How was your gig last night?

[xilddx]

[quote name='mike257' timestamp='1351417833' post='1850895']
I played my first gig on bass in just under two years last night!. Depped for a guy at work whose bassist never turns up, pub gig with lots of the usual indie pub singalongs in there. Which I've never played.

Picked up my bass at about midday and learnt 24 songs in three hours, had a half a song soundcheck at the pub and then went for it. A couple of hairy moments but on the whole it went great, they offered me the full time job after the first set! Had to decline as the function band I'm playing g****r for have got a pretty full diary already, but I was made up to dust off the bass! I've missed it, was good to be home.

Oh, and I'd borrowed my mates ridiculously over the top Ashdown rig (ABM900 and 810) as my Ampeg has a blown driver - sounded incredible. I think I'm converted, I might not let him have it back. No wooliness in sight, it just growled with my Sandberg.
[/quote]

24 songs in three hours!

[gary mac]

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1351505996' post='1851785']
24 songs in three hours!
[/quote]

Impressive, I'm pleased with 3 songs in 24 hours

[KevB]

I was sent a list last Tues to learn for a dep job on the Friday - over 35 songs on the list. I think we actually played 5 from that list, rest were just chucked at me on the night as we went along. Slightly stressful...band leader seemed happy with how I coped though.

[mikeh]

Had a brilliant gig on Saturday night. Made even better as the last couple of gigs have been sub par for us all. The band (I thought) played really well, all songs where tight. Really loving my sound at the min. Although it was a fairly small pub crowd they all had seemed to be having fun and enjoying what we where playing.
Roll on the 2 gigs next weekend..

[Twigman]

Played at a place called 'S.I.X. Dogs' in Athens on Saturday.
Flew over on Friday and went to a 'meet & greet' on the Friday night which didn't really bode well for the Saturday. Punters turned up at the event hoping to blag free tickets as the €20 entry was beyond their means. Athens really does feel skint, depressed and dangerous right now....in an effort to bolster sales we went on rockFM96.9 Athens for an hour on Saturday afternoon and talked bollocks....
We needn't have worried. Come Saturday night the place was rammmed. They sold every ticket they'd printed and (despite Greek lax attitude to health & safety) were turning punters away.
We discovered we'd had a full page article in Athens' equivalent of the Evening Standard (discovered by autographing punters' copies).
The gig space sounded fantastic.
The walls were soft and non-reflective and the soundman spoke fluent English and was proud of having learned his trade in the UK.
We played for over 2 hours with a few minutes break after the first 17 songs...
We were called back for one final encore and played a song we had not played live before and had only rehearsed 4 times ( despite it being written nigh on 30 years ago). It was the Greeks' favourite from our catalogue apparently and last time we played in Athens we had promised we would play it if we came back...
The whole place went mental and the crowd were bouncing up and down making it look from the stage like a sea of heads being ravaged by a hurricane!
It was fantastic fun and such a buzz.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmUE0SAUHz0[/media]


Back to reality/normality for a few days then it's off to Berlin next weekend where we are being supported at the Dropdead festival by Lene Lovich (she of lucky number fame)....

Edited November 1, 2012 by Twigman

[musophilr]

Trying to wind down after tonights gig. Our landlord & landlady are being kicked out of their tenancy by the greedy bastards at Punch Taverns so I was asked if I could provide music for their last Sat night. This as a result of having done a cracking good gig there 3 weeks ago with the normal 6-piece. Things is I was only asked on Wednesday, and I've been run ragged trying to get a band together. It happened as an acoustic gig (me on guitar, another mate on guitar, and the only other person available from the band as main singer).

I'm not used to doing a whole gig on acoustic, and whats more I don't often play rhythm so this was a LOT of effort. My muscles gave up and I just couldn't play the solo in [i]Crazy Little Thing Called Love[/i]. We did some stuff that isn't in the bands set eg I did [i]Sweet Baby James[/i] on my own, the mate who joined us did a few on his own, and the rest were salvaged from our usual set but done acoustic-wise.

I thought it was sh*te but the punters liked it and they were IMO far more polite than they needed to be. [i]Midnight Hour, American Pie, I saw her standing there[/i] were the best received.

Broke my [i]m[/i] fingernail yesterday so patched it with a piece of plastic from a squash bottle and araldite. It held for the gig but came off right at the end so now I'm waiting for more araldite to dry before I can go to bed 'cos I've got to play again tomorrow and that also requires fingerpicking.

[BottomE]

It was amazing. The band really grooved tonight and it showed with a full dance-floor and lots of wobbly people. Nice.

[E sharp]

[sup]New guitarist's 2nd gig , 1st on home turf . So he thought he'd bring his full stack (2 x 4x12's) for all his mates . Trouble is , the other guitarist said he'd do the same . They tried to talk me into bringing more than the one cab , but I told them I wouldn't . [/sup]
[sup]Always wear plugs - drummer side wedged fully in , and the guitar on the other side of me - sort of half in , to get a bit of gig buzz . Well both fully in tonight . [/sup]
[sup]So effing loud - both of them , weren't happy at all . One 4x12 is really overkill in a small pub , but two (4 in all) , is just ..... Haven't got a clue these guys - I despair sometimes . Got ringing in my ears as I write this , and that's with plugs . Punter's ears must've been mashed . Thankfully just a one off . Guitards !! Cracking gig mind he he[/sup]

[musophilr]

[quote name='E sharp' timestamp='1352000244' post='1857738']
[sup]So effing loud - both of them , weren't happy at all . One 4x12 is really overkill in a small pub , but two (4 in all) , is just ..... Haven't got a clue these guys - I despair sometimes . Got ringing in my ears as I write this , and that's with plugs . Punter's ears must've been mashed . Thankfully just a one off . Guitards !! Cracking gig mind he he[/sup]
[/quote]

4 x 12s are very directional. Some people would have been deafened while others might not have heard it properly. I've known that to happen even in a small-ish pub. I prefer to deafen everybody with an open backed 2 x 12 combo

[vmaxblues]

Had a good gig last night, good crowd, good reaction, a whole lot of fun.

We hadn't played together for 4 weeks and yet pulled a blinding gig out of the bag with only a few wobbly moments that the punters would never have spotted.

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 16, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[chaypup]

Last show of a 10 gig run last night and it was great! Still too drunk to type much so will add details later...

EDIT: Sobered up a bit now

Great gig and we were tight after doing 10 nights in a row, which was good because the drummer decided not to do a count in but just do a single hi-hat hit (without telling anyone first!).....

Audience were well up for it and we did afew songs extra at the end for the dancers.
Only downside was that in my fight scene I accidentally connected one of the punches and my hand hurt like hell for the next 2 numbers!

Edited November 7, 2012 by chaypup

[ratman]

My gig on Saturday was a double disaster. I have done so many functions recently that are blighted by our old friend, the sound limiter. Saturday we turned up for a wedding near Warwick and we got told 85dB was the limit. I swear I can fart louder than that! As soon as I played the bass in sound check I realised that tonight the limiter was bass sensitive. Deep joy. Not. I actually managed to only trip it out a couple of times in the gig, I'm normally pretty good at riding the lights on those things so they don't trip out. The problems really started after I tripped it out in the second song of the first set. As nobody else in the band seemed too quick off the blocks to reset the limiter box, I jumped off the stage, stuck my finger through the wire mesh cage that was covering the limiter box to press the reset button. That was the moment I caught my second finger on the mesh and cut it, right across the pad. You know, the bit you use to pluck the string. Sonofabitch. I had to play 55 more minutes bleeding on the bass and in some discomfort, until our break. Thankfully the caterers sorted out some plasters for me. To add insult to injury, literally, my bass was so quiet on that gig, I may as well not have been there.
That was one of those nights I couldn't wait to get out of the place, get home and have a couple of beers. Thankfully some of my neighbours were having an all night Halloween party. Crashed that, things got messy, forgot about limiters and sore fingers for a while. I'm looking forward to next weekends gigs. Hopefully in barns, miles from anybody, so the band can crank up, and do what we do best, at a decent volume. We'll see........ :-)

[bartelby]

Friday we played our first gig in a long time. We were opening for [url="http://blitzkid.com/biography/"][b]Blitzkid [/b][/url]in a pokey venue in Newport, S. Wales.

We're told to get there 6pm sharp as there's a tight curfew. So we arrive at 6pm and then hang around with nothing happening until 7pm. The middle band haven't turned up yet so the sound guy asks us to set up and sound check. The stage is only about 6' deep with bit sticking out for the vocalist.
The main band have already got their backline on stage, 2' away from the back wall. I set up my little rig, Ashdown abm mini 4x8" and an abm 1x15" & an Ashdown JJ500, as far back and to the side as I can get it. I end up with 18" between the front of the cabs and the edge of the stage... after I've moved the mic stand to the floor infront of the stage.
I plug in my Zoom B3, select the usual patch, turn the volume of the bass up... Feedback. I turn the amp down from 1/3 to 1/4... Feedback...
After sound check they tell us we're on at 8:15 pm. 10 mins later the sound guy tells us we're on at 8:45pm. So we pop down the road to a pub for a decent pint.
We get back at 8:35, start getting set up to play. Set goes well, then at 9:00pm the sound guy tells us we have time for one more.
As I was packing down I noticed that taped to the side of the PA were the stage times, this wasn't there during sound check, they'd moved our set to 8:30pm and not bothered telling us. Instead they cut the set short...

[proy900]

We had our debut album launch gig on the 31st... Disaster.

Sound is always an issue in a small venue when you're a 6-piece symphonic metal band and coupled with my distressing ability to make anything musical turn microphonic just added to my woes. Being a high-gain kinda guy, i got the inevitable unkillable atomic feedback squeal which forced me on any rests or breakdown chugs to throw my guitar onto the bridge pickup getting a heap of bass and no top end.

Then a chavvy friend of a friend of the drummer (whom he has never met) comes clambering onto the stage calling out our drummer to get off stage to back him up because he is getting thrown out due to being a cuuunt. Wrestling with the guitarist and keyboardist we have to stop playing a particularly enjoyable prog bit at the end of our brand new showcase song.

Filthy chav shouts out (infront of a full house)
"Jake, tell the landlord i'm on medication"

To which the drummer gives him an ear full of drumstick and he is quickly removed from the stage... but not before getting tangled up in the other guitarists lead ripping it out and doing some damage to the amp/lead/guitar. Now his guitar sounds like an electrical fire and this prick has got his hands all over the levels on the PA in an embarrassing attemp to stay in the pub as long as it takes.

45 Minutes later when all equipment is fixed we were able to carry on. Most people had left - the landlady was pissed off as hell - it was about 23:30 and we were all in full zombie get up. I just wanted to eat a pint of whisky. Needless to say we only sold about 5 CD's and got a reduced amount for the gig (which i feel was fair due to the sound/bellend issues)

In short - could have gone better. Drawing a line under it and have learned to heel punch anyone who tries to get on stage again.

There are still some cool video's on the Reign of Sirius channel on youtube

[color="#009933"][url="http://www.youtube.com/user/reignofsirius"]www.[b]youtube[/b].com/user/[b]reignofsirius[/b][/url][/color]

so if you like us, and want our album give me a holla
£5 for a physical CD posted out to you or
£3.50 for a download via the band promotional site.

Peace

[Twigman]

Berlin 4th November 2012

What a shambles.
Playing last night of a 4 night festival.
Turned up at the venue to find it closed down.
The previous night one of the bands had thought it a good idea to use a flame thrower on stage.
The fire brigade had been called.
The promoter was fined €6000.
Meanwhile the rental company took back the backline and the drum kit.
The security firm (who we are told had pulled knives on punters) demanded extra cash for night 4....

So then a call to the promoter tells us the venue has moved to another 30minutes away.
The capacity has fallen from 2000 to 350.
We get there to find half a drum kit - the kick drum was missing a leg and there were only 2 cymbal stands - our drummer usually has 5, and a makeshift backline.

Somehow the punters find their way there and the place is pretty full.

We eventually get on stage at 3am Monday morning and play really badly.

I doubt we'll be going back there again.

[rOB]

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1352026215' post='1857837']
fight scene[/quote]
Think I've missed something here. You have fight scenes? Please can we have some more detail?


I climbed on stage last night at an open mic night to sing and play guitar by myself for the first time. Despite many gigs and a few fronting a band, this was pretty scary. Went ok, didn't play too badly and the organiser asked if I had enough material for a feature (30 min) slot, sadly I don't but I'll be getting something acoustic sorted with my guitarist sometime very soon.

[Roland Rock]

First gig with a five string, and no bum notes!

[xilddx]

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1352412854' post='1862863']
First gig with a five string, and no bum notes!
[/quote]

So glad you broke the run of sh*t gigs above mate

[Roland Rock]

I neglected to tell you that the drumkit collapsed, the guitarist threw up mid song and the singer got electrocuted ;-)

[chaypup]

[quote name='rOB' timestamp='1352324019' post='1861800']
Think I've missed something here. You have fight scenes? Please can we have some more detail?
[/quote]

This was for a ska musical and as well as playing I had one scene has a security guard in the Jobcentre with one line - "F**K This!"
and yes, a fight scene where the whole band pile in on stage - great fun!

[KevB]

[quote name='Roland Rock' timestamp='1352416769' post='1862931']
I neglected to tell you that the drumkit collapsed, the guitarist threw up mid song and the singer got electrocuted ;-)
[/quote]

I really need to get out and see you play more often...

[Graham]

Not great, had to punch through rush-hour, central London traffic from East Grinstead up to Charring Cross for a private function so got there a bit late; fortunately it didn't take too long to un-load and set-up in a room above a pub, I was very thankful I was using my new BF Compact last night - so much lighter than my old EBS.

However the line-up last night wasn't the band's A team, I'm the dep bassist, but know the material well and can pass for the main player, the regular bassist had moved to guitar for the night as their regular guitarist is having some "issues"; the drummer is their main dep, but he's not played loads with the band and still doesn't know all the material / arrangements. So we dind't play amazingly and working the set-list around what the drummer and guitarist knew was a bit tricky; also the guitarist had changed his strings and kept going out of tune, so I really was carrying the band a few times.

The gig was a private function - a fairly small retirement party for a policeman and all the punters seemed to be polis, mostly all really nice except one hammered bird who kept trying to speak to the singer during the set because she'd seen us a few times before and wanted us to "play it more upbeat" and "play what we normally play" - we were playing the regular set-list.......

She then hassled him on the break and he was close to walking away from the whole thing, having been up since 6 and doing a driving job all day before driving up to London for this.

To add to the fun, the pub management kept coming over and asking us to turn down, I'm not convinced anyone but me could hear the bass, which is a shame as this was most likely my last gig with my Fafner head before I trade it with Shep for his Streamliner and was looking forward to giving it a good send-off.

All that said though, we were (strangely) really well recived and got a lot of compliments from happy punters, I think the liberal amount of drink being consumed helped with that a fair bit - good money too.

[rOB]

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1352453024' post='1863153']
This was for a ska musical and as well as playing I had one scene has a security guard in the Jobcentre with one line - "F**K This!"
and yes, a fight scene where the whole band pile in on stage - great fun!
[/quote]
Sounds like a lot of fun

[Beer of the Bass]

I've just got back from a gig at a beer festival. It was a nice event in many ways though the guy who was running the stage and doing sound (also singing in the last band of the evening) seemed to be doing his utmost to make things difficult for us. When we were booked for the gig, we were told that there would be backline so we wouldn't need to bring ours. I arrived to find a clapped out 80s practice amp, which must have been brought especially for us, as his own band had brought their own 8x10 rig which they weren't sharing. If we hadn't been told backline was supplied, I'd have cheerfully brought my own amp, and even shared it with other bands if necessary, but we had been effectively told not to.
The sound guy alternated between uncommunicative, sneery and patronising, treating us as though we were kids playing our first gig. When we played, we only used two vocal mics and a bass DI in the PA, yet we were plagued by constant booming feedback. The sound guy responded to this by muting the bass but not touching the mic channels, which obviously made no difference to the feedback but made us sound even worse, with only 30 watts of knackered Laney for the low end. Mysteriously, when his own band played, they had not a trace of feedback from the mics despite being a lot louder than us. I have a strong suspicion that he was trashing our sound intentionally, out of general arsiness. I'm not going to describe the bloke or his band, as his dress sense and demeanour had "local character" written all over them, so chances are some of the Scottish BCers may have encountered him. I'm kind of taken aback, as this is the first time I've encountered quite this degree of big-fish-in-a-small-pond adversarial pettiness on a gig.
Still, on the upside, we got fed, watered and paid and the organiser expressed an interest in booking us next year, but didn't sound impressed with the other band...

Edited November 11, 2012 by Beer of the Bass