Atlanta's premier jangle-rock and assorted one-hit wonder act Last Call was on hand Labor Day to give a brief performance at Nibble & Noshfest - A Taste of Jewish Food & Fun. Check out the webiste and the facebook page. It is, among other things, a fund-raiser for Temple Kol Emeth, located in East Cobb. Last Call volunteered their services, as did everybody involved, to help bring interest and awareness to this annual festival. Being held over Labor Day weekend, it has traditionally been plagued by rain. As luck would have it, this year was no different. It rained both Sunday and Monday during the event hours, at times with quite heavy downpours.
David Falkenstein (guitar, vocals), Ira Kramer (drums, vocals), Karl Rosenblum (fiddle), and myself were joined by Farrel Anne on vocals. This altered our normal jangle-centric set but gave us a chance to offer up some more recent additions to the playlist. It also lets us relax a bit and let her take over the chore of fronting the band while we supply the music. David made it happen! They (we) all did, actually. He brought the deluxe system and drummed up a tidy little setlist for us to plow through.
The weather gave us doubts about whether (I couldn't resist here) we were even going to play. Not much about this event was easy, but once we were on stage it went smoothly. It was surreal seeing my family there, even my mother-in-law and sister as well. One thing that came to mind is that we always seem to set up on different sides of the stage and that makes for a bit of inconsistent perspectives. It is best for the bassist to be near the drummer, and preferably near the hi-hat. With Last Call, the drums are electronic, so the sounds aren't really coming from the drums. Plus, we monitor through ear-buds. If space ever provides us the option, I'd like to try a setup a la The Bears, that band with Adrian Belew and members of Cincinnati's power-pop trio The Raisins. What a great band, destined to be underrated but they sure came up with some catchy tunes. Alas, I cannot seem to find an image to describe their stage. What they do is have the 4 of them in a row - all up front. Left to right, from the audience perspective, is drums, guitar 1, guitar 2, bass. The 2 guitars are between the rhythm section as they are the primary lead singers as well. It may seem to alter the communication of the bassist and drummer, but with adequate monitors that isn't a big problem. plus it is a power pop band and not jazz. Enough rambling. We played well and were only getting used to everything when it was time to finish up. By then, the clouds had begun to part and the wet stuff was moving out. Wish I had some better pics to post. It happened so fast that we all probably forgot to take any!
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