How was your gig last night?

[JTUK]

We went down very well.... after a first set that was down a notch, as we discussed sitting on the volume...that also killed the edge somewhat as the tempos were down a tad as well.

Second half stormer....but I would prefer that reaction from a different set. It isn't the playing..sometimes people just like all the same standard fare that most bands produce.
Playing isn't the issue, I just want better or more fulfilling or even not so popular songs to get into..

Call me picky..huh..!!

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Clarky' post='878533' date='Jun 27 2010, 12:22 AM']Thank the lord - after a run of rubbish gigs with virtually no audience, we played the Archway Tavern in North London this evening and it was a cracker. Decent sized vocal and appreciative audience - reminded me why I started this gigging lark in the first place [/quote]

Nice one. I came past there about 1.30am on the way back from our gig at RAF High Wycombe.

Ive played the Tavern a few times, years ago. Had some good and some bad gigs but it was always a lively crowd.

Edited June 28, 2010 by dave_bass5

[WonderHorse]

Played the first gig with the new band (www.myspace.com/punkyrebelmedia) on Friday at the Met Lounge, Peterborough. Drummer and singer are all that remain of original line up so this was essentially a new band doing their first gig.

Enjoyed it immensely. Everything went really well. There were only about 20/30 people there or so - none of who ventured to the front - but we got a really good receptiona dn everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Still on a high TBH.

[Toasted]

Played at Carpe Diem, Leeds last night with my band. We went on last, so it was nice not having to play infront of stacks of other people's gear. We really gelled well and performed really tightly. Guitar solos were brighter, vocals were sweeter, and drumming was massive - you know the good gig feeling. The promoter has said he'll give us a Saturday slot next time which will be great - the bar is always packed on a Saturday. Probably the best gig I've ever done.

[OldGit]

Well I'm no longer a play bass and sing lead at the same time virgin

New guitarist and me girded our loins and bravely decided to give it ago at the blues jam.

I was a tad nervous to say the least. Lots of Gig Bottom yesterday.
I've always thought I'd never remember the words. That was my biggest fear rather than playing and singing at the same time..

We did a Texas blues shuffle version of Kiss (Prince/Thomas the Jones) and an orginal of mine that I've gigged before but not sung.

It's a most friendly jam session and I've been down and played bass a number of times so I know most of the players there, Fabio my guitar player mate didn't though. He's only been once and chose a night where some really good guitarist turned up Poor man was really nervous about all the "plugging into someone else's amp" stuff.

However the other players we borrowed were great. I warned them about the arrangement bits and off we went. Turns out I can sing lead Ok and in tune (and remember words!) but with little finesse or style. No monitors so that didn't help much and the weedy valv bass combo was virtually inaudible at the mic.

Fabio ripped out a great pair of solos though. Really good stuff so that's reassuring as we've only played at kitchen volumes thus far...

And ... the crowed rocked and moved in time and sang along to Kiss and smiled benevolently at my own one and no one dragged us off or looked away embarrassed as they stifled a laugh ...

So a win overall.

Oh and I've caught LSD* for sure now... even thinking of getting one of the several other bass players there to play for us next time so I can really do that Lead Singer bit and play some harp ..


Got asked to join a band too Not really got time but that was nice...



* Lead Singers' Disease

[dave_bass5]

Nice one, sounds liek a great night for you and the audience. Well done.

So you'll be demanding your own dressing room now, and no blue M&M's lol.

LSD soon turns you in to a twat IME ;-)

Edited July 2, 2010 by dave_bass5

[OldGit]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='883760' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:29 AM']Nice one, sounds liek a great night for you and the audience. Well done.

So you'll be demanding your own dressing room now, and no blue M&M's lol.

LSD soon turns you in to a twat IME ;-)[/quote]


Sorry Can't talk to you as you are just a bass player

Edited July 2, 2010 by OldGit

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='OldGit' post='883767' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:35 AM']Sorry Can't talk to you as you are just a bass player







[/quote]

Yeah, sorry sir, i should know my place (bows, stays low and walks backwards out of the throne room).

Im still strugling with backing vocals. Although i do them as im the weakest singer i dont get a monitor so most of my singing is probably never heard. maybe thats a good thing.
One thing i do find is its hard to do both for more than a bar or so at the same time so big respect to anyone who can.

[Rich]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='883760' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:29 AM']LSD soon turns you in to a twat IME ;-)[/quote]
Don't worry Dave, if Si started disappearing up his own butt, his missus would soon bring him back down to earth she's great

I do a lot of BVs with my other band and it's great, I really enjoy it. The one thing I still cannot do though is [i]talk[/i] and play... we do the band intros during one of the songs, and when I introduce the singer I have to stop playing and it sounds a bit daft.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Rich' post='883775' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:39 AM']Don't worry Dave, if Si started disappearing up his own butt, his missus would soon bring him back down to earth she's great[/quote]

I guess my statement sounded a bit sweeping but i hope the IME qualified it as just personal experience.

My girlfriend is a singer, ive disappeared up.....oops, wrong thread lol.

[OldGit]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='883774' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:38 AM']Yeah, sorry sir, i should know my place (bows, stays low and walks backwards out of the throne room).[/quote]

That's better. Now fetch me my Friday poodle.

[quote]I'm still struggling with backing vocals. Although i do them as I'm the weakest singer i don't get a monitor so most of my singing is probably never heard. maybe thats a good thing.
One thing i do find is its hard to do both for more than a bar or so at the same time so big respect to anyone who can.[/quote]


I found it hard at first but with practice a kind of bi-polar separation happens and one bit of your brain keeps the bass going and another bit handles the singing.

It's easier if you learn bass and BV's for a new tune right from the start rather than trying to add BV's to a tune you already play bass on.
I've also re-written my bass part to make it easier on some things. There's no way I could do a Lynott and play complex bass parts and sing melodies at the same time.

A monitor would help you though..

[JTUK]

I am not one for BV's but it is the one thing we need to tidy up and if everyone is prepared to give it a go...as long as you are in key...we can share the duties around.
We must be able to hit a few notes between the 4 BV's...surely. And it is true that some harmonies suit certain voices in our band and some deffo do not

[thisnameistaken]

I had a bit of a harmony vocal nightmare last night - headline band turned up an hour and a half late for the sound check so our check wasn't long enough, end result there was no me in my monitor although apparently my mic was really loud out front. I could hear a bit of our front man from HIS monitor and a lot of our trombonist for some strange reason although he was on the opposite side of the stage to me. Imagine trying to pitch your harmonies with only a trombonist with lazy intonation for reference...

I also didn't notice the -2 Oct knob on my OC-2 was nearly all the way up (it's usually completely off) so when I kicked it on for a dubby-sounding intro it was pure insanity. Bizarrely I got loads of compliments for it though!

[Rich]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='883941' date='Jul 2 2010, 01:31 PM']headline band turned up an hour and a half late for the sound check[/quote]

Did they have an excuse, or could they just not be arsed to turn up on time?

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='Rich' post='883951' date='Jul 2 2010, 01:43 PM']
Did they have an excuse, or could they just not be arsed to turn up on time?[/quote]

Van problems apparently. Actually they were more like 2 hours late.

[OldGit]

[quote name='Rich' post='883775' date='Jul 2 2010, 10:39 AM']Don't worry Dave, if Si started disappearing up his own butt, his missus would soon bring him back down to earth she's great[/quote]

Oh so true...

Rich brought his Shuker round one evening, about 6 months after I got mine.

"Wow" she says "his Shuker bass is a lot prettier than yours ..." Oooowwwwccchhh!! "and he's a much better player too" Ooowwwchh again!.. I'm so lucky to have her to pull me down to earth on a regular basis

[xilddx]

Had an interesting night playing with Kit Richardson at The Victoria in Mile End on Friday, not a bad small pub venue. Decent PA and monitors.

The footie was on and due to it going to penalties and an inexperienced promoter, the first band (Scrotum Clamp - a punk band wearing ladies dresses and white face paint, drummer in a b&w bunny outfit) went on at 10pm instead of 8.00pm as scheduled. Bands were late, promoter and sound guy late too. I and my band were hanging about for ages. As bloody usual.

So, sitting in a poncey reliced leather armchair by the pub fireplace, I got my bass out of my Warwick premium soft case to warm up a bit. After a minute I noticed a funny smell. Shortly after, two of the young and fashionably languid bar staff wandered over to me and said, in a very Neil from the Young Ones style, "[b]Hey dude, I think you're on fire, man.[/b]". I looked round and my f***ing base case neck had folded, right over an unprotected candle on the fireplace hearth, and caught fire, the flames were about a foot high. I tried to damp it on the tile floor but bits of molten plastic flew onto my leg and my trousers were also briefly on fire. The bar guy chucked my pint over the case and extiguished it. about four inches of the top of it is gone and it stinks. Chucked it now, but at least it got my bass home safely.

Later on, our violinist had some chips from the chippy over the road. She violently threw up before and after our set, and later as I was walking her to the tube station. Poor thing. She added to my trouser fire damage with a few little vomit splashes.

Al in all, a decent gig with a decent crowd

[OldGit]

[quote name='silddx' post='885525' date='Jul 4 2010, 03:42 PM']Had an interesting night playing with Kit Richardson at The Victoria in Mile End on Friday, not a bad small pub venue. Decent PA and monitors.

The footie was on and due to it going to penalties and an inexperienced promoter, the first band (Scrotum Clamp - a punk band wearing ladies dresses and white face paint, drummer in a b&w bunny outfit) went on at 10pm instead of 8.00pm as scheduled. Bands were late, promoter and sound guy late too. I and my band were hanging about for ages. As bloody usual.

So, sitting in a poncey reliced leather armchair by the pub fireplace, I got my bass out of my Warwick premium soft case to warm up a bit. After a minute I noticed a funny smell. Shortly after, two of the young and fashionably languid bar staff wandered over to me and said, in a very Neil from the Young Ones style, "[b]Hey dude, I think you're on fire, man.[/b]". I looked round and my f***ing base case neck had folded, right over an unprotected candle on the fireplace hearth, and caught fire, the flames were about a foot high. I tried to damp it on the tile floor but bits of molten plastic flew onto my leg and my trousers were also briefly on fire. The bar guy chucked my pint over the case and extiguished it. about four inches of the top of it is gone and it stinks. Chucked it now, but at least it got my bass home safely.

Later on, our violinist had some chips from the chippy over the road. She violently threw up before and after our set, and later as I was walking her to the tube station. Poor thing. She added to my trouser fire damage with a few little vomit splashes.

Al in all, a decent gig with a decent crowd [/quote]

sounds very rock n roll..
Maybe in 30 years whomever rescues your bass bag from the skip will get Christies to auction it like Jimi's IoW strat ...

"Lot 47, Warwick bass bag. Fire damage from Silddx's memorable fire gig in July 2010.
Who'll give me 152 Dollars?"

[xilddx]

[quote name='OldGit' post='885542' date='Jul 4 2010, 04:10 PM']sounds very rock n roll..
Maybe in 30 years whomever rescues your bass bag from the skip will get Christies to auction it like Jimi's IoW strat ...

"Lot 47, Warwick bass bag. Fire damage from Silddx's memorable fire gig in July 2010.
Who'll give me 152 Dollars?"[/quote]

[EskimoBassist]

Played yesterday afternoon on the at a youth festival in North Yorkshire, CultureShock, on the Main Stage. Went well! Not far off 4,000 on site and we had a large chunk watching us play. I was interested to see how it would go, especially as that was the first time I'd played, let alone practiced, with a full line up, with a horn section and a backing singer joining us just for the performance. Didn't think I did too badly either, considering that's the first time I've touched a Bass in about a month too!

[Dave Vader]

Didn't have a gig last night, but whilst at the end of year ball at the school my wife works at, i ran into telebass playing with the Rock 'n' Roll Outlaws. Ruined my usual entertainment of slagging off the band by being really very good. Nice to meet a BCer in the flesh as well.

[JTUK]

Took a last minute booking..well a few days last minute....on trust, and regretted it.

Odd pub and we realised that they didn't know most of our songs...!!
And to think we want to out them as cliched -every-band-does-'em..!!

So, will not be doing that one again.

We played pretty well for a paid audition/rehearsal, just the reaction was odd. They didn't take too much notice of us whilst we played, but many came up to us later to say they really enjoyed it.. oh well..!!!

Worse gig we have done.

[deaver]

Yesterday afternoon strictly speaking. Farm Fest 2010, West Dean nr Salisbury. Well organised, well serviced and surprisingly good sound.

A little advertising might have been helpful though...

[attachment=53550:Farm_Fest.jpg]

Edited July 4, 2010 by deaver

[BigRedX]

Second proper gig with my covers band.

Although the musical performance was sloppy in parts, the entertainment factor was way tighter than last time. The guitarists didn't spend masses of time tuning between numbers. Now if we can just get the drummer to remember how all the songs start and end we'll be on to a winner!

The audience seemed to enjoy themselves and we had nearly all of them up and dancing for the full second set, which is what counts.

[OldGit]

A Baritone sax gig for me but ...

Typical student venue chaos. Built in PA but, oddly, I had to go and get our mixing desk. Cutbacks, I guess...

"Nah mate don't use your own mic, use ours so nuffin' gets confused" .. hummmmmmmm their SM57 vs my Sennheiser 421 on a baritone sax? PA people will know what I mean.

I sound checked with their 57 and it sounded awful. Snuck my 421 onto the stand and plugged it up before the set started to choruses of "that sound better" and smiles all round the sound crew. See, told you so....

Smallish but very enthusiastic crowd. This was the finale of a festival of inclusion and featured disabled performers of many types including our band which is a mixed able-bodied and disabled funk band.
Lots of audience members dancing in chairs (wheeled and other) and waving of arms..

The band was really cooking and the last year since we played the same gig has seen it transform from a ramshackle collection of ongoing arguments in progress to a cohesive whole working together with a common goal. Great stuff.