How was your gig last night?

[Merton]

36 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

Another month, another working men's club. This was very Phoenix Nights. We all made some heinous mistakes during the first set, bit we were on it for the second and encores, so it ended up being a good night.

 

I got some great compliments on my playing and tone, and I'm loving this setup with the ABM Evo IV, Two10S and V7. One (admittedly quite inebriated) chap even declared me to be the best bass player he's ever heard with the exception of John Entwistle, which I'll take! 🤣 And the most attractive woman there by several hundred miles made a point of saying thank you to me for us putting on a great show, so that was just the cherry on the icing on the cake.

 

The only downside was not getting home until 12.30am, not getting to sleep until 2, but then having to be up at 6.30 to hand off @merton's broken amp to his sister. Fortunately Mrs Greg let me have a lie in until 10.30, so a good start to my long weekend.

Sorry about the drama llamas’ early visit! At least the gig was good 😎

[casapete]

Two great gigs for us this week. First at Billingham Forum which is always a great place to play with the audience

well up for having a good time. Then down to Burnley Mechanics, which despite the tricky load in is another one

of those venues that is guaranteed to be a good night. Capacity audiences again defying current financial woes.

Nice to have both of our cellists back with us, really does make a difference.

We're having some time off in May, then back in June and July with a vengeance - our usual dates supplemented

by some rescheduled ones due to recent band health issues, so looks like a very busy summer.

 

 

[msb]

Looks like a gorgeous venue!

[ezbass]

I seem to remember leaving a rather positive review of last Saturday's gig. I may have different feelings about it now, as I caught a dose Covid from it! 😤🤒😷

[stewblack]

6 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

 

Must... resist... don't... look... at... that... bass...

 

 

It's awful you would hate it

[mcnach]

7 minutes ago, stewblack said:

It's awful you would hate it

 

Thank you, you're a true friend

 

[WalMan]

A gig of two halves (aren’t they all!?)

 

PA fine in the sound check. Went on for the first set and no idea what was going on…stuff suddenly really loud then gone and our  sound guy having a ‘mare. Tried to start the first song twice, no joy so I just put the bass down and walked until it was fixed, sort of so the first set ok but I was not a happy camper.

 

A break and some fettling and the second set set went very much better. Good crowd dancing and singing along. Alan a happier bunny.

 

Slightly odd venue, large but playing out of a stage in the corner. Rather than stack the BB2’s like last week with a different & smaller band I tried them either side of the kit and at right angles to each other which seemed to work well

[dmccombe7]

Punk gig tonight with Emergency Exit in the Graeme Hotel in Falkirk.

Football crowds were in when we arrived and place was bulging at the seems. 

Quite a few left when we arrived and started loading our gear in.

By the time we started it was about half full but obviously a lot of the footie crowd weren't into classic 70's punk covers and it dwindled to about 30-40% capacity. Those that remained were the obvious punk fans that had come to see us and were really into it.

2nd set started at 10pm and a few additional punters came in including some mates we know from our Harley bikes. 

Used my Sandberg MarloweDK for the first set and it sounded good. Decided on the P bass for 2nd set and it was so much more full sounding and i really liked it. Some of the FB clips i've seen so far the P bass sounded amazing out front. I personally could hardly hear it as i was standing directly in front of my bass rig.

My wife said the P bass sounded a lot better, deeper and filled out the sound better. I'm still trying to get used to the wider neck and i occasionally miss a string  but hey ho its punk and i can get away with the odd mistook.

Comments on FB are pretty good and a few comments at the end were very complimentary.

Its obviously a target audience and not everyone's cup of tea. Hard watching a venue empty when you start playing tho. 

HB WB-100 into my Mesa 210/115 cabs sounded good but i did find i was running at quite high volumes with Gain and master at 12 o'clock, Bass at 2 o'clock and everything else flat. I didn't think we were that loud tonight to be honest but that was a higher volume than last week with Glam covers band to a larger audience of about 150 altho bass was active last week with Sandberg VM4.

Anyway got paid and all in all we played pretty good after a gap of 6 weeks.

Dave

[BillyBass]

A short set of 12 songs as we were the openers of a 5 band punk night, at the Friars inn, Hemel Hempstead.  Some of the other band members looked like they had started shaving, I think; so we were a bit out of place, being oldies doing covers and the rest were kids doing originals.

 

It was nice to play on a proper stage with a backline and just have to DI out and let the sound guy sort the levels out.  The other band members then had the privilege  of hearing my bass through the PA 😀.  

 

I took my G&L Kiloton last night; it doesn't bring the thunder like a P bass but it certainly cut through.

[Paul S]

Friday night, my blues rock trio Toredown played our regular 4th Friday of the month gig at The Shamrock in Ipswich.  Great excitement as I brought a mate along who was recording it with a view to having a live CD put together.   Holiday traffic on the A12 north was horrendous but we had left early enough to get there on time.  Drummer - who has the pa - hadn't had the same foresight and arrived at 8:15 for a 9pm kickoff.  Using my mates desk for the recording meant everything had to be done from scratch so it was a bit tight.  Especially as a mystery crackling through the pa was apparent - eventually traced to an issue with the mains socket we usually plug into which then meant fiddling about taking power from a remote socket and taping an extension lead out of harm's way. 

 

Anyway, all sorted, got underway at 9.10, so not too bad.  About half our regulars turned up plus a load of new faces who hung around until the end.  Place was never packed but I think they were collectively as enthusiastic and noisy as we've had.  Which was good for the recording   A few mistakes here and there but second set was storming, really great vibe.  A couple came up to us at the end and almost begged us to play at a blues festival they are organising in July.  2 hr set to finish the evening, food and drink provided, name your price.  That was nice.   

I managed to get lost when I picked up my car from where I had left it - there had been a shop fire and the road I needed to take was shut - I have no idea of the configuration of Ipswich and kept going round in circles until I stumbled upon a road that looked familiar.  By the time I got back we were pretty much packed up.  Bonus was the fastest journey home ever.

 

Heard rough versions of the recording yesterday and with just a bit of polishing it should be just what we were hoping for.  The main problem will be choosing which songs to leave out.  

Edited April 30, 2023 by Paul S
spelling and typos.

[martthebass]

9 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

 

Used my Sandberg MarloweDK for the first set and it sounded good. Decided on the P bass for 2nd set and it was so much more full sounding and i really liked it. Some of the FB clips i've seen so far the P bass sounded amazing out front. I personally could hardly hear it as i was standing directly in front of my bass rig.

My wife said the P bass sounded a lot better, deeper and filled out the sound better. I'm still trying to get used to the wider neck and i occasionally miss a string  but hey ho its punk and i can get away with it

 

I’ve always had a love hate relationship with P basses. I hate the sound on stage, my hearing seems incapable of picking it out of the mix. Out front though it’s just the best. I ended up going down the Mustang JMJ route which seems the best compromise for me - doesn’t fit the glam rock image though 😞

[Muzz]

Three gigs in two days for the very busy band I'm in - two pubs and an open air festival in between...which was freezing cold, the worst onstage sound I've heard in decades (I was just DI'd, but it wasn't just me - there was one sound guy and just a line check), but apparently out front it sounded (like the other bands did ) OK. Left the house at 3pm, got in at 1:45 this morning, knackered...

 

On the upside (I was at the Physio Friday for a neck injury), the 80s headless bass was nice and light and very easy to play with, and I've got it sounding good now. My gigging rig* is pared down to the lightest, most easily transported kit that still brings all I need, which helps an awful lot.

 

 

* Helix into Fender Rumble 12 (with 'proper' Eminence 12 in it) on a raised stand for stage monitoring - all the bottom end dialled out - and DI taken straight from the Helix, the PA does the heavy lifting. Easy.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Muzz

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, martthebass said:

I’ve always had a love hate relationship with P basses. I hate the sound on stage, my hearing seems incapable of picking it out of the mix. Out front though it’s just the best. I ended up going down the Mustang JMJ route which seems the best compromise for me - doesn’t fit the glam rock image though 😞

Oddly enough i feel the same way about P basses but if the sound out front is good with it i'm happy to go with it. I've yet to find a bass that does it all for me in any band but i can dream on about that elusive bass.

Both bands i'm in are basically bass drums and guitar plus vocals so the bass needs to have a bit of heft to carry the songs. 

Dave

[tony_m]

Saturday night saw an unexpected outing for Rascallion, replacing another local band who had been due to play at our favourite village hall venue, but suffered a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly a couple of weeks ago.

 

No major dramas to report for once, other than Mr Singer's 12-string electro-acoustic suddenly turning into an 11-string (cue 1001 hoary old g-string jokes). The onstage sound was probably the best we've ever had - our new monitor setup (an Alesis Strike Amp 12 on the far side of Mr Drums, and an HH Tensor in front of Mr Singer and Mr Lead) worked brilliantly and provided a beautifully balanced overall mix, while my trusty old Ashdown Five Fifteen minirig is doing all I can ask of it as far as personal monitoring goes. Made a few minor whoopsies here and there during the first set (when I'm usually a bit tentative anyway), but from the second song of the second set onwards things were really cooking and I could just let my left hand do its stuff without really having to think about it. 

 

Great response throughout from the small-but-perfectly-formed audience who really do seem to appreciate our brand of country-fried rock and blues, with a few up and dancing, loudly demanding an encore when we finished, and then demanding a second encore equally loudly - we briefly considered risking "Rose of Cimarron" which we only did for the first time at rehearsal on Thursday, but the chap who runs the hall was shouting for more CCR, so we went with "Travelin' Band" instead, and for once everybody remembered how the ending goes!

 

Next scheduled gig is an outdoor charity festival in July, but someone who was there last night has apparently now asked if we could play their birthday party at the same venue in June, so we're just waiting on Mr Rhythm to check his holiday diary before we say yes.

 

Couple of short FB vids here...

 

https://fb.watch/ke1m2DkVqD/

 

https://fb.watch/ke1tbXe3nm/

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by tony_m

[jezzaboy]

Played down in Ayr last night at a largeish boozer called Harley`s in the town centre with my ac/dc mob. Set up and had a soundcheck and the youngish guy behind the bar speaks to the guitar player. He tells us we are too loud and points to the noise meter up on the wall directly in front of the stage. It`s literally 10 feet from the pa.

 

Can`t go above 110 apparently so after much turning down and running a Marshall on the 5 watt setting, we get it on. Not too busy to start with but filled up ok. There was a dance/techno festival in the town last night and some plonkers came in later defo on something, heard the rock and after a few catty comments buggered off. Gig ended up ok and there was a disco on after us who was louder than us!

 

It`s a bit weird as it calls itself a rock bar and we played there last year and gave it some welly but people must be complaining re the noise as there are flats at the back of the venue. But I must say, I did take some pleasure in the guitar players having to keep the noise down 

 

 

[asingardenof]

On 29/04/2023 at 13:07, Merton said:

Sorry about the drama llamas’ early visit! At least the gig was good 😎

It's all good. Your sister looked relieved when I reassured her that this was probably the last time...

[BassFace1991]

Just got home from a run of shows my band Sour Tusk supporting American heavy metal band Corners of Sanctuary on their UK tour. Most of the shows were great. A couple had a very poor turnout frustratingly but that's how it goes sometimes I suppose. It was very hardwork getting 3 hours sleep some nights working and gigging but overall enjoyed it. Glad it's a bank holiday weekend to recover. 🙂

[Staggering on]

This is from last night with the seven piece swing band at a craft brewery in South River Ontario. We've played there before and it was a packed house, they ran out of chairs with 50+ enthusiastic fans taking up the whole space. We did our usual two swing sets and then I switched to tenor banjo and a sax player went to Bari sax to play the bass lines for our trad or "Dixie" set to finish off the night. We also had a vocalist for some of our swing pieces, a super singer that many of have worked with before and she brought a contingent of friends and added a nice change for our sound.

My bass set up (Shen SB 100 and Realist lifeline straight into our Bose PA) never sounded better according to some musicians in the audience and all in all a good night with the added bonus of six free craft beers each to take home! 😊

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Staggering on

[Merton]

2 hours ago, asingardenof said:

It's all good. Your sister looked relieved when I reassured her that this was probably the last time...

I’m sure we can find a Six10 somewhere down here just to *really* fosters them off 😀

[dclaassen]

Not yet a gig, but had a lovely play around with “Revival “…4 piece band playing mostly 50’s and60’s rock. Used the Dual Showman and MPV..worked really well. Looking forward to the opportunity to gig with them. If so, I think the fretless could get a bit of work.

[alant]

Saturday night saw us return to The Victoria Club in Aylesbury. Room is up stairs (no lift) so not a good load in and finding somewhere to park a nightmare.

Small audience, but we seemed to have been well received. Our drummer was not available so his brother depped and did a good job.

 

[Gasman]

Saturday night gig at the George Hotel in Castle Cary for Mustang Sally, a warren of a place with lots of side rooms for eating, drinking, carousing etc. We got the bonus of a party of very happy young ladies on a birthday party bash who joined in with tamborines, vocals and jumping about. Georgie our lead vocalist did her standing singing on the tables thing towards the end - a very cheerful and rewarding (in all senses) gig. We tried out some new numbers, no disasters , including 'Geno' in my sax set - must get the harmoniser sorted for next time for the full effect! The Bongo is a beast of a machine - just getting used to it now after four gigs tone & volume-wise.

 

 

[Woodinblack]

Local pub, first time with the dwarf effect pedal, only one issue! - we were in a little alcove which seemed not great but turns out it was great for sound, the PA was outside, we were inside, no feedback or anything, could keep the volume inside quite low. Its only our third gig with our new guitarist and it is going from strength to strength. A few silly mistakes but nothing major, crowd were good, didn't seem like anyone at the start, but by the end it was pretty busy. 

Effect pedal is excellent, very happy with it, considering going ampless soon and just going through the PA.

 

[Lozz196]

Must admit I’m thinking of the ampless route as well. All my gigs go FOH and all the stages have monitors so am looking into this and at the successes the various members on here have with this.

[chaypup]

Possibly the sweatiest gig I've ever played, depping in on a disco tribute at a pub festival in Glastonbury. Love the house rig too 🥰

Edited May 1, 2023 by chaypup