How was your gig last night?

[DocTrucker]

On 09/11/2024 at 21:26, Dankology said:

Shakespeare North with the Mighty Wah last night

 

I could walk there! Had no idea they did gigs.

[DocTrucker]

The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live.

 

Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton.

 

Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

 

 

Edited November 15 by DocTrucker

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, DocTrucker said:

The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live.

 

Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton.

 

Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

 

 

Well done and now that you've got the live bug you'll just want more and more gigs under your belt.

Dave

[Lozz196]

3 hours ago, DocTrucker said:

The new bands first outing from the rehearsal studio was this Tuesday just gone. I'm still very much a novice bassist, this beng my second attempt at playing live.

 

Played four songs at an open mic session at the Junction in Rainford, just north of St Helens, Merseyside. You Really Got Me, Fortunate Son, Black Night, and Paranoid on my trusty 5 string Harley Benton.

 

Great live music pub. Allows us to slowly get used to the transition from Rehearsal to Live!

 

 

Decent songs there, nice way to start out for a band

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

Just back in from a Queenage gig. Barring a couple of little niggles that I'm sure the majority would not even have noticed, it went very well indeed.

We're still trying to find the right balance in older material which we like doing and the most popular stuff, but given it was only our third gig, things are looking great.

There was a lady there who is a member of the Queen fan club. She said that she has seen A LOT of Queen tributes and thought we were excellent.

The venue also gave us a cash bonus as we had such a great turnout. Hopefully a return booking will be had next year.

All in all, a great night.

 

[Mickeyboro]

@hiram.k.hackenbacker Gear please! A Lakland Precision?

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

7 minutes ago, Mickeyboro said:

@hiram.k.hackenbacker Gear please! A Lakland Precision?

Hi Mickey. Yes you are correct. That is a Lakland USA 'Bob Glaub' 44-64 which I bought from @three in 2021.

I don't really get on with full fat P necks, which appears to be sacrelige to some apparently (including one bass player at the gig last night), but it's an outstanding bass and fits the Queen vibe nicely.

As good as the Lakland is, it's really there as a back up to the black Shuker on the other side which I used for the gig. [the black one is actually a JJ Burnel signature, but no-one notices]

I've asked Jon to build me a natural looking P to take the place of John Deacon's stripped P (which he later refinished in black). Hopefully that should be ready in 2025. Another year of gear abstinence failure 🤷‍♂️.

Cab is obviously a Barefaced Big Twin (Gen 3). The amp is Darkglass Electronics Microtubes 900 v2 Limited Edition 'Euryale'.

The pedal board looks unnecessary and it mostly is for this gig. The only things on it I use for Queen is the Shure GLX wireless and the FEA Dual Band Compressor Limiter.

The other pedals I use for other bands. I'm too lazy to keep chopping and changing pedals 😂.

[scalpy]

Hey Yahs back up and running after a month. Retirement do at a working man’s club type affair, no horns so tracks used. We fire up the desk and the intermittent fault we’ve been having rears its ugly head at a gig- 7 channels have this weird distorted clock running through them. No clue from the X32 community why it happens. There is a plan be in we could repatch the routing and use spare DIs etc but it’s hassle we don’t need. Fortunately the usual turn it off, unplug, leave it off and hope the best play works. 😅
 

After that, nice crowd, all into it and our favourite dep keys player is getting more and more comfortable, really good player and locking in nicely.

[neepheid]

How was my gig last night?  Cancelled, that's what.  Singer got the lurgy and lost her voice, couldn't get a dep at such short notice.  Ahh well, at least we've got next weekend off so she's got plenty time to recover.

 

I suppose that's the bugger about being a singer, unlike other instruments you can't just swap larynxes if it goes on the wonk.

Edited November 17 by neepheid

[JapanAxe]

TLDR: Didn't happen.

 

The venue (theatre in Berkshire) has its own PA and generally uses the same tech to run the system. He wasn't available and wih 3 weeks to go the venue had done nothing to arrange a suitable tech, so BL gave them details of a guy we've used before who is excellent (toured with big name bands and now has his own PA business) and they contracted him to run the PA. We arrived at the agreed time but the venue hadn't even built the stage, so we had to wait for them to do this before we could start setting up kit and running mics. After much swapping of mics and cables it became apparent that the some channels of the digital stage box did not work at all, and some were transposed. A second desk was dug out but that didn't fix the problem. By 7pm we still didn't have enough working channels, let alone any monitors set up, and the venue made the decision to cancel. The problem seems to have been some weird configuration issue that wasn't accessible from the mixer's menus.

 

This was not the only problem we have had with the venue. They are generally poor at responding to emails and at publicising their events. Afterwards we were talking to another musician whose band plays there, and they said they brought their own PA rather than use the venue's kit.

 

At least they paid us, as well as refunding all those who had bought tickets.

 

The manager reminds me of Clive, the campsite manager from Hi-De-Hi - well-spoken but ineffectual. BL told him exactly what he thought. I don't expect we'll be going back there.

[casapete]

6 minutes ago, neepheid said:

How was my gig last night?  Cancelled, that's what.  Singer got the lurgy and lost her voice, couldn't get a dep at such short notice.  Ahh well, at least we've got next weekend off so she's got plenty time to recover.

 

I suppsose that's the bugger about being a singer, unlike other instruments you can't just swap larynxes if it goes on the wonk.

Although a lot of us take singers for granted sometimes,  it is a lousy thing to be when you’re ill.

I’ve never had to cancel a gig through illness ( apart from when I broke my arm!) but as a backing

vocalist I know how difficult it can be when there are colds / flu and other stuff kicking around.

 

My last band had to cancel gigs in theatres on a few occasions when our lead singer lost his voice,

and it’s such a hard decision to make. Deps are so difficult to find too - usually if they are any good

then they’ll be out working with their own band or even doing solo gigs. Unless your band are

playing generic well known covers then it’s a big call to find someone available and suitable.

 

[AlexDelores]

16 minutes ago, neepheid said:

How was my gig last night?  Cancelled, that's what.  Singer got the lurgy and lost her voice, couldn't get a dep at such short notice.  Ahh well, at least we've got next weekend off so she's got plenty time to recover.

 

I suppsose that's the bugger about being a singer, unlike other instruments you can't just swap larynxes if it goes on the wonk.

Sorry to hear!
 

Yep! As a full time lead singer/bass player. I can’t tell you how much of my energy is used/wasted worrying about getting ill/trying to stay healthy. Inevitably though, when the lurge strikes hard, there’s not much that can be done.

 

Having a decent dep network/ backup network is about as much as we can do and then making sure the couple (as we primarily perform at weddings) aren’t let down. 
 

Funnily enough, yesterday’s gig was one that I crawled through with the beginnings of a cold. All day package so 5 sets in total throughout the day. Fortunately, we’ve now got 3 weeks off so I can be suitably ill for a change which makes a change from the busy summer weeks… 

 

There’s actually a really good chapter in Geddy Lee’s newest book which talks about the pressure/worries of being the one relying on a larynx, which I found relatable.. 

 

Anyway, my gig went well and I got through it fairly unscathed thanks to a side of stage portable steamer 😂

[walshy]

We were at the soon to close York Vaults last night for a couple of hours of Nirvana anthems and deep cuts. A proper little dive bar, full house at about 130 people. It was loud, hot and sweaty. Absolute perfection 👌

 

Weapons of choice, ‘97 Tbird, ‘74 Ripper, Hiwatt and Barefaced 610. 

[Woodinblack]

Our keyboard player who had joined us this year go himself a girlfriend and a new house, so found he didn't have the time to keyboard anymore, so we are back to a 4 piece. Tonights was the first night after he had gone, although in fairness, a couple of gigs back he wasn't available and we did that one too, so we had to drop some of the new songs and bring back some of the old songs. TBF, we brought back way too many, we had 42 on the set list and ran out of time in the low 30s!

This was a private 50th birthday in a hall, which was for a friend of someone we did a 50th birthday for a few years back, and on the strength of that. For the sake of irony, I doubt we have had a bigger stage for years, so plenty of room for a keyboard player!

Easy and quick setup, car park straight outside and noone was getting in anyones way setting up, the crowd started dancing from the first song pretty well all the way through, was a joy to play.

Luckily to coincide with the keyboard player leaving, Bass direct finally after 33 weeks sent my mod dwarf back to me, which is how I do the keyboards in Brick in the wall with the footpedals, so I was a little nervous about that (and remembering the keys) and bring back the sample pad for "in the end', but it all went flawlessly

I almost took my bongo, as a few months back when I went to take my bongo somewhere, the strings were all rattling and it was basically unplayable. I decided on friday to look at it and reset it up, and it was absolutely perfect. But then I remembered it doesn't really fit in my new Thomman gig bag, its too long - need a new gig bag for that!

 

Anyway, all went down well, after half time the singer anounced we had been asked to play a local festival that I had wanted to play before, so that was good, and we had been asked about other parties, which is also nice, especially as this one paid almost double the charge of a pub and was in fairness a lot easier.

Great night.

Tonight we are off to play a free gig for the dad of the drummer, more of a jam thing as the singer can't be there so we will sing some and we have some guest people doing turns. The drummers parents have been to 95% of all of our gigs in the last decade, including the ones where they were a large part of the audience, so happy to do that.

[StingRayBoy42]

LAST NIGHT!

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

Great load in, park up next to the door behind the stage [sic], set up all good, I got to tell a new joke to the lads (too rude to repeat on a family forum such as what this one is), dep drummer (chap from my other band), singer and guitarists WAGs were in attendance, all good.
The guitarist had also brought his two young daughters (last time they came, the landlady asked him to kind of keep them out of sight as they're probably too young to be in a pub, she then proceeded to get them dancing on a table, filmed it and shared it on the pub's social media. She's bonkers, but in a good way).

After the unscheduled fun of two weeks ago, I was expecting the usual ambivalent punters and dispiriting reception and sure enough there weren't many there, but for some reason we all *really* enjoyed ourselves. Possibly because we were playing to a handful of friends and family so there was lots of audience interaction (basically good-natured heckling) so we ended up having a right laugh.

It was the drummers birthday (28! My StingRay is older than him!) so he was presented with a cake and a rendition of Happy Birthday which he wasn't expecting and totally blew him away. Very heartwarming.

The guitarist's youngest joined us to sing the last song, which was lovely - she's a budding guitarist so I hope we haven't put her off being in a band.

I joined the landlady at the bar for Sex on Fire (the song!) which went down a treat, we got three encores (I think the WAGs enjoyed watching us sweat).

Used the StringRay for a change (I usually use the Sterling with this lot - I definitely noticed the 'Ray sounds a lot smoother than the Sterling, especially through the many distortions) -> small board (now with pedal toppers! (which obscure the LEDs on some of the pedals 🤨)) -> amp board (Thumpinator -> VTDI (set to ROCK)) -> MB CMD121.
Still getting used to using a pleccy but it does sound good on the punk numbers, especially through the Bass Soul Food.

Paid, packed up, home about 1 for a pint of Aldi vintage cider.

A good night!

[Franticsmurf]

I played a short solo spot in a relaxed multi-act gig to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI. I've never performed on my own before and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was joined for one number by the guitarist from the band I'm in - fair play to him he was there just to watch and I asked him to join me on the spot. Most of the rest of the band were there, either as punters or doing short spots of their own. I find it much harder to play in front of people I know so that didn't help the nerves. My guitar performance was not as good as I would have liked but I was happy with my vocals and even happier when people joined in, laughed at my attempts at humour and gave me a rousing cheer at the end! 

 

I was told it was strictly acoustic and yet everyone else there had little amps. I managed to borrow one from one of the other acts as the on-stage microphones ("they'll pick up everything on stage so you won't need an amp") weren't working and, in any case, I wasn't on the stage as it was being prepared for the choir coming on after me. No photos, probably for the good. I was using my Crafter semi-acoustic 6 string plugged into a small Fender acoustic amp.  

 

Edit: Photos have emerged!

 

Edited November 18 by Franticsmurf

[BCH]

Why does the drummer have more gear than us???????

[bassbiscuits]

Private party at a local rugby club with the Andy Wales Band last night. We swapped out some of our “deeper cuts” for some more dancefloor-friendly stuff to keep up the party spirit.

 

We’re reaching that level of being comfortable enough with our material to relax into it now, leaving a bit more space and letting it groove a bit more, which feels great. 
 

Back home by midnight. 
 

The usual Markbass rig, Yamaha bass and this time also my Mackie PA and modest selection of stage lights from Cash Converters. 
 

Sadly no pics of us actually playing - just the stage before proceedings began. 

[NoRhino]

Tiny pub lounge with the Blues band.  Not that one.

Busiest it got was 13 punters.  At the interval that had reduced to one old guy at the bar.  Two bar staff and one of them put his coat on and left.  

At the end of the night the remaining lonely bar maid (can I still say that?)  said it's the same scenario most weeks.  

Ever the professionals we played our full set, got paid and went home.   

[Norris]

I was away with Mrs Norris last week visiting her brother before he retires from foreign parts. I don't know if I picked up something on the plane back, but have had a worsening cold ever since we set foot back in Blighty.

 

So Saturday I felt like death warmed up. Not quite bad enough to call the gig off, but definitely lacking in energy. It was actually a pretty decent gig. We got them up dancing, which hasn't happened there before. The landlord was very pleased. I had put a new set of D'Addario Pro Steels on my Sire P7-5 for the first time in two years. It sounded great (Boss GT-6B into my Fender Rumble v3 500 combo) - nice to have a bit of twang again. No photos because I felt like cr*p and couldn't wait to get home to bed.

 

So then I woke up this morning feeling a little bit better, but couldn't speak! The cold, phlegm, etc. has moved onto my vocal chords, so all I could do was whisper and squeak. This afternoon was planned to be an "acoustic" gig, as it's a small pub and could easily be far too loud otherwise. With my vocals not working it was an extra stripped-down gig - literally just my Stagg EUB straight into the Rumble and a clip-on tuner. It was actually great fun and we tackled a lot of random requests from the crowd (Hotel California, Ziggy Stardust to name a couple). The EUB is fun to play - lots of silly phrases and slides to put off the guitar/vocalist.

 

Oh, and the landlady booked us because it was her one year anniversary of taking over the pub, even though we only played there a few weeks ago and have another in the book for next month. It's always nice to be the landlady's favourite band 😁

 

 

[King Tut]

Had a great gig with STRAY at The Stables in Milton Keynes. We put ourselves under a bit of pressure with four numbers we’d hardly ever played or hadn’t played at all. I used my new BF Supertwin (thanks @JGSpector and GK MB500 plus a full in ear mix - the back line was for my other band members! Was the best gig we’ve played there and the second set in particular was smoking’! (IMHO!)

 

A couple of acousticcy numbers gave me the rare chance to air my Epiphone Rumblekat which was nice.

 

All filmed for posterity as well!

[3below]

Sunday at Shrewsbury Abbey.  Getting something approaching a good sound was a challenge, a negative reverb feature would have helped considerably.  Apart from my cables, the kit is all BC supplies (SG bass, Ashdown EVO combo), no effects just as it is.   Hands got cold in the first set despite the heating (hmm) being on, being gentlemen of age we all found the temperature challenging.  Aptly started with "Burning Hell" and ended with "John the Revelator" into "Let the good times roll".  Pretty well filled the Abbey so a good result.  Playing pic to follow.

 

 

 

Edited November 21 by 3below
Change image

[Bluewine]

On 17/11/2024 at 05:01, casapete said:

 Deps are so difficult to find too - usually if they are any good

then they’ll be out working with their own band or even doing solo gigs. Unless your band are

playing generic well known covers then it’s a big call to find someone available and suitable.

 

 

We're having some difficult times with dep drummers.

 

Daryl

[Mickeyboro]

2 hours ago, 3below said:

Sunday at Shrewsbury Abbey.  Getting something approaching a good sound was a challenge, a negative reverb feature would have helped considerably.  Apart from my cables, the kit is all BC supplies (SG bass, Ashdown EVO combo), no effects just as it is.   Hands got cold in the first set despite the heating (hmm) being on, being gentlemen of age we all found the temperature challenging.  Aptly started with "Burning Hell" and ended with "John the Revelator" into "Let the good times roll".  Pretty well filled the Abbey so a good result.  Playing pic to follow.

 

 

 

The Classic Blues Show? How do you get a gig at an Abbey? Looks impressive - tell us more!

[3below]

8 hours ago, Mickeyboro said:

The Classic Blues Show? How do you get a gig at an Abbey? Looks impressive - tell us more!

The Abbey regularly run music events, usually of a classical bent but also pop, poetry, bugles of The Rifles, etc. etc.. Our drummer (who lives near Shrewsbury) negotiated and persuaded the Abbey to try our Blues show. The business manager who is into music had seen us in another Shrewsbury venue so knew what they were getting. The money side was a complex arrangement of costs, equal shares and then door split, about 290 tickets sold, we organised the online tickets.

 

The sound was challenging. Usually we are playing to about 100+ audiences, pa takes vocals only, we play to the volume of the sax and trumpet, i.e. deliberately lowish volume. The PA was at its limit in the Abbey, they also took feeds off vocals, guitar and the horns which went into small satellite speakers throughout the building. The delays due to the speaker separation and the reverb from the roof and altar behind us were very noticeable.  Really tight stops in numbers ended up being `blurred`. If we did it again, we would hire in a sound engineer who knows the venue and has the kit to manage delays.  We chose no to at the time since the whole venture was a bit of a financial unknown. 

 

The Abbey were more than happy with the number of tickets sold, significantly more than the target. We now have the (nice) problem of choosing RCF 945s or 932s since the `war chest` has been topped up.

 

On a personal note, it was the largest audience I have played to since 1982. I only dropped two noticeable clangers and played my way out of them. In another number some solid bass playing dug our irons out of the fire. Live music, stuff happens or doesn't . A good night at the office.

Edited November 19 by 3below
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