How was your gig last night?

[dclaassen]

On 17/05/2022 at 21:00, dmccombe7 said:

Bass sounds amazing and nice playing there sir.

Harmonies are fantastic. Really enjoyed that.

The lead vocalist reminded me a bit of early Judie Tzuke.

Very nice indeed.

Dave

Thanks for your kind words. It was a very enjoyable week with a bunch of talented kids and good friends.

[woodyratm]

Played my first gig since January 2015 last night. Was great to be back on stage. Few issues with my setup (posted here) but otherwise it wasn’t bad. Crowd seemed to enjoy - so that’s a plus. Got a few fun photos! 

[Mudpup]

Cracking night at one of the more local venues. Good crowd and we played well. The van with PA, drums, lights and half the backline got stuck in a crash on the M25 so was really late - cue world record set up time. We normally need to get started at about 7.30 for an 8.30ish sound check and 9.30 gig. The van finally arrived at 8.30! We were sound checked at 9.05 and just about had all the lights set up for the 9.30 start. 

[Earbrass]

Fun night at the New Cross Inn yesterday supporting Enquire Within and Call of Fenrir in an evening of viking metal and gonzo morris.

 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Earbrass

[zbd1960]

Just played in my first concert since 2019 due to Covid. Mix of Grieg - Peer Gynt- and Gershwin. 

[woodyratm]

1 hour ago, Earbrass said:

Fun night at the New Cross Inn yesterday supporting Enquire Within and Call of Fenrir in an evening of viking metal and gonzo morris.

 

This sounds like my kinda night!

[BreadBin]

Third gig for my current 3-piece semi acoustic outfit last night - in the Box Steam Brewery tap room, this may become a regular-ish thing. 

We now have a name and are really gelling as a group. We've gone with Aimless Arrows, adapted from the hawaiian proverb - an unaimed arrow never misses its target.

Hopefully one of our mates will remember to actually take some photos next time! We are writing new material all the time and may even develop a variation set with full backing tracks ie drums, keys, pads and strings etc as we are recording studio versions. Going to record a new and exciting piece tomorrow. 

[Bassfinger]

Gig last night. We all awoke yesterday to news thst our singer had gone down with a cold and ebola of the vocal cords. By utter chance, our singers neighbour is a singer in a different band and we all know him to at least say 'hello' to.

 

A quick bit of grovelling and he agreed to cover, which resulted in a frantic 90 minute technical chat and practice.

 

We made it very clear to the crowd - our home crowd - that he was an emergency backup singer in order to set expectations of any major musical clangers to come.

 

Except he knocked it out the ballpark with nary a stumble. About half our songs he'd never done live and had to use an ipad clipped to the mic stand for the lyrics but you'd never have known, he was that slick.

 

So many thanks to Simon from Band Substance http://www.bandsubstance.com/www.bandsubstance.com/Home.html for standing in and doing a truly first class job, and we hope Darren recovers quickly from his cold and regains his voice for our Jubilee gig.  Although I may have accidentally told the crowd you were suffering from a nasty STD rather than a cold!

 

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Bassfinger

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Played a dep gig last night for a band. No rehearsal involved, which is always interesting, but fortunately they are rock solid so it went smoothly. I think we were last in a room together in the mid-80's, so getting on for 40 years ago. It was an absolute hoot and I'm doing all over again in a couple of months.

 

Last together at the Thirst Aid Charity Day, The Castlemayne, Basildon ( '85 or '86 I reckon)

 

 

Last night at The Papillon, Southend. I don't think we've changed much at all 😂

 

[Mudpup]

1 hour ago, Bassfinger said:

We made it very clear to the crowd - our home crowd - that he was an emergency backup singer in order to set expectations of any major musical clangers to come.

 

Except he knocked it out the ballpark with nary a stumble. About half our songs he'd never done live and had to use an ipad clipped to the mic stand for the lyrics but you'd never have known, he was that slick.

 That's a warm fuzzy feeling when that happens isn't it :-) Well done.

 

We have a couple of dep guitarists that have worked out like that - never met them before and they were blinding on the night. They had obviously done a bit of cramming on the day and were really organised. They're like band family now.....

[Newfoundfreedom]

Played a really cool little bar last night (actually more early evening) here in deepest darkest rural Bulgaria. It's run by an English guy and they even have real English beer, which is a rare as hens teeth here. It's an old barn turned into a bar, with a decent sized courtyard out the back, and a decent PA system. Very cool little spot. I'd definitely play there again, or even go to watch other bands and have a few beers. 

[mcnach]

Interesting night.

 

The UB40 tribute band got hired to play at a nice midsize venue, but it wasn't your usual gig: it was a birthday party for the owner of the place. There was another band before us playing for an hour, and then us.

 

Our keyboard player had to rush back to Ireland due to family matters... so we were a little nervous: that keyboard plays a lot of very 'signature' riffs and sounds, plus he shares vocals with our guitarist. Still, we've done it before, and we manage alright with the horns helping cover a lot of the space the keys leave.

 

Well, it turns out the band before us had a keyboard player who is a UB40 fan. So we invited him to play and he did wonderfully. Yeah, it was different and didn't have all the right sounds, but it sounded pretty good. He seemed to enjoy the additional pressure, and the additional praise from the audience  We had to force him to take our money in the end (he was on stage the whole time, nearly 2 hours, and he made us sound better than without keys, so it's ony fair), which he refused initially... and now we may have a keyboard dep, which we had tried for a while unsuccessfully. Result!

 

 

[cheddatom]

another little festival for us last night. The sound on stage was a nightmare for me. I had to turn my monitor off. I assumed we were having some communication issues with the sound tech but I found out later that he just kept leaving the room

[Cat Burrito]

No pic but we played another slot at a local pub just before the weekend. It was enjoyable but I didn't think it was worthy of sharing... However, yesterday I met by Dad in my local pub 8 miles from the gig and a very decent chap came up to me and said he recognised me. He then bigged up my playing in front of my Dad. I was really touched. (for context, I am a few months shy of 50, not a teenager!) 😸

[Stub Mandrel]

On 21/05/2022 at 21:11, zbd1960 said:

Just played in my first concert since 2019 due to Covid. Mix of Grieg - Peer Gynt- and Gershwin. 

 

Excellent!

[dclaassen]

55 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

No pic but we played another slot at a local pub just before the weekend. It was enjoyable but I didn't think it was worthy of sharing... However, yesterday I met by Dad in my local pub 8 miles from the gig and a very decent chap came up to me and said he recognised me. He then bigged up my playing in front of my Dad. I was really touched. (for context, I am a few months shy of 50, not a teenager!) 😸

Such a great feeling when that happens. I am 65, and lost my dad just a couple of years ago (93). Savor those moments!!

[zbd1960]

My dad was never supportive of anything I did, so I'm envious of those who didn't have that experience. 

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, zbd1960 said:

My dad was never supportive of anything I did, so I'm envious of those who didn't have that experience. 

Unfortunately my Dad passed away when i was 22 after almost a year of cancer so he never got to see me play in bands plus it would never have been his kind of music.

I did manage to have a few beers with him a couple of times in his local pub before he became unwell.

Dave

[zbd1960]

27 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Unfortunately my Dad passed away when i was 22 after almost a year of cancer so he never got to see me play in bands plus it would never have been his kind of music.

I did manage to have a few beers with him a couple of times in his local pub before he became unwell.

Dave

I was 50 when my dad died of cancer. He had seen me in many concerts (and many other things) some really big ones. All I ever got was negative feedback. 

[Greg Edwards69]

Not last night, but day before.  Barking Bikefest, in support of the Tour Series 2022 cycling event. One of our singers blagged us the last (aka headline) entertainment spot of the day before the main event via his contacts with Amazon Key who are the main sponsor.  Really nice small scale festival setup in the middle of a beautiful park. Played on a temporary bandstand with various street food eateries and other stalls around us whilst community cycle races went on around the park.

 

We were down to a 4 peice from our usual 6. One of the guitarists is on holiday and our female singer came down with tonsillitis during the week. Luckily, our other signer handled it with aplomb. Provided backline was excellent (Ampeg PF500 plus Ampeg 2x10, Fender Twin and Roland Jazz Chorus) but unnecessary as me and the guitarist went direct via our Helixes (whatever the plural of Helix is).  Quickest set up and break down we've ever done. 

 

Set went down well, especially "Park Life". When else do you get the opportunity to play that song in the middle of an East London Park on a beautiful sunny day?!

 

No pay, but free food and use of a secure green room. Bonus points as we were invited to the Hospitality area with free booze, food and goody bags to watch the main event after.  Really good fun. The American Amazon contingent who flew over for the even really liked us. We jokingly said... " if you need a band for your Christmas party at HQ in America...".  I'm not sure if they were serious when they said, heck yeah, we'd love you over there for that.

Edited May 25, 2022 by Greg Edwards69

[howdenspur]

Afternoon gig yesterday at the Black Horse, Wigginton, York. First public gig since 2019 and with a new guitarist and drummer. We enjoyed ourselves and the punters seemed to like it too.

[dmccombe7]

10 hours ago, howdenspur said:

Afternoon gig yesterday at the Black Horse, Wigginton, York. First public gig since 2019 and with a new guitarist and drummer. We enjoyed ourselves and the punters seemed to like it too.

Interesting bass there @howdenspur. Is that a Fender Elite ?

Dave

[howdenspur]

29 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Interesting bass there @howdenspur. Is that a Fender Elite ?

Dave

Thanks Dave. No, it's a Fernandes FPM-80 from around 1981 (similar era to the Elites?). Think I was soloing the neck P most of the time, but the bridge provides an extra cutting edge.

Rod

[dmccombe7]

27 minutes ago, howdenspur said:

Thanks Dave. No, it's a Fernandes FPM-80 from around 1981 (similar era to the Elites?). Think I was soloing the neck P most of the time, but the bridge provides an extra cutting edge.

Rod

Does look nice.

Dave

[howdenspur]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Does look nice.

Dave

Thanks! Looks great, sounds great to my ears and balances better than any other bass I've owned.