i had my doubts about this show, but i’m happy to say i was completely off base. i had thought it was going to be a glorified in-store performance, but these guys know what they’re doing, and they’ve got a nice thing going. ambrosia, peter tork, steve forbert…there are a LOT of national, touring acts that play the record collector, and the vibe there is much, much cooler than i had assumed it would be. this place is a real record store…not part of an aisle at best buy, or a kiosk at the mall…and randy and his people know what they’re doing…both from the perspective of putting a live show together, and
it was clear during load-in and set up that this would probably be the lowest volume we’d ever played at, though…which was fine with me, since i’d brought my gibson “toaster” amp, and i wasn’t about to go head-to-head with john and his blackface deluxe reverb with that thing. 🙂 the lower volume setting actually works really well for this band, though – i could hear everyone really well, and with limited monitors. space was somewhat tight, but john and i shared a guitar stand, and that saved some floor space on the backside, and we managed to tuck my amp against the wall just off to one side of ricks’ keyboard rig…so the only thing i really had to make space for was my pedalboard, and we were good to go.
we set up, completed soundcheck, and…well, we waited for folks to show up.
and we waited some more…and we waited.
well, as it turned out, it was – far and away – the smallest audience we played to in all the time we’d been doing these shows around the release of john’s album. it wasn’t single digits or anything, but it was certainly a lot less than we’d been accustomed to. that, combined with the general vibe of the place we were playing – definitely gave the show an odd vibe, from the perspective of the band. but the folks who were there were so great, and the welcome that we got from the folks at the record collector was so generous, that we overcame that pretty quickly.
so, yeah…i’m lovin’ me some record collector after this show. would LOVE to go back.
...from the rear view mirror 