Fun and Fumbling in the Sun by George Ziemann -- April 21, 2010 There are many things that might increase a musician's degree of difficulty in a performance. Unlike figure skaters, we generally don't get any bonus points for it. In fact, no matter how many obstacles pop up, you don't get paid if you can't overcome them all. The show must go on. This past weekend, we played for the grand opening of the Outlaw BBQ in Amado, AZ. It was the same weekend that a large group of off-road enthusiasts were in town, so there was the potential for a good crowd. For a stage, we had a flatbed truck. The truck was actually a tighter fit than our rehearsal space, but bigger than some stages we had played on. This would make it a little challenging getting on or off-stage, but this would be the least of our problems. The day before had been cool (for southern Arizona) and overcast. The day after would be the same. On this day, however, there was not a cloud in the sky and the sun was pretty brutal. We all tried to keep everything covered between the time we set up and started, and someone had thrown a rug down to separate us from the truck's metal, but the heat would still take its toll. Left to right, Manny, George, and Jesus, Carl's next-door neighbor and our roadie for the day. Meltdown The first thing to go was the PA. We got through two songs, but only by resetting the amp about 4 times during each song. Carl zipped back to his house, picked up his Crown 2400 watt power amp. I converted the speaker connections from a 1/4 inch audio plug to bare wires so I we could use the banana-plug posts on the power amp. This would work fine. He brought a second smaller amp for the monitors, which would NOT work at all due to obstacle number two. Our mixer has an LCD readout. So does my keyboard. All of Carl's pedals have LEDs to let you know what state they are in. As it turns out, all of these are pretty useless in direct sunlight. I guessed at sending monitors through an extra output, but that didn't work. Then I tried to just split the main outs, but I didn't have the correct adapters to get it into the smaller amp. So we just blew off having monitors and tried to cue off the mains. This was probably good in that we all sang out a little stronger than usual. In addition to having to having difficulty telling if I had the proper sound selected, my keyboard suddenly had a dead G note, just above middle C. I use that G note all of the time and it kind of messed with my mind not having it there. Bended up to hit it a couple of times, but sometimes that just didn't get it. In the second set, my mic stand melted. Not the stand itself, but the plastic piece where the boom attaches to the stand. I would adjust it and it would slowly start drooping down, stopping only when it was resting on the keyboard. This makes it a tad uncomfortable to sing harmonies, but was easily replaced between songs with a spare mic stand. Carl wasn't quite as lucky. Just before my mic stand melted, Carl's Marshall head and a small rack of processors took a stage dive. I was standing right next to the cab of the truck, so I had the most stable spot. Carl was right next to me, then the drums. I could feel the stage rocking when we played. My rig was stable, but we rocked Carl's stuff right off the top of the speaker cabinet it was on. Fortunately, it fell toward us instead of falling backward and completely off the truck (still attached to Carl's pedals and guitar) and Carl was far enough away from it that it didn't hit him coming down. Carl carries a second guitar amp, so he was able to continue, but the Marshall head wouldn't fire up again. Again, the sunlight prevented us from seeing if ANY of the tubes still lit up, so it was presumed dead, at least for the moment. We had to give him a couple of minutes to freak out about it, but then he brushed it off and played even better than usual for the rest of the gig. The food was great, by the way. The Outlaw BBQ is kind of tucked behind the convenience store (there's only one in Amado) in a little strip mall. More photos were taken, some with us actually playing. If I can get copies, I'll add them here and to the photo album. Category Two The album is almost complete. We've got enough songs, some from writers outside the band. We also have a couple of guest stars contributing tracks, which furthers the already significant evolution from the previous album. There's no deadline, no rush, so I'm taking my time to deliver the best sounding recording that I am capable of. We're still making a few changes for lyric and vocal reconsiderations, and difficult questions remain to be answered after it is complete and before we release it, like how much you get for free. Despite my faith in humanity and thousands upon thousands of downloads, "All of it" has not proven to be a profitable answer to the question. Cara LaFemme Throughout the process of recording both Category One and Category Two, we've also been laying down some of Cara LaFemme's songs. Her tunes have been the most played/downloaded songs on the site. Now we have enough of them collected to make an album of Cara's music. Some are finished, some still need work, one just had the vocal tracks recorded this weekend. After I finish up with Category Two, I'm going to put her album together. We may still record one or two more songs. Not fillers, just a few more tracks to expand the CD content and make it a better deal. Totally different from Hurricane Alley. She's a lot cuter than any of us, too. The Future of Hurricane Alley Changes are in the wind. Tim, our bassist, has a personality conflict with Cara. Generally this is not an issue, except we've promised Cara that we're going to put together her album. In consideration for that project, Tim wants to step back until we finish it. Then we do a Hurricane Alley reunion tour in September of all four clubs we played at last year. One problem -- Carl is a stockbroker, and his company wants him to move to Connecticut. He might be gone by the time we finish Cara's album. On the other hand, Carl already has enough songs written to do a Category Three. I haven't squeezed any of my songs into the mix yet, either. When Carl lived in New Orleans, it didn't stop our progress. We traded tracks back and forth on the Internet. He can play drums, I can put together a drum track on my own, we both play bass. It's much more fun with a band, and I'll dearly miss both Carl and performing with him, but if he has to relocate, it doesn't necessarily mean the end of Hurricane Alley for recording purposes. In fact, for financial reasons, it may actually improve our situation. But all this is still up in the air. All of it could happen or just some of it. Carl could get relocated to Phoenix instead of Connecticut, shortening up that 240-mile drive (round trip) every time I go to Amado to work with him. Either way, the two albums I'm working on now will be completed and released -- and we won't stop there because we've still got too many songs to stop buying the lottery ticket for fame and/or fortune you get with each release. So that's where we are this week. But it's still April and the wind is still blowing.