this auction house place is growin’ on me, i gotta say.
i’ve played here with jd malone, and almost a year ago to the day with john…in what was, as i recall, the first gig i played with the guys.
this time, i brought a little more firepower with me, for one thing – the first gig i had done with the princeton, but this time i brought the new single-twelve AC30 that i’d just bought a short while ago from dennis rambo. i think that rick bell would’ve preferred that i had stuck with the fender, but i was letting JL use the princetons and the deluxe reverb was in the shop…so the AC30 it was. it’s a closed-back amp, but it was was sitting right in front of him, so he probably was gettin’ it pretty good.
it sounded great with the 12 string electric, and for the most part with the baritone guitar as well…for the lap steel, not so much, i didn’t think. then again, i didn’t spend a lot of time trying to dial it in – i got it into a sweet spot for the room, and let it ride where it was for the show. i’ll play with it a little at some point, but it wasn’t gonna happen this night.
tonight, we also had john’s brother-in-arms from the hooters, fran smith, sitting in for a couple of beatles songs at the end of the night (so i kinda felt compelled to bring the AC30 for that, too…i even brought along my epiphone casino for a little added authenticity).
tonight was about as no-frills as it gets with this band – we’re pretty well rehearsed at this point, we’ve all gotten a pretty good feel of one another, and we’re finally playing the songs without having to think about them as much as we may have had to in the past…which is a good thing. john is a natural bandleader – it’s a shame that his rappore with the audience doesn’t get to shine in that other band that he’s in, but it sure does when he does his solo shows…he’s a pleasure to work with as a bandleader, and he develops a connection with the audience from early on in the show that’s a pleasure to behold.
...from the rear view mirror 