How was your gig last night?

[KevB]

Everyone's welcome down the Greyhound on a Sun afternoon. Might be picking up some of the house band bass slack when someone moves on in September, just to ratchet up my adrenaline levels a bit more. Nothing quite like being approached by strangers saying 'Do you know this song in the key of (insert song title you barely know and some obscure randome key that no one is going to be able to sing it in).

[ratman]

[quote name='bottomfeed' timestamp='1376355277' post='2172826']
Yeah!... Last time I did this gig was Oct... this was July, I nearly passed out myself!.... Sam [i](was he working there back then?)[/i] told us it peeked at 45 degrees in the pit once!... F.Hot! ....A lotta fun but not much of an earner.
[/quote]

I do remember Sam. He is a top bloke (he was the one who delivered us shots of tequila at the start of each set). My guess is it was our week that he was on about re the 45 degree heat. Utterly insane! The guitarist ended up playing sitting down, the singer was holding onto the kit to stay upright, and the drummer was getting dizzy at the end of each set (so nothing new there then lol). Seven relentless nights of it too. They offered us the last night off due to the air con problems, but we did it anyhow. We still wonder how we survived those gigs.
You're spot on about the money. We nearly broke even but a week away in the sun with great mates that can really play was what it was all about. A proper rock n roll time.

[paulconnolly]

First paying gig with the rock covers band tonight. First paying gig for nearly 20 years. Had a great time. Some songs worked better than others. Some songs had bummers in and some didn't. Crowd seemed to like it and got some positive feedback. Looks like they'll have us on again. Had to abandon the Ric though and stick with the Yamaha. Ric just wasn't cutting through.

[AntLockyer]

Just my regular Wednesday night blues jam. Had a lot of fun last night despite being given the nod for a solo <urgh>. Many commments of how much I've got better and stuff. Different drummers really affect the way I play. One guy was really loud but solid, changed the dynamic totally.

[KevB]

Just back from ripping through another wedding gig. We played a 45min first set after being continually asked when we were going on then someone else wanted to do a 'first dance' song with our kit for bride & groom which we were OK with. Then the groom wanted to play 3 or 4 songs with old band mates who were guests so we let them do that too, despite the groom nearly breaking one of our mic stands with some onstage nonsense. So eventually get on at 9:30 rather than the agreed 9:00. Did a solid 45min set. As soon as we were off we were then immediately hassled about when we were going back on, how long would the break be. So we said we'd go back on at 10:45 and do a 1 hour second set. We went on at 10:45 on the dot and got offstage at 00:25 ! And then the bride wanted to pay us half the original agreed fee which was cheap for a wedding in the first place! We still had a blast though and all the guests were up dancing or providing impromptu backing vox (I barely had to sing all night). A few more pennies in my coffers for the upcoming Skiathos trip. One more wedding next weekend and that's me done gigging until September.

[seashell]

Glad it turned out OK. What is it with people not wanting to cough up the fees?

[WalMan]

Gig at a new pub with a dep drummer (known quantity from bands in the past) who did a sterling job and probably made the least mistakes of all of us.

I went worrying that the sound guy would have his usual overload of PA gear for a room that didn't need ot, BUT HALLEFURCKINLULJAH just top boxes on stands. See it is possible!!!

Took the Streamliner 6 in case, but used the new TC BH250 as a lower powered unit for smaller venues, as intended. It was brill through the BF S12T and easily held its own.

Went through the rock covers set, but it had a different feel with a different drummer. Good, just different.

Crowd were up for it and the landlord well pleased - we've played for him before at a prevous pub he ran and always had a good night there. Asked him in the break ' when do you want us shut up by?' His response ... 'well your best at the Fountain was 12:40 from a planned 11:45 end so work to 11:15 and play it by ear' Finally finished, having had to redo a couple (by request) as we ran out of stuff we all knew, at around 11:50. So all in all a pretty good one

Another one with the dep in Sholing next Saturday, then who knows....

[Jus Lukin]

-

Edited February 19, 2022 by Jus Lukin

[iceonaboy]

Great gig in a new place in Fort William. Went down well and stayed sober for a change

[JPS]

Three gigs this weekend. First at a "lively" town centre pub. Spent most of the evening pondering when the first fight woud break out. Eleven 'o' clock on cue two woman started taking lumps out of each other. Won't be back! Second yesterday charity fundraiser for Great Ormond's Street Hospital. Lovely day, three other bands and great crowd. Helped raise over £3,000. Finally today, outdoors at a local food festival on a proper stage with PA and backline supplied. Unfortunately, said PA cut out several times due to the generator playing up.

[Samashton12]

sh*te, singer forgot lyrics, guitarist cables kept cutting out. Played to what looked liked 6 people. Me and the drummer were spot on though

[KevB]

Gig we were originally booked to play yesterday afternoon/early evening didn't happen. Slightly annoying as we didn't ask for the gig, the pub landlord got in touch with us to do it and we all reshuffled our Sundays to accommodate then a few days before the gig he said he'd changed his mind as was going to go with another band because 'they have a couple of guys that have played with The Specials'. It would have been more driving and probably not a particularly well paid gig so we weren't too fussed. I ended up at a cancer charity fund raiser that friends had organsied and had a pleasant couple fo hours chatting to mates I hadn't seen in a while instead. One gig left next Sat then I'm off until September.

[EliasMooseblaster]

It's been a strange weekend for us. We were supposed to play a food festival on the Saturday, but by the time we were due to play the rain started to pick up and was being blown under the roof over the stage. Think our singer must have caught something in the cold and rain as she then had to pull out of last night's gig on account of the fact she couldn't speak! So with a very "show must go on" mentality we tried to cover for her. Not our best performance by a long shot, but it was a fun night in the end.

[seashell]

We finally too the plunge and broke out of the comfort zone of jam nights at our local! We headed off to an open mic at the River Rooms in Stourbridge. A very nice venue - in fact the last time I was there was to see the Magic Band (as in Captain Beefheart without the Captain) so for me it was hallowed ground!

To keep positive about it, I think we should regard it as a learning experienc. This is what we learned:

1. Have enough material to play and make sure you know it! We are used to being given a limit of 3 or 4 songs. Turned out there weren't many bands in that night so they asked us to do half an hour. OK no problem, as we theoretically know at least 10 songs. Only trouble was when discussing what to do it turned out that there weren't many on the list that every one of us felt confident with. So we ended up only doing 5.
2. Don't apologise! OK, we are all a bit new to it and were somewhat overawed by the size of the venue and having a proper stage. But singer kept apologising for us being new and inexperienced and I felt it was a bit squirmy. We should have just blasted on with confidence and pretended to be good even if we weren't. It would have fooled at least a few people I'm sure.
3. Bring some friends. We didn't tell anyone about it because we had a feeling we were going to be a bit rubbish. But there were hardly any punters there at all. We should have rustled up a few supporters.

Singer also stopped half way through the set and asked for the sound to be adjusted as she couldn't hear herself. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not. None of the other bands had complained and I wondered if it made us look a bit amateurish and as if we were blaming our dubious sound on the equipment. Personally I could hear everything well enough to keep together. But then again I'm not a singer and I'm sure it's more important for her to have decent feedback.
What do you guys think? What's the usual form in this sort of situation?

What was really excellent though was that there was another local band there who gave us a lot of moral support. They are called Led Zeppelin 3 because there are 3 of them and they do Led Zep covers. To a very high standard I might add. The bass player also does the vocals. He looks like a mild mannered accountant, but he sounds like John Paul Jones and Robert Plant all rolled into one!! We knew them vaguely from jam nights at our local.

They stayed to watch us and gave us a lot of applause and encouragement, bless them. Bass player admired my bass and said he'd always wanted a white Fender P . Made me feel quite cool .
What wasn't so cool was that he then went on to ask if our band were all related. I think he might have suspected that I was their mother
Like we are Grunge's answer to the Partridge Family

[KevB]

Glad to hear you are all still getting out and about 'shell. I thought of the two bands you jammed with in Tipton the one with the girl singer (who oddly has a close resemblence to an ex girlfried of mine) was the more commercially viable of the two. If she couldn't hear herself and needed a bit more in her monitor and there was someone doing sound that could make it happen for her she was well within her rights to ask. You see pro bands do it all the time except they know their own crew and usually have some subtle (or frequently not so subtle) hand gestures to get the point across. Didn't see any family resemblences myself, maybe you could be the guitarist's younger sister?

[tonybassplayer]

Last Saturday night at the Swann at Addingham near Ilkley

Lovely traditional pub with very receptive and friendly crowd. Lead guitarist brought his wife and two daughters ( early twenties ) who hadn't seen the band in its current guise ( since I joined ) and they were well impressed how much better we are than last time.

We play it pretty safe with the set but try to do it well which seems to work with the traditional Saturday night pub audience.

[seashell]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1377095491' post='2183290']
Didn't see any family resemblences myself, maybe you could be the guitarist's younger sister?
[/quote]

Ooh, you silver-tongued flatterer!

Seriously though, many thanks for the feedback esp. about the sound/monitor situ.
You're definitely right the band with the girl singer is more viable. For practical reasons as well . The other lot don't have much time to rehearse or get out much, mainly due to guitarist being the pub landlord and somewhat tied to the job.

[SpaceChick]

Could be worse Shell, I took my sister to a hospital appointment just after my nephew was born.... The Nursing sister told me how lovely my grandson was and how my daughter would be out soon...... I wouldn't say so much but I was only 36 at the time and I'm only 5 years older than my sister!!!!!

Glad it went well even if you could only agree on 5 songs to do. It sounds like the rest of the band need a bit more confidence, but playing will give them that

Edited August 21, 2013 by SpaceChick

[seashell]

Oh no Debs, perhaps the nurse had forgotten her glasses!

And thanks for your words of encouragement, as always

[tonybassplayer]

We were all sat round as a band enjoying that post great gig feeling when a guy I assumed was the brides father came up and bought us all a drink. Don't think he appreciated me thanking him as such as it turned out he was the groom !! Wondered why the band had gone a little silent as I said it lol

[mikebass84]

Played an outdoor all day festival in my home town. Was a really good show. All local bands...questionable order to the line up (but no one needs to know band politics). A good 400+ people watching, was more last year but the weather was a bit sh*te this year.

There was a T.E. Combo on stage but I decided to go with my Ashdown head and a mates ampeg cab as we weren't going to get a sound check and I know how to get a good sound out of that rig. Sound on stage was TERRIBLE, we only had a 20min set with a quick line check, I couldn't hear any guitar for the 1st song and we only had vox coming thru the monitors...FOH sound was apparently fantastic and people really enjoyed out set (we went slightly heavy this year). Managed to get rid of about 25 albums.

[sprocketflup]

sparcely populated

[krysh]

just came back from a small (semi-) acoustic gig (2x 1,25hours) at a small wine festival and enjoy a nice bottle of german "grauer burgunder" where I subbed for 27 italian/american songs from the 50s nd 60s. crowd was small, mostly drunk, but loved it, so did the promoter and we enjoyed it, too. my old eko fretless acoustic served me splendidly for this style.
here I took a shot of the stage at soundcheck:

[gary mac]

[quote name='sprocketflup' timestamp='1377368503' post='2186843']
sparcely populated
[/quote]

Same with our gig on friday night. But shouldn't have been surprised as the publican didn't publicize it, didn't even put the posters up that I hand delivered a couple of weeks back.

[JTUK]

Did Kingsfest and there was enough rain before hand to call it off.... I lost a number plate driving through puddles... more like ponds in the road...!!
Turnout was respectable considering and they posted good figures with the charity.

AS with all these things, stage sound less that ideal, but all the bands sound very good outfront.
For an inaugural event, I hope they were encouraged to do it again...
Off to a blessing this afternoon for a couple who come to a lot of our gigs... best play their fave numbers...