Amp Disaster
It could happen to you.
I was fortunate enough to have not one, not two, but three gigs last weekend. This quantity of performance used to be a normal affair. These days, with my post-pandemic life in the North State, I would consider three gigs in one weekend a damn phenomenon.
Grooving out last weekend with saxophonist Greg Takemoto and drummer Ross Perry at an outdoor gig in Redding, California.
One thing about playing up here is that nobody seems to care about a jazz bassist showing up with an electric bass. I used to play jazz on the upright exclusively until I cooked my main plucking finger. One night at a jam session in Oakland I played for 3.5 hours straight with no breaks. No other bassists showed up and everyone was having such a good time. I didn’t want to shut the party down so I kept going. At about the 3 hour mark my right index finger decided to stop cooperating. It hasn’t been the same since.
These days I play the electric bass with a pick to keep my index finger happy. I usually plug into a Mesa Subway D-800 bass amplifier. Its not my favorite piece of gear but with 800 watts and a small profile, it’s great for having enough portable power on tap for almost any gig. Or at least it was great.
I brought this amp to all three gigs last week. On the first gig, it worked like a charm. On the second gig, it worked like a charm. On the third gig, it ceased to work at all.
I couldn’t believe it. Right when I turned the amp on it had a fizzy sound. “This can’t be good” I thought. The more I picked my strings the more the volume started to drop. Within one minute of turning the amp on, it was dead. In that moment I would have given a speech in the nude to get the amp working. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more embarrassing than showing up to a gig with broken gear.
Luckily, the gig was close to my house. I was able to run home and grab my little Acoustic Image upright bass amp. I’ve played hundreds if not thousands of gigs with it and it never fails. The gig went really well after that. The band was smoking, people where dancing and it was an all around great time.
Here’s a couple of tracks I’ve been into over the past couple of weeks.
Drift Lab’s Chatterland is what a number one hit single would sound like in my own personal alternate universe. It is so simple, catchy, and effective. Something about the sounds in the intro make my four year old son laugh every time. This is fusion that anyone can get behind.
Gates from Waxamilion’s Hidden Realms EP is a contemporary track that feels like flying through the air. I listened to this EP on repeat during a rough couple of flights in and out of Denver earlier this month (tornado weather) and it somehow made the turbulence bearable and actually kind of fun.