Last Saturday of February: Mardi Gras 4 Paws & The Wimbish House

Spoke with my old friend Greg Hester the other day.  Really, there aren't that many people I can name that I've known longer in the Atlanta area than Greg.  That's a mouthful, right?  Well, you know what I mean.  People with whom I stay in touch and get together with every once in a while.  Yeah, that's it.  Well, he was coming into town to do this benefit for homeless dogs and would I like to come on down and play music with him?  No money or anything like that.  But a chance to get together for old times sake and have some fun.  So I accepted and it was a good time.  I was late, but I had a good excuse.  Sabina has an interview on Tuesday and wanted to look her best (ie younger).  It's no secret that women get their hair "done".  I need to as well!  It ran a little long for her - Spencer nixxed the nap - went to Target in the morning for a Dr. Seuss reading session, long day...  I finally made it down to Cabbagetown, location of the Milltown Arms Tavern, where the Mardi Gars 4 Paws event was taking place.  I strolled up, without my upright but with my Fender Jazz.  I get to the stage and first see Chappy (Mr. Randy Chapman to you) holding his Precision.  He let me take over bass duties, moving to his very pretty sunburst Tele.  Tommy Thompson was there, blowing harp and co-leading, although Greg was in control.  We played 3 songs, I think: Les McCann's Compared To What, Van Morrison's Caravan, and a medley of Greg's own Down and Out in NYC and Sister Blue.  On drums was Greg's old band member Morgan Baruzzini.  Plus, a very "on" Greg Smith on tenor sax.  Great to join up with these long, lost brothers of mine.

I had to breakaway after that to scramble up to The Wimbish House in Midtown for Platinum's 5 o'clock soundcheck.  Located on Peachtree Street near 12th, it doesn't get much more congested than this.  Rough load in, particularly when there are giant lighting and catering trucks taking up the driveway and dock ramp.  I hoofed it, running on adrenaline.  Not so easy as I had brought quite a bit of stuff for this one, including the Stick!  Well, I wasn't late - good news there.  Hate to be late for anything.  There was actually a good amount of room to set up since Glen was forward a bit on the stage.  Good for me - maybe not what Virginia wants in the long run.  My Stick sounded good - really the first time I had played it through my 15 since I got it!  Used it on the dance numbers Moves Like Jagger, On The Floor, and a couple of others.  The soundcheck for On The Floor went really well.  I even got those keyboard taps (the 5th of the chord that occur in the beginning and middle section) on the high part.  I ran it in mono mode as I had only 1 amp and processing path.  As luck would have it, I jumped the gun during the show and plowed into the changes a bit too early.  Stepped on the whole shebang.  Ah, I even went over the stinking tune, carefully mapping out a chart with cues.  We were loud, so atrociously loud!  It was the room, coupled with the hollow stage.  My bass was extremely resonant during the first couple of sets.  Then things got louder and couldn't hear myself anymore.  Bizarre how that can be.  Sometimes with bass I can't tell if I'm on the right pitch!  We used to play The Way You Look Tonight, a la ol' Blue Eyes, with the half-step modulation at the end.  This time we didn't - well, I did.  Caught the fact that Glen hadn't, so I slid back down.  Hey, at least I'm paying attention most of the time!  The bride and groom loved us, as they were so happy we were willing to play the tunes they had picked for their dances.  Easy country tunes, some we had played before.  My Jazz bass really had a good tone, even with dead strings.  I switched over to the Stingray during the last set to get those TLev vibes happening, as I was looking forward to playing some Stick.  The Stick just wasn't pumping like the bass though.  Maybe I need a pre-preamp for the Stick to get it up to active levels?