Gig Report - Taste of Chicago 2009

Yesterday afternoon the band I play with, "U-Godda-Wanna" played downtown Chicago at this years Taste of Chicago. What a great afternoon in the city. We had beautiful weather and we had friends in 2 other bands that were playing later at the Taste which was nice to see. A little comradre and support amongst local musicians.

Going back a little bit, last month the other guitar player Tom S. mentioned that he wanted the Taste gig to be "perfect" so I made sure I knew my parts backwards & forwards. I practiced and practiced. Practiced playing with stage moves and between Friday and Saturday I ran through everything again 4 times. I even ran through just my lead parts prior to leaving the house in the morning because I woke up early with pre-gig adrenaline coarsing through my veins and obviously A.D.D. because I had to do "something". Don't know what, but something. Attention diverting from double checking I have everything to practicing my leads.

I have never played a gig that was like this. A "back line" was provided so a couple of weeks ago we received a list of equipment (amps, keyboards ect) that was available for use. You tell them what gear you want and it'll be on stage mic'ed up waiting for you to just plug in. I don't use a distortion pedal because I rely on the pre-amps in my guitar rig to provide the distortion so I picked a Mesa Boogie amp and the other guitar player chose a Fender. I stopped by the stage on Friday afternoon because I work downtown and took a half day off to scope out the stage set up. Our drummer has been in a wheelchair all his life and so it was in the contract that he was to be provided a wheel chair ramp up to the stage. He also had clearance to use his own drum kit due to him using an electronic pad for the kick drum. He was concerned on how big the drum riser was so I asked one of the stage hands who gave me the info. Funny thing was this weekend was the "cross town classic" between the Chicago White Sox (south side) and the Chicago Cubs (north side). I of course was wearing a Sox jersey with "Hagar 55" on the back (Sammy Hagar). Obviously the stage hands were both Cubs fans (the hats they wore gave that away) because they made sure I knew I was wearing the wrong jersey. "Your playing on Sunday? You know I would help you...but your a Sox fan". Then they proceed to tell me how the Sox cheated their way to the World Series win a couple years ago...then the Bartman incident...on and on, dude I just need to know how big the riser is (8x8 12" high). Done I'm outta here. Note to self, don't wear any Sox gear on Sunday otherwise my gear probably wont work. By the way the Sox won 6-0 on Sunday !!!

So Sunday morning my wife was flying in from a seminar and got home just in time for us to drive down together to the gig. Pulled up to the coned off area behind the stage to unload my gear (guitars, stands, effects unit, pedals). I walked up the stage ramp and the band was up there setting up their stuff. There was my Mesa Boogie amp all set to go. Nice. I laid out my pedal board and pedals. I'm second from center today? Ususally I'm off on the right and the 2 singers are up front. I asked Kevin, do you want to be more center? He said nope, fine the way it was. Cool thanks!! I had a lot of lead playing time today and now I'll be front and center to do it too. Sweet!! I asked for an extension cord or something to provide power to my pedals and a crewman ran a junction box up front for me. Hmmm...maybe I should ask for a Latte now?...don't push it. I plugged into the amp and turned it on. It sounded REALLY muddy to what my usual guitar rig sounds like. So I made some adjustments to get it to the best I could. Another problem was the volume. The volume was either low or REALLY LOUD. Too loud for "stage volume" and there was no in between. I think there must have been a problem with the volume pot. Great now what do I do? So I left the volume low and pulled the amp closer to me on stage. Oh well, I prepared myself mentally for just this type of situation. I told myself that no matter what happens equipment wise, thats out of my control...just play. And thats what I did. I just hoped that my guitar sounded better in the audience than it did on stage. Turns out it did. My wife said we sounded great and our ususal soundman was there too. I told him about everything being provided and how bad it sounded on stage and he told me that a good sound engineer with good mics and equipment can take a make a band sound great even if they have horrible gear. He wasn't kidding, I'm learning more and more as I go.

After I was all set up my wife came up on stage before we started to look out and around. It was cool. I said to her "this is awesome". I hope to play bigger stages like this in the future. Kinda feels like I'm opening up for a national act. The show went off well, minor mistakes that we covered well. When we were done the crew helped us break everything down and the next band was set up within 1/2 hour. I just hauled all my gear to our car, checked into our hotel and went back to the Taste for some lunch and to check out the other bands. Then we went out for dinner, stayed at the Hard Rock hotel and between all the walking (5 miles at least) and the wine I crashed by 9pm. So much for "trashing the hotel room" after the gig...I was just too tired.

You can see all my pics on my MySpace & Facebook pages because I can't seem to figure out how to upload some of them here.

Next Gig: (New Band) w/Grand Theft Audio @ O'Malley's in Alsip IL this Thursday 7/2. Its Open Mic night and we are scheduled to perform from 9pm-10:30pm.

Next Ugoddawanna Gig: 7/25 "All Ages Fan Appreciation Night" at the VFW Hall in Tinley Park from 7pm - Midnight. After 20 years Ugoddawanna is calling it quits and the $$$ we made from the Taste gig is paying for this one...all for the fans who supported them over the years. We plan to have some prior members come up and play and it will be a good chance to reminise. I'm sure it will just be a great time!!!