Last night marked my return to the fray for a busy November.
An hour's drive up into the valleys, to play in an underground snooker club with Bendricks Rock.
Deeply weird setup, down with the snooker tables in a vast echoey room, with a few small tables, while 90% of the audience were above us in the bar BEHIND us!
We set up on the 'dance floor' while a DJ blasted (literally) out a mundane rotation of 'disco favourites' and irradiated us with an insane whirling light show. So loud that I had to put earplugs in when we weren't playing!
It wasn't a great gig, the sound was appalling with everything reflected back at us in a mush, compounded by an electrical whistle that I couldn't completely suppress (probably from the lights). I had to wind my volume down between songs. Also we had whirling lights on us the whole time. We didn't play brilliantly, but for fun I took a "DILLIGAF" approach to Crossroads and went full on random in the guitar solos...
Ironically the locals were friendly and helpful, and although sometimes it felt like we were playing to a handful of people (we could barely see the real audience) the response afterwards was positive.
Here's a preview of the migraine inducing setup, and the rest of the bad during the break, when the audience went out for fireworks and the musical assault stopped. It sounded like WW2 but felt peacful.
Never felt more relieved to get home after a gig!