How was your gig last night?

[FinnDave]

5 minutes ago, Stylon Pilson said:

A third week has passed. Don't know whether to be more angry at Invapay or the venue.

S.P.

The only time I have had a delay of more than a few days with Invapay, it turned out that the landlady who had booked hd been sacked due to an incident on the night of the gig (not involving the band though) and her replacement knew nothing about the gig. He authorised the payment and it came through the following day.

[Woodinblack]

Did a pub gig on Friday and a private party on Saturday, thought both might be called off as the guitarist was ill for both of them and the drummer ill for the first, but no, we actually got through them which was good (even if it almost killed the drummer singing Highway to hell). The pub was our 'local' pub, for some reason facebook had gone overboard on views, at over 1.3k, so was expecting 5 people, but no, it was heaving and everyone appeared to be enjoying it. We got some good compliments. A friend of the singer kept telling me to smile as apparently none of us apart from the singer did. I pointed out that they were both ill and I was way too serious for any of that shenanigans, and that is why we had the singer.

The party was in the same place as a party the previous week, but then there was a proper sound man and several other bands. This didn't have but it was much busier.

Odd collection - this week was a 50th or 60th but they wanted newer songs. The age range was much bigger (probably because in general there were more people), so 20 to 90. It was hard to tell what to play. The older ones got up for slow dances to Need your love so bad, but then also got up for more rocky ones. Then everyone was up for poker face and moondance. Some times you can't predict what people will dance to. The end few, does your mother know, timber and a few of the more ska ones, more of the younger were up as some of the others had drifted off. There was a young woman who was very enthusiastically dancing, more bouncing like a tigger with bare feet and on the last song someone had dropped a glass on the other side of the dance floor, and I was transfixed hoping she wouldn't bounce that way. She did a bit, but seemed to avoid most of it!

 

[Graham]

Triple header this weekend, a wedding Friday and pubs Saturday and Sunday

Friday was a nice, pretty new, clearly purposefully built wedding venue - it was a barn conversion in the Sussex countryside. The room wasn't a great sound - high ceiling and hard surfaces and I couldn't hear myself as well as I'd have liked, I'm really looking forward to my IEM arriving so I can do my own monitor mixes. Still, seemed to go well, it was a good performance, but for some reason I wasn't really feeling it, for me it was an average night, but the guest all seemed happy so fine there.

Saturday was one of our favourite pubs, we usually get a very good reaction, first set was okay, not amazing, second set much better, had a great time by the end of the night

Sunday was another pub, a new venue for us and a bit odd to playing a Sunday. There was a small, but appreciative audience, so we just had fun and were a bit silly. Punters and bar staff loved it, turned into a very fun gig, we're back there for a beer festival in the summer and hopefully one or two more bookings before then.

I am now shattered though, if we play three nights on the trot again I'll book the Monday off work to recover - like Murtaugh, I'm getting too old for this stuff 

[ricksterphil]

Played The Shed in Leicester on Friday 23rd. Awesome gig, great sound, big enthusiastic crowd and they've asked us back...woohoo

[mcnach]

Supporting The Dualers in Glasgow on Saturday... lots of fun.

[lurksalot]

On 03/12/2018 at 10:06, Stylon Pilson said:

A third week has passed. Don't know whether to be more angry at Invapay or the venue.

S.P.

Might sound daft , but check which account you have asked invapay to pay into , you might be looking in the wrong place .

i had similar a while back , I would normally get band payments into my personal account , so was looking there, but I had actually used the joint account for invapay! 

It is so infrequent that we get payed that way , that I forgot 

[stewblack]

First time at a particular venue for me last night and a new band too. Playing almost all originals in a thumping alt-folk/Irish/Poguesish style. I stepped in at very short notice and played from chord sheets (on a tablet). Went really well, lots of punters dancing, enthusiastic response to my playing from band members and audience alike. I love this whole depping lark. Everyone is grateful, no one expects perfection and the variety keeps me fresh. Also if the band turn out to be total d!ckheads I get to melt away into the night never to be seen again.

The gig was at the Tap social in Oxford , a wonderful micro brewery and bar with incredibly helpful and friendly staff. Great atmosphere with only one tiny drawback. The stage is a big wooden box. I had my gain on 1 and volume on 1, bass rolled back to 50% and still I had some self appointed 'experts' coming up and yelling at me to turn down. Half the problem was of course not me but the keyboard player's left hand and the resonance of the box must have been booming around the room. I managed to roll back the bottom end, boost mids so I could be heard without shaking the fillings free from people's teeth, and all was well.

Had it not been for a satnav fail we would have had a better soundcheck and could have avoided the problem. But it worked out in the end. If yu get a chance to play there I recommend it but get directions before you leave home!

Edited December 8, 2018 by stewblack

[FinnDave]

I played at the Tap Social several times last year, but they didn't have a stage then. Interesting place to play.

[steantval]

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

First time at a particular venue for me last night and a new band too. Playing almost all originals in a thumping alt-folk/Irish/Poguesish style. I stepped in at very short notice and played from chord sheets (on a tablet). Went really well, lots of punters dancing, enthusiastic response to my playing from band members and audience alike. I love this whole depping lark. Everyone is grateful, no one expects perfection and the variety keeps me fresh. Also if the band turn out to be total d!ckheads I get to melt away into the night never to be seen again.

The gig was at the Tap social in Oxford , a wonderful micro brewery and bar with incredibly helpful and friendly staff. Great atmosphere with only one tiny drawback. The stage is a big wooden box. I had my gain on 1 and volume on 1, bass rolled back to 50% and still I had some self appointed 'experts' coming up and yelling at me to turn down. Half the problem was of course not me but the keyboard player's left hand and the resonance of the box must have been booming around the room. I managed to roll back the bottom end, boost mids so I could be heard without shaking the fillings free from people's teeth, and all was well.

Had it not been for a satnav fail we would have had a better soundcheck and could have avoided the problem. But it worked out in the end. If yu get a chance to play there I recommend it but get directions before you leave home!

Guitarists Les Paul shrunk in the wash 😀

[stewblack]

Played Za Za Bazaar in Bristol last night. Usually huge crowds of pub crawling punters ensure fresh faces and lots of drunken dancing. Unfortunately the weather in the West was absolutely foul and while it kept those we had already from leaving it also deterred the 'passing trade'. 

Nonetheless we played well went down well and had a good night. The only problem was our wireless mixer lost it's battle with all the other phones,  routers, Bluetooth, microwaves, and whatnot. I got a decent sound before it lost connection forever, but if anyone can put together an idiot's guide to using an external router to solve this problem in future please get in touch!

Edited December 9, 2018 by stewblack

[stewblack]

Oh and the other thing about zaza's is if you need the loo take a packed lunch, sturdy walking boots and map. Also tell people where you're going and what time you're expected back.

They are so far away the venue has painted lines on the floor for people to follow to get to them. My God. I didn't think I'd ever get there.

[knirirr]

Not exactly a gig, but due to not having any other musicians to play with (or prospect of finding any) I thought I'd try a solo piece at a local pub's open mic night last night (the wife's folk songs go down well there).  Despite memorising the material and having the dots in front of me it was a disaster - my mind went blank and I somehow lost the ability to read music, so the result was horrible and riddled with mistakes which everyone noticed. At least the audience didn't seem too upset by it, so a useful lesson overall.

Of course, I got back home and was able to play the stuff again...

[FinnDave]

1 hour ago, knirirr said:

Not exactly a gig, but due to not having any other musicians to play with (or prospect of finding any) I thought I'd try a solo piece at a local pub's open mic night last night (the wife's folk songs go down well there).  Despite memorising the material and having the dots in front of me it was a disaster - my mind went blank and I somehow lost the ability to read music, so the result was horrible and riddled with mistakes which everyone noticed. At least the audience didn't seem too upset by it, so a useful lesson overall.

Of course, I got back home and was able to play the stuff again...

Which pub was that?I live just outside Oxford, but very rarely bother to go there.

[knirirr]

8 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

Which pub was that?I live just outside Oxford, but very rarely bother to go there.

The one in Enstone that used to be The Harrow (now the "Artyard Café", IIRC). It's acoustic folk stuff, hence my questions elsewhere about acoustic basses. I live nearby but work in Oxford.

[FinnDave]

52 minutes ago, knirirr said:

The one in Enstone that used to be The Harrow (now the "Artyard Café", IIRC). It's acoustic folk stuff, hence my questions elsewhere about acoustic basses. I live nearby but work in Oxford.

I think I know the place, went in there once trying to get a gig, but they never got back to me.

[Dad3353]

3 hours ago, knirirr said:

...Of course, I got back home and was able to play the stuff again...

Ain't it always the way..! Never mind, one has to do as one would when falling from one's horse: get straight back in the saddle and gallop on. I've a few choice words of wisdom and encouragement for you, which may help...
'It's the first forty years that are the worst, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly better.'
There you go, done and dusted..! Good luck with the next gig. 

[knirirr]

13 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Ain't it always the way..! Never mind, one has to do as one would when falling from one's horse: get straight back in the saddle and gallop on. I've a few choice words of wisdom and encouragement for you, which may help...
'It's the first forty years that are the worst, after which things sometimes tend to get slightly better.'
There you go, done and dusted..! Good luck with the next gig. 

Thanks! However, I think I'll hold off on the solo performances - with luck I might find at least one other person, which should help considerably (accompanying was always much easier).

1 hour ago, FinnDave said:

I think I know the place, went in there once trying to get a gig, but they never got back to me.

It does seem to be quite a small stage area, but they might have changed it around a bit since you were there.

[FinnDave]

Just now, knirirr said:

Thanks! However, I think I'll hold off on the solo performances - with luck I might find at least one other person, which should help considerably (accompanying was always much easier).

It does seem to be quite a small stage area, but they might have changed it around a bit since you were there.

If it's the place I'm thinking of, it went through a complete makeover 3 or 4 years ago. Place on the right as you head towards Chippy Norton?

 

[knirirr]

14 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

If it's the place I'm thinking of, it went through a complete makeover 3 or 4 years ago. Place on the right as you head towards Chippy Norton?

 

That's the one. Before that it didn't tend to stay in business long, so perhaps the current makeover has helped.

 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, knirirr said:

Thanks! However, I think I'll hold off on the solo performances - with luck I might find at least one other person, which should help considerably (accompanying was always much easier).

Yes, its easier. When it all falls apart you can glare at them and everyone thinks its their fault!

[SICbass]

I don’t know if it’s possible to extract small sections of YT videos, but in this episode of Live from Daryl’s House (featuring the supremely quotable Joe Walsh) there’s a line between 37:12 and 37:42 from him which sums it up for me.

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by SICbass

[ricksterphil]

10 hours ago, FinnDave said:

I think I know the place, went in there once trying to get a gig, but they never got back to me.

A depressingly familiar tale.....

[Bluewine]

19 hours ago, knirirr said:

Not exactly a gig, but due to not having any other musicians to play with (or prospect of finding any) I thought I'd try a solo piece at a local pub's open mic night last night (the wife's folk songs go down well there).  Despite memorising the material and having the dots in front of me it was a disaster - my mind went blank and I somehow lost the ability to read music, so the result was horrible and riddled with mistakes which everyone noticed. At least the audience didn't seem too upset by it, so a useful lesson overall.

Of course, I got back home and was able to play the stuff again...

It's good that you went out and played in front of people. That's the story here.

Blue

[Baxlin]

Had great fun yesterday afternoon, our church holds a weekly "community cafe", for local olds/lonelies etc, and had 'community carols' yesterday.  In the absence of a keys player, we finished up with two acoustic guitars and bass. 

Threw in a couple of popular secular Christmas songs, and a good time had by all!

[cheddatom]

Friday night was New Cross Inn in London. It took us 5 hours to get there. We played 40 minutes to about 30 people, then the headline act went on and suddenly another 30 people appeared. 4 hours to get home. We played well and the other bands were good to watch, but it was a very long outing

Monday night I played with my weird funk/dance band in Chester. I was told it was a 3 band night and we were headlining. It was actually some sort of assessment for about 30 music students, who performed covers in various bands and to various levels of proficiency, for TWO HOURS. Predictably, as soon as we got on stage they all left, leaving us with an audience of 15 people. I got to bed at 2:30AM and was up for a recording session at 7:30AM.

I'm hoping this weekend will be a bit more fun. Two local gigs Friday and Saturday