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Saw I Am A Rocketship Last Night


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If any of you remember seeing this thread @polaralet us know he was going to be playing at Club 27 in Asheville, NC. 

So, I had to make a trip to Asheville last night. 

Club 27 is an old building with several rooms that each decorated a little differently.  The performance area was at the end of the building through a door that was not marked as the performance area.  Going in felt like getting into one of of those speakeasy places in the 1930's. 

polara and Mrs. polara were waiting for Olive Dares the Darkness to finish their soundcheck.  We started a conversation right up about guitars, the HFC, and more guitars.  polara offered to let me check out his new Les Paul Standard.  It has a perfect flame maple top over a solid unchambered body.  I just wanted to feel the neck carve.  Then it was time for I Am A Rocketship to do their soundcheck.  We talked a little more before showtime. 

With just an iPad and giant pedalboard polara had a full band going on.  There were some really cool fuzz tones going on from one of his Earthquaker Devices pedals.  Overall it was a wall of sound effect.  I was digging it.  Mrs. polara was playing a Roland keyboard and really getting into what she was singing.  You could see on her face that she was totally absorbed in the music.  After about 45 minutes it came to an end.  It was great 45 minutes. 

Once packed up we talked some more guitars, Asheville and St. Louis with points in between and beyond, and music in general.  It was good. 

Two more bands were going to play.  Olive Dares The Darkness was up next.  They were good, too.  I liked what they played, and I wanted to see the whole set.  Unfortunately, I knew there was going to be a problem for a customer at 8:00 AM.  It was good that I left early, something I never do, because I got to my office early to work through the Monday morning mess.  I have no idea what The Welcoming sounds like.  They were probably good. 

Anyway, for those of you who could have made it to Asheville on a Sunday night, you missed a good show. 

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Thanks for posting, Steve!  I like what I’ve heard, but think you appreciate bands even more seeing them live.

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I’m impressed that Steve really supports live music - walks the walk. It was an interesting evening. I met a professional domme who bought one of each of our CDs, and the monitors were blown, with buzzing, flapping woofers. Steve’s project of constructing the ultimate southern rock amp sounds like a challenge! 

Olive Dares the Darkness had a kind of heavy rock disco thing going, distinctive. Really nice folks with an incredibly complex setup which seems like a pain to deal with. 


The Welcoming are four young cats, polite and soft-spoken, who play a ferocious brand of modern metal. Complex riffs, odd time signatures, occasional blast beats and Cookie Monster growls but usually heavy on harmonies. A bit like Bring Me the Horizon, a little Russian Circles, a little Tomahawk. The guitarists played Les Pauls - a white Studio and a Junior - into Orange heads and 2x12 cabs, lots of crazy time-based and modulation effects. Bassist sounded great, with a Music Man into a David Eden rig with four 10s. Very charismatic, and have an aura of “these guys might really make it” to them. 
 

Weird to see an “indie” night of all Gibsons (apart from one Guild) and no Jazzmasters :)  Also unusual to almost break even on a weekend trip, between door and CD sales. We’re old: only play if it looks like fun and since we first met in Asheville 18 years ago, it was a subsidized weekend getaway. 
 

Thanks for coming, Steve! 

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