Alembic Holiday gigs?

[edwardofhuncote]

Played the last official gig of 2016 yesterday evening, at Chaos Mountain, a local micro-brewery with a pretty good-sized music venue.


This one was with my side-gig, the Harwell-Grice Band... I'm the substitute bass player, but probably play with them more than their regular guy does. I really enjoy playing with these guys... a couple of them are old friends of mine, and for bonus points, they all get along well too... no dinner theater or egomania to deal with. They work for a booking agent who keeps them fairly busy, plus they pick up a bunch of private stuff. The music is pretty good too... they do a kinda' newgrassy take on rock covers, with a good helpin' of Grateful Dead and The Band thrown in. (prime hunting ground for my Alembics!)


Anyway, it's been a good year, for me and the Persuader 5-string. Here's where we did business last night... note the clutter on top of my amp. Aspirin, check. Goody's Headache Powders, check. Oatmeal/Raisin CliffBar, yep. Pack of Cinnamon Dentyne, go. Sugar-free PowerAde for chaser, gotcha' covered. Other than the essentials, there's an MXR chorus and compressor pedal in the chain, my Minotaur strap, (hat-tip Jazzyvee) and one of those new breakaway safety cables. Let's play! 



Frontman Josh Grice, (rhythm guitar and lead vocals) committed a photo-bomb dressed as the Gingerbread Man. Josh, by-the-way, is why I made up those breakaway guitar cables. He's like the Tasmanian Devil on a Red Bull binge.


*Oh yeah, the Chaos Brew Crew has a wookie guarding the kegs.

[jacko]

Looks fun 

Graeme

[David Houck]

Nice picture of the bass and the bassplayer.

I'm pretty sure the bassplayers' union has a rule about doing gigs with a singer dressed as a gingerbread man.

[edwardofhuncote]

Josh is a hoot-n-a-half... he can do a mash-up of Old Joe Clark and Gin-n-Juice, and often goes further than that based upon the demographic of whatever audience we're playing to.    Gabe, a multi-instrumentalist/singer is a huge Dead fan, so I get some of that in too. Two of the other regular go-to 'subs' are guys I've gigged with for 20+ years, so it's like a reunion every so often.

Seriously, all those guys are just generally fun to be around... I truly look forward to gigging with them again next year. 

Anyone else got a gig over the Holidays? A combination of players from a couple bluegrass and oldtyme bands I play with are going to put on a set of Carols at the local Rescue Mission on Christmas Eve-eve... tough room, but rewarding in and of itself.

[edwardofhuncote]

Just bumping last year's thread...

I've got a pretty decent schedule of Holiday gigs again this year, most of which are traditional carols where I'm bowing the upright as part of a string section, but beginning next weekend our annual Christmas Band is starting a run of shows that is a contemporary (and 100% original) take on the classic "Nine Lessons and Carols" . The show runs about 1 hr, 20 min. most of which I'll be on bass guitar for, right next a percussionist I really enjoy playing with. For the congregational hymns, I'll switch to upright. Wardrobe change! 

Then Harwell-Grice Band has a big Christmas Party to play in mid-December hosted by a local micro-brewery, (kind of their hometown crowd) which will wind up a very good year. 

What are you guys up to this year?

[the_home]

Love your annual report. Oddly enough, my Dead cover assembly (the Dead Fellows) regularly slips into Gin & Juice from any number of opening tunes.

[edwardofhuncote]

Anyone playing any this year? I had my one at-bat last weekend.

The Harwell-Grice guys are having a little Christmas/Holiday Season get-together tonight I plan to drop-in on, maybe jam a few tunes, but won't stay for the party. (working this weekend, thru Christmas...)

[jazzyvee]

We have the same minotaur strap. I use mine for my strat.

[edwardofhuncote]

I believe it was you who turned me onto the Minotaur straps, Jazzy. I still have both of them, but I have been using a heavier-padded model Minotaur on my Alembics. 

For 2020, (and probably beyond) I'm looking at going strapless with Rich's Hover Harness to get the weight completely off my shoulders and upper back. It works, just feels awkward at first having the bass kinda' suspended in front of you. I'm having to accept that there will have to be some compromises made if I'm going to continue playing. That may be the least of them.
 

[StefanieJones]

We played last weekend for a pre-Christmas show, and playing again on NYE to close out the year. Was a pretty good year as far as shows go.
Onward and upward!

[edwardofhuncote]

Fun thread to revisit.


Anybody play one this year? New Year's parties? I really miss the HGB guys. The music and the hang too. Fun guys. [sigh]. Maybe 2024.

[jazzyvee]

I believe it was you who turned me onto the Minotaur straps, Jazzy. I still have both of them, but I have been using a heavier-padded model Minotaur on my Alembics. 

For 2020, (and probably beyond) I'm looking at going strapless with Rich's Hover Harness to get the weight completely off my shoulders and upper back. It works, just feels awkward at first having the bass kinda' suspended in front of you. I'm having to accept that there will have to be some compromises made if I'm going to continue playing. That may be the least of them.
 

I am disappointed with the Minotaur straps as the ones i bought thinking they were real leather are not. i think one of them is. However now have had some custom ones made by a company called Pinegrove.