This hotel has some history. Last time I was here with Platinum, I ended up (don't ever do this, btw) wandering off while talking on the phone and missed the call for the third set! Got there in time to begin the 4th song of the set (not before some potential future clients came by to check us out). There, how's that for professional behavior? This time, through some bad luck and karma, maybe excess holiday stress, Gus had to miss out on the gig. It's not the place to go into details, but all things along these lines are avoidable. The words to take away are to simply Keep It Simple (Stupid): ie KISS! Do as you're told, don't try to get away with anything extra, life is complicated enough, we just wanna play some music, um, bring a book and sit quietly while on break. Get the picture?
The young
Anthony Baker came to the rescue just in time - we had Gus' drums more or less all set up. Yes, it was a complicated evening. Anthony played better than I've ever heard. Of course, we both used to be in Wild Rice, so I've heard him a bunch over the years. One twist on this night was we were debuting a new (for us) tune: Edwin McCain's
I'll Be. For some reason, Kevin wanted the acoustic version. So I played guitar along with Derek, Glen played bass, and there wasn't much else on that one. I enjoyed playing guitar, but as luck would have it, I had no signal during the tune. It sounded okay during the soundcheck. I guess my battery died in the interim. What great fortune! I moved up to a vocal mic and tried to feed my acoustic sound into it - didn't really hear it in the mix... Hopefully we'll do it again one day and I can be a bit louder! Glen had a real good night in that he also played drums on the Bon Jovi 2-fer. He killed it! BTW, great fretless work G-Clef - I was diggin' your big sound from my vantage pont. You are convincing on the low end.
Seriously, what a true musical force that man is. I'm playing with him this Friday and will need to brush up on my hip-hop and such. It shall be a challenge to fill in for the beautiful and funky Fuji Fujimoto!
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| Green room chillin' |
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| Gettin' ready for the stage. |
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| Anthony |
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| Glen |
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| Anton (with fro), Derek, & Anthony |
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| Looking kinda like a Village People reject |
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| Anton & Derek |
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| Kevin working the crowd |
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| Kevin & Virginia |
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