Gig report

[Danzilla]

I played at a festival on Saturday in Westminster, MD. Got to hear some bands with whom I've become friends, and some I hadn't heard before or in a long while. Thought I'd give a bass-player's perspective on the sound. Note: All bass rigs were mic'ed; for some reason the sound company doesn't prefer to use DI's. I've worked with Sol Sound before, so I don't questions them. They get good results.

 

WD HANY (www.wdhany.com) opened up the set. How to describe their sound? Alt-pop with Brit-rock and eclectic influences? I really enjoyed their set for several reasons- Laura has a great voice, Dennis is a very tasteful guitarist with an excellent sound (and he pulled out a Dobro!), Carl drums with passion and dynamics, and Jeff plays bass a lot like... me!!! He played a MV Pedula Buzz bass (4st) through an old Carvin head('80's? pre-redline) with a Carvin 4x10 and 1x15. Nice trebley bouncy lines; if he didn't need to play a root, he didn't. Modern sounding bass, bright yet full, well finger-picked lines with the occassional slap. Good set all around.

 

Brethren- forgive me for the next two artists (and find a way to forgive the one after that). I backed up folk-singer Andrea Olivier on... acoustic guitar. It was a last minute thing (my drummer volunteered me/us). Yes, I could have played bass, but didn't because... I'm playing guitar for now with...

Awestruck (www.awsetruck-band.com) Yes, I would prefer to be playing bass. But ya gotta do what ya gotta do. While we're still auditioning players, we had to White-Tripes* it- vocals, drums, guitar. Angi's voice is amazing, that's why I stick with her. Al's a great drummer, and always has my back. He reads me very well. Me? Well, I WOULD have like to bring my Carvin/Genz Benz stack; but ran my Gibson ES335 and/or Hamer Duotone through several effects, and split the signal to my silverface Fender Bassman Ten handling lows & mids, and a Roland Supercube handling the highs. There were a few moments when the sound was nice & thick and boomy, and you almost thought there was a bass player... almost. But aside from our upcoming auditions, we met a guitarist who liked our set and is interested in auditioning. Hope lives- I shall thunder again soon.

 

Joe-el Curtis sang to tracks. Oh well.

 

Up next was the goth-metal rock of Dwell (www.dwellonline.com) I've gotten to know their guitarists & bassist rather well over the last year; good folks. Rachel Dundon has improved immensely over the last few months since I last saw them. She was proud of her new axe: a Fernandez P-bass she tricked out with a SD Quarter pounder, Bad Ass II, new tuners (Grovers?), diamondplate pickguard, and skull knobs. Yes, the rest of it is black. She ran through a Carvin Redline 600 head, and a Peavey 1820 cab. Nice thick sound, just a bit of growl (I expected a bit more). Up near the stage, she had a great tone; further back, she could have been louder in the mains. Present, but not as domineering as I would have liked. She held it nice and steady whatever the pace, even when drummer Jeremy Lopez went overboard. She's got a great future if she keeps progressing at this rate (she's only 16!)

 

To fill in a last minute cancelation, the Harvest band did a set. Took too long to transition; if I were running it, they would have had to cut their set in half from their set up time. But I'm not running it so it just ran late. Didn't meet the bassist (Justin? I think). He played a Fender Aerodyne Jazz into an Ampeg B2 head, an SWR 4x10, and Peavey 4x10. The Peavey was mic'ed. Probably the best tone I heard that day; further up in the mix, too. If only the playing had been... well... you know.

 

LIGHT used the same rig (don't know who's it was), but they're bass guy (Dave Cook, I think?) played a Tobias 5er. Still a very nice tone, a bit more upper mids. Most of his playing was better. But seeing as he's only been in the band a month or two, I'll cut him some slack. Classic rock style, a couple Allman Bros sounding originals. And top it all off with my friend Gio Liquifatto's B3 playing- pretty tasty. They did one of Gio's originals, which I had also done when he played with me in Redeem The Day a couple years back. Well, I liked my bass line better. But it was good to hear it again.

 

Headlining the even was Unsearchable Riches. (www.unsearchablerches.com). Dave Corbin ran his MM Stingray through an Ampeg SVT(4?) and Ampeg 8X10. Yeah. He'd been using a Spector for years, but the Stingray's no slouch and he had a great tone. Several, actually. A couple full, fat, rockin' tones, and a couple songs with the treble rolled off for more deep end. It was the first time I'd seen them with their new drummer; the two were locked in tight and he walked around Jeremy's Ben-Folds-ish piano wonderfully. And when he needed to bring the rock, it was there. Nice guy to talk with, too. He said he hated the sound he was getting, but I had no complaints.

 

So yea for another outdoor festival. If I'm in it again next year, come ... whatever, I WILL be playing bass again.

Now wake up and get back to posting.. or work.

 

* Yes, that was intentional. Not a WS fan. Sorry.

[Tom Capasso]

Thanks for the report. You gave a bit more than what we'd get from the audience, and that's cool.

 

It sounds like you've got lots of friends in the music community - very nice !!

 

Tom