How was your gig last night?

[seashell]

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1331473499' post='1573271']
Is that Dik Guru by any chance? Although I'm sure there's several comedy Dicks in the Birmingham area...
[/quote]

Yes, it is Dik Guru! You know him, then?

[tauzero]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1331543725' post='1574281']
Yes, it is Dik Guru! You know him, then?
[/quote]

Yes indeed. Mrs Zero and I have played at a few open mic nights where Dik's also played. Say hello from Second Time Round from us...

[Low End Bee]

Nice, sweaty gig on Saturday at the Grey Horse in Kingston. Clauster's band (Run Leia Run) were good fun. Never have guessed it was their first gig in 9 months.
Not a bad crowd at all and we played well and with vigour. Lovely warm up for our forthcoming big gigs.
My suit needs a clean....

[seashell]

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1331549470' post='1574417']
Yes indeed. Mrs Zero and I have played at a few open mic nights where Dik's also played. Say hello from Second Time Round from us...
[/quote]

Yes, I'll pass on your greetings!
You never know, we might bump into each other one of these days..

[seashell]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1331474409' post='1573294']
The Gary Glitter song got universal laughter which is what we'd wanted and hoped for. We figured our brand of humour would win the day. If folk had got upset we'd pull it.

[/quote]

Ha ha - Dik (who I play with occasionally) does a Jonathan King song which can only be wheeled out on certain occasions! I haven't played that one yet though. He only invites me to play at the more respectable gigs

[clauster]

[quote name='Low End Bee' timestamp='1331550050' post='1574435']
Nice, sweaty gig on Saturday at the Grey Horse in Kingston. Clauster's band (Run Leia Run) were good fun. Never have guessed it was their first gig in 9 months.
Not a bad crowd at all and we played well and with vigour. Lovely warm up for our forthcoming big gigs.
My suit needs a clean....
[/quote]

Great gig for us too. Thanks for letting me use your TC rig. GAS central right now, not helped by the singer repeatedly telling me it sounded fantastic

[WalMan]

Well then.

Friday. Good night in a gig with space, a stage (with a riser) and even a backstage area of sorts (not a star on the bog door), house PA & lights and he generally tries to look after the bands. Reasonable crowd - better than many Fridays apparently. Described as "an eclectic set" by a friend there but all were enthusiastic. Guitarists adjusted tone settings, well the one mentioned previously (rolled off bass & more pushed mids) really helped the mix, well IMHO anyway.

Videoed the lot, but for some reason the digital recorder I use for better sound than the camcorder was not running for the first set. A few new numbers in the set and it went fairly well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjUiob-8QWk
- lets overlook my SNAFU's shall we <_< First go through live in the reworking (changed key as well) and in over 18 months since we last did it I should think. Needless to say I had got it right everytime at r/h the previous Wednesday.

Saturday. Hmmmm, well we played fine but it was all a bit dispiriting really. Realised as it came up that this was the 6 Nations final w/e with three matches from 12, and it's a rugby pub, which is fine and I had spent all afternoon watching the matches, BUT by the time we arrived most in the pub had been drinking since 12 and were full and ready to go home for a little lie down. By the time we started @ 9:15 it had substantially thinned out and so we played two sets to a fairly high degree of indifference - so I fear that's another gig where the others will be saying what's the point, knock it on the head, when gigs are a trial to get. Of course that is until the last number when they wanted more. Sadly that request was countered with "sorry we've run over already" (true but I don't think it would have mattered). and we packed up, picked up the gig cash & fecked off.

Smetimes I wonder what the point is. Perhaps we're all to old & should give up, sell up and let the kids get on with it

Edited March 18, 2012 by WalMan

[ezbass]

First gig in a while, but despite rehearsals and the set list barely changing, the same mistakes were being made. Now I don't claim to be the best muso in the world, but how hard is it to remember your parts and when to play them? This is especially true of our singer (who's been in the band way longer than me) he does come in when he feels like it, early, late and misses entire sections of the song. I'm staring to feel I'm wasting my time with this lot!

On the upside the gig was a private party for the singer and guitar player of another band, both of whom got up for a few numbers. The girl singer was great and even though she wasn't familiar with our arrangements she made a better stab at them than our boy; Plat That Funky Music was the best ever. Here's the rub though, they thought we were great! I don't get it.

[Jacqueslemac]

I always find this thread comforting - I know I'm not alone!

Our gig on Friday was in a struggling club. Half the crowd were those we'd encouraged to come along (the band gets the takings on the door), but it was still far too empty to create any kind of buzz.

Even though we'd hardly changed our set, we made silly mistakes and even got lost in one song. We thought we'd played really badly. Personally, I wasn't happy with the clarity of the tone on my new (to me) Jag, so swapped to a Corvette for the second half.

On the other hand, all the comments we received were good. I tend to discount those from "normal" people, but a bassist I really admire (and who gigs around 60 times a year), not only complimented me on my playing, but also my tone.

We also had a few people dancing, which was a bit of a surprise. Mind you, they had plenty of room!

I can only assume that how you feel on stage doesn't always translate to how it appears from the audience.

[gary mac]

I was covering on bass in my daughters band at the White Swan, Hoddesdon.

Turned out to be a good un. First gig with a new guitarist.

The crowd seemed to like it, with a largish haggle of girls dancing to most of the second and third sets.

I had a wobbly moment during the solo section of Lenny Kravitz's Go My Way, but gave my brain a few beats to catch up, got back on try and finished at the right time. Other than that it was all pretty good.


I really really hate the load in and out, particularly the out at this venue, well most pubs actually.


Looks like I'm on maternity cover/bass duties for the foreseeable with this lot, but it is fun and not much in the way of Dad rock in the set .

[spike]

Depped in a mate's blues band last night, had over 30 songs to learn and apart from a short run through with the drummer last week didn't have a rehearsal beforehand. Did a fair bit of preparation by playing along to the songs on Youtube and making notes. Most of the songs were standard 12 bars so that helped too. The guitarist was a dep as well so it could have been a bit ropey but in fact it all went very well, a few minor mistakes and no major disasters. At the end of the night someone from the audience told the singer how good the band was and that the guitarist and bassist were awsome and booked the band for a gig in May. Shame neither of us will be playing that one.

[Dr.Dave]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1331574191' post='1575125']
Ha ha - Dik (who I play with occasionally) does a Jonathan King song which can only be wheeled out on certain occasions! I haven't played that one yet though. He only invites me to play at the more respectable gigs
[/quote]

Odd you say that - we're figuring the worse the scummy toilet we play in the bigger the chance of some tattooed pond life punching me. To press we've only done it 3 times - all to audiences that can form proper sentences. Today's gig is a ex-WMC in a dog rough area of South Yorkshire full of Benny's. (as in Benny Fitt-Scrounger as I like to term them). Might have trouble there. They bring their kids in in prams - I barked at them last time for it but they thought I was joking.

No probs last night - the heavy rock Abba thing's going down a riot. Regular venue for us (The Hop , Wakefield) but our regular stage (downstairs) was pulled last week when we were asked to do a private function upstairs for the owner. That meant we had to bring our PA and drag it up the stairs . Downstairs has a PA so we'd not bothered asking our roadie who arranged a night out instead - so we had to carry it up. Worse still - upstairs has a massive PA installed which we were told we couldn;t use as it was 'too loud'. I reminded them it has a volume control but to no avail. Several heart attacks later we were set up and a DJ tuned up - said he was using the big PA - presumed we were and asked if we wanted the sound doing like the regular upstairs bands do !!!

Anyway - Gig was good but it was so totty packed I got several whiffs of scent - eau de kerry katona's gusset or similar - and I've woken up with a glass throat. Have to go sing in a few hours so it's hot ribena for me all day.

As a PS which I should probably have put in the amps forum. ....Because we couldn;
't take the trailer (we'd never back it round) everything had to go in the cars - that and having to take PA meant my ext cab stayed home which I wasn't pleased about as the room is quite a big one. Twice the size of a normal pub venue. Joy of joys - new GK combo coped easily. Never went above half way - easily loud enough , clear as a bell and the bass end of a 2x15 shed (in a 2x10 combo)

[JTUK]

Deppin for a mate. tough gig.

[Dave Tipping]

Had a belter last night! Got another 4 or 5 functions from it. Was a big bikers get together ... 300-400 scary tatoo'd up largely male crowd and the dance floor was packed all night!

[hitchy64]

We played at The Grand Junction in Crewe last night. This place has a reputation for being a bit rough but we'v not had any problems.
St Patricks so plenty of people in, lots of dancing and everyone saying how good we were.
To be fair, we always play well and that was another great night. And the landlord booked us for 2 more gigs this year.
Result!!!

[dave_bass5]

we had our first in 6 weeks last night. Nothing to write home about but it was the first time ive had to use cables rather than my wireless system (rechargeable didnt recharge properly). It felt really strange. It was also the first time in years that ive used a floor pedal, and combined with the extra 30ft of cable around my feet it was a bit of a struggle.

[Lozz196]

Played at Millers Bar, in South East London, near London Bridge/Guys Hospital last night, with The Tuesday Club.

The band was three members missing - twangy-bass, female singer, and keys.

There were four bands on the bill, and we were 2nd. As usual, soundchecks over-ran, so they concentrated on just getting levels right for the headlining act, which was fine by us. We were using provided backline, so no point in fussing over "it`s not my sound" malarkey.

The gig itself went great. We were very well received indeed. Nice little venue, doesn`t get too busy, but it`s one of those places you can tell gets people in who really want to watch bands, so they are very enthusiastic on the applause front.

[Monckyman]

Decent gig in warrington, not very well paid but we treat it as a rehearsal and this months rent on the reh room paid.
It was paddies day so we cobbled a couple of vaguely irish songs to stick in the set, these went down ok.realised to get the best out of my EA amp I need to drive the input a bit with my pedalboard, and then it really fills the room.
Used a couple of lights and a hazer to dress the "stage" area a bit.
I`ve had the drummer on an in ears monitoring setup for the last week or two and he`s really loving it, says he can hear his kit how it should be without banging it, which means for the rest of us, the dynamics are much better and the songs are a lot more laid back.
Next is to try the singer on a radio IEM and see if that works.
Still not happy with the keys player, who is clumsy and keeps turning her level down.
Every time I look across at her on a song she doesn`t have much to do in, she`s fiddling with her mobile phone..
Onwards and upwards.

[BigRedX]

Covers band doing a surprise party for a friend of the singer's. Both the singer and drummer not feeling very well. We had panicky emails going round in the morning regarding the singer's voice (or lack of). In the end we cut a few numbers from the set list, although because of everything else over-running and a strict music curfew at the venue we would have had to trim the sets anyway, and she managed to get through the evening without any mishaps. The drummer didn't do so well some of the timing in the more complex songs was interesting to say the least and the faster numbers seemed to drag from m y PoV. Still we had a good number of people up and dancing and all present seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The sound on stage was a bit ropy though. The venue was a strange building - octagonal shaped with a massively high pointed ceiling rather like an enormous summer house. A nice big stage along one of the walls, but because of the shape of the room there was nothing to contain the sound in the stage area. During the first set the bass sounded really thin. During the interval several people came up and said that we could afford to be a bit louder so we all turned up for the second set and that definitely helped with the bass sound.

Overall I still not sure if this is a band I really want to be in. The people are all really nice and we're playing pretty much all my favourite songs from my youth, but the "vibe" simply isn't there. This should be a fun gig playing great songs to lots people who are up for dancing and a good time, but TBH I've having way more of a blast playing originals in sweaty little venues with Dick Venom...

[musophilr]

Well, it was Friday, and it wasn't "our" gig 'cos we shared it with a lot of other people but here goes:

Mike's Acoustic Night in the Henley Community Centre is mainly folk-orientated but they don't mind blues, original material, or reworked pop classics. You have to be invited or book your slot you can't just turn up & play.

Recently I've been comping for a lady singer who's done a lot to up her game recently. She's been hanging out with another lady who's often not so well these days so performs a lot less than she did but she was in her younger days doing a lot of professional work. Anyway this latter was well enough to perform, and she also manages some acoustic guitar although injuries to her fretting hand limit what she can do. It's her good influences that has helped her friend to get her singing together.

We did Joan Baez's [i]Diamonds and Rust[/i] with them two singing and me on guitar. Then we did some trad. thing with harmony vocals and 2 guitars, and finished with [i]With a little help from my friends[/i] in similar manner. They let me loose for a guitar solo in the middle one.

It all worked OK and I was bought a pint for my trouble

[rOB]

[quote name='musophilr' timestamp='1332085993' post='1582952']
It all worked OK and I was bought a pint for my trouble
[/quote]
Sounds like a great evening.

[LiamPodmore]

Cr*p. We we're playing in a sports hall and no matter what the guy on sound did that room just sounded sh*t. Probably didn't help that the PA didn't look like it was up to scratch either. Big room, and we played pretty much flawlessly, just issues with feedback and the room itsself.

Liam

[ezbass]

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1332072117' post='1582737']
Every time I look across at her on a song she doesn`t have much to do in, she`s fiddling with her mobile phone..
[/quote]We had a keyboard player who did this, now long gone, maybe it's a boredom thing. But then why did they join the band in the first place?

[Mykesbass]

Had the best gig so far with current band - Crowborough Constitutional Club - loads of people had been in and drinking all afternoon watching the rugby. Plenty of banter but once we got going they loved us. Great to get so much response from a non-dancing audience - probably 70% male and no room to dance although plenty of room to set up.

If anyone gets offered a gig there, as long as you're doing older stuff and can cope with a bit of drunken banter it's a great gig to do!

[BottomE]

Terrible wedding gig on Friday night but great cocktail bar gig last night. Friday we played in a really sterile function room that had a low ceiling, hollow wooden stage with pillars in front of where the backline would normally go. Sound was awful.

Saturday night was hen parties, ridculous cocktails and exceedingly short skirts - and that was just the band.