Gallery Gig

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Well, sorta…

Did a Stone Doc gig this last weekend at what has to be the most unique venue I’ve ever played in. It was in a 5 car garage (that incidentally looked like it had never housed a single auto) that had been converted into a makeshift art gallery. SD did 2 sets with a set by Mike’s friend Rick Norman in between.

Never have I had a gig plagued with as many gremlins. Firstly, I was unclear on our starting time (entirely my own fault) and in a phone conversation with Doc on the way down realized I was going to get there at the time we were supposed to begin. The traffic gods smiled down on me and I actually got there just before we were to load in (and I beat Doc there). We got set up and had a wicked hum running through the p.a. that we were unable to fully track down and eradicate. We did some creative repatching, abandoned recording and got rid of some of it but not all of it. Doc also had all of his preprogrammed sounds go wonky on him. Added to this we were set up in the corner of the afforementioned garage which was far from being a forgiving sonic environment. And so we began the set with a feeling of forboding. As usual the end of the set came around and I awakened from the trance completely unaware if what we just did was good/listenable or if it was unbearable/meandering/flailing. The applause was a surprise. What feedback we got was very enthusiastic (encouragingly a lot of this came from Rick – the guy who booked us).

Set #2 was more of the same although a little more relaxed given the response to the first set. There was, of course the occasional art enthusiast (of a certain age) with their hands placed as firmly over their ears as the look of disdain on their face. This I found encouraging as well.

Afterwards we got a tour of the house the gallery/garage was attatched to and it was without a doubt the most spectacular house I have ever seen. Jaws were hitting the floor left and right. And the floor so highly polished you could clearly see your jaw as it approached it.

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