How was your gig last night?

[StingRayBoy42]

TONIGHT!

The Cantina Band at The Vaults Real Ale Bar (dog friendly) in Knowle.

We play here a lot and it's always the same story... no-one's interested, a couple of dancers if we're lucky and a few "Nice one, enjoyed that"s at the end so I was expecting more of the same.

When I got there I found out it was a private party for a surprise 40th, the birthday boy's wife had booked us, she'd never heard us and hadn't asked for a setlist (we play a lot of rock covers - think Motorhead, Sabbath, McFly... that sort of thing) and she was asking the singer what sort of stuff we play. AFTER booking us (and after paying). 

Great, we're going to go down like a wet duvet.

Sure enough, the first three songs were met with an empty dancefloor and a deafening silence from the other end of the pub (where everybody wasn't watching from), fourth song a couple of dancers. Great! Then a couple more, then a couple more then suddenly the dancefloor's packed! Harumble!
They loved it - singing along, air guitaring, getting involved with the band (in a good way), Sweet child of mine nearly took the roof off (We got the riff in the solo right! That's twice now!), absolutely cracking set.

Second set was just as good, went for a wireless wander into the throng which went down a treat, Birthday boy loved it ("You couldn't have picked a better set"), three encores, a couple of people asked for cards... turned out to be a fantastic gig. A few more shekels than usual as well.

Dep drummer (chap from the other band) smashed it as usual. He took a pint off the barman while playing and didn't miss a beat.

Oh and the drinks were all on the house!

Usual setup for this sort of thing : Sterling -> Small (now slightly expanded with an octave and another distortion) board -> amp board (VTDI (set to SVT, sounds amazing) -> Thumpinator) -> Mark CMD121

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip on the way home, back about 1 for a Henry Westons Vintage (8.2% ABV - AKA The Much Marcle Methadone) and a Curly Wurly.

A decent Saturday night!

 

[dmccombe7]

Great night for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band in Dalkeith Social last night. Approx 200 there so that was good. Dancing from the start with a full floor for many of the songs.

Audience well up for a fun party night and that always helps with quite a few dressed for the occasion too.

2 x 1hr sets last night which was easy and leaves the audience wanting more.

Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless and Mesa TT800 amp and SW210/115 cabs. Little touch of Keeley compression more as a limiter than anything else.

Re-booked for March 2025 so that's good.

Its a fantastic club that have spent a lot of money on stage, PA and lighting in recent years.

 

On a side note and more a rant, 3 of us decided to stop at McDonalds on way home. I was last in drive thru qeue at McD's and altho only getting big mac meal i had to sit at the window for  10 mins. The other two guys had finished and one had headed home before i even got my order. Its a blooming "drive thru" why am i waiting 10mins for your signature burger. ? Experienced this a lot at McD's now so that will be last time for me. Burger was hot but chips cold and had obviously been sitting in the bag waiting for the burgers. Rant over. 

 1hr drive home on very quiet country roads. Home by 2am, had my coffee and bed by 2:30 ish. Back up 8:30am today for a trial PA set up with a guy that offered to do our PA for £100 a gig. We have a large gig coming up soon and thought we'd give him a try. We do know him. This is just to get things set up on his desk and make sure he knows what we are looking for. Starts 12am today so heading off 11am.

 

Club had asked if we minded a support band of young local guys called Chapter 2. Only 16-17 yrs old but they were good. 3 piece band Guitarist / singer, bass and drums. They turned up with little pocket amps too with the bass player having a tiny wee Orange cube so i asked if he wanted to use my Mesa rig into the spare channel on the TT800 and he was over the moon. Ran thru the amp with him but at that age you grasp these things very quickly. You could tell they were nervous but they did a great job and even had the courtesy of punting our band and thanking us publicly for letting them support. Really great bunch of teenagers. Don't see that very often these days. There last song was Freebird which took me by surprise as they were mostly pop hits or their own songs. 

 

Dave

 

[Jackroadkill]

7 hours ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip on the way home

 

I knew there was a reason I like you!

[StingRayBoy42]

2 hours ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

I knew there was a reason I like you!

'Angles' is such a fantastic album. 'Letter from God to Man' is just jaw-dropping... the way the vocals build throughout the whole song to the righteous fury of *that* last line is just... WOW.

Most Hip-Hop isn't my thing, but DLS vs SP are a world away from that 'Gonna pop a cap in yo ass' type stuff that I don't get on with.

'Home' by Spearhead is another Hip-Hop album I can't get enough of.

Any reccomendations of other 'intelligent' Hip-Hop I might like?

[Leonard Smalls]

We were in our new home town, Worcester, again (not that we live anywhere near, just that our last gig was there) playing upstairs in coffee shop cum bar cum record shop.

Arrived to find a room which would possibly fit 30 people in plus the four bands playing...

Sound guy had had it sprung on him that he was doing it that afternoon - he had no idea where the kit was and the promoter hadn't turned up yet (already 1/2 hour late!).

So as we were headlining I stuck my baby rig on a pair of redundant (and broken) PA speakers and sneaked off for a burger (a Five Guys one, expensive but streets ahead of Maccy D's!).

Came back an hour later to hear band 1 doing a soundcheck - they were due on at 8, but it was already 8.25. 

Then I spotted my old mate of 40 years who'd schlepped up from London to see us - so I basically missed the first band though they sounded pretty decent from downstairs.

Next band started at 2130ish - tight as, uptempo punky stuff with a slightly poppy edge, all wore orange jumpsuits, were called Guinea Pigs and are well worth seeing.

Penultimate band were called Paper Sailor from Glasgow - not at all punky, more metal but with melodic vox, bassman had an extremely battered Warwick which was good, they were a bit different from the norm which the Power Ranger suits added to - also well worth seeing!

We finally got to set up around 1120 ( we were due on at 11 or before), did a 4 bar line check then started our set with an extended bass solo (!we often do - it's a whole 24 bars with gentle feedback and cymbal accompaniment - nobody left the room!) and into "Buried Alive". 

Despite that late hour the room was about as full as it could be of peeps who'd actually paid to get in, some of whom commenced to jig about wildly which encouraged us to do an almost flawless and rather rockin' set. I allowed myself the conceit of believing this was solely and entirely down to a new Helix patch I'd made which was a very slightly overdriven and heavily gated meaty thwacky slap sound, which I made the most of by slappin'n'poppin' like a superannuated Flea Tribute. Our other bass player was so impressed that he grinned at me and gave me a lovely wave like Gareth Hunt in that old Nescafe ad.

The only mistake was at the end of Knockout which was meant to end abruptly on "3" but the drummer wasn't looking at me for his cue to stop. Still, nobody noticed I think!

And a particularly punky looking chap came up to our Raph at the end and pointed at me and said "is that a Parker? I didn't believe they actually existed but there it is!".

Managed to pack down and trolley to the car (£11,70 parking in NCP!!!!!) in 10 minutes so left Worcester at 1230, arriving home 1 hour 1 minute later (Google said 1 hr 19) in time for a wee dram of Talisker and a spot of Rupaul's Drag Race (!) before bed (and loud dog barking at 0630...)

My other gear was BBE pre, DBX rack compressor, Bridged Crown power amp and Markbass 2x10.

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, StingRayBoy42 said:

Any reccomendations of other 'intelligent' Hip-Hop I might like?

 

Saul Williams, Beastie Boys, Senser, Prophets of Rage, Akala....  It's a very wide genre, and I can't claim to be an expert.

[WalMan]

Great fun last night. Still a guitar down and I’m in a aircast for another 5 weeks but got through fine.

 

Arrived early as our sound guy had another gig on so we had extra to do and to make sure we could get everything connected and working. The pub was quiet to start with, but that was largely due to the earlier arrival and it filled up towards start time, and on through the evening (there was a big firework display on just down the road).

 

I think that I need a new cable for my IEM”s as they were cutting in and out, but then again I could also probably do with a better system all round so I was back to old school with one plug-in and one out for most of the evening.

 

Generally played okay with a couple of alien abduction moments for each of us through the night that we got through without major car wreck, and they crowd were well up for it singing and dancing all night. So all in all a pretty good session.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AVHmGogpi/?mibextid=UalRPS

[martthebass]

Back out last night with the glam band after a 4 week hiatus. Relaunched with a new name after a previous band member registered the old name and did a ‘cease and desist’ on us. Less said about that the better….even at my age I occasionally get surprised by the actions of others.

A big lively and local WMC, pretty full too so it was nice to be back on the pony. A pretty full diary now until January so onwards and upwards.

[Mikey D]

On 27/10/2024 at 11:29, alant said:

Returned to The New Inn in Buckingham last night. Started off a little quiet but filled up nicely later on and turned into a great night. Got two bookings for next year. Only pic shows our guitarist sound checking.

 

Literally just down the road from me. Not sure why I've not been there to watch any of the bands! I'll have to pop down sometime.

[neepheid]

Well, that was fun last night. Played Krakatoa in Aberdeen with The Inevitable Teaspoons.  We had a good time, but I thought I could have played better. Sound engineer forgot to switch back on the drummer and I's monitor because the previous drummer was using cans. So the first two songs (which we play back to back) were well ropey as we were completely detached (sonically) from the rest of the band. We were also plagued with onstage feedback - again, not our fault, sound engineer had got the monitor mixes a bit wrong. So our set was curtailed a little, had to jump to the last song and skip a couple, but folk were dancing around to our stuff, and the horn section were wireless so they jumped down onto the dance floor and got people excited by that. Got a lot of nice comments afterwards. Other bands were good too. Also a good night for equality - three bands played, one was 100% female, one band was 50/50 female/male and then the sausagefest that is The Inevitable Teaspoons!

 

The only pic I have is of our sax player's drinks...

 

 

Gear was the Sire Z7, into Krakatoa's house backline (a Markbass head of some sort into an Ampeg fridge (8x10))

[Combed20]

Fantastic gig at  Suburbs at the Holroyd in Guildford last night. A wonderful human being got 7 bands (including his own) to play his 60th birthday. We played 3rd to a very busy and enthusiastic audience. Our drummer has just retired due to tinnitus issues and we had a dep stand in on very short notice. Could have been a car crash, but I think he did brilliantly. Rig was my trusty P Bass, going through house combo and the debut of my new Sansamp DP-3X, purchased off our very own @NancyJohnson

[moley6knipe]

Not last night yet BUT - I just turned my volume up when no one was looking HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! How you like it geetards? I’ll win…. Mine’s bigger than yours AND the PA.

 

Let’s all practice together - “no, I haven’t touched it, same as it was when we sound checked”

[MacDaddy]

21 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

Royal Blues, at The Sindercombe Social, Shepherds Bush, last night.

We'd sent our spec 5 weeks earlier, but there were still not enough mics and stands. Fortunately the guitarist had some in his car. TBF there was just the one chap running things and he was helpful, can't fault him.

The venue bass amp didn't work, so I was DI'd.

First gig with the upright. Ibanez UB804 → wireless → DI.

At least for the soundcheck. When we were due to start there was no sound from the bass so I switched to a lead. The onstage levels were different from sound check and I couldn't really hear myself, which did affect my playing.

But apparently it sounded great out front, and the UB804 got compliments for it's sound. 

The promoter was happy, and we were approached by another venue owner who wants to book us. And there were a couple of 'industry' people who liked us too.

 

 

Meant to post the obligatory gear pic, which for this gig was just the Ibanez UB804.

 

[Leonard Smalls]

Pic from Saturday!

[MacDaddy]

1 minute ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Pic from Saturday!

 

Love the strides 🤩

[Chienmortbb]

1 hour ago, moley6knipe said:

Not last night yet BUT - I just turned my volume up when no one was looking HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! How you like it geetards? I’ll win…. Mine’s bigger than yours AND the PA.

 

Let’s all practice together - “no, I haven’t touched it, same as it was when we sound checked”

Never done that before 🤞In fact I did it at our last gig. It was at my local Legion and several friends were there. One, no musician but has a keen ear for music, said it was the first time she had really heard me and I was  good. 😀 Actually scrap the bit about her having a keen ear for music.

[Chienmortbb]

2 hours ago, WalMan said:

Great fun last night. Still a guitar down and I’m in a aircast for another 5 weeks but got through fine.

 

Arrived early as our sound guy had another gig on so we had extra to do and to make sure we could get everything connected and working. The pub was quiet to start with, but that was largely due to the earlier arrival and it filled up towards start time, and on through the evening (there was a big firework display on just down the road).

 

I think that I need a new cable for my IEM”s as they were cutting in and out, but then again I could also probably do with a better system all round so I was back to old school with one plug-in and one out for most of the evening.

 

Generally played okay with a couple of alien abduction moments for each of us through the night that we got through without major car wreck, and they crowd were well up for it singing and dancing all night. So all in all a pretty good session.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1AVHmGogpi/?mibextid=UalRPS

I sold one of your guitarists a stand, I do not recognise the player with the beard so I guess he must be the man down?

[msb]

2 hours ago, moley6knipe said:

Not last night yet BUT - I just turned my volume up when no one was looking HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! How you like it geetards? I’ll win…. Mine’s bigger than yours AND the PA.

 

Let’s all practice together - “no, I haven’t touched it, same as it was when we sound checked”

If it comes down to a pissing contest , I’m normally pushing 700 watts. I usually run it at around three. Before it gets bad the BL will normally call for the drummer to give us a rimshot , which is a cue to drop the dynamic. 

[chrisba]

4 hours ago, WalMan said:

I think the boot is a great look. I need to get one myself. Perhaps two.

[Boodang]

What a dreadful gig last night! The wrong gig with the wrong audience. Got asked to play an hour set at a halloween party, however turns out we were on after an hour of drum & bass from an overly loud DJ. After which an hour of punk went down like a led balloon. One guy sang every word of every song, so in my opinion worth it just for that, but the rest of the audience just went to the bar and waited for us to finish before going back to the duff duff moron beat of the DJ. Of course I’m in the minority here! Wrong gig at the wrong time really. Live and learn I guess but actually a good shake down for next week when we’re doing an open air gig with, hopefully, a good crowd. 

Edited Sunday at 19:29 by Boodang

[Lozz196]

Just got back from a Spacewasters gig at The New Cross Inn, SE London. Was a three day psychobilly event, we are on that scene but really aren’t psychobilly at all, more like a rock n roll/garage punk type band.

 

Great crowd for a Sunday afternoon, place was heaving when we got there at 5:30. We were on at 6:30 for a 40min set and it went great. No soundcheck, just linecheck but that’s fine with us. The venue provide full backline aside from snare & cymbals which makes things nice and easy, my CIJ Fender Mustang going into an Orange 4-Stroke amp & 410 cab.

 

We played really well, great audience reaction, excellent on stage sound. Gigs like this really make being in a band all that more fun.

[Woodinblack]

First gig in what seems like an age, but is actually 4 weeks of people being away. Was going to take my Bongo, as the last few gigs I did on the new OLP, but when I picked it up, it seems it has made itself unplayable for some reason, fret buzz everywhere, maybe humidity or something, a couple of months ago I did a gig on it and it was fine.

Anyway, took the Maruszczyk because that never causes an issue. 

It was a short gig for us, a two hour thing, we don't get those, and it was a nice 2-4 gig at a local village with no parking. When we got there there were two people there and said 'hope you are bringing people', so it seemed like it was going to be a bit of a quiet one, however, but the time we got setup, there were quite a few people there.

Sound setup without any issue (in fact the same settings as the last gig) and from the word go, the crowd were right behind us. Actually ended up being pretty busy and considering no practices for a while, nothing major disasters either!

 

[WalMan]

5 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

I sold one of your guitarists a stand, I do not recognise the player with the beard so I guess he must be the man down?

Probably. He hails from your neck of the woods originally I think, possibly a bit further on

[knirirr]

You may judge for yourself here. 😉

I made plenty of mistakes(*) but I think we didn't do too badly for an amateur band. The audience liked it and were pleased to have that sort of material played, and it was good to be doing it as a proper gig rather than a number here and there as the house band at a jam.

 

(*) E.g. forgot what key I was in for the first few bars of the first solo...

[WalMan]

13 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Great night for BLOCKBUSTARZ Glam covers band in Dalkeith Social last night. Approx 200 there so that was good. Dancing from the start with a full floor for many of the songs.

Audience well up for a fun party night and that always helps with quite a few dressed for the occasion too.

2 x 1hr sets last night which was easy and leaves the audience wanting more.

Sandberg VM4 into Shure wireless and Mesa TT800 amp and SW210/115 cabs. Little touch of Keeley compression more as a limiter than anything else.

Re-booked for March 2025 so that's good.

Its a fantastic club that have spent a lot of money on stage, PA and lighting in recent years.

 

On a side note and more a rant, 3 of us decided to stop at McDonalds on way home. I was last in drive thru qeue at McD's and altho only getting big mac meal i had to sit at the window for  10 mins. The other two guys had finished and one had headed home before i even got my order. Its a blooming "drive thru" why am i waiting 10mins for your signature burger. ? Experienced this a lot at McD's now so that will be last time for me. Burger was hot but chips cold and had obviously been sitting in the bag waiting for the burgers. Rant over. 

 1hr drive home on very quiet country roads. Home by 2am, had my coffee and bed by 2:30 ish. Back up 8:30am today for a trial PA set up with a guy that offered to do our PA for £100 a gig. We have a large gig coming up soon and thought we'd give him a try. We do know him. This is just to get things set up on his desk and make sure he knows what we are looking for. Starts 12am today so heading off 11am.

 

Club had asked if we minded a support band of young local guys called Chapter 2. Only 16-17 yrs old but they were good. 3 piece band Guitarist / singer, bass and drums. They turned up with little pocket amps too with the bass player having a tiny wee Orange cube so i asked if he wanted to use my Mesa rig into the spare channel on the TT800 and he was over the moon. Ran thru the amp with him but at that age you grasp these things very quickly. You could tell they were nervous but they did a great job and even had the courtesy of punting our band and thanking us publicly for letting them support. Really great bunch of teenagers. Don't see that very often these days. There last song was Freebird which took me by surprise as they were mostly pop hits or their own songs. 

 

Dave

 

Years ago we'd regularly stop for a burger or kebab on the way home. There was also one gig where the WAGs used to head off and get an order in at a curry house while we packed down. Said curry house even gave us a Christmas card one year as it was a fairly regular out of town gig for us  

Nowadays it's a spin straight home, forgoing the MaccyD's drive through, and cheese & beans on toast