helliott
April 19th, 2009, 07:42 PM
We've been working for nearly a year now on getting a new band together. Had lots of promise, but personnel changes kept it from happening. In the last three months, found a lineup that works, and we hit practice hard. Named ourselves The Hammer Daddies, in part a tribute to our city, which is affectionately called The Hammer. Blues rock, classic rock mix, with a tilt on the blues side (Tinsley Ellis, Otis Rush, Fab T-birds, Dr. Wu, plus classic rockers like Slow Ride, Green River and American Woman.)
So, got our first gig, set up and fired it up. Our first song in front of an already full house (albeit a small club) is a JJ Cale take on Call Me The Breeze. We vamp into it on a funky E7, and stick for a bit to ensure the groove is there. It is. Our singer starts the vocal, and he's there in the first line, then gone. The PA power amp is crapping in and out. We fake it through, and try one more song before taking an unscheduled and apologetic break to fix the problem. Our base player has a concert style rig, so he got the brilliant idea of using the bass head for the PA, running vocals through that, and bass too. We could do the show, the but powerful base lines were no longer on the stage, but through the elevated PA speakers. Worked OK, but the rhythm vibe between bass and drums was missing, which made it tougher than it would have been otherwise.
Got it together, got very solid anecdotal reviews, and got through that rocky first night, and we're now focusing on doing some demos for club recruitment gigs.
There's nothing like a real band working as a real team -- that's what got me into this thing to begin with 40 years ago. Well, that and girls.
Pix of the first show at www.hammerdaddies.com/index.php (our home page, my tubby self on the right). I'm the one with the tangerine Strat. Pix of the gig (me at left) at www.hammerdaddies.com/pictures.php
So, got our first gig, set up and fired it up. Our first song in front of an already full house (albeit a small club) is a JJ Cale take on Call Me The Breeze. We vamp into it on a funky E7, and stick for a bit to ensure the groove is there. It is. Our singer starts the vocal, and he's there in the first line, then gone. The PA power amp is crapping in and out. We fake it through, and try one more song before taking an unscheduled and apologetic break to fix the problem. Our base player has a concert style rig, so he got the brilliant idea of using the bass head for the PA, running vocals through that, and bass too. We could do the show, the but powerful base lines were no longer on the stage, but through the elevated PA speakers. Worked OK, but the rhythm vibe between bass and drums was missing, which made it tougher than it would have been otherwise.
Got it together, got very solid anecdotal reviews, and got through that rocky first night, and we're now focusing on doing some demos for club recruitment gigs.
There's nothing like a real band working as a real team -- that's what got me into this thing to begin with 40 years ago. Well, that and girls.
Pix of the first show at www.hammerdaddies.com/index.php (our home page, my tubby self on the right). I'm the one with the tangerine Strat. Pix of the gig (me at left) at www.hammerdaddies.com/pictures.php