Saturday, March 22, 2008

LA Rehearsal Week

I've decided to just make a slide show video of my pics and small behind the scenes footage I have... but the internet is so slow down here that uploading it has become troublesome... Check back here as I work on it....


Error: Embedded data could not be displayed.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Rehearsals- Day 1 in LA


I got to Mates rehearsal studio and set up my gear. Just Bass, drums, guitar for two days, in order to rehearse the new drummer. Well he f'n rocks. Rehearsal went great and I'm looking forward to a killer tour with my new friend, Chris Frazier!

Gear!
We are in a smaller rehearsal room until the full band gets here. You'll see my gear picture with only 2 thirds of my rig set-up. Lemme tell ya- It sounds Un-fricken-believable! Pumping such volume from multiple bass cabinets is yielding me some of the best bass tone I've ever heard. I love my Eden rig! I'm upgraded one cabinet with Tone Tubby speakers and left the other stock... for now. As for basses I'm still trying to figure out which 4 string will be the one for this tour. I use a 4 and a 5 equally on this gig. My trusty Lakland 5 string Deluxe is still gonna be my right hand man though. I've simplified my signal chain to: Two X2 Digital Wireless systems, a tuner pedal and an MXR distortion/direct box. From there the signal goes to the house and to my Eden WT800's. 
Basses in picture: Fender Mexican Reggie Hamilton with DeLano Pickups; Lakland Darryl Jones Skyline with EMG's; Lakland 55-95; 1973 Fender Jazz with Bartolini's.


Have a look at Chris' brand-spankin' new kit, courtesy of DW. They shipped it straight to the rehearsal studio.

Dougs got about half of his rig setup stage left, which included that new 6-channel Marshall head.

After checking into our hotel, Chris and I met up with Timothy (keyboards) for dinner and drinks at one of our favorite spots in the Valley- FireFly. Ahh- the hang begins!

I've got a gig tonight at the Baked Potato with Favored Nations recording artist Doug Doppler. That's all for now. Wait till you see the big room we move into when the full band gets here.
-Uriah

Thursday, March 13, 2008

TOUR TIME!

Gettin' Ready!

I've destroyed my house! I've got to pack up my life for a good 6 months or so while I'm out on the road again. I'm not complaining at all- it's just hard for me to be away from friends family and relationships sometimes. It's like Murphy's law right now... In the past month/week I've felt so integrated in the beautiful Bay Area where I live- more than I have felt in the past year+ that I've been home. Gettin called for gigs, hangin out with players, going out to enjoy the weather and nightlife. I love it here! But it's time again to bring my bass to places further than just California.

The truck came to my house in Berkeley today to pick up all the gear I'll need for the 2008 Whitesnake world tour. Behind me are my three Eden 6x10 cabs in road cases. I'm bringing 4 basses: My trusty Lakland 5, my white DJ4, a Fender Mexican Reggie Hamilton and a Fender '73 Jazz.

Directly above is the amp rack I managed to piece together: 2 Eden WT800's, 2 X2 Digital Wireless systems, a tuner and direct box. I may end up adding a few more things to this rig: my Avalon U5 direct box, another X2 rack unit and another Eden WT800.

New CD's:
I've finally gotten hold of two new albums that are due for release on April 22nd. These are two albums by two very different artists who's only thing in common is myself on bass... And that they are both EXCELLENT releases! Whitesnake's "Good to be Bad" sounds so f'n fantastic that I can't wait to play these new offerings live! It's not like anything else I've heard- It's just very Whitesnake! Heavy, groovin, not cheezy but def some "poppy" singable melodies throughout. It just rules (and is challenging to play).
I worked very hard on this and I'm proud of the result.
The other release is by Bay Area hip-hop artist Lyrics Born, titled "Everywhere at Once". It's the first album where he got all of us band members on the tracks- there's quite a swath of Bay Area talent on here! And my bass pumps! I'll be stepping down as bassist and musical director for this tour while the 'Snake needs me, but you can be sure I'll return once we're done in the fall.














Both Available April 22nd, 2008

Back to the tour:
Tomorrow I leave to LA for a week of rehearsals. On Thursday the 13th, I'll be gigging after rehearsal at the famous Baked Potato with Doug Doppler- Instrumetal. We'll also be celebrating my brother Dorian's 21st Birthday that night, as he now lives in LA. our first Whitesnake show in a while will be supporting OZZY OSBOURNE at a big rock festival in New Zealand. Then it's off to OZ for a few shows. Then we pluck some G-strings in Brazil (and the rest of South America), galavant around the UK with Def Leppard, headline most major rock festivals in Europe, and with any luck- tour the US&A!

That's it for now. Back to laundry and packin.

-Uriah