previous		table of contents		next

Rick's Rap   - January 2004

      01/02/04

      Barb and I took a drive up to Golden's Sports Bar to put up some posters. Nice Place. Easy parking, easy access, although if you aren't looking for it you'd probably never stumble across it. I'd like to get on the regular rotation there. The guy's looking for 15 regular bands, each playing once a week, so it would be about once every three months. I noticed the Nighthawks are playing there this month, so it's probably a pretty popular place. The first time we'll need to bring in a fairly good contingent of our own crowd, so I'm hoping everyone in the band puts the bite on their friends. I'll post detailed directions on the schedule page sometime soon.

      01/03/04 - Dead Gig #8

      Buffalo Billiards - Gaithersburg, MD

Set 1		Set 2		Set 3		Set 4
Alabama Getaway Bad Moon Risin' Mama Tried Honky Tonk Beat It On Down The Line Stormy Monday One More Saturday Night Tequila Sunrise		Big Boss Man Promised Land Already Gone It Hurt's Me Too Good Lovin' Third Rate Romance Not Fade Away   / I Know You Rider   / GDTRFB		Suzie Q Friend of the Devil Big Railroad Blues Franklins Tower Peaceful Easy Feelin' Eyes Of The World Jack Straw		Johnny B. Goode U.S. Blues Ship Of Fools Next Time You See Me The Way You Do The Things You Do Evangeline Must Have Been The Roses It's All Over Now

      I pulled into the parking lot at about 7:15. I parked and figured before I went to all the work of unloading, I'd just drift inside and verify that they're actually expecting us to play. So just as I'm getting out of my van, this guy, young fella coming from the direction of the bar, says "Hey, are you in the band?" I say "Yeah." He says "What era Dead you guys play?" I say "Right now mostly late 60's, early to mid 70's." He says "Great! I'll be back later. I'm on my to get a Steal Your Face tatoo." I say "Cool", and I'm thinkin' to myself, "Now thats a deadhead!"

      The band area was right in front of a big window, and the management told us to hold off setting up until they could put a baffle in front of it, because they've had some complaints about the noise. While they were rigging the baffle, a train went by. I mean a big train. The tracks were about 20 feet away, and you could feel the bar room floor vibrate as the train passed by. This happened regularly throughout the night. You know, I gotta wonder who's complaining about the noise from a band, when they're already putting up with that.

      There was a reasonably good sized crowd, they were definitely in the mood to party, and they liked the band. Somebody was selling pins and jewelry festooned with flashing lights, and by the end of the night a number of people were walking around looking like mobile Christmas trees. At one point somebody came up to me and asked if we had any cd's for sale, and I was tempted to say "by who?", but I stiffled the impulse and politely just told him that no, we don't have any cd's.

      We got a lot of complements, handed out a bunch of cards, and schedules, and Barb took some pics. They've been posted. All in all, a fun gig. I hope we get back.

      01/18-04

      Combined a rehearsal with a band meeting. Went over a few tunes that needed a little work. Worked on adding a couple more tunes, but didn't get them quite ready to add to the set list.

      Eric and Bob would like a better demo. After discussing various options, we decided to use Erics 8 track, and record them in his basement in 2 passes, one to get the instruments and lead vocals, and one to add harmony vocals. Lucas picked the tunes (the theory being he's the only one who doesn't sing, so he doesn't have any particular personal bias, and besides, it let's the rest of us off the hook). The tunes are posted in the current reheasal schedule.

      01/24/04 - Dead Gig #9

      Brady's Irish Pub - Manassas, VA

Set 1		Set 2		Set 3		Set 4
You Win Again The Race Is On Around and Around   / BIODTL Take It Easy Iko Iko Good Lovin' U.S. Blues Tequila Sunrise		Suzie Q Already Gone Stormy Monday Not Fade Away   / I Know You Rider   / GDTRFB Big River   / Jack Straw		Knockin' On Heaven's Door Trashy Women Promised Land Honky Tonk The Way You Do The Things You Do Tribute To Elmore (Dust My Broom) Eyes Of The World		Big Boss Man One More Saturday Night Don't Ease Me In Must Have Been The Roses Evangeline Franklin's Tower Ripple

      Rough night.

      I started off playing my new double cut-a-way Les Paul knock-off, and after 30 years of playing just Strat's, nothing was where my muscle memory said it was supposed to be. I spent a fair amount of time with my right hand just waving around in the air while I was trying to find a volume knob, tone knob, or selector switch. Whenever I would jump around on the finger board by more than a few frets, as often as not I would miss by one fret (usually long), and play some god awful clam, and then correct myself and try to work my way back to something that didn't clash with what everybody else was playing. About half way through the 2nd set I was starting to get the hang of it, and then right in the middle of a lead on GDTRFB I busted my B string. Damn. I switched to my Strat and my playing improved noticeably. I stuck with the Strat for the rest of the night.

      We did a pretty good job with mix, flow, and dynamics, but we weren't able to pull off even one smooth medley transition. Individually we were each playing well enough, but without any apparent inspiration. An exception to that would be Lukas' bass lead on "Eyes Of The World", it just seemed to explode out of nowhere, and galvanized the song. I guess it was just one of those nights where we couldn't seem to read each others minds.

      My personal favorite moment of the evening was the part of "Must Have Been The Roses", when Bob closed his eyes and spaced out into the fringes of some kind of trance-like state during his vocals. Lukas and I looked at each other and we each said "I don't know what the hell he's doing", so I walked over to him and said, "Bob! Wake Up!" He opened his eyes, jumped up to his mike, and started singing the chorus right on the down beat, just like that's what he'd been planning to do all along.

      We got requests for "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" and "Ripple", and although we've never rehearsed them, not everybody knew the chords, and we didn't have a clue about the arrangements, we did them anyway. They came out well enough that I've added them to our playlist.

      Quite a few of the crowd stuck around for the entire evening, and when we tearing down and loading out, three different people made a point of coming up to me and telling me how much they enjoyed the show. I guess it just goes to show, you don't ever know, indeed.

      Barb took some photo's and they are posted.

      01/31/04 - Dead Gig #10

      JV's Restaurant Falls Church VA

Set 1		Set 2		Set 3		Set 4
Must Have Been The Roses Around & Around Beat It On Down The Line Bring It On Home Alabama Getaway Take It Easy Fennario Truckin' U.S. Blues Big River		Big Railroad Blues Candyman Tribute To Elmore (Dust My Broom) Dark Hollow Witchy Woman Peaceful Easy Feelin' Eyes Of The World Jack Straw		Honky Tonk Brown Eyed Girl Friend Of The Devil Next Time You See Me Ship Of Fools Iko Iko Franklin's Tower Don't Ease Me In		Johnny B. Goode Deal U.S. Blues (by request) Evangeline Ripple Big Boss Man Tequila Sunrise It's All Over Now Encore: One More Saturday Night

      Small place. The first hurdle was how to fit everything in.

      What we came up with:

• Doc used his electric drum kit, and was crammed into a cubbyhole by the window, with a shoe horn. OBTW HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOC
• Eric just used one keyboard. He set up against the wall and used a nearby table to set the PA head on. He sat his amp on the floor right next to him. Initially he ran his keyboard through the PA, but early on he switched to just running it throught the monitors.
• Bob, Lukas, and myself made one tall stack of our amps and speakers, set up against the column right next to the entrance.
• I stood right in front of the amp stack, Lukas stood between Eric and the amp stack (right in front of the drums), and Bob pulled up a barstool, and sat in front of Eric's keyboard.
• Eric set up one Bose next to him, and one Bose next to Bob, for monitors. He used the house speakers for the mains. They were big Peavey cabinets, permanently mounted at ceiling level, right above our monster stack of amplifiers, which meant that they faced right into our vocal mic's.

      Pro's:

• The placement of the mains and mic's meant that we absolutely had to keep the volume down to avoid feedback. Possibly as a consequence we had one of our best ever vocal blends.
• Tear down and load out were quicker than usual.

      Con's:

• Doc was audibly isolated from the monitors, the mains, and the guitar and bass amps. Basically all he could hear clearly was the keyboard and his own drum amp. Visually about all he could see for que's was Lukas's back, and Eric. Somehow he managed to keep steady time with crisp beginnings and endings, his harmonica solos were dead on, and his vocals were on pitch. Lord, I envy people with talent. Kudos Doc.
• We set up the amp stack with the biggest, heaviest stuff on the bottom, and the smallest, lightest stuff on top (duh). As a consequence of that, and where I was standing, my amplifier was literally inches from my ears. I played as loudly as I could, while still being able to hear the bass, and Bob's guitar, but I still took crap for not being loud enough.

      We showed up early and set up, and then Doc went out to get some dinner. After he left, Lorraine (the manager), asked us to start 15 min early. We started without him, and part way through the first song he came in and started playing. It went so smoothly that if people weren't paying attention, they probably didn't notice that it wasn't intentional.

      I played the paul for the whole night. I'm starting to get the hang of how it's laid out, and this time went much better than the Brady's gig. I like the way it sounds so much that it'll probably be my main gigging axe until I get tired of it, and go back to the strat (or something else, one can never have too many toys).

      Luka's dad showed up for the first set. He seemed like a nice fella, but he left before I really had a chance to chat with him. I hope he enjoyed what he heard.

      We had a couple of tunes that just didn't jell, including Truckin' - probably our first ever less than good performance of it, but overall we put on a good show. Our vocals were especially good this time, go figure. I don't think the regular crowd was familiar with our material, but we consistently got applause for each tune (even the ones that we weren't particularly pleased with), and we got $29 in the tip jar when there were probably less than 30 people in the place all night.

      Some dead heads drifted in during the last set and they really liked us. They asked us to play U.S. Blues, and when we told them we'd already done it, they dropped $5 in the tip jar and said "Play it again!" Cool. We tossed in Deal this set. As of now, it's been added to the regular playlist.

      Lorraine was pretty clear that if we don't bring in more people, our gext gig there will be our last. I figure a place that small can't really afford to have too many Saturday nights where they don't do good business at the bar. Sigh.

      Barb took a few pics, and they're posted.

     

      Stay tuned,

Rick

previous		table of contents		next