FRI APR 8 at Last Concert Cafe

Tonight, we had the good fortune of getting to open for Papa Grows Funk. I have known about these guys for about 10 years - as they are an incredibly funky band from New Orleans, featuring John Gros on organ (who has probably played with everybody over the years) and June Yamagishi on guitar. I believe this was their first time to come to the Cafe, though I could be wrong. When I had seen that PGF was coming to town, I immediately contacted Gary Hartman and asked if we could open, and was quite pleased when he agreed.

Really nice crowd at the Cafe tonight--way more people than I figured came to see PGF (and us)A lot of friends came out, which is always pleasant to the eye.

We arrived at the Cafe at about 7 pm--and I believe Josh and I got there about 5 minutes after the sound man had quit. So, we arrived amidst some confusion as to trying to find a new sound man, or to rely on the "apprentice" guy, who had helped set-up the PA, but who had very little actual soundman experience. The problem was - this was quite a robust PA, with all kinds of bells and whistles. Plus, PGF has a big organ with a spinning leslie speaker, not to mention that they have 6 guys, which means PGF was a relatively difficult band to mix sound for anyway. The verdict was that the apprentice would mix the sound.

The other slight bit of uncomfortableness was that because PGF's front man plays the organ, and because the organ was very very heavy and planted on the middle of the stage, and because PGF, understandably, was not comfortable having a band of slack-jawed yokels (PLUMP) use their equipment and/or drumset, PLUMP was relegated to fitting ourselves and our equipment on about 1/3 of the real estate of the stage (on the left side). So, we were kind of smushed together. And we had an apprentice soundman. BUT, we rocked. Our philosophy is, we are gonna just wail, and "damn the torpedoes" regarding any problems we might have with the PA. PLUMP won this round. The apprentice did a marvelous job (I guess) because we sounded good to ourselves, and the crowd loved us. We played a really good 50 minute set, playing all of our new songs.

After we were done, it literally took PGF almost an hour to get started because they were having PA monitor issues. Heck, we probably had the same issues, but we either did not notice them or didn't let it bother us. The crowd didn't seem to understand the hold-up, because apparently the sound was real good when we played - so that made us feel good.

Finally PGF got going, and they quickly proved that they are all bad asses. Excellent organ solos, excellent guitar solos, excellent sax solos. Those guys are a New Orleans institution - and they showed it. The crowd was really dancing. And Papa John Gros is just the nicest dude in the world. He came and talked to us prior to the show, and just seemed like the coolest cat. Good weather, good music, and good food. Sound problems notwithstanding, tonight was awesome.