How was your gig last night?

[seashell]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1346693524' post='1792024']
Unfortunately in these days of social media there's little you can do about the proliferation of YouTube videos of your bands live performances. If they are really bad maybe a polite message to whoever posted them might work.* If you are playing songs that you wrote yourself join the PRS and get them logged. It'll only be pennies, but you can at least be compensated in some way.

Don't necessarily worry about the lack of bass. Unless it was professionally shot and sound mixed, your average cam-corder, and even less, phone camera is unlikely to have captured your sound with any precision.

However these videos are great for helping refine your on-stage presence and nipping any irritating mannerisms in the bud. Take full advantage of that and look forward to your next gig.

* you could get heavy-handed and try complaining to YouTube to get the video taken down but IME it's simply not worth the bother and you may also alienate your fan base.
[/quote]

Many thanks for the above advice BRX.
I think it was the drummers Mum who posted the You Tube vid. I think she and the rest of the band are actually really happy with it. So either I am being too critical or they are blind to the flaws! Probably somewhere in between TBH.
I don't think it's terrible enough to need to be taken down, its just I wouldn't encourage you BCer's to watch it!
I doubt anyone much will see it as our 'fanbase' probably consists just of drummer's Mum!

I will mention the PRS to the other guys. We do a couple of originals. I didn't have any input to them, and the previous bass player was kind enough to show me his bass lines. So it wouldn't affect me, but it's definitely worth mentioning it to the others.

Thanks again, advice much appreciated.

[icastle]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1346692406' post='1792005']
Nothing would induce me to post the link.
[/quote]

How about bribery and\or blackmail?

[Dr.Dave]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1346694380' post='1792034']
either I am being too critical or they are blind to the flaws! Probably somewhere in between TBH.
I don't think it's terrible enough to need to be taken down, its just I wouldn't encourage you BCer's to watch it!


[/quote]

You think any of us big shots would sit on our high horses and point a snide finger at one of us who got off her arse and walked the walk ?? We're mates around here , 'shell , not rivals.

[seashell]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1346695096' post='1792045']
You think any of us big shots would sit on our high horses and point a snide finger at one of us who got off her arse and walked the walk ?? We're mates around here , 'shell , not rivals.
[/quote]

Aw, thanks Doc. I don't think anyone would publicly mock me, you are a great bunch.
It's just I feel a bit sheepish about it really.

One day though, I hope to produce something I can flaunt in public but it's early days yet!

Edit
@ icastle - tee hee But I'm not open to bribery

Edited September 3, 2012 by seashell

[BILL POSTERS]

Theres a few lousy quality youtube vids with me on them that I hate, just have to put up with them. and as has been said, take the opportunity you wouldnt otherwise have had to put right what you dont like seeing. I bet its not as bad as it seems to you anyway.

[PTB]

In the You tube videos of my band that I've seen, either I'm invisible or it's our own slobluesine depping for me. I am still unaware of my visually annoying foibles!

[WalMan]

The two I have seen from yesterday so far I am the one at the back on bass who appears to have eaten all the pies and is nodding along to the tracks out of time - though I have kidded myself into thinking that is the difference beween the speed of light & sound to the camera (yeah right!)

Currently falling out of love with everything I'm involved in

[Dudgeman]

[quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1346693874' post='1792026']
It's 'famous' and they serve 'ale' and it's a bit like a big 'house'

[/quote]
Lmfao.............seriously funny! Thanks.

[Dudgeman]

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1346692406' post='1792005']
OMG I have just discovered that someone has put our gig of 14 Aug on to Youtube, Nothing would induce me to post the link.
However I have learned two thing from this. 1) I was too quiet. My own fault for wimping out and turning the volume down because I was too scared I might be heard! and 2) I was too static. In my head I thought I was moving about a bit and looking quite interesting. But alas I was just standing there looking like a speccy twit.

So at I will try to learn from this and improve for next time. Which is next week (gulp!)
[/quote]
My Heart sinks sometimes when this happens to us! There are some simply god awful videos of us playing live ( mainly down to bad soundmen/pa), and me in particular...some we can't do anything about. I hate hearing and seeing myself but what to do...simple...what I do... get a bottle of red wine..build up some courage and take a really good look at myself on youtube. Realise what you are doing wrong...too nervous? not paying attention..not looking at the crowd..Hiding away...Confidence comes with every gig and the support of friends and guys on forums like this. Just remember you play the bass..therefore in our eyes your already a rock god...

We recently hit the pinnacle of our playing career as a tribute band by playing to 10,000 at Mathew street...if I hadn't looked at all the stuff on youtube over the years, both ok and bad, and realised where we could have improved, I would have sh*t myself! (sorry for the language) but the crowd were immense and for one of the first times ever I engaged with members of the audience, stood loud and proud and soaked up every minute. It all comes with experience. There are some vids of us on youtube....and you do get some strange things happening with sound..There is a camera video of one song from that gig and my backing vocals sound really pitchy and almost in the wrong key...really properly bad tragic X factor stuff.....I spoke to our singer about it..they were fine on stage and I have heard other videos of that gig and they are not perfect but they are not that bad...camera phone video never lies but sometimes i reckon tells porkies!! so don't fret too much about them. Your audience and ears will tell you.

Also don't worry about the sound balance...as has been said...the bass rarely gets properly picked up on anything but top end video gear and microphones...we videoed ourselves at Derby with decent external condenser mics and a hd camera and the bass still sounds thin...we did record ourselves on Minididsk with one of those little Sony stereo mics....finally got a decent-ish representation of the bass..although Channel a (the effects channel on my bass rig) still is a bit quiet. You can hear that here if you want to take a listen.. http://soundcloud.com/hypermused/sets/hypermused-live-at-the-200/

Hope that helps without sounding like patronising twaddle....lol

[seashell]

Not patronising twaddle at all, especially this bit, lol:

[quote name='Dudgeman' timestamp='1346769514' post='1792949']
Just remember you play the bass..therefore in our eyes your already a rock god...

[/quote]

In my head I am a total rock god(dess?) but it's just transferring that into reality will take some doing. I seriously need to get contact lenses for a start! The gormless glasses just aren't rock n roll.

Thanks for posting the soundcloud link. I'll have a listen in a bit .. but I should be doing some work at the moment!

[dave_bass5]

I think seeing yourself perform can be a real eye opener. I hate seeing me play (i tend to stand there looking bored a lot of the time) but thankfully we dont get many gigs videoed. It does give em food for thought and i do try a bit more to move around but sometimes when the audience are just sitting there (social clubs) its difficult to feel motivated.
We do audio record almost every gig though, and the bass is always prominent, although it never seems like that at the gigs. We strap a digital recorder to the singers mic stand and this gets us a pretty decent recording. This really helps me as i can hear what i played, and keeps me on my toes as i know the rest of the band will hear it.

[JTUK]

Audio and video playback is useful and something that you should use as a learning tool just to see where you are and where/if you can improve on apsects.
Case in point..recently did a bands recording for them on a big show and I would think they will be quite crest-fallen when they hear the tape. Or they ought to be and have a post mortem over it..IMO.

[Dudgeman]

Yup try and take a positive spin on all the stuff you see and learn and adapt...you dont have to be Flea to be entertaining.. I used to be in awe of a guitarist friend of mine who used to stand stock still the whole gig but in a very cool and confident way that meant you couldn't take your eyes off him...he had the x factor and would get all the attention...well i say friend..git....lol..

With the Muse stuff I struggle to be a real showman at our gigs because most of the time i have so much going on....jumping on pedals(lots of pedals).vocal pedal..floor patches..cueing up tracks..making sure rack patches are right..starting and stopping tracks in the right place. Making sure the other two are ready for intro clicks..backing vocals and then remembering to de tune..etc...oh and play the bass...but then apart from some serious head banging Chris Wolstenholme is fairly sedate on stage...thank god!

I always used to worry that i was being scrutinised live and it used to make me sit behind the guitarists..One thing that changed my outlook to playing live...a friend once told me that you have to remember that more often than not the crowd are there to see you play and enjoy themselves no matter what. In every audience there will undoubtedly be musicians...in my experience the ones who criticise are usually not as good as you or too scared to leave the bedroom and the ones that are better than you will invariably be supportive. Keep playing live..more you do it the more fun you will have..the easier it becomes..the less you will worry about Youtube

[chaypup]

Here's a quick clip of my band ¡Super Chango! at Saturday's gig - I always look like I'm frowning but I was feeling massively happy the whole gig!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iggoyq0B3f4

[Bilbo]

I did a trio last night with two guitarists from Essex; Andy WAtson and Simon Hurley. Absolutely beautiful and, for me, one of the most musical gigs I have done on double bass since I got it. I got a good sound and these two guys are musicality personified so I was in heaven. Was ablet o move up to thumb position without losing impetus or depth of tone etc. Really gave me space to [i]play[/i].

What was really lovely, though, was the revelation in passing that Andy went to Leeds to study music in the early 1970s and was very close friends with a guy called Dick Hamer, the sax player who gave me my first jazz gigs in Cardiff in the late 1980s. They had lost touch and I can now connect them up. How cool is that?

[lowdown]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1347011817' post='1795911']
What was really lovely, though, was the revelation in passing that Andy went to Leeds to study music in the early 1970s and was very close friends with a guy called Dick Hamer, the sax player who gave me my first jazz gigs in Cardiff in the late 1980s. They had lost touch and I can now connect them up. How cool is that?
[/quote]

Hey, I know Andy very well and worked together quite a bit over the years - nice player.
Glad you enjoyed the gig.


Garry

[Lenny B]

Good one last night - we had 25 minutes on the stage at Trafalgar Sq at BT London Live
Should've really posted on here to let people know I guess...

Edited September 7, 2012 by Lenny B

[lowdowner]

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1346968213' post='1795602']
Here's a quick clip of my band ¡Super Chango! at Saturday's gig - I always look like I'm frowning but I was feeling massively happy the whole gig!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iggoyq0B3f4[/media]
[/quote]
I absolutely love this - great groove going on and I could listen all night - no wonder you were happy

[Noah Deere]

Did my last gig with a band I have been with for about 18 months, went really well and the audience seemed to get into things and to be enjoying it. Nice to end on a good one.

So now I'm down to just one band again, which should make life a bit easier.

[chaypup]

[quote name='lowdowner' timestamp='1347041576' post='1796415']
I absolutely love this - great groove going on and I could listen all night - no wonder you were happy
[/quote]

Thanks! I'll give you a shout if we play Cheltenham way

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1347085517' post='1796772']


Thanks! I'll give you a shout if we play Cheltenham way
[/quote]

I LOVED your video too, you guys are awesome

[WalMan]

First set was probably OK but with PA set up problems (he forgot a power supply & there was much panicked bodging so no sound check) it was all a bit meh IMO

Second set went better crowd wise

Tonights a long one. Must make sure I have enough water handy

[Truckstop]

God! 6 gigs in two weeks for me. Tonight will be the last for two weeks!

Did three dep jobs for a mates holiday camp functions band and had a right laugh! Took full advantage of the facilities at the holiday camp and had a lovely little mini break at each camp! Went for a swim, used the gyms, had a quick cook in the saunas....bliss! All the shows went very well indeed. Great turnouts, great sound and am now thinking of starting my own holiday camps band. I've played at 6 now and they've all been great! Light shows, great PAs big rooms and plenty of cash.!

Thursday and Friday night played with my pub band. Thursday was ok, nothing special. I think we're all a bit tired. Been up all week recording a little demo so probably sick of the sight of each other by now! Last night was epic! Played a charity do and it was rammed. Asked to trim the sets to 2x45 but ended up doing 2x45 and then another half hour encore! Hopefully the venue will have us back!

[/rant]
However, getting really annoyed with the band. This charity do was £20 ticket entry in a really really posh wedding/functions venue. This was the first time we'd managed to get out of the pubs. Now we all knew this and we all knew that the venue's looking for new bands to add to it's roster. So I was really trying to impress on the guys that we should dress as smart as possible and use our smart instruments for the evening to give a good impression.
Did they bollocks.
The bloody staff were smarter than us! I came in trousers, shoes, shirt and tie and everyone came looking like they'd just rolled out of bed. So embarrassed! We blew the lid off the place so I'm certain that if we don't et asked back it'll be because the guys didn't make any effort at all. Very annoyed
[\rant]

So, got another gig tonight with a dep drummer we've never met because our drummer told us last night he can't do it anymore. Nice.

Truckstop

[chaypup]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1347086055' post='1796779']
I LOVED your video too, you guys are awesome
[/quote]

You're too kind, thankyouverymuch.

[BILL POSTERS]

Thr Grapes in Stafford. Realisd after i was halfway there that I'd fotgot my strap, managed with a spare one that was way too short, to be comfortable so I felt a bit like an 80s slapper, Tuner packed up, but luckily I found a spare in me bag, strap came off during the soundcheck, so my P hit the deck. seems OK though. Stage sound there was weird, could only really hear Bass, but 3 feet from the stage I was too quiet. and my sweaty hands problem has come back with a venegance for some reason.

Went down OK. although not exactly a packed house. Friendly crowd in there.