How was your gig last night?

[BigRedX]

Two gigs on Thursday and Friday with my other band Hurtsfall. 

First supporting Strange Circuits from Chicago at the Chameleon in Nottingham. As happened last time, Rodney Bakerr who is Strange Circuits didn't want to play last so we were promoted from being a late addition to the bill to "headlining" status. Not bad for a band on only it's second gig. Not the greatest of performances and one of the new songs was performed at a pace considerably slower than usual. However most of the audience stayed to watch us and we got plenty of appreciative comments. Mr Bakerr even said he preferred this band to the other one I play with who supported him last time he played in Nottingham.

The following night we were in Manchester to open for TicNotToc, who are friends of our drummer, on their EP launch night. This was a much better gig in front of a crowd who knew nothing about us and despite being very much at odds musically with the other bands on the bill went down really well. I was staying the weekend with friends in Manchester, so I didn't have to endure the lengthy roadworks delayed return trip of the rest of the band.

Edit: Just found these two photos of the Manchester gig on Facebook

Edited September 17, 2018 by BigRedX

[yorks5stringer]

On 16/09/2018 at 10:04, martthebass said:

Absolutely awesome gig headlining the MAG rally on Friday Night at Duncombe Park in Helmsley, North Yorkshire. Outside gig, under canvas, great stage and sound and lights crew. Packed tent with very enthusiastic crowd. Crowd loved our, slightly rocked up set of 70s Glam Rock classics. Wish all gigs were like this.

Bloody big moths up there in N Yorks....!

[yorks5stringer]

Saturday was a 40 minute gig in the 'Chill' tent at the Priston Festival: Priston is a small village which has a Music Festival every year for the whole weekend.

This was with an Americana Cover Band (Hello Hopeville), so although our occasional Banjo player  was absent due to being abroad, I was included in the line-up on Bass.......( long story covered elsewhere)

All went off without any issues, and I did get complimented on my 72 Tele Bass, which was older than the guy himself!

[Bluewine]

We played a great looking club called Rock Country. The club is annexed to a high end strip club franchise.

No built in crowd and I knew we were doomed as soon as I walked into the place.

Awful gig, nobody came out to see us 

Longest 3.5 hours of my life. Good thing the pay was good. I'm sure they lost money.

Blue

 

[radiophonic]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

We played a great looking club called Rock Country. The club is annexed to a high end strip club franchise.

No built in crowd and I knew we were doomed as soon as I walked into the place.

Awful gig, nobody came out to see us 

Longest 3.5 hours of my life. Good thing the pay was good. I'm sure they lost money.

Blue

 

That really is the downside of the US bar band world. Purgatory usually only lasts 45 minutes for a UK originals band... although it still seems like 3.5 hrs.

[radiophonic]

Saturday was Ye Olde Salutation Inn in Nottinhgam. We opened the Metal night - even though we aren't metal. Load in is always a PITA due to there being little on-street parking, exorbitant NCP charges and the stage being upstairs. I blagged a lift though, so I even managed a couple of pints. Decent (although very loud) sound. Friendly and helpful sound guy too. I guess our heaviest material just about passes on an occasion like this and being openers, we got all the people who'd shown up for the later bands. They stayed and even clapped, so it was OK. Hard to imagine we'll get repeat business from them though - it was pretty much a metalcore crowd. We played OK despite a few technical issues and a misunderstanding by me about an intro but I felt oddly detached by the final couple of songs and had to force the energy a bit.  My glasses keep sliding down my face too - this is a major distraction at the moment. This is only gig #2 for me with this band so it's all about finding my place on stage and dealing with the realities of playing the music at much higher volume than I'm used to. 

 

[Yank]

18 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

That really is the downside of the US bar band world. Purgatory usually only lasts 45 minutes for a UK originals band... although it still seems like 3.5 hrs.

I grew up playing in the Northeast of the US.  Gigs were 4 hours.  When I played in an original band in Austin,  Texas,  there would be 4 bands on a bill and you only played a one hour set.  Now I'm back in the Northeast and gigs are 3 hours.  Yes,  it makes for a long gig when it sucks but if I'm gonna go through the trouble to pack my stuff from the house to the car,  drive to the gig,  unload at the gig,  setup onstage,  play music,  pack up my gear onstage,  carry it out to the car,  drive home,  unload said gear into my house,  I want to play music for more than one set.  If it means a crappy gig sometimes,  I'll take the good with the bad.  At least I'm playing all night.  Well,  not really all night,  but I'm sure it's longer than Lional Richie singing about making love to his woman  "all night long".

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, Yank said:

I grew up playing in the Northeast of the US.  Gigs were 4 hours.  When I played in an original band in Austin,  Texas,  there would be 4 bands on a bill and you only played a one hour set.  Now I'm back in the Northeast and gigs are 3 hours.  Yes,  it makes for a long gig when it sucks but if I'm gonna go through the trouble to pack my stuff from the house to the car,  drive to the gig,  unload at the gig,  setup onstage,  play music,  pack up my gear onstage,  carry it out to the car,  drive home,  unload said gear into my house,  I want to play music for more than one set.  If it means a crappy gig sometimes,  I'll take the good with the bad.  At least I'm playing all night.  Well,  not really all night,  but I'm sure it's longer than Lional Richie singing about making love to his woman  "all night long".

On the other side of the coin when a bar is packed with a supportive engaged crowd and the band is " hot " 4 hours seems like nothing.

Blue

[Woodinblack]

11 hours ago, radiophonic said:

That really is the downside of the US bar band world. Purgatory usually only lasts 45 minutes for a UK originals band... although it still seems like 3.5 hrs.

But a UK cover band much longer. My specific cover band if we don't do 3 hours it is a short set!

[AScheck9]

14 hours ago, radiophonic said:

  My glasses keep sliding down my face too - this is a major distraction at the moment.

 

I hear you on this- which is why I've switched to contact lenses. 

I can just about see my fretboard without my glasses... and the outline of my drummer to see his leads, but I can't see the crowd, which sucks. 

If I've forgotten to put my contact lenses in,  I borrow some gorilla snot from my drummer (sticky stuff for his hands to grip the sticks better) and rub that on the bridge of my nose! Works a charm. 

 

 

[FinnDave]

7 hours ago, AScheck9 said:

 

I hear you on this- which is why I've switched to contact lenses. 

I can just about see my fretboard without my glasses... and the outline of my drummer to see his leads, but I can't see the crowd, which sucks. 

If I've forgotten to put my contact lenses in,  I borrow some gorilla snot from my drummer (sticky stuff for his hands to grip the sticks better) and rub that on the bridge of my nose! Works a charm. 

 

 

I'm short sighted, and prefer to pay without my glasses on as I don't really want to see the audience in any detail - they can be very distracting!

[dontregartha]

On 26/08/2018 at 17:45, dontregartha said:

OK - a weekend of two halves. Friday night we played to a full house at a swanky cocktail bar in town. When packing up the manager goes missing and we were hanging around to get paid. This gig was booked as one of three as a loss leader (we've had two or three good paying bookings out of this - but for the money and the money the venue makes out of it - its taking the michael big time.

The bar prices (£7 a pint!!!!) are ridiculous and the band sit out in the car park down the road with a few cans - never had an offer of a drink, we even get charged for softs (£2.50 for a coke) so the carry out in the car park is the order of the day. 

So the geezer coughs up and says ' we're not sure that Live music is right for this venue' and we're going to cancel the next couple of bookings - apparently the owner clocked us as she drove off in her Cayenne and moaned that we weren't putting the fee back across the bar. There's a place just down the road that might be getting a good deal from us for one of those other nights - we can probably sell those at twice the rate we were due to be paid, but we might just want to prove a point.

Saturday was just the other end of the spectrum - The Red Lion at Rothwell - the landlord welcomed us in and the place was rammed. Lots of friendly faces and a great reception. The venue had a wedding on with a great young soul band that although it was a private event, the punters in the garden could hear it all - but we still had the pub bursting at  the seams.

So last night we had 'pay back' - we offered the cancelled booking to a pub not far away - the 'Pickering Phipps' - what a great team there. We had a good crowd and the sound was great. In the break we wandered up the road to the 'other place' which had about 40 people in - as opposed to the 200+ when we played there.

The maths isn't hard - an uplift of 150 at their insane drinks pricing would have made a difference, but hey, what do we know?

[lurksalot]

2 this weekend , a welcome return to the scene after our normal August break but then a further enforced rest due to the singer/rhythm guitar being in a RTA and suffering a broken shoulder, damaged ribs and lots of bruising .

it appears that he has maintained enough fitness to hold his voice , but as we normally only do 1 gig a weekend, we had stipulated in advance that we would be strict on the 45min set sizes 

the first party on the Friday was a PTA gig, 50th anniversary for 100 peeps , lovely room , great sound but very difficult to get a rappor , as we were very late getting on due to raffles , auctions etc we played on and we were asked to let the DJ take over at 11.15 so we only played an hour . The DJ was a proper club type and it was boom boom boom boom , and loud , and loads  were ready for it .

the night felt a proper let down , but chatting this afternoon with the organisers , they had lots of feedback that the room was pretty much split , and that it wasn't full of Ibiza type clubbers and that plenty had really enjoyed our set . 

But tonight was at a garden party , early start early finish and was an absolute blast , a pleasure to play and the sort of gig you would play every day , just about everyone was dancing and singing along. 

2 decent paying parties but massively different vibes. 

[dontregartha]

Saturday night, I was up  north visiting my daughter at Uni, so depped out the gig. (the gig was in response to  a shout out on Absolute Radio for a couple whose wedding band had baled out on them).Any way I eventually fetched up in Leighton Buzzard (Home turf) and went on a band exploration and went to the Wheaty and had a look at Sidewinder (good, honest, solid rock - great sound and good playing)... was heading home when I noticed a band playing at the Red Lion - the 'Junkyard Dogs'

As always, I went up and had a natter with the band and had the pleasure of meeting 'Happy Jack' and 'Blue Jay' of Basschat.

 

 

 

 

 

[Silvia Bluejay]

1 hour ago, dontregartha said:

Saturday night, I was up  north visiting my daughter at Uni, so depped out the gig. (the gig was in response to  a shout out on Absolute Radio for a couple whose wedding band had baled out on them).Any way I eventually fetched up in Leighton Buzzard (Home turf) and went on a band exploration and went to the Wheaty and had a look at Sidewinder (good, honest, solid rock - great sound and good playing)... was heading home when I noticed a band playing at the Red Lion - the 'Junkyard Dogs'

As always, I went up and had a natter with the band and had the pleasure of meeting 'Happy Jack' and 'Blue Jay' of Basschat.

 

 

 

 

 

Great to meet you too, Don! Thanks for coming to see the band and having a chat about bass playing, bass guitars and gear, in classic Basschat style.  

For being such a small pub, the setup and gig were rather exhausting. I'm downloading the video footage as we speak.

[Oopsdabassist]

7 hours ago, dontregartha said:

Saturday night, I was up  north visiting my daughter at Uni, so depped out the gig. (the gig was in response to  a shout out on Absolute Radio for a couple whose wedding band had baled out on them).Any way I eventually fetched up in Leighton Buzzard (Home turf) and went on a band exploration and went to the Wheaty and had a look at Sidewinder (good, honest, solid rock - great sound and good playing)... was heading home when I noticed a band playing at the Red Lion - the 'Junkyard Dogs'

As always, I went up and had a natter with the band and had the pleasure of meeting 'Happy Jack' and 'Blue Jay' of Basschat.

 

Def a small world, Stew, the bassist from Sidewinder has depped with us a coupla times on vocals, lovely chap!

[Witters]

Played the Royal Oak, Wotton under Edge, as part of the Wotton Blues Festival (The Phil Prowse Blues Band).  Arrived at the venue to find five people and my heart sank.  All through setting up maybe three more turned up and a couple left.  I had that sinking feeling “must be the weather” and “oh well, paid rehearsal”. Ten minutes before showtime the place was rammed and the punters are six feet away, looking at you with that “go on then entertain us” look.  

We had been booked for 90 minutes but two and a half hours later decided we needed a break and the drummer needed wringing out.  He looked decidedly moist!

Great audience, great venue.

We are a bit of a loose band, very few arranged songs, but we’ve all been doing this long enough to know what to do.  The rhythm section disappeared into disco world at one point with the keys playing his best Stevie Wonder.  A few tunes later and it’s funk city.  No rock, coz we’re rubbish at that, but plenty of swing and unpredictable stuff.

Thanks to Basschat Raymundo for coming down, lovely guy nice to meet you, hope you enjoy the rest of the festival. Our favourite dancers 💃🕺showed up.  They are a sweet couple; they hold hands all night 😍💏and, boy, can they dance!

Looking forward to more bookings at this venue! Different venue tonight, slightly slower songs and perhaps less energetic! After that, our two day mini-tour will be over.  There’s a good reason we don’t do back-to-backs, we tend to hurt the day after a gig!

Have good Sunday’s, people!

[FinnDave]

Complete opposite of above, booked to play a charity freebie at a local pub. Not my booking, and the guy who accepted the gig said he must have been soft in the head that day - gig was in pub garden, wooden stage with tatty cover, puddles of water on the stage from the constant rain . Drummer couldn't make it, nor could one of the guitarists (obviously they had had more sense than the rest of us) so we had to go on as a three piece, singer/rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and bass. Scheduled to play for an hour, but just before we went on, Landlord said the band after us had pulled out (more people with more sense than we had!) so could we cover their slot as well. He was met with with w resounding NO! (starting to become sensible, at last) so he offered us...a free burger. We laughed. Played our allotted hour to the burger guy (who had plenty of time on his hands as surprisingly, no one wanted to sit in the rain eating a burger), landlord, promoter, and about 3 other people. As the hour finally came to an end we were off that stage and away within minutes. 

Home via my local to cheer myself up, quick dinner with my wife, then back out to another gig with the same band. At least they were all there, the lure of being indoors and getting paid 50 quid for the privilege of playing three sets before getting home at half one obviously won them over.

Quit one of my bands last night, but not the one I played with yesterday, one of the others is less fun than that!

[Witters]

6 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Complete opposite of above, booked to play a charity freebie at a local pub. Not my booking, and the guy who accepted the gig said he must have been soft in the head that day - gig was in pub garden, wooden stage with tatty cover, puddles of water on the stage from the constant rain . Drummer couldn't make it, nor could one of the guitarists (obviously they had had more sense than the rest of us) so we had to go on as a three piece, singer/rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and bass. Scheduled to play for an hour, but just before we went on, Landlord said the band after us had pulled out (more people with more sense than we had!) so could we cover their slot as well. He was met with with w resounding NO! (starting to become sensible, at last) so he offered us...a free burger. We laughed. Played our allotted hour to the burger guy (who had plenty of time on his hands as surprisingly, no one wanted to sit in the rain eating a burger), landlord, promoter, and about 3 other people. As the hour finally came to an end we were off that stage and away within minutes. 

Home via my local to cheer myself up, quick dinner with my wife, then back out to another gig with the same band. At least they were all there, the lure of being indoors and getting paid 50 quid for the privilege of playing three sets before getting home at half one obviously won them over.

Quit one of my bands last night, but not the one I played with yesterday, one of the others is less fun than that!

Bummer! I feel your pain FinnDave.

[Phill]

Played the Alban Arena last night with a 2-Tone  tribute tour. (last ever gig with that band & tour) great FOH sound as usual,  but my IEM mix cut out 4 tracks in. Also managed to use my Micro Pog on my one solo without stepping on my tuner at the same time! 😂 Sell out & very responsive crowd & a great send off for myself & the tour 

[sonsman]

Did a fiftieth birthday party last night in a large marquee in the grounds of a private house north of Exeter.  We played there just over a couple of years ago when the weather was superb and lots of folks were in the large swimming pool! Last night was very different as it was hissing down all day and it was still damp in the evening. The upside was that the crowd stayed in the marquee and wanted to party with lots of dancing. Between our sets there was a live link up with a relative of the birthday boy in the Ukraine - that was a first!

[ezbass]

Pitched up for the gig, but the ceiling over the stage had spilt and drooped and there was a bucket pretty much in the middle catching the water. No gig for us then 😕

[Witters]

Well, a very unexpected night tonight.  So different from last night. Usually, this venue is really quiet and it’s hard work.  They like us, we get encores etc, but it’s hard work, especially after the previous night’s stonking gig at the blues festival.

This was amazing, totally unexpected!  From the off we were in Stevie Wonderland with some ska a couple of numbers later, the usual swing blues but with lots of interplay and throwing phrases between each other - where the hell did that come from? I think it’s the addition of our keys player; finally, I have the band of my dreams, this is something else!

What a fabulous night!

Now we need to work out how the hell we market a swing, funk, jazz, rock n roll, blues band?

[Stylon Pilson]

This weekend we played at a local community centre. Our drummer played here last week with his other band, and he warned us that the crowd was small, albeit energetic. The turnout ended up being better than expected, but the enthusiasm of the crowd was disappointing. The boxing match being shown on the television may have had something to do with that - for a lot of time our "audience" was actually turned side-on to us. Hmmmmm. On the plus side, it's nice to only have a 20 minute drive home.

S.P.

[casapete]

11 minutes ago, Stylon Pilson said:

This weekend we played at a local community centre. Our drummer played here last week with his other band, and he warned us that the crowd was small, albeit energetic. The turnout ended up being better than expected, but the enthusiasm of the crowd was disappointing. The boxing match being shown on the television may have had something to do with that - for a lot of time our "audience" was actually turned side-on to us. Hmmmmm. On the plus side, it's nice to only have a 20 minute drive home.

S.P.

I feel your pain. We play a weekly residency in a pub, and we have a policy of not playing if the TV's are on. Just don't get the need to have lots of different things going on at the same time which seems to be the vogue these days. If there's a big sports event on (like the recent world cup) then we are happy to plan our sets around it if we possibly can. As we are a fairly quiet acoustic duo, battling TV's / background music / people watching loud stuff on their phones / noisy fruit machines etc is too much like hard work.