How was your gig last night?

[cheddatom]

I didn't get any photos this weekend, oops! 

 

Headsticks gig at Sidney & Matilda in Sheffield on Friday night. It's a cool hipster bar with a proper 'orrible basement venue underneath. It stank of BO down there and I didn't see any ventilation. Perfect  Only about 50 or so people in but it's a small room so that was cool. Plenty of newcomers too which is always a good sign.

 

Sound checking my snare, the engineer asks "Is there any chance you have a drum key with you?" and I laugh and say yeh. He says "Do you think it needs a little tune up? It's quite resonant!". I laugh and say no. Then he asked if I always rimshot or if I play a standard snare hit too. I say both. He wants to know what material my snare is made of and what model it is... He gets to bass guitar, our bassist plays for 2 seconds, the engineer shouts "woooah, can you notch out 400Hz on your amp please?". After 10 minutes of EQing the bass from his mixing desk, he tries guitar. He's forgotten to plug the guitar in. He walks on stage to plug it in, but instead walks up to the bass amp and starts messing with the controls and asking our bassist to play. I think he got the message after a minute of that. I thought a fight was about to break out! Anyway, the gig was cool, even if the sound was ridiculously loud and bassy. 

 

Supporting The Undertones on Sunday at the Tivoli in Buckley. I love this venue, it's so weird. The manager (I assume he owns it?) was talking quite proudly of all his renovations, which were great, but when I asked him if there was a toilet with a lock on the door he was stumped. It's a big room but there were 300 or so in which is plenty for a great night. There were a few of our fans there but we went down really well with the others too, sold a load of merch and signed setlists etc. 

 

I've never seen The Undertones before, and I only knew the one song, but I was blown away. So much energy for older guys, absolutely rock solid performance (well, the last minute dep drummer might have struggled a little but we'll forgive him that), great vocals... they're just cool AF on stage.

Edited July 18, 2023 by cheddatom

[ricksterphil]

3 hours ago, cheddatom said:

I didn't get any photos this weekend, oops! 

 

Headsticks gig at Sidney & Matilda in Sheffield on Friday night. It's a cool hipster bar with a proper 'orrible basement venue underneath. It stank of BO down there and I didn't see any ventilation. Perfect  Only about 50 or so people in but it's a small room so that was cool. Plenty of newcomers too which is always a good sign.

 

Sound checking my snare, the engineer asks "Is there any chance you have a drum key with you?" and I laugh and say yeh. He says "Do you think it needs a little tune up? It's quite resonant!". I laugh and say no. Then he asked if I always rimshot or if I play a standard snare hit too. I say both. He wants to know what material my snare is made of and what model it is... He gets to bass guitar, our bassist plays for 2 seconds, the engineer shouts "woooah, can you notch out 400Hz on your amp please?". After 10 minutes of EQing the bass from his mixing desk, he tries guitar. He's forgotten to plug the guitar in. He walks on stage to plug it in, but instead walks up to the bass amp and starts messing with the controls and asking our bassist to play. I think he got the message after a minute of that. I thought a fight was about to break out! Anyway, the gig was cool, even if the sound was ridiculously loud and bassy. 

 

Supporting The Undertones on Sunday at the Tivoli in Buckley. I love this venue, it's so weird. The manager (I assume he owns it?) was talking quite proudly of all his renovations, which were great, but when I asked him if there was a toilet with a lock on the door he was stumped. It's a big room but there were 300 or so in which is plenty for a great night. There were a few of our fans there but we went down really well with the others too, sold a load of merch and signed setlists etc. 

 

I've never seen The Undertones before, and I only knew the one song, but I was blown away. So much energy for older guys, absolutely rock solid performance (well, the last minute dep drummer might have struggled a little but we'll forgive him that), great vocals... they're just cool AF on stage.

 

This might sound familiar. 

 

 

[cheddatom]

Honestly it was beyond comical. He had me play just ghost notes on the snare for a few minutes, then asked me to play the snare normally for a few minutes. Has anyone ever seen that before? He EQ'd each close mic for ages, then asked me to play with plenty of cymbals. No overheads or hi-hat mic, no vocal mics plugged in, and he's already EQ'd the close mics without hearing cymbals. And as for EQ'ing the bass at the amp, after he'd spent ages EQing it at the desk (with a mic on the cab and post EQ DI), I've never seen anything so ridiculous. Just undoing all that work at the desk. 

 

The FOH subs were so loud, I thought he'd put the tom mics in the stage monitors. He said "no, that's just the acoustic volume of the drums, you are playing very hard, maybe you could play a bit gentler?". I tapped the floor tom and it was on the edge of feeding back. I told him but I can only assume he thought it was my first gig as he just shrugged it off.

[ricksterphil]

17 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Honestly it was beyond comical. He had me play just ghost notes on the snare for a few minutes, then asked me to play the snare normally for a few minutes. Has anyone ever seen that before? He EQ'd each close mic for ages, then asked me to play with plenty of cymbals. No overheads or hi-hat mic, no vocal mics plugged in, and he's already EQ'd the close mics without hearing cymbals. And as for EQ'ing the bass at the amp, after he'd spent ages EQing it at the desk (with a mic on the cab and post EQ DI), I've never seen anything so ridiculous. Just undoing all that work at the desk. 

 

The FOH subs were so loud, I thought he'd put the tom mics in the stage monitors. He said "no, that's just the acoustic volume of the drums, you are playing very hard, maybe you could play a bit gentler?". I tapped the floor tom and it was on the edge of feeding back. I told him but I can only assume he thought it was my first gig as he just shrugged it off.

 

There are some sound wally's about unfortunately and this one looks like he's top of the pile.  

[Captain Bassman]

Brief camera phone footage taken by one of our singers from Sunday’s headline slot at a local music festival in Banstead, Surrey.

 

Great turnout - on a par with last year’s 30+ degree weather - despite the preceding days’ weather threatening a damp squib.

 

Fantastic line array and subs sound system courtesy of local chaps Sound Solutions (soundsolutionssurrey.co.uk). No affiliation btw…

 

 

[Mickeyboro]

Otis Jay Blues Band played an assisted living complex in Bournemouth. All good clean fun, got some people dancing in their seats and/or on their feet.

 

My Elf and Barefaced One10 kicked it in the outdoors, and I am still enjoying my recently acquired Flea bass. It almost plays itself!

 

Edited July 19, 2023 by Mickeyboro

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, Captain Bassman said:

Brief camera phone footage taken by one of our singers from Sunday’s headline slot at a local music festival in Banstead, Surrey.

 

Great turnout - on a par with last year’s 30+ degree weather - despite the preceding days’ weather threatening a damp squib.

 

Fantastic line array and subs sound system courtesy of local chaps Sound Solutions (soundsolutionssurrey.co.uk). No affiliation btw…

 

 

 

 

The sound is really nice.

 

Blue 

[BillyBass]

9 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

Otis Jay Blues Band played an assisted living complex in Bournemouth. All good clean fun, got some people dancing in their seats and/or on their feet.

 

My Elf and Barefaced One10 kicked it in the outdoors, and I am still enjoying my recently acquired Flea bass. It almost plays itself!

 

That must be about the most unsexy gig anyone could play.  If I was to find myself living in a place like that later on in life I really hope there would be people like you coming around to play.

 

Top blokes the lot of you.  Well done.

[dmccombe7]

12 hours ago, Captain Bassman said:

Brief camera phone footage taken by one of our singers from Sunday’s headline slot at a local music festival in Banstead, Surrey.

 

Great turnout - on a par with last year’s 30+ degree weather - despite the preceding days’ weather threatening a damp squib.

 

Fantastic line array and subs sound system courtesy of local chaps Sound Solutions (soundsolutionssurrey.co.uk). No affiliation btw…

 

 

Ooohh that was good, enjoyed that.

I can't help but think that array looks a bit unsafe TBH.

Dave

[Downunderwonder]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

bit unsafe

Bit of major overkill. It must have been hardly even idling. Unsafe for anyone's hearing if it had been cranked up fo' shua.

[dmccombe7]

34 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Bit of major overkill. It must have been hardly even idling. Unsafe for anyone's hearing if it had been cranked up fo' shua.

Just wonder how steady it is with the narrow height. The weight probably keeps it solid to the bass bins. Maybe they are secured in some way that i cant see. Possibly a locking mechanism once in situ. ?

Have to say the sound was spot on and really enjoyed the band.

Dave

[Captain Bassman]

54 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Just wonder how steady it is with the narrow height. The weight probably keeps it solid to the bass bins. Maybe they are secured in some way that i cant see. Possibly a locking mechanism once in situ. ?

Have to say the sound was spot on and really enjoyed the band.

Dave

Thanks Dave. They’re a great bunch of lads n lassies. Sadly we were missing 2 horns for the event but I don’t think it detracted too much.

 

The arrays were tethered securely to anchor points on the base plates that the bins were stood on, and again the whole thing was tethered to strong ground pegs.

 

1 hour ago, Downunderwonder said:

Bit of major overkill. It must have been hardly even idling. Unsafe for anyone's hearing if it had been cranked up fo' shua.

 

They’re a professional PA hire company so I think we can safely assume they know what size rig is appropriate to each event.

 

The sound was crystal clear and well defined at the back of the park, which would have been c. 150 metres away.

[dmccombe7]

47 minutes ago, Captain Bassman said:

Thanks Dave. They’re a great bunch of lads n lassies. Sadly we were missing 2 horns for the event but I don’t think it detracted too much.

 

The arrays were tethered securely to anchor points on the base plates that the bins were stood on, and again the whole thing was tethered to strong ground pegs.

 

 

They’re a professional PA hire company so I think we can safely assume they know what size rig is appropriate to each event.

 

The sound was crystal clear and well defined at the back of the park, which would have been c. 150 metres away.

I couldn't see the tethers but that's the way to do it. Sounds like a good company to know. Certainly a great job on mix.

Dave

[Earbrass]

Here's a pic from a gig I did a couple of weeks ago with gonzo morris duo Huginn and Muninn. I was playing the nyckelharpa, while Jess played a shaman drum. It was an album launch party at an East London brewery for the band Raven Age, recently (currently??) on tour supporting Iron Maiden. Apparently one of the band members is Steve Harris's son.

Hence the pic:

 

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Earbrass

[Earbrass]

The night after the above Huginn & Muninn gig, I was playing keys and weird noises with space-rock band Litmus headlining Friday night at Tannerfest, in Loddington, near Kettering. A few photos have appeared, but I am invisible in all of them. The email I received with this photo said: "Richard is represented by a glowing green stripe" - which is actually part of my keyboard stand setup.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Earbrass

[gafbass02]

Private function last night in a local venue we’re very familiar with. It was a tad odd though, cause our guitarist was away, so the engineer depped for him and our backup engineer took over FOH. The sound was odd all night, I was adjusting to a more compact board I’ve prepared in readiness for a couple of shleps/tight spots, and the room is like a giant toilet, so I was glad to be done tbh. 

[neepheid]

10 minutes ago, gafbass02 said:

Private function last night in a local venue we’re very familiar with. It was a tad odd though, cause our guitarist was away, so the engineer depped for him and our backup engineer took over FOH. The sound was odd all night, I was adjusting to a more compact board I’ve prepared in readiness for a couple of shleps/tight spots, and the room is like a giant toilet, so I was glad to be done tbh. 

 

"Backup engineer" - what kind of slick, organised outfit is this?

[gafbass02]

2 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

"Backup engineer" - what kind of slick, organised outfit is this?

It’s a nice position to be in  

The two of them had never actually met until last night, they swapped numbers and agreed to compile their own rota for shows from now on.  We spent some time deciding on a collective noun for sound guys before setting for a ‘tangle’.

Edited July 21, 2023 by gafbass02

[Muzz]

'How many sound engineers have you got?'  'Two...two...one...two...'  😀

[Jackroadkill]

Had a blast playing only the second gig in the band's history last night; it was my work's summer party, which meant that I was as nervous as I've ever been before a gig because if there's one environment you really don't want to suck in it's this.  Fortunately we played pretty well (although somehow I got lost in the guitar solo of Whiskey In The Jar - I know, right?) and went down a storm - they were dancing on the tables by the first chorus of the second song!

 

 

If it looks like we're playing in a cowshed it's because we were playing in a cowshed.  Weirdly the sound was pretty good, so I'll take that as a win.  They want us back for the same gig next summer.

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

 

[neepheid]

Back on the horse after a sad week, this one was for Chico 🐈

 

It was a cracking gig last night at the Butchers Arms in Inverurie.  Started off slow with about 10 folk but it built up over the night and the place was pretty rammed at the end.  In this week's episode of "there's always one", I can give you two!  Comment of the night - lady when told that we can't just play anything she asks - "well, you're not a very good band then, are you?".  Then there was the woman who wouldn't leave the singer alone - kept putting her arms around him, trying to kiss him, trying to steal the mic - whilst he's trying to sing the effin' song, what a pest!  This is not "rock and roll" - we're all married! Perils of performing at floor level, and why having a frontman (or woman) to hide behind and soak up this kind of nonsense is very useful

 

Played my Sire D5 at its first live outing and I am delighted with it. Got some nice growl and clank out of it. Quiet as a mouse (no buzz/hum), good as gold, happy to gig it anytime.  I have heard some say that the pickup is low output.  Well, that's what the gain and volume controls on your amp are for, yes?  I thought it needed a little help in the low end, it's very mid focussed (which actually makes it a great live bass) but I did give the low EQ a bit of a boost also.

 

Wilsons in Aberdeen tonight - lather, rinse, repeat!

 

[Richard R]

On 21/07/2023 at 08:24, gafbass02 said:

We spent some time deciding on a collective noun for sound guys before setting for a ‘tangle’.

 

Pinching that!

We have a tangle of four at church. 

[Stub Mandrel]

On 17/07/2023 at 08:41, stewblack said:

I get told to turn it down. The last time I used an amp in that band I literally couldn't hear myself. 

 

I have foolishly embarked on starting up a band. My brother has given me the bare bones of a pa (mixer, amp, cabs) so I will be in charge of the sound at last!

Edited July 22, 2023 by Stub Mandrel

[Stub Mandrel]

On 20/07/2023 at 12:00, dmccombe7 said:

Just wonder how steady it is with the narrow height. The weight probably keeps it solid to the bass bins. Maybe they are secured in some way that i cant see. Possibly a locking mechanism once in situ. ?

Have to say the sound was spot on and really enjoyed the band.

Dave

Yep, one look and it scared the s*** out of me!

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

Had a blast playing only the second gig in the band's history last night; it was my work's summer party, which meant that I was as nervous as I've ever been before a gig because if there's one environment you really don't want to suck in it's this.  Fortunately we played pretty well (although somehow I got lost in the guitar solo of Whiskey In The Jar - I know, right?) and went down a storm - they were dancing on the tables by the first chorus of the second song!

 

 

If it looks like we're playing in a cowshed it's because we were playing in a cowshed.  Weirdly the sound was pretty good, so I'll take that as a win.  They want us back for the same gig next summer.

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

 

 

Well done. Was this pic taken when you got lost in Whisky guitar solo as they're all looking at you. 

Dave