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Someday there will be pictures

Gaolee

Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Jan 13, 2010
24,734
172,075
Seattle, Great North Wet
But not today. So more non-existence. It's a skill that takes time to perfect.

This show was on the upright with a guitarist and singer. We played old blues, R&B, and pop songs from the 1930s up to about 1973, with a couple Patsy Cline songs thrown in just for good measure.

The venue is a place called Capitol Cider in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. Unlike Cliff's gigs, getting there wasn't an issue, but parking sure was. I got very lucky and found street parking that my van fit into right across the street from the venue. We hadn't played there before, so I got there a little early to find out where to go, where to load, and all that. The stage was downstairs. The bass is bulky but light, and all the rest of my gear is pretty lightweight. I took the Carvin combo and the extension cabinet, not the big ol' 360. It would have been a challenge to get the big one down the steps.

The minimal amount of setup we needed to do took about ten minutes, which left another 40 minutes or so before showtime. The sound guy turned up about 20 minutes before we were supposed to start, and had us dialed in almost immediately. He was amazing. I haven't ever been able to play the upright at that volume and seismic level without getting brutal feedback. The good thing is that it sounded fantastic. The bad thing is that every clam I hit all night was like a semi-truck driving through a bedroom. It's incentive to have good intonation.

I was surprised at the number of people who turned up. The place wasn't packed, but it was certainly full, and on a Wednesday night. It's a night club type setup, with a decent sized raised stage. The audience is at tables with chairs and some booths. Dancing isn't likely, but we had people participating by the end of the first set. Getting a place rocking with an upright bass and sparse, BB King inspired electric guitarist was a pretty big surprise to me, but it happened. Ooh Pah Pah Doo gets spelled differently, depending on whose version you look up. Spelling doesn't matter so long as the audience gets into it. But, no it didn't, since I don't have pictures.

After two sets that ran about an hour and ten minutes each, the evening was done and we packed up. I was even happier to have the little Carvin rig instead of the big folded horn when carrying everything back up the stairs. Parking across the street meant that it took hardly any time to load out. That left time to go back down for a post-playing beer.

But, I didn't have fun, since the gig didn't happen. No pictures means this post doesn't even exist. You are imagining reading it.
 
You know, I think I prefer this style of non-gig report to the likes of BassCliff's epic adventures.
This way, without the pictures, we get to imagine the whole night for ourselves ... as indeed you clearly have in describing the whole non-event anyway !
 
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Hi,

Yes, I can imagine this grand spectacle in my head and enjoy it over and over with many variations. It's quite refreshing compared my my "what you see is what you get" gigs. ;)

I'm glad you had a good evening. I like getting to a new place early too, just in case. I've played an upright on a gig, but never all night. I'll keep plucking around with it and maybe someday I'll be brave enough. :)


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff
 
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You know, I think I prefer this style of non-gig report to the likes of BassCliff's epic adventures.
This way, without the pictures, we get to imagine the whole night for ourselves ... as indeed you clearly have in describing the whole non-event anyway !
Well, I haven't quite got to the level of playing places like he does anyway, so fewer pictures means you can make things far greater than they really are. We were playing in a basement under a restaurant. Just saying.
Good practice for your novel, I could almost see me being there (with a hot chick):thumbsup:
There were a few hot chicks there. Aside from the singer (who is 61 and a hot chick), the guitarist's daughter and a drummer I played with for a number of years were there. So, if you were there, you would have been there with several hot chicks. You might not have known them, but that's just details. There's a picture of the drummer somewhere floating around in some thread. There were also some other very pretty women in the audience that I didn't recognize form anywhere. Young is a relative thing. I'm married, harmless, and old, but I'm also still male and not dead, so I notice these things.
Hi,
I've played an upright on a gig, but never all night. I'll keep plucking around with it and maybe someday I'll be brave enough. :)
I got no doubts that you could play an upright all night if you play one at all. I love playing it, because it's so physical. Bashing around on the big ol' doghouse makes my CroMagnon heart sing. I even feel properly prehistoric playing with a bow. That didn't happen last night, but when it does, my knuckles still drag on the ground. I gotta say, feeling the stage shake when I played was a whole lot of fun. Being able to hear my little intonation mistakes so clearly was sobering. Even though I was under the influence of Rock Star ego booster and talent juice but no alcohol of any kind until after the show was over. When we played the more energetic songs, I got to really rip into it, and the combination of the audience and really good sound was a lot of fun. The dirty little secret is that I had a whole lot more fun than the audience did. That's how it always is. Don't tell anyone.
 
Dunno if this will work, but if it does, then it might have happened. A little of it. This is a really slow version of the song and it got cut off, but it's all I got from Wednesday night.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Our singer apparently morphs into some kind of glowing blue Sci Fi character when there's a camera. Actually, it's a Heil Fin microphone, but it sure looks odd.
 
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