How was your gig last night?

[Stylon Pilson]

Saturday night was at The Bridge in Bracknell - it's a Greene King pub, with residential areas in one direction and industrial estates in the other.

Our guitarist/singer was a bit late arriving, and he's got all the PA and lighting gear, so we were already against the clock when we started setting up. As we plugged in, we discovered that the the power points in the band area were all dead. The venue staff spent a few minutes trying to diagnose it, and then eventually just ran an extension cable from a different corner of the room, so everything went through that instead.

In many ways, the gig itself went well. We sounded good, we had fun, the staff loved us (the head guy behind the bar, don't know if he's landlord or just head barman, said "you're the best band we've ever had in here", though maybe he says that to all the bands) and the crowd loved us ("this is the best night I've ever had in here", though again maybe she says that every night). The main problem was just the size of the crowd - throughout the evening there were rarely more than a dozen people in the pub, and it was not a small pub. Whether that's a typical Saturday night for this place, or because everyone was in the pub round the corner watching the boxing, I don't know.

Of course, you can have a bit of fun when the crowd is that small and intimate. At one point, one of the audience members wanted to go to the toilet, so she asked if we'd wait for her to come back before starting the next song ("Girls On Film" by Duran Duran). We sort of accommodated, by extending the intro and waiting until we saw her walking back before starting the first verse.

We're getting quicker at breaking down too - I think we finished playing at about 11:40, and we were stood in the car park with the cars loaded up by 12:15.

As I say, not the worst night, but playing gigs to a handful of people is not where I want to be at at this stage in my life.

S.P.

[Staggering on]

Fun gig for our jazz standards quartet on Saturday night, a somewhat rustic old fishing lodge on the shore of Lake Nipissing here in Ontario.We hadn't played there before and didn't know what to expect but it was a lovely big room that is a bar/restaurant and we had lots of room to set up beside a huge fireplace.

Unfortunately on Friday night and most of Saturday we had our first real Northern Ontario snowstorm and although the roads were generally in good shape  we knew some of our friends and band fans would not want to make a long snowy drive and so we were pleased with the 30-40 folks who showed up. Most would have had about an hour drive on a mix of highways and rural roads so we knew they would be an appreciative crowd.

We usually play three sets over three hours and got through our first set and then passed out copies of our playlist (almost 150 songs) as we have done in the past in situations like this and after a couple of songs to start the set we played mostly requests for rest of the sets so the audience is involved and get to hear what they want and we play songs we might not have chosen for a particular gig.Everyone is happy and it keeps us on our toes.

Meals supplied, good staff, plans to rebook us soon and an extra $100.00 on top of our usual fee.Everybody wins ! We were in good form and played exceptionally well and had a lot of fun going into our seventh year together. 

[urbanx]

Apart from no soundcheck and the middle band having some politics with the venue it was a good one. 

One tiny faux-pas.... I'm wireless now, so thought "I know what would be really cool! If I wander out into the crowd and stand on a chair while busting out this bass solo like a God,  everyone around me will gasp in amazement at my super human bass ability. Literally nothing can go wrong with this plan" 

It didn't fail in the way you think... I just couldn't find a free seat and I really couldn't bring myself to ask someone to stand for a sec while I amazed the rest of the crowd, so I just wandered around a bit like a lost usher before returning to the stage. 

[Bluewine]

THANKSGIVING

It's Time To Party With Maple Road!

11/17 The Filmore House , West Bend WI
8:00-12:00

11/21 Fat Charlie's, Richfield WI
7:30-11:30

 

I'll report on these gigs. Filmore House is always good for us. Fat Charlie's, we play in a room separated from the bar. Always the kiss of death, plus IMO the clientle is not into live rock music. The crowd is friends and family getting together for food & drink, not music.

 

Blue

Edited November 13, 2018 by Bluewine

[lurksalot]

Lovely little gig in a tiny little pub , not much crowd but very appreciative and enthusiastic .

sound check was great , about 20 mins in my brother indicates to lift the vocal a touch , done 

start of the second set my brother indicates to lift the vocal a bit , done.

strangely , everyone who was standing in front of the band at the start is now about 5mtrs further back 🤔

The guitarist incrementally turns himself up all the time and the vocal  gets drowned , so everything ends up louder than everything else.

I only have to play 2 more gigs with this bellend of a six stringer 

[mcnach]

6 minutes ago, lurksalot said:

Lovely little gig in a tiny little pub , not much crowd but very appreciative and enthusiastic .

sound check was great , about 20 mins in my brother indicates to lift the vocal a touch , done 

start of the second set my brother indicates to lift the vocal a bit , done.

strangely , everyone who was standing in front of the band at the start is now about 5mtrs further back 🤔

The guitarist incrementally turns himself up all the time and the vocal  gets drowned , so everything ends up louder than everything else.

I only have to play 2 more gigs with this bellend of a six stringer 

 

I once was playing with a very annoying and deaf loud guitarist.

One day I managed to get his amp at ear level pointing at his head. I never managed to get in that situation again, but that day... that day was glorious seeing him wince and eventually turn down.

[lurksalot]

15 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

I once was playing with a very annoying and deaf loud guitarist.

One day I managed to get his amp at ear level pointing at his head. I never managed to get in that situation again, but that day... that day was glorious seeing him wince and eventually turn down.

Coincidentally , I nearly engineered that very same scenario last night , there was a pool table behind him and he suggested putting his amp on it , only in jest , but I pushed him to do it , but he declined , still, I wasn’t going to make an issue of it as my input , my PA and my lights will soon be otherwise engaged.

oddly the landlord wanted to rebook but heard that we were disbanding , I immediately retorted that it was not the case and that they would get a new bass player , the lads looked surprised at that , but they have had 6 weeks to get on with it ! 

[ezbass]

Cracking gig last night. We set up at the opposite end of the bar than we have previously and it was an entirely different vibe. Thanks to some small partitions, the audience were far back enough (most didn't think to venture beyond the low partitions, although some did) to get a good view, the best sound and have unhindered access to the bar itself (which I'm sure the landlord and lady loved; kerching!). I received some really nice comments from a drummer in the audience about my fretless tone (be still my beating heart) and it was an enjoyable and civilised evening (no drunken dancing over pedalboards or wading through spilt beer). Looking forward to playing there again just before NYE.

[skidder652003]

Chaotic Gig tonight, there's a jazz festival on this weekend in Teignmouth so the place was rammed with Rock fans, all great but the smell of weed was overpowering and I got 4 punters at some point or other during the set falling ar$e over t!t into my gear, mic stand went flying, monitor got disconnected, drinks everywhere ffs, really rattled me tonight, I don't usually mind the odd one but this was ridiculous, great atmosphere but on edge

[Staggering on]

As a contrast to the Hartlepool gig above, our jazz quartet played a house party with about 30 folks in a woodworking shop that had been cleaned up for the occasion.We played two one hour sets to a very appreciative audience and had a great no pressure evening.Not your usual house party with people wandering in and out, these folks were there to hear us and were actually seated in chairs while we played-definitely different.I used my new Schatten Design Mini Pre with my Englehardt ES9 upright straight into the Bose PA and it was great and I got several compliments on the sound(not necessarily the playing!) from a couple of bass players in the audience.Good sound, good music, good crowd, good pay=excellent night. 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Staggering on

[mcnach]

Great wedding gig last night. Just the kind of wedding gigs I like: I was not playing

 

[Len_derby]

10 hours ago, Staggering on said:

As a contrast to the Hartlepool gig above, our jazz quartet played a house party with about 30 folks in a woodworking shop that had been cleaned up for the occasion.We played two one hour sets to a very appreciative audience and had a great no pressure evening.Not your usual house party with people wandering in and out, these folks were there to hear us and were actually seated in chairs while we played-definitely different.I used my new Schatten Design Mini Pre with my Englehardt ES9 upright straight into the Bose PA and it was great and I got several compliments on the sound(not necessarily the playing!) from a couple of bass players in the audience.Good sound, good music, good crowd, good pay=excellent night. 

I bet it smelt nice too. Unlike some of the venues we all play sometimes 😉

[Bluewine]

On 13/11/2018 at 12:11, Bluewine said:

THANKSGIVING

It's Time To Party With Maple Road!

11/17 The Filmore House , West Bend WI
8:00-12:00

11/21 Fat Charlie's, Richfield WI
7:30-11:30

 

I'll report on these gigs. Filmore House is always good for us. Fat Charlie's, we play in a room separated from the bar. Always the kiss of death, plus IMO the clientle is not into live rock music. The crowd is friends and family getting together for food & drink, not music.

 

Blue

Ok, The Filmore House gig was cool.

Small rural party bar. Nice people come there to relax ,party and get loaded and they love live bands.

I arrived at 7:00 and couldn't even find a parking space and eventually had to park illegally.

Overall it was a fun gig, the band sounded great last night. Very "old school" rock bar gig. Such a nice crowd.

It was an 8:00-12:00 gig, the BL didn't call for a break until 10:15. So playing 2 hours plus without a break was a little weird.

At one point I thought it was 1972.

I had a fun night guys.

Blue

[Woodinblack]

I had a combination of fun with a bit of annoyance. We hadn't gigged for 3 weeks and due to the guitarists new job, we had also only had one practice, so was expecting a few cockups. Arrived in a place where we had played before, but where we normally play there were a load of tables so we set up facing them. Turned out even though we had been hired at pub gig prices (and cheap pub gig prices too), it was a private party, which was a bit of an annoyance.

All set up, then the guy who's party it was came up and said, oh bands usually set up facing the other way (L shaped room, we were at the join, so 90 degrees). So we had to move everything round. Thanks for saying earlier.

They had also said that they knew they weren't paying much but they might pay more for us to play longer later.

Did 2 1 hour sets, which is short for us, it was very busy, a lot of dancing in the second half, usual d'head who thinks he is the life and soul of the party but generally just messing up things for everyone, dancing with his trousers down (come on mate, this is a family party there, no-one wants that). Luckily while dancing with his trousers down his ankles he went flying and hit the very hard shiny floor, sadly not enough to knock him out but enough so that is going to hurt in the morning.

Anyway, after the second set, we stopped, then the wife of the party guy was talking to the singer, in the mean time we all went outside so the drummer could smoke, by the time the singer came out with 'they will give us another £100 to do another hour', the spirit had died. I would have done it, the guitarist was annoyed about the party thing so didn't want to, and the drummer was knackered and didn't want to. 

And frankly, if they hadn't cheaped out in the first place, or offered us the money at any point before the end, we would have done it. 

[lurksalot]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

.............Turned out even though we had been hired at pub gig prices (and cheap pub gig prices too), it was a private party, which was a bit of an annoyance.

I’ve been there , twice, while they ended up fun gigs , it does leave a bit of a sour taste ☹️

[cheddatom]

Saturday night I was playing guitar with Julia Mosely in a beautiful old church in Buxton. I've always wanted to play some atmospheric music in a church and I finally did it! There were probably only 20 people in the audience, in a church that looked like it held 150+ on the pews, so that was a bit disappointing, but they all sat in silence in awe at Julia's voice, and we got some good photos. I enjoyed it purely for the sound of the room. 

Last night was Morecambe Punk Festival. I was looking forward to an early night to be honest. I've been a bit run down lately, and smashing the drums for 45 minutes wasn't my ideal choice of activity, so a stage time of 6:30, meaning home and in bed by 10 would have been perfect. Unfortunately they'd had some technical problems earlier in the day and the whole thing was running way behind. We went on at 8 in the end. It was pretty good, we played well and went down well, I think I was just too tired to properly enjoy it

 

EDIT: You might be able to see this video of one of the songs from the Church. Please forgive my dodgy guitar playing, I'm still getting to grips with "standing out" like this, having just played bass and drums for the last 20 years.

 

Edited November 19, 2018 by cheddatom

[MacDaddy]

Fidays's gig, a night of firsts. First time the pub had live music (the landlord had seen us twice before, once at a pub we played where he was on a jolly with other landlords/ladies, and then when he was doing holiday cover at another pub we played), first ever fretless gig for me, and first bass gig with no FX ! 
Basswise things went ok, but I'm not confident enough with my pitching to not look at the fretboard, which did affect backing vocals at times. Something to work on.
It was a big pub, with 4 distinct areas, so not the easiest place to play, but we got the punters in and singing along, so result.

[Witters]

Wild night of swing and blues jamming at the Downend Tavern, Bristol last night.  The place was full of musicians many wanting to play (we have a reputation of allowing people to join us onstage, give them a chance to blow).  We had three extra harmonica players, Sean The Horn McBride on sax (damn fine player, stupidly good) plus the full band - busy.  I was feeling a bit under the weather having just discovered a rather uncomfortable cheese intolerance so was grateful to step back and let others have a go.

Punters loved it, best reaction we’ve had there.  Next time there may be a flautist...apparently.  How cool would that be?!

Thanks to @Rich for coming down, sorry I wasn’t more chatty, hope to see you soon; and the first bassist I ever worked with when I moved to Bristol 40 years ago was also in the audience, nice to catch up.

Back to Ed Sheeran today 😩 with the bonus of some “lute n vocal” practise hopefully.

[phil.c60]

Ours went like this, 1'30" onward it gets much better.......

 

Edited November 22, 2018 by phil.c60

[ForestPoetry]

Played a gig in Nottingham on Saturday just gone. At The Loft, a student bar. I knew something was off the moment I arrived, as the headlining band's bassist was sat at the side of the stage with his head in his hands. Seemed like there was some kind of issue with the monitors.

Turned out the venue had spent a fortune on a brand new, flashy digital mixing desk and nobody had any idea how to run it! Not even the soundman the headline act had brought with them all the way from France. I heard something about a software issue as well. It was sending the bass to all the monitors for some reason, and nobody knew how to rectify it. Everything was by now about 30 mins behind schedule. This caused us to decide to bin off using the DI box in the bass rig loop, and just go through the cab: a big beefy Ampeg 8x10 that I was just delighted to hook my VT500 up to and bring the chainsaw.

Less than a minute into the first song the soundguy rushes on stage and turns my head down, as I had no monitoring whatsoever I suddenly couldn't hear anything. You get shafted enough being a bassist in a metal band ("just scoop the mids and boost the tops and lows til you can't hear yourself properly bro"), so I always make sure to boost my mids right up, if it clashes with the guitars then tough luck. He wasn't happy about me turning myself back up. Then again he should have learned how to work his big shiny new Star Trek mixing desk! Not my problem.

...that aside, the gig went fine. Lol.  

[Bluewine]

On 13/11/2018 at 12:11, Bluewine said:

THANKSGIVING

It's Time To Party With Maple Road!

11/17 The Filmore House , West Bend WI
8:00-12:00

11/21 Fat Charlie's, Richfield WI
7:30-11:30

 

I'll report on these gigs. Filmore House is always good for us. Fat Charlie's, we play in a room separated from the bar. Always the kiss of death, plus IMO the clientle is not into live rock music. The crowd is friends and family getting together for food & drink, not music.

 

Blue

We did the 7:30- 11:30 at Fat Charlie's in Ritchfield last night.

Another good gig. I guess Thanksgiving Eve is also a big party night.

Good crowd including several long time fans I hadn't seen for a while. And the room isn't as separated from the bar as I thought.

Fun night.

Blue

 

[irvined]

Hi,

 

We played a 'live lounge' set for Fantasy Radio in Devizes last night.

It seemed to go really well and we were invited back for next year.

Couldn't hear our guitarist very well but everything else was good.

Regards,

 

Doug

[Witters]

12 hours ago, irvined said:

Hi,

 

We played a 'live lounge' set for Fantasy Radio in Devizes last night.

It seemed to go really well and we were invited back for next year.

Couldn't hear our guitarist very well but everything else was good.

Regards,

 

Doug

Perfect! Guitarists are best seen and not heard,......possibly not seen either.  Glad it well,

[Graham]

Last night was brilliant, our singer's been away for a few weeks so we were all looking forward to getting back to it.

It was an office Christmas party in the function room of a pub, so a decent sized crowd who were up and dancing from the start

We played great, the guys were commented on how much they liked my playing, the singer's new 15" tops and Behringer wireless mixer worked really well and the crowd were enthusiastic and very happy at the end of the night - can't ask for a lot more than that.

[lurksalot]

Last night was my last gig with the Razors ...and it was awesome !

Collectively, we played the 2 sets the best we ever have , the sound seemed the best it ever was , and we got a really good turnout . 

I got a good send off from the lads, who insist that I am only on a sabbatical!

onwards and upwards , let’s see what next year brings, never say never as the warbler keeps telling me 😂