johnstonezone: Road to the Grammy's/House of Blues

The House of Blues on the Sunset strip is said by many to be LA's premier live music venue. It has three floors, a full-size balcony and several bars. The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band played there on Thurs Jan. 28th. as part of a Haitian Earthquake Benefit.
http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/sunsetstrip/

There was some talk of guest artists such as Billy Gibbons and Slash, but our start time kept getting pushed back. We went on close to midnight and played a rockin' but abbreviated set.

One highlight for me was to play the house's Hammond B-3 organ. It is a unique beast. Each one a little different. I visited my friend Gene Argel a few days before leaving Maui to get a few tips on how to drive it. "You gotta relax on this thing" is what he said. He was right. The is very little action on these things, so extraneous finger movements can end up sounding like slop (unless that's what you're going for!) and as I found out, you must be careful around the "preset" keys. If you hit one by mistake, you may end up with a totally different sound then you wanted, or none at all. The latter is what happened in my case. I hit the stage, went to hit the keys and NOTHING! Quickly, however, I noticed the errant key and dialed it up in time for the down beat. What a pleasure to play through such an expressive instrument. You simply cannot beat electro-mechanical with digital. The rotating Leslie speaker is a must!!!