone of his stature could say, except maybe he could have suggested that I play them….but that wasn't to be! Not yet anyway.

Jerry liked the groove on the demo, and felt it important to get as close to that as possible. He said it almost could be the record but wasn't quite up to standards production-wise. They ran through it to get a tempo established, then Jerry wanted to make loops because it wasn't feeling right without a 16th note thing happening. So he took a "half hour" (translation: 2 hours) to make up a loop using his myriads of percussion instruments. It sounded KILLER. Then, when everybody played with that going, the groove really came together for the whole band. When they got a take that was fairly happening, Tony re-did his bass track all the way through to nail down a few things, and then later after he'd left, Jerry re-recorded his drum part. It locked together with the bass perfectly. Jerry thought the constant backbeat was too much, so he took some out during the verses so that when the chorus comes in it really has a nice impact.

In the course of the day, there are many breaks where everyone mills around chit chatting, getting to know each other (in my and Susan's case) or remembering old times (in everyone else's cases). We learned that Kenny co-wrote all of the songs from the Muppet Movie with Paul Williams. He also wrote a hit for Helen Reddy and has worked with so many great artists. Simon worked on some albums with Yngwie Malmsteen, and had a funny story about what a "joy" (wink wink!) he is to work with (Simon is English.)

Towards the end of the night, as it was getting late and the guys were listening back to the takes of Wonderful to decide which one to use, I started talking to Jerry about Peter Gabriel (it started because I brought up the "a one…two….one..two..four" count off he did at the beginning of "Games Without Frontiers" and Susan joined in when he brought up some bands he liked. Then he grabbed his CD case and paged through. Surprisingly, he pulled out a CD of Fiona and Kip Winger singing a duet called "You're Sexin' Me" that he decided to pop on for us all to hear. So we rocked out to that for a minute. I remember that song from years back when I worked at Strawberries in Boston used to listen to that stuff. Jerry exclaimed, "after hearing that, you won't have any trouble deciding which take to use!" Elliott decided to wait until tomorrow and he would put down a quick guitar track on the 2 most likely candidates and then choose which take worked best.

Lots of tea all day long courtesy of Susan and Jane, as well as healthy food for everyone to munch on.

Wednesday, February 5, 2003

Day 3 in the studio

Went in around 10:30 am and played back the 3 takes of "Wonderful" in order to choose which one to use. It was decided to edit a magical performance together out of the three. Some confusion arose in the process because 4 bars were added to the bridge after the first take and Simon got a little frustrated. Finally got it all sorted out and he did all the editing while the rest of us tried not to disturb him. Tony stopped in with his daughter Maggie to say hello, then were off again.

Kenny started on the keyboard overdubs beginning with "13 Days". Jerry fired up his old analog synths - a Prophet V and a VS (I think) and a few other more modern things. They fiddled around with sounds and Kenny came up with some marvelous stuff. Simon had lots of ideas for sounds too.

Jerry had brought his golden retriever, Beulah over. She is very cute and cuddly and has terrible doggy breath. But she is so cute and loveable. Pete was also there later with his little dog named Ralph.

Played back "Surfacing to Breathe" and Elliott and Kenny decided that nothing more need be added in the keyboard department. They are just flipping over that song. Moving on to "Wonderful", Kenny thought a sound like angelic voices might be nice for the choruses. Once again Jerry and Elliott collectively twisted knobs on the keyboards to find the perfect voice-like sound. What he ended up putting down really made the track so beautiful, and it's starting to sound very melancholy in a Genesis kind of way. Which I happen to love! All those minor 7ths.

When Kenny was finished and was picked up by Jerry and Tony's friend Doug to be driven back in to NYC. Doug was already driving in and offered the ride. We said our goodbyes as Simon was continuing to work on edits on the bass tracks and the new keyboard tracks. Soon after he needed a break, so we headed out to dinner at the Bear Café where Susan and I had eaten our first night here. It was Elliott, Jane, Simon, Susan and me. Jerry had gone home earlier, as had Pete (the local one). Had a delicious meal and lots of laughs. Got to know Simon a little more now that we could see his face! It's fun having English people around (that would be Simon and Jane) and hearing how they speak, I just love it.

Back to the studio for more editing and backing up, then it was time to crash so we could start fresh in the morning with guitar tracking.

Thursday, February 6, 2003

Day 4 in the studio

We surprised Jerry in the morning with a birthday cake since it was his birthday. He was appreciative. Started on guitar overdubs on "13 Days". In the afternoon Tony came by and gave us a picture he printed out of Susan and I on the couch. He had superimposed pictures of his 2 dogs on it so it looked like they were on the couch with us! So cute. He'd promised to bring the doggies by to meet us, but wasn't able to so he made that instead.

Elliott put some nice guitars on the track, and since it was a bit late in the day they wanted to start on the vocals so Susan wouldn't have to sing all three songs in one day. Simon wasn't happy with the mics in the studio, so the vocals Susan gets today and tomorrow will likely not be the finals.

A friend of Elliott and Jane's came up from NYC with some pizza from Manhattan which was heated up and enjoyed by all. Stayed at the studio til 12:30am.

One more day to go here, and we need vocals and guitars on two more songs, and percussion. Perhaps a tambourine on "13 Days"…

Friday, February 7, 2003

Day 5, last day in the studio

Last day to finish up guitar overdubs, percussion and vocals. Had enough time to do some guitars and percussion on "Wonderful". Elliott had to spend some time getting into the groove on "Wonderful". Finally just got it, then Jerry added some shakers and hand drums. The song has really become more of a ballad than it was. Before, it was a more funky kind of mid tempo thing. Now it's full of minor 7ths and getting kind of Genesis-y. Cool!

Susan cooked up a bunch of food, including her famous eggs and veggie sausage and yams. Or as Jane put it in her Yorkshire accent, "'avin' a fry-up". It was evening before Susan could do vocals, and by then there was a question of how best to spend the remaining few hours we had. Elliott decided to have Susan throw down the rest of the scratch vocals so at least she's have something to play for people for the time being.

Susan nailed "Wonderful" fairly quickly with 3 takes, and Simon edited pieces together (he calls it "sorting it out" - a.k.a assembling a comp track). On to "Surfacing", and went through a couple times before they called it done. Simon sorted it out then started on a rough mix. No time to lay down guitars on "Surfacing To Breathe", but it almost doesn't need any. Simon finished up the rough mixes, backed everything up, and burned a few CDs. It was 2:00am when we finished up and said our goodbyes to Jerry and his studio.

Saturday, February 8, 2003

Got to sleep in just a little, then had a last breakfast with Elliott, Jane and Simon. Discussed doing the rest of the project and when and how to proceed (yet to be determined.) Elliott wants me to play bass on the rest of the tracks, as does Simon. So there's that to look forward to. They got their car packed up and headed back to Manhattan with Simon who is staying at their apartment there. His flight back to London is Sunday morning. We plan to meet in NYC for dinner.

Susan and I walked into Woodstock to look in a few shops before our cab showed up to take us to the train station in Rhinecliff. Took the Amtrak into Manhattan, then a cab to our hotel. Whew, what a week. We chilled out for a bit, then waited in the lobby for Simon, Elliott and Jane to meet us for dinner. Wonderful meal at an Italian place nearby with the best chocolate mousse in the world. Really had a good time chatting and looking forward to more fun times together. Said goodbyes, and went back to our hotel.

Susan and I went to the hotel's club/bar on the top floor to get a drink. It was freakin' LOUD in there, people having to shout over the music, crowded, and the $8 per glass wine was bad. Nice view out the window. We tried to take our drinks down to our room in the elevator but the bounce caught us. When we did leave, a middle aged man in the elevator introduced himself to us saying he was a comedian.

Sunday, February 09, 2003

Slept in, then had breakfast at a Lindy's down the street. French toast for $10! Welcome to New York City. We walked around Times Square for a bit, bought a couple things, then later had dinner at the Playwright Café. Then back to the room to relax.

Tomorrow morning we meet with a lawyer friend of John's to play him the tunes. Then we come home in the late afternoon. We're tired and ready to go home! It's been an unbelievable little adventure, and well worth it. Can't wait to come back to Woodstock and finish the project, and have an amazing album to show for it. Rock on!

Friday, February 21, 2003
KUGS FM, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA
To promote our appearance at Stuart's on the 22nd, we did a little radio thing at the college station. Pete, Susan and I played 2 songs live on air, and they interviewed Susan. For the time being, since the band has no official guitarist, I am the guitar player. So I thought it was a good time to finally purchase a Taylor acoustic guitar that I've been wanting for ages. Pete is also playing some guitar, so we both played acoustics on the radio, which sounded just beautiful together. He played Susan's Taylor. In the interview, Susan touched on different topics, such as the new album in progress, her belly button, and that the audience could expect nudity and pets at the show.

Saturday, February 22, 2003
Stuart's Coffee, Bellingham, WA
At the moment the band is a four piece, with me on guitar or bass, Pete on guitar, bass or percussion (we switch off), and Dave on the piano. Susan plays acoustic guitar on one song. It's lots of fun to be multi-faceted like that. We just change instruments according to what works best for each song. Some are best with two guitars, some with bass, piano and percussion, etc. We had some friends join us for dinner at a Thai place across the street - 2 of the guys from the band M-Set, and a friend of Susan's who lives in the area. The show was much fun and the coffee was good.

Back in the studio!
Susan Robkin is continuing work on the new album in the studio. She is in Woodstock, NY working with producer/guitarist Elliott Randall and the all-star lineup of musicians he has rounded up. Including one of my favorite bassists, Tony Levin (see this picture of me and him a long time ago). We will be working at Jerry Marotta's studio, and he will also be playing drums. I'll be playing bass on 3 songs and spending just one day in the studio this time.

Click here to read about the previous sessions in Woodstock last month.

Friday, March 14, 2003
Jersville Studio, Woodstock, NY
I played on two songs for the upcoming Susan Robkin album, “Get Up, Go On” and “You Bother”. Susan and co. spent the whole week in the studio working on basic tracks. Playing previously during the week were guitarist/producer Elliott Randall, drummer and studio owner Jerry Marotta, keyboardists Kenny Ascher and Chris Palmero, and Tony Levin on bass. On Friday, it was just Elliott, Jerry and me. Simon Hanhart is the engineer. Had a great time with these guys, listening, learning, and playing. We first listened to the demos that were made with Susan’s band back in Seattle, then ran through the song until it was nailed down enough to do a few takes.

I was the only common denominator between the two groups of musicians between the demo and here in the studio, other than Susan obviously. It was an interesting challenge for me to be already intimately familiar with the songs, and yet needing to be open to any changes in arrangements, or to how my established bass part might work with Jerry playing instead of Pete. In a way, I had to forget what I already knew and approach each song from a fresh perspective. For the most part, things remained relatively similar but for a few refinements here and there to the dynamics and general groove. All in all, it went quite smoothly and I didn’t feel too intimidated!

There wasn’t enough time to do a third song that was originally planned, but there may be yet another session scheduled to record a couple more tracks. We’ll see what happens. Next to be done are guitar overdubs, then Susan’s final vocals. After that will be the mixing and mastering done by Simon.

Outside of the studio, Pete and I stayed in New York City for a few days and had a blast! Glad to be home though due to the recent world events. Let’s hope things end quickly so we can get on with being a nice peaceful human race like we’re supposed to be.

Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, WA
This was a lunchtime cafeteria gig for the students of ECC. Filling in on guitar was Nick Shelistack, who came to us through our friends in the band Honey Tongue. He did a great job having learned a setful of songs in about a week. The guy who set up the PA and ran sound was cool, and seemed to care whether we sounded good or not. Since we had a few extra minutes after finishing the set, Susan and I played a couple acoustic songs as a duo. We played “Breathe Her Air Again” and “Landslide”. I wasn’t expecting to play “Breathe…” and hadn’t rehearsed it lately, so I inadvertently did some reharmonizing on the fly…I don’t know if anybody noticed! I love my new Taylor acoustic. Susan played it on stage for our cover of Ani DiFranco’s “Independence Day” and it sounded beautiful. I think this gig would mark the first time Susan has played the guitar while standing! And an excellent job she did too. This is the last gig for the time being, while Susan’s album gets finished.

Thursday, July 31, 2003
Conor Byrne Pub, Seattle, WA

After a long time without being on a stage, my first gig was a fairly nice return, but not without it’s problems. It was with singer/guitarist Shawn Lentz. The drummer is Mark D. West. We were told by the owner as we were setting up that we would need to keep things quiet so as not to bother the neighbors. Apparently she wasn’t expecting bass and drums, which means either she never listened to Shawn’s demo or didn’t understand what she was hearing. Anyway, of course we promised to accommodate and Mark was already planning to play with rods to keep the volume down. I brought my standard set up, with only the one bass cabinet: the Bergantino HT322 which can be monstrously loud if I so choose….however this would not be the night to test the full 2000 watts I can produce. We were asked to quiet down twice during the set, and when we were finished the lady was upset we hadn’t played a full 3 hours. The reason for that was because the two other bands that were booked had cancelled the previous week, and no one else was booked. Shawn got it all worked out with her and we left happily. This was Shawn’s first gig in many years with a band, he has been performing as a solo acoustic artist and this was a new thing for him. It was a fun night with some new and fun people to share music with!

Saturday, August 23, 2003
The Lakepointe Bar & Grill, Kenmore, WA
(With The Safety Skirts – Lizzy on drums)

The Safety Skirts have been away from the stage for a mighty long time, while other things have been going on. Finally, a chance for us to rock out again and have a blast. The sound at the Lakepointe is usually pretty good. The sound guy had a little trouble with some feedback, that he finally figured out during the second song was Michele’s guitar amp mic. The amp was not quite loud enough, so the mic was too hot. Easy solution: turn up the amp! WOO HOO! My monitor wasn’t loud enough either, so I just heard a dull roar from the guitar and bass and played hoping they would play with me. I could generally hear them, but not the attacks of the notes. Sometimes I felt like I was playing a drum solo! Whee! And I didn’t have a blister at the end so I must be getting better as a player. Michele and Becca did great as they always do, and we collectively get better each time we play. I am always so impressed with Becca’s melodic bass playing, and her backup vocals are creative. Michele writes some darn good songs too – we did one brand new song called “Genius Three” that seemed to go over well.

Sunday, August 17, 2003
The Central Saloon, Seattle, WA (w/Yogi & Half Zaftig)

This show was the debut of the current lineup of Yogi & Half Zaftig. The Yogi in the name refers to Yogi, the singer/guitarist/writer (real name: Shawn Farley) who has released two solo albums and whose music we perform. In this band I play guitar and Pete plays drums. On bass is Brian Timpe. We all had a blast at the show, and felt comfortable on stage together. Unfortunately not many were there to see it, because it was Sunday night and we began our set at about 12:30am, 1 hour later than originally scheduled. The booker had the bands spaced apart by only 15 minutes, which is not nearly enough time to change over all the equipment. Oh well, we had a small devoted audience consisting of the bar staff, and the members of the band Charlie Drown with whom Pete is also playing. As I’ve noted before, playing guitar on stage really loud is an entirely different set of skills to master than playing bass. There’s the feedback for one thing, which is so much fun but I must be careful to keep it under control and only let it get crazy when needed. I had no problem with it at the show. I also have a nice collection of pedals to play with, so there is some choreography to practice to step on things at precisely the right moment. I missed in a few spots, but did really well with it overall. Yogi and Brian were excited to play with Pete at full stage volume. In rehearsal Pete is contained within a room and piped out the PA so we can keep our volume down. The guys were not used to Pete’s full on intensity, which is a sound to behold. It was a great time, and I am so looking forward to doing lots more with this group. I love it! There are two video clips at the Half Zaftig web site to see, click here.

Thursday, August 7, 2003
Big Daddy’s, Woodinville, WA (w/Shawn Lentz)

Gig #2 with Shawn Lentz. I brought my whole rig only to find out the club has a house bass rig and even a drum kit. They also have a couple basses and guitars hanging on the walls. The rig for bass was an Ashdown head and two 15” Bag End cabs. Not bad, but since I had brought my stuff and haven’t had much chance to gig live with the Bergantino cab, I insisted on using my rig. If we play there again I will save myself the trouble and use the house rig. This show was a bit different than the one last week, since there was no volume restriction. Great for me and Mark to cut loose a bit, but that gave Shawn some trouble in hearing his guitar and vocal. The very nice soundman suggested next time not setting the vocal up right in front of the drums. Poor Shawn really had a battle hearing himself. I say that’s all in the fun – sometimes it sounds like crap but you still gotta play. It’s one of those challenges of live playing. Personally, I performed better this time, but am still using my charts as a crutch. If we do more gigs I will break away from them eventually.

Friday, September 26, 2003
Suite G, Seattle, WA (with Sean Philbin Band)
Sean called me two nights before this one, to ask if I could play if I learned a couple more songs. I said yes, and we had a meeting the night before for him to show me the other tunes. I recorded him playing them acoustically and spent the whole day listening to them while packing things getting ready to move, but in the end we only did one of the new (to me) songs in addition to the set we played at the Showbox last week (well, plus the two songs that got cut from that set). The added song went pretty well, the other guys hadn’t rehearsed it either so they were a little rusty. I hadn’t actually played through it on the bass, I just listened to Sean’s solo acoustic rendition to get it into my head. Then I made up my part right there on stage.

Suite G is a brand new club in Fremont, it just opened a couple weeks ago. They installed a new PA the day of this show, so we were in fact the first band to test out the new system. It sounded pretty darn good, nice monitors, decent sized stage and a skilled soundman as well. I played through my Bergantino 322 cab, the big one, and it was perfect. After the first song some guy came up to me on stage and told me to turn up the bass. I really don’t like when people do that….I was plenty loud for my own monitoring on stage AND I was running through the PA mic’d and DI’d. We had no sound check, and it is the soundman’s job to make the bass loud enough, which he got around to eventually. If I just crank my amp up it makes his job harder. Give the guy a chance - it’s not going to be perfect on the the first song. Anyway, we played great and had a good time. I like playing with these guys, very talented players and the music is good. We didn’t have a big crowd, just walk ins. Two days isn’t enough time to get people to come to a show. There was another band playing after us, but I don’t know what they were called.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Rock Bottom, Bellevue, WA (with Paul Hanover)
I have played at the Rock Bottom many times, this time it was a sort of “private party” as a benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. They had a table set up outside during the day taking donations, and giving out tickets to come up to the party and enjoy drinks and food (and music). Paul’s friends Twirl played an hour set, then Pete and I joined Paul for his hour set of originals and a few covers. We’d only had one rehearsal with Paul last week, then played a gig the following night, and I hadn’t had much chance to get this material under my fingers so I was referring to my notes a bit too much. We played to a small crowd mostly made up of appreciative friends, and at the end we were joined onstage by Clint (from Twirl) and Angie to sing backups on our cover of Sublime’s “What I Got”.

Saturday, September 20, 2003
The Showbox, Seattle, WA (with Sean Philbin Band)
This was a highlight for me. I have seen many shows at this fantastic venue: Cheap Trick, Heart, They Might Be Giants, even my old college roommate Kami Lyle when she was on tour a few years back. Great stage, sound, and crew. It was really exciting to play a place with the reputation the Showbox has. Nice backstage area with drinks provided and it made us feel pretty rock star-ish. Gotta love that! I stood in the same position on stage as Heart's Nancy Wilson, one of my idols, last time I saw her and Ann with the Lovemongers there. Needless to say, that made me happy.

Sean Philbin called me a few weeks before, needing a bassist for this gig. His regular bassist was unavailable. I said ok, and we had a few rehearsals. Sean’s music is similar to Bruce Springsteen, great songwriting and very simple yet effective arrangements. I had some notes on my set list so I’d remember what key we were in and whether to play on the intro or not. Even sang a few backups. Pete took a few pics. I brought my full rig with both Bergantino cabs, something I have only ever done once since I’ve had them. I think I may have been a little loud on stage but it sure sounded nice! We played well, but had to cut a couple songs because they only gave us a half hour set. No complaints from us….we were glad to be there and probably brought the smallest crowd. We played first so we even had a good sound check. Pete says we sounded great in the club. The other bands were cool too - Will Wakefield, and 3 Shades of Gray were after us. A fun night, and I hope to play more with Sean if he needs me again. The other guys in the band, drummer Greg and guitarist Bruce were a real pleasure to play with.

Friday, September 19, 2003
Victor’s Coffee Co. (with Paul Hanover)
Paul Hanover is a singer/songwriter who called me and Pete asking if we could play with him for some gigs. We had one rehearsal, and at that rehearsal he said “what are you guys doing tomorrow night?”. We had planned to rehearse again, but since Paul was asked by Victor’s to fill in last minute for a cancelled artist, it turned into a gig. Had some nice Thai food before hand, and then a relaxing one hour acoustic set at Victor’s. We have played there a few times with Susan Robkin to great enjoyment, so it was like home in a way. Paul’s songs offer a good stylistic variety, where some songs are a reggae feel, some straight up rock, some country, and a little hip hop thrown in. We cover Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”. Pete plays hand percussion and snare drum. Next week we will play at the Rock Bottom in Bellevue, another of our old haunts with Susan.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003
The Fenix Underground (with Yogi & Half Zaftig – Lizzy on guitar)
What a cool club the Fenix is. Since the original Fenix’s destruction in Seattle’s 2001 earthquake (to which Pioneer Square was especially vulnerable), they have moved into another building and done it up real nice. It’s very new and clean, and the loading door is 2 feet from the stage. We played first, which meant we got to load directly onto the stage and get set up. The bands following us then put their amps up next to ours, to speed up the changeover. We did a quick sound check with the very nice people there. I snapped a couple pictures while we sound checked (Pete and Brian Timpe and Yogi).

I brought my brand new purple guitar I built from Carvin’s kit (see the process here) to play that night. We use some different tunings in the set, so I need at least two guitars. One in standard, one dropped a half step plus the low string is down a whole step further, like drop D but actually drop D flat. Usually I use my Carvin AE185 for the standard songs, and on one (“You Fell”) I play in drop D and just retune one string. Since I decided to use the new Carvin bolt guitar on our standard tuning songs, and it has a semi-floating tremolo on it, tuning even just one string would throw it all too far out of whack and take me too long to get it right in time for the next song. So I used the AE185 for the opening drop D song, and switched to the new Bolt for the rest of the standards. I love this guitar! I finished building it just in time for our rehearsal the night before, and deemed it suitable for the gig. We switch halfway through the set to the drop D flat, which I use Pete’s Strat for.

The show went really well, but there was a fan somewhere causing a breeze on stage. This made my hair get in my face and that can be annoying when I need to see which channel my amp is on. At one point I was on the clean channel when it should have been the distortion and it was hard to hear with all the din going on. But we played well over all, and that makes Yogi very happy. I really dig playing great music with these guys on stage, and that makes ME happy! Yogi is going on a long road trip next month, so we are taking a break and should start up gigging again in November.

Friday, October 3, 2003
Raging River Saloon, Fall City, WA with Steve Power Band
Steve Power is a great blues guitarist and singer who called us up to back him up. He's very much in the vein of Stevie Ray Vaughan. We had a few rehearsals and played 3 sets worth of fun blues covers. Some classic rock and funk-blues too. Kind of a weird audience...nobody danced to James Brown's "Sex Machine" but they were all going crazy for Jimi Hendrix and Bo Diddley. Go figure! Then when we finished and started packing up people were yelling at us to play more. Just goes to show "you cain't never tell"!

Friday, October 17th, 2003
Redhook Brewery, Woodinville, WA with Steve Power Band
This went much better than the last one, crowd-wise. We had people dancing from the get go, and enjoying themselves all night. Steve got sax player Joey, who we'd seen both with Radiostar and Scream Radio, to play with us. He played great, and it was wonderful to have another soloist on board for variety and to play off of. Great fun and no problems all night.

Saturday, November 22, 2003
Cole’s Oasis, Tacoma, WA with Steve Power Band
Our third gig with Steve and I was expecting the worst possible venue…full of drunk bikers fighting in front of the stage and throwing beer bottles at us (think Blues Brothers). Well, it wasn’t that way at all. Not a full club, but the evening was attended by some friends in the form of Charlie Drown and band, guitarist Kull and bassist Hodgy. They also brought 2 more friends. The evening went pretty well, but having not done a lot of gigs lately my Jazz bass was rather heavy on my shoulder and started to hurt part way into the 3rd set. About that time Steve had his own problems and had to take a quick break for some Tums. See, it’s not all glorious rock stardom for the working musician. He made it through the last set and we packed up, got paid and went for the old 2:00 am Denny’s (minus Steve). It was one of those “don’t play too loud” gigs, which makes things less dynamic than they should be. It’s hard to build up a great blues guitar solo when the ceiling of loudness is so low and there’s nowhere to go. It’s just one of those things we must deal with and keep the club patrons and owners happy!

Sunday, December 14, 2003
Central Saloon, Seattle, WA with Half Zaftig
Sunday nights are tough. Nobody wants to go out (I can’t sayI blame them) to hear live music, not after 9. At least we weren’t the last band this time! We played first. I got a Boss GT-6 multi-effects pedal that I had yet to try on stage, so this was the big test. There are different ways to use it in conjunction with an amp, and I had only been able to run at full volume at two rehearsals. It needs a lot of tweaking to make it most effective, and being in apartment I don’t have a place to crank up anymore. Makes gear testing a bit difficult. I’m fairly happy with it so far, but I seem to have trouble being loud enough for people to hear me. I shall endeavor to be loud from now on…

Anyway, the gig went well, but we each had our moments of “not quite right” during the set. I was worrying about my sound, Brian was very tired (his 3rd gig in 3 nights) Yogi was feeling a little off, and Pete felt slightly uninspired. It happens, and you have to play anyway and do the best you can. Nonetheless, we had some great moments, because we enjoy playing together very much. Yogi. Brian and Pete are rock solid musicians that make playing fun, even when it’s not quite right. There’s something wonderful about looking at my fellow musicians on stage and sharing a glance or a moment of musical bliss that makes all the trouble worthwhile.

Friday, December 12, 2003
Redhook Brewery, Woodinville, WA with Steve Power Band
Our second gig at the Redhook, this time we were able to get set up and started on time. We were able to get a decent balance between us, and Steve ran his guitar through the monitor so I could hear him better without him having to crank his amp louder and deafening the audience in the process. Folks were pretty quiet during the first set, but in the second there some that got up to dance. By the end of the night, they were really getting into it and so were we. Sometimes when there’s not much reaction from the crowd it’s hard for us to get into it. Simon and Marcelle and her sister Denise were there for a little while to see us, it was great to have friends in the audience. Since we only did two sets my shoulder didn’t hurt at the end. Picked up a couple 6 packs of Redhook at half price too.

And that's going to wrap it up for this year. Good riddance to 2003, I say. It has been a stressful, difficult year for me in many respects. Onward and upward!

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