Friday evening, after doing some quick shopping, I picked Jae up from work and returned home to begin adjustments on Halycon. Having printed some intonation instructions from the internet, I was sort of unprepared for the task, no strobe tuner, no experience. But after about a half-hour of tweaking the saddles, using the newly purchased allen wrench (one out of a combined metric/imperial set of 26, but now at least we have allen wrenches in the tool box, never know when you might need one,eh?) and a phillips-head screwdriver, I winged my way around the adjustments and ended up fairly satisfied that I had lowered the action a bit more, and properly tweaked the instrument. Her notes sounded fine on both the lower and upper fretboard. Given that the new strings would stretch out for a while, I planned on having Angelique as a back-up at the Sierra Club show, just in case. Wintery weather would also play a role in how the strings behaved.
I had cursory knowledge of The Sierra Club and its activities, so when Jae began organizing the event, I did a little research. They are America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization with over 700,000 members. The Central Florida Sierra Club Chapter was to benefit from the fund-raiser taking place in Mark Fodor's beautiful backyard and Jae had lined up a number of bands and artists to perform including The Orlando Blues Project, Lee Pinkerson, Snackdaddy and Mohave.
Turnout over the course of the day was fair to middlin', but you couldn't have asked for a day prettier, though warmer might have been soundly forced upon all and any you queried. In fact, by the time we went on, Jae had subtly suggested that a fire pit would be great, which inspired a roaring fire, the likes of which you typically see on a beach or at Burning Man. It was a unique experience, performing in an ashstorm, but at least we were warm.
Our set went great, I'm consistently amazed by my other four bandmates, and this show was particularly fun, probably because of the loose mood and wonderful vibes that were present. Halcyon rose to the occasion, remaining in tune and delivering the goods. While Dani-O got up with us and did some spoken word, I had some time to concentrate on effects, and used my old Boss digital delay pedal to get some world-class sound imagery. Thus begins an exciting chapter with the band, and we're off to a quick and blazing start to our performance season!
Tomorrow, we head in to start wrapping up harmony vocals. I'm pretty sure this week will mark the end of recording and the beginning of mixing. And what a journey!
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