Not Crowe-ing; Not Cowed

We survived the gig Thursday night -- the opening slot for Rich Robinson at Lee's. It actually went okay overall, except we got a little sloppy towards the end. I wasn't completely happy about my playing in several songs, but I guess everyone has off nights.

My new amp performed well and I was very happy with it, although I think I was running it with a little too much overdrive, so the sound was a bit dirtier than I wanted for some songs. Thing is, playing at home, I have the overdrive dial at about 5, and the main volume at about 2, which effectively reduces the overall dirtiness of the sound. At the gig, I left the OD at 5 but turned the volume up to about 4 or 5, which made it dirtier than I would have liked. I didn't really notice it while we were getting the levels set, only during certain songs in the middle of the set, and at that point I didn't want to frig with the volume for fear of messing up my levels through the soundboard. Lesson learned. Next time I'll run it cleaner and rely on my Boss Bluesdriver pedal to supply the dirt as needed.

According to friends who were there, the sound wasn't very good. Couldn't hear enough of Colleen's backup vocals or Kenny's harp, apparenty. We did manage to get a sound check, which is not always the case for the lowly opening band. But I don't think the soundman did his best by us, which is kind of disappointing.

Better crowd than for the Gary U.S. Bonds gig. I didn't stick around to hear all of Rich's set, since it was 11pm by the time they came on, and it was a school night for me. But I did catch the first 4 songs or so. It was okay, though I found him a bit of a wanker on the guitar. Lots of riffs flying around, but not a lot being "said", if you will. I prefer players who actually communicate something in their playing, who "say" something, as opposed to those who simply toss off riffs they've learned, regardless of how accomplished they are at said riffage. And the guy must have brought 20 guitars with him. I'm not exaggerating! The little dressing room/alcove that we used last time was unavailable to us because it was stacked floor to ceiling with Rich's guitar cases. His guitar tech stood behind him and his vintage amps for the entire set, just tuning guitars endlessly.

The next day brought some bad news however. Colleen announced to Boag that she wouldn't be playing with us anymore. That's really too bad, because she is a great player and a fine singer. Not sure what her reasons were, but seeing as she is in two other bands, and we weren't really hauling in much money, I can't really blame her. She probably was stetching herself a little thin. And what little money she made Thursday night (Boag and Tim and I deferred our share to her and Kenny and Jim, the drummer) she had to blow on cab fare to get her gear back home (bass amps ain't light). So that's too bad, but there are a few options for replacements. There's also a possibility of adding a keyboard player to the mix. There's a woman who plays blues and boo-jee woo-jee regularly at Grossman's, and Boag had invited her to come check out our gig. She seemed keen on the idea, so we'll see what happens. It'd be great to have a piano/keyboard player on board. That would fill out the sound quite nicely.

It was also the first gig that we had used the name The Braveyard Whips, at least on the billing at the club, if not in the media listings. Still some question as to whether that name will stick.

So, another gig under my belt. Gotta be careful though. The farther I go into this rock and roll life, with its late nights, dens of sin and "boo-jee woo-jee", the greater the chances that I may turn into one of these ne'er-do-wells.