How was your gig last night?

[dclaassen]

Afternoon charity gig…classic car show in Wisbech at the Five Bells supporting East Anglia Air Ambulance. Cool weather, but a good crowd and the pub staff was excellent. I was really happy with the new cabs…really good even with no PA feed. Trace Elliot GP12smx, Genz Benz Focus 1x12 cabs, Fender Jazz 24.

Edited June 1 by dclaassen

[Stub Mandrel]

6 hours ago, casapete said:

 

 

You're right Dave. From my experience (unless you're a big name act with 40/50 years of material to work

with and millions of adoring fans) audiences do have a limited attention span and it's best for everyone to

acknowledge this when planning setlists. I think for a covers / tribute band 2x60 min sets are more than 

adequate. I honestly don't see the point in adding songs to the sets and making them so much longer,

other than satisfying the ego of some band members who don't know when enough is enough!

Also bear in mind that venues like plenty of time to sell more drinks which is probably when the

band is having a break / interval. Older audiences like to stretch their legs / go to the loo / grab another

beer etc without feeling they're being a nuisance or missing out on some of the band's set.

 

Personally I've always preferred one longer set from a playing point of view - easier to maintain the 

audience's attention and choose the songs to make the whole thing more cohesive. When my old band

played some festivals we found the one set thing a revelation after being used to doing 2x60 minute

sets in theatres. ( Unfortunately if we tried to opt for one set, with no support act, in theatres then we would

be charged more by the venue to offset their loss on bar takings. ) 

 

 

Pub/club venues also like 2x45 as the interval is when they sell another good number of drinks.

[grapefruitmoon]

Was back at the Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday there with Wild Hogs. We almost had to pull the gig as our singer was struggling to speak with a sore throat and the drummer had staved his thumb badly, but they both powered through. Was a great night, not a huge crowd, but all very enthusiastic and joined in with a lot of singing and dancing. Past couple of gigs have been like that after a not so great one a couple of months back. Wee break for us now for holidays & Download. Gear pictured - Squier 40th Anniversary Precision, 2 Markbass New York 121s, Warwick Gnome and HX Stomp.

 

[bassbiscuits]

Just back from the Wannasee Festival in Hertfordshire, playing with tribute act Elton Joel.
 

Frankly enormous crowd - cool view from the stage!

 

The rain held off and we blasted thru a windy 45-min set wedged between Elvis and the Bon Jovi Experience. Back of the net 👌. Enjoyed that. 

 

Edited June 1 by bassbiscuits

[Mickeyboro]

6 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Just back from the Wannasee Festival in Hertfordshire, playing with tribute act Elton Joel.
 

Frankly enormous crowd - cool view from the stage!

 

The rain held off and we blasted thru a windy 45-min set wedged between Elvis and the Bon Jovi Experience. Back of the net 👌. Enjoyed that. 

 

Did you play both the acts’ hits? And how did you choose which to do in that short a set - assume you usually do two in your own right?

[Mickeyboro]

51 minutes ago, grapefruitmoon said:

Was back at the Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday there with Wild Hogs. We almost had to pull the gig as our singer was struggling to speak with a sore throat and the drummer had staved his thumb badly, but they both powered through. Was a great night, not a huge crowd, but all very enthusiastic and joined in with a lot of singing and dancing. Past couple of gigs have been like that after a not so great one a couple of months back. Wee break for us now for holidays & Download. Gear pictured - Squier 40th Anniversary Precision, 2 Markbass New York 121s, Warwick Gnome and HX Stomp.

 

On looks alone that’s a pretty sexy set-up!

[bassbiscuits]

3 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Did you play both the acts’ hits? And how did you choose which to do in that short a set - assume you usually do two in your own right?

Aha! Sorry that took me a moment. It’s not Elton and Billy Joel. It’s a chap called Joel, who does Elton John. 
 

We did have to make it a pretty short whistlestop tour of the greatest hits to squeeze it into 45 mins all the same. 
 

You’re right tho - I think there is a show that combines both EJ and BJ, in a manner of speaking. 

[Mickeyboro]

3 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Aha! Sorry that took me a moment. It’s not Elton and Billy Joel. It’s a chap called Joel, who does Elton John. 
 

We did have to make it a pretty short whistlestop tour of the greatest hits to squeeze it into 45 mins all the same. 
 

You’re right tho - I think there is a show that combines both EJ and BJ, in a manner of speaking. 

Sorry for getting the wrong end of the Joanna!😬

 

I used to play with a guy who now fronts Purple Zeppelin - so he morphs from Gillan/Coverdale to Plant (who he most resembles) at half time…😉

[bassbiscuits]

7 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Sorry for getting the wrong end of the Joanna!😬

 

I used to play with a guy who now fronts Purple Zeppelin - so he morphs from Gillan/Coverdale to Plant (who he most resembles) at half time…😉

Ah that rings a bell actually. That’s a lot of quite challenging material to cover too! Good on him. 

[ezbass]

How did it go? Well, there was dancing and whooping and clapping, but what it sounded like is a mystery. The venue has its own PA and the management set the levels via a tablet (except the bass, which no one told me to turn up or down) and the PA was too loud for me, painful at times, even with earplugs and I had to strain to hear my rig, which was right behind me (very small performance area). Turning on the VTDI added some top end that helped but I didn’t want a driven signal for all the tunes. Once we stopped playing, the place emptied, so it’s nice to think they stayed for us. Usual incomprehensible conversations with well oiled punters before the last set, I nodded and smiled.

 

[lozkerr]

60th birthday bash for a pal of our drummer at a posh cricket club in Edinburgh. We started at 9pm, so the guests were nicely lubricated and started dancing almost right away.

 

We played a trick on birthday boy - while everyone was singing Happy Birthday at the interval, we went back on stage and when they'd finished we launched straight into the Altered Images song. It went down very well.

 

I gave this wee Eden rig an outing as the venue was quite small. It was nice and loud, but I think another 112 cab or my 210 would have cut through a bit better. Something to try next time.

[Mickeyboro]

Always nice to know the name of band, venue and gear! Keep posting….👍

[Rayman]

Decent gig in Wrexham last night, and a great one in Chesterfield the night before…… I used the Tokai through a house rig last night and the Greco in Chesterfield. Warwick Fortress for one D tuned song.

 

[ezbass]

40 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

Always nice to know the name of band, venue and gear! Keep posting….👍

[stewblack]

Played God's waiting room in Wiltshire last night. You expect the hearse to turn up at any moment. I won't name the venue out of respect for the recently deceased. 

Despite the zombie audience and the adhesive which kept them in their seats, the band played well and enjoyed itself. Tiny stage, nice sound, tight performance. Got paid and got the hell back to civilisation.

[Skybone]

At least you had an audience.

 

The singist is still an embarrassment.

[Jackroadkill]

Absolute belter for us last night; it had all the hallmarks of a disaster (charity gig put on by someone who doesn't put gigs on, the bingo over-running, a raffle that lasted an hour... you know the drill).  We had an old PA from our rehearsal studio that I had to build and run so sound was a concern.  It was a far cry from the festival we played last week, with a superb PA and engineer, proper running order and timescale etc etc, but we resigned ourselves to doing our best and hoping it would go down well.  We finally hit the stage over an hour late, and opted to go for the shorter set that we'd devised, which was an hour as opposed to an hour and a half.

 

From the opening notes it was bloody brilliant, and we went down a storm with the audience; given that it was a breast cancer fundraiser, 90% of them were women in their 40's (including the obligatory hen party) and if I'd been asked to bet I'd have said that a load of blokes playing rock, punk and metal covers wouldn't have been their cup of tea, but I'd have been wrong!  The sound was really good, too.

 

A great night and lots of money raised for Coppafeel, lots of positive feedback this morning and a nice, pleasant tingly feeling all round.

 

Gear was my Eden WTX500, Cali76, EHX chorus and Ampeg Scrambler with my trusty Player P's and nasty plywood Squier J.  I was well pleased with my sound and got several nice compliments about it.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

Edited June 2 by Jackroadkill

[msb]

We lost a great keyboard and bass player last month and held a memorial gig last night. Barry Cooke. He’s been an institution in our little blues scene. So our favourite old dive was jammed , and just about everybody that wasn’t out gigging was there. Some even flew in from Ottawa. Players from all over the province. We managed to get most everybody up. 

Stage was packed. Wonderful night. 

Edited June 2 by msb

[Stub Mandrel]

15 hours ago, grapefruitmoon said:

Was back at the Hive in Edinburgh on Thursday there with Wild Hogs. We almost had to pull the gig as our singer was struggling to speak with a sore throat and the drummer had staved his thumb badly, but they both powered through. Was a great night, not a huge crowd, but all very enthusiastic and joined in with a lot of singing and dancing. Past couple of gigs have been like that after a not so great one a couple of months back. Wee break for us now for holidays & Download. Gear pictured - Squier 40th Anniversary Precision, 2 Markbass New York 121s, Warwick Gnome and HX Stomp.

 

 

Aren't those Dakota Red p's gorgeous.

[StingRayBoy42]

YESTERDAY!
Another 'two gigs in one day' Saturday, with different bands this time.
First up was the Jones Jazz Orchestra at Church End Brewery somewhere near Nuneaton.
Nice place, lovely half of Stout (Stout Coffin 4.5% ABV), decent crowd, very relaxed afternoon. 
We played a set of 1940s stuff, as we'd been rehearsing for a 1940s event that got cancelled (at an RAF museum in Cosford that shall remain nameless).

First gig for the new guitarist who was ace and a new singer who looks about 16 but can really do the business. (He was on BGT with a D-Day themed act a few years ago apparently (presumably when he was about 14)).
We played well, sounded good and had a laugh. The brewery owners loved it and said it was the best attended and most enjoyed event they've ever had, so we're looking forward to a return booking.
Highlights were a fantastic uptempo Jeff Tyzik arrangement of 'In the Mood', the guitar countermelody in 'Mood Indigo', lovely Emily's vocals on 'Anything Goes' and of course, the Trombone solo in 'Sweet Georgia Brown'.

Played the P w/DTFs (the upright is in need of repairs) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI) -> MB802.

Then it was hotfoot to the Bescot stadium in Walsall for Azura (4 piece covers band) at the Midlands Football Awards.
Everything was set up by the time I got there (devestated!) so it was a very quick set my stuff up and a 30 second soundcheck.
Corporate type affair, dinner and awards with lots of waiting around for us.
We had a dressing room, so we sat around and twiddled our thumbs for about three hours... they fed us, so that was nice.
First set at 915 for about 45 minutes, not much crowd interaction... one table seemed to be enjoying it and we had fun.
More waiting round, back on about 1030 for a brief half hour set to a half empty room. A few dancers up, which is always nice, I went for a wander in the last song - Lekato wireless XLR for IEMs and Subzero wireless bug seem to be doing the job.

StingRay -> small board -> amp board -> MB802

Load out was a bit of a faff, we were on the first floor and the lift was tiny... all sorted, back home about 1 for an M&S cider (5.2% ABV?) and a fuss with the cat.

Long day, but it's always good to be out playing and the evening do was a good payer, so... pretty happy all things considered.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

 

 

I am not normally a fan of shorts being worn for a gig (Robert Trujillo gets a pass for being a cool, surf dude) but you, Sir, pull it off, very well. Kudos.

[Bassfinger]

Right bunch of piss heads last night. Silly little boys that drinking pith weak lager and and are wobblier than John Inman's wrist after 2 pints.

 

One got up on stage and tried to sing into my mic, earning him by best Rugby style hand-off to the face. He clearly didn't like it, but at a foot taller and nearly double his weight he wasn't inclined to argue the point,.

 

Then a few minutes later another twit tried to grab my spare bass so he could mime along.  I managed to stop him, and our singist told the bar manager that any more of that and we'd be packing up. She came on the mic and gave them a bollixing and they did calm down slightly.  

 

The would be bass nabber apologised as we were packing away, and said he felt like I'd been giving him the daggers all night. "That's because I was", I replied.

 

That's the last time we play a football club.

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, ezbass said:

I am not normally a fan of shorts being worn for a gig (Robert Trujillo gets a pass for being a cool, surf dude) but you, Sir, pull it off, very well. Kudos.

 

I've had positive comments about my bass, my playing, my sound etc in the past (sometimes!) but never been complimented on my dress sense/knees!

 

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, Bassfinger said:

Right bunch of piss heads last night. Silly little boys that drinking pith weak lager and and are wobblier than John Inman's wrist after 2 pints.

 

One got up on stage and tried to sing into my mic, earning him by best Rugby style hand-off to the face. He clearly didn't like it, but at a foot taller and nearly double his weight he wasn't inclined to argue the point,.

 

Then a few minutes later another twit tried to grab my spare bass so he could mime along.  I managed to stop him, and our singist told the bar manager that any more of that and we'd be packing up. She came on the mic and gave them a bollixing and they did calm down slightly.  

 

The would be bass nabber apologised as we were packing away, and said he felt like I'd been giving him the daggers all night. "That's because I was", I replied.

 

That's the last time we play a football club.

Sadly I’ve been there (no idea why you wouldn’t lend me your bass 🤣).

 

But seriously, gigs like that are just a right pain in the donkey.

[Bluewine]

On 28/05/2024 at 21:00, Bluewine said:

This Saturday! Take a lil’ road trip with us, we promise you won’t be disappointed!!
She's Right - I'm Left
Hubbleton Brewing Taproom & Grill

 

 

Daryl

 

 

Humbleton was a 5-8 acoustic gig. Over an hours drive in rural Wisconsin.  We were in the middle of nowhere. 

 

Older brewery and family restaurant.  The building must have been from the 60s.

 

At first I thought it was going to be a dud. However, the dining room slowly filled up with several fantastic families. We were basically background music. The staff and owner were great.

 

I got paid 100 bucks plus 75 dollars in tips.

 

Before we left the owner gave each of us a rack of barbecue ribs.

 

A fun evening and home safe by 10:00.

 

Thumbs up.

 

Daryl