It's been an interesting and exhilarating month.
Last Winter, our drummer Curtis Leippi went on a mini-tour with local nuvo-rockers Louder Than Love. One of the things I enjoy about working with Curtis is his uniquely gorgeous drum tone - and it's a tone that can be recorded and live-mic'd with ease. As he travelled to various gigs with LTL, Curtis dragged his own drums into every room; that is, until he got to Nelson, BC. At that particular venue, the band that was to share the stage with LTL had a kit set up on stage that made Mr. Leippi stand up and take notice. As I'm not a gearhead where drums are concerned, all I can tell you is that it was a beautiful set of DW's (aka Drum Workshop) owned by a Mr. Kane Enders of the band My Pet Lion. That night, Curtis didn't have to haul his own drums into the bar - he used the DW's and loved every minute of it. He also got better-acquainted with Kane.
Fast forward many months, and My Pet Lion have moved their base of operations to Vancouver. We are offered the opportunity to share the bill with MPL on Nov 30 at the Princeton, and we accept wholeheartedly. One little snag - we haven't got a bassist available for the gig that night. Trev is pretty busy elsewhere these days. This is typically a busy season for cover bands, and cover bands tend to pay the bills much better than mid-week originals' gigs like ours.
I ought to have been worried. While our material is second-nature to me, of course (since a: I wrote it, and b: I'm pretty comfy on an electric bass), most bassists find it a bit of a handful to learn - it's often very counter-intuitive and busy, and almost never 'backgroundy'. We had a jam and run-through of a few tunes with local bassist/vocalist extraordinaire Ms Kirby Green (she of GB Roots fame), but with her busy upcoming schedule of performing and recording, she didn't think she could do the Mike Luno Band tunes justice in the mere two weeks before the gig. I next tried Curtis' bass-and-drums phenom roomie Issah Contractor (check out his stuff on YouTube, by the way - it will floor you!), but as expected, his schedule's pretty crazy these days too. Perhaps if I had any practical intelligence, I should have been deeply worried at this point, but I wasn't. This might have been mostly due to the fact that Issah had recommended his bassist buddy Scott Tucker for the gig. I phoned him up immediately and -hot damn - he was available to play! He could also read music well, which would be essential now that we were less than a week away from the performance date. I emailed the recordings and charts, and arranged to rehearse the band the night before the gig.
Again, I should probably have been very worried - waiting til the eve of the gig to meet our bassist? Yet, I just couldn't find impetus to panic. Probably had something to do with the impression I had from Scott when I spoke to him by phone, and the fact that he'd been recommended by Issah. In my experience, everyone who shares a stage with Issah is a stellar musician, without exception. I slept easy.
Through logic, intuition or dumb luck, I was completely justified in my calm - Scott was a musical monster (in the best sense of the word) and the gig was pure pleasure. Curtis worked his usual musical magic, and I was getting along unusually well with my guitar tone that night. As an added bonus, we appeared to go over quite nicely with the regular Princeton Pub clientele in addition to our fellow musicians and each band's following. I felt thoroughly inspired as I loaded up my gear in the first hour of December.
As I said onstage that night, I feel singularly lucky to be able to share the stage with players like Curtis and Scott. Making music with Kirby, Issah and Trev is always a sublime and unique pleasure too - and each in wildly different ways. Perks of the job in this town, my friends. Inspiration on tap.
Last Winter, our drummer Curtis Leippi went on a mini-tour with local nuvo-rockers Louder Than Love. One of the things I enjoy about working with Curtis is his uniquely gorgeous drum tone - and it's a tone that can be recorded and live-mic'd with ease. As he travelled to various gigs with LTL, Curtis dragged his own drums into every room; that is, until he got to Nelson, BC. At that particular venue, the band that was to share the stage with LTL had a kit set up on stage that made Mr. Leippi stand up and take notice. As I'm not a gearhead where drums are concerned, all I can tell you is that it was a beautiful set of DW's (aka Drum Workshop) owned by a Mr. Kane Enders of the band My Pet Lion. That night, Curtis didn't have to haul his own drums into the bar - he used the DW's and loved every minute of it. He also got better-acquainted with Kane.
Fast forward many months, and My Pet Lion have moved their base of operations to Vancouver. We are offered the opportunity to share the bill with MPL on Nov 30 at the Princeton, and we accept wholeheartedly. One little snag - we haven't got a bassist available for the gig that night. Trev is pretty busy elsewhere these days. This is typically a busy season for cover bands, and cover bands tend to pay the bills much better than mid-week originals' gigs like ours.
I ought to have been worried. While our material is second-nature to me, of course (since a: I wrote it, and b: I'm pretty comfy on an electric bass), most bassists find it a bit of a handful to learn - it's often very counter-intuitive and busy, and almost never 'backgroundy'. We had a jam and run-through of a few tunes with local bassist/vocalist extraordinaire Ms Kirby Green (she of GB Roots fame), but with her busy upcoming schedule of performing and recording, she didn't think she could do the Mike Luno Band tunes justice in the mere two weeks before the gig. I next tried Curtis' bass-and-drums phenom roomie Issah Contractor (check out his stuff on YouTube, by the way - it will floor you!), but as expected, his schedule's pretty crazy these days too. Perhaps if I had any practical intelligence, I should have been deeply worried at this point, but I wasn't. This might have been mostly due to the fact that Issah had recommended his bassist buddy Scott Tucker for the gig. I phoned him up immediately and -hot damn - he was available to play! He could also read music well, which would be essential now that we were less than a week away from the performance date. I emailed the recordings and charts, and arranged to rehearse the band the night before the gig.
Again, I should probably have been very worried - waiting til the eve of the gig to meet our bassist? Yet, I just couldn't find impetus to panic. Probably had something to do with the impression I had from Scott when I spoke to him by phone, and the fact that he'd been recommended by Issah. In my experience, everyone who shares a stage with Issah is a stellar musician, without exception. I slept easy.
Through logic, intuition or dumb luck, I was completely justified in my calm - Scott was a musical monster (in the best sense of the word) and the gig was pure pleasure. Curtis worked his usual musical magic, and I was getting along unusually well with my guitar tone that night. As an added bonus, we appeared to go over quite nicely with the regular Princeton Pub clientele in addition to our fellow musicians and each band's following. I felt thoroughly inspired as I loaded up my gear in the first hour of December.
As I said onstage that night, I feel singularly lucky to be able to share the stage with players like Curtis and Scott. Making music with Kirby, Issah and Trev is always a sublime and unique pleasure too - and each in wildly different ways. Perks of the job in this town, my friends. Inspiration on tap.