cheddatom

4 hours ago, joeystrange said:

I’ll be there. Playing at some point.

 

Mostly looking forward to seeing Descendents, The Damned, Republica, Bad Brains and Bob Vylan.

Which band are you playing with?

39 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Never too sure about this.

Punk was once about youth and surprising everyone with new ideas. Everything I’ve seen of Rebellion Festival seems to be male pattern balding, beer bellies and 4 barre chord songs where the chorus is just the title of the song shouted 4 times. Pretty much every emotion punk generated in 1976/77 has been lost to a well-worn formulaic approach.

Have you checked out Bob Vylan? Highly recommended

Anyway, yeh, I've been to to last 5 or 6 Rebellion festivals running. A lot of it is pretty much as you describe, but I guess that's what people go for. I don't think my band fit into that category at all, and there must be loads more. Steve Ignorant's Slice Of Life for one, which is IMO very clever musically and lyrically. The same band plus a drummer are doing a set of crass songs - musically simple perhaps but an incredible show and certainly not just 4 chords with a one line chorus.

Awesome! I'll be there with Headsticks, hopefully catch your set

15 minutes ago, dclaassen said:

I'm getting ready to head to Germany with another bunch of my students. I am playing bass with two of the vocal ensembles. One is a gospel number and the other is very Latin. I'm taking one bass (MPV-5), one amp (my Harkte kickback 12) 2 leads, truss rod tool, multi-tool, and the appropriate allen keys. Also take a couple of 9v batteries, extra AAA's for the tuner, a set of strings, and a folding stand. That should do it. I'm going to start cutting back on all the backups I haul along with me. 

Have you done the paperwork for the amp? Anyone's allowed to take an instrument for personal use but AFAIK you need a carnet for an amp

I'm sure there's a "worst gig" thread somewhere, but just to chip in... Try playing in original metal bands. Then you get to do "unpaid practise". Sometimes the other bands might watch, but we played one once where the support band left and after we started our set, the soundman left too, meaning we literally played to no-one for 25 minutes and then went home unpaid. 

A small festival in the middle of nowhere on Saturday night. A full on set 11-12. It was very warm and sweaty. This crowd are so supportive of the band, we could play absolutely terribly and still go down well. I can understand how that might undermine the motivation of some, but for me it just takes all the pressure off. I had a great time, and I managed to get home by 1:30 which was a lot earlier than I expected. 3 weeks off now

2 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Psychology.

It's still a point though - the feeling of high SPL stage could certainly influence how you mentally feel on stage. 

you get more sustain though right? Am I just imagining that?

Feedback is so much more than just screaming guitar sustain etc. I personally like a controlled amount of feedback when playing bass too. Even the strings feel different under my fingers if I'm turned up loud through an amp or PA

I get the ampless/in-ear thing and it obviously works for loads of people. One potential drawback I can see is feedback. Some feedback is desirable, especially when playing lead guitar. How do you get feedback with no monitor or amp?

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

I do full band and acoustic too. What's it like in your neck of the woods, is it easier to book the acoustic gigs?

 

Blue

Honestly I have nothing to do with that side of things so I have no idea! We're generally playing venues that are geared up for full bands, we just did the acoustic thing to give the fans something different, or at least that's what I was told when I begged for a floor tom

The last of our "almost acoustic" gigs on Saturday night in Wroot near Doncaster. It's very much a village hall type venue, but the sound is always great. The original plan was to have an all-seated affair, which reduced capacity, and so it sold out within hours of being announced. As footage of our "almost acoustic" gigs started to appear on the internet, the promoter for this one realised that seating may not be appropriate due to all the p*ssed up punks going nuts. This meant he could up the capacity again, but it was a bit late to shift many more tickets (although apparently he did another 20). Anyway, there were plenty for the room, we sold loads of merch, went down really well, and got loads of free pizza and beer. I don't think it gets much better than that!

I've been finding these gigs really easy in terms of physical effort. We've got loads of the "full band" gigs booked for this year and I'm worried I'll not be up to it. Better get exercising! 

There are loads of photos on Facebook in our "Headsticks Gigs" group but I'm not sure it's polite to just nick them for here. The venue is cool anyway, lots of fairy lights etc.

If hard hitting, exciting drumming is your thing, check out my mate Sam 

Rough Trade in Nottingham on Friday night. I love playing here, there's something very cool about this place. This is our stripped back acoustic set, so you'd think the sound engineer would also strip back, but no, two mics on the bass drum (with no resonant head), close mic on the snare and hats. A good 10 minutes of EQing the drums. 5 mins EQing each vocal mic etc. During sound check I have to admit I was internally rolling my eyes a bit, but I've never heard so many compliments about the sound, and it was great on stage, so, shows what I know!

About halfway through our set, an un-known punter with a very striking appearance made their way to the front. It was difficult to concentrate while she twerked, spanked herself, rolled around on stage legs akimbo, and periodically tried to stuff her bosom back into her "top". Very entertaining. There's footage on the internet but I'm not sure it's fair to share it around. Here's the setup from sound check

Compass Cafe in Blackpool on Saturday. Only 70 people in here but it can't really fit any more. I had to do our sound so only one mic on the bass drum  I absolutely hate doing live sound, and there's no way you can do it properly from on stage behind a drum kit, but whatever, we got away with it. This might be the only venue where I can order a beer from my drum stool

I played 6 strings most of the time before my wrist injury. I did use a 4 string for a stoner/doom band as I thought the 6s might have looked a bit silly. Personally, I prefer to have all the notes accessible without sliding up and down the neck

I've had to switch to short scale bass only now, so my 6 strings just sit there at home looking pretty and making me frustrated. I might sell them soon. I'm hoping someone might start making a short scale 6 string at a budget price

If I get 30 mins in a dressing room before we go on it's fine, I get to warm up. If I go from loading on to playing, I'm a bit screwed. I don't think any amount of banana, shaken or otherwise, is going to solve that, although I appreciate the kind thought. Imagine trying to peel a banana while the sound guy is shouting for you to hit the rack tom!

Our "Almost Acoustic" set in Stoke on Saturday. A tiny venue and totally sold out. I have a bass drum, snare, hats and a cymbal. I'm not sure the reason for it but it's good fun. Our bassist switches to his acoustic bass which is 5 string, and it's so nice to have the extra low notes. I sometimes wish he'd go back to his 5 string Bass Collections but he loves his Fender P. We played 1.5 hours but it was so chilled out I barely broke a sweat. Apologies for the terrible photo, I only took it to show off my cymbal to a mate.

Rock City on the main stage as part of the Beat The Streets festival. We've done other stages at this festival a few times and it's always good, but to be back on at my favourite venue was a real treat. Awesome sound as always. A full on 30 minutes set. I had no time to warm up, broke two sticks, and had to fight through cramp, but it was a bit more exciting than the "acoustic" set. I was drenched!

The first time someone asked for my set list I was completely freaked out. I had no idea why they might want it but they took it and asked me to sign it, which freaked me out even more. That was probably 7 years ago or so. Now it's every single gig, signing CDs, Vinyl, and always set lists. People have collections of our setlists and they compare them. We don't get played on the radio or anything so it's still weird, but I got used to it.

Bit late on these but it's an amusing juxtaposition... Friday 6th Jan, Great British Folk Festival. Our guitarist donned his Crass T-Shirt but other than that we played a very civilised acoustic/folk set to a massive sitting audience. Polite applause at the end of each song is all we got, but no-one left the room which was near capacity. Apparently it was a great reaction from this crowd, just a lot more subdued than we're used to.

Wednesday 11th at the 100 Club supporting Subhumans couldn't have been more different. The venue is about 1/4 of the size for a start. It was absolutely rammed and they went crazy for us, even though most people were there for Subhumans. I love the 100 Club but it's very difficult because of the shape of the room. The PA fires everything straight at the back wall which immediately bounces back on stage. I was absolutely hammering the drums just to make myself heard on stage. I've never had so many compliments after a gig so we obviously did something right. 

I got a pretty bad concussion at the start of 3 days drinking in France. I thought I was fine, got home to the UK, then straight to a gig. I thought it was weird that everyone in Uttoxeter was speaking French but I just went with it. When it came time to play I had no idea what was going on. I remember going out of time (on drums) loads and getting a few "looks". Oops!

Surely the people losing the most record sales are the ones in the charts with mass audiences. The local metal bands I go to see are selling tapes and vinyl to hipsters. I started gigging 25 years ago, and most of the original bands I spoke to weren't making money at all. They'd sell some CDs and merch, and occasionally get paid for a gig. Not much has changed about that. The big change is that the bigger artists on big labels are no longer shifting the physical product they once were

Anyway, my band are doing OK but it still amazes me when fans think we do it for a living. One lady properly guffawed when I mentioned my job as an IT guy "I thought you were a rock star but you're just a geek!"

I guess there were also people getting a fair bit of royalties from radio play but I don't know a lot about that. I imagine royalties are less now there are fewer listeners.

we can produce our own product cheaper than ever, and we can reach a wider audience than ever, we just have to convince people to buy direct rather than (or as well as) streaming

We gig loads, and sell loads of CDs and vinyl at gigs. All our albums are on streaming services but not many people listen at all. I can think of a few reasons:

• all the fans have the physical product and prefer that
• all the fans are old and scared of streaming/technology
• the fans just like the gigs, and buy the music to support the band, rather than listen to

18 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Yeah, that is the problem but that Brice looks a lot of bass for £300!

Just tried to buy it but it's discontinued

Good shout! My first 6 string bass was a Brice from Rondo and I still have it! Just can't play long-scale basses any more

2 minutes ago, eude said:

Yeah, split new, you'd probably need at least 5 times that  

One day

1 minute ago, eude said:

 

 

Yes indeed, I have 3 31.5" scale ACGs tuned B to C.

your instruments look amazing but I'm assuming they're way out of my budget (circa £500)