Had a very busy Saturday with Walkin' The Dawg. Sorry no pictures - forgot my phone at home. Both locations are repeats for me, so no new images to share anyway.
We had booked our afternoon gig a few months ago, but then we got a text from BL asking if we were up to play an earlier show as well. We all said yes, so the long day was booked.
We started the day at Denio's Farmers Market in Roseville. I've played there twice before (in fact actually opened their season this year with another band) so I knew the routine very well. The only thing that makes this gig worth it to me is the nice stage and built in sound guy. It pay is crap and there is typically mostly a very transient audience, so not a lot of love.
The last few weeks had been exceptionally nice weather for us: sunny and in the 65 neighborhood (even hit 70 on Thursday), but on Friday the fog rolled in and it really hasn't left yet. The result of the fog is a big drop in temperature and it was a cold one for us. I know a lot of you folks have real winters and me complaining about 53 degree gig is a joke to you. But we were all pretty cold for the entire 2 hour gig. It's very possible that this will have been the last show for the year there.
My only real drama was that I had trouble hearing my bass on stage. While warming up it felt loud, but when we all got to playing, my amp seemed to lose most of the volume - I even had my amp pushing my 400 watt cab too hard and it was still not loud enough (3 feet behind me). I can only guess that something (guitar amp/monitor) was canceling it out. So I found myself really over playing and in the cold, my hands were already hurting - an I had 5 hours of music ahead of me. Luckily, I was able to lighten up for the next gig and it wasn't an issue. No other drama or anything of note to report.
We did have our full band in place for this gig: LS, BL/LS/G1, LS/G2, KB, Bass Drums. We sounded pretty good despite the cold. BL is getting more comfortable with our new LS, that he mostly let him call out songs. That made things a little smoother not having to deal with BL's stutter. I still wish we had some sort of plan, but BL really likes to just wing it. We made the mistake of asking the 4 people what they wanted us to play (as a joke) and of course, "FREEBIRD!" guy was one of the 4, so we closed with Freebird. At least the guy who yelled it out stuck around for the whole song.
This gig is odd in that we play for an hour, take an hour break and then play another hour. Because we had a very short window between gigs and there was really nobody paying much attention, we managed to cut our break to 30 minutes and get done 30 minutes early. We packed up and got escorted out of the market in record time and made the 45 minute drive to West Sac to set up for our 4-8 gig at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill. We played there as a trio about 6 weeks ago. They loved us so much that they booked us for another 3 gigs including Saturday's Christmas Party.
I was sure we'd be running late or barely hit the time, but we actually had almost an hour to kill and we actually started early. The KB player doesn't do bars, so were just a 5 piece for this gig. Again, a small, but very enthusiastic crowd. Lot's of banter between the stage and the frontlines and everyone was having a good time.
Again, no drama or anything that really stood out. We did do another new song together for the first time ("Come As You Are", Nirvana) and pulled it off nicely. I have no idea how the BL feels that fits in with our other songs, but it was received well. We also did a couple of Elvis songs on request. "Hound Dog" and "Blue Suede Shoes" are really easy to fake through and they loved it. We did have one lady ask us to play some Tower of Power.
Us: "Sorry, we don't know any TOP."
Her: "But you played those Elvis songs that you 'didn't know'?!"
Us: "Sorry, that's a whole different animal."
Her: "Well learn some TOP for next time!"
Kinda tough to pull off most TOP songs without horns. There's a few I can imagine working and would love to infuse some TOP into one of my bands, but I doubt the BL will even consider it. He likes what he likes.
We wrapped up at 7:45, very tired and expecting the next day to be brutal on my legs and feet. I took a couple of ibuprofen before I went to bed and actually wasn't too hobbled yesterday - actually got a lot done on my kitchen remodel project!
This gig wraps up my bookings for the year. I wouldn't mind it if a sub gig were to pop up, but as of now, our next gig is back at the Lighthouse on New Year's Day for what I'm calling a "Hair of Walkin' the Dawg" party. Another early gig (2-6). It'll be interesting to see what the crowd is like - I expect that the regulars will be tearing it on on NYE. But these people are professional bar-flies, so it'll probably be hopping!
We had booked our afternoon gig a few months ago, but then we got a text from BL asking if we were up to play an earlier show as well. We all said yes, so the long day was booked.
We started the day at Denio's Farmers Market in Roseville. I've played there twice before (in fact actually opened their season this year with another band) so I knew the routine very well. The only thing that makes this gig worth it to me is the nice stage and built in sound guy. It pay is crap and there is typically mostly a very transient audience, so not a lot of love.
The last few weeks had been exceptionally nice weather for us: sunny and in the 65 neighborhood (even hit 70 on Thursday), but on Friday the fog rolled in and it really hasn't left yet. The result of the fog is a big drop in temperature and it was a cold one for us. I know a lot of you folks have real winters and me complaining about 53 degree gig is a joke to you. But we were all pretty cold for the entire 2 hour gig. It's very possible that this will have been the last show for the year there.
My only real drama was that I had trouble hearing my bass on stage. While warming up it felt loud, but when we all got to playing, my amp seemed to lose most of the volume - I even had my amp pushing my 400 watt cab too hard and it was still not loud enough (3 feet behind me). I can only guess that something (guitar amp/monitor) was canceling it out. So I found myself really over playing and in the cold, my hands were already hurting - an I had 5 hours of music ahead of me. Luckily, I was able to lighten up for the next gig and it wasn't an issue. No other drama or anything of note to report.
We did have our full band in place for this gig: LS, BL/LS/G1, LS/G2, KB, Bass Drums. We sounded pretty good despite the cold. BL is getting more comfortable with our new LS, that he mostly let him call out songs. That made things a little smoother not having to deal with BL's stutter. I still wish we had some sort of plan, but BL really likes to just wing it. We made the mistake of asking the 4 people what they wanted us to play (as a joke) and of course, "FREEBIRD!" guy was one of the 4, so we closed with Freebird. At least the guy who yelled it out stuck around for the whole song.
This gig is odd in that we play for an hour, take an hour break and then play another hour. Because we had a very short window between gigs and there was really nobody paying much attention, we managed to cut our break to 30 minutes and get done 30 minutes early. We packed up and got escorted out of the market in record time and made the 45 minute drive to West Sac to set up for our 4-8 gig at the Lighthouse Bar and Grill. We played there as a trio about 6 weeks ago. They loved us so much that they booked us for another 3 gigs including Saturday's Christmas Party.
I was sure we'd be running late or barely hit the time, but we actually had almost an hour to kill and we actually started early. The KB player doesn't do bars, so were just a 5 piece for this gig. Again, a small, but very enthusiastic crowd. Lot's of banter between the stage and the frontlines and everyone was having a good time.
Again, no drama or anything that really stood out. We did do another new song together for the first time ("Come As You Are", Nirvana) and pulled it off nicely. I have no idea how the BL feels that fits in with our other songs, but it was received well. We also did a couple of Elvis songs on request. "Hound Dog" and "Blue Suede Shoes" are really easy to fake through and they loved it. We did have one lady ask us to play some Tower of Power.
Us: "Sorry, we don't know any TOP."
Her: "But you played those Elvis songs that you 'didn't know'?!"
Us: "Sorry, that's a whole different animal."
Her: "Well learn some TOP for next time!"
Kinda tough to pull off most TOP songs without horns. There's a few I can imagine working and would love to infuse some TOP into one of my bands, but I doubt the BL will even consider it. He likes what he likes.
We wrapped up at 7:45, very tired and expecting the next day to be brutal on my legs and feet. I took a couple of ibuprofen before I went to bed and actually wasn't too hobbled yesterday - actually got a lot done on my kitchen remodel project!
This gig wraps up my bookings for the year. I wouldn't mind it if a sub gig were to pop up, but as of now, our next gig is back at the Lighthouse on New Year's Day for what I'm calling a "Hair of Walkin' the Dawg" party. Another early gig (2-6). It'll be interesting to see what the crowd is like - I expect that the regulars will be tearing it on on NYE. But these people are professional bar-flies, so it'll probably be hopping!
But outdoor gigs have been done for awhile here anyway. 
