Saturday was an odd gig. A huge pub in Bargoed. The main street was closed while a street festival cleared up and had to get access sorted for the load in - which was great, no steps and helpful punters who held the door open! The pub had had a great day with the combo of festival and sun, but we would be up against Eurovision.
As I said, it was a huge single open plan bar, as in HUGE. It didn't feel like our audience but as we set up the tables in the middle section in front of the (HUGE, carpeted) band area filled up with people who were clearly interested. A few of folk asked questions and some leaving said they would be back later.
Early start. Very odd to play with a large audience but only around 25-30 or so who were really into us, cheering, some dancing. While lots of people at either end for whom we were really just 'backing music'. We can't have been bad, if the sudden disappearance of most of the punters when we finished at 10:30 was an indication. A lot of appreciation for our young guitarist, Alex. The pub was open until one, but our guess was that the clientele changes from about 11:30 as other places chuck people out - a bit like a 'spoons.
The load out was nice and simple, slowed down by half a dozen of the audience who had an extended chat with us.
Why odd? Well it felt like playing to a half empty pub, yet even at a quiet point we were playing to well over fifty people, and it was much busier at times. It would have been nice to have the people who were really into their blues rock as an audience in a smaller venue.