First gig in 3 years tonight

[bremen]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1318174903' post='1398817']
Oh and we made £5

Between us!
[/quote]

We got £10 between us for a Cambridge gig one time. The drummer put it on a mate's horse and it came in at 10-1.

Anyway. Sorry the Portland engineer was a knob... Difficult accoustics though; a square room with no bass-trapping but lots of tiles to soak up the highs. And if you can get an atmosphere going there, you can do it anywhere. Hope the next one goes well.

[charic]

Well the second gig had all the makings of absolute hell.

Halloween gig in a snooker club and the organiser is much better at the promoting side of things and not so hot on the organising side of things. All fair enough tbh.

Sound Engineers dropped out last minute, so I stepped up (having previous experience).

It was in the downstairs of a snooker club, not a huge room, walls were practically mdf, laminate wood floor and low ceiling. Potential feedback hell.
Skytronic microphones supplied by PA company (yay...) mackie SRM450's for the PA (not bad at all). First up, three dead cables and no replacements. Luckily I bring some with me just in case.

Our band were meant to be 3rd on and I was told another band were on 1st. Talking to that band they were told it was the other way round. Some rather stern words later and we're on 2nd, fine by us.

I move the speakers to where I thing they are best placed to avoid feedback,
Guitarist from another band "you don't want them there it looks crap"
Me "If you move it it'll feedback at this level"
Guitarist "No it wont I know music tech"
Me *smugly watching
PA weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Me "Put it back please"

Get to the last band to go on, half of them are missing as they have gone for chips, they get back and wont soundcheck because they're eating their chips. Finally I drag them away from their food.

Gutiarist "Right what cabs are we using?"
Me "You should have organised that yourself"
Guitarist "It said on the event page on FB that the cab would be supplied"
Me "Go and talk to this guitarist then, his got the biggest cab and would probably be the safest bet"
Guitarist "Where is he"
Me "Dunno"
Guitarist "Go find him then"
Me "Your on in 10 minutes with or without a soundcheck I suggest you find him quickly"

Soundcheck is done quickly after and they start on time. Set goes well although the crowd were a little disinterested.
We come on somewhat skeptical after the response to the first band with the levels all set by myself and quite happy that we're going to be loud enough and sound good.

Quarter of the way through the first tracks and the room packs out and everyone is jumping and moving around. No/Little moshing but that suits me down to the ground as jumping always seems more "I like this band" than moshing. We really get into it and 20ish minutes later we walk off well and truly knackered. Compliments left right and centre.

Next band came on and around half the punters left once they started playing (in all fairness they are quite a lot heavier than us and is probably a little more of an acquired taste, although they played really well) my guitarist and singer manged to get a few people moving around and moshing but there was no real "honesty to it". Same story then pretty much applied to the last band of the night.

Needless to say I'm well chuffed! Can't wait for the next gig and we've got some fairly spectacular offers coming in (one particular idea has me really excited as it will definately be the coolest gig I have ever played!).

Thought I'd let you guys know that we no longer seem quite as doomed as before anyway! And also vent about certain members of other bands!

Rik

[Monckyman]

To quote the inimitable Marc Riley & the Creepers,
"Travelled down to London town,
in a van,pissing down,
a fiver each, the gig was a peach,
but don`t ever work for free"

Happy that it went well.
Have you done a crib sheet for the Engineer?
"Drums on trax very loud please" etc?
Can`t hurt.

[charic]

Not a bad thought although if the last engineer had just listened to us then we would have been ok, he just kinda played the WHOLE band quiet.

It's in the past now though and the band is more driven and closer than ever before.

Also with a VERY exciting a different gig in the planning process. It's going to Mahoooosive! (By my standards, not exactly wembley arena but almost as cool )

[dmccombe7]

Great news Charic.

I love it when a plan comes together just for your own band. I guess it helps doing the sound set up yourself. You can at least have the perfect sound for your band and too bad to the rest.

All looks promising. Good luck and all the best.

PS When are you touring up North (and i mean the real North - not Manchester)

Cheers
Dave

[charic]

Thanks Dave,

Where do you call the real north and do you know of any good venues for the style? We plan on branching out once we have a slightly larger set (should be by summer next year) and are considering a week on the road

[dmccombe7]

Gather from the thread you're doing heavy metal ?

We have a local venue at the new Lanark Auction Market where the bands play in the main entrance hall and i believe it holds approx 400. PA supplied by promoter along with lighting i think. Usually a Fri night from 7-11ish
The promoter is a local Lanark company and I'll look out their details and get back to you.
Cetera from Basschat started the ball rolling earlier this year with Dressed to Kill tribute and that was an excellent night. 3 bands on that night.
We had Live Wire (AC/DC tribute) and Maiden Scotland (obviously Iron Maiden tribute) who supported. They also had another band on first who name slips me at present but were IMO the better band of the night although not being a huge Maiden or AC/DC fan then the covers the first band did were probably more my kinda music. All were excellent in their own right though.

There are many gigs around / in Glasgow but not being a heavy metalist and more into classic rock I'm not sure where else has that style of music these days. If i hear anything I'll drop you an email.

North is anything North of the border as an absolute minimum. However once in Scotland North becomes anything North of central Glasgow - Edinburgh belt anywhere from Perth to Inverness and beyond.
Puzzling i live there - how do you think i feel -

Cheers
Dave

Edited November 2, 2011 by dmccombe7

[charic]

Thanks DMC we'll have to try and make it up your way at somepoint it can possibly be our first tour "abroad"

And yeah HEAVY metal (also known as Death Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Melodeath Metal and by some such as my Nan "a bloody racket" which is possibly my favourite!)

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1320236028' post='1424044']
Thanks DMC we'll have to try and make it up your way at somepoint it can possibly be our first tour "abroad"


[/quote]

first tour abroad - liking you guys a lot already. DMC are actually my initials so bang on guys.
Hope to see you when you tour although i might be as old as your Nan.

Cheers and all best
Dave

[charic]

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1320270276' post='1424739']

first tour abroad - liking you guys a lot already. DMC are actually my initials so bang on guys.
Hope to see you when you tour although i might be as old as your Nan.

Cheers and all best
Dave[/quote]

Glad your enjoying it, we just need to rerecord some vocals then the ep will be out for sale, after that were planning on rerecording the tracks and adding a few more (total 7 or 8) for our first album "lessons in divinity".

Our fan base is growing rapidly at the moment which is great which hopefully means were doing something right :-p