How was your gig last night?

[Norris]

 

Yesterday the drummer messaged us. His car is in for repair but the sole mechanic has gone down with norovirus! He'd borrowed his daughter's car - a Fiat 500! So the first stop was at his house to collect the kit he couldn't fit in, and then onto the gig in Melton Mowbray (and anyone from Leicester can sympathise with what a tedious drive that can be when you're stuck on the A607 behind a slow driver!)

 

We'd not played the White Hart on a Saturday before. Melton was quite busy, all of the parking near the pub was taken, so I had to double-park and quickly chuck the kit in the pub.

 

The place filled up nicely just before we went on. It got quite warm, which I don't mind at all when you're playing well and it sounds great. It did thin out a little after 11pm but still had quite a few to see us finish just after midnight. I do like playing there - the landlord has built a great sounding stage that's also a decent size.

 

It really did sound great and we had lots of compliments. We had a lot of musos came to see us, which is always nice. I really enjoyed my strings being still quite fresh and twangy (D'Addario pro steel), and was told my bass sounded awesome by a good friend drummer. More importantly the landlord loved it.

 

Kit: Sire P7-5, Roland Boss GT-6B, Fender Rumble v3 500

 

Footwear: Solovair burgundy rub-off 8 hole zipped derby boots

 

 

They are nearly broken in now, especially with the "bass stances" being thrown quite liberally tonight, but I was rather pleased to get them off my feet at home afterwards!

[Merton]

Two gigs this weekend. Still suffering with the man flu which made me bed-bound over a week ago so it’s been hard work but both actual gigs were great fun.

 

First up, Katy Hurt at Greystones in Sheffield. Given the last time out I never made the gig thanks to a flat tyre, I gave myself 6.5 hours to do a 4 hour journey, which was very wise with all the slow crap on the M1. Gig venue is great, soundwoman was lovely and very good indeed, and I have to say I think we played and sounded great. We threw in a new song which we’d polished in sound check and it went down as well as all the more well-known tunes and Katy did the same in her short acoustic interlude. Basses (Zoot J and P) and rig (Handbox WB100 and Barefaced Two10) sounded absolutely mint even with my cack handed playing.

 

Best bit was catching up with the awesome @asingardenof and his better half

 

Feeling rough, I decided to stay in a ropey Travelodge rather than drive all the way back to Surrey, so Saturday was spent first driving home, then unloading everything just to reload different basses (ACG TKO, Conway Taranis fretless) and a bigger rig (Trace TE1200 and Barefaced Super Twin) then go collect the PA and lights for Wednesday’s Child to play a gig at the King’s Arms in Dorking. A couple of shots of Talisker perked me up after we’d set up, and apart from a slightly non-perfect vocal sound I think we played and sounded great (except possibly my BVs which were probably terrible).

 

Frankly both gigs were awesome fun at the time but I suspect I’ll feel it today given I wasn’t 100% beforehand. But for things to make you hot sweaty and sticky, this has got to be near the top of the fun list 😀

 

Today is a day for lying in bed or on the sofa. Or putting up the Christmas decorations according to Mrs Mert 😩😄

 

Photo shamelessly stolen from @asingardenof from Friday.

 

Edited Sunday at 08:34 by Merton
Smelling pistake

[SumOne]

Punters having a fight before we start was a bit disconcerting, but the gig all worked out well. In fact, the more rough and boozy pubs often have the most lively and up for it crowds.

 

Monitoring was an issue though. In ears not working properly for some people, and feedback in the mics - the drums were mic'd up and half the band have stage monitors. It is too complex, I think we need to all go one way or the other.

[dmccombe7]

Great wee afternoon gig at Fisons Club in Boness for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers yesterday. Sold Out 1-6pm  event that we've played before. The organiser called it a Xmas gig so 2x1hr sets with the obligatory Xmas songs thrown in. Even with it being sold out there were a shortage of tables and chairs and people were still coming in looking for seats all thru the first set. 

Mostly women audience too and they were all up for a great party afternoon. Dancing from 1st song. Oddly enough the floor cleared for our first Xmas song Let It Snow by The Sweet which usually does a good job of floor filling ? Lots of people singing along and taking pics and vids to the song so we are a bit confused with that one. Other Xmas songs filled the floor.

Gear for the afternoon was Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless then a Keeley Bassist compressor only just on with very little compression to keep a nice even level. Mesa TT800 Boogie channel into Mesa SW210/115 cabs. 

Footwear pic below :-

 

 

This was our first set. Busy wee dance floor.

Edited Sunday at 09:06 by dmccombe7

[Mudpup]

Friday night was the last one at one of our fave venues in Essex. It was a great turnout and so many people came along to say goodbye to us. We have one more in Southend next Saturday and then we're packing the band up after a total of 24 years. It's gonna be 'emowsh' as we say down here....

 

Here's some pics from Friday

 

 

 

 

 

[neepheid]

Last night, played Wilsons in Aberdeen with Nine Lives.  Nice to get back into it after a weekend off.  Overall a good gig, decent turnout and folk up for a boogie.  Technically, it was a game of two halves though - first half went great, good levels, clear vocals, everything going great.  Drummer wanted to add a monitor at half time and for some obscure reason this made everything go bad - couldn't get the monitor working anyway and the piddling about lost our lovely levels.  Managed to get it back but then my pedalboard threw a bit of a wobbly.  Might be a dodgy cable - swapped the one from the board to the amp and it seemed to help.  Switching on the OD was introducing hum, worse when the OD was cranked.  Managed to get to the end of the gig, but I have some fun pedalboard diagnostics in my near future, yay!

 

Gear used: G&L Tribute LB-100 then Yamaha BB1200 into the usual Markbass tone cubes.

 

[dmccombe7]

21 minutes ago, neepheid said:

Last night, played Wilsons in Aberdeen with Nine Lives.  Nice to get back into it after a weekend off.  Overall a good gig, decent turnout and folk up for a boogie.  Technically, it was a game of two halves though - first half went great, good levels, clear vocals, everything going great.  Drummer wanted to add a monitor at half time and for some obscure reason this made everything go bad - couldn't get the monitor working anyway and the piddling about lost our lovely levels.  Managed to get it back but then my pedalboard threw a bit of a wobbly.  Might be a dodgy cable - swapped the one from the board to the amp and it seemed to help.  Switching on the OD was introducing hum, worse when the OD was cranked.  Managed to get to the end of the gig, but I have some fun pedalboard diagnostics in my near future, yay!

 

Gear used: G&L Tribute LB-100 then Yamaha BB1200 into the usual Markbass tone cubes.

 

Liking that Yamaha bass. Very nice.

Dave

[casapete]

2 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Great wee afternoon gig at Fisons Club in Boness for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers yesterday. Sold Out 1-6pm  event that we've played before. The organiser called it a Xmas gig so 2x1hr sets with the obligatory Xmas songs thrown in. Even with it being sold out there were a shortage of tables and chairs and people were still coming in looking for seats all thru the first set. 

Mostly women audience too and they were all up for a great party afternoon. Dancing from 1st song. Oddly enough the floor cleared for our first Xmas song Let It Snow by The Sweet which usually does a good job of floor filling ? Lots of people singing along and taking pics and vids to the song so we are a bit confused with that one. Other Xmas songs filled the floor.

Gear for the afternoon was Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless then a Keeley Bassist compressor only just on with very little compression to keep a nice even level. Mesa TT800 Boogie channel into Mesa SW210/115 cabs. 

Footwear pic below :-

 

 

This was our first set. Busy wee dance floor.

Jeez, forget about the hassle of choosing a 4 or 5 string…..how do you manage in footwear like

that Dave? That’s true dedication to your art. 😆

[dmccombe7]

22 minutes ago, casapete said:

Jeez, forget about the hassle of choosing a 4 or 5 string…..how do you manage in footwear like

that Dave? That’s true dedication to your art. 😆

Going down stairs took a bit of practice. 

Dave

[Norris]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Gear used: G&L Tribute LB-100 then Yamaha BB1200 into the usual Markbass tone cubes.

 

Love the personalised pedal board

[mep]

Last night we played The Queens Arms in Brixham. It's been acfew years since we were last there. It's quite well organized with lights, speaker braketts on the wall and camera / TV too. It's fairly small and not much of a stage area, so we didn't bring the sub and have to keep the volume down as best we can, which isn't always easy with drums but he made a decent effort of playing quieter. It wasn't that busy until early in the second set when more people arrived. We played well and had some encouraging comments from people, including a family who just moved in nearby. I forgot my Hercules stand, but there isn't really much room so I used my spare jack plug stand as a backup, which you can just about see in the photo below. It was a great night and we performed.

I was talking to the landlord after and he was interested in my BF210 cab, asking what it was and how it was perfect for the pub. He has some regular musician on a Wednesday and says the bass is rattling all his windows! He took me behind the bar where they store there equipment and there was a BF610 cab there! I joked that he needs to take a saw to it and remove 4 speakers. It's nice to get compliments about my gear. Like most musicians I sometimes worry about my FOH sound, even though I go out front for sound checks. On stage it's always cracking, but without a sub it doesn't have that low end punch out front.

There was a slightly sour end to the night though. I've lost a really nice hat, that hasn't appeared yet, so I'll have to replace it with my gig money. Our guitarist who deals with the booking verbally agreed a fee, but was paid less. We are not sure why this is and haven't had a chance to discuss it with the landlord, and didnt eant to make a scene of it there. We haven't taken any bookings for next year yet, but will need to square it with the landlord before. Suffice to say if he doesn't offer us more like the going rate we won't be coming back. 

Edited Sunday at 12:56 by mep

[Woodinblack]

4 hours ago, SumOne said:

Punters having a fight before we start was a bit disconcerting,

 

Yeh, I was happy that ours waited until we finished!

[Woodinblack]

10 hours ago, Norris said:

Footwear: Solovair burgundy rub-off 8 hole zipped derby boots

 

 

They are nearly broken in now, especially with the "bass stances" being thrown quite liberally tonight, but I was rather pleased to get them off my feet at home afterwards!

 

I was also sporting Solovair 8 holes but mine were greasy leather size 8½ and  they broke in some time ago

[cetera]

Great dep gig last night at The Plough in Farnham, Surrey with the 'Lee Aaron Band'. Not loads in, but a great sound and everyone who did attend fully interacted with the music by singing and dancing. Can't ask for more than that.....

[jezzaboy]

We were due to play the Bonfest stage last night at Winterstorm festival in Troon Ayrshire last night with my ac/dc band. But on Thursday night got a call from our female singer saying she couldn`t make it so after some frantic phone calls, the guy who runs Bonfest got us in touch with a singer he knew who was playing on the same day as us and was a big DC fan and knew the songs.

 

Great stuff apart from the fact that as were closing the festival at midnight, the guy would need taking back home to Dundee which is 2 hour ish trip and then I would have to drive home again, about 1.5 hours. But hey, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

 

Anyway, no rehearsal but the guy was on it right away, knew all the words and had the moves and patter. He even looked like a young Bon Scott! It was the most I have smiled at a gig in years and we went down really well. Then I woke up this morning to a message from our drummer saying he wasn`t happy and was leaving the band but to fair I guessed it was coming so the hunt is on for a replacement. Ah Rock n Roll is a cruel mistress!

Edited Sunday at 14:21 by jezzaboy

[dmccombe7]

6 minutes ago, jezzaboy said:

We were due to play the Bonfest stage last night at Winterstorm festival in Troon Ayrshire last night with my ac/dc band. But on Thursday night got a call from our female singer saying she couldn`t make it so after some frantic phone calls, the guy who runs Bonfest got us in touch with a singer he knew who was playing on the same day as us and was a big DC fan and knew the songs.

 

Great stuff apart from the fact that as were closing the festival at midnight, the guy would need taking back home to Dundee which is 2 hour ish trip and then I would have to drive home again, about 1.5 hours. But hey, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

 

Anyway, no rehearsal but the guy was on it right away, knew all the words and had the moves and patter. He even looked like a young Bon Scott! It was the most I have smiled at a gig in years and we went down really well. Then I woke up this morning to a message from our drummer saying he wasn`t happy and was leaving the band but to fair I guessed it was coming so the hunt is on for a replacement. Ah Rock n Roll is a cruel mistress!

Result. 

He does look very like Bon Scott right enough.

Dave

[Franticsmurf]

Last night was the annual Crown Court Xmas party gig for the Hulla band (our singist is a barrister therein). Always a good gig and not just because the buffet is superb. It's a nice hotel venue and a decent crowd who were all up for a dance and sing along. The setlist was long and varied (there were 40 songs listed) so I had two basses to cover the rocky stuff (Squier PJ) and more mellow songs (Ibanez AGBV200A hollow body) with a planned change over just after half time. However, the buffet arrived early and we stopped about a third of the way in to the set. Our singist occasionally gets a little carried away and can forget some of the arrangements - he has a tendency to start songs himself that have been rehearsed with different intros etc, so I was trying to anticipate an appropriate intro that would give me time to swap guitars. In the end I settled on 'I Love To Boogie' which I guessed (correctly) he would start with a complete verse of just him and guitar. There were the inevitable free jazz improvisations - for some reason I chose to modify the key change in 'Love Story' (yes, Taylor Swift forms a part of our repertoire) and the requested 'I Want It That Way' at the end was not working with the bassline I'd learnt from the original (in the end I just stopped playing as I couldn't find an easy re-entry point) but overall it was one of the best performances of the band as a whole and I was happy with my part in that. I always enjoy Hulla gigs as we have a lot of fun on and off stage and the atmosphere i unlike any other band I've played in.

 

Kit list: A Squier PJ in Lake Placid Blue - a very recent addition to the fold - and my pre-aged Ibanez AGBV200A hollow body both plugged into a Zoom B6 (I love that I can swap between two inputs). I use the B6 in rehearsals to narrow down a set of sounds for a specific set and by the time of last night's gig I had the PJ going into a patch based around and SVT emulation with very slight grit and the option of adding flanger (Dakota) or chorus. I had a second patch which was basically the same SVT sound with a slight gain increase and reduction in bass EQ/boost in mid EQ so I could cut through the mix during a bass break in 'Seven Nights'. The Ibanez had a patch based on the AC370 acoustic amp and for a couple of songs I had a patch based on a TE400 amp for a more bassy feel. The B6 was DI'd into the X32 desk (we have a dedicated sound man) and I monitored through a Behringer P16 linked by Ultranet to the desk. I get a pre-fade mix that I have mixed to give me what I need. That was feeding a wireless IEM.

 

 

Footwear: A matched pair of Skechers SN52635s modified to improve bass response and using a custom loaded impulse response model - or so the shoe salesman told me.  😀

 

 

 

 

Edited Sunday at 14:32 by Franticsmurf

[WalMan]

Better shot from beforehand last night when I was happier. Soundcheck and slight hissy fit over FOH annoyances to come. 🙄 

 

Having seen a crowd video today with me using the S1 5 string there seems to be a huge amount of bass through FOH, which I often feel is not the case, so I really don’t know. Felt like it may have been an outlier as I wasn’t getting the level where I was behind the PA 🤷‍♂️

 

 

[Jo.gwillim]

Benefit gig in the local village pub, Corris in mid Wales, packed out as we've got 2 more gigs before we stop playing or regroup with a new guitarist. Graham bless him is fantastic but arthritis is making playing tortuous for him. Double special gig as our singer Beth's mum died unexpectedly 2 days before so she was singing for her dear mum.  Such a buzz when the  gig works, everybody in the pub singing and the sweat pouring off you. 

[Lozz196]

4 hours ago, jezzaboy said:

We were due to play the Bonfest stage last night at Winterstorm festival in Troon Ayrshire last night with my ac/dc band. But on Thursday night got a call from our female singer saying she couldn`t make it so after some frantic phone calls, the guy who runs Bonfest got us in touch with a singer he knew who was playing on the same day as us and was a big DC fan and knew the songs.

 

Great stuff apart from the fact that as were closing the festival at midnight, the guy would need taking back home to Dundee which is 2 hour ish trip and then I would have to drive home again, about 1.5 hours. But hey, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.

 

Anyway, no rehearsal but the guy was on it right away, knew all the words and had the moves and patter. He even looked like a young Bon Scott! It was the most I have smiled at a gig in years and we went down really well. Then I woke up this morning to a message from our drummer saying he wasn`t happy and was leaving the band but to fair I guessed it was coming so the hunt is on for a replacement. Ah Rock n Roll is a cruel mistress!

Good to see “your Malcolm” has the right guitar 👍

Edited Sunday at 19:01 by Lozz196

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, cetera said:

Great dep gig last night at The Plough in Farnham, Surrey with the 'Lee Aaron Band'. Not loads in, but a great sound and everyone who did attend fully interacted with the music by singing and dancing. Can't ask for more than that.....

 

`As long as you were facing away from that wallpaper it was probably good!

[Stub Mandrel]

After last night's cheering and singing along, today a huge room with a handful of people. Friends and family outnumbered the rest

 

Set up near the tables rather than on the (magnificent) stage

 

We were without our (mainly) rhythm guitarist so it was a bit odd as some cues missing and had to reallocate some intros etc. But we treated it as a gig rather than paid rehearsal and played pretty well.

 

One silly mistake by me, had a pint of shandy in the first set, then a coffee in the break (to warm my hands up). Towards the end of the second set I had to listen to mr bladder and take avery quick break

 

Got some pics of my gear...

 

 

 

Quecha approach shoes:

 

[StingRayBoy42]

Love the fact that people are now including footwear in their rigs!

[asingardenof]

12 hours ago, Merton said:

Two gigs this weekend. Still suffering with the man flu which made me bed-bound over a week ago so it’s been hard work but both actual gigs were great fun.

 

First up, Katy Hurt at Greystones in Sheffield. Given the last time out I never made the gig thanks to a flat tyre, I gave myself 6.5 hours to do a 4 hour journey, which was very wise with all the slow crap on the M1. Gig venue is great, soundwoman was lovely and very good indeed, and I have to say I think we played and sounded great. We threw in a new song which we’d polished in sound check and it went down as well as all the more well-known tunes and Katy did the same in her short acoustic interlude. Basses (Zoot J and P) and rig (Handbox WB100 and Barefaced Two10) sounded absolutely mint even with my cack handed playing.

 

Best bit was catching up with the awesome @asingardenof and his better half

 

Feeling rough, I decided to stay in a ropey Travelodge rather than drive all the way back to Surrey, so Saturday was spent first driving home, then unloading everything just to reload different basses (ACG TKO, Conway Taranis fretless) and a bigger rig (Trace TE1200 and Barefaced Super Twin) then go collect the PA and lights for Wednesday’s Child to play a gig at the King’s Arms in Dorking. A couple of shots of Talisker perked me up after we’d set up, and apart from a slightly non-perfect vocal sound I think we played and sounded great (except possibly my BVs which were probably terrible).

 

Frankly both gigs were awesome fun at the time but I suspect I’ll feel it today given I wasn’t 100% beforehand. But for things to make you hot sweaty and sticky, this has got to be near the top of the fun list 😀

 

Today is a day for lying in bed or on the sofa. Or putting up the Christmas decorations according to Mrs Mert 😩😄

 

Photo shamelessly stolen from @asingardenof from Friday.

 

I'm happy to say that your playing was not in any way cackhanded and the tone was most excellent, as was catching up with you. Hopefully next time there'll be more time.

[ezbass]

Supported local heroes, The Owls, for a St Andrew’s (St SkAndrews) night do, which was sold out, despite being £20 a ticket. 3 band line up and we were on first. Turned up early so we could get a proper sound check, man alive the big ass PA was über loud! We played well and folk were up dancing almost straight away, not bad for a 7:30 start. The one problem we had was the other 3 in the band decided to play Substitute, whilst I was playing I Can’t Explain; you can’t get the staff . Great comments from everyone and looks like we’ll get some work off of the back of it. My gear? JMJ Mustang through my M87 comp and VTDI, into the top act’s, bass player’s TC head into Ampeg 4x10, which was unnecessary really, as the sound I was hearing was all from the monitors.

 

Edited Sunday at 21:13 by ezbass