How was your gig last night?

[sixshooter]

Two gigs this weekend, both went very well from an audiance point of view, however the sound was very different!

Friday, small old pub with low ceilings so I took my Line 6 Bass amp, 59CS relic P bass and 79 Black P bass with EMG's and Badass Bridge. I could not get a decent sound, it was all bottom end boom, stuck the amp on a crate and it was still no better with both Basses.

Sat, a Wedding in a large hall with high ceilings, took the Trace V8 with 4 x 12 cab, same guitars......how I love the sound of that amp, sheer bliss to play, although my back was hurting a bit on Sunday morning, should never have lifted the 4 x 12 into the back of the car on my own!

Think I have got GAS now because I want to find a small Bass Amp that gives the sound quality of my Trace V8, think I may be looking for a long while!

[bassicinstinct]

Queens Hall Nuneaton last night.

Great house PA and lights. Decent size stage. A Sound Engineer on FOH sound who knows his onions and a seperate onstage Monitor Engineer who did a sterling job taming a particularly unpleasant onstage boom resulting, I think, from the drums creating a feedback loop through the drummers vocal mic.

Marvelous!!

The only thing which could have improved the evening would have been to promote the gig and fiil the place but, as always, that'll be what we should expect "next time".

[bassicinstinct]

Queens Hall Nuneaton last night.

Great house PA and lights. Decent size stage. A Sound Engineer on FOH sound who knows his onions and a seperate onstage Monitor Engineer who did a sterling job taming a particularly unpleasant onstage boom resulting, I think, from the drums creating a feedback loop through the drummers vocal mic.

Marvelous!!

The only thing which could have improved the evening would have been to promote the gig and fiil the place but, as always, that'll be what we should expect "next time".

[tauzero]

Saturday night, barn dance at Perton community centre (just outside Wolverhampton).

They've had us there before and a few people had seen us before, either at Perton or in Wolverhampton. Good crowd, which was nice as it is also a fund-raiser for a cancer charity. Dances all went well, with the standard level of chaos.

Sound-wise, the room is something of a nightmare - high ceiling, solid bare walls, and a stage which transmits everything through it. Kaz the caller's wireless mic was doing that sub-feedback ringing thing on a fairly regular basis. The melodeon was feeding back every time Penni got near the monitor (which is still in the experimental stage).

For the first time, I'd brought the GK to use as effectively my monitor and DI box (all the other instruments are acoustic, so they can hear themselves to some degree) and I was also able to set up the bass and the upright through an A-B box and set their levels so they were the same and I could switch between them with no messing around on the PA, which was nice when we did the solos on the last dance and I swapped from upright to bass guitar halfway through.

They want us back sometime soon as well, which is nice.

[Count Bassy]

Saturday night, Welton Village Hall.

Apart from my screwing up my short bass solo in 'Rocky Mountain Way' (very annoying), all was going well until the bass drum skin split at the end of 'All right now". Took an impromptu break while the great god Gaffa tape (all hail) came to the rescue. Unfortunately the incident threw the drummer off a bit and he started the next song (Roadhouse Blues) at about half the speed we'd normally do it (this was unusual as he's normally rock solid through any incident).

Anyway recovered from there and all in all we seemed to go down a storm, which was nice.

Question: Why don't they just make things out of Gaffa tape in the first place?

Clive

[OldGit]

[quote name='tauzero' post='158915' date='Mar 17 2008, 01:45 PM']The melodeon was feeding back every time Penni got near the monitor (which is still in the experimental stage).[/quote]

We have loads of fun with the melodeon and monitor. In the end we just gave him his own channel with it's own EQ so he can have more control over different frequencies to try to tame the beast.
We all think he should stuff it with cotton wool to stop it feeding back .. he seems reluctant for some reason
Our guy's just got a bug wireless and that helps cos it allows him to move around a lot more ..

Our barn dance Saturday was fine - no one expected a St Pats night.. phew!
Awful sonic disaster hall.. probably fine for an acoustic event but we aren't acoustic The stage sound was a nightmare and one of our wireless mics was popping and cracking on its own all night.

Dep guitarist in the deep end. Only his second gig with us but he did really well. He's a great musician so I only had to throw him a start chord and warn him of any morphing tune sets and he was on the money.
He brought his keyboards too and was great when the dancers started calling out suggestions. Once we'd done our dance to Green Onions/Help Me they twigged that he had a great organ and started shouting out the list of greats - House of the Rising Sun, Whiter shade of Pale, Je T'aime ... oh and all the normal stuff like Stairway and Smoke on the water ... We even managed a fair amount of Whisky in the Jar as a nod to St Pat and St Phil ..

I think we may have to get him in full time alongside our regular guitarist who is much more of a trad folkie acoustic player... just have to charge 20% more


Oh and it was the first outing for my Weeping Demon Wah-wah Wow, now that's a nice sound. Much better than the one on my Zoom B2.1u.. I think I may have used it a bit too much

Edited March 17, 2008 by OldGit

[AussieBassman]

[quote name='Freuds_Cat' post='158368' date='Mar 16 2008, 10:07 PM']Well I know its not really the same naming my gigs on here as it is for most of the rest of you, Adelaide being on the other side of the globe 'n all. But I don't like feeling left out so;

We did a last minute show out at the Sandy Creek Pub on friday night. I don't now if you get the TV show McLeods Daughters in the UK but this little pub is in the same place as where they film the show. Just down the road from Jacobs Creek (no, really). Anyway Adelaide has had one of the longest hot spells on record recently. We are now on our 15th straight day where the temperature is above 35C (95F). Put it this way Today (Sunday) is the city's 11th straight day of a maximum temperature in excess of 38C (100F).

Anyway...... (sorry for digression...ooops I did it again), Left work and drove out to Sandy Creek and started playing at 9pm and the temp was still 34C (93F). The gig is at a purpose built outdoor beer garden complete with permanent stage and is a fantastic little spot. As we were playing our second set, sweating our guts out under the added heat from the lights a weird thing happened. The temp dropped down to 24C (75F) over the course of 2 songs as a cool damp change came over us. The guitars went out of tune pretty quickly and we had to end the set early just to make adjustments. Was very freaky.

All in all it was a great show and they paid well so I hope we get to do that gig again.


[attachment=6509:sandy_creek.jpg][/quote]
what's the name of your band?

do you ever come down to Tassie?

[bigjohn]

Our gig on Friday was brilliant.

[tauzero]

I wouldn't normally say anything about an open mic night but Thursday evening did have a few twists and turns...

The normal host is away so the future Mrs Zero and I, plus Kevin, a friend and other half of a duo from some years ago, have been roped in to do the hosting in his absence. I took charge of the house guitar and bass last week, and last night I loaded them up, plus my own Variax and a Warwick and a 3-way stand. Got there and we realised we hadn't got the beer tokens - the normal host had given me two sheets per week of preprinted tokens (each performer gets one for a free drink). So I dashed back and got them, got back a few minutes late but Kevin had held starting until I was there. Lesson 1, always remember everything.

Kevin had tuned the house guitar with his clip-on tuner and tried to tune the bass too, but unsuccessfully. So I tuned it and noticed that the G and D strings were a semitone sharp, which gave me a bit of forewarning when he started playing and I realised he was tuned a semitone sharp. As I was reading his fingers and Alan the gob-iron player was doing the same, I was doing mental transposition as for a capo and Alan was digging around for the right key gob-iron. Lesson 2, always make sure your fancy shiftable-pitch tuner isn't pitch-shifted (or just use a non-shiftable one).

Then the whole rhythm was falling apart as Kevin isn't used to a drummer so just goes at his own pace, and the guitar wasn't audible enough at the rear of the stage for the drummer to keep with him, so I had to stop doing anything off-beat and stop leaving spaces and just play 4ths and 8ths so the drummer could pick up off me (I had a backline bass amp). Lesson 3 isn't so much sort the monitoring out as anticipate changing requirements when there's a deviation from the norm.

At least I managed to tune the house guitar back to proper tuning before anyone used it. And Kevin got tuned properly so we could do a properly in-tune session at the end.

[tonybassplayer]

On holiday in Scotland and no gig until next week so keep loading them up guys as if I ain't playing it's nice to read about how other band's gig's have gone.

Tony

[spider]

[quote name='bigjohn' post='159631' date='Mar 18 2008, 02:10 PM']Our gig on Friday was brilliant.[/quote]

Ours wasn't but we got paid anyway...

Edited March 23, 2008 by spider

[hatori]

Well...my gig on Friday night was the Pier Tavern Burnham on sea and we were first of three bands on the bill. I got to meet a five string Alembic toting bass player in the headline band and had a really cool chat about all things bass. I had my brand spankers Trace Elliot AH500 set up all sexy and green. The sound check (for want of better words) was fine then came the time to start. First few bars in and.........no sound!! My amp was not having any and boy was I crapping myself. We had loads of musos and the place was rammed. So I called for a d.i. box and did the first set on monitors only!! Thankfully Mr Alembic saved my arse by letting me use his rig and we aced it in spite of all the sh*te. Now as a three piece you can imagine what a challenge that was.
Last night was at Brean sands (Jumpin Jax) complete with kiss me quick holiday makers from brum. I borrowed an SWR 350 which was ok and between us we gave good account of ourselves adding the obligatory 'play that funky music' which went down well.
Now as you may know or experienced for yourself all that runs through your mind when you are ampless is 'what the hell do I do now'. I love Trace gear and have used it for many years. To buy new and have the hassle of warranty/ repairs sh*te tends to take your mind off of business.
Tonight we are hosting a jam night at the 'Back Bar' in Weston super Mare and today finds me running hither and thither trying to borrow a backup!!!
So gentlemen this week 'I are mostly bein stressed'!
Am taking the amp back to the shop on wednesday and asking for a replacement. Any hint of hassle and I'll have my money back!

[Adrenochrome]

We played last night on the closing night of a big biker rally in Leeds. Overall it was the best/biggest gig we've ever done. It didn't start very well as the opening band overran and therefore we didn't get our promised soundcheck. However we did have a sound engineer just for our onstage monitor mix which is the sort of luxury I've never had before - and he put exactly what I wanted in my monitors ie my vox and some kick drum. The DJ playing in the gap before us was playing music like The Mission/Cult/Iron Maiden which set the tone nicely for our set. The crowd were dancing from the first song and most didn't stop - ace gig!

Edited March 24, 2008 by Adrenochrome

[tonybassplayer]

Sounds like an excellent weekend was had from reading all the comments on the ROTN website.

We would have come over but we were in Scotland for the weekend.

Tony

[Adrenochrome]

Cheers Tony, it was excellent. We didn't know if/when we'd get another opportunity like it so we were determined to make the most of it. The sub-zero temperatures were quite difficult for sleeping in the tent; the missus was NOT happy!

[jakenewmanbass]

Not last night but yesterday and Sunday.
It was the first of the outdoor gigs, we do about 40 days over the summer!!**?!! at various outdoor events.
It was a game fair in Northamptonshire. It was positively Arctic. I wore my jeans and T shirt under my suit (Tails) and still froze to near death. we had a fan heater, an oil radiator and all our lights on (tripped the power twice) but the tundra rolled in through the open sides of the marquee, so the strings on my double bass were like frozen cheese wires savage pain with both hands.
I've done many outdoor events, lots of festivals but that was the coldest ever.
Oh well at least we've got the summer floods to look forward to!!
Jake

[teen t-shirt]

sounds like you had a fabulous gig there jake lol

cheese wire you say what brand are those strings??

[tonybassplayer]

Wedding anniversary private party at one of our regular pub venues.

Another cracker and first with my Geddy which sounded good to me. Just need to get a wireless set up so I can hear it from a distance

Tony

[hatori]

Played a 40th birthday party at Weston football club. Used my Precision 'Frankenbass' with Dimarzio split P rails. Awesome punchy sound. Usual polite applause with oldies strutting their stuff and kiddies running round being a pain. Still....its paying off the new amp.

[Tee]

Played a gig in Camden (London), friday night. We lent out our gear to all other bands (between about 8pm-1am and we weren't headlining). I had to stop one band's guitarist attempting to plug into my bass head and pointed out he might try using the tweed Fender guitar combo next to it. All in all, a great gig though. Good crowd, good vibe and a cracking set.

The big downer was the fact that the lift in my building has been bust. So, 2x four trips up and down 3 floors with my gear (cab/valve head, bass, fx bag) wasn't fun (especially at 2am), but that's rock n' roll.

[thebassmandave]

It was great.

Played a fundraiser last night at a civic centre and had a lot of fun.

Band was really well looked after with food and drink and the audience seemed to really like us.

Nicest venue I have played so far.

Edited March 30, 2008 by thebassmandave

[Rich]

Played Gloucester Guildhall's 20th Anniversary Bash last night, top gig despite Dave the voice suffering from man flu... he struggled on, brave soul sound was great, but the drum riser had been put well off-centre... so just for a change, me and Moo the keys had lots of room and the horns were squished up... boy did they complain about it too. Hah! Welcome to my world boys :lol:
The only downer was getting to bed at 3.30am...

[tauzero]

Wedding party for the barn dance band. The participants were enthusiastic dancers who'd had a long day so it finished up with us winding up at 10.30, which we didn't mind as we'd done a fair number of dances. The location was a bit of a PITA though, a hotel on Broad Street in Birmingham which is absolutely heaving on a Saturday evening with the sort of people who go to pubs in Broad Street on a Saturday evening - still, we got loaded up and out OK. And a couple of possible future bookings too, which is nice.

Then got back home buzzing, went to bed at 2 which was in fact 3 and got up at 9 to go to the bass bash...

Edited March 30, 2008 by tauzero

[Mr Fudge]

A support band, onion bhajiis, a David Essex tribute, a firework display, a disco and loads of Bathams Bitter at the Lamp Tavern in Dudley. Life doesn't get much better than this!

[stingrayfan]

Wedding in Maidstone. Didn't know what to expect as we play punky covers but the bride and groom led the charge and the dancefloor was full all night. All ages dancing to everything from The Clash to The Fratellis. Top party and spurred us on to play brilliantly.

The only time the dancefloor emptied was when the DJ came on in the break.