How was your gig last night?

[tonybassplayer]

Cross Keys at Morley near Leeds with the added pressure of video recording the gig ( looks good this morning ) and Col from local band Mojo bringing along his 10 track recorder to record the gig ( first cut will be about a week )

A few more mistakes than normal ( all on the simple songs that I never really practice !! ) but all in all I think it will turn out good.

Good atmosphere in the pub with plenty of friends along to support us and the recently installed stage was an absolute dream to play on. I even had room to put both bass's on stands rather than stacking them at the back of the drums or on a shelf.

Great gig and roll on next Saturday !!

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Edited September 28, 2008 by tonybassplayer

[Steve_nottm]

Covers band gig in Coalville, Leicestershire.

Pretty good in the end. Started playing to 4 blokes and 2 dogs, but as we went on the place filled up and by the end of the 2nd set we had a fair few in and were getting a good reception. Landlord asked us to play a bit longer so went back on and did some more.

Think we'll be back there.

[narnia]

Hubby had a lovely gig (he's the drummer) with his blues band......and got a really nice email from one of the punters,complimenting the whole band individually and saying that his drumming and cymbal work was 'truly inspirational'.Nice to get the praise

[dave_bass5]

Had a good wedding gig on Sat in Somerset.
Got there at 5.45, due to play at 8.30 but went on at 10pm. The venue was nice, the couple were really nice (we got £25 tip each) and we had a room with a big telly, coffee on tap and big comfy chairs.

Couldn't really ask for more (other than not having the 3 hour drive back).

Drummer had his new car and it looked like i wouldn't be able to use my 1210R any more due to lack of space (hence the for sale add last week) but it all worked out ok and while its cramped, it all fits in (hence the withdrawal of the for sale add ;-)

Edited September 29, 2008 by dave_bass5

[Merton]

Wedding on Sat night after the SE Bash. Was a small room so we were quieter on stage, which is a Good Thing. Went well, except when I walked into a big glass window just before the 2nd set.

[mcgraham]

Well it wasn't last night, it was Saturday night. Did a gig with a swing band at a 50th wedding anniversary. Was called on Wednesday night and asked to fill in, was given the music on Thursday night to learn, had Friday evening to look at it, and Saturday afternoon to learn it/get comfortable with it.

Gig went well, punters loved it. Great classics that I really enjoyed, even though I was hearing most of them for the first time as I was playing. I was thinking whilst doing it, 'my gran would've loved this'.

I've been invited to join their group, and got some offers of some further jazz gigs, which was nice. I shall see how things go.

Mark

[tonybassplayer]

Another cracking gig playing a wedding in Tong near Bradford.

Great bride and groom, brilliant dancing guests, loads of encores and loads of nice compliments after.

We had a mini band meeting in the break and confirmed that our dep drummer is now our permanent drummer ( he is brilliant ) and also agreed that our function set and pub set should be dramatically different ( I have emails going back two years requesting this and at long last they are listening ) so practice on Tuesday is more cheese ( raining men, walking on sunshine etc )

[The Funk]

Jazz After Dark, Soho. Last night.

Fun gig. First time with my band at Jazz After Dark. (The guitarist and I had played there before a few times in a different band). 2 sets of covers either side of a set of original material.

The largest part of the audience was a group of 29 women having a meet-up from a website for gay women. Very friendly and cool crowd.

After a quiet first set we got permission from the management to crank things up. Second set went down really well. Last set had a few boisterous requests for jazz standards. I let the keyboard player and drummer have a little jazz noodle before we went into some more funk covers. Wound the whole thing down with a cool mutation of Freddie King's version of [i]Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do[/i].

Highlights: our set of original material and [i]Flashlight[/i]. I was still singing "Flashlight", "Neon Light", "Street Light" all the way home.

[bass_ferret]

First pub gig for years (drummer recon's 20) was really good. All the young people were bopping away at the bar

[MacDaddy]

Played at a Biker Rally in Norfolk as support to the main band. We played our set, went down ok, then the headline band did their thing. Thing is, their bass player had won a bottle of Jack Daniels in the raffle. After been on the beer all day, he drank 3/4 of the JD bottle, which led to him sitting down during the gig then falling asleep.
So I took his Ricky of him and finished the gig. I actually knew [i]some [/i]of the songs I played

[Kiwi]

Im thinking that some of us are bound to play the same venues at some point, so if we can get a few more posters listing the name of the venues we play at it'll probably help a lot. I've been advised offline about a couple of places I've listed already that we'll be treating more cautiously nex time.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='300143' date='Oct 5 2008, 08:50 PM']Im thinking that some of us are bound to play the same venues at some point, so if we can get a few more posters listing the name of the venues we play at it'll probably help a lot. I've been advised offline about a couple of places I've listed already that we'll be treating more cautiously nex time.[/quote]

Yeah, thats a good idea. I think i mentioned about doing it over on the old site but it was in a thread rather than in its own one.
Might be a goof idea for a sticky as long as we keep it clean and honest.

Played at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond park in London on Friday. Usual wedding stuff, nice crowd and free beer but its got a meter (i think its set at 80db) and we managed to trip it 5 times during three sets. We found we couldn't trip it at the end of the final song no matter how hard we tried using an extended rock ending.
Get in is easy, about ten steps down, cars park right in front of the door and no having to carry things through the guests.
Had the groom get up and sing three numbers (all pre arranged) and he had a great voice and good timing. The first time its been a pleasure to work with someone in the audience.

[neepheid]

I had my first gig with a full band on Saturday night. We were playing ska covers for a 40th birthday party, so I guess I was quite lucky we had a captive audience who actually wanted to hear the songs we were playing.

We arrived at the venue (The Tunnels in Aberdeen - nice little place, you should check it out if you're ever up this way) about 3pm for our third and final practice session. Yes - third. We had terrible trouble finding a drummer, and we only got that sorted a couple of weeks before the gig. Not only that, but Rich (Ou7shined on here) moved from bass to guitar having not played it for years. Yes, I was bricking it.

Rehearsal went OK, but it was becoming clear that being recording perfect was out of the question, and I was still simplifying songs over dinner (!)

Anyway, we got back to the venue just in time to see the first band (who we borrowed the drummer from ) play - they were really good, mostly originals and they did a Specials song which wasn't on our set - fortunate as they did a right good job of it.

Can't really tell you much about the gig. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of it head down looking at my fingerboard, but I did manage to look up/move around a bit during the songs I knew best. I did have some "cheat sheets" on a music stand just off to the side, which I perused feverishly while the singer was having some banter with the crowd in between songs.

I think it went well, a few fruity moments for sure but I blustered through it and it was over real quick in the end - one of the quickest hours of my life! The adrenaline certainly kicked in and I found that the songs I most worried about seemed to melt away.

We tried to play One Step Beyond as an encore, but we hadn't really practiced it and made a right pig's ear of it I was trying to play as per the recording (as I remembered it), but I'm not sure everyone else was. Or maybe I got it wrong too. Anyway, it was a jumble of sounds that vaguely resembled One Step Beyond, lots of people were dancing, maybe they were all pissed by then and didn't care.

I guess I was lucky to have a favourable crowd, a captive audience if you will for my first outing on the big stage. All in all, given the limited preparation time and the rapid transition from talking the talk to walking the walk I think I did quite well. Folk were up dancing, we got cheers, we got applause, we didn't get rotten vegetable matter.

Then I got drunk

[carlosfandango]

Played a really nice wedding in Dorset on Sat. Very good crowd, every ine up and dancing from the first downbeat...nice! On the way back i managed to get a flat tyre AND a flat battery as I was listening to the radio whilst waiting for the green flag people to turn up...home safely in bed at 4am!

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='neepheid' post='300300' date='Oct 6 2008, 09:46 AM']I had my first gig with a full band on Saturday night. We were playing ska covers for a 40th birthday party, so I guess I was quite lucky we had a captive audience who actually wanted to hear the songs we were playing.

We arrived at the venue (The Tunnels in Aberdeen - nice little place, you should check it out if you're ever up this way) about 3pm for our third and final practice session. Yes - third. We had terrible trouble finding a drummer, and we only got that sorted a couple of weeks before the gig. Not only that, but Rich (Ou7shined on here) moved from bass to guitar having not played it for years. Yes, I was bricking it.

Rehearsal went OK, but it was becoming clear that being recording perfect was out of the question, and I was still simplifying songs over dinner (!)

Anyway, we got back to the venue just in time to see the first band (who we borrowed the drummer from ) play - they were really good, mostly originals and they did a Specials song which wasn't on our set - fortunate as they did a right good job of it.

Can't really tell you much about the gig. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of it head down looking at my fingerboard, but I did manage to look up/move around a bit during the songs I knew best. I did have some "cheat sheets" on a music stand just off to the side, which I perused feverishly while the singer was having some banter with the crowd in between songs.

I think it went well, a few fruity moments for sure but I blustered through it and it was over real quick in the end - one of the quickest hours of my life! The adrenaline certainly kicked in and I found that the songs I most worried about seemed to melt away.

We tried to play One Step Beyond as an encore, but we hadn't really practiced it and made a right pig's ear of it I was trying to play as per the recording (as I remembered it), but I'm not sure everyone else was. Or maybe I got it wrong too. Anyway, it was a jumble of sounds that vaguely resembled One Step Beyond, lots of people were dancing, maybe they were all pissed by then and didn't care.

I guess I was lucky to have a favourable crowd, a captive audience if you will for my first outing on the big stage. All in all, given the limited preparation time and the rapid transition from talking the talk to walking the walk I think I did quite well. Folk were up dancing, we got cheers, we got applause, we didn't get rotten vegetable matter.

Then I got drunk [/quote]
Wot he said ^
All I can add is that what we pulled off was nothing short of a miracle and Matt (Neepheid) more so as this really was a baptism of fire for him. I myself had it relatively easy (I'd forgotten how much of a caker it is to play guitar than bass) and despite the stage being a bit cramped still managed to stay true to my metal credentials jump about like a fool.
Brilliant night (and the wages weren't exactly a poke in the eye either ) and I hope it's not too long before we do it again but next time can I choose a name? SoundSystem is pure Cheese-fest. I'd prefer something more like "Skatallica" or "I am Skartacus".
Got drunk too.

[OldGit]

[quote name='tonybassplayer' post='299783' date='Oct 5 2008, 10:53 AM']Another cracking gig playing a wedding in Tong near Bradford.

Great bride and groom, brilliant dancing guests, loads of encores and loads of nice compliments after.

We had a mini band meeting in the break and confirmed that our dep drummer is now our permanent drummer ( he is brilliant ) and also agreed that our function set and pub set should be dramatically different ( I have emails going back two years requesting this and at long last they are listening ) so practice on Tuesday is more cheese ( raining men, walking on sunshine etc ) [/quote]


Which one are you changing?

[OldGit]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='300590' date='Oct 6 2008, 04:17 PM']Wot he said ^
All I can add is that what we pulled off was nothing short of a miracle and Matt (Neepheid) more so as this really was a baptism of fire for him. I myself had it relatively easy (I'd forgotten how much of a caker it is to play guitar than bass) and despite the stage being a bit cramped still managed to stay true to my metal credentials jump about like a fool.
Brilliant night (and the wages weren't exactly a poke in the eye either ) and I hope it's not too long before we do it again but next time can I choose a name? SoundSystem is pure Cheese-fest. I'd prefer something more like "Skatallica" or "I am Skartacus".
Got drunk too.[/quote]


Ska-Tissues


Sounds like you triumphed!
Might be an idea toplan your encore (or learn one step beyond ) for next time

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='OldGit' post='300602' date='Oct 6 2008, 04:28 PM']Ska-Tissues


Sounds like you triumphed!
Might be an idea toplan your encore (or learn one step beyond ) for next time [/quote]
Yeah we deserve medals. Ska-Tissues - like it.
Thing is the set we ended up doing was vastly cut down from what we had learned (25 down to 17) so we had a fair few finished tunes in our back pocket. It wasn't as bad as Matt made out it just started to fall apart in the last few seconds of the song - The horns got a bit carried away with their solos, I was able to follow them and the other guitar took his cues from me (Matt's glare was firmly fixed to his fretboard) and we all finished roughly together. Admittedly I couldn't hear the bass too well (bass definition isn't the best in a long granite tunnel ) but the song is only Cm G Fm so you're never too far from the tune at any one point. The dance floor was heaving (quite literally) and no one batted an eye so it couldn't have been that bad.

[bassninja]

Finally! Back to the forum after an unexpectedly extended hiatus while Bassninja Towers was rewired, necessitating our moving out. Apparently bakelite fittings and valves are considered 'unsafe' these days (its political correctness gone mad...)

So... a number of gigs; mainly fairly uneventful but one in particular stands out as worthy of a quick mention.

Dep gig at a caravan park in Somerset for a 'Country Music Festival'. Not my usual cup o' tea but the kids have to eat. Several of the holidays parks in the area, it seems, had banded together for the 10 day event, including quick-draw pistol competitions and other western type diversions. We did an hour's spot at Sunday lunchtime to about 500-600 hardcore country fans, including many Confederate re-enactment enthusiasts. Great attention to detail in the uniforms and firearms ([i]yes: Firearms!!![/i]) and obviously very sincere in what they do. I was not prepared, however, when they all stood tearfully to attention, hats off and hands on heart, at the end when the multi-instrumentalist in the band played 'Dixie' on a fife.

I should have been ready for the first sight that greeted us on arrival after a horribly early start. A man in a stetson hat, suede chaps and spurs with a gun belt and pistol riding down the road on one of those electric buggies that are so helpful to our more elderly friends and neighbours. Myself and the soundguy almost choked when, as we pulled out to overtake him, we noticed a stuffed horses head stuck on his handlebars.

Tip o' the hat to the support band 'Dog Gone' who travelled from Essex for a one hour set, and put in a really decent show, including some fairly athletic dog-house bass playing.

[beerdragon]

Bugger. i was told tonight that our gig on saturday is off. the landlady at the pub we were due to play at doublebooked. she meant to tell the other act that she was cancelling them due to d/booking but forgot and they are not due back from holiday untill saturday.she prefers our band to them. smells fishy to me.

[waynepunkdude]

Right

Pirates, Pimps and Arseholes mini tour

Thursday 2nd October - Beercart Arms Canterbury

Regular gig for us always fun and I had my Jazz back for the menders and was gigging my ampeg for the first time, good solid gig I played really well everything sounded good and got home before 12

Friday 3rd October - Sturdy Club, Hoo

Never been there before it was wierd in the middle of nowhere it was a back hall that smelt like piss and the people there were total chavs we played with BC'er cricky's band we were suppose to be on third and forth but we had a chat and decided to go on first and second so we could get the f*ck out of there, our singer started taking the piss out of the locals on stage it was very funny but very scary.

Saturday 4th October - Walnut Tree, Regents Street WC1

Couldn't be more different posh yuppy bar all the other acts were slow Indie/acoustic and the backline was provided so we all went up in one car that means our singer could drink and when our singer drinks he can't play trumpet.

We got on about 10.30 decided we were going to go down like a sh*t in a lift anyway so we just went for it as hard and fast as we could it was great

[lateralus462]

First gig with new material @ The Cellar Bar in Bracknell last night

Fair few people turned up and a great atmosphere - sound was good although we were very very loud (bass especially )

Only major f**k up was having to restart our 2nd song cos the drummer went to pieces, but apart from that everything went smoothly.

Pain in the ass gettin the gear in and out though - Venue is down some horrible steep stairs.

[phsycoandy]

[quote name='walbassist' post='88049' date='Nov 13 2007, 08:59 PM']Had an impromptu gig with the two guitarists from my blues band last night in the White Hart at Witley near Guildford. Just three voices, a Fylde Mandolin, a Lowden acoustic and my Martin acoustic bass. No drums, no amps, no keys, no mikes.

We played for about two hours and just reeled out loads of stuff (we know a lot of material - we've been playing together on and off for over 20 years!). Was a great time.

And in tribute to Rich's post above, here's a bassist's eye of what's in front of me at most gigs with my other band...



Cheers all

Gareth[/quote]Man how do you concentrate all evening! do you just play it all on the gstring!

[phsycoandy]

Having just mad a totally out of order sexist remark, heres a pic of our last gig. hey look no pedals anywhere!

Edited October 8, 2008 by phsycoandy

[OldGit]

Jam night.
I whizzed out at 10pm to celebrate some good news..

Got to the venue in time for the last 4 tunes from the house band and guests then got called up to play bass for the jammers ... It's an anything goes jam so you never know who will be getting up or what they will do .. a regular even does The Lion Sleeps Tonight with two lion puppets on her hands and totally tuneless singing It's always fun though.

So 45 mins jammin' on my Shuker Precision 5 through an ancient TE head and 1x15 cab (on the floor .. I've lost count of the number of times I've explained why it's really much better for jammin' bass to have the cab up on a crate or two. I just can't hear it when it's on the floor but sadly my pleas to the house bassist fall on closed ears ... ) Took about 3 numbers to get the eq right so I had at least some chance of hearing me and the singers and guitar amp , essential when trying to follow people who give you very few clues as to what they are playing or where their version is going.

So .. about 5 singers or singer/guitarists of varying ability and time keeping and three drummers during that time too

One thing inexperienced (or drunk) jammin' singer guitarists tend to do is to get very nervous and just start without telling me what the tune is and what key it's in ... Then they hide their chording hand so I have to guess what they are doing from the back view of their left hand ...
They think I'm telepathic or I know every song every written and the key it's in on the particular recorded version they learned.

So mostly it was Ok but one guy played Taxman which I know well so I piled in in A, as that was the key I was told it was in by someone who should know better, only to realise half way through the verse that the little weak vocal and guitar I could barely hear from the other side of the drums was actually in D ... der .. fast key change

Someone got up and called Wild World .. "Reggae version?" I asked. "eh??" he said, obviously never heard of Jimmy Cliff But I got my revenge.. next person up sang Knocking on heaven's door - we play that in our band with a combination of the original, a big reggae dub and bit of the Gums and Noses version so that's what they got The drummer joined in with the groove and it went great.

Rounded off my stint with one of the better showman singers doing Sweet Home Chicago and Peaches... P sound to the fore there

I even got some compliments and an offer of dep out of it .. Result!

Edited October 8, 2008 by OldGit