How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Big corporate Christmas Party gig tomorrow night. We're not a Christmas Party band. However who can turn down 2k for a 6:00-8:00. I'm not trying to brag but I don't think I've ever played a 2 hour gig for that kind of money.And it'll be a long time before I see another one. Lol

 

Daryl

Superb Daryl, looks like your reputation as a top band is getting out there. Long may it continue. Well deserved IMHO.

Cracking pic of the band too. 👍

Dave

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I sincerely hope that you don't get handed an elf costume when you arrive...

 

I did asked about attire since this is pretty fancy. They said casual, no hobo clothes. Lol

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

44 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Superb Daryl, looks like your reputation as a top band is getting out there. Long may it continue. Well deserved IMHO.

Cracking pic of the band too. 👍

Dave

 

Thanks Dave,

 

I'm going to enjoy these premium gigs we have this month. They're also giving us exposure in Milwaukee WI. We spend a lot of the year gigging out in the sticks. I know a lot you guys know what that's like 

 

Things is, Dave as I look at our January bookings, we have a few bookings where  I said to myself, " Why are we going back there, I thought we were done with that place".

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

3 hours ago, Staggering on said:

Last night was another concert with my teacher's Young Artists Orchestra, as usual augmented by a few adults in the bass and cello sections since a lot of the kids are too small to play the larger instruments. For some of the easier pieces about 7 of the youngest players aged 5, 6 and 7 joined us on stage for a total more than 35 musicians and as usual it was a great evening with a nice mixture of Christmas songs and the audience of about 300 loved it. Most of the kids started in my teacher's program at age 3 or 4 and so the oldest at 19 are very skilled musicians. For the fourth time my teacher asked me to add to the bass section and this year there were three bassists, two of them play better than I do and they are 9 and 16! I have learned a lot in two and a half years of lessons but these kids are fantastic, the younger one was a prize winning violinist until September when she decided to play bass and she is amazing on it, very smart and very dedicated. I wish I had started with the bow when they did at age 4 instead of 75, I am by far the oldest in the orchestra (78) and get immense pleasure from being a part of the group and as a side benefit my playing has improved and carries over into my jazz and bluegrass gigs. 

Here's the bass section after the concert.

 

 

 

Great Pic

Great Story

Great Bass section

 

Daryl

Edited Tuesday at 23:49 by Bluewine

[dmccombe7]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Dave,

 

I'm going to enjoy these premium gigs we have this month. They're also giving us exposure in Milwaukee WI. We spend a lot of the year gigging out in the sticks. I know a lot you guys know what that's like 

 

Things is, Dave as I look at our January bookings, we have a few bookings where  I said to myself, " Why are we going back there, I thought we were done with that place".

 

Daryl

I know how you feel. There are gigs i've done and have made it clear i don't like playing there and even tho we get paid ok there's little or no audience at times and therefore no atmosphere. Response is usually "its a paid rehearsal" and i guess that's true. I wouldn't travel any distance for a gig like that tho. This one is appox 50 miles from me.

Dave

Edited Wednesday at 12:59 by dmccombe7

[Bluewine]

On 17/12/2024 at 13:39, Lozz196 said:

That’s serious money, good score there Daryl

 

For a local blues/rock band, yes it is serious money for me. That kind of money normally only goes to the top  agency cover bands. I'm assuming that scenario is the same everywhere. 

 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

18 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I know how you feel. There are gigs i've done and have made it clear i don't like playing there and even tho we get paid ok there's little or no audience at times and therefore no atmosphere. Response is usually "its a paid rehearsal" and i guess that's true. I wouldn't travel any distance for a gig like that tho. This one is appox 50 miles from me.

Dave

 

I'm pretty sure we have one of those "no atmosphere" gigs coming up in the not to distant future.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 17/12/2024 at 12:50, Bluewine said:

Big corporate Christmas Party gig tomorrow night. We're not a Christmas Party band. However who can turn down 2k for a 6:00-8:00. I'm not trying to brag but I don't think I've ever played a 2 hour gig for that kind of money.And it'll be a long time before I see another one. Lol

 

Daryl

 

Great gig tonight.

 

You have to love 2 hour gigs. We had a good set list and the gig went really fast. We took one ten minute break.

 

More or less background music but it was fun. Our stage monitors were great tonight.

 

Not many great pics but it'll give you an idea of what the room looked like.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Great gig tonight.

 

You have to love 2 hour gigs. We had a good set list and the gig went really fast. We took one ten minute break.

 

More or less background music but it was fun. Our stage monitors were great tonight.

 

Not many great pics but it'll give you an idea of what the room looked like.

 

Daryl

I just think 2x1hr sets leaves an audience wanting more of the band whereas 3hr sets can become a bit boring for an audience. Depends on the venue to be fair.

Dave

[Geek99]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Great gig tonight.

 

You have to love 2 hour gigs. We had a good set list and the gig went really fast. We took one ten minute break.

 

More or less background music but it was fun. Our stage monitors were great tonight.

 

Not many great pics but it'll give you an idea of what the room looked like.

 

Daryl

Jeez, what a hovel! They kept cows in there before you arrived, right ? 
 

 

#joking 👍

 

im playing “stand by me” next OM night alongside a professional singer - no pressure 

[Geek99]

21 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Jeez, what a hovel! They kept cows in there before you arrived, right ? 
 

 

#joking 👍

 

im playing “stand by me” next OM night alongside a professional singer - no pressure 

See @Bluewine you’ve been slumming it with us for so long that you get British humour 

[Bluewine]

26 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I just think 2x1hr sets leaves an audience wanting more of the band whereas 3hr sets can become a bit boring for an audience. Depends on the venue to be fair.

Dave

 

It's easy to manage an hour show, easy to manage 2 hours too. Agreed 3 & 4 hour sets can be tough.

 

The standard in my area use to be 4 hours for bar/ pub gigs. Now we're mainly booking 2 & 3 hour gigs.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

16 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

It's easy to manage an hour show, easy to manage 2 hours too. Agreed 3 & 4 hour sets can be tough.

 

The standard in my area use to be 4 hours for bar/ pub gigs. Now we're mainly booking 2 & 3 hour gigs.

 

Daryl

You guys are slowly coming into the 21st century. 

Dave 

[Cat Burrito]

2024 ended with a cheeky little trip over to the Southgate Inn in Devizes. Armed with just my mandolin, I actually got the bus over. We got a heroes welcome from the regular customers and were greeted with "here come the goths". 😺

 

My wife snapped this one picture that sounds off a comparatively quiet year on the live front. 

 

[scalpy]

Pre-penultimate gig for our residency and it was the one we thought might happen at some point. The whole room was one firm, lots of gentlemen dressed in what I call Haute de Countrywide- gillet, checked shirt brown boots, aggrieved at having to pay inheritance tax, you know the type. Just a general stand offish impress us attitude. Anyway, we get them ticking over nicely in the first half, get to the break, have ten minutes in the room we’ve been provided to modify the set to taste and return to a distinctly frosty atmosphere. Turns out two factions have had bit of argy bargy outside and now no one’s interested in partying. Until, and isn’t this just typical, we play our last song to indifference really, the dj insists we do an encore, we play Fairytale and then they go nuts and want another…. Left quietly as the police watched the would be pugilists get taxied off. 

 

Two more gigs to do- I think they’ll be much better.

[dmccombe7]

On 16/12/2024 at 22:21, moley6knipe said:

Good stuff here folks. Yes, everyone needs to chip in with carrying and plugging etc… and then STOP and let the bass player mix it. End of. Only game in town. Why we’re best suited to this I don’t know: but there it is. Leaving it to eg keys has resulted in eg mic’ing the kit o/h and racks with condensers and not engaging phantom.

 

I’ve drummer-proofed (well, y’know… as much as one can) our setups by getting all of the cables out into piles, out of the way of where people are lugging amps around, shortest to longest left to right:

 

XLRs 1m, 3m, 6m, 7m, 9m, 10m

IECs 2m, 2.5m, 5m

Male XLR to Jack adaptors

Female XLR to Jack adaptors

EDIT: Sure, they’re balanced. I’m not an animal.
 

I always run power around the stage after checking socket polarity and plugging breakers into the wall. Else, the band build a small electric fire for me.

 

Monitor chaining across two auxes remains beyond the reach of m’colls so I do that. Tricky, because the XLRs go “not the same way as for microphones”

What breakers are you plugging in to the wall. ? Not heard of that before.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

32 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

What breakers are you plugging in to the wall. ? Not heard of that before.

Dave

 

Back in my first incarnation as a bass player I always used an ELCB at my wall socket. I heard far too many scare stories.

 

Not as fussy now as rules are tighter - some venues even have breaker sockets. But I have started taking a 4-way extension reel with a breaker fitted as a few places have felt less well maintained.

[BigRedX]

Two much better photos from last Saturday's In Isolation farewell gig:

 

 

[mep]

Bit late posting, but last week after our staff Christmas Party a few of us went on to the Apple and Parrott where it was Jam night. My colleague was on drums and we joined a guitarist and singer for Paranoid and Whole Lotta Rosie. Another colleague videoed some of it and the image below is a screen shot from the video. 

[Bluewine]

On 16/12/2024 at 16:30, moley6knipe said:

Oh! And a laminated print of this lives under the mixer. 40% of the band (inc me) can achieve this

 

These little devices are all over the place when we play with our sound. I don't actually know what they do. But, I know how to wind cable and haul cabs. Lol

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 16/12/2024 at 16:30, moley6knipe said:

Oh! And a laminated print of this lives under the mixer. 40% of the band (inc me) can achieve this

 

These little devices are all over the place when we play with our sound. I don't actually know what they do. But, I know how to wind cable and haul cabs. Lol

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 17/12/2024 at 20:10, dmccombe7 said:

I know how you feel. There are gigs i've done and have made it clear i don't like playing there and even tho we get paid ok there's little or no audience at times and therefore no atmosphere. Response is usually "its a paid rehearsal" and i guess that's true. I wouldn't travel any distance for a gig like that tho. This one is appox 50 miles from me.

Dave

 

Dave, I guess it's just apart of the

" local / regoinal" band business.  We certainly have a financial threshold for gigs we'll turn down. But a few turkeys always manage to slip through.

 

Daryl

[dmccombe7]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Dave, I guess it's just apart of the

" local / regoinal" band business.  We certainly have a financial threshold for gigs we'll turn down. But a few turkeys always manage to slip through.

 

Daryl

The one venue i hated playing was with the punk band and they finally agreed with me that its not worth the money.

At long last they listened to the bass player. 

Most other gigs i'm fine with and if not too busy its just a paid rehearsal. Luckily the Glam gigs are nearly always full or very well attended so that gives me a nice warm glow especially at Christmas. 

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

Grumpiness setting in.

 

After 9 gigs in seven weeks (too many), I now have nothing until February as our venue for an Xmas  gig changed hands and I passed on a NYE dep.

 

Reasonable number of gigs lined up for Bendricks Rock but only a handful for the blues band as the guitarist/BL's indie band are hoping to issue an EP or album and do a UK tour.

 

Wento a gig with the drummer last night. If things don't perk up he's going to try and start a new band. I may or may not be part of it if a guitarist/vocalist already comes with a bass player.

 

TBH got a lot to handle with work and family issues (my dad passed away recently) for a couple of months but music is my therapy...

 

Perhaps I will put myself out there for more dep work.

[Chienmortbb]

5 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

After 9 gigs in seven weeks (too many), I now have nothing until February as our venue for an Xmas  gig changed hands and I passed on a NYE dep.

We had this over July/Aug/Sept often two per weekend. Now nothing since 15th November to Feb 9th.