Sweetwater Junction invades Seabrook Island Club

Seabrook Island is just south of Folly Beach & James Island, where my friends Matt & Cindy live.  We traveled to play a wedding reception.  Along for the ride were Brian "Big Time" Molin (his band essentially - he coordinates with the agency, supplies the PA & lights, rents the trailer & the storage space, does the driving, etc. - oh yeah, he plays the guitar just like a-ringin' a bell), Chris Garner (lead vocals & acoustic guitar, back from an extended leave of absence - we missed him), Mark Letalien (super-fine rhythm monster who really does not let up - a fun hang too), & Dan Barker (keyboards, very cool organ tones he gets with his Mac Powerbook), who I just met on the gig.  We played a great jazz set including "Song for my Father", "Cantaloupe Island", & "All Blues".  Also played some of the 2nd set using my NS WAV bass.  I think I'm getting a much better tone using my Fishman Platinum Pro-EQ Bass DI by simply bringing the high treble slider all the way down and boosting the midlle slider.  This outboard eq tweak allows me to keep the passive tone control of the WAV on 10, which allows more upper mids to pass through, thus accentuating the growl. 

Unfortunately, my Genz-Benz combo took a hit and the preamp pot got sheered off.  Sucks that it is the very pot that I had replaced not too long ago.  I need to take it back in for more servicing.  I really wish I could get all of my stuff up and running trouble free!  Well, Chris helped me get the pot up to an audible level - it wasn't easy - and I was able to use the rig.  My Ibenez 6-string sounded good and is a nice bass for what it is.  Those EMG's really made a big difference, moreso than any pickup I've ever replaced.  You know, I have all of these basses now but the old Ibenez is still a blast to play.  I probably should get a nicer 6-string one day and just go with that.  It's all I really would ever need in terms of range and sheer noise generation. 

The crowd was great and danced through all of our many jams.  We took them on a nice little ride, I must say.  Several people in the crowd praised us at the end of the night and they genuinely had a wonderful time.  I felt proud of us that we gave them so much variety and didn't have those dead spots in the night that can happen when 5 guys are up there that haven't all played together before.  Some hightlights were "Shakey Ground", "Wonderful Tonight" (on NS WAV), "Miss You" (with Chris on vocals - he didn't feel like sharing, and that's ok by me actually), and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg".  Standard fare but it got the job done in fine fashion.