Ed of H gigs; 2022

[edwardofhuncote]

Soundcheck and last rehearsal at Elmwood Park Amphitheater... more rain. Stagehands and the show grip-folks are scrambling around, getting stuff ready.


No amp... no room for one. There'll be seven of us on this tiny rolling stage. Me and C14588 are totally DI tomorrow.

[rv_bass]

Looks like a nice venue, have fun! 

[edwardofhuncote]

It is an extremely nice venue. I've played here many times, but this is my first time on the new amphitheater stage. We got through the early matinee show this afternoon without any glitches, and the Ties Band was invited to hang out with the Dancers at their Studio across town for afternoon lunch break. We're back on at 7 pm. My bass sounds MASSIVE in the house. The rest of the soundtrack for Ties (other than the portions we play) is Edgar Meyer, Yo Yo Ma, and Mark O'Connor's Appalachian Waltz, a tough act to follow anytime.

Maybe some pictures later tonight or tomorrow. They are absolutely, positively about No Video though. Which I'm okay with, personally.
 

[David Houck]

That's a really small stage.

[hammer]

That "stage" is just for Greg and his basses.  Apparently, he likes to mic them or sing from a variety of standing and sitting positions 

[growlypants]

Wow!  Quite a nice venue, sir!!  Good luck, enjoy the show, and, if I was in the audience, I'd do a double take on that magnificent bass you have there!!!

[edwardofhuncote]

Thanks guys. It went over very well, and the Southwest Virginia Ballet's Artistic Director is working on having us back for another live performance of Ties this-coming Fall.

That little stage had 7 of us on it. I went direct... they put me in the wedges enough to hear myself, but I'm not used to that, so it wasn't comfortable. Sounded fine. I was really thankful to Alembic for those white holly sidelines!

Can't really post much else... like I said, they were adamant about no video or photos other than their internal people for promotional stuff, and I totally get why. You have to see Ties live to really appreciate what is going on... seeing a snippet or two on YouTube would be doing such a huge disservice to the rest of the cast, and the whole storyline, I can't even describe how much you'd miss. There's one scene so dark and emotional right before we go on, that I literally can't watch it and still play. It's that intense. Pedro Szalay wrote a humdinger of a story, and didn't want it cut into pieces posted all over the internet, and he thought enough about our music to include us in his soundtrack almost 15 years ago, so... I gotta' respect that. Getting to go play in nice places, now with the third generation to perform this show... blows our mind.

[pauldo]

😎

[edwardofhuncote]

Harwell-Grice Band had a nice time playing for The Penthouse atop Center In The Square in downtown Roanoke last night. It would have been nice to be outdoors on the deck for this one, but the weather here has been awful this week with violent thunderstorms and heavy downpours. Our hostess Caroline (a major Deadhead btw...) has this fantastic venue here in town and promoted it well, so we had a good turnout too. https://m.facebook.com/penthouseroanoke/?__tn__=C-R We gave her an extra-long set adding some of our better Dead tunes to finish out the night. It's possible someone caught us warming up Eyes Of The World just goofing around at soundcheck. (dontcha' hate it when the cellphones come out at times like that?!)

Anyway, The Penthouse has a nice glass room where we played high-n-dry last night. Former HGB bassist and bandmember emeritus P.J. George joined us on fiddle. Nice to have P.J. play with us when he has time. I am very much enjoying the reset of 89P-5559 with the TI Jazz Rounds this year. There's just no way to make that bass sound bad. It just gets better every night. Or maybe I just appreciate it more.

*the building I have superimposed a little rose on here... that's the rooftop of the 1893 Building... it houses Fret Mill Music Co. where I used to work. The street in the foreground is Wall Street, and that's the City Market Building. Just a little bit of Roanoke City trivia, in case you ever visit.

[edwardofhuncote]

2022 is halfway through, and Harwell-Grice Band returns to our hometown stompin ground tonight. The story of how we ended up there tonight is post-worthy... maybe... in a never-say-die weekend warrior's gig diary.

So we had booked a little pre-Independence Day party tonight at a rather trendy club down on the lake, (Smith Mountain Lake, if you're from here, is The Lake... I reckon everybody has one; that's ours) Anyway, they closed the road to it for bridge work or something. How ya' like that?! The only way in/out of the place, and they shut down the road, this weekend. That must be one heluva bridge. Hey, maybe we dodged a full-on band tragedy.

Well, there's more than one joint in this County to drink and dance and light sparklers, so they found another venue over in Rocky Mount. I didn't get the whole story straight when Josh called, because he was either really excited or aggravated, or hopped-up on energy drinks and wasn't annunciating well, but either the ceiling fell, or the floor collapsed, possibly some combination of both had rendered the place un-gig-able. Me, I like to look at the road not taken sometimes. Like, the ceiling falls after soundcheck, but before downbeat. In my mind, that definitely sucks more. Maybe more than a sketchy bridge on the lake.

So at the happy end of it, the fine folks over at Chaos Mountain Brewing Co. always big supporters of our little troupe, opened up their place for us to raise a ruckus tonight. Josh and Gabe got the word out to everybody else, and the party is [ON]. My Persuader 5-string and Ol' 621 are next to the door on ready-alert.

[David Houck]

Enjoy!

[edwardofhuncote]

Another one in the journal. There's just nothing like an Alembic bass through an Alembic preamp and a big enough rig to make your britches leg shake. Yessir... Ol' 621 gets it done. Nothing calamitous to report. Just another night with the guys. Gabe was absent, special guests were in. Callaway, Virginia party-ied like it was July 2nd. Cause, you know, alcohol and fireworks, they go so well together. 

I had a weird moment after soundcheck, and it suddenly hit me... it's 2022. Me and Ernie here, we first met and stepped onstage together 30 years ago this Summer in a short-lived band called Clockwork. Later, I got occupied with another project that turned into a full-time gig, and he did too, and we both hit the road with different bands but often crossed paths. I also introduced Stewart (on banjo here) to Ernie and their guitarist at that time, along with the guy who would be my replacement on bass. They went on to play for several years under another name. (Second Helpin') Here we are, three decades later... still at it. Josh and Gabe... they were just little kids when all that stuff was goin' down.

[David Houck]

 

[rv_bass]

Looks like fun, great you guys worked it out!

[edwardofhuncote]

I'd been wondering how I would deal with this day when it inevitably came. I have subbed out all my gigs for the rest of this year. This deal with my hands going to sleep, it ain't going away, and the treatment that was working just isn't anymore. So I'm back on the merry-go-'round again. Go see the imaging people; so I can go see the neurology people; so I can go see the pain management people who sent me down there in the first place. Round and 'round. Based on the answers I gave on the last questionnaire, The Almighty Insurance Co. decided it was time we try something else. I kind of agree with them, but the timetable sucks! It'll be this Fall/Winter before anything gets actually done, and I see anyone.   


1. Can you dress yourself?
2. Are you able to do household tasks?
3. Are you able to work?
4. On a scale of 1-10, what is your pain level?
5. On a scale of 1-10, what degree of relief did you get from...?


There's about five pages of this line of questioning. They don't ask, and don't care if you can play music, regardless of how much of your life it is.


So I hung it up with the guys, at least until I can play again, and halfway feel what I'm doing. It wasn't fair to them, and I was tired of feeling like this. So I'm done performing for a while. I'll sure miss it. The band is on this weekend. I'm currently being replaced by the two guys I replaced in Harwell-Grice Band, so that's good I guess. Maybe one of them will settle back into the gig. If that was it, well... I've had a great time.


 


[ON HOLD]