11.17.2010, FTW

I never -- repeat, _never_ -- plug in my rig unless it's on the gig, but I did yesterday, and 'twas a good thing, because Mr. Twin now makes crackling noises whenever I hit a low E on the Epi (which makes it unusable for Stoogeaphilia) and an Ab on the E string on the Tele. My drummer from college thinks it's preamp tubes, Teague sez speaker, and James the amp dude says it could be a loose tube socket. The Stoogeband is hard on equipment. Teague has three cymbals he needs to replace, all from playing with us.

Luckily for me, James plays in a band that uses the same prac room as the li'l Stoogeband, so I'll just take it up there and leave it for him the next time we practice (assuming one can be scheduled in December between Hembree's work and Ray's other band commitments). Even luckier, I was planning to have lunch with Sir Marlin Von Bungy that day, and Marlin very generously offered me the loan of his amp for the Stooge show at Mambo's last night. (In the event, I wound up borrowing Marlin's head and Mike Bandy's 2x12 Marshall combo that he uses for speakers only. Thanks, fellas!)

The gig was for a taping of Mambo's podcast with the venerable John Rody of "Labella and..." KZEW fame from back in the day. We committed the tactical error of playing two three-song sets, rather than the single six-song set we'd originally planned, which afforded all the folks who'd come to see us the opportunity to leave before the second time we played. Feh. There was a lot more standing around and waiting than I like, but it was good to see #1 Stoogeband fan Amy Kadleck, Johnny Wenger from china kills girls, Branden from the Dangits, Torry from 1919 Hemphill (whose band we're gonna go see at 1919 next Wednesday), and even a couple of my work peeps from the market. Mambo's is a good sounding room, and the sound dude (who remembers us from the Fairmount) is top-notch. He gave us the best stage monitor mix I've ever had before Hembree told him to take everything out but the vocals.

We played "TV Eye" to souncheck, then a "Ray's choice" set consisting of "Loose," "Ain't Nothing To Do," and "Real Cool Time" to start, picking up later with "Neat Neat Neat," "Not Right," "Kill From the Heart," and (bonus!) "Nonalignment Pact." Undoubtedly there will be online A/V artifacts at whatever point the podcast tech team get done editing. And we might have a gig out of the deal; the sound dude took my number and we talked about a date in late January. Last gig of the year, which leaves me curiously unsatisfied, although I think we played well considering we hadn't all seen each other in a month.