It’s not often our band is known for doing something nice. In light of the tragedy that befell our local music community, how could we do otherwise? Last Friday, we played one of many benefit shows that have been organized for our fallen comrade, Jef Leppard, and for his recuperating, beloved wife, Nikki.
| written about before that I restored, but in great condition. After the show we spoke about how he wasn’t too happy with his tone. He had an Ampeg SVT-4Pro to match the cab. I explained how he could bi-amp the set up to achieve a fuller sound. The SVT-4Pro has correspondingly named speaker outs to match the two sections of speakers in the 1540HE cabinet. With two speaker cables, the lows can be sent to the 15″ speaker and the highs to the four 10″s and dialed in to match dB levels. I know it’s the propensity of men to charge forward without reading instructions, especially musicians, but sometimes it pays to go over the literature. I’ll be curious to see how it works for him the next time I see them play.
Our set was… well, it was fucking chaos. It’s cute when a couple security guards on stage sit on the sides while I’m forced to push people off the stage, bass in hand. Ah well… those tigers really just hate the fuck out of Sean’s mic stand. They want it DESTROYED. I would like to advise folks who want to jump on stage with us and actually grab a microphone: please learn the lyrics. It’s really embarrassing for all involved when you just scream incoherently along with the beat. On me and Sean’s side of the stage, there was a piece of shit power strip plugged into an extension cord. That was power for our amps. Oi vey, I had no idea the problems it would cause. Sean sounded like he was coming out of a Marshall 900, sans gain, and I was losing a lot of oomph while my power light flickered. That power strip was more like a weakness strip. I was worried about our gear. Autopsy was borrowing this stuff, sight unseen, for their headlining stint. After we played, I had the club switch to a more robust power strip and the problem was solved. That’s just one more thing for the pre-show checklist, I guess. I first remember seeing these Autopsy when I was a scared young teenager going to death metal shows. I had few friends. I remember seeing Chris covered in green slime. I thought that was so fucking cool. Obviously. What an impact those shows had.  And what an impact this one had. Holy fuck balls, they are still so good. And they sounded great on our shit, if I do say so myself. And I think I just did. Autopsy was a great kicker to what was an awesome and fulfilling evening. Even after the show was over, poor Aimee was still giving away prizes to the peeps who bought raffle tickets. Madness! I imagine the show was an extremely successful benefit, but little can defray the loss and suffering… My one, my biggest piece of advice I can give here is to remember the loved ones around you. Give a hug, hold tight, give a kiss (if appropriate, natch). It’s easy to forget in the humdrum day-to-day bullshit. All the folks who came out this night remembered to show the love… just like Nikki and Jef always did. Nikki is still recovering and her medical costs will be enormous. So much has been done, but every little bit helps. If you haven’t been able to, and can, please try and give so that her hard road to hoe is just a little bit less hard. You can donate here: Nikki Davis – Caring Bridge Page |