John Hancotte's Bass Desires: Trains, Planes, & Automobiles: Point Me In The Direction of Albuquerque

All of this for a 2 hour gig! On the road with Platinum for a corporate event, which would turn out to be the culmination of a severely long day for the attendees after a severely late night prior to their early rise. Well, that's how it works out more often than not in this hustling world. Our world was shaken up with the fact that D-Mac couldn't make the date. His unavoidable circumstances led to a guitar sub but the name of Christian Jones, on loan from another local large band Simply Irresistible. We all met at Hartsfield-Jackson to fly out to Albuquerque, NM, connecting in Dallas/Fort Worth. It was a late afternoon flight that turned out to be even later with a delay (the first of several on this trip).

A major digression: As a young fan of the Partridge Family television show, I picked up their albums as they were released. Yes, that's a hopelessly Caucasian confession, I must say. From memory, I can tell their first 5 albums in order: The Partridge Family Album, Up To Date, Sound Magazine, A Partridge Family Christmas Card, and Shopping Bag. Anyways, they had various highlights, but the first one might have been considered the most classic. The second song on the first side was entitled Point Me In The Direction of Albuquerque, a very memorable refrain that I feel obligated to mention with this trip out west. Perhaps I can get with everything now that my life has come around full circle.

A Marta moment: Standing At The Station
(a great Joe Walsh tune, also a very cool Ten Years After song)

For my part, I took Marta to the airport, leaving from the Sandy Springs station. Parking is $5 per day at that location, which made my round trip to the airport around $20 with the parking fee. The rain came down as I traversed into the downtown area and I couldn't help but think that I had made the right decision. I had my 6-string bass and a garment bag, along with the contents of my pockets: phone, phone wall charger (nothing more essential than a charger these days!), iPod (iPod charger was packed in my garment bag), earbuds, Stephen King paperback, gum, keys, wallet, etc. Plane tickets are all electronic, of course, but now there are apps if you like. I went with one as suggested by the travel agent who worked on our behalf, entitled Trip Case. It gave me a little peace of mind and emailed me any changes as soon as they occurred. I recommend Trip Case for that reason; it's as current as updating the Google calendar. Taking Marta also meant not having to grab a shuttle bus at the park 'n ride in the rain. A big plus. Also, on the train, you can check out the disparate folk that ride the public transportation. Always an eyefull. I was looking forward to catching up on the book, which is a collection of short stories that only Mr. King can conjure.

I always sweat it a bit with carrying a bass on a plane. Guitars a bit shorter and thus are easier to stow. Same with a sax, as in Anton's case. Anton actually brought his keys as well, as he had another gig out there with Jeff B. We all successfully boarded and made it to Denver. By then I was getting hungry, as I hadn't eaten since lunch. I made my way to a food court near the gate, after trying to get my seat assignment. The good news is that you can take your purchased food onto the plane. As I got back to the gate, I learned that gate attendant had called my name. Guess what? I had been upgraded to first class! Why? How? There were all of these people standing around, supposedly many trying to fly standby. I never learned who made the change on my behalf. The Chinese food was yummy, and the libations were delivered with a smile and consumed with a zest-for-life zeal as I dove into my short story, the unlikely tale of violation and (un)questionable redemption that unfolded via "Big Driver" from Full Dark, No Stars. It kept me glued to my comfortable leather seat. We touched down in Albuquerque sometime around 9, which would be 11 Atlanta time. We were greeted and herded to a bus that took us to a Marriott somewhere on the outskirts of town, a good 30 minutes from the venue at which we were to perform. Wings, nachos, and 1 drink were in order - the hotel bar closed at 11 so we were almost completely out of luck as far as living it up goes.

First class baby! How did I get here anyway?

Taking the shuttle to the hotel - it's been quite a long journey...

The next day we met early to set up the backline gear and run through some tunes: a soundcheck of sorts. The plan was flawed as our start and end times almost met head on. We were on the short end of the stick. We met to discuss while waiting and plotted our strategy for maximum time efficiency. My Eden rig was a thing of beauty and sonic nirvana. I've always had a thing for Eden gear, as faithful readers can attest. This WT-800 had more apparent power than my WT-1000 held, but perhaps it could be attributed to the fact that the 410 cabinet was a 4 ohm model. At any rate, it sounded sweet, deep and crystal clear. Better than my rig at home, I must confess. I enjoyed it. No pedals, so I was flying straight with no octave or any funny business. No worries. My old Soundgear was in good hands, right? It's not the most special bass in the world, but it looks good from a distance. The strings had a nice zip, thanks to the EMG pickups and preamp. We worked on the new tunes for us, for notably being Happy and The Monster.

We were captivated by the mountain view from the taxi bus.
After multiple attempts with our camera phones,
we all agreed that some images cannot be captured by megapixel.

A great crew did their best to make it easy for us.

My fine little rig for the night.

Gus' Green Drum Workshop

The conference

Front of the Hyatt Regency Albuquerque

Tex Mex at Sadie's was actually a highlight. Our first real meal together. The plates were swimming in cheese and sauce. I love the sauce! Great flavors. I have never been so full! Maybe it was the chips... We went back to the rooms and crashed. Chris (my roomie) played me some of his vocal tracks; he can sing just like Steve Perry! Sounded amazing on Who's Crying Now, among others. Great guitarist too. He has some serious connections, btw. I need to follow up on my intent to look him up. Worked out a bit at the lil' health club downstairs before we showered and changed. Before long, we were on the bus again, circumventing highway wrecks due to the icy conditions from the snowfall. Yes, it does snow in New Mexico.

Dianna & Gus after our heavy lunch - picturesque in the snow.

We had our strange steak dinner at a very remote room, about as far away from the stage as we could get without leaving the property. Really far. Strange meal indeed. Even the "apple thingy" dessert. At least we had a great lunch. The gig was delayed and delayed some more. We finally went on after the man gave us the word. We came on with Get Lucky, jamming to the actual track spun by Jeff. Perhaps the highlight was a high level manager sitting in with us, enthusiastically belting out Sweet Caroline for all it was worth. That and Dianna sitting down front at stage right, just owning I Will Survive. Gus and I were locked in, considering that I was on his right for the first time ever. Had to change it up since Chris was new to us and Glen would be more help to him than Anton, no offence Anton. We ended with a great Purple Rain, especially nice since I had mentioned that we play it from time to time and Chris was hoping to get the chance to go for it. He took the opportunity and ran with it. The crowd loved us and would have stayed as long as we chose to play. It was to be over at midnight and that's when we finished.

Interesting side note: as the stage hands were packing up, I heard an evil pop, as it turns out, from the bass amp. The Eden blew up, so to speak. I think it was a capacitor, not certain. I tell you, those amps are delicious sounding, but their tone comes at a price. There was a GK head as a standby. Hey, GK! A reliable rig indeed. Loved the Eden but glad it didn't blow up during the show. The one I had just wasn't enough power for my purposes. Maybe my next cabinet should be a 4 ohm cab. Oh well. We unwinded and boarded the shuttle to get back to our beds, 30 minutes away.

Waiting to take the stage

We begin the set

Fun for those who stuck around

Four on the front line: Virginia, Johnny, Dianna, & Bethany

Christian & Glen

Anton had a killer setup with his nouveau vocodor pedal

Guest vocalist

Happy John

The next morning was very early. My flight home was at 8:30. At 7 or so, when I arrived at the airport, I got the word that it was delayed until 10:30. Nice. It changed several more times, ultimately being only an hour behind schedule. I was trying to desperately get home to see Jack perform in an area orchestra concert. Not much sympathy on the homefront... To quote, "what ev's"... C'est la vie, n'est pas?