Gigged

The Gary US Bonds gig went pretty well, I think. At least people were complimentary afterwards. So that's good.

Arrived for the soundcheck at Lee's Palace at the appointed 6 p.m. time. Never got a proper soundcheck, of course. They were still setting up and soundchecking Gary's stuff. So we went out the back door to the alleyway where we could hear ourselves and run through the set. This was important, as our drummer, Bones, hadn't played or rehearsed with us before and didn't know most of the songs. He brought his brushes out with him and banged on a piece of paper on top of an old garbage bin. We ran through the songs with particular emphasis on where the stops and starts were. Kenny, the harp player from Jay Clark & The Jones was also with us.

It was a nice moment, actually; this rag-tag band of old and new friends sitting around on the sun-baked concrete, amid the graffiti in the alley behind the club, in the warmth of the early evening, bashing out the songs. Think Bruce and Miami Steve and the boys might have done that a few times in the early days? I think so. There was a nice feeling of scruffy, ad hoc camaraderie and common purpose.

Gary's band had quite a bit of equipment on the stage. It's not that large a stage to begin with, and they had a tri-levelled keyboard array and a full drum kit. The guy who was setting up the "backline" for Lee's was quite helpful in getting us set up. He suggested that Bones and Colleen, our bass player, might actually be able to use Gary's band's drum kit and bass amp rig, thus avoiding a lot of hassle. The Bonds' band was okay with that, so that's what we did.

My little Traynor practice amp wasn't gonna cut it for this show, and I don't like the way it sounds anyway, so I had to use a loaner. Fortunately, a roommate of Boag's is a gigging musician, and he let me use his little bass amp, which sounded fine. I had just picked up a Boss Blues Driver overdrive pedal, so I didn't need an amp that provided overdrive.

It was also the first gig with my new guitar. Actually the same model as my old guitar -- an Epiphone "Dot" -- except my new one is a limited edition model, and it's a beautiful dark brown with gold hardware. Sort of looks like this (its older brother, the Gibson ES-335), only it's a darker shade and there's no pickguard. It's beautiful. Under certain light it actually looks burgundy. I liked my other guitar, but I love this one. The neck feels great; the frets are smoother and bevelled nicely at the edges, so my hand slides up and down the neck as smooth as buttah. I got it used at Songbird Music. It's four years old. It feels great, sounds great, but best of all -- it's brown! I've always wanted a brown guitar.

The other thing was, we didn't have a name! We ended up being billed alternately as Boag, "Guests" and "More". We'd been tossing a few names around, led by the hotly contested Dick Ellis Revival, The Lastmen, and a few others -- but no decision had been made in time to get it published.

So, the unnamed band took to the stage at 8 p.m. and launched into our set. The set list was as follows:

The Fever
Something You Got - an old R&B song Springsteen does on a mid-'70s bootleg tape of Boag's; I've since discovered versions by Them, Wilson Pickett and B.B. King
(Walk And) Don't Look Back - The Tosh version; my debut on wah-wah pedal
Fast Train - Written by Van the Man for that Solomon Burke CD
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Tupelo Honey
Your Cheatin' Heart
Red-Headed Woman
Men Without Women - A rockin' Little Steven song based on a Hemingway story
Shine A Light - Rolling Stones

As it turned out, and as we had expected, we had to drop a few numbers due to time limits. We ended up passing on, I think, "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Tupelo Honey". Just as well, since I wasn't really comfortable with any solo I had worked out for "Your Cheatin' Heart". Just couldn't get a handle on it for some reason. Sorry Hank.

I had the little bass amp set up to my left, at the side of the stage, tilted upwards towards me. Tim and Kenny were on the far side and Colleen was tucked away between the drum kit and the mountain of keyboards behind me. The amps were miked, but the sound guy decided not to run our guitars through the monitors, so we had to use our amps as monitors. Learned later that neither Bones nor Boag could hear the guitars very well. I could hear Tim, but Boag was getting mostly just a lot of himself in the monitors, which he isn't used to, and I guess it was making it hard for him to hear the guitars. Considering the sound problems, and the fact that it was Bones's first time playing drums with us and playing these songs, and Colleen had only one rehearsal under her belt (sans drummer), it's not surprising that things felt a bit tentative on stage. There were a few missteps: Boag forgot a part of "The Fever" but recovered okay, and I know I played a few completely incorrect chords and stumbled a little on a few other things. But overall, it went okay. Kenny and Colleen were great.

As I said, people were complimentary afterwards, including the club's booker, who, according to Boag, was genuinely pleased and said he would book us again, and Gary US Bonds, who said from the stage: "I liked that first band. What were they called?" I started laughing. Tim's girlfriend yelled out "Boag!". Gary said: "Vogue?" I yelled out "Dick Ellis Revival", but it didn't make an impact.

As for Bonds' set, it was very good! He's got a kick-ass band, with the requisite Jersey honkin' sax man, a keyboardist, a kid rhythm section, a solid guitarist and the pair of Laurie Andersons (wife and daughter) on back-up vocals. They did "Jole Blon" (an old Cajun song that Bruce also covered), Bruce's "Rendezvous" and "This Little Girl Is Mine", and his hits "New Orleans" and "Quarter To Three", as well as Otis Reddings' "I've Got Dreams To Remember" and "You Are My Sunshine" as a tribute to Brother Ray. They did a great version of a Delbert McClinton song called "Everytime I Roll The Dice". The "Lauries" were smokin the "woo-woos" on that one. There was one unfortunate Casino-rama moment though, when one of the encores consisted of a medley of old rock 'n' roll hits -- Chuck Berry-Little Richard-Elvis, etc. But Bonds is still in great voice, and certainly doesn't look his age.

We hung out afterwards and chatted a bit with Gary. Nice man. He was in party mode for sure. And the guy who was the lead singer of the Kingsmen was there -- yes, the guy who sang "Louie Louie". He was in the audience. Apparently they're old friends. Don't know if he lives around Toronto or Southern Ontario, or if he drove up from Buffalo, or what. Kind of odd.

Anyway, one more gig under my belt. I think this was #10. And I walked away with my first pay as a musician -- $20! Good thing we didn't bring a horn section. Of course, I wasn't doing it for the money, but it's cool that I can now officially call myself a professional musician!

On the down side, I think I'm coming down with something. Been developing a deep-chest cough over the past few days and today I'm getting aches and chills. Thankfully, it held off until after the gig, but we'll see if I make it to the first night of ball hockey tomorrow night.