Report: Liquid reunion show at Keegan's (07.23.11)

As I previously mentioned, after a four year hiatus, my old rock cover band Liquid decided to have a reunion show, and after a couple of rehearsals to shake the dust off our rock chops, headed over to Keegan's Pub in Torrance, CA on Saturday night.

Sayonara, Amplifier
Upon arrival, the very first thing I was greeted with was a grim portent of possible gig failure. The guitar amp which had worked perfectly and sounded great in our rehearsals had simply died. All that came out of its two 10" speakers was a loud hum. Randy and I took the amp apart and checked the tubes, made sure the connections were set correctly, plugged it back in, and... nothing. Fortunately, we were able to rig together a backup plan. I used the little amp that Randy was supposed to use on the few songs on which he plays guitar, and he plugged directly into the PA. Not the best system, but it would have to do. Once we got all set up, it was passably good, and we got rolling with the Liquid rock!

The Tunes
The set list went back and forth through a couple of revisions, and (as always, it seems) we were tweaking the list while we were onstage due to various reasons. All in all, though, people seemed to like the choice of songs quite a lot.

- Set One: Roadhouse Blues, California Dreaming, Stray Cat Strut, Come Together, Mary Jane's Last Dance, Break on Through, My Own Worst Enemy, Sweet Emotion, Cinnamon Girl.

- Set Two: Vaseline, Man In The Box, Heartbreaker, Custard Pie, Born to Be Wild, A Little Help from My Friends, Black Velvet, Love Me Two Times, The Immigrant Song.

- Set Three: Tush, Purple Haze, Good Times Bad Times, The Real Me, Pinball Wizard, Interstate Love Song, Red House, Fire/Drum Solo, White Rabbit, You Oughta Know, You Got Another Thing Coming, Communication Breakdown.

- Set Four: I Want You To Want Me, Back in the USSR, Hard to Handle, Can't Explain, Everybody Wants You, Jenny (867-5309), Suffragette City, Two Princes, You Really Got Me, Panama, Surrender, Hot for Teacher.

The Fun
All I wanted out of this show was fun, and I got a lot of that. Like, tons of it. Playing for four hours (even with breaks between sets) beat the crap out of me, and I've been moaning and groaning all day today. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Huge thanks to my good friends Randy Harmon, Phil Gilbreth, and Dante Silva for their outstanding musicianship and great personalities... they make it easy for me to look good up there. And even bigger thanks to the folks who came out to Keegan's and saw us tear it up. As I told people last night, it won't be the last time that Liquid rocks the South Bay.

The Video
Here's the "Cliff's Notes" version of the show, with four+ hours boiled down to 16 minutes.