Labor Day 2009, our first gig in the new "Gossy Room"

They've renamed "The Lounge" in The Palms to "The Gossy Room" for this Matt Goss cat who's replacing Zowie Bowie on the weekends. Renovated the stage and the light grid (I hope it'll be better for us). Join us tonight, 10:30 pm, free show as always.
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POST GIG REPORT

Well, it's a major improvement, though we need to work some things out with the lighting coverage. There are a lot more light fixtures to work with now, so, with a bit of help we can perhaps finally get it right. They've significantly re-designed the stage, it's back up high like it was for Zowie Bowie, and it protrudes further out. They added the welded steel rear catwalk for the Matt Goss "Dirty Virgins" dancers. It's bolted to the stage. Below, the scene before the gig. They've taken down the old neon "Lounge" sign. In its place is a white screen for projection "light show" stuff for Matt Goss.

Above, a shot from the catwalk. Gabe later said we'd been told to stay off it, so, much as I'd have liked to have gotten some show shots from up there, I stayed off, not wanting to risk the possibility of giving some earpiece suit heartburn.

They've also ditched that decrepit laptop that formerly controlled the light grid. There's now a large digital lighting console back by the front of house audio board. No notes or manual, so I just started poking around on it to see what I could get to happen. I got pretty bright illumination to come up OK with a good backwash, and then I hit some button that activated the chemical smoke generator. Shit! Stop, stop, stop... By the time I figured out how to shut it back down the entire stage was a huge, thick cloud, which took about 20 minutes to fully dissipate. Jeez...LOL.

Jeff Ray again opened the show on guitar for Jerry. Recall that I'm featuring Jeff and his group "Penthouse Suite" on my newest podcast, "Friends of Santa Fe, Volume 6." Check it out.

Blogging incrementally here as I review my shots. It was like shooting at a new location tonight, much different photo environment. Getting a late start blogging. I will post as much as I can before I run out of steam.

Above, below, Ron George sitting in on bass during "Greazy Thing." Ron has served as our studio engineer for the new CD, and he flat-out nailed it on this tune sitting in. Wow. Very impressive.

Above, we were again blessed to have the eminent percussionist Karl Perazzo of the Santana "Supernatural" show step up to sit in. Below, Lenny with bassist Sean Barney.

Below, in the green top, world-class drummer Dennis Chambers hangin'. Dennis is also in the Santana show. Jerry kept tryin' to get him to sit in, but he just wanted to sit and enjoy the band.


Above, Jerry after the show with acclaimed classical violinist Joshua Bell.

Great show tonight. Highlight tunes for me were "Love Jungle" and "Pack It Up," both of which will be on the new CD. The new staging is interesting. More difficult for me to move around and get good shots (and more difficult for the Fat City Horns cats to get down front for solos), but it's a much better performance environment for the guys overall.

Great crowd. Thank you all for comin' out!
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