How was your gig last night?

[PeteinKent]

My gig was sh*t! It was a duo and my partner who plays guitar was all over the shop. Picked up second set though. Just a bad day at the office I suppose.

[WalMan]

Strange, but ultimately fulfilling. W/O & Senior Rates mess @ Sultan in Gosport. Wierd sound as we were between two rooms, and it was all carpeted so the sound immediately disappeared. That and it was the first time back after a break so started a little rusty. But like I say, ultimately not a bad night & saw some people we haven't seen for a while. I fear there may be FB photo repurcussions to come though

[barneyg42]

Strange how you can be so wrong about a gig!
Turned up in Walton on the Hill, nr Tadworth to a massive village hall with a large stage and loads of caterers and various people in penguin suits! Instant thought was "this band is at the wrong gig"!
I'm in T-shirt and black jeans and rest of band turn up pretty much the same. We had been asked to play some laid back stuff for half an hour whilst the guests had canapes, so pulled 6-7 of our slower numbers out for this. Well........nice polite applause during this set and after a half hour break we kicked in with the rest. Now we do classic rock so its the usual suspects, Bryan Adams, Patti Smith, Floyd, Mac, Jovi, Journey etc. Turned out we'd been booked for the gig on the strength of being seen in a couple of nearby pubs so most of the audience knew us anyway, by the time we finished off set two with The Chain the place was rocking! 3rd set, totally rocking all the way through. Pulled out the usual dance classics at the end and got a massive ovation and were asked to do the Chain again, the guy who booked us had it played at his racing driver brothers funeral so when he heard us do it at the local pub he thought our version was better than the original, couldn't say no to that!
So despite our reservations at the beginning it turned into one of our best gigs so far, fed and watered, big stage to lark around on and decent wedge as well!

[Delberthot]

Played a wedding tonight - older crowd, the bride and groom looked to be in their 50s roughly.

Got asked to learn a few songs for tonight: We've only Just begun by the Car Painters, Sunshine of my Life by Stevie Wonder and New York New York cos that's where they were going on their honeymoon.

Got a request for a Michael Buble song, I cannot stand the guy's voice, sounds like he's fresh out of a boy band. Ended up doing Everything which I normally have the dots but I had to play it from memory.

Highlight of the night was Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac on the fretless.

I intended to do the whole gig on the fretless but the lines on the top are really faint and with the lights going I couldn't see sh*t so ended up using the Thunderbird for most of the night except the first and last few songs. Its the first time I've played fretless in ages but loved it.

Funny gig cos there must have only been about 60 tops and most of them were at the other bar and others left early so it wasn't really that good but at least we got to finish at half 11 when they had a disco

I've got the action on the Thunderbird really low but I underestimated how hard I play so there was a lot of rattling going on. I'll need to raise it a bit before next week.

Looking forward to using the new (old) Ibanez Blazer next week. I think I'll try it with rounds on it - both my other basses have roto flats. I still have a set of my favourite Hartke rounds left so I think I'll use them

[TheRev]

Had a storming gig at the Blue Lagoon in Bristol last night. It was our first gig in about 4 months after taking time out to re-jig our sound and the hard work really paid off. We were heading towards one of those 'is it worth carrying on?' Type conversations, so it was great to do a gig and find that the magic is still there. People danced, sang along (even with the 3 originals in the set), the groove was happening all night and we got attention from some very pleasant Russian ladies.

Everything feels good today.

[deepbass5]

Not bad at all really, early start leave home 16.15pm got back 02.30am 70 miles each way

Masonic Ladies night in Hotel south coast usual format started playing 9.30. So lots of sitting around. Played a lot of new numbers for the first time. Price Tag, Pack up your troubles, Mayhem, Hollywood, Woolly Bully they all went very well considering it was two weeks ago we ran them at a one of rehearsal. Feel like I have been run over by a team of horses this morning but other than that I feeling fine. Decided to use my two EA cabs and the EA amp it sounded nice at home this week, struggled with the acoustics for a while but got there with mucho tweaking. A difficult audience to judge they seemed to like the up tempo rockier numbers last night. Sets attached for your amusement.

[niceguyhomer]

A really emotional night for my band last night as we played our last gig at Darwen Library Theatre. The founder member Andrew Turner is retiring overseas ending a nine year run with the band. Not sure what's going to happen but we're gonna let the dust settle and see where we go from here. He'll be impossible to replace.

Here's a couple of pics of the venue, one of the band after soundcheck and the only sharp one taken during the performance.

Edited May 8, 2011 by niceguyhomer

[deepbass5]

Nice venue Alan, Hope all goes well for the future, what ever the musical path. One door closes another Opens

Hows the Ray going sorry to hear the 6 string didn't win you over, was a nice bass though. What were you playing through looks like an Epi 4x10 whats the amp ?

Good luck Paul.

[niceguyhomer]

Hi Paul,

It really is a fantastic venue - excellent set up and facilities. I like the Ray - it's a nice solid performer. The Yammy had to go, it was causing some serious pain in my plucking hand and pins and needles from my shoulder down to the tips of my fingers which has now disappeared since I sold it.

The cab is an Epifani UL410 Series 2 and the head is a TC Electronics RH750 which I've had for 4 days. I'm not sure it's a good match so the cab may go soon plus I have no gigs on the horizon so I might buy something small to play through, I dunno.

[BigRedX]

[quote]It was awesome!!!! A great night. I really enjoyed it!!! Thanks [/quote]
As promised here is a photo. Only ones I can find on-lie so far which don't quite capture the atmosphere...

Edited May 8, 2011 by BigRedX

[FlatEric]

How was my gig last night. . . . .

Brilliant.

Consistantly, some of the best tiimes we have had.
Not a big venue but a great crowd - all up for it and all having a good time.

"The Nuns", Loughborough.

Sometimes you don't need feedback from hundreds of people (thousands, if your are Pro/very well established),
sometimes it all just comes together and you roll into bed (2.15) thinking. . . . this is what it is all about!

Look forward to the next time - Anyone here go to the to The Three Nuns, in Loughborough???


Great rock venue.

Cheers.

[BigRedX]

When I was living in Loughborough, The 3 Nuns was a favourite underage drinking spot for people at my school...

Don't remember there being any live music then.

What sorts of bands are they putting on now - covers or originals?

[JTUK]

Don't know about gig but I have just come from a fraught rehearsal with a girl singer who wants to be showcased. She isn't bad but the band they have put together is going to need a lot of work. Too much work in the time available for this unit and you really don't want to attempt these things on the cheap..which is what I am afraid it will be.

Do I bail now or do I tell them that the unit isn't going to work anyway like this and they need a major rethink on some players..??

[Jambo10]

Just back from an early evening gig.
Gig was a bit lethargic but passable. New venue and we didn't have time for a sound check and it was just luck that is ended up ok!

Worst bit about the whole evening was that we parted company with our singer tonight, been together nearly 2 years now, not easy, she is a decent person, just too many minor issues culminating to bigger issues.
So the whole evening has been a bit of a downer......now the search begins for new blood.

[BigRedX]

Friday night saw Dick Venom & The Terrortones back at the Jam Café in Nottingham a year on from our debut gig.

And pretty good it was too. We didn't play quite as well as we did at last weekend's gig in Gateshead, but the sizeable audience enjoyed it. Mr Venom was suitably outrageous but managed to keep this week's mic stand intact so it lives to see another day. Sold T-shirts and badges and went away feeling good.

Off to London on Friday...

[BigRedX]

Just back from London...

Dick Venom & The Terrortones headlining at the 12 Bar on Denmark Strret. Cool looking venue with an small but high stage. Wondering how Mr Venom was going to get on with that. Quick line check the get familiar with the amps and check Mr Venom's Mic and Theremin DI. Off to get some Sushi.

Return to the venue to find it packed. Looking good. Bands before us all sound fantastic. Plenty of people have turned specially to see us. However it's getting late and we reach the time when we had been told we'd be starting and the band before us are still playing. Luckily we heard the words "this is our last song" and start to get ready to set up...

Only to be met by the sound guy telling us that the evening has overrun really badly and there's still another band to play. Not only that but they turn out to be pretty dismal both musically and performance-wise. The place looks like it's emptying and several of our friends are mumbling about last buses etc. This is bringing back memories of a previous London gig I did with SugarBox where I ended up playing to 3 people who'd travelled with the band an 2 friends who lived in London. Not looking so good now.

Finally the band finish to minimal applause, and we hurriedly set up. No waiting. The moment our drummer has finished positioning the cymbals we kick into our opening song...

And it's just mental. The room looks packed. Mr Venom is lost in the audience somewhere, the only way we know he's still there is because we can hear vocals. The there are people dancing like mad men down the front. Mr Venom appears briefly to play the theremin and then disappears into the throng again. Next time I see him he's handing upside down from one of the beams. His mic stops working 2 numbers before the end, put the sound guy sorts and replacement and we pile through the closing songs. Awesome! plenty of positive comments about the performance while we're packing up and looks as though we have 2 more London gigs as a result. One of the doormen tells that while we were on-stage everyone in the bar was in the band room watching us - something that very rarely occurs!

[Delberthot]

Just back from playing the second night at a club in Dundee.

New band but the short story is that a friend of ours' band split up, leaving him with all the gigs as he is the one that books them so he needed a band to do the gigs so myself, the drummer and the keyboard player from my wedding band get asked to do them.

Bit strange as the guy who books the gigs is a keyboard player so our keyboard player just sang both nights which was really strange for him. Really strange for the other keyboard player as he usually goes out as a two-piece with backing tracks so its a bit of a shock having a band alongside him.

Another bizarre thing is that there is no guitarist which is interesting when you're playing songs like Sex On Fire and Chelsea Dagger but we managed to pull it off.

Did our first gig last night with no rehearsal and didn't even know what songs we all knew until we were sitting in the bar but we managed to cobble a rough set together. Overall it was Ok but a bit disjointed in places.

Tonight was a completely different kettle of fish. the keyboard player put together a set that we could add or take away stuff from. Really bizarre as I've never used a set for about15 years as we usually play by reading the audience to see what they want. We were really tight and got a lot of complements.

I got my first complement in ages about my bass sound - I ended up using the Blazer both nights and it was fantastic. completely different to the soloed bridge pickup sound that I use with the thunderbird and I did find that I had to boost the top end on the amp quite a bit but it was awesome. In fact I'm now on the hunt for one of the single pickup Blazers to try out.

Of the 6 or 7 Precisions I've had ranging from a JV Squier to MIA Fender, none have ever given me a satisfying precision sound if that makes sense? This one, however takes the biscuit. Feels great to play as well but its bizarre not having something under the strings when I play near the bridge. Might make myself a ramp to stick under there.

Night ended up with us playing an encore to a packed dancefloor and more bookings.

[WalMan]

A game of two halves as they say. First set OK but assorted niggles, cockups and a muted response. Guitarist from my proggy band showed up, but sadly went in the break as it was a long drive home to Horsham for him.

And of course the second set, aided as it progressed by the affluence of incohol ended up an absolute stormer. Still a few mistakes, but I don't suppose anyone (except possibly Nik) notice. Major cramp in my left hand during the last last song.

Ended up with the new LM Tube (received from PRIME_Bass yesterday) into one of the sound guys spare monitors and it was sounding nice. Roll on the BF Super Twelve!!

[dc2009]

Was thursday night but guess it's not too late.
Ready to do a 45 minute set, been there all day. The bar is open from 5. No-one gets there til 9. Our set is pushed back and back until we're queuing the intro music as the next song and then the bar owner decides no bands should ever do sets over half an hour in his bar, so we cut two songs and decide to push our luck. Asides one or two bum notes the performance was alright, singer did not enough talking to the crowd and too much time fixing his hunk of junk instrument that couldn't keep it's tuning which irked me a bit. Sound on stage was awful, couldn't hear my backing vocals at all so barely bothered with them, and the bass was just a noise, apparently sounded quite good on front, and the soundman had warned us previously about the sound on stage. Guess it went down ok, bit annoying to see people turning up at 11.30, when we had finished, and the main band were playing. If everything had been on time, they'd have missed the main band too!

[Paultrader]

We were playing in the same room as the wedding reception and only had an hour to set up for a ten-piece so our tech was working flat out, and us as well to get organised. We had to start without a soundcheck and this seemed to spook us a bit. The drummer got hesitant - he's great but when he's unsure, instead of playing with extra power and flourish he hesitates, and his nervousness is picked up by the band. So, it was a bit hairy but I don't think the punters noticed too much. We were disappointed with ourselves though, because on a good night we can really be stonking good.

My particular mistake was to forget that in 'Valerie' the second verse is twice as long - I went into the chorus, and this was half an hour after reminding the guitarist [u]not[/u] to forget it - got a smug look from him - the git (I love him really).

[derrenleepoole]

We had a fantastic gig on Thursday night at the Hop Pocket in Chorley! I can't recommend this venue enough. The guy who runs it has a blues night every week, and it's always packed out with punters. It's taken us 15 months to get back on there, that's how good a venue it is. I had to do the gig on the electric bass, my NS upright stand had failed the night before, so was a bit gutted going into the gig that all my rehearsal was pointless. But all that disappeared as soon as well started, the crowd were just up for it! The whole band played really well too. In fact, one of the best gigs we've ever played. And to top it all off, I was really loving my tone that night. The first time I've actually really used the Sansamp Bass DI, and it was great.

Here's a recording of one of the tracks taken from the back of the room using a Zoom H2:

[url="http://soundcloud.com/fourfingerfunk/move-it-on-over"]Move It On Over[/url] by The Cottonhouse Shakers

For anyone who's interested, this is my SX Jazz shortie fretless running through the Sansamp into my tiny Ibanez Promethean 1x10 combo with 1x10 Trace extension cab. The room isn't massive, probably 120-150 people in it, but this rig just cuts it man! I'm not even passed half way on the gain or the master volume and it just delivers.

[derrenleepoole]

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='1223981' date='May 8 2011, 11:16 AM']A really emotional night for my band last night as we played our last gig at Darwen Library Theatre.
[/quote]

A fantastic venue, played there once before for Darwen Live with the then False Negative. Playing it this year again on the Saturday with a full ensemble. Can't wait for this one

BTW, is Darren Dean your guitarist?

Edited May 15, 2011 by derrenleepoole

[BigRedX]

Just got back from a weird gig with my covers band.

Playing at the Air Hostess in Tollerton, where they have live music on a Sunday from just before 6 until just after 8.

First set went really well, and although we made loads of silly mistakes in the second the audience really liked it and we've booked for another gig, so all round a good result.

Still feels really weird to be back home and unpacked before 10.00pm.

However it makes up fro Friday's Dick Venom gig where I didn't get back until 5.00 on Saturday morning...

[AndyTravis]

Played the Ruby Lounge in Manchester, it was really nice and relaxed, about 200 in the crowd, and we did about a 40 minute set.

Minor gripe was my onstage volume being a bit lower than I wanted but had decent ish monitor mix to pull me through.

Anyhow, album and website launched and 200 happy punters!

[barneyg42]

Couple this weekend, Lion Brewery, Ash with a new drummer. Only had one rehearsal with him, wouldn't say he nailed it but he did bloody well even when we threw a couple of songs he hadn't played before at him. Got approached by a very buxom blonde (they build em big near Aldershot) who gave me the " you're a great bass player" line followed by "I'm really attracted to you!" Thinks....hmm yeah she's a bit alright, might be on a winner here, but then she followed up with "shame I'm here with my boyfriend otherwise you'd be in!" Oh well got paid.
Second was a last minute job. Was supposed to be playing a pub in the next town but a few complications meant it had to be cancelled. Bit disappointing as I had a load of people coming from my local as well as other friends. Also, new drummer couldn't do it so original drummer was covering and bringing a few along. On Friday the guitard suggests asking my local if we could do a freebie for beer and putting a jug round. Spoke to landlady (who had booked herself a night off to come and see us too) and suddenly it's on. Most of the guys and girls at the pub are on my facebook so I put the word around. So we played to a fairly packed house of friends, made about £15 each in the pot (5 piece band) got free drinks all night which was of great benefit to me as I live opposite the pub! Got approached by one of the local girls, bit of a piss head admittedly and guess what........yeah she wants to snog me! When I point out that her other half who's in the other bit of the pub might not be too please she says oh don't worry about him! Err, I declined on this one!

Edited May 22, 2011 by barneyg42