Gig Report - 9/22/2024 - Kinda Sorta at NeWorlDeli

Danny O Danny

Supporting Member
Nov 6, 2015
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Georgetown, TX
kindasortaband.com
My wife (who plays piano) and I started our band Kinda Sorta, in 2018, in Seattle. Two years ago we moved to Austin (to be closer to family), spent a year getting settled in and then revived the band a year ago. We play all original Americana music, most of it written by my wife and/or me. I sing about 75% of the lead vocals, she the other 25%.

We recently decided to downsize the band from a quintet (piano, bass, two guitarists and a drummer) to a trio (piano, guitar/mandolin, bass). One of the reasons is the hope that having a smaller stage footprint will provide us with access to more venues. Since moving to Austin my perception has become that it's a great town for cover bands (tons of bars with country, blues and classic rock bands down on "dirty" 6th Street), and also a great town for solo singer-songwriters, but it's a tough town for bands playing original music. As a trio, we figure we can get into many of the "singer-songwriter" venues that have small stages. Sunday was the debut of our trio format, after taking a couple of months to re-do our arrangements.

The venue was NeWorlDeli in Austin, TX. NeWorlDeli is a funky and venerable spot that makes great sandwiches (best Reuben I've had in Texas) and is very supportive of original music--mostly singer-songwriters. They also do poetry readings and whatnot. The stage is adequate for 3 or 4 people (as long as they don't mind rubbing shoulders).

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They have a small house PA, but I opted to bring our Bose F1 system, since I already had our mix pre-configured in our Behringer XR-18 mixer, which I can tweak on the fly from an iPad. We use IEMs, so there are no speakers onstage. I run my Reverend Dub King bass through a Cali 76 compressor into my beloved Demeter 400D amp, using the built-in DI out to the mixer. I've also got an MXR octave pedal on my pedalboard, which I only use on one song, and an EBS reverb pedal which I currently don't use at all (but it's nice when I play fretless).

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This was a low pressure gig, a good opportunity to road test our new configuration, which is reliant on one guitarist/mandolinist and no drummer. For now it's going to work fine, although I would love to find a 4th member to play cajon and other light percussion--in venues where the stage size permits.

I can get our PA and monitor system, my wife's digital piano, tubs of cables, my amp and bass, mic stands, and various other odds and ends, in the back of our 2013 Toyota RAV4. The guitarist transports his gear. I'm very grateful for how much more compact and lightweight band equipment has gotten. My wife and I have been around long enough to remember schlepping a Yamaha CP-70 stage piano, and an Ampeg SVT bass rig and PA speakers the size of washing machines. :laugh:

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After loading up the car at home, then loading into the venue, setting everything up, playing for two hours, tearing down, loading out, and then loading back in at home, I was beat. I absolutely love the performing part, but lately I feel like I'm getting too old for the rest of it. We need to find a strapping young roadie. Since both the pianist and the guitarist prefer to play seated, I'm playing seated too (I figured it would look goofy if I were the only one standing), which does take some of the load off my body. I luvs my Dub King. I've got three of them (two fretted, one converted to fretless). I find them extremely comfortable to play and their sound is perfect for the type of music that we do. I generally use just the neck pickup and roll the tone all the way off. On a few songs I roll the tone up and play with a pick, palm-muting to get a nice "thumpy-clicky" sound. On a couple of our jazzier songs I roll back to the bridge pickup (tone off) to cut through.

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We were scheduled to play on Sunday from 2-4pm. The venue opened at 11am, and we got there at 11:30. I don't like to eat before playing, and was busy setting up, so I didn't order any food (which would have been complimentary). They close at 5pm on Sunday, which gave us an hour to tear down and load out--so I didn't have time to eat after either. A real shame, because I love their sandwiches. My wife and I made up for it by treating ourselves to a nice meal after we got home.

Here's a video from the gig of one of our songs, called Pontchartrain.



For our maiden voyage as a trio, we're very happy with how it went. This coming Saturday we'll be performing at Opa Coffee & Wine Bar in Austin.