How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

22 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

Again?  You've got me nervous now - my only plan B is DI from the pedalboard into the PA.  Perhaps I should invest in a wee backup amp...

I used to always carry a small 300W Markbass head in my bag. Nowadays i use my Ampeg SVT7 as a back up for my Mesa.

[BigRedX]

29 minutes ago, Rayman said:

My bad luck with amps continues though…. the Ashdown ABM500 head went pop on me, again, so thankfully my trusty little TC BQ500 stepped in. A great sound all around in the end.

 

Why does this happen? In 50 years of playing amplified music I have had a grand total of 2 amps go wrong:

1. was down to a design fault on the amp (Ashdown Superfly) a badly made piece of crap and one of the reasons why I will never own another Ashdown product.

2. was user error when I mistakenly plugged both sides of a stereo power amp into the same cab and let out the magic smoke.

 

Anything that was properly made and not subject to user stupidity has performed perfectly for all the time I have owned it.

[Rayman]

I wish I knew? Dave Green has just serviced it literally a couple of months ago. This was the first moment I turned it on since getting it back. It flashed, and tripped half the board in the venue. So, there’s something not right in there somewhere.

[stewblack]

For no obvious, defensible, or even remotely sensible reason I decided to haul my Bugera Nuke to my Bandeoke gig last night. The venue is big enough but not huge, there's a full PA in situ. 

As it transpired the decision was fully justified. Sound engineer didn't show, we managed to get some mics working but the backline didn't go through front of house.

So I got to enjoy playing at a decent volume and really feel the bass going through me. It was joyful.

I used the Nuke biamped with the higher end going to two 2x8s and the low to two 1x10s. There's a control which operates like a tilt shift, once the equipment is sorted it's so simple to bias in favour of the upper or lower frequencies, and the crossover point can also be moved to suit.

As usual the place was packed with semi clad nubiles all having a great time. I however had my eyes firmly fixed on the music so headed home with a clear conscience.

 

 

Edited Friday at 14:17 by stewblack

[Jackroadkill]

7 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Nowadays i use my Ampeg SVT7 as a back up for my Mesa.

 

Blimey, Dave - remind me never to spill your pint!

[stewblack]

From the sublime...after my Nuke night yesterday, today I've gone for ...

 

[dmccombe7]

8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

Why does this happen? In 50 years of playing amplified music I have had a grand total of 2 amps go wrong:

1. was down to a design fault on the amp (Ashdown Superfly) a badly made piece of crap and one of the reasons why I will never own another Ashdown product.

2. was user error when I mistakenly plugged both sides of a stereo power amp into the same cab and let out the magic smoke.

 

Anything that was properly made and not subject to user stupidity has performed perfectly for all the time I have owned it.

The only amp i've had that failed in over 40+ yrs of playing was an Ampeg SVT4 Pro that kept cutting out with intermittent faults. This was found to be poor soldering joints around the valve bases that was an easy fix for a decent tech but i lost faith in it. It never actually failed completely during a gig tho.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, stewblack said:

For no obvious, defensible, or even remotely sensible reason I decided to haul my Bugera Nuke to my Bandeoke gig last night. The venue is big enough but not huge, there's a full PA in situ. 

As it transpired the decision was fully justified. Sound engineer didn't show, we managed to get some mics working but the backline didn't go through front of house.

So I got to enjoy playing at a decent volume and really feel the bass going through me. It was joyful.

I used the Nuke biamped with the higher end going to two 2x8s and the low to two 1x10s. There's a control which operates like a tilt shift, once the equipment is sorted it's so simple to bias in favour of the upper or lower frequencies, and the crossover point can also be moved to suit.

As usual the place was packed with semi clad nubiles all having a great time. I however had my eyes firmly fixed on the music so headed home with a clear conscience.

 

 

Nice rig there. 👍

Dave

[Lozz196]

I’ve had one amp sort of stop working. A Marshall MB450 two-channel head, Modern solid state channel and a valve in the preamp Classic channel. I always used the Classic and at a gig it stopped working, switched over to Modern to get through the gig, turned out to be the valve had worked its way loose so an easy fix.

[dmccombe7]

52 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Blimey, Dave - remind me never to spill your pint!

Not sure what you mean but i'm guessing there is an element of fun and sarcasm.. Being old these days, sometimes i'm a bit slow on the joke uptake. 

Dave

[Chienmortbb]

6 hours ago, stewblack said:

I however had my eyes firmly fixed on the music so headed home with a clear conscience.

Call yourself a musician?

[Jackroadkill]

38 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Not sure what you mean but i'm guessing there is an element of fun and sarcasm.. Being old these days, sometimes i'm a bit slow on the joke uptake. 

Dave

 

I mean you'd be a big strong lad lugging that lot about - round here we'd say "I wouldn't spill his pint" meaning "I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him".  Only fun intended, sir.

[dmccombe7]

39 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

I mean you'd be a big strong lad lugging that lot about - round here we'd say "I wouldn't spill his pint" meaning "I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of him".  Only fun intended, sir.

Aha i see what you mean now. I did say i was old and slow 

Ach not at all, i'm just a nice calm auld fella that plays bass.

Its a Mesa TT800 and SVT7 both lightweight both pinky lifts but all those visits to the gym over past 3-4yrs are paying off after all. 

Cabs are both lightweight too at 20Kg each. One in each hand load ins.

Dave

[Mickeyboro]

When I last owned a Trace combo I had to enlist the drummer to help me put it in my car boot. 
 

As I now own an Elf I think you can safely spill my pint! 🍺 

[Stub Mandrel]

Bendricks Rock played the Railway in Llandaff last night. Quite a compact space! I left the setlists on my printer plus we had to add in several songs to compensate for an 8:30 start. This meant some conferring between songs which affected the flow a bit, plus a couple of false starts (no the guitar starts paranoid not the drums...)

 

We had a modest but highly appreciative audience and went down well. Manager very pleased and we got booked again for next year, but outside in the summer. Plus the owner got in touch and has asked us to play a bigger venue he's opening in the valleys where our rock set should go down well.

[Boodang]

We organised Islamabad's biggest (and only!) open air music festival this weekend. Actually a very modest affair, I got 5 bands to play (there's only 6 bands here!), food vendors and fireworks although we couldn't do a bonfire as the pollution is so bad at the moment we were told we couldn't add to it. We held it on our football pitch and sold 300 tickets, for here not a bad turn out. Plus we put out bouncy castles and stuff for the kids, so quite chilled out.

I'm in three of the bands, only hiccup was our punk band had to drop out at the very minute as our guitarist ended up in hospital with an IV for fluids... a bad case of 'pak-attack' that left him dangerously dehydrated. The Hendrix band went down particularly well as did our soul-blues band, had loads of fun playing those sets. Finished off the night with a band that uses backing tracks and plays all the disco hits. A great way to finish the evening with plenty of dancing and went for two and half hours straight. They're real pros, they get the audience going and keeping the energy there. 

[dmccombe7]

11 minutes ago, Boodang said:

We organised Islamabad's biggest (and only!) open air music festival this weekend. Actually a very modest affair, I got 5 bands to play (there's only 6 bands here!), food vendors and fireworks although we couldn't do a bonfire as the pollution is so bad at the moment we were told we couldn't add to it. We held it on our football pitch and sold 300 tickets, for here not a bad turn out. Plus we put out bouncy castles and stuff for the kids, so quite chilled out.

I'm in three of the bands, only hiccup was our punk band had to drop out at the very minute as our guitarist ended up in hospital with an IV for fluids... a bad case of 'pak-attack' that left him dangerously dehydrated. The Hendrix band went down particularly well as did our soul-blues band, had loads of fun playing those sets. Finished off the night with a band that uses backing tracks and plays all the disco hits. A great way to finish the evening with plenty of dancing and went for two and half hours straight. They're real pros, they get the audience going and keeping the energy there. 

You have some really interesting gigs @Boodang

Dave

[stewblack]

23 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Nice rig there. 👍

Dave

Sounded amazing. Such clarity, such power.

[Stub Mandrel]

59 minutes ago, Boodang said:

We organised Islamabad's biggest (and only!) open air music festival this weekend. Actually a very modest affair, I got 5 bands to play (there's only 6 bands here!), food vendors and fireworks although we couldn't do a bonfire as the pollution is so bad at the moment we were told we couldn't add to it. We held it on our football pitch and sold 300 tickets, for here not a bad turn out. Plus we put out bouncy castles and stuff for the kids, so quite chilled out.

I'm in three of the bands, only hiccup was our punk band had to drop out at the very minute as our guitarist ended up in hospital with an IV for fluids... a bad case of 'pak-attack' that left him dangerously dehydrated. The Hendrix band went down particularly well as did our soul-blues band, had loads of fun playing those sets. Finished off the night with a band that uses backing tracks and plays all the disco hits. A great way to finish the evening with plenty of dancing and went for two and half hours straight. They're real pros, they get the audience going and keeping the energy there. 

 

That carpet puts Vulfpeck firmly in the shade!

[Dankology]

Shakespeare North with the Mighty Wah last night - spectacular venue, lovely staff, amazing audience and we (primed by a run of support slots) played a blinder.

 

Eldest daughter brought her German exchange partner with her - Christ knows what she made of it all.

 

I had a bit of revelation re my always reticent bvs - whack the monitor volume up an just go for it seems to be the way forward.

 

I used the lovely Jap P bass I bought through here a couple of months back and rather than doing my usual swapping between pick and fingers depending on the song, just used a plectrum throughout. I expect my tone was admirably consistent but I've inflicted a couple of areas of bass burn on my right hand in the process.

 

I only want to do gigs in posh theatres from now on.

 

 

[mep]

We played the Apple and Parrott in Torquay last night. They have their own PA, lights and sound guy which is great. I also park at work which is a 1 minute walk away. It started off a bit quieter than usual but really kicked off in the second set with the audience getting right into it. It was mostly the guys going for it, and a couple of them had some nice words to say afterwards. The sound out front is great, but the stage sound is aways odd. They were a monitor down and it was difficult hear the guitar. Even he was struggling to hear himself. I could hear myself ok but not so much through my rig, but the PA itself, which was pretty epic. At the end of the night I took some of the audience. Another fun night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 22:35 by mep

[JPJ]

Nice little stripped down acoustic gig up in the wilds of Northumberland at the fantastic Star Inn Harbottle. Despite my Satnav taking me on a magical mystery tour it was a great night, and booked back for two gigs next year - job done 😎

[neepheid]

Another weekend, another new venue.  Played at the Railway Club in Keith last night with Nine Lives.  Have you ever rocked up to a venue, only to wonder if it's even open?  We feared the worst when the drummer and I arrived first and parked up outside.  Tiny door which looks like it should be a side door or something turns out is the main door - pub is actually upstairs.  Ugh, stairs, where are the roadies when you need them?  So we recce the place and it's empty - save for a guy at the bar with an acoustic guitar playing it, who turned out to be someone we auditioned to be our singer but rejected.  I did wonder if this would be awkward.  Thankfully, it was not - he was bang up for a good night and came up and said hi afterwards, no hard feelings, good vibes only.

 

Anyhoo, we get set up and just before we start, some people thankfully came in and it grew from there.  Turns out there was some sort of fireworks display that night which explains the absence of folk at the start of the evening.  It quickly filled up, ended up with a good crowd - it's not a big place by any means but the beauty of that meant that the 40-ish folk who were there seemed like way more.  We had a fantastic sound, place was tiny so I didn't even bother with the PA, just used my bass rig to provide the boom on its own.  We played really well, no major bloopers.  Got lots of good feedback after and the landlord was impressed so hopefully we'll be back.  It's a bit of a trek, but I'll travel far to play to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.

 

Gear: Sire D5 then Squier Jag H (or the ATJ as someone suggested on LowEndLobster's discord server), into the Markbass terrible twosome.

 

Edited Sunday at 13:10 by neepheid

[BigRedX]

Hurtsfall played at a private party in Wolverhampton which was more like a mini goth festival. It was the 50th birthday of a well-know person on the "scene" and she had asked us and 5 other great bands if we would play. We were on first and tasked with getting the event started, which I think we managed although the room didn't really fill up until a couple of hours later. Didn't play as well as we did on Tuesday (but I think that was an exceptional performance) but no-one in the audience seemed to notice and that included several people who are now very familiar with our music. Sold a ton of merch and then were able to relax and enjoy the other bands. Because we were staying until the end, we'd booked a hotel which turned out to be less than salubrious. I don't know what else was happening in Wolverhampton but even 6 months before the gig it was impossible to get anywhere decent and close to the city centre for what I would call typical "Premier Inn" hotel rates. Everywhere with rooms was either miles away, crap or stupidly expensive. However that was the only downer of the weekend.

 

Obligatory live pics (there may be more later):

 

 

 

Next gigs are in two week's time in Sheffield on 23rd November as part of the In The Bl4ck Mid-Winter Festival and then on the Sunday in Nottingham playing a Rock Against Racism weekender.

[Staggering on]

A bit of an odd one, just three of us from our five person bluegrass band played a dinner gig (6-8) at a restaurant/pub in downtown North Bay. It is very long narrow room, not very good for live music and the owners are just wanting to see if music at that time would be a good idea. We played a couple of "bluegrassyish" sets with mostly standard bluegrass songs but some Gordon Lightfoot, Everly Brothers and a couple of other country or pop tunes and it went down well with the fairly small crowd. We kept the volume down so we could be heard but not disturb conversations and it worked out well, a number of compliments and even the staff seemed to enjoy it.

We all know that being at the end of a long narrow room is about the worst way to set up but the people who wanted to hear better had tables closer to us and all the diners and drinkers seemed happy with the set up.

This was our first gig as a trio and we were a bit worried about how it would go but now we are hoping to get a return gig and maybe gigs at other venues too. We don't take up much room and we aren't too loud and play an unusual mix of music and we are cheaper than bigger bands. Bluegrass is a summer festival type of music here so it's good to have a few gigs in the quiet time of the year.