Bonne Nuit Plays Live At Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides 5K Walk

   My live band Bonne Nuit played the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides 5K walk in Salt Lake City, Utah on Saturday May 15, 2010. Bonne Nuit is my latest rock band that I’ve put together with myself, Matt Rushton and my three oldest sons Erik, Austin and Skyler Rushton. We’ve been landing a lot of gigs lately and I”m telling you that having a family band is a great marketing ploy. I do have to say that my sons can really play and we’re getting a lot of compliments on how good we sound.     

   It seems like Bonne Nuit just keeps falling into some sweet gigs. We aren’t getting paid anything except for free food but the band is only about 4 months old. At this early stage in the band’s career we just want to play for as many people as possible and try to generate some publicity and name recognition. We’ve been lucky so far in the gigs we’ve been lining up. We actually found the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides 5K Walk gig by looking on the local Craigslist. The organizers put up an ad that they were looking for a band to play for a couple hours to an expected crowd of 500+ people. We followed up and directed them to the Bonne Nuit Facebook page which has all our promotional material and that landed us the gig.

   The show was outside in a great big park in downtown Salt Lake City. We made sure we had a cover over the band to protect us from the elements which turned out to be sunshine this time. The weather was gorgeous and there was a huge turnout to the event. That was great for us because our goal at this point is getting in front of as many people as possible. The organizers placed us right in the middle of the entire event so we were very lucky with the location.

   We got set up in about an hour and did a good sound check. The organizers of the event told us we could play as much as we wanted before the 5K Walk started and again when the walkers returned. So we played about 5 songs and they started the Walk. About 40 minutes later people started returning to the park and it got very crowded. We launched into our main set and everything was sounding great.

   It turned out to be a flawless gig. We played for almost 2 hours to a park full of people. We played extremely well without any equipment issues or sound problems. The band is really starting to tighten up and sound good because we’ve got some gigging hours behind us now. We also passed out a lot of band contact cards. Several people asked about hiring the band and a skating team that was there asked about having us play at some of their skating shows.

   All in all it was probably the best gig that Bonne Nuit has played since we started the band. We accomplished all of our goals in that we played extremely well, generated some good publicity and made a lot of contacts. The weather was simply beautiful with a perfect spring day. Hopefully more good gigs like this one will come our way. I did ask the organizers why they chose our band to play and they said it was because of our song list and the fact that we were a family band.

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Plays The Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Event

Erik, Skyler, Matt and Austin Rushton are Bonne Nuit

   The live band I have with my three oldest sons, Bonne Nuit, played a charity gig this past weekend. I’ve written in a previous post about how playing a gig at a charity function is an excellent way to get free exposure for your live band. Not only are you supporting a great cause but your band will get to play for people that normally wouldn’t come to your shows.

   So Bonne Nuit played at the H2O For Mexico Benefit Concert on Saturday May 8th, 2010. We were one of nine bands slated to play and we got a time slot right in the middle of the festival lineup. We would be playing outside so we kept a close eye on the weather forecast all week. Fortunately the weather turned out to be beautiful and we were really excited to get to play outside.   

   One of the most important things you need to do as a live band when you play at a festival type gig is to get there early and check out the P.A. setup. Naturally the organizers told us there would be a P.A. System on-hand but over the years I”ve learned that there are a lot of seriously deficient P.A.’s out there. This was no exception, when we got to the gig a couple hours early to check out the P.A. setup we found that it consisted of two small powered speakers and a 12-channel mixer. We knew there was no way our band would be able to run through such a small system. Luckily we had plenty of time to swing back by our practice studio and pick up our P.A. System.

   There was plenty of room on the stage to set up two bands so while the band before us played their set, we set up our P.A. System and all of our equipment. When you play a festival gig there is usually no time for a sound-check between bands and this was no exception. Being the seasoned veterans of gigging we are, we had our P.A. System all dialed in at our practice studio so all we basically had to do was plug in,  power up and set the master volume level. We were up and running in about 10 minutes which left us with 45 minutes to play our show.

   Even though we passed out flyers, did marketing on Facebook and had the concert promoted on the radio the attendence left something to be desired. We ended up playing for about 25 people which was far less than what we were hoping for. Still, we played extremely well and everyone that was there had a fantastic time. The crowd was very complimentary to the band and we scored free meals from Brincos which was the location of the gig. Brincos has excellent Mexican food and we all got stuffed on fresh enchiladas.

   We did get to pass out some contact information and made a good contact at one of our local Universities who sponsored the show. So I think it was time well spent even though the crowd was small. We still got to play excellent rock-n-roll through our powerful P.A. System on a beautiful spring day. Who can ask for more? So keep your eyes open for upcoming Bonne Nuit gigs because this band is starting to make some very good music.

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit at H20 For Mexico Benefit Concert

Bonne Nuit Playing Live At The Cybergate Cafe

   I played a gig with my sons in our live band Bonne Nuit this past Saturday night at the Cybergate Cafe in Provo, Utah. Even though we’ve played some live online concerts, it was our first live show in front of a live audience. We rehearsed a lot to get ready for the show by doing standard practices with a couple good dress rehearsals in our practice space. The pressure of putting on a live show really helps to focus band practices and we really improved a lot getting ready to do this show.

   We know we’re having a real rehearsal when the neighbors across the street call the Police to come give us a listen. They’re the only neighbors that do this and I believe it’s because they want the Police to have an easy call coming to listen to our band and talk to us about it. Luckily, the Police always seem to like our band and simply tell us to carry on playing. While we were practicing for the Cybergate Cafe gig, our nice neighbors called the Police to come have a listen when we were practicing at 5:30 PM. The Police apologized profusely for bothering us and told us to carry on, that we sounded great and to shut it down at 10:00 PM. So we knew we had a hit show prepared!   

   Since this was our first live outing as Bonne Nuit we decided to get to the Cybergate a couple of hours before the show. It’s always a good idea to do this so you have extra time to deal with any equipment, lighting or P.A. problems. Things came together surprisingly well while setting up and we actually got about 40 minutes to do a sound check. Finally it was showtime and changed into our stage clothes and got ready to take the stage.

   It’s always fun to make a good entrance and we did that by dressing up for the show after doing our sound check. We had a very good crowd for our first live gig. The Cybergate was filled with our friends, family, co-workers and my bandmates from my other bands In Stereo and Shufflin’ Noah. I’m telling you it’s a great feeling to have so many people show up to support you at a gig! It made us comfortable and really excited to play. We want to thank each and every one of you for showing up to support us at our show.

   Musically we were very good on this night. There was very little screwing up when it came to playing the songs. We were tight and the sound through our P.A. and onstage was excellent. The only problem we had was a tendency to rush the tempo of the song which is typical of an inexperienced rock band. Other than that, we played exceptionally well!

   It’s always a sign that you did well when the owner of the place your playing says that your band is the best band they’ve had. It’s an even better sign when they want to re-book you right there. We will be playing the Cybergate cafe again very soon so keep an eye out for upcoming dates. Speaking of the Cybergate, let me put in a little plug for their food. They gave us free dinner for playing there and let me tell you, the Mexican food was excellent! It’s %100 authentic, made from scratch Mexican food and is very, very tasty. We’ll be going back to the Cybergate just to eat.

   All in all, the Bonne Nuit show at the Cybergate was a huge success for us. We had as good a turnout as we could have hoped for and the people that were there have been calling and messaging us ever since the show to tell us how great it was. That kind of reaction is  what you go for when you play in a band. Hopefully this will be the start of a lot of great things to come for Bonne Nuit.

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit At Cybergate Cafe April 17, 2010

Highway 6

   I had an interesting gig with my good friend Tom Nedreberg in the live band Highway 6 on Saturday April 10, 2010. We played for the UEA (Utah Education Association) Political Action Committee Capitol Club Event. It was the first time I’ve ever played a show that had a political purpose. It was also the first time I’ve ever followed a speech by the Governor of Utah.

   Highway 6 was the entertainment for the evening and we were asked to play 6 songs on acoustic guitars. The members of Highway 6 that played were myself and Tom Nedreberg on acoustic guitars and Disa Nedreberg making her debut singing lead vocals. We practiced and were ready for the gig with a tight set of songs.  

   The event was held at Market Street Grill in the Cottonwood Heights area of Salt Lake City. We knew that Governor Gary Herbert would be speaking but we weren’t sure if we would be on first or the Governor would speak first. As it turned out, the Governor spoke first. It was a really interesting thing to watch the buzz and activity surrounding the State’s top politician as he entered the room. As luck would have it, the band sat at the table right next to the Governor while he made his speech. I got the distinction of sitting 3 feet to the left of the Governor. I’m telling you, I was aware of how I was sitting during the entire speech.

   I was dressed in black stage clothes with a pullover high-neck shirt instead of the shirt and tie that everyone else was wearing. I felt really conspicuous sitting at the very front right by the Governor and tried not to do anything stupid. The Governor gave a good speech centered around Utah Education and the associated budget and he was well received by the attendees. After the Governor finished his speech, it was Highway 6′s turn to take the stage.

   We got up and played exceptionally well. I was a lot more comfortable performing than I was sitting by the Governor’s side. It was the first time that Disa Nedreberg had ever sung lead vocals at a gig with Highway 6 and she did a great job. The audience was very liberal with their applause and we got some great compliments at the end of the show. The 6 songs that we played seemed to be over as quickly as they started.

   I’m not used to doing so little work at a gig but it was a nice change. We only had to haul in a couple acoustic guitars and a couple microphones so that was nice. We also got a free dinner and $100 apiece for our efforts. All in all, it was a very fun gig. It will go down as the night the Governor of Utah opened for Highway 6! -Matt-

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Gig Report – Highway 6 Plays UEA Event

Matt and Erik Rushton Play Guitar In Bonne Nuit

   I played a gig in the live band I’ve started with my 3 oldest sons this past weekend. The name of the band is Bonne Nuit and we play a lot of current hit music. The band is a four-piece comprised of two guitars, bass guitar and drums. We are playing some seriously synthesizer based songs using only guitars. We cover the Black Eyed Peas, Metric and Gary Numan and we play these songs on our guitars.

   We are able to take the main synthesizer parts and using my prowess as a patch programmer on my guitar effects units we are able to capture the overall feel of the songs with guitars. I use my trusty Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier and Erik uses my Digitech 2120 guitar effect rack. Between these two excellent guitar units we can create enough synthesizer type sounds to really flesh out the songs and make them work using guitars.   

   We played a live, online concert using a Shoutcast server streaming from our recording studio. We run all the instruments through a Pro Tools setup and then feed a mix to the shoutcast server. Anyone with an Internet connection is then able to listen to our music stream using the Shoutcast.com mini-player, Winamp or iTunes. We marketed the gig primarily through Facebook. There was also a live chat session going right here on Live Musician Central so we could interact with our listeners.

   We had a pretty good show with quite a few people signing on to listen to the concert. The band played pretty well although we did tend to make the rookie mistake of playing some of  the songs too fast. It’s a fairly common problem with young musicians to rush the songs when you have the pressure of a live audience. Playing these shows online is giving the band an easy way to get used to playing for an audience.

   The live chat gives the concert a more interactive feel than just playing for the broadcast. It really gives you a sense that, yes, you are actually playing for people that are listening to the band. It was great to see so many friends had signed on to listen to the band. There was definitely the same type of rush that you get playing in front of a live audience.

   We had a few technical difficulties with a faulty pair of headphones, thank heavens Sennheiser headphones have replaceable cables. We recorded the entire show so we can evaluate our performance. We played well with only a few obvious mistakes but nothing we couldn’t recover from. It was a very fun gig if nothing else and we’re getting very close to playing an actual live show outside of our studio. Hopefully you’ll be able to come see us at a venue near you, very soon. In the meantime, check out our Bonne Nuit Facebook page.  -Matt-

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Live Online Concert March 6, 2010

Highway 6 - Matt Rushton, Heidi Nedreberg, Tom Nedreberg

   I got the opportunity to play in Highway 6 this weekend at the Vertical Diner in Salt Lake City, Utah. Highway 6 is an all-original band that is fronted by the Father/Daughter duo of Tom and Heidi Nedreberg. They have just released a new CD called “Love Songs To The Desert” on which I had the opportunity to play a lot of the guitar. So when they got a gig at the Vertical Diner they asked me to join them. 

   The Vertical Diner is a small vegetarian restaurant in Salt Lake City with a small stage tucked into a very prominent corner. The Diner can seat around 100 people and it’s a medium sized room. The standard entertainment is all acoustic instruments but I just couldn’t duplicate my parts properly on an acoustic guitar. I am an electric guitarist so I brought my trusty Fender American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster and my Fender Cyber-Twin SE amplifier to the gig. These are the same two pieces of equipment I used on the the CD.   

   Tom and Heidi had done some very good marketing to promote the show and when we took the stage to play, the Diner was filled to capacity. All the seats were full and a few people were left standing where they could to catch the show. It’s always great when friends and family come to support your band because it makes you very comfortable to look out and see familiar faces in the audience. 

   We started out with several tracks from the new CD and they were very well received. The mix of acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and electric guitar gave us a rich and full sound. I know I was enjoying playing and listening to the warm mix from the stage. Highlights of the original songs were “My Water”, “I Don’t Wanna Live Without You”, The Bridge” and “Champagne Suicide”. They translated very well from the full band instrumentation to the instrumentation we used at the Vertical Diner. 

   We also played a couple cover songs that were very well reveived. We played Neil Young – Rockin’ In The Free World and Journey – Separate Ways. It was a real challenge to get Separate Ways to to work on acoustic guitar, acoustic bass and electric guitar but we pulled it off and got some seriously loud cheers for that one. 

   All in all it was a great night and we have been invited to play the Vertical Diner again. That’s always a sign of a successful gig. Watch out for more upcoming shows by Highway 6 by checking out the Highway 6 MySpace page.

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Gig Report – Highway 6 At Vertical Diner February 27, 2010

Bonne Nuit Is A Band Featuring Live Musician Central Author - Matt Rushton and his sons Erik, Austin and Skyler

   This past weekend my latest live band, Bonne Nuit, performed a live online concert. First of all let me tell you a little bit about Bonne Nuit. It’s a band that features myself, Matt Rushton, on lead guitar and vocals. I’m also playing with my 3 oldest sons, Erik on guitar and vocals, Austin on Bass Guitar and Skyler on drums. Their ages are 18, 15 and 14 respectively. So as you can see, we don’t play in any bars.

   Bonne Nuit plays primarily current rock hits such as Kings Of Leon -Sex On Fire. We also do a couple classic rock numbers and a couple of originals. We’ve been learning songs and rehearsing for about 3 months now and we finally have enough material to do about a 1.5 hour show. So we decided we’d follow my own advice given earlier on Live Musician Central and broadcast a live online concert.   

   The great thing about doing a live online concert is the fact that you don’t have to haul any equipment out of your practice studio provided you have a good Internet connection in your practice studio. We do have a good Internet connection so we set up a computer running a Shoutcast server in tandem with Winamp. Then we marketed the gig using social networking. We primarily used Facebook for marketing by setting up an event and inviting all our friends. Feel free to check out the Bonne Nuit Facebook page and become a fan.

   Everything felt like a normal gig in terms of prepartion and pre-show jitters. We didn’t have to do a lot of setup other than making sure we had an audio feed from the board going to the computer that was broadcasting our Shoutcast stream. We started broadcasting the stream an hour before the show by playing music on a Zune HD intermixed with promo’s we had recorded earlier announcing the name of the stream channel, the band and showtime. We also used Live Musician Central Chat to allow our audience to logon and interact with the band while we were doing the show.

   It was really cool to see people start to hook up to our Shoutcast stream and join the chat room! When the showtime came, we unplugged the Zune and plugged in our board and we were live. I have been a radio D.J. and doing the live online concert was quite similar to being a D.J. in the sense that you have to keep talking if you’re not playing. Having dead air while you tune or fix problems is a no-no when people can’t see what you’re doing. So we did a lot of talking along with a lot of playing.

   We only had enough bandwidth on our connection to support 40 connections to our server and we ended up getting 12 external computers connected at one time. There were multiple people listening on some of the connections so we figure we played to about 20-25 people. Not a huge gig but not bad for an inaugural show. It was really fun to interact with everyone that signed on. Having the live chat room going at the same time was really a great thing.

   The listeners were asking questions about the band, making requests and giving us some pretty good praise on the quality of our show. It was so cool to be a part of a new medium for live music! We played very well, the mix sounded excellent and the band performed without any problems at all. There were some technical problems with the Shoutcast mini-player.

   If you go to shoutcast.com you can listen to stations with the built-in mini-player. Some of our listeners reported problems with freezing and browser crashes using the mini-player. The listeners that were using Winamp or iTunes had no problems at all. When we broadcast again we will most likely write a good tutorial or two about using Winamp or iTunes to listen to the show.

   Overall, it was a total blast to play the live online concert. The interaction with our audience was really fun in a cyberspace sort of way. It was a little strange not being able to hear cheering or jeering at the end of each song. We did miss having the audience in the same room with us but it was still a fascinating and fun experience. We are going to put on another live online concert soon and we hope it will get an even bigger response.

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Gig Report – Bonne Nuit Live Online Concert

Highway 6 - L. to R. Erik Rushton, Heidi Nedreberg, Tom Nedreberg, Ted Townsend, Matt Rushton, Kyle Johnson

This last weekend I played in the excellent live band Highway 6 which is fronted by my good friends Heidi and Tom Nedreberg. I’ve been playing with Tom in various bands since the late 80′s and I’ve known Heidi since she was about 4 years old. So it’s been a fascinating project to be able to play with them in Highway 6.

   Highway 6 is an original music band with Heidi and Tom sharing the songwriting duties. It’s been fun for me to play sideman in this band since I’m one of the primary songwriters in my all original band, Shufflin’ Noah. It’s kind of a luxury for me to be able to sit back and play my guitar parts while someone else does all the songwriting. Tom and Heidi do give me creative license on all the guitar parts I play so I really feel like I contribute to the overall sound of Highway 6.

   So with all the songs written and the CD recorded and ready for release, it was time to play a live show. Playing live is what I’m all about so I was excited as usual to hit the stage with a brand new project. We rehearsed the songs pretty heavily for about a month before the gig. It was really interesting trying to remember what I had played in the studio. It was also a challenge to recreate the studio sound in a live show. We had to cut out some instrument parts that are found on the recording and fill up the songs with our live stage instrumentation.         

   I really feel like the sound was great with the musicians we have. My oldest son Erik played bass for Highway 6 at this gig and he took it upon himself to learn all the bass lines and he delivered them well live. It’s kind of surreal that Tom and I are playing live onstage with our kids. It’s really cool to look over and see our kids up there rocking out with us. The rest of the band includes my good friends Kyle Johnson on Keyboards and vocals and Ted Townsend on Drums and vocals. You may recognize them as the same guys that play in my band In Stereo.

Matt Rockin' The Lead Guitar

   So how did the gig go? I thought it went really, really well for our inaugural show. There were a lot of nerves to be dealt with as this was the first gig in support of the Highway 6 CD, Love Songs To The Desert. It’s always a challenge playing festivals since the bands only have 1/2 hour to set up, 1 hour to play and 1/2 hour to tear down. That includes getting everything mic’ed and mixed through the sound reinforcement company’s P.A. System. None of this helps your nerves!

Matt and Erik playing guitar and bass in Highway 6

   I’ve played lots of these types of gigs with my band Shufflin’ Noah so I knew that getting any soundcheck at all was a luxury and that sometimes the best you can hope for is just to be able to hear your instrument and your singing. As I expected, we got no soundcheck but we were able to hear our instruments and our singing! I can’t say that I could hear perfectly but I could hear things well enough to rock out. So that’s what I did, I rocked it baby! And so did everyone else.

   Ted has been struggling with some health issues that make it tough for him to drum but he pulled off a good show. That’s the great thing about playing with professionals, they all have the ability to make it through a challenging show. Heidi and Erik played like they had spent years on the stage. Heidi did a great job singing as well as talking to the audience. She did an especially good job selling the CD. That’s one thing about playing original music, the only money you ever make is from selling your merchandise. With the CD’s they sold they may be able to pay off some of the huge recording costs.

   Tom did a fine job playing acoustic guitar and singing. His years of stage performing allowed him to concentrate on his playing and not get ruffled by playing in front of an audience. Kyle did his usual super reliable job as an excellent sideman filling in spaces with the keyboards and singing a lot of backup.

   Were there problems? Of course there were. Some of the tempos were slow and some of the verses were mixed up or shortened. But the crowd didn’t know and they certainly seemed happy with the show. We got a lot of cheers and applause as well as selling some CD’s. Those are all indicators of a good show.

   In the end, I was very happy with the show and proud to be a part of Highway 6. It is so cool playing with my oldest son Erik. I always hoped that day would come but you never know. He took the initiative and learned songs as well as did the show all of his own accord. It’s going to be fun to see where all this leads in the future.

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Weekend Gig Report – Highway 6 at 9th and 9th Festival Sept. 19, 2009

In Stereo - Live At The Canyon Inn

 My live band “In Stereo” played at the Canyon Inn in Salt Lake City, Utah this past weekend. The Canyon Inn is becoming our home club since we play there so often. In Stereo seems to have pretty good success every time we play there. The regulars tell us we’re one of the better bands that play there and it’s nice to hear those kind of comments. I personally believe we’re the best band that plays there buy hey, I’m biased.

   This gig was sort of a surprise as we didn’t have it down on the band calender. But our agent called us up to “remind” us that we were booked to play at the Canyon Inn. It was news to us that we were booked at all but being the professionals that we are, we honored the commitment our agent made for us. We went into this gig without any practices but we have been playing together for about 14 years so we weren’t too worried.    

   We had what I would call a typical weekend at the Canyon Inn. It seems like this last year especially that we’ve had one really good night and one okay night when we play a weekend there. It’s impossible to tell which night will be the really good one. Sometimes it’s Friday, sometimes it’s Saturday. This time it turned out that Friday night was the really good night.

   Friday night started out slow. When we started playing there was only about 25 people in the club. The weather had been very hot and I think people were waiting for it to cool down a bit before going out. During the first set it really started to fill up. By the beginning of the 2nd set there were probably around 100 people there so it was a decent sized crowd.

   The great thing about Friday is how into the band everybody was. There was cheering right from the very first song and it never let up through the whole night. It’s tough to keep a crowd into it on a hot night for four hours but we managed to pull it off. The band played exceptionally well and the music was really happening. We had energy and kept the songs rolling off one right after the other. It was a really good night all the way around. It’s always a pleasure for me to play relaxed and just have fun. It was that kind of night.

   Heidi Nedreberg was there singing with us both nights. On Friday night we played two of her original songs called “Champagne Suicide” and “Danger”. It’s the first time we’ve performed those songs live onstage before and I thought they sounded really good for the first time live. I’m getting very excited about playing Heidi’s music in front of some more audiences. The band will get better and the songs are already there.

   Saturday night, it was even hotter outside and the club was hot inside as well. There wasn’t as much energy from the band or the crowd. The show had peaks and valleys in terms of the energy level. Overall, we played really well and the crowd had it’s moments. We did have some fun trying to play peoples requests and even attempted some White Stripes songs we hadn’t played for a couple of years. They didn’t go really well but hey, we had fun trying anyway.

   On Saturday we did have the dancers up right from the first song but I think the heat took it’s toll on everyone as the night went on. We were happy to finish the night up and pack up to head home. It wasn’t a terrible night, but it wasn’t as good as Friday.

   This was a very sudden gig so we didn’t have a lot of friends and family show up. We had a few though and it was great to have them there. It’s always good to feel some love from our fans. You people are why we play! Thanks for coming to the show. -Matt-

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Weekend Gig Report – In Stereo at Canyon Inn August 21-22, 2009

Distant Thunder Rocks The Summit County Fair (L.-R. Matt Rushton, Frank Lee, Erik Rushton, Kent Rushton)

   This weekend I had a chance to play with my cousin Kent’s live band, Distant Thunder. We played at the Summit County Fair in Coalville, Utah as the last act on the main stage before the big rodeo! We had some challenges in getting set up and playing which made it a very interesting gig.

   I don’t mind playing at county fairs because there’s usually a pretty good crowd there. Another thing that I’ve found to be true about county fairs is that if your band is the headline act, they pay pretty darn well. We make a lot more playing at fairs than we do playing in bars. The Summit County Fair was no exception.    

   There are some challenging things about playing these types of gigs. Anytime a band plays on a stage that has a full days worth of acts playing on it, it’s a challenge to get your equipment set up and dialed in quickly. The problem is, you get a certain amount of time to set up and play. The longer it takes to set up, then the less time you have to play. The whole goal is to set up as quickly and possible and get playing.

   Luckily, the fair hired a good sound company that had all the P.A. equipment that we would need to play. All we had to do was set up our guitars, drums, amplifiers, keyboard and computer equipment. That’s a lot but it’s easier to set up those things than to have to set up an entire P.A. system. Somehow, we managed to get everything set up, mic’ed and had a rough mix dialed in in about 20 minutes. That’s really flying.

   That being said, there’s problems that arise from not being able to do a formal soundcheck. First of all, the monitor mix was passable, but far from ideal. Still, we could hear well enough to play. Second, our drummer (Frank Lee) couldn’t hear the click track which means we got out of synchronization with the sequencer on a couple songs. That’s  a real show killer because you sound awful when that happens.

   The true mettle of a band is tested by how well they overcome problems like this. Luckily, we kept the crowd engaged with stage banter while we hurried and fixed our technical problems. We had things running really well by about the 3rd song. We were able to recover from our technical problems and put on an excellent show.

   The show itself went really well. The band consisted of myself, Matt Rushton, on lead guitar and vocals, Kent Rushton on bass guitar and vocals, Frank Lee on drums and vocals and my son Erik Rushton on guitar and vocals. I’ve written before about how important it is for everyone in the band to sing and it really helped us to have all the great lead vocals and vocal harmony at this gig.

   We played very well other than the two songs that had some sequencer technical difficulty. A high point was when Erik came up and sang and played on the Jimmy Eat World song “The Middle”. The crowd really seemed to enjoy the band the entire night and we got good applause after every song and some serious amounts of applause after a few select crowd favorites.

   At the end of the show we thanked the crowd and the organizers for the great evening and told them we loved their town. We actually got called back to the stage for an encore after the crowd gave us the standard “play one more!” cheer. Some of the locals said we played really well and that most bands don’t get called back for an encore so we felt good about that.

   All in all, it was a very fine evening with beautiful mountain scenery, cool air and a lovely sunset. Combine that with a happy crowd and some good rock-n-roll and it’s definitely a night to remember!

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Weekend Gig Report – Distant Thunder At The Summit County Fair