Running With Desire & Crazy Marty Round Out a Stormy Tuesday

Running With Desire 2012
It looks like I have a bunch of makeup on!

The Heely-Brown Company hired Monsieur Martay to put together a rock show in their vast warehouse in the Chattahoochee Industrial area of Atlanta this past Tuesday.  It was a lunchtime event plugging a new brand of skylights that promise to never leak (my first impression when I hear of skylights is when, not if, they will begin leaking).  The gig was in their vast warehouse, near a dock ramp so the load-in was about as easy as it could ever possibly be.  We could drive up the dual-sided ramp and unload right next to the stage, or simply turn the corner and pull into the warehouse.  J.T. arranged for his audio system contact to set up his big system and run sound.  It was a full on rock show, and as you can see from the pics we played dress up as well.  J.T. made good on morphing in David Lee Roth and it goes without saying that he can hit the notes better than Dave these days.  I made it over to the Martay's abode the night before for a dramatic run-through of virtually all of the tunes.  I wasn't planning or wanting to go over there, but it did pay off.  I have a bit of trouble keeping all of those bass lines in my head.  Their songs are all in guitar-friendly keys of E, A, and D, but the solo sections always go to F#, E, B, or C#m and they become one giant pain in the brain to keep separated.  We went over some I had never done before: Beautiful Girls, On Fire, & Everybody Wants Some.  

Here's the set list, for what it's worth, from the Mac at casa de Martay:

aint talkin bout love atomic punk beautiful girls d.o.a. eruption everybody wants some feel your love tonight hot for teacher ice cream man jamies cryin panama so this is love unchained you really got me any way you want it crazy train pour some sugar on me rebel yell round & round shook me all night long sweet child o mine talk dirty to me wanted dead or alive working for the weekend

It was a good list with perhaps a few deep cuts in there for the big time fans.  The ironic part of all of this is that the audience we played to was not particularly huge Van Halen fans.  They would have been better off with a mix of classic rock, I think.  I believe Martay was jonesing to play some VH and caused us all some unnecessary work to throw this together.  Still, we had fun and made the best of it.  They even sent out for more barbecue for us, as they ran out before we could eat.  Very nice.

I think in the course of all of the playing and whatnot I have come to the realization that my Eden WTB1000 head is just not powerful enough and I'm a bit upset and frustrated.  It cost me too much money for the lack of headroom I have, even in the bridged-mono setting.  I will have to eat the loss and get something else that I can be happy with.  Not sure what that will be, but I do like the GK stuff.  I should have picked up that GK1000 head back when I saw that as a used item - water under the bridge.

I scooted out to make it to a doctor's appointment - taking care of many personal health issues in the next few weeks.  This one is related to my sleep study I had recently completed.  After that, I was home for a bit before reconvening with Martay and Sam for a Rock & Roll show at Chambrel.  Had to sub out a better paying gig to keep my appointment with the Martay - not sure if it was the right move but I should get credit for not backing out of a commitment.  The thing is, my talents would be better served playing a full 4 hours with a well rehearsed band and making decent money.  The tunes we played could be played by just about anybody; it felt like a letdown.

Chambrel Rock & Roll Night Setlist:
Kansas City
Hound Dog
Can't Help Falling In Love
Don't Be Cruel
Little Sister
Sweet Home Alabama
You've Lost That Loving Feeling
Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)
The Electric Slide (Electric Boogie)
Blue Suede Shoes
Night and Day
The Girl From Ipanema
Old Time Rock 'n Roll
The Way You Look Tonight
Hey Good Lookin'
Show Me The Way To Go Home

There was an issue with the Mackie powered mixer that led to Martay holding onto my check.  Thankfully, he got it straightened out, but that would have been a truly unfortunate coda to the whole scenario.  I do walk away with the good feeling of playing for these seniors who I actually recognize from last time and they really did enjoy us.  It gets to you a bit, as we should all be so lucky to reach that golden age of being too old to live on our own.  I hope I end up somewhere that has some musicians coming by once in a while to sing and play for me and my new comrades.

PS  I learned that the Mackie powered mixer issue was due to the fact that the house speakers, which Marty used, were also still connected to the house powered mixer!  Too much of a load, so to speak.  It's always something!  Glad nothing exploded!