u/chump-salvage

My name is Chuck Savage. I've been playing bass since 1976 — upright and electric. Played in bands across Texas for forty years. The Missiles, Jesse Dayton, the Supersuckers, Walking Time Bombs. But the gig people know me for is Mitch Hedberg.

I was his bass player from 1999 to 2005. If you've ever listened to Strategic Grill Locations, I'm the upright bass you hear behind the jokes.

Here's the thing nobody knows about that recording. I showed up to the Laff Stop in Houston for sound check that night. Unzipped my case. The neck was completely broken off.

I panicked. Ran to a pawn shop next to Rockefellers, rented a bass from the owner for fifty bucks. No case. I laid it on a piece of cardboard in the back of a pickup truck and hauled it across town.

That bass was a gut string — nylon. I had only ever played metal string upright. So not only was I playing someone else's instrument on the recording, I was playing nylon strings for the first time in my life.

That's the bass you hear on the album.

I figured out early on to play quiet under the setup and hit hard on the punchline. Give the audience something to ride. Mitch never told me to do that. It just became what we did.

I just published a book about the whole story — the parking lot where we met, the six years on the road, and the night we made that record. It's called Just Bring the Bass Up There — It'll Be Cool.

https://a.co/d/0ia7ULol

Happy to answer any questions about the gig, the bass, the recording, or the road

On September 7th, 1999, Mitch Hedberg walked into the Laff Stop in Houston, Texas and recorded what would become one of the greatest comedy albums ever made.

I was sitting behind him.

My name is Chuck Savage. I’m the bass player you hear on the record. Mitch calls me out by name five times on that album. I met him in the parking lot of the club a few months earlier. He told me to just bring the bass up there and it’ll be cool.

What nobody knows is that the bass you hear on that recording was borrowed from a pawn shop for fifty dollars. My bass broke that afternoon. No case. I hauled it to the club on a piece of cardboard in the back of a pickup truck. Gut string nylon — I’d never played nylon strings before in my life.

I sat behind Mitch off and on for six years after that night. Clubs, theaters, an MTV pilot, Canadian national television. I was there for all of it.

I finally wrote the book.

Just Bring the Bass Up There — It'll Be Cool. Available now on Amazon.

https://a.co/d/0ia7ULol

Happy to answer any questions about that night, the road, or the man behind the sunglasses.

My name is Chuck Savage. In the spring of 1999, I met Mitch Hedberg in the parking lot of the Laff Stop in Houston. He told me to just bring the bass up there and it’ll be cool. Forty-five minutes later we were on stage together. Six years later he was gone.

I just published a book called Just Bring the Bass Up There — It’ll Be Cool. It’s the only insider account of the making of Strategic Grill Locations — the night it was recorded, the borrowed bass that arrived on cardboard in a pickup truck, the road, the shows, and the things I saw that nobody else saw.

I’m not a writer. I’m a bass player. But somebody needed to tell this story and I was the only one who could.

Available now on Amazon — ebook and paperback.

https://a.co/d/0ia7ULol

Happy to answer any questions.