How was your gig last night?

[Stofferson]

36 minutes ago, radiophonic said:

Cheers dude - and thanks for the use of the cab! It was very loud indeed. I clearly need to work on my power stance though....

Anytime dude! watched you from above and the side, was cool man!

[Bluewine]

We played a street festival today. It was our acoustic act. Not a great crowd, but you know what, Our stage looked great, we looked great, the weather was fantatic 75° sunny clear skys with a nice breeze off the lake. We had a blast playing and singing we were really tight today.

So much fun.

We have another outdoor event tomorrow 4:00 -7:00.

Blue

[JapanAxe]

Just got back from my shortest-notice-ever gig: FB message arrived 8.38pm, started the first set 9.30pm, so 52 minutes!

It was a blues gig with a pickup band for a singer/harmonica player. The call came from the guitar/keyboard player (who I knew mainly from open mic nights), the scheduled bassist having fallen ill minutes beforehand, and the drummer being 3rd in line after the other tub-thumpers dropped like flies from the lurgy. Fortunately guitar/keys had the set list well beforehand so knew how the tunes went, and the drummer had done the gig before (albeit a couple of years previously).

Obviously it wasn't as polished as it might have been with a rehearsal or 3, but singer/harpist was happy and the pub crowd loved it, plus I got paid, so that's win-win-win!

Edited September 15, 2019 by JapanAxe
Photo!

[FinnDave]

Just back from a Grateful Dudes gig in Cockfosters. Difficult acoustics, but the soundman had it sorted by half way through the first set. Audience all up and dancing around - they're a lovely bunch, the Deadheads!

Edited September 15, 2019 by FinnDave

[Stylon Pilson]

My gig last night was for a 50th birthday party in a pub that we've played at before. Given that there had been a specific request for an 80s band, we were all expecting a fantastic night with an eager audience dancing all night and cheering between songs. Well, we were quite disappointed. There was some dancing, it's true, and lots of faces turned towards us, but at the end of each song we were met with silence, maybe one or two people clapping at best. Very strange. Anyway, we got on with it, and looked forward to the end of the night. On nights where the crowd go wild, it's easy to feel confident, but when they're more subdued, you need to try not to let that convince you that you sucked.

This morning I've ordered a new transmitter for my wireless system. One of the switches in my current one is getting a bit dodgy, and it's causing me issues during mid-set instrument swaps.

Due to calendar clashes and illness, we've been having great difficulty getting together for a rehearsal lately - the last one was on 10th July! We've got one booked for Tuesday, so fingers crossed that that works out. There are a few things that we really need to polish up since we brought our new keyboard player on board.

S.P.

[Salt on your Bass?]

Played a charity fest in Baldock - Balstock - Al Town venues open up and the whole town was heaving. Great gig in the town hall, venue at capacity and we played pretty well..... Only gripe was the side infill lighting didn't half blind me.... Just about managed to find the notes though!.... Just... 

[KevB]

Didnt go too bad in the end considering weve had no musical interaction for 5 weeks. Stuck to same set as last gig, mainly I think because the singer just couldnt be arsed to sort an alternative. One of guitards needed to be away to catch a 4am flight so we started at 9 and finished at 11 with a short break in middle. Crowd seemed responsive and some nice positive feedback. A young lad turned up whos interested in the drumming spot when our current one hangs up his sticks (back trouble and sciatica are making it too painful for him to carry on) and brought his dad (bless!) who turned out to be a bass player and he liked the sound of my rig, which was nice. Only downside for me was due to me not playing a note for weeks I got cramp/paralysis in my index and middle finger of fretting hand a few songs into set 2. Had to improvise next 3 or 4 using only ring finger and pinkie. I just got a bit of movement back for the set closer (war pigs) which was just as well. Need to make myself practice more just to build up the muscles again.

[kusee pee]

A lovely wedding gig at Banwell Castle.  Beautiful venue, lovely to play outside (well, in a tunnel!) too.

[Stylon Pilson]

20 minutes ago, kusee pee said:

That looks like it might have been acoustically "interesting". What was it like?

S.P.

[dmccombe7]

I'm also quite curious about how it sounded. 

Fantastic looking venue to be playing. Nice one.

Dave 

[Monkey Steve]

On 15/09/2019 at 09:49, Stylon Pilson said:

My gig last night was for a 50th birthday party in a pub that we've played at before. Given that there had been a specific request for an 80s band, we were all expecting a fantastic night with an eager audience dancing all night and cheering between songs. Well, we were quite disappointed. There was some dancing, it's true, and lots of faces turned towards us, but at the end of each song we were met with silence, maybe one or two people clapping at best. Very strange. Anyway, we got on with it, and looked forward to the end of the night. On nights where the crowd go wild, it's easy to feel confident, but when they're more subdued, you need to try not to let that convince you that you sucked.

I feel your pain.  I've played a couple where the band have been asked to play because the birthday boy loves that kind of music...and it turns out that he's the only one

[kusee pee]

1 hour ago, Stylon Pilson said:

That looks like it might have been acoustically "interesting". What was it like?

S.P.

Actually, it was really good.  We had the PA up outside the tunnel entrance and the tunnel had lots of openings out to the side so there wasn't too much bouncing.  We could also put the drums quite far back so our onstage sound was nice.  We put everything through the PA so it was controlled.  I recommend gigging there if you ever get the chance

 

[51m0n]

Hasting Seafood and Wine Festival yesterday afternoon. Nice staging, amazing weather, lots of punters, 30 mins to setup (including a full drumkit swap) went rather well actually.

All going swimmingly until shortly into the second track when all signal stopped coming out of the pedalboard. It still had power, just stopped producing signal for the lovely amp to turn into noise. Bit of a head spinner, hit the mute switch on the amp, bypass the fx in the hope that will make noise happen again and joy of joys out comes the noise. Got to say this is the first gig with the EA iAmp Classic, what a ridiculously great sounding amp, and so much oomph, running on about 50% output it was just huge tone. Very hot in the marquee and this amp has no fan, the chassis got warm to the touch, not quite hot, other than that it was fine. Having said all that to make this amp last as long as possible I might invest in a small desk fan to keep airflow over it.

Honestly though the FX issue  threw me for a couple of tracks, moving out of the headspace of playing into the "fix this issue really fast, like right now" headspace really breaks me out of my stride. Still the band were flying, super professional turnarounds, crowd seemed to like it, nice to be on a decent stage, got back into it soon enough. Had a blast all in all

[Muzz]

1 hour ago, Monkey Steve said:

I feel your pain.  I've played a couple where the band have been asked to play because the birthday boy loves that kind of music...and it turns out that he's the only one

We were booked the other week by a chap in his 40s who'd been bouncing around Mulligan's Irish Pub in the city centre with his pals, chucking Guinness all over. When we got there. the gig turned out to be for his Mum and Dad's 50th wedding. It was in a room in the posh Lowry Hotel; there were 27 people there, of whom him and his wife were the youngest by some 30 years. It was all very pleasant, we were the quietest we'd ever been, but it was a bit like playing for your Nan...needless to say, we adjusted the setlist. One of those days where a flexible potential setlist from a lot of different genres comes in handy... 😕

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

We were booked the other week by a chap in his 40s who'd been bouncing around Mulligan's Irish Pub in the city centre with his pals, chucking Guinness all over. When we got there. the gig turned out to be for his Mum and Dad's 50th wedding. It was in a room in the posh Lowry Hotel; there were 27 people there, of whom him and his wife were the youngest by some 30 years. It was all very pleasant, we were the quietest we'd ever been, but it was a bit like playing for your Nan...needless to say, we adjusted the setlist. One of those days where a flexible potential setlist from a lot of different genres comes in handy... 😕

You never know when 'Come into the garden, Maude' and 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' will come in handy.

 

[taunton-hobbit]

25 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

You never know when 'Come into the garden, Maude' and 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' will come in handy.

You're verging dangerously close to Skanks territory..........

😎

[Muzz]

29 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

You never know when 'Come into the garden, Maude' and 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' will come in handy.

 

Well, not quite that, but we started with a quick huddle, during which we nixed the Rage Against The Machine and Muse numbers...oddly, though, Dirty Old Town went down like a French kiss at a family reunion...

[12stringbassist]

Following on from the bit of a meltdown I had the other week when I was particularly unwell and my band-mates decided to give me a stern and tediously long lecture on my bass volume, causing me to get all worried about the fact that I was struggling to hear my bass, while they weren't....

I have demonstrably rolled the bottom end off and haven't touched it. I think my sound has lost an amount of balls, but tbh, I'd rather have a thinner sound than put up with those two continually getting annoyed. My drummer would like my bass to have a distinct click to it, to go with his bass drum. He's not going to get that. It's not my style.

Anyway, the gigs since then have gone back to us playing properly as a team, with no complaints about my sound. This last weekend, we played in Todmorden at an amusingly named pub, which is the best live venue in the area. We went down really well, as usual. On Saturday, we had taken a gig on at short notice in a brilliant biker's pub in Southport, as the band who had  previously been booked by old management wouldn't confirm their gig. So we were rescued from losing out in a double booking situation. We went down really well and are waiting to hear about next year from them.

Sunday was our regular jam night. we are working up a set with a guy who's been on Stars in their eyes on TV as a well known rock star, doing a set of his songs. It's hard work as the songs are usually played by a fair old pack of musicians and there are three of us to replicate those arrangements the best we can. If it comes together, great, but it feels like we are rushing it to get songs together. We only really try things out when we do our opening spot at the jam night, so we'll have to see how it goes...

[51m0n]

8 hours ago, 12stringbassist said:

My drummer would like my bass to have a distinct click to it, to go with his bass drum. He's not going to get that. It's not my style.

Yeah, with my sound engineer head on I'd emphasise that the kick drum and bass should be a team, either one can provide the bottom end or the click that signifies the beginning of a note, but it is rare that you can get both to work the same way without them competing. So if the drummer likes a strong transient click on his kick, dont worry about that with the bass so much (don't try and dial it out, just dont emphasise it at all). Its about both frequency mixing and time domain, that click will be over in a flash, the bass needs to be there when it is to add the oomph to the sound. Obviously too much bass eq isnt needed (especially live where it will quickly muddy everything up in the average pub) just a good strong tone.

If you both have a strong transient you will tend to sound less tight as well because there will often be a slight 'flam' from the two of you, especially with grooves where the bass and drums are pushing and pulling the time feel in opposite directions. IME...

[JapanAxe]

Rebel Heroes (Bowie tribute) at the Old Court in Windsor - damn near sold the place out, over 2 hours straight through on stage, with a mini acoustic set in the middle = pure enjoyment.

As well as taking a DI from my Demeter head, the sound guy set up a cab mic. "I like Barefaced cabs" he said.

Other Bowie tributes are available.

Edited September 21, 2019 by JapanAxe

[leschirons]

Great duo gig tonight, just acoustic and vocals with lots of banter. Private birthday party we've done for the last three years for a venue owner. Great crowd but absolutely shattered before the start as only flew back to France tonight after a 600 mile drive. Then, a 120km drive to home, loaded up and then off to the gig.  Having a lie in tomorrow. The things we do for a gig😳

[FinnDave]

Just back home from depping for my old band, in a large pub in Marlborough.

Great to see the people I played with almost every week for five years, and to play the old familiar songs, but very few people there, no advertising about the gig that I saw. 

Having played only Grateful Dudes gig for the last year, where we always get very enthusiastic and knowledgeable audiences, the contrast was rather sad. We played OK, enjoyed ourselves and will get paid, but it was more like a social evening with music than a gig.

[Lozz196]

Just back from a punk festival type gig in Great Portland St, London. Two stages, with bands although not starting at same times, on simultaneously, we were on the smaller of the two.

The event was run very professionally, everything was spot on even to the security team briefing which largely said “they’re gonna look like they’re fighting, they’re not, unless someone goes down and isn’t helped straight back up leave them alone they’re just having fun”.

Sound was good on soundcheck, the soundman clearly a guy who knew his job, which always makes for a good gig.

So we went on at 8pm for a 30min set and it was amazing, the room probably held 250/300 and they had to stop people coming in as it was so rammed. The mosh pit was exactly as the security team discussed, frenzied but friendly and the reception we got was out of this world. We had people come from as far away as Chester just to see us, and the comments from audience members throughout the rest of the evening were nothing short of amazing. Quite humbling really.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Lozz196

[stewblack]

Formed a band from the ashes of a previous project and did our first gig last night. 

A wedding in deepest darkest Zummerzet. Lovely room, good natural acoustic, decent stage, I got to sort the pa for a full band kit, bvs, keys guitar the lot, which was a first for me. 

Sound was great B&G were lovely people dancing from the off. A great debut. 

[Stylon Pilson]

Had a great gig last night at a venue that we were last at back in May, with an audience who were really up for it, with people dancing from the third song in the first set! This makes a nice change to the lacklustre audience last week. As I was setting up, I was initially worried that my new wireless kit was dodgy, as I was getting a huge amount of white noise coming through it. Eventually I figured out that I just hadn't plugged the patch cable in all the way! Doh!

We had some technical issues during the first set, with sudden and terrifying feedback. I'm quite disappointed by my keyboard player, who was stood closest to the mixer, but seemed in no hurry to pull the faders down, rather standing there like some sort of dazed aquatic animal. The rest of us scrambled to diagnose it - I gave the lead singer my spare mic, as the feedback seemed to be being triggered when he spoke into his. Problem continued. I then gave him my spare mic lead - same. Tried a different channel on the PA - same. Eventually turning down the monitor volume fixed it. My suspicion is that the volume knob on his floor monitor got bumped and turned up a bit. The numbers in the room had (unsurprisingly) dwindled somewhat during the feedback incident, but we won them back in over the course of the next half hour.

It was quite difficult to get a satisfactory sound in that venue. It's a fairly large room, and there's no PA support for the bass. I did what I always do, which is to go out during the room during the soundcheck (hooray for wireless) and dial in a decent tone for the audience. When I got back to the stage, it suddenly felt overly trebly, with every little string noise unbearable. I turned down the treble a bit for my own (and my bandmates') sanity, and had to accept that the bass sound would be a little suboptimal in the room. Interestingly, during the soundcheck, I also observed that the vocals initially sounded a bit muddy out front, but fine on stage, so I guess that there is something about that room that means that all the high end gets gathered on the stage and doesn't radiate well into the room. Meh.

Our rehearsal on Tuesday was clearly very productive, as a lot of the songs that previously sounded a little concerning are now much tighter. I'm still greatly worried about our performance of Don't Stop Me Now though - it's lacking some crucial energy, and I can't for the life of me put my finger on what's to blame.

S.P.