Four gigs in one day! I mean from sun up 'til sun down. I don't think I can ever top that, or repeat it necessarily. Or want to... It wasn't that bad of a schedule. Funny how things like that can work out, while other conflicts just make me reach for the Advil. Being that St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year, the celebrations were bound to be prominent. Our little U2 tribute band, some say the greatest U2 tribute band in Atlanta, Running With Desire was hired for 3 events - all during the daytime hours. My 4th job with with Platinum in the evening.
I met up with J.T., The MartaY, and the latest addition to Atlanta's AC/DC tribute act Back In Black, Mark Rudd (not his real name). Mark may not be available much in the future - those guys are crazy busy. So we rode together in J.T.'s van down to Underground for our first show of the day at Kenny's Alley. Booking a band to play at Underground from noon till 1, during the start of the St. Patrick's Day Parade, was not the smartest move on the promoter's part. There was virtually nobody there, and we certainly knew that going in. Who comes up with these things? The sound crew were just getting power, tweaking their system, checking the keyboard (? - not for us, mind you), smoking cigarettes. They were nice enough, but their lack of preparedness cost us to scratch a couple of songs from our set. This was a day where we had to stay on schedule. My rig, consisting of a GK 1001 head with an 810 cabinet, was a dream machine of headroom coupled with pant leg billowing volume, and juicy tube-neo-infused tone that oozed with balls & heft. It was meant to be loud. I did my best to oblige, although I did turn down for the sake of our ears and J.T.'s monitor woes. We rocked to a faithful few. J.T.'s photographer friend showed up and snapped some decent shots. Might have been a smart move - it would the best we looked all day.
Updates made on March 28, 2012 mid-afternoon
Bonus pictures taken at the Kenny's Alley performance:
Alright, those pics were pretty good. Taken with our old Sony camera. Not too bad. Now, here are some great shots, all taken by a real photographer, Ms. Carolyn Davies. She has taken pics of several rock bands and is a wonderful artist in the medium. With her blessings, I am re-posting her shots here to give some better ideas of the good times we were guilty of keeping to ourselves in Kenny's Alley that early afternoon.
March 28, 2012 10:00 p.m.
Thanks again Carolyn! When we saw you come up to the stage, it definitely kicked up our enthusiasm to "Zooropa" levels! You made that show a memorable event, for sure. You rock!!!
After our set, finished out to the applause of the following band, we loaded up the waiting golf carts to take our gear to 200 Peachtree Street. How surreal to be zipping through the crowded downtown streets on these carts while the parade was taking place! People everywhere, looking at us as we are hanging onto our gear and trying to not tumble off the back of these makeshift band limos. It was a memorable trek.
Yeah, J.T. made a good point. It was a true Spinal Tap moment: getting to the loading dock entrance on these golf carts only to find a locked gate. Then having to wait for close to 15 minutes while the man with the keys is located and finally gets us in the building. "Which way to the stage?"
 |
| And we're off to the 2nd job - 4 golf carts, 4 musicians. How rock 'n roll to get to the venue in separate vehicles - with our own drivers! |
 |
| Taken before I fully realized I need to hold on for dear life! |
 |
| Storm Trooper on his way to the parade. |
 |
| It was a bumpy ride, as you can see from this distorted image of GSU's Rialto Theatre and surroundings. |
The 2nd gig was inside, where a makeshift festival was assembled. The band before us was deep into a long Irish-themed dance number with the leader out front on accordion. They were killing it, but after a while, his nimble-fingered soloing wore on me. Once again, I had a GK 1001 amp, this time coupled with 2 410's. It just didn't have that zing that I enjoyed at the previous venue. We had a much better crowd this time! Sabina brought the boys down, so it was great to see them out there. They didn't stay long enough - our best songs are closer to the end of the set. Took a small break and MartaY scored some chicken tenders that didn't stand a chance. The 2nd set filtered in some Van Halen so that MartaY could emit his Eruption juice all over the excited crowd of gawkers. Here was the gist of our sets:
Where the Streets Have No Name
A Sort of Homecoming
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
Bullet the Blue Sky
Get On Your Boots
New Years Day
With or Without You
Desire
Sunday Bloody Sunday
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Gloria
I Will Follow
Vertigo
Alternates:
Ain't Talkin' ' Bout Love
Panama
Ice Cream Man
Eruption --> You Really Got Me
As luck would have it, we never really got around to #2, 8, or 11. Actually, #2 was my idea and the others simply have never listened to it. I would like to dive into some of these deeper cuts at some point, as there are other U2 tribute acts in Atlanta. We could distinguish ourselves by being a bit more adventurous in our repertoire. Certainly, the Van Halen tunes go over well - even those are the tried and true well worn hits that don't quite hint at the more intricate songwriting that Eddie and the boys would eventually warm up to.
 |
| Our only full group shot. There is a reason we finally ditched this Sony camera as our family cam! |
 |
| Eruption 1 |
 |
| Eruption 2 |
Two well-received sets and we were off - late as we were for our next one at Tavern 99. First, we had to get back to Underground to get the van (and Mark's truck, as he only played the first 2 events with us -Shane is on the next one - that's not weird, is it?). The parade was over, so traffic permitted a truck, which our friend, one of the golf cart drivers, provided. It took a minute, as you could expect. Before too long, we were in Buckhead where the Feeling Lucky? Festival was taking place. Nice big stage for us and the weather was just perfect.
We were certainly warmed up. Shane wasn't. Not his fault, but we had built up this energy and adrenaline with Mark and were ready to nail it. I don't think Shane was in the same mindset, but he wears many hats on events such as this one. It was still a great performance, perhaps our best ever in this configuration, and a fine way to end our mini-tour. My rig this time was an Ampeg mini SVT setup - nice fat semi-distorted tones, rather scooped in the mids, not loud enough for this venue but probably better for the soundman. At least the soundman was out front this time! I never see that anymore. How do you mix from the side or the rear of the stage? I used my wireless, as the stage was big and I could make my way over to MartaY for some jamming. It was a rock star scene. Check out the crowd, certainly loving the rock. Ah, these kids!
After all of that, I loaded out my pedalboard and such and met up to get paid. Then I changed clothes (in the parking lot - so classy) for my Platinum hit at Stone Mountain's Marriott Evergreen Conference Resort. This was Platinum II, not Platinum Soul, as we were a 7-piece: Dianna, Glen, Derek, Anton, Gus, myself, and special guest Tracey Wolf, on loan from Atlanta Beat. Tracey fit in so well, seemingly taking over any part as if she had been fronting us for years. She worked really well with Dianna too. We sounded good and perhaps, due to all of my playing during the day, I didn't flub too many notes! Yay! My P-bass, which I used all day, just doesn't have the right vibe for Platinum. It may well have been because I brought my Genz-Benz kickback combo and I'm used to having a 15 with some power. Plus, I did have all of those wonderful loud rigs during the day. My tone was rather limp... We played through The Emotions' Best of My Love as a precursor to Got To Be Real. I learned it in my car before we started, as I had missed the soundcheck. Must mention Anton's little Korg keyboard. He sounded great on it! It was a tough crowd, but these corporate gatherings can be like that sometimes. All told, a fine day of entertaining the masses. My thanks to J.T. for putting this all together and keeping me in the loop. Also a big thank you to Virginia & Dianna (they really do work well together) for allowing me to do my thing past the soundcheck that we normally do have.
No comments:
Post a Comment