How was your gig last night?

[JapanAxe]

Depping with rock/pop covers band Purple Fish - opening slot (6.45) at the Party in the Park, Melksham. Onstage sound was a bit 'unfamiliar', but my G&L 5-er sounded great through the full Demeter/Barefaced rig, and Mrs Axe reported that out it front it sounded 'like a proper bass'. I'll assume that's a good thing! Only one notable c0ck-up, when my fingers got caught in the strings during the start of Toto's 'Don't Chain My Heart'. Soon recovered though!

Posing at soundcheck:



Note correct LH position, and Todd Johnson stylee RH position!

Edited July 18, 2015 by JapanAxe

[squire5]

If there's one thing I hate its a pub with too many TVs.Especially when they're left switched on while the band are playing.Thanx to a much publicised boxing match between N.Irish boxer Carl Frampton and Mexican Alejandro Gonzalez all the pubs TVs were on when we loaded in and were left on right through the gig.OK Frampton won but the crowd seemed to be there for the fight and not much else.As the pub was packed to the gunnels,we then had to load out through said mob into pouring rain.Down with this sort of thing!

[Beer of the Bass]

Unusually for me, I've just had a weekend of two gigs with a little impromptu jazz quartet, one at the Allen Ramsay hotel in Carlops (about 20 miles south of Edinburgh) and the other at a rather sw***y wedding in Ayrshire for some relatives of a friend. I listen to a lot of jazz but rarely play it, and I never feel like I've put in enough study to really consider myself a proper jazz musician so I can't quite shake the feeling that I'm faking it when I play jazz. The quartet are friends I've played with for years, usually in a noisier, freer context so it's entertaining to try and play more conventional jazz standards with them.
I spent quite a bit of time in the couple of weeks beforehand trying to get a bit familiar with the tunes and practicing. There were a couple of slightly hairy moments where me and the piano player stumbled over the form of some tunes, but we recovered from those OK. However, both gigs went down well and the hotel would like us back as a semi-regular thing a few times a year. It's your classic country pub/inn sort of place, and they're a friendly lot so it was a fun gig.
This might be a good opportunity to work on my Jazz playing a bit - in particular I need to work on my walking lines and be better prepared to take a solo or two.

Edited July 19, 2015 by Beer of the Bass

[Iain]

Gig last night with the quieter of my two bands at a place we've become semi-regulars at in macclesfield - Society. All a bit odd to start with - person who'd booked us had been sacked and not told them we were booked in. They've had some work done so the 'stage' is a decent outside space with one slight flaw - barring a 5' gap it's fenced in up to 3' high all round. Main guitar/vox, the drummer and my were ok but our other 2 guitars set up playing to the planking... cue them being so loud on stage to be heard in the courtyard for soundcheck it was awful. Snagged some tables and raised their amps up a bit and it was just about ok.

Plenty of minor mistakes but everyone had a good time.

Still working on getting them to drop All Right Now form the set...

[51m0n]

Saturday at The Half Moon in Heathfield.

They put on a really great evening, theming the menu (Soul food night - really smelled amazing, didnt have time to eat any though) to match the band (Mister Super Juice - we play cinematic funk).

I got to use the new Barefaced PA (huge thanks to ALex and Bobby for suggesting it, and helping out), a pair of FR800s and a pair of LF800s, so thats 3.2K out front - which was massive overkill due to the weather being a bit grimmer than we'd hoped for and the sides of the marquee staying down. Amazing FOH though, these cabs are relatively small considering they are very full range, and just absurdly light - literally throwable (not that we did) - which you would expect for Barefaced, but the surprise is each cab has its own 800w amp built in and DSP tailored to the cab/crossover/drivers combination to maximise the potential and minimise the risk of damage - think Bergantino IP series. I've run a lot of PAs, some pretty big and many smaller, and I've heard literally thousands, and this is honestly the best PA I've ever heard, but I'm not super keen on massive bowel rearranging low end kick beats (I'm sure it could do it, if you put that sound into it, it just doesnt over power the low end if you dont need to). Playing a vast collection of funk and soundtrack music through it during the break and before and after the band sets the overriding sense was, this is what really nice hifi/monitors sound like, but 100x louder. Awe inspiring detail and clarity, amazing stereo image, lovely tone. They arent cheap, but as an easy solution for any band to sounding utterly superb, they are currently unbeatable. I could fit the entire FOH and my bass rig into my clapped out old 3 series Beemer for crying out loud!!! Totally GAS inducing gear, the band kitty has a new goal....

As for the gig, well first off the people of Heathfield were utterly lovely, the pub is beautiful, food was brilliant, the backdrop (a view all the way to the sea across fields) was breathtaking, and they really know how to have a party!!! We had the first full on dance off we've ever seen develop in the second set, two groups taking it in turns to shake a leg, all in the best spirit possible, whilst we pumped out the funky stuff for them, only topped off by a gentleman appearing through the crowd in full WIlly the Pimp get up to quite literally steal the show! Such a brilliant party atmosphere, wont forget that one in a hurry, and we were asked back at the soonest convenient time. Result!!

[steve-bbb]

Farriers beer festival at Mersham, luckily we played in the main marquee in daylight on Saturday afternoon when it was nice and sunny - my commiserations to any fellow basschatters who were unfortunate enough to play the previous night in somewhat 'challenging' light conditions
On a plus note though the sound system and team was good as always at this event and FOH sound was very pleasing

Followed immediately by a gig in a marquee in a field in the middle of Kent which was very well attended by an enthusiastic crowd

These two were proceeded by the Friday night gig at the horseshoes in East Farleigh which is a rather superb country village local pub and was the first live music event for them hopefully with regular events to follow

So three gigs within 24 hours , now I have to catch up on all the domestic chores!

[lurksalot]

We had a brilliant night last night , a 50th party in a lorry repair workshop , the front roller doors were open and the workshop provided the stage area and the dance floor , Tarpaulins were hung from the roof around the perimeter and hid all the shelves, tools , spares and general crap and a marquee was on the parking area in front of the building. The green room was in the garage attached, with the fork lifts, recovery truck and MOT ramps , not that we needed our own space as we were made very welcome in the party and boy did they party , it was superb , a great night all around.

[FinnDave]

We played a wedding gig that was also a pub gig, the manager and chef who run a pub near me tied the knot yesterday and asked us to provide the evening entertainment in a marquee in the pub garden. Went well,lots of people dancing and having a good time (not that the free beer tent had anything to do with that!).

[JamesBass]

Had my first gig with the Ross Murphy band yesterday, which was also my last gig at the AMAZING venue, The Cellars at Eastney, sadly the venue is closing its doors on the 2nd August. The gig was a resounding success, some fantastic songs and a very good crowd. One of my best gigs at the Cellars as it happens! But I feel I played pretty great, and so did the rest of the band. Sad that such a great venue is closing mind.

[cheddatom]

Deerstock festival. We were on the back of a lorry. We watched a band play some covers on the big fancy stage, then we did our (original) thing on the lorry, then watched some more covers on the big stage... What's that about? Anyway, we went down well and it was a lovely festival

[Leonard Smalls]

We played the Frog and Parrot in Sheffield as part of Tramlines...
Went OK, apart from having only 15 minutes changeover between bands, which meant no soundcheck and limited space meant I couldn't bring my own amp with rack compressor and pre.
So as soon as I went to distorted wah for one song there was enormous feedback with no time to reprogramme my FX pedals for less gain. However, as one punter said "I don't know what it is, but I f*8%£$* love it!"
We dressed as clergy:

[jazzyvee]

Played at the Northfield Culture Mash festival in Birmingham yesterday afternoon. Same here we had 15 minutes changeover and no sound check but all went well the crowd loved it and we had a good time. Some problems with the sound early in the set but, we just played through it and all went well.

[rogerstodge]

I played Jockstock (punkfest) in East London Sat night, slightly under-rehearsed as the band are a tad widespread, Portsmouth , Penzance, Kent and Norfolk, onstage sound was so bad i could hardly tell what song we were playing but it was good fun, hurrah for original stuff.

[Mykesbass]

At last, a gig in a proper music loving pub - so few and far between these days Great audience in a tiny, busy pub, the Ranelagh in the heart of Kemptown, Brighton. Sound wasn't great - very boomy, as the band sets up in a fairly enclosed space. Sounded good out front though. Audience loved us, landlord loved us, and the local plod were too busy with the night before Brighton Pride to worry about my parking on a double yellow line (parking around there is bad enough, let alone on a night like last night)!

[AntLockyer]

Half way though our set today at an outdoor festival sound guy comes on stage and starts fiddling with my amp. He said bass is too loud (I was on about 2.5) I turned down the volume and he continued messing about, looking on the back of the Cab (nothing there other than the tweater level). He runs off and his boss comes over, looking at the amp. At this point I can barely keep playing with them half talking to me so just get on with it.

After the song I say to chief sound man his mate told me too much bass, he said I was clipping the desk and once matey started messing about we lost me altogether. I turned the gain down, they put a new lead in and all seemed right again.

That however was tough to recover from and it took me a couple of songs to really get back into it.

Came off disappointed which is unusual.

[Cameronj279]

First time using my Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 in a gig situation. Sounded great! The sound guy absolutely loved it as well.

Played a venue we play quite regularly and the in house sound guy is superb (genuinely one of the best I've ever encountered) so it's great fun to play there even if the crowd wasn't upto much.

To be honest though until we can afford to get recordings done we can't really complain about naff crowds.

[lurksalot]

[quote name='Leonard Smalls' timestamp='1437990840' post='2830517']
We played the Frog and Parrot in Sheffield as part of Tramlines...
Went OK, apart from having only 15 minutes changeover between bands, which meant no soundcheck and limited space meant I couldn't bring my own amp with rack compressor and pre.
So as soon as I went to distorted wah for one song there was enormous feedback with no time to reprogramme my FX pedals for less gain. However, as one punter said "I don't know what it is, but I f*8%£$* love it!"
We dressed as clergy:


[/quote]

Quality , you still have it in spades dude

[lurksalot]

we played a pub in Chester tonight and we smashed it , it was incredible , what a night , it was bouncing from start to finish , and rhythm guitar was on fire, both his playing and witty banter had everyone with us from the off . we brought loads of people both friends and a couple of dozen people from a pub 5 miles away that we often play , that venue would have been a bit quiet tonight
our sound was spot on, and a friend mentioned that there were loads of people who walked into the pub and were very offish that a band was on , and before they even got to the bar they were waiving their arms and bouncing with everyone else
Singist had been doing some number crunching and had worked out that we were on gig number 100 , so we partied it , what a blast , here's to the next 100

[Freddy Le Cragg]

Local pub has just started live music so we were invited to play the inagraul metal night. Absolutely smashed it. Great crowd and payment too!

[Leonard Smalls]

[quote name='lurksalot' timestamp='1438476653' post='2834830']


Quality , you still have it in spades dude
[/quote]

Why thank you, though Keith The Pope gives everybody a run for their money...
I even used the Parker bass as it was somehow more ecclesiastical:

[Lw.]

Bands first gig after 6 month break & line up change; well known music pub in London. Not the fullest room I've ever seen but I think we played well & received some complimentary words from several members of the audience so thats nice.

I thought the other three bands on the bill were great, mildly annoying that the room only filled up once the dj came on at the end playing the same old bon jovi & g'n'r songs but hey ho, that's the joy of being in an originals band!

Now time to sort more gigs out...

[CHW]

Played a bit of a bear pit on Sat night.

We've played it before, and on those occasions it's always felt as though the entire place was about to kick off.

Even as we were loading the gear into the pub it was in the middle of a small brawl.

We had a series of very drunk people trying to grab mics, punching the singer, and bouncing around into "band space" with no real protection, although each did eventually get thrown out.

Added to which we had a local celebrity tramp, running topless into the pub, grabbing an abandoned pint and rocking out for a few seconds before being ejected, only to appear at a window giving it the rock horns.- repeated throughout the night.

[cheddatom]

Bit of a weird one

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

[Chris Sharman]

Couple of gigs this weekend. First off, Brassington Wickerman festival. Got a great reception, just as we did last year unfortunately the weather was not our friend. It certainly wasn't the friend of the guys running the FOH as the rain tipped into the PA desk. The right hand channel kept distorting and cutting out which meant we didn't sound great but it was fun anyway and our hosts provided a great selection of food and drink for the artists which was nice. Also sold a few CD's so not a bad night all told.

From there it was back to the Y Not festival where we were camping for the weekend. We played the Cafe Salam tent on Sunday afternoon and whilst it may not have been the most organised we have ever been the sound was great, the vibe was great, the sun was out and people were coming in while we played and dancing was aplenty. What was cool was the people coming up to us later in the afternoon around the site "saw you guys earlier, I have never heard anything like it - FANTASTIC"

Off to Lakefest next weekend with Cafe Salam again.

Cannot wait.

[51m0n]

Pride in Brighton on Saturday, we played the Worlds End on the route back into town from the park where they have the main celebrations.

We had a dep drummer, but he's ace, I've played with him in many other projects, so that was fine.

Venue was heaving with sweaty punters having a ball to our material, made a huge impression, got inundated with positive comments, and even had a minor pitch invasion at one point. Were compared to Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament and the Meters by different people talking I guess about different parts of the sets I guess. Lots and lots of love coming our way all evening

Venue were chuffed to bits, when we started up there were 20 people in there and a stream of people walking past, when we finished the third track of the first set the place was rammed with people who decided to see what all the fuss was about, ten minutes after we finished the second set (2 and a half hours later) the crowd started dispersing, so we were pretty obviously a decent draw for the evening

Edited August 5, 2015 by 51m0n