How was your gig last night?

[FinnDave]

1 minute ago, skidder652003 said:

straplocks????

I'm sure he said something that sounded quite like that at the time.

[Iacopo San]

Maybe it's time I start using them too!

 

[skidder652003]

Just now, Iacopo San said:

Maybe it's time I start using them too!

 

deffo!  https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-f-strap-locks-gold/52145?gclid=CjwKCAjwt5DXBRAtEiwAa3vyEpdbEpQHgvntxpN_YOlCs8VTdyCUIxcGjifRYVvpSIhsvbXaRl4XMRoC5eYQAvD_BwE

[Callumjord]

First gig of the wedding season last  night, wedding was originally booked for the Saturday but the venue closed so 3 weeks before the wedding everything was changed. Was a difficult wedding, imo we sounded and played great but due to the layout of the new venue we played inside a small box that was hidden away from the bar and couldn't see or really interact with the audience. Oh well, bring on the next wedding 

[mcnach]

36 minutes ago, skidder652003 said:

straplocks????

 

I use straplocks (well, the rubber washers... after years of Schallers I moved to the rubber washers and never looked back). But once I had a strap break during the 3rd or 4th song of the 1st set. Not the strap itself but the loop that joins two parts. That was fun. It'll probably never happen again as it must have been an odd defective one (didn't have any signs of wear and I had it for only one year or so)... but now I also have a spare strap in my gigbag. 

[cheddatom]

Tivoli venue in Buckley last night, brilliant venue, not a massive audience but it was cool. Great sound on stage always makes it fun 

[casapete]

Cracking gig last night at The Mechanics in Burnley. Audience well up for it

from the off, good sounding room and despite a few minor errors we actually

played okay. Last but one gig of our current run, so hope tonight in Harrogate

is as good!

[leschirons]

Highs and lows. Last night we played at Printemps Bourges. (Pub gig) It's a whole week of music in and around the centre of the town and maybe 150 bands will play over the week. The Rag'n' bone man gig was part of that.

Kicked off first set at 10.30pm to six people. Roadie then links up a spare tatty active monitor and sticks it on the pavement. By the second number, it's packed, and kept it packed until end of last set, 1.50am. However,  the encores lasted until 3.10am. and there is the low. Great to be appreciated, not great to get in at 5.30am. 

[Woodinblack]

Gig in the place we practice last night. Didn't want to do it, thought the landlord was taking the fosters at the money (oh I will give you more if there is a crowd - in a pub that never has a crowd!). You could argue that it is fair as we practice there sometimes, but we did a free gig in december for that reason. Anyway, others agreed it so I went along, only on the agreement we only 1.5 hours.

Turned out to not be that bad a gig, the second half quite a lot more people turned up and we actually had a lot of people dancing so was quite enjoyable. At least we kept to the hour and a half thing, which surprised me. Then they went to get the money saying 'maybe he will give us more'. Obviously he didn't, 'not many people, didn't sell many drinks', which is what I expected not having been born yesterday.

Still, the gig was more fun that I was expecting, and as we haven't had a gig for over a month, as a practice for a gig tonight I guess it was ok.

Have had a bad cough since being ill a couple of weeks ago, so wan't going to sing much. Forgot that and found that doing the long note of twist and shout completely killed my throat!

[Mudpup]

Played in a fairly big pub in NW London last night - I've been off for a month and was looking forward to it.

Weird sound in there as it was a big echoey wooden layout and you play upstairs above another bar on a wooden floor. The bass was disappearing - couldnt hear myself 5 feet away, couldn't hear me 15 feet away and the bloke on the leather settee 25 feet away said it was making his derrière shake! Its one for my Gramma pad next time....

Turned out a really good night - the staff loved us, the crowd were going bonkers from the off and didn't stop for 2.5 hours, we got to use the hazer and lasers without setting any alarms off (even though they had smoke alarms nearby) so it looked impressive, we got a couple of rebooks to fill our last remaining dates for this year and a guaranteed 4 gigs next year. Everyone had a fab night it seems.

And the strangest thing? They said we were too cheap!!! We don't go out for less than £250 which is pretty typical around here for pubs - we did this one for more than that anyway and they said that the rebooks and next years will pay significantly more again. Need to find us some more of these ones i reckon :-)

[Leonard Smalls]

Not too bad a gig in a bar in Presteigne...

Most mistakes were from the guitarist - who'd also turned up a lot after soundchecking so it took most of the gig for me to make enough tiny adjustments until I was at the right volume..

Punters probably didn't notice - there was even about 10 of them headbanging at the front even though we're not in any way heavy! 

But in common with most pub/bar gigs about 1/2 the audience don't want a loud band so they go somewhere quieter - perhaps we should get the drummer to use his e-kit so we're just that bit less noisy?

[Bluewine]

6 hours ago, Callumjord said:

First gig of the wedding season last  night, wedding was originally booked for the Saturday but the venue closed so 3 weeks before the wedding everything was changed. Was a difficult wedding, imo we sounded and played great but due to the layout of the new venue we played inside a small box that was hidden away from the bar and couldn't see or really interact with the audience. Oh well, bring on the next wedding 

One of my major complaints. Being separated from the bar. It's always the kiss of death for my band.

Do you guys think it's done on purpose in some instances?

Blue

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Not too bad a gig in a bar in Presteigne...

Most mistakes were from the guitarist - who'd also turned up a lot after soundchecking so it took most of the gig for me to make enough tiny adjustments until I was at the right volume..

Punters probably didn't notice - there was even about 10 of them headbanging at the front even though we're not in any way heavy! 

But in common with most pub/bar gigs about 1/2 the audience don't want a loud band so they go somewhere quieter - perhaps we should get the drummer to use his e-kit so we're just that bit less noisy?

An e kit might help. Thing is, a lot of people are not into the " loud rock band" thing.

We're a loud rock band and we try to appeal to the folks that are still into loud rock. We tell the owners what we are before they book us. We're not background music.

Blue

[Bluewine]

4 hours ago, Mudpup said:

And the strangest thing? They said we were too cheap!!! We don't go out for less than £250 which is pretty typical around here for pubs - we did this one for more than that anyway and they said that the rebooks and next years will pay significantly more again. Need to find us some more of these ones i reckon :-)

Yes, if you can, you always want the higher paying gigs. The pay for Midwestern bar bands in the States is not much different. While we get $500.00 for a four piece we play four hours not two.

Festival and fair pay in the summer is much better. $500.00 for 1.5 hours.

Blue

[bassbiscuits]

Two gigs in two nights for me - unfortunately I blew my voice by overdoing it on the first gig which meant I spent the gig last night sounding like a bit like a pound shop Rod Stewart.

The second gig was a fairly gentle one in a country gastropub, so got away with not having to be hugely loud or powerful and everything held up well enough.

Got home in time to catch the Jeff Beck documentary on bbc4 too.

Both gigs were covering for someone who'd had to cancel so it was all a bit of a bonus and handy money to pay for the for new tyres my car needed after having a blow out doing 70mph on the M5 last weekend....

Edited April 29, 2018 by bassbiscuits

[oldbass]

Recovering from a 60th birthday function in a weird golf club bar with a cathedral wood ceiling.

Seven of us creating an awful muddy sound on stage as we were against a solid brick wall. I had to turn the bass knob completely off on the amp and push the low mids but I still couldn't hear myself...apparently on the dance floor ears were bleeding...seems the room sucked all the mids out of my rig...strange.

[phil.c60]

Short clip of us at The Neptune in Hove last night - great harp playing but apologies for the dark/dim footage,  that's phones for you!

and you can't see me anyway because I'm hidden away on he right.....

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by phil.c60

[Woodinblack]

The gig was good like it always is in the place we were playing, but there is no stage, so you are in a corner of a pub, so the microphone is always being knocked, the lights are always being tripped over and a couple of drunk women feel that it is good to stand between you and the singer dancing facing out like it is their stage. And then turn round to glare at you once they headbut the end of your bass. Sorry - my bass belongs here, your head doesn't!

 

[grumpyguts]

Dep gig at Laarsens in Basingstoke, not that many people for the first set but it got a bit more lively for set two. The usual amusing mix of slightly lubricated ladies of varying ages and grumpy looking blokes at the bar.  The drummer invited the sax player from his other band to come along - no rehearsal, the rest of us hadn't met her. Apparently has been a pro session player - she was fab. Just worked of a list of keys for each tune, a few songs got extended for sax solo's so I had to keep my ears open.

I managed to get cramp in my left hand playing Footloose - it's late in the second set - trying to play that bassline with a stump of twisted digits didn't go too well..

Typical immovable punters when trying to cart stuff out at the end. 

[mcnach]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

The gig was good like it always is in the place we were playing, but there is no stage, so you are in a corner of a pub, so the microphone is always being knocked, the lights are always being tripped over and a couple of drunk women feel that it is good to stand between you and the singer dancing facing out like it is their stage. And then turn round to glare at you once they headbut the end of your bass. Sorry - my bass belongs here, your head doesn't!

 

 

Oh I so hate those gigs...

In places like that we tend to make a little 'barricade' with a couple of monitors and my bass cab cases: two 210s, the cases are foam but thick and stand on their own so act as visual deterrent. The problem is someone has tried to sit on them on a couple of occasions and fell 

I've been in places when they come on 'stage' (always women in their 50s, extremely drunk, who think they're the soul of the party), who think it's ok to take your hat off and play with it/you, try to take the spare sax on the stand, etc etc... It's a good test of patience. Fortunately I don't play many of those, but once a year is already once too many. What makes people think that's ok to do? We have had people onstage many times, people we know, or we talked to earlier, or introduced by someone else who knows us... and we have fun and it's great. It's the random drunk who thinks the stage is their playground that irritates me no end. So you bought a few G&Ts and you think you own the bar and its contents? Ugh.

[mcnach]

44 minutes ago, grumpyguts said:

 

Typical immovable punters when trying to cart stuff out at the end. 

 

I love it when they do notice you and they just suck their fat belly in... yeah, like that's going to help

[Woodinblack]

29 minutes ago, mcnach said:

In places like that we tend to make a little 'barricade' with a couple of monitors and my bass cab cases: two 210s, the cases are foam but thick and stand on their own so act as visual deterrent. The problem is someone has tried to sit on them on a couple of occasions and fell 

I've been in places when they come on 'stage' (always women in their 50s, extremely drunk, who think they're the soul of the party), who think it's ok to take your hat off and play with it/you, try to take the spare sax on the stand, etc etc..

Yes, a group of women in their 50s, extremely drunk, unable to dance.

I put the speakers as a baricade on the side, but doesn't help the front. Luckily the singer is good with those sort of people, he is a great front man, I couldn't do it, it irritates me like mad. And also unfortunately affects the rest of the crowd - he dances round playing the sax, which he can't do as there are some women in the way shaking their hands in the air like it is some kind of dance.

But it is fairly normal for that venue, and is a one small downside in what is always a good place to gig. 

 

[lurksalot]

We had a great little gig last night in Anglesey , we were recommended to the landlord and when he enquired we priced it at a decent amount for it . 1 and a 1/2 hour trip each way , a small crowd , free drinks for the band and a good night was had by all . 

A recall for the pub and a local festival possibly, also lots of talk of parties and recommends to other parts of the island , so a result 

I'm getting quite comfortable with my Gordon Smith shortscale , when practising the controls seem pretty insignificant tonally , but at gigging volumes there seems to be just enough to get the sound about right . 

[FinnDave]

There's a Wiltshire venue I've played in several times, and the first time we were there they put tables around the band, which we removed, but the pub's security guys (really) insisted we put them back. Once we started playing and the place filled up, we were glad of them!

[Callumjord]

21 hours ago, Bluewine said:

One of my major complaints. Being separated from the bar. It's always the kiss of death for my band.

Do you guys think it's done on purpose in some instances?

Blue

I'm not sure if it's done on purpose, probably just the fact that some venues aren't designed to have bands play but they want to put them on. The stage itself is big enough just for a dj as well.