-It’s kinda strange doing a show promo on a page besides the CAROLINE BLUE one. 🙂 -I’m going to be filling in on bass (being a hired gun so to speak) with the band White Noise tonight at Dominicks in Oswego,NY. It should be an interesting night-in part cause, even though I’ve been keeping up w/ my bass playing here & there, I haven’t played out live on bass since 8/4/01. Ironically enough-that was also in Oswego (playing a show with Josh Smith-then a 10 year old singer/guitarist).
-It’s also gonna be interesting because of the song selection. They have a pretty wide range of songs including stuff from The Beatles, KISS, Duran Duran, Prince, Wild Cherry, Garth Brooks, Green Day & Weezer among others. Around 50 songs in all.
-I’ll be back here in a day or 2 w/ a show recap. Wish me luck!
*READ WWJ’s SHOW RECAP ON THE 1ST COMMENT*
WAYNE W. JOHNSON 
(Copied from my My Space Blog on 1/25/2009)
Hi there,
-Well, here’s the show recap I said I’d do. It was a fun night-as I was driving up to the show, I felt confident about performing with White Noise this night. I was pretty much prepared although-having done “hired gun” work before-unexpected things will happen.The gig was at Dominicks in Oswego and White Noise did 3 sets of cover tunes that spanned a wide range. Here’s the list…..
SET 1
-Rockin in the Free World (Neil Young)
-Hey Jealousy (Gin Blossoms)
-Jenny, Jenny (Tommy Twotone)
-I Ran (A Flock of Seagulls)
-Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
-Bad Moon Rising (CCR)
-Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Tom Petty)
-Roadhouse Blues (The Doors)
-Signs (Tesla)
-No Matter What (Badfinger)
-Keep Your Hands to Yourself (Georgia Sattelites) *
-Found Out About You (Gin Blossoms)
-Hey, Hey, My, My (Neil Young)
SET 2
-We’re an American Band (Grand Funk Railroad)
-Basket Case (Green Day)
-All Day & All of the Night (The Kinks)
-Back in the USSR (The Beatles)
-I Saw Her Standing There (The Beatles)
-The One I Love (REM)
-Louie, Louie (The Kingsmen) **
-Gloria (The Doors) **
-Hash Pipe (Weezer)
-Backdoor Man (The Doors)
-She Hates Me ( Puddle of Mudd)
-Play That Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
-Rock & Roll All Nite (KISS)
-Kansas City (?) **
-Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
-Paranoid (Black Sabbath) *
-Surrender (Cheap Trick)
-My Sharona (The Knack)
SET 3
-Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran)
-All Summer Long (Kid Rock)
-Down Under (Men at Work)
-Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks)
-What I Like About You (The Romantics)/R.O.C.K.
in the USA (John Mellencamp)
-Little Red Corvette (Prince)
-Mony,Mony (Billy Idol
-Quite a mix huh? Actually, there were about another 15-20 or so songs that were on the original & 2nd list that I’d worked on as well (I got the final set list 1-2 hours before taking off to Oswego last night).
The songs with (*) were added to the final list and the ones with the (**) on them were called out onstage! Basically, I was told the key of the song, that it was I-IV-V and away we went!
-It was a fun and interesting night. I was using Andy Gore’s bass cabinets (I have a Carvin bass head) and, when I saw how small the other amps were, I thought I was gonna blast everyone away. Turns out that happened to me. I was pretty much drowned out on the video and I know I had to turn up a few times on stage. They hired a keyboardist too-Himer T. Morgan-who has played with Bluesman Roosevelt Dean. I couldn’t believe how loud he was-especially since his amp was about the size of one of Andy’s speaker cones 🙂 I’ve never been onstage with a keyboard player before so that was a trip. Both Jim & George from White Noise are nice guys & very laid back. They’re just doing this for fun and basically had a “don’t worry” attitude about everything.
-In looking at that song list, I never pictured that I’d ever be playing some of those songs, but there I was doing them. George told me that, if I wanted to, I could bring a music stand with some “cheat sheets” on it-he was doing so. Actually, a lot of musicians I know do that-but only the acoustic solo ones. Actually, I have seen a few others in rock bands too. So that was a 1st as well.
Given another week or 2, I probably would’ve had the songs memorized-it’s more the arrangements than the notes. It was about 50/50 in using the stand.
-Overall, I think I did very well. The 2 Beatles songs, KISS, The Knack & Wild Cherry were the ones I really wanted to nail down and I pretty much did-give or take a slight note misplacement a few times-but that’s what sliding bass notes are for 🙂 One interesting thing about doing hired gun shows-especially if doing classic rock/blues songs-is how some songs get extended. With Himer doing solos as well as George, a number of the songs got extended-sometimes for quite awhile. The song “I Saw Her Standing There” is a good workout for the hands-and that got extended a few times-but I got thru it. I have to listen to some more Beatles stuff-very tasty bass work there. Getting thru that song was a high point for me this night.
-Low points? Not many. I would’ve like to have been louder, but I wasn’t about to engage in a volume war-especially with Andy’s cabs. The last thing I needed to do was blow them and owe Andy a new set. I’m glad I brought my ear plugs although, at the start of the 2nd set, I forgot to put them back on. Before the show, I asked George about the key of a few songs cause the live recordings he gave me previously had a few songs that were in different keys than the original studio recordings of them. Course, I forgot one of them-“Basket Case” (Green Day).The one song I was really happy to be drowned out on. 🙂 Other than that I think I did fine.
-The lowest point had nothing to do with plating. I left the power cord for my camcorder at home. I only have 1 battery (lost the spare one at a CAROLINE BLUE show) so I only have up to “Backdoor Man” recorded. That sucks.
-We received a lot of compliments this night-especially when people found out that neither me or Himan have ever jammed with George or Jim-or even each other. This was my 1st might meeting all three of these guys and playing with them. Just goes to show you what you can do if you do your homework. There was a good sized crowd here that stayed thruout the night and started dancing more as the night went on.
-I ended up talking to a number of people between sets-mainly about CAROLINE BLUE. I think I made some new fans this night. One kinda interesting happened tonight. I was in what friends of mine call “Clark mode” (hair pulled back, glasses on, normal clothes) this night. I’ve never worn glasses on stage before. I can read better w/ the glasses than w/ contacts-hence why I wore them. George & Jim seemed pretty happy and even talked about possibly hiring me again for some future shows. That would be cool-as long as it doesn’t conflict with CAROLINE BLUE. That’s my main focus and I make that pretty clear to people. I want to thank George, Jim & Himan for giving me the opportunity to play with them-it’s another step towards me growing as a musician. Also thanks to Malisa-George’s wife-for taking some pics. Also thanks to her, Elizabeth & Jane for kinda “mobbing” me after the show (HA!).
-Hope everyone had a great weekend & best wishes!
WAYNE
LikeLike