I'm playing with Melissa Reaves (http://melissareaves.com/index.php) tonight in Blacksburg at Awful Arthur's, starts at 9 PM. I've never met her, never rehearsed with her... so it should be an interesting and challenging evening. She's got a hell of a voice in a Janis Joplin sort of vein. And she can scat like nobody's business. Check out the scatting that starts around 2:40 into "Think You Need Love" (http://www.rocketmusic.net/SoundClips/ThinkYouNeedLove.mp3).

Even better news is my buddy George Penn (now with The Sol Creech Band (http://www.solcreechband.com/)) will be on the skins. He and I played together for years in The Electric Woodshed, so that'll be like puttin' on an old pair of shoes. So the drums and bass will be tight... I don't know about anything else :eyebrow:

Personally, I'm stoked to have the need to pull out my big rig. I haven't used my power amp & speaker cabs live for the past 2-3 years. With The Kind, we all use preamps and go direct into the PA. Sometimes I miss having my ears ringing at 2 AM :bassist:

I use an Alembic F1X preamp and Crest CA6 power amp (2 x 600W) into Genz-Benz 115-XB2 and 410-XB2 cabs. The F1X has a crossover, so I send the lows (usually 150 Hz and below) to the 115. I usually run the 410 full range since that's what I mainly hear when I'm planted in front of the rig. But I'll run the 410 with 150 Hz and above on larger stages, if I can get away from the rig a bit.

The overall effect is pretty impressive. The 410 runnning full range sounds great by itself, but then I bring up the 115 cab's level to reinforce the lows... holy smokes, it slams!!!

Last time I really cranked the whole rig, I was using my Alembic and no pedals. Now I've got my modified Warwick Thumb NT and my big-ass pedal board... it's gonna be a "ho' nova level".

Wow - not that sounds cool!

Have a blast!

Awesome. It'll rock man, don't worry. :D

Cool - just met Melissa. Oh, yeah, we'll be fine... she's super chill, but she obviously takes her role as a band leader seriously (so there should be cues applenty).

I also just learned that another buddy, Mike Kirby, will be playing guitar. Mike and George were together in The Yams From Outer Space for 10+ years. George is a great drummer, HUGE pocket. And Mike is absolutely INSANE on guitar. Jimmy Page meets Jeff Beck meets EVH. I'll do my best Entwistle, and it'll come out just fine.

Melissa also said something that really put me at ease. She had emailed me a dozen songs to listen to, originals and highly stylized covers (she really makes a song her own, like Joe Cocker)... Anyway, I tell her I've been listening to them all week, and she says "hopefully we'll play at least 3 of those" :) My current band is exactly the same way - we'll rehearse a bunch of songs, then we get to the gig and play a completely different set. We'll whip out songs we've never even played before, sometimes it's great, sometimes it's a trainwreck. But damn it's fun to have to rely on your ears to keep everything on track, and to do it with a group of people who don't freak out when things go in a different direction.

Tonight should be a ball.

Ahhh blacksburg.
VaTech 1994

I miss the old Balcony bar (changed to Top of the Stairs and god knows what now) and nickel beers.

Hey - I got my BSEE in '92 and my MSEE in '95... I was in The Cool Grape Goodness around that time, then The Electric Woodshed.. were you in a band back then that I might recognize?

Those were indeed some terrific years... and I remember at least 30% of it all :)