February Birthdays 
Thought i'd share this with SG101ers. Two weeks ago Dane Carter (of the Madeira, the Blair-Pongracic Band and the Troubadours) and Jeremy DeHart of the Manakooras, the A-Men, Aqualads, and the Blair-Pongracic Band) and I got together to play and create some new music. The three of us first played together in the Blair-Pongracic Band for our California tour in 2016 and East Coast tour in 2017, when Jeremy took over the bass duties from Jonpaul Balak (who wasn't able to do those two tours). Jeremy also stepped in on bass for the Madeira bass player Todd Fortier for our Grand Rapids, MI show last December, since Todd had to have wrist surgery and wasn't able to play. The three of us had been talking about doing something together almost since the very beginning and we finally made it happen! Jeremy flew up to southern Michigan from Charlotte, NC and Dane drove up from Indy.
We were very fortunate to get the main hall in the music building at my college, offered to us by the director of the music program, very generous! It was a remarkable space, gigantic, beautiful, Sun-filled, and ultimately pretty inspiring.
We started playing on Friday afternoon and went through the end of Monday, three and a half days of highly concentrated and focused music-making! We worked on a bunch of new songs, and though we recorded it all, it was primarily for our reference purposes, to track the songs' development. (Having said that, it's possible we will be releasing one new track fairly soon, as a teaser of sorts. 
It turned out surprisingly well!
I haven't been using my Gomez Surfer amp much for the past four years, and I've missed it! This was the perfect opportunity to let it rip again! It's an '09 with two vintage JBL D130Fs. (I used the Glassy/Normal channel with volume on 3.5-4.5) I also used the amazing Gomez G-Spring reverb unit, Strymon El Capistan echo unit and Xotic EP booster pedal. And several Strats.
Jeremy played an MIJ Jaguar bass went through my '62 Bandmaster, upgraded with a Bassman output transformer and super-heavy-duty EV 12M speakers. Sounded amazing! He also used the amp at least half the time for rhythm guitar (he used one of my Strats for that). The Fender '94 RI reverb unit was bypassed when the amp was used for bass, but was used for rhythm guitar.
A true pleasure playing music and spending those four days with these two super-talented fellas! I hope you enjoy the photos! It was a truly GLORIOUS noise!!! And I hope you all get to hear the fruits of our labor sometime next year.
Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube
Thanks for the pics. Looks like a good time to me with happy dudes. 
