How was your gig last night?

[MB1]

[quote name='BigRedX' post='831664' date='May 8 2010, 06:46 PM']Fantastic!

First gig for my new originals band "Dick Venom and the Terrortones" last night. The venue (Jam Cafe in Nottingham) was tiny and packed. Not quite enough room to move about and the drum kit slowly slid forward during the set leaving me with even less space. However the audience response was great and despite one or two cock ups it went really well. Not bad for a band that's gone from just being an idea to first gig in just under 2 months.

Saw some photos taken by one of the friends of the guitarist afterwards and it looks like complete mayhem, but in an good full of energy way. Loads of compliments afterwards and offers of more gigs. Just what was needed!

Edit: Just been sent this photo of the gig and I thought I'd share it.

[/quote]

MB1.
....F**k Me!... Brian Setzer ageing Well!

[tauzero]

A bit of an unusual one this, because I was in both the support band and the headline.

The Casa Bar in Tamworth is the old cinema, which has undergone a couple of major upheavals and is now a large room with a bar up one side. Rather than having the stage where it was before in the place's incarnation as a music venue, it's an unstage with a drum riser facing the bar. Audience levels vary drastically - it's a good place to bed a band down a bit as, if you're not a school band with a lorra lorra mates, it's very low pressure (ie. small audience).

The PA also isn't great - I took my mixer amp along. There's no foldback but there's a fair bit of spill so you're not playing deaf.

First up, me on guitar and Mrs Zero on vocals, aka Second Time Round. All went well, did more of my own stuff than we've been doing of late, which was nice (partly so the other band could hear them, I'd like to do some of them with the other band).

Next, me on bass with Different Glory. Generally went well, although I'd completely forgotten that we'd moved one song down a tone, which caused me great confusion. Guitarist: "If we'd had foldback, you'd have realised you were playing the wrong thing quicker". Me: "I realised I was playing the wrong thing immediately, I just couldn't remember the right thing". Still, it generally went OK, and the alternative covers version of the band will be playing there soon (that's Different Glory plus two vocalists, which we still haven't found a name for).

[niceguyhomer]

Played at Chorley Little Theatre last Saturday - began setting up at 4 and at 5 o clock I asked the question..."where's the PA?". The Manager was summoned and he pointed to two small JBL cabinets bracketed to the wall either side of the stage and said "there it is".

We'd sent our stage / tech spec in advance and assumed everything was ok when we heard nothing back. Big mistake - we should have checked and it was a lesson learned.

After we'd picked ourselves up off the floor - clearly the PA was only suitable for bingo calling, we frantically rang around for a decent PA and managed to get one. Had to wait an hour before it arrived and got stuck in immediately when it did.

To cut a long story short, we were still setting up at 7pm when the punters were staring to drift in which isn't clever. We managed to sound check about 7.30 and the first support act went on according to schedule at 8 followed by the second act at 8.30 and ourselves at 9ish.

The FOH sound was excellent but on stage was a bit poo which made everyone a bit jittery but we did a good show nonetheless and went down well. Here's a coupla pics..

Edited May 19, 2010 by niceguyhomer

[JTUK]

Notv a gig but a shi*e rehearsal. Wore new plugs and our first time back after a few weeks.
Productive but missing something ...I didn't like the 20bd cut and couldn't hear well enough.

Oh well, as long as we got something out of it...but for me..it was hard work.

We need a good gig to blow that away...IMV

[Clarky]

Oh dear. We played an all punk evening at the Underbelly in trendy Hoxton Square. We ere on second, at 9pm, and played to around 20 people :-( The main band (reasonably well known Shag Nasty) and the main support band played to even fewer. One of the audience told me afterwards that he had seen next to no advertising for the gig. While we barely got any mates together (so its partly our fault, albeit you can't force people out on a Tuesday night against their will) its still very disappointing and not the first time this year. So far 2010 is going down as a bad year for us audience-wise. The irony is we have never played better. We have to keep telling ourselves that at least these largely empty gigs qualify as free practices, but thatsa not the point, is it?

[cheddatom]

Clarky, we played to a 3 peice support band once, it's not too bad.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='841758' date='May 19 2010, 09:56 AM']Clarky, we played to a 3 peice support band once, it's not too bad.[/quote]

We did a gig in Stockwell years ago that was so empty (ie, no one) our guitarist too one look at the venue and left the band. Never seen him since.
we got the support band (mates of ours) to get up with us, we had a jam for about an hour and then me and the singer (my girlfriend ) went and had sex in the bog while they did some blues thing
Not a bad night really although we didnt get paid.

[cheddatom]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='841771' date='May 19 2010, 10:04 AM']We did a gig in Stockwell years ago that was so empty (ie, no one) our guitarist too one look at the venue and left the band. Never seen him since.
we got the support band (mates of ours) to get up with us, we had a jam for about an hour and then me and the singer (my girlfriend ) went and had sex in the bog while they did some blues thing
Not a bad night really although we didnt get paid.[/quote]

It gets to you after a while. sh*t gigs wouldn't be so bad if they were closer to home, but it's home gigs you can fill, and gigs further afield you're relying on the promoter for, and obviously we all know about promoters.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='cheddatom' post='841784' date='May 19 2010, 10:11 AM']It gets to you after a while. sh*t gigs wouldn't be so bad if they were closer to home, but it's home gigs you can fill, and gigs further afield you're relying on the promoter for, and obviously we all know about promoters.[/quote]

Agreed.

I was in an originals band years ago and we got a gig at the Fire Staton in Oxford. We had only been together a few months and though "this is it". Off we drove, got there, set up and noticed we were headlining. We had no following, certainly not in Oxford, so no one knew who we were. Luckily there was a support band so we hoped they would fill the place.
Ha, they were from right up north, no following and this was their first gig.
The bloke running the gig (and i think he might have been running the bar as well) was a quite hacked off that the venue was so empty, even though "i put a poster in the window".

Twat.

[the_skezz]

Played a fifteen minute slot at an open mic night on Friday, at Base Studios in Stourbridge. My first gig with my punk band, it was a lot of fun (though we cocked up the original song we decided to play, no-one had heard it before, so they didn't notice the mistakes). We got a pretty good crowd reaction (admittedly there weren't that many people there) and got quite a few compliments for the performance. Overall, a good night.

[Happy Jack]

Not so much last night, as yesterday afternoon, we played the Brentford May Fayre which was an absolute hoot.

We were providing the PA for the entire event so I was a bit puzzled at the lack of contact from other users as to what they might need, or what we would be bringing.

Got there for the set-up at 11:00am and the other band started drifting in - a Cuban salsa type thing, being played by people like us, middle-aged white guys. They kept arriving until there were a dozen of them.

[color="#0000FF"]"You're providing the PA, right?"

"Yup, that's right. What's your normal set-up?"

"Well, we'd normally use 14 microphones ..."

"Bwahahahaha! Have you brought any?"

"Erm ... no."

"Well, we're a 5-piece pub-rock band. What made you think we'd bring 14 mics and a desk that could handle them?"[/color]

Given that they were mostly brass, it wasn't actually much of a problem and they got along fine without, but their sound was a bit empty low down. I was surprised that they were playing Cuban dance music without a bass. Two songs into their set the bass player arrived.

*******************

Our PA was also going to be used for the two dance troupes. The first had their music on a cheap copy of an iPod using really atrocious downloads; nothing we could do would get the music up to an acceptable volume.

The second had their music on a CD.

"Do you have a CD player we could use?"

"No - why on earth would we be carrying around a CD player?"

"OK, well can we use my mate's then?"

Cue the opening of a suitcase, out of which appears a domestic stereo system hastily grabbed from someone's sitting room. Bear in mind we're in the middle of a public park, here. Quality.

*********************

Us?

We played fine, we had fun, and we've now appeared in front of an audience of about 1000 people ... even if most of them weren't actually listening to us!

[dave_bass5]

I did two weddings this weekend. Nothing really stood out other than last night, we started the second set with James Sit down. One by one the audience got down on the floor in front of us and started swaying. We didnt know where to look (ok, we did) when we were faced with all the short skirted ladies sitting on the floor in front of us, facing us with legs stretched out :-O
Funny enough i had set a video camera up on the audience just before we went on for the second set and it captured it all.

Oh, and we had also been asked if we had a DVD player because the brides father had done a mega mix type of thing for between sets and had put it on a DVD. Of course we dont.

Still, got paid an extra £80 by the brides father for being fantastic (we actually played pretty badly) so a good end to the night. I did try and take the £80 for myself though as i said to the others he couldn't possibly be talking about them lol.

Edited May 23, 2010 by dave_bass5

[BigRedX]

Second gig with Dick Venom and the Terrortones last night at The Old Malt Cross in Nottingham.

I played here a couple of times back in the 80s with when I was in an all-synth band. The stage is a bit strange as it's about 7' up between the ground floor and the upper gallery, with the result that your audience is either below of above you. At least with the venue in its current incarnation they've managed to increase the size and decor so it no longer appears that you are performing from the top of a large wardrobe!

Anyway it was another cracking gig. No mistakes that the audience would have noticed. The position of the stage did mean that it wasn't as easy to connect with the audience as the last gig, but our singer tried to compensate by getting the PA guy to join three cannon leads together for his mic to allow him to get up to the gallery level and into the audience. Also we didn't have any problems with the Theremin due the proximity of audience bodies! Just need to tighten up what goes on in between the songs and it will be truly fantastic. Can't wait for the next one...

[JTUK]

New country pub and a cracking night...top totty there as well..
Have to say we were pretty decent and we can't wait to get on the Beer festival bill he is proposing.

[Jarhead]

Not really how it went, but a cheap plug for the next one, which is tonight (3rd June) at The Maze in Nottingham. My band, BuryTheLadyBird (Myspace in the sig) will be on about 8ish for anybody in Nottingham who fancies coming down to see some funky/rocky stuff bashed out by a bunch of 16/17 year olds. 3 other bands on as well. £3 entry. I'll update here afterward.

Zach

[beerdragon]

Pub. Hot. went down well. despite me. all hail the guitar player, where would we be without him.

[Dr.Dave]

Last night's in Idle was incident free , though enjoyable , but Thurs in Baildon was memorable for me knocking over a flood light and setting fire to the pub.

Anyone playing there (The Malt Shovel) the black patch in the carpet is my fault !!

[tonybassplayer]

Last night we were back in Montey's rock cafe in Harrogate and it rocked but sadly no pictures taken ( see a previous post )

If you are young ( ish ) free and single then last night in Harrogate was the place to be ( the very short skirt shop seems to be doing very well )

Bay Horse at Lindley in Huddersfield tonight, can't wait !!

[ezbass]

A 3 piece blues band dep for me last night, very sweaty and actually far more fun than I thought it would be. I got to really stretch out and I'd forgotten that 3 members = better money.

[obbm]

How was my gig last night? Very different.

Recently joined 5 others in an accoustic jug band. The last two weeks Tuesday night's accoustic jams were the rehearsals and last night we did about an hour at a local festival which was raising money for the Chase Children's Hospice in Guildford. The audience seemed to like it and we have subsequently been given offers of other gigs. Band comprises ukeleles, guitars, banjos, violin and for the first time ever, me on my very cheap double bass. Definitely need some decent strings, tweak it a bit, maybe invest in a smaller amp (MB F1 and Epi UL112 was a bit overkill) and most importantly try and improve my technique..

[lazzer]

Let's see, starting with Friday night's gig which was a dep gig with local classic rock band Dirty Wish, went pretty damn well except for me thundering back into the chorus of "allright now" after the solo, instead of going back to a verse......never mind, am so used to playing it the other way with my regular outfit!

Then, last nights was good fun & quite an honour to be asked in my opinion. Played bass in a 30 minute set as part of Legacy a Mick Ronson Celebration at the Springhead in Hull. Les Nichol played some scorching lead guitar & Ian Hunter's son Jess joined us on stage to sing a couple of his Dad's hits & Tracey Hunter & her band did a set too... Had a nice chat with Suzie Ronson after the show, who was lovely. Really enjoyed watching a band called Eureka Machines do their set of original stuff which was very high energy & tight as a nun's

All in all, great weekend

Lazz

[crez5150]

Wedding gig for a Leading web designer..... I counted 18 Ferrari's in the car park.... :wacko:

One of the oddest gigs I've played at..... everyone (punters) was coked of their tits and swilling bolly from the bottle... even the 'ladies'.

Hardly anyone took any notice that there was a band in the room apart from when the Groom wanted a 'dance off' as he put it.... very very odd.

Took me 5 hours to drive back from Leeds as a van snapped in half on the M1 at 4am...... I'm f***ed now!

Got a do it all again in an hour......

[OldGit]

Not a gig but pretty funny.

A local guy was advertising for a whole band to do Cameo style funk-pop stuff. My drummer mate happened to be around in the rehearsal studio last week and got roped in as they didn't have a drummer for the auditions that week. They didn't have a bass player for this week's auditions either so he volunteered me. That's cool. I like playing new stuff.
So I learned the three tunes nominated by the singer

Turned up and there's me, the singer and my mate. No auditioning people...

20 mins later the keys and guitar auditioners turn up, set up and.. yup I'm the only one in the room who's done their homeowrk on the nominated tunes, including the singer and it's his band...

Just as well I had my iPod with me, with a PA compatible cable and with the three tracks on it, wasn't it. Especially a the singer hadn't bothered

So a swift listen for everyone and we blast through a poor version of one of the tunes.
Singer's missing his cues, no one but me has really got it .. "Just Jam it" says the singer after a while so off we go for 10 minutes jazz funk jamming bassed round the dominent bass riff.
Pretty good and pretty tight for a first go with 5 strangers.
Seems everyone has working ears so we add in solos, dynamics, locking in, no vocals and chummy is listening to everyone play.

Times up for this lot and a bass player and drummer arrive to audition. Exit me and my mate stage left to leave them to it.

Two days later I get an email telling me I play too many notes for the material and I'd have to really cut down if I wanted to join? Eh? I wasn't auditioning matey and anyway, YOU failed my audition ...

Singers eh?

[bobbytodd]

we played a wedding last night it all went well until at the end of the night when the bride went awol and the groom had no money or cheque book.so it looks like its gonna be the small claims court for us

[crez5150]

[quote name='bobbytodd' post='859060' date='Jun 6 2010, 05:21 PM']we played a wedding last night it all went well until at the end of the night when the bride went awol and the groom had no money or cheque book.so it looks like its gonna be the small claims court for us[/quote]

1st rule of fightclub.... alway get the cash in the bank at least 10 days before said event!