Photo: Joe Leonard – https://www.instagram.com/joe_lenns/
Quite a lot of the time when I see an event pop up on Social Media my reaction is usually one of these three: “A world tour means more than America and Canada”, or “Hey, you know there is life outside London as well?” or more often than not, “HOW MUCH???!!!??” – so, you can imagine my delight when mid-afternoon yesterday it popped into my news feed that Dan and Mick will be playing in a pub about an hour from me and it’ll be free to get in.
It took Lisa and I about 3 seconds to decide to go and check it out, as you know… ‘why not?’. We didn’t know what to expect as we saw that it was the ‘That Pedal Show’ band’s first outing and thought it would be cool to see and give them a little support!
They said in their post that they were “starting at 8”, which in the UK generally means “on stage at 9:30, so arrive early and spend money over the bar so we can be rebooked”… so, we made our way there and were somewhat surprised that at 8:10 they were already in full swing. It was a small venue, vocals only PA and packed to the rafters with people wearing TPS shirts (including myself). Obviously, the first thing you do is try to sneak a look at their boards without anyone noticing. As I looked over I was surprised to see a mate from the local music scene down here in Devon, Paddy Blight, playing bass for them. It was a weird moment, but he’s a great player and top guy so not really surprising as I know he’s had a ton of gear from Dan in the past.
The bar was right at the back of the venue and I managed to catch their eye as I walked by to say ‘hello’ (obviously, I wanted them to know I was there because I’m somewhat of an attention seeker) and at that point Mick decided to get everyone in the room to say hello to me, which was both the most embarrassing and ego massaging moment I’ve had for a while, not to worry though, the good feeling didn’t last when I found out the price of a pint, but you know, it was free to get in and apparently most pubs charge you both arms and a leg for a drink these days… **grumble grumble – back in my day… pound a pint… I remember when all this was fields etc.**. As I was waiting for the Guinness to settle they surprised everyone by going straight into a full rendition of Shine On You Crazy Diamond… which, for most bands would be a struggle but when you are a four piece with no keyboards, it’s verging on the downright insane! As you would expect, the guitar tones were pretty stunning. The great thing about the balance of Dan and Mick is that you have the two polar opposites of great tone. Dan is not shy when it comes to using pedals to get his sound, and constantly tweaks them on the fly, and Mick enters into blind panic if he has to change a patch during a song, but uses amp gain perfectly… the balance was spot on… And, I know you are wondering how he did the intro of Shine On, so to quote Dan when I asked him how he did it without the keyboards was “there was a shitload of reverb and delay on there”.
The one thing that I think a lot of people were pleasantly surprised is that they both have great singing voices and the 3 part harmonies were on point. Whenever I’ve seen a band attempt “Shine On” if there isn’t that massive vocal boost on the main line it falls down the crapper, and they had it nailed. It’s worth noting that in terms of vocals, that was the biggest surprise of the night, both Dan and Mick have great voices… damn them, great players, great tone, and great singers too. And that’s before I get jealous of the fact Mick still has a full head of hair.
Anyway, enough of that, this is a gear blog? Right? So, what did they have… Well, Dan was obviously mostly playing his favourite Telecaster, “Red” going through a G2 controlled monster of a board. The vast majority of his tone came from his workhouse D&M and King Of Tone, through a Sovtek Amp (sent to him by Josh Scott) though Dry/Wet/Dry set up. I love a guy who’s not afraid to take tons of gear into a show!
Mick on the other hand, appeared to be relying mainly on Blue through his trusty Victory and Two Rock amps for his tone, pushed by a Silver Klon .
Paddy’s bass board
I would love to see the guys take this band out on the road out on the road properly, but you know, they both have real jobs as well as providing us with all the content we have come to expect from That Pedal Show on a weekly basis. The main reason for me writing this is that all four of them were just having fun and playing the music they loved with their friends (and this music was an eclectic mix to say the least, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise for those who will get a chance to see it in the future let’s just say if you like songs from a mixture bands such as The Bros Landreth, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, QotSA and Tenacious D, you’ll be smiling).
We had to leave before the end, as it was so busy and we couldn’t find somewhere to sit (we are both old and have bad backs!) and as I was driving home I came to the conclusion that music, mostly, should be about having fun with your friends and making a noise that you and the people who are listening to it find enjoyable. We are all guilty of taking ourselves FAR too seriously sometimes, and it’s great to be reminded about what it’s all about. Fun. Dan and Mick are obvious such good friends that making music together is pure joy for them. What we all need to do, obviously, is get them to tour the planet and remind everyone!