Not too long ago I reported in these pages that I had quit the band. That was true. But way leads on to way, as the poet said. The band asked me back for a gig that was scheduled before I had announced my departure. I said yes. I had fun. Things went well. Now we’re playing again, though in the meantime one member left to pursue a different muse. So we’re down to a four-piece.

Last weekend we did a gig in a brewery for some military guys who had been promoted and were, by tradition, throwing a party for their friends and colleagues. The next afternoon we played for an after-wedding celebration held as a backyard barbeque. The brewery gig was fun but the sound was atrocious: it was like playing inside a large sewer pipe. I stuck to real simple bass lines because anything else turned to thick mud. The next day’s gig was more fun and we sounded much, much better. I was afraid that playing outside would mean we’d make no sound at all, but in fact what happened is that we could control the sound very precisely since we didn’t have to fight the reverb. Until the cops came and shut us down, we were having a great time.

For the morbidly curious, here’s a photo of the band, and the very first photo on Gardner Writes. Left to right: me (bass, vocals), Karen Young (lead vocals, percussion), David Sale (drums), Steve D’Andrea (guitar, vocals). I’m playing a ’72 Fender Jazz with active EMG pickups through a Gallien-Kreuger 200MB hooked up to a pretty much generic cabinet with a 15″ EV speaker. That’s a genuine coiled cord.

Blue Window at the Brewery 10/29/04