bassninja

Good laugh at one of our regular acoustic gigs last night. Good vibe; more like a big living room than a pub. Lots of (appropriate) requests and enthusiastic (!) singing from the regulars with a regular supply of beer to the band. Woke up late this morning...

Love a bit of Country. Just done an album gig telling a history of the Civil War, and play in a 'newgrass' type band. I arrived at The Flecktones through listening to Bela Fleck playing bluegrass etc. with Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush etc...

Phriendly Phorum. Smell the love, people...

We always rehearse acoustically at a band member's upstairs flat with me running into an active PA cab at acoustic volume. Good for dynamics and subtlety, but its been useful to have the odd full PA rehearsal as well to get the mechanics of it right. We don't have a drummer in this band, so the relative levels are pretty consistent. No cracking snare or cymbals to deal with etc.

Local boozer where we've played a number of times. Lots of banter about the Eurovulsion song contest and a fairly sedate gig. For once everyone happy with their sound, and some good playing. Finally getting the hang of this Behringer Sansamp clone thingy... Got thoroughly drenched on the load out, though.

Bit late, but... Wednesday, country pub near Goodwood racecourse. The gig was with a trio that used to gig tons, but now get together about once a month. Used my ridiculously overpowered (for this type of gig) Trace 4x10 combo for the first time in about a year, to give it an outing before I finally get around to flogging it. I'm now used to a 15" speaker, so it took a little getting used to. All OK, nice and loose, friendly crowd as ever. We played fine and enjoyed it but turnout suffered a bit because of the footie.

Lewes Folk Rock Festival in East Sussex. The venue was an impressive old church. The other bands, punters, the organisers and crew were all helpful and friendly and there was (for once) a comfortable backstage. We arranged a driver for the night, so we could relax and concentrate on the gig itself, which made a nice change. The onstage sound was clear and comfortable, which helped a lot. All finished with an enthusiastic reception. Really enjoyed it.

Acoustic trio #1, at a pub in Chichester. Good crowd, lots of players. A fairly decent performance, but everyone had at least one annoying niggle with their sound, so not able to fully relax into it as usual. Ho hum...

'Country & western' dep gig. My precision died on me at soundcheck, so felt a bit of a tit having to use Thumb V all night as backup. Some looks from audience of the 'he's not going to burst into [i]jazz[/i] all of a sudden is he?' type. These folks can be pretty conservative... Went OK, all below the 5th fret and good discipline.

Local folk club. Support to personal hero Martin Carthy, grinning all night.

'Transatlantic session' in another country pub. Friends in town for one night only from Dublin & Houston so down the pub, line up the Guinness, all acoustic and great fun. Usual struggle to hear myself leading to sore fingers this morning, but the vibe made it worth it.

A (different) acoustic trio in a tiny pub at the end of a 1/2 mile drive, after turning off a lonely back road right up at the top of the South Downs. Like playing a lock-in in someone's living room with fantastic real ale. A couple of pints waiting for us when we got there, a good chinwag with the locals and...'Oh, I suppose we'd better start then'. We've been doing it for the last 4-5 years, so its more like being paid to go to the pub: I use my wee practice amp, and one Mackie cab turned [i]way [/i]down for the PA, just above acoustic volume. Relaxed gig with lots of requests coming from the audience and good banter, finishing way after time. Smiles all around. In the tiny car park afterwards if you stand still you can hear [i]nothing[/i]. S'lovely. What a bunch of hippies...

A certain guitarist to whom I am related (grammar) turning up with a different guitar/pedal board layout/amp configuration for every gig, and then complaining that he can't get used to his sound. Using three different overdrive pedals [i]and[/i] channel switching for 'light drive, mid-light drive, rhythm, crunch and lead' when they all sound the same. To be fair, though I can be equally annoying in some ways...I'd imagine... probably...kind of, sometimes. But not as often as my bandmates, who are all cloth eared egotists who don't appreciate the lengths I've gone to to [i]understand[/i] music, or the sheer depth of emotion I pour into every single note. I mean, I know scales and everything...And although I might [i]choose[/i] to look cool and aloof at every gig, I never get the girls, [i]and[/i] I load the van single-handed while they drink absinthe from the shoes of the stunning, inconceivably tall Swedish women's hockey team, who just happen to be in town for that night only while the audience gather round and laugh at me. Insecure, moi?

My oldest brother, who'd played in bands for years, gave me a bass and said "We've got a gig in three months, let's learn the songs". In at the deep end and flailing about for the last 25 odd years, still haven't been found out...

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='181892' date='Apr 21 2008, 03:21 PM']Cheers all! And a fine drummer he is. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVsli7ijYDE"]Here he is is when he was a lad...[/url][/quote] Thought so, we did a festival in Cornwall with them just after Billy joined...

Nice one WoT. Do I recognise yr drummer..?

About 1988/9 in Worthing. The Stray Cats were playing in the much more prestigious gig up the road, we were supposed to be in the pub by the station, a regular gig for us at the time. There was a bit of argy bargy between rival sets of SC fans, and somebody got stabbed outside our venue. Tensions were simmering. As we pulled up for the load-in, the guv'nor was waiting with our fee, and advised us to keep going, since he was closing for the evening in view of the circumstances. Fee duly trousered, home in time for the Antiques Roadshow, victim recovered well (as far as I can remember). We also played a wedding reception at about the same time, and were similarly paid off on arrival, as the groom's divorce from his former wife hadn't come through in time. I bet that went down well with the new in-laws...

Remember the 'Home taping is killing music' ad print on inner sleeves of LPs in the 80s? (Jeez, I'm getting old...) Well it didn't. I hope people will treat The Industry for what it has become. I have no wish to be part of it, having seen first hand what it can do to creative artists. However much I like some of their music, I now have the same feeling about Metallica as I do about Monster cables (see other posts on this forum) given their corporatist stance. I mainly listen to bands that allow live taping & trading these days (non-profit o'course). For instance, grab some live (and band approved) Flecktones shows here: [url="http://bt.etree.org/index.php?cat=26"]http://bt.etree.org/index.php?cat=26[/url] and a choice of 105 approved 'Tones shows here: [url="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3Aetree%20AND%20format%3Amp3%20AND%20creator%3A%22Bela%20Fleck%20and%20the%20Flecktones%22"]http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=co...20Flecktones%22[/url] Some approved Victor Wooten here: [url="http://bt.etree.org/?search=&cat=199"]http://bt.etree.org/?search=&cat=199[/url] etc etc, you get the drift. Many bands who can actually [i]play[/i] (unfortunately, mainly from the States it seems) have 'taper sections' at gigs where fans can put mics up, and a clear 'taper policy' on their websites. But a word of warning, watch the source: while some tapers get fantastic audience recordings, a SBD or DSBD source is sometimes best: a direct feed from the desk. But remember what the Grateful Dead fan said when he ran out of acid: "[i]Hey, this band sucks...[/i]

Acoustic trio in Casabognor. Looked a bit dodgy at first. A few witty chips of 'where's the drums then?' were quickly silenced as we pulled out a good one. Lots of folks came to see us specifically and the more sceptical locals were drawn in, too. We're back there after our gtrist's month-long break in Thailand (lucky bstd)... On a rewarding note, a friend showed us video of how the funds we helped raise at a 'cheridee' gig a little while ago had been spent in Malawi. Kids queuing for new mosquito nets, and then dancing home thoroughly made up & grinning with thumbs up to the camera. Which was nice...

Oh Man, my last giro is burning a hole in the pocket of my shell suit, and I NEED THAT SHIRT!!!

Gig at The Fountain, Chichester last night (looks like the same venue that WalMan is playing tonight with the fabulous Alibi: nice posters, btw). We hadn't played as a 'full band' for about six months, much less rehearsed, but it went really well. Loads of gals dancin' and great jams with good ears from all concerned. We used to gig tons and tons but now we all have other projects on the go and can rarely get the band together. But its really good to think that after fifteen odd years of playing together, there's a communication that doesn't need to be thought about too much. Just lots of smiles and unpleasant stories about our drummer's escapades in the dodgy boozers of Littlehampton... Have a good gig, Al...

Go, little guy, go!

Thanks Bilbo, that makes much more sense now...

[b]No dB meter visible on the wall - just the sneaky hearing aids in the punters heads![/b] "[i]Excuse me young man, but my wife and I are sitting with our heads in your speakers, and I can hardly hear a thing she's saying..."[/i]

[quote name='silverfoxnik' post='175573' date='Apr 13 2008, 11:23 AM']I had that problem last week Matt - very frustrating! Glad to hear it was a good gig though. Which is more than I can say for ours last night at the Labour Club in Brighton.. Grim place with a Karaoke bar upstairs, intervals in the evening for Bingo, the Raffle and Play Your Cards Right, lots of brylcream and blue rinses on view;I'm sure you know the kind of place. We were constantly being asked by the audience to turn down so, instead of going all the way up to No.11, the volume ended up on -11! Requests for 'New York, New York' all evening from an old dear who looked like the twin-sister of the nasty gran in Catherine Tate's show. She kept saying to our singer: "Come on, fu*king play it, play it! I asked yous nicely first time, just fu*king play it! blink: So in the end, we dug very deep into our seriously unrehearsed 1950s reptoire so the audience could have a little dance.... All in all, very scary! Music may be the food of love but gigging in places like that is like a sh*t sandwich! [/quote] I feel your pain brother, at least there wasn't a dB meter (or was there.....????)