How was your gig last night?

[Woodinblack]

14 minutes ago, ricksterphil said:

I recommend Chelsea Dagger and Dakota for your setlist. 

 

Wouldn't that literally fall into the thing he was trying to avoid of sounding like every other group?

[neepheid]

Hard no on Dakota, and up here, Caledonia.  I already know I'm in Scotland and I know that I miss it when I'm not there, don't need that reinforced in trite, overplayed music, thx.

[mep]

We played at the Apple and Parrot in Torquay last night. Its been quite a few years since we were there. Now they have a house PA and always give bands a great sound. Its run by the bar manager who is an old friend of our eldest son, and they are in a band together. We played well and had a great crowd who enjoyed it as much as we did. Lots of compliments about our sound and songs. The on stage sound was a bit odd. My bass sound didn't carry that well due to the stage  configuration but with the amp cranked up and plenty of bass in the monitors it was ok.

There was an added bonus as bands are entitled to free entry to the strip club upstairs! I had to pass as i didn't have my wallet on me, only had a fiver in my pocket and payment was by bank transfer, so no gig earnings to blow!

[martthebass]

On 23/10/2023 at 17:01, Bluewine said:

 

We can't impose band policies anywhere. The bar imposes their policies on us. 

 

Daryl

Sad that mate. We usually insist the background crap goes off while we sound check, if this doesn’t happen we crank the volume until it does…

[dmccombe7]

3 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Sad that mate. We usually insist the background crap goes off while we sound check, if this doesn’t happen we crank the volume until it does…

Will need to try that Mart. 

Dave

[martthebass]

Just now, dmccombe7 said:

Will need to try that Mart. 

Dave

Deffo Dave - make those Mesa valves glow like the sun!

[peteb]

Terrific night last night at the Forum in Darlington with the Zep tribute. Great venue, good sound, decent guy promoting and, above all, a brilliant audience. Second gig with Phil (Didge Digital) on keys and about the sixth with Damian, the new singer, which has taken a good band and lifted it up a level. Great night... 

 

[dmccombe7]

17 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Deffo Dave - make those Mesa valves glow like the sun!

Onto Ampeg these days Mart but still got old faithful Mpulse. 

Dave

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, alant said:

paid us extra and promised a re-booking next year.

Sure sign of a job well done.

 

2 hours ago, EssexBuccaneer said:

we play Green Day ‘Longview’

Great bass line, shame it wasn’t appreciated.

 

2 hours ago, neepheid said:

we also do Minority sometimes and have floated the idea of doing Holiday.

Both quality tunes.

[ricksterphil]

5 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Wouldn't that literally fall into the thing he was trying to avoid of sounding like every other group?

Yes, but the punters don't care

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, ricksterphil said:

Yes, but the punters don't care

 

Of course they don't, but its not about them, he specifically said he wanted to try to do not the same as every other group. Can't think of any local groups apart from us that don't do Dakota, and thats only because I put effort in for us not to do it!

[Lozz196]

Just got in from a 5pm Spacewasters gig at The New Cross Inn, a 3 day psychobilly event. Went really well, good crowd, a few of whom said we’d been the best band of the 2 days so far. Put in a few new ones and also given it’s Halloween weekend did Bad Moon Rising. A def success plus home before 8pm, unheard of!

[Gasman]

Halloween night at the Two Brewers pub in Shaftesbury, also it was the farewell event for the landlords who have been forced out by unaffordable increases in rental and utility costs - so far no-one is prepared to take it on, which is sad. It's a venue for alternative types (LBGTQ+) as well as music enthusiasts so somewhere we've always looked forward to playing - as it was Halloween there were some amazing costumes and makeup... and that was just the band

 

It's a pretty cramped stage area there for a 6-piece but as usual we crammed ourselves in somehow or other- it was another milestone being the last gig for the six-piece as it was the end of the handover period between our departing rhythm guitar/vox  and incoming keys/vox. So how did it go? The place was rammed all evening! We played from 9-midnight+10 with a  short break, and it was crowd-pleaser time all night. I know Mr Balderdash metaphorically spits on us low-lives who want to, and are paid to, keep the crowds happy, but I get a real buzz from a positive audience reaction, even if it's to see them going mental to Sweet Caroline!

 

I used the passive HB shorty with the Aguilar booster, but its PSU started glitching near midnight (overheating?) so it was time to crank up the AG700. Our new Bose PA system really does the business, but I must get some iems sorted for my sax set -  so hard to pick up what I'm playing out of the general mix.

 

A couple of pix mainly featuring our lead guitarist dressed for the occasion, with our singiste Georgie! 

 

 

[dmccombe7]

Just home from a Blockbustarz Glam rock covers show at Longstone Hearts Club in Edinburgh.

Not a big venue and we were told we could use the house PA so that was good altho it wasn't the best of gear but we managed to sort it out enough that we could carry on with the show. Originally we had terrible feedback and the tone was weak and thin.

Its at this point i wish we had just brought our own rather than faffing about with strange PA's

Anyway it turned out to be a fantastic night. Sold Out too plus we are back early December.

Fair bit of dancing thru the evening and exceptionally good feedback. My fav from a fellow bassist telling me he plays bass in a 3 piece band but "i was absolutely fecking brilliant and the star of the show for him" That made me happy but general feedback is that everyone is now booking tickets for the Dec Xmas show at the venue.

Stage was small and we weren't able to move about much. Changing room was a managers office where security cameras are fed to. We were on TV 

They were that impressed the organiser said they would add another £100 onto our Dec fee because they were so impressed. Now you don't get that very often.

No pics or vids as yet 

Using my Sandberg VM4 into Ampeg SVT7 Pro and my Mesa cabs. Shure wireless and an EBS envelope filter for Virginia Plain mid section.

Dave

[shadven]

My gig last weekend was a little different. Local radio station sponsored/ promoted event, Tom Petty Birthday Party - at a fairly large outside venue. Several local bands hired to each play a set of TPetty, we were one of the bands (even though we are an original band). It was sold-out, about 850 people. We went on around 9:30 PM (really the best time slot) and we had a blast. I played my 1966 Fender P-bass and the provided backline was a newer GK head with an 8x8” cab. The rig really sounded good, the overall stage volume was a little loud, but the floor monitors did an okay job of keeping the vocals on top. We dressed for the show and hammed it up on stage. We knew the songs very well and the crowd was mostly familiar with our band and way into it (into their cups too). Overall a successful night and we sold a lot of our band merch. Backstage there was a keg and a ton of pizza. The radio station has been supporting our band for years, so we had a good playful time with the DJs and management running the show. Good gig top to bottom.

[Leonard Smalls]

We did a fundraiser for Multiple Sclerosis at a large pub in Hereford yesterday...

Turned out the pub's PA was knacked, so we took our own - which doesn't half add to the effort needed especially as we took a 24 channel desk, plus monitors, subs etc all for 3 mics and one on the bass drum! Still, it was good practice for setting up for larger gigs. But it was nice to be in charge of sound - we didn't overdo it and as a result everything was very clear.

Anyway, support was Hereford boys The Deadbeats; they were excellent, did punk/new wave covers and got the reasonable crowd nicely lubricated for us...

And we'd thought it might be a 2 bass/no guitar gig, but somehow he got his act together and we were a 5 piece. Not only that, but we played very well indeed - usual pink torpedo ups by drummer; one song has a bass intro which is straight 4:4, somehow he always has to do a fill when I'm 2 beats from the end of the intro, and that fill always lasts 4 beats and interrupts the flow. Next time I shall bring a baseball bat... We even did 2 covers - Rage's "Bullet to the Head" and Penetration's "Don't Dictate" (or own mashed up version with "Word Up"!), and had to do a song we hadn't played in a year after more encores were demanded.

We managed to raise a few hundred notes for MS and got expenses paid (which we weren't expecting, we'd agreed a freebie for new pub music venture and good charitable cause), one bloke said we sounded like Faith No More (his favourite band!), and another staggered over and said we were like The Prodigy (!), then asked if we had any ketamine... (We didn't).

Used my Sandberg for the first time in ages (and realised why I'd bought it), into Helix, BBE pre and DBX rack compressor, Crown bridged power amp and Markbass 4x10. As there was so little room on stage Helix sat on top of the amp case, which meant I couldn't do my squealy lead guitar octave stuff but probably nobody noticed.

 

 

[scalpy]

More gigs from Hereford! Friday was a trio gig for the local hospice, so on acoustic guitar. Went well, we were on after a music quiz, before we played our first set we were thinking they really needed something like a full band but they danced and got into it. Saturday afternoon we had more acoustic work in the town centre this time joined by our regular guitarist. Didn’t play my best as I basically beat the hell out  of my Taylor to fill the spaces and hadn’t really had chance to rehearse, so my hands were sore from the night before and couldn’t get my head in the game. Plus as we played out front there were fire jugglers performing, some of very dubious personal hygiene, making close proximity challenging- one flaming stick did make its way my way at one point, and at one point a lady in a rather skimpy outfit was angle grinding her crotch in front of the assembled crowd of children, which raised my singed eyebrows over it’s appropriateness. 
 

Then on to a bass gig at last, after show week party for the cast of 9-5 who I played for last week. So good to have the trusty ASAT back out, the work on the backing tracks for the Halloween numbers really payed off and the band were on it, (play Thriller to a theatre company and the dancing is spectacular) plus we all looked like complete idiots which was fun. I’m in the day of the dead outfit at the back. 

Edited October 29, 2023 by scalpy

[Leonard Smalls]

Tiny snippet of audience reaction from last night!

 

[WalMan]

Not a bad night. Last gig at the pub for the landlord & landlady (though we’ve since heard that the new licensees intend to carry on having bands so we’ll see.

 

TV on for the rugby and prior to that p155ed punters doing karaoke while we set up (oh joy). Then one of said punters decided they could play ‘guitar’ (I think you mean bass dear but let’s let that pass) so could they have a go to show their prowess? Not on that bass you can’t (Status S1) but knock yourself out with this one (beaten up FPPR S1 that SEBB attendees from years ago will remember Barney had for sale for years, plays and sounds great but looks in a state and one for the tightest of gigs where I don’t want to worry about knocks). So she strummed aimlessly for a while til I got bored and stood on the Microtubes mute footswitch and said “Oh no! You’ve broken it”.

 

Otherwise the gig went well despite mullered punters spilling drinks everywhere, but all singing along and no major foul ups by the band so not so bad. Slightly marred by landlord getting into a domestic over how he’d dealt with a punter that rumbled on while we packed up and tried not to get drawn in. 🫣

[Kiwi]

6 hours ago, WalMan said:

Not on that bass you can’t (Status S1) but knock yourself out with this one (beaten up FPPR S1 that SEBB attendees from years ago will remember Barney had for sale for years

Any pics? Do they have graphite necks?  I'm wondering how close they both might be to mine.

[Muzz]

A game of two halves this weekend: Friday night's gig was one of the regular ones we play, but the pub's not exactly thriving, and this week was just terrible; about a dozen people in, which dwindled to two by the end. We're gonna give it a miss till into the new year, if it's still open... 🙁

 

Satdy was a last-minute 40th booking in a pub (buffet set up on the covered pool table, that kinda thing), busy (yeah, the rugby was on, but once that finished the regulars got involved, too) and an engaged audience...turns out the birthday boy, who loved it, manages 14 pubs in the area, so the BL unloaded a big wedge of business cards...fingers crossed...

[Lozz196]

That’s (hopefully) a result Muzz, nice one 

[Woodinblack]

Odd weekend. We were supposed to be doing a gig in a village sat night, but when we went to confim last week were informed the LL had had a heart attack and was taking it easy now and they thought thye had told us but not. Well, fair enough, they probably had other things on their minds.

Then we got a notification of a local pub that is closing and up for sale wanted us on a sunday night 7-10.  A bit odd, most places dont do sunday nights but whatever. Went down there in the rain to setup, and turns out the landlord had got drunk, forgot he booked us and hadn't advertised or anything. There were about 10 people there, but we went ahead anyway. Easy setup as there was noone in the way, the pub is good for live music, and the guitarist wasn't in the way, so we could get setup before he got there.

Did a sound check, sounded fine. Started the gig, had now got to about 12 people, sounded awful, loads of feedback, levels all over the place, no idea why. First song sounded weird, second song we missed half of it, sounds like a trainwreck but on the plus side, noone really there to hear it.

After the 3rd song, things fell into place, and continued the first half ok. A few other people drifted in, and it picked up a bit but not much, a few tracks went down ok, like the streets and Linkin park.

I am playing a fretless bass, a gwb35, as I just got it and thought I would see how it did, it did fine, better for some tracks a bit trickier for others.

During the second half a few more people came in and there was a bit of dancing, but not that much. Got to the end, people obviously called for one more song, even though they hadn't really noticed we were there, so we did. Easy packup and load, and nice to get back before 11.

The landlord was actually really happy for whatever reason (I am sure he couldn't have made money from it) and the landlord of another venue was tehre who wanted to book us too, so I guess it was positive, and it was a paid practice which was also good, but not going to go down in the list as something to be remembered!

Ironically (and maybe because there weren't many people there), some tracks I think we did better than ever, including my singing ones like "Feel it still" etc. so I enjoyed that. And the GWB35 is certainly a pretty easily giggable bass.

[WalMan]

8 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Any pics? Do they have graphite necks?  I'm wondering how close they both might be to mine.

Definitely the S2. No idea about the S1, it’s red everywhere except the front of the neck, but I think so

[Kiwi]

11 minutes ago, WalMan said:

Yes, this one has a graphite through neck, it's the headed version of mine.  I've been searching for a specific white one like yours for about 5 years which Bass Direct had for sale.  They have 15mm string spacing which feels perfect.  I've installed Barts and an East preamp in mine to free up a bit more warmth and mids.