How was your gig last night?

[WalMan]

Ended the year on a good one.

Highlights / funniest moments
[list]
[*]the nearly 2 hour second set & encores that were roof raising.
[*]Vocalist starting White Wedding with the words from Rebel Yell, so we went around the intro again, then he drew a blank and the crowd sang the first verse for him
[*]bass sounding good tonight, band generally tight
[*]the crowd as ever singing along to everything with great gusto
[*]getting through the night without the cramp problems I sometimes end up with because we play for so long and its really hot & sweaty
going up the dusty end of the neck - AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT!!! [i][size=1]mostly[/size][/i]
[*]watching a rather creepy guy being slung having known he was being watched, and seen him standing altogether too close behind a girl in the venue (regardless of how full it was) - closely followed by a downside as she went on and on about us doing an RHCP number even expecting to busk something/anything by them and refusing NO as answer (and boy did she go on!!)
[/list]

Sadly that is it for this year unless any deps come up - frankly unlikely

[tonybassplayer]

Trip up north for us last night to The Magdelens in Ripon

We played well and and it was well received with more bookings for next year but very quiet in the pub ( X Factor and shocking weather ?? )

A1 partially shut on the way home wasn't good either !!

[WalMan]

Last night was harder work than I thought!!!

Got home around 2 in the morning. Shower & a bit of a browse/post on here then off to bed 3ish.

Woke up from a mad dream, went to the bathroom, looked at my watch on the way back to bed & thought "bu99er 5am, I need some more sleep". Got up again around 7:30 as I was awake & thought "well I'll have a lazy day to catch up". UNFORTUNATELY it was 19:30 this evening not 07:30 this morning & I had slept pretty much 16 hours straight[url="http://planetsmilies.net"][/url]

Got to be up at 6 tomorrow for work. What are the chances of me sleeping at all tonight!? Slim to b'all I suspect

Edited December 6, 2009 by WalMan

[MythSte]

Well! We had a nice little local shindig last night. We dont play enough locally really but we've got loads over christmas and if this is anything to go by, its going to be amazing

Also Recently recieved a new bass in a Trade from SiBob and thought i'd give her a bit of a run out last night. Very classy looking girl!

[tonybassplayer]

Friday night and the Bold Privateer in Wrose near Bradford

A few steps from the car park to carry the gear up but a nice set up area sectioned off from the audience which is always nice

Very receptive audience that stayed all night and the new songs seem to be flowing better now and went down well

Looking forward to next weekend when we have three pub gigs ( Fri, Sat, Sun ) so quietly confident that we will be playing to packed out pubs with audiences really getting in to the xmas spirit

[OldGit]

Wednesday last: Visiting the in-laws in Bishops Stortford so popped into the Bishop's Blues Club jam night:
[url="http://www.bluesalive.co.uk/"]http://www.bluesalive.co.uk/[/url]

I happened to have a bass (and earplugs) with me as last time the house bass player had a Stagg EUB and although I can play one I much prefer jamming on a bass guitar.

This is a very different type of jam night from the ones I go to at home as the standard is very high and at the Bishop's you pay to get in, even if you are playing. And it's very loud. Lead musician is Eddy Angel, a top blues guitarist according to his [url="http://www.myspace.com/eddieangelblues"]Myspace[/url]. Brilliant player if a tad too loud in the mix.

My stint came later on with a scratch band made up of a teenage guitarist/singer, another very young man on drums and an older guitarist. I was very happy to plug into the house rig (MB LMII and Schroeder 1212L SO nice not to have to use a TE rig!) with my trusty Japanese P bass. Cranked about twice as loud as I get to play with my band (or rig) I could play a lot more gently and yet still fill the sound out as a platform for the guitarists and vocals..

3 tunes an about 20 minutes. The band gelled and cooked better than some actual bands I know who've who've rehearsed and gigged together so that was pleasing. I was leading the dynamics to add light and shade and the drummer was with me - a great feeling.

Everyone had their ears on and was being equally supportive and sympathetic to what the others were doing. It was so refreshing.

Chatting to John the house bass player it turns out he's Slobluesine on here ... Small world

Didn't get to play my harmonica though ... maybe next time

Edited December 13, 2009 by OldGit

[TheRev]

Didn't have a great one on Friday. It's a regular venue for us and we were looking forward to it but the singist had the beginnings of flu and our support pulled out at the last minute so he had to push his voice for two one hour sets. By the end we were tired and really struggling to inject any passion into the tunes. Plus, without a support we had to dig out some of the more jazz-type stuff, which didn't go down so well with the Friday night bar crowd.
I don't think we were bad as such, just not a good as we could be... Humph.

[Dread Bass]

Bit of a mixed bag last night. Played at the Central with an Italian band called tasters choice (sounded a bit like il ninoor whatever they were called), Martyr Defiled (Deathcore) and Bleed from within (deathcore ish) We were the openers. We were told our load in and sound check was from 6. Turned up at 6 and the headliners were sound cheking. We found out we didn't need to bring a kit even after confirming with the promoter 2 hours before ;(. All the power on the stage was changed to European extensions so we couldn't plug my board in. in the end we got a 5 min line check:( and my ACG wouldnt work so i had to use my Warwick. Played pretty good, Some people came to see us just to watch us which makes a change. Overall don't think we went down too well with the deathcore crowd as we play melodic death.

[OldGit]

Great gig. The trapeze stuff was good, the guy playing tunes and other tricks with ping pong balls was clever and funny, and the acrobats were hilarious.
Punters got up and got down and we got a lot of nice comments on the punter schmoozing bit afterwards ..

Hilarious comment of the evening: "Sure, setup on the stage and sound check, then take it all off so we can do the circus bits, then put it all back up. Is that OK?"

Of course it is.

Edited December 18, 2009 by OldGit

[Ou7shined]

Ah yes you can't beat a bit of the old "tricks with ping pong balls" to liven up a turn.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Ou7shined' post='688024' date='Dec 18 2009, 09:04 AM']Ah yes you can't beat a bit of the old "tricks with ping pong balls" to liven up a turn. [/quote]

Oh yes ... I think he was aware of his international colleagues

[tonybassplayer]

Friday night was the Cross Keys in Morley and after a literally empty pub sound check things were not looking too good but people started drifting in and by the start of the first set we had a reasonable crowd to play to considering the horrendous weather outside.

We had a young local lad called Dylan playing a few numbers as support and he is going to be a star of the future. He has now "opened" for us a few times locally and I would definitely recommend it as he brings lots of friends and family with some staying just for our first set and others all night so it's good to help the bar takings as well.

Second set and things livened up more and by the time midnight came and we were on the first encore the landlady requested "Do You Love Me" from Dirty Dancing ( me and the singer have played the pub in previous band Soul7 and always finished with this ) we duly obliged and the place went crazy so we continued the theme with Twist and Shout, Lulu's Shout, Merry Xmas Everybody and then finished on Living on a Prayer and Paradise City !!

Great pub and brilliant start to our three part Xmas weekend gig schedule !!

[john_the_bass]

Last night not too bad. Was a wedding so left the house at 12 to go and load up and then be at the venue for 2pm. Set the gear up then had to break it down again for the DJ (who had the biggest rig for a small hall you've ever seen) then put it all back up again. Eventually got home at 5pm. Went back out to the venue for 8 o'clock for a 9pm start, went on late but lots of dancing, followed by what appeared to be the local air guitar championships when we played Johnny B Goode. Guests started leaving about quarter to eleven after our second set - noticed the dancefloor for the second set was a bit sparse and realised the venue staff had brought cheese and biscuits out so everybody was sitting down eating again!
Played Slade's Merry Christmas as a closer, too a direct hit in the mouth from a mic after my stand was whacked by some clumsy fool and got home at half 1. Bride said after her dress it was the best money she'd spent

[krispn]

Played my first gig with a new band last night

www.jumppressa.com

There are 6 of us with guitars changes (acoustics, electrics with altered tuning) keys, 3 vocal, 3 guitars etc. so you can imagine how thrilled the sound guy was

One band were kicked out due to their drummer being under age and collared by the bouncers when seen drinking some contraband and then a 2nd band didnt play for reasons still unknown......

So all in all a good show - decent crowd and no doubt would have been bigger had the other two bands actually played.

I was trying out a new rig (see signature) and it was totally reliable, great tone and presence on stage and the sound guy was pleased. Threw in a few christmas covers given the JPA twist and they sounded great.

If any of you cats are around Edinburgh in Feb come check us out - dates to be confirmed.

I would like to mention the promoter, who's name I shall exclude as it could have been an off night for them, who really, having spoke to them, should know better. Gig was under promoted, not in any listings papers sites and while they said the venue had a responsibility to do that and thats why they paid the venue why take that chance? Im standing there last night trying to understand why having brought 30- 40 ppl to watch the gig we come away making a loss! Then running over how they had poor communication, didnt help co-ordinate back line and then tried calling us literally as we arrived with the bass rig to say there was a bass combo on site. They 'didn't know' if there would be a sound check even though we sent them a list of our set up, explaining about acoustic guitar and keys needing DI etc. expecting them to have forwarded this to the venue sound guy. Said the venue had changed sound guy but never though to get his email or phone number and make contact ( they arrange gigs in this place all the time) Then had the cheek to say we ran over by 5 mnutes on our set - this is after 2 bands pulled out and they had an hour to fill!!!

To all would be promoters don't expect anyone to do promotion on your behalf - if the listing sites get the same info twice then your sure that your gig will be promoted - if those same papers don't get any then your gig will not be promoted and you WILL lose money. Band appreciate good communication and if you can offer to help co-ordinate things then do - most bands will network among themselves and left to their own devices will manage back line themselves if the venue doesn't

Still gig went well but why should we have to put up with inept promoters.

Edited December 20, 2009 by krispn

[yorks5stringer]

A 50th Birthday Party in Helperby Village Hall, near Borobridge, North Yorkshire.
As we departed the main road from Borobridge, the snow started to come down, even though was only 5 miles to the village, it was very scary.
Luckily the snow then stopped.
The host assured us it would be nearly all his friends and age group, but 2/3 of the audience were 20 somethings, his daughters friends all dressed to the theme,"The 60's". Lots of groovy Austin Powers and gals in white plastic boots.....
Our set was around 10 x 60's songs (BTW, he only told us on Weds it was a 60's theme), the rest were more modern. We debuted "New York" by Paloma Faith, we all learnt it at home then a quick soundcheck, and into the set!
It was good to have people up and dancing, thorugh most of the first and all of the second set.
Last song before the encore was Last Christmas by Wham, this saw us wearing our Christmas hats and in my case a Santa Hat/beard combo, that was very warm!
The host runs a hog roast business, 2/3 of the way through the first set he came onto the stage whilst we were playing to tell the guitarist "Don't worry, there is plenty of food left!"WTF
There was in fact virtually 2/3 of a pig left at the end: I asked what would happen to it, was told it would be thrown. Shame it could not have been taken down to a homeless charity or something but the weather/roads were very treacherous.
We had a different dep in on drums, he added some nice BV's and it keeps me on my toes.
Next gig NYE at a restuarant, can anyone see a theme developing......?

Edited December 20, 2009 by yorks5stringer

[Higgie]

Had a gig on friday depping for a mate of mine (Ziggydolphinboy on here) at The Bull in Colchester. Had a wicked night, the place was rammed. Although some stupid drunken bint fell over and threw the remainder of her drink all over my Pedaltrain!! I was tempted to knock her back down to the floor once she got up!! Some quick work with a towel and all was well again, luckily nothing damaged.

Last night had a gig with my own band [url="http://www.myspace.com/tornband"]Torn[/url] at the Valentine in Gants Hill. None of my mates could make it so I expected the place to be empty, but it was also rammed like the night before, we had a terrific gig and the place went wild when we went into Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody as the final number. There are photos from the gig at [url="http://www.livebandphotos.com/Torn"]http://www.livebandphotos.com/Torn[/url] If you scroll down and click the "most recent pictures" button you can see them from the beginning. I was playing my JV Squier P and my Musicman Stingray through the Aguilar rig and the sound was awesome

[thunderbird13]

First gig with a new band on Saturday night and not really a great expereince - only 4 people turned up, the sound engineer cut the sound 3 times ( ! ) and it was bloody cold as well. Spent half the gig staring at Muse videos being played on the screen behind the bar. Still saves us £45 for a rehearsal and I had a curry afterwards !

[tonybassplayer]

Last Saturday at the Old Pack Horse in Cleckheaton and it was not looking good at 6.30 pm with heavy snow coming down and as the pub is in the process of changing hands they had done no publicity at all ( not even put the posters up I took them two weeks previously !! )

I was half expecting a complete washout ( and to be honest I wouldn't have blamed anyone for not going out that night ) but with ten minutes before the first set the pub started filling up with loads of friends and family I had invited and we ended up having a brilliant night.

Finished with Slades Merry Xmas Everybody which went down a storm

[ben604]

Just done our first covers gig for a mates 30th in a nice little coffee shop in the centre of Liverpool and I'm absolutely exhausted!

Loaded in Friday night at 7, set up and soundchecked today at 5.30 and did two half our sets:

Audioslave - Cochise
Stereophonics - Vegas Two Times
Sabbath - Paranoid
Supergrass - Richard III
Zepp - Immigrant Song
Stones - Gimmie Shelter
AC/DC - Highway to Hell
Wolfmother - Woman

Bad Company - Feel like Making Love
Hendrix - Hey Joe / Voodoo Chile
Kings of Leon - Molly's Chambers
Foos - The Pretender
ZZ Top - La Grange
Deep Purple - Black Night
AC/DC - Back in Black
Queen - Tie your Mother Down

Went really well, probably couldnt have played it better and we're all mightily relieved! It's hard to guage how good you're recieved when you play to your mates are they're more likely to be positive than negative, but I know we've got work to do and there were some honest and frank comments about certain songs! I've got to start learning to sing more songs while playing, no mean feat.

Also gave us an idea of what the average person will respond to, so we'll start to pick songs which should in theory go down well (but still within our parameters - ie. if we get that "Summer of '69" vibe about a song, we dont play it!)

Anyway, I'm going to try and sleep, but with all this adrenalin buzzing about me and that post-gig ringing in my ears, I'll probably struggle...

[deathpanda]

I did a gig last night, a commemorative event for my uncle. It was my first proper gig, I was bricking it and it showed in my playing ): I know it's supposed to come with experience, but I've done about 5 smaller gigs now and I've always been overcome with nerves. I just can't act the way I do in the rehearsal room when I'm on stage... I managed to fit in some autistic head bobbing and foot tapping, but I just felt awkward. It's a shame 'cos I was excited to do it, and I really wanna be able to show everyone what I've got when I'm up there...

[Malc62]

Solo gig last night (guitar and lap-top) not far from where the darts championships take place every year. Highlights of the gig were (1) a middle-aged Welsh woman flashing her t**s at me and (2) getting paid.

Now you see why I need to get back out there playing bass in a band.

[leonshelley01]

Just played in a Battle of the Bands type affair. Didn't get through (didn't expect to as it was one pint, one vote and we didn't go mob handed) but a good night as we've been offered a few gigs at some local venues. Bloody sound limiter box was a pain in the harris though... drummers always trip them!

[Clarky]

Having low expectations can really mean a gig surprises positively. We played The Grosvenor in Stockwell, South London tonight. Grotty area with a boarded up row of flats oppsoite that at one point had barbed wire over the windows!

But the pub had a great music room with decent-ish backline (for bass, Hartke hybrid amp and Ashdown 6x10 cab; guitar got a Marshall combo). More to the point it pulled in a decent crowd of appreciative people who cheered loudly, spurred us on to play pretty well (if I say so myself) and we even got an encore. Then we went to get a drink and the pub was still serving when we left at 1am! Cool

[niceguyhomer]

Did my first gig with The Silver Dogs at The Playhouse 2 in Shaw last night - the theatre was about two thirds full which wasn't bad considering the fog.

We were all a bit nervous after a nightmare sound check but in the end we went down really well. Here's a shaky pic..

[Cat Burrito]

Just got back from Stoke Newington where I did what was my first gig since I had chemo last month. Awesome fun and it's great to be back in the saddle again.