How was your gig last night?

[Lozz196]

Yep, Henry & the boys travel light to say the least, they bring guitar & bass, that`s about it.

[BigRedX]

5 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep, Henry & the boys travel light to say the least, they bring guitar & bass, that`s about it.

 

Not as bad as I gig I once did with The Meteors who turned up with just a guitar and expected to borrow everything else (including a double bass and all the drum "breakables") from the 3 support bands.

 

They weren't travelling particularly "light" is they also brought a van-load of T-shirts to sell!

[cheddatom]

Once upon a time we supported a big punk band at a venue local to us. They'd asked in advance (via promoter) to use my drum shells. I always think it's a bit much asking the support bands to supply kit but it was a good gig so I agreed. Their drummer turned up in a 2 seater convertible with a cymbal bag and a snare drum. TBF he thanked me for the shells, but then asked for a drum key because he wasn't happy with how I'd tuned them  

[MacDaddy]

13 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Not as bad as I gig I once did with The Meteors who turned up with just a guitar and expected to borrow everything else (including a double bass and all the drum "breakables") from the 3 support bands.

 

They weren't travelling particularly "light" is they also brought a van-load of T-shirts to sell!

 

Back in the 90's an old friend of mine was in The Meteors. But only for an afternoon, what with Fenech being an a-hole 😆

 

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

they would use our backline plus we need to supply the PA and lighting

 

Funnily enough we're supplying PA and lights and allegedly getting paid for it...

But that's because the venue was let down by their PA guy and the gig was due to be cancelled until we said we could supply our Yammy rehearsal PA - luckily we have lights to.

As for backline, I know they're not using my bass amp which is what counts 

It's only needed for vox (and vox monitor) anyway with perhaps a touch of kick.

[dmccombe7]

42 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

Yep, Henry & the boys travel light to say the least, they bring guitar & bass, that`s about it.

Not a problem if its all up front what the organiser needs for them. With our punk band our PA normally fits in cars but to take our full PA rig with subs we need to hire a van at £150 upwards leaving £100 between the 4 of us for supplying a full PA, lighting and backline plus we would need to be there early to set up and sound check for XSLF and we would be there until they finished. You also need a SE for the full night and he normally charges us £100 a gig. We would literally have been playing for nothing if not losing money.

If the organiser had been up front with what he needed from us we would have given a realistic rental for the PA etc. I just found the whole thing very distasteful to say the least.

We would probably have done it all for around £500 because it was a good support slot to get. Typically if we need a full PA of that size we would be £800 upwards depending on the Glam or Punk band.

Dave

[Lozz196]

50 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

Once upon a time we supported a big punk band at a venue local to us. They'd asked in advance (via promoter) to use my drum shells. I always think it's a bit much asking the support bands to supply kit but it was a good gig so I agreed. Their drummer turned up in a 2 seater convertible with a cymbal bag and a snare drum. TBF he thanked me for the shells, but then asked for a drum key because he wasn't happy with how I'd tuned them  

Similar happened to us (Knock Off) when we played with a high profile back in the day band, their drummer fiddled and faffed around tuning the kit, our drummer getting more & more wound up as time went on. Then they started sound-checking and he said it was the best he`d ever heard the kit. We did say to him, of course, that it was nothing to do with the tuning and all to do with the player........

[martthebass]

We supported a 'named band' a few years back and provided backline and PA in agreement with the organiser (this was factored into the price..).  No real issues but some space problems when the bassist wanted to use his own backline (guess he didn't like Markbass) which squeezed me out a touch.  I had to laugh a little when his Tonehammer crapped out half way through their set....

[cheddatom]

1 minute ago, Lozz196 said:

Similar happened to us (Knock Off) when we played with a high profile back in the day band, their drummer fiddled and faffed around tuning the kit, our drummer getting more & more wound up as time went on. Then they started sound-checking and he said it was the best he`d ever heard the kit. We did say to him, of course, that it was nothing to do with the tuning and all to do with the player........

 

Hah! It's such a subjective thing. I like a tight punchy bass drum, especially live, and especially for fast music like punk. This guy didn't like it that tight, he wanted more bottom end (even though there was a huge PA with subs!) so he tuned the bass drum down. It sounded alright for their set TBF but it kind of messed up mine a bit. I'm sure no-one in the audience cared and it was good for us in terms of reaching a new crowd. I'm getting quite adept at "sucking it up"

[asingardenof]

6 hours ago, Simon C said:

Thanks for posting the video.  It’s good to see footage of people playing.  And good to hear pubs in my hometown are putting on live music.

This was the second gig we played this month in Huddersfield (albeit the previous one was in Berry Brow) so there's definitely still interest in it!

[TheMaartian]

On 05/06/2023 at 19:59, dmccombe7 said:

 

...

 

Personally i prefer this pic.

 

I live in a small French resort town, 3 blocks from the beach. I see more of and better than that every day. You get used to it. Just sayin'. 

[Cat Burrito]

We (Deadlight Dance) played one of our local pubs last night. Nick (my professional other half) has been committed with family stuff for the last couple of weeks or so, so it was brilliant to regroup. We worked up Revolution (The Cult), Science Fiction Double Feature (Rocky Horror) and New Dawn Fades (Joy Division) as mandocello / mandolin arrangements. We also reworked our album acoustically. My absolute highlight was my 16yr old stepson (he has Down Syndrome and Nick is also his teacher at school) dancing away to our acoustic originals that he's seen on YouTube. Sadly, I fear I'm his second favourite member of the duo (!) but I think I still make the grade.

 

[dmccombe7]

43 minutes ago, Cat Burrito said:

We (Deadlight Dance) played one of our local pubs last night. Nick (my professional other half) has been committed with family stuff for the last couple of weeks or so, so it was brilliant to regroup. We worked up Revolution (The Cult), Science Fiction Double Feature (Rocky Horror) and New Dawn Fades (Joy Division) as mandocello / mandolin arrangements. We also reworked our album acoustically. My absolute highlight was my 16yr old stepson (he has Down Syndrome and Nick is also his teacher at school) dancing away to our acoustic originals that he's seen on YouTube. Sadly, I fear I'm his second favourite member of the duo (!) but I think I still make the grade.

 

Would love to see this duo. It just sounds like an amazing project.

Dave

[Bluewine]

On 31/08/2023 at 04:35, cheddatom said:

Their drummer turned up in a 2 seater convertible with a cymbal bag and a snare drum. TBF he thanked me for the shells, but then asked for a drum key because he wasn't happy with how I'd tuned them  

 

I don't like that he showed up in a cool ride and then wants to re-tune your shells. 😒

 

Blue

[cheddatom]

14 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

I don't like that he showed up in a cool ride and then wants to re-tune your shells. 😒

 

Blue

All part of the game when playing originals!

[Leonard Smalls]

Support to xSLF (IE Henry of stuff little fingers) at a pub near Gloucester...

We played very well, only one mistake where drummer miscounted a 6 beat rest as eight. Luckily I was watching him! We supplied the pa which was added grief and made it a much later night but at least we got paid!

Highlight was when the singer from the other support took his shoes and socks off and ran into the crowd - this was in the pub garden. Unfortunately, unlike me with currently seven dogs, he didn't have the turd eye. When he got back to the stage he complained about a terrible smell, checked his bare feet and noticed the smeared dog egg 🤣

 

[neepheid]

Weird, quiet night last night.  Meagre attendance, only sporadically interested in the music, sound was off/weird too - nothing I could put my finger on but my JC was misbehaving and feeding back when I had my overdrive pedal on the high setting no matter where I stood, it just seemed to take a dislike to being anywhere near my amp, the singer's monitor, the PA speaker, so anywhere really.  Used the OD on the tamer setting for the rest of the night.

 

When I say sporadically interested, there was one lass who was VERY interested in our drummer, sort of draped herself on/around him and mimicked hitting drums, mid song while he's looking at me with his eyes screaming "HELP?" - he managed to power through it until she was persuaded to leave the area.  There was this guy who came up to us, seemed interested, named a bunch of stuff he likes THAT WE ACTUALLY PLAY FOR ONCE, then was missing for most of the stuff he spoke about.

 

Like I said, weird night.  It was a case of grin and bear it, be professional, get paid, eff off home.  Hoping for better tonight - different venue, different town.

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

 

 

When I say sporadically interested, there was one lass who was VERY interested in our drummer, sort of draped herself on/around him and mimicked hitting drums, mid song while he's looking at me with his eyes screaming "HELP?" - he managed to power through it until she was persuaded to leave the area.  There was this guy who came up to us, seemed interested, named a bunch of stuff he likes THAT WE ACTUALLY PLAY FOR ONCE, then was missing for most of the stuff he spoke about.

 

 

Now that would have been funny to watch from an audience point of view but an absolute pain in the bottom for any band let alone the drummer. Shows the professionalism when he didn't just stop the song and tell her to go sit down somewhere .......... outside. 

Dave

[moley6knipe]

Good gig tonight with 4 Play (kill me, not my band etc). Singer only had one brandy and coke and it showed… way less cluck ups. Need to sort the guitard’s pedalboard and amp coz the volume was all over the place. I cranked the GK at the end and I NEVER turn up after soundcheck, EVER. Not a great sound - I’m gonna bring my personal vocal mon for an exclusive Aux 2 mix next time. 

 

But: played well overall and the pub (Blue Bell, Werrington near Peterborough) is a proper music venue. Lovely people, great room, excellent beers, crowd there for the music. Lots of compliments including for my playing AND tone (rightly so, Moley’s good tonight isn’t he?). So chuffed with that!

[StingRayBoy42]

Tonight - O'Neill's Harborne (again).
Good gig, good crowd - there was a hen do and an 18th birthday party in.
But the big news is I used my Thumpinator for the first time, bought from @fretmeister of this very parish.

Sweet Holy Moses, it sounded amazing with my MIM 70s RI Jazz - Thick, full, fat, rich, round, warm, sweet, PHAT... just glorious.
You should get one.

[dmccombe7]

Good gig with punk covers band Emergency Exit in one of our fav venues The Dreadnought in Bathgate. Wasn't exactly a big audience but we had dancers almost from the start. Feedback was good and at the break i was told by the singer that a regular band reviewer was raving about my playing. He then approached me and said he had seen the band many times but was usually too busy dancing about that he just enjoyed the music and never really gave a lot of thought to what the bass was doing but tonight he was in on his own and said he was gobsmacked how good the bass playing was. He compared me to John Entwistle and i made it look as tho it was just routine and relatively easy. 

Using my Sandberg MarloweDK into Ampeg SVT7 Pro and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Have to say i was fair pleased with the bass tone tonight. I could hear every note nice and clear. I had recently changed the strings to Elixir 45-100 nickels. That additional increase in D & G gauges seemed to make quite a substantial difference to the volume across the strings. I really like those Elixirs.

Dave

[moley6knipe]

@dmccombe7 - +1 on the gauge thing from me. I moved to heavier D and G strings on my fivers and I’ve found the same, noticeable improvement to balance of sound across the board

[uk_lefty]

Absolutely fantastic!! Played the Crooked Crow Bar in Leighton Buzzard last night. Played there in February for the first time and loved it, a real mix of people in through the door who were all there to enjoy live music. We had been looking forward to this one and it didn't disappoint. Sound guy was superb, got us set up with no fuss and gave us possibly the best sound we've had, and he was dancing away making a show of the lighting too. 

 

For months now I've not really played my Jack Cassady bass. Its a lovely bass but I wasn't sure it fit. Well. EBS Microbass ii to the PA, SWR Working Pro on stage for monitoring and I had a blast. Got loads of compliments on the bass sound.

 

Before the end of the second set the sweat was dripping off the ceiling. Can't wait to go back there. 

[scalpy]

Odd one yesterday. Local food festival at the racecourse and we’d had a tricky time getting the organiser to sort a definitive playing time, which was still changing the day before. In the end it got called earlier, causing us a headache trying to scramble the troops (11 of us). Then access to the stage was limited, having to drive through the public area with security grumbling like it was our fault- the promoter was genuinely surprised the drummer had a kit to set up, go figure. Said drummer then had an issue with his iPad losing all the charts so I spent a frantic 15 minutes airdropping them to him before we had to get on stage. The act before us overran and the promoter was still changing how long he wanted us to play for as we got ready. In-ears, which last week were absolutely perfect, were shocking and it really affected my playing for the first seven or eight numbers. I eventually got it sorted and the crowd ( not the numbers anybody was expecting) got into it and we kept them entertained.

 

Still, band on after us put their heart and souls into their set, only for the sound guy to turn the drums ON halfway through the song. The last song of the set. 🤦‍♂️

[Mickeyboro]

Benefit for Amnesty international in Bournemouth with the Otis Jay Blues Band. Flea through Barefaced One10 and Elf.

 

We had a dep drummer and guitarist - the mighty Robert Ahwai, who played for 30 years with Chris Rea and replaced Jeff Beck in the Jeff Beck Group (Hummingbird). He had been at college with our singer 50 years ago and, though they’d lost contact since, came down to do the gig gratis - good bloke and a fine player.

 

Turned out our drummer had seen Rob playing at Ronnie Scott’s in the 70s with Gonzales … small world!