How was your gig last night?

[Norris]

Our first time back at the Black Horse in Whitwick since just before Christmas. It was a quiet compared to normal - it's usually rammed. A good, enthusiastic crowd though and much dancing took place. It's a bit of a strange weekend, what with a public holiday last Monday and the VE80 stuff going on.

 

Our little drummer boy is still riddled with bronchitis, so Rob was kind enough to step in again and did a great job. It's so nice to be able to lock in with a good drummer, even if we threw a couple of songs at him out of the blue. We had a great night.

 

Footwear were purple suede Gazelles - they don't come out often. I took the Sire P, going into the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500 combo. My favourite patch at the moment is the Octa-Fuzz which got quite a feature in Born to be Wild amongst others.

 

Only the one photo of the compact stage, dimly lit after we'd finished playing

[Bluewine]

11 minutes ago, Norris said:

Our first time back at the Black Horse in Whitwick since just before Christmas. It was a quiet compared to normal - it's usually rammed. A good, enthusiastic crowd though and much dancing took place. It's a bit of a strange weekend, what with a public holiday last Monday and the VE80 stuff going on.

 

Our little drummer boy is still riddled with bronchitis, so Rob was kind enough to step in again and did a great job. It's so nice to be able to lock in with a good drummer, even if we threw a couple of songs at him out of the blue. We had a great night.

 

Footwear were purple suede Gazelles - they don't come out often. I took the Sire P, going into the usual GT-6B and Rumble 500 combo. My favourite patch at the moment is the Octa-Fuzz which got quite a feature in Born to be Wild amongst others.

 

Only the one photo of the compact stage, dimly lit after we'd finished playing

 

 

I don't know why, however that stage looks " Cavern Clubish " to me.

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

On 05/05/2025 at 05:23, neepheid said:

Also - bonus video!

 

 

 

Nice facial expression and hand gesture. 

 

Daryl

[Norris]

4 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

I don't know why, however that stage looks " Cavern Clubish " to me.

 

Daryl

It's a long, thin pub. If someone is standing at the bar you would have difficulty getting past them. I quite like the band alcove because on most nights it's the only place you can stand without people trying to get past you while carrying drinks. You do have to back off the bottom end a bit though because it's quite enclosed

[Bluewine]

1 minute ago, Norris said:

It's a long, thin pub. If someone is standing at the bar you would have difficulty getting past them. I quite like the band alcove because on most nights it's the only place you can stand without people trying to get past you while carrying drinks. You do have to back off the bottom end a bit though because it's quite enclosed

 

How was the load in. Did you have to carry gear through the narrow bar area?

 

Daryl

[WalMan]

Not a bad night in Portsmouth but quiet at the venue which was a shame.

 

We were pretty tight having thrown in a few we’ve not played in a while but they went ok despite having played them on the 5 previously and have been using the FrankenJazz with a Hipshot so I was still experimenting with different positions and flipping between E and D to fit which led to a few errors in position when dropped.  Worst for me was the end of Rollin’ In The Deep when I got songs muddled and was playing (in our tuning) D-E-F#-E-D instead of F#-E-D-E-F#. Guitarist said after “I thought you were going for different inversions but actually it ended up as the “jazz” version.

 

Sound was good from where I was and at one point vox came over to me, nodded at my rig and said “oooo that sounds awesome” … he was right, it did 😁

 

Annoyingly I’m still waiting both for my new IEM’s with a new mold for a hopefully better fit, and the old ones repaired after one side stopped working ☹️ Meant I had to use the KZ’s I picked up as spares. I haven’t managed to get a good fit so the sound from them is never as good as the molded set, but it was better than nowt. I ended up one in / one out which was ok.

 

On stage the sound seemed well balanced. Hopefully out front was the same!

[Norris]

3 minutes ago, Bluewine said:

 

How was the load in. Did you have to carry gear through the narrow bar area?

 

Daryl

No, there's a side door into the band area and we parked right outside. Couldn't have been much easier!

[Bluewine]

23 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Acoustic gig. We played a Community Service Award Event tonight.

 

Strictly background stuff. We played a 45 minute set and " walk on" music for the award winners.

 

Nothing to share, other than it was an easy gig. A 5 minute commute for me. I think we probably sounded pretty good in the house .

 

The full Maple Road band plays Saturday night. Were going back in time a doing a late night bar gig. We haven't done a bar gig in years.

 

Daryl

 

 

HEY FOND DU LAC AREA FRIENDS! Maple Road Blues Band is coming to your neighborhood THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Join the party at Capones!
www.mapleroadbluesband.com

 

My concerns. We've never played there before, It's a late night bar gig and I'm 71. At my age I'm just not comfortable being out at night in a bar even though I'm technically working there.

 

I'm not sure if this place is known for having live music. I'm sure I'll have stories tomorrow. 

 

Daryl

[Bluewine]

7 minutes ago, Norris said:

No, there's a side door into the band area and we parked right outside. Couldn't have been much easier!

 

Nice, it's no fun lugging gear through a narrow galley bar area. I know, I've done it.

 

Daryl 

[mikebass456]

4 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

Nice, it's no fun lugging gear through a narrow galley bar area. I know, I've done it.

 

Daryl 

Down an outside metal fire escape at 2am in December 😲🥶🥶🥶

[Salt on your Bass?]

Good fun last night in Nottingham at the Tap and tumbler. Wasn't sure how we'd go down but seemed to be really well received. I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction....accidentally wore a random black shirt somehow....I won't go onto detail. 

 

Anyway, sound was great and and a good night all round....

 

[Bluewine]

13 hours ago, mikebass456 said:

Down an outside metal fire escape at 2am in December 😲🥶🥶🥶

 

The Vista King. Try loading onto the 2nd deck of a touring boat on Lake Michigan.  

 

Daryl

 

[ezbass]

19 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

 

Great picture, so much character.

Edited Saturday at 20:33 by ezbass

[mikebass456]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

The Vista King. Try loading onto the 2nd deck of a touring boat on Lake Michigan.  

 

Daryl

 

Guess the Ampeg got the night off then......

[dclaassen]

2 gigs today with Stevie Daniels. First one was an afternoon noon car show somewhere deep in the fens. (Why do all those fenland towns look the same?). We were placed on a flatbed stage across the entry road from the bar and the crowd. As a result, very little crowd interaction and lots a dust every time a new vehicle came through. And, we were facing the sun…hot!. 
 

Second gig at the Burleigh Club in Peterborough. Nice pub and small but enthusiastic crowd. Used the Dynabass, trace head, and GB 1 12’s. Footwear was Justin western boots. No gigs now until the end of June.

 

Edited Saturday at 23:47 by dclaassen

[Bluewine]

On 09/05/2025 at 20:13, Bluewine said:

 

 

HEY FOND DU LAC AREA FRIENDS! Maple Road Blues Band is coming to your neighborhood THIS SATURDAY NIGHT! Join the party at Capones!
www.mapleroadbluesband.com

 

My concerns. We've never played there before, It's a late night bar gig and I'm 71. At my age I'm just not comfortable being out at night in a bar even though I'm technically working there.

 

I'm not sure if this place is known for having live music. I'm sure I'll have stories tomorrow. 

 

Daryl

 

 

Ok, the gig at Capones.

 

Interestingly enough, someone was talking about places that aren't consistent with live music.

 

Well, Capones has a lot of bands booked. however I didn't get the sense it was a music crowd at least not for us. I assure you we went into it with a positive attitude. 

 

We did the best we could. It wasn't a good gig. I mentioned we haven't played a bar in years.  We felt like we had went backwards. 

 

The sound was awful. Boomy and and a lot of echo. 

 

We have another gig booked there on August 12th. We decided on the way home to cancel it.

 

One good thing. It was an $800.00 gig.

 

I really don't like complaining about gigs, but this one was painful. 

 

Daryl

 

 

Edited Sunday at 17:20 by Bluewine

[ezbass]

8 hours ago, dclaassen said:

We were placed on a flatbed stage across the entry road from the bar and the crowd. As a result, very little crowd interaction and lots a dust every time a new vehicle came through.

I played a bikers’ bash gig on a flatbed, I had to vacuum my pedal board out after, it was caked in dust.

[dmccombe7]

13 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

The Vista King. Try loading onto the 2nd deck of a touring boat on Lake Michigan.  

 

Daryl

 

Well that's  different Daryl.

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

Ok, the gig at Capones.

 

Interestingly enough, someone was talking about places that aren't consistent with live music.

 

Well, Capones has a lot of bands booked, however it's not really a music crowd. 

 

We did the best we could. It wasn't a good gig. I mentioned we haven't played a bar in years.  We felt like we had went backwards. 

 

The sound was awful. Boomy and and a lot of echo. 

 

We have another gig booked there on August 12th. We decided on the way home to cancel it.

 

One good thing. It was an $800.00 gig.

 

I really don't like complaining about gigs, but this one was painful. 

 

Daryl

 

 

Sometimes it's the right decision. We've had to make that decision on a few venues we've done. Various reasons but simply didn't work for us.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

New venue for Blockbustarz last night in Croftfoot Bowling Club in Glasgow.

This was a special event for us as singer Lynn was brought up in this area and it was a special birthday for her and both her sisters came along with partners so we had an honoured guest Pat Bonnar goalkeeper for Celtic football team and he looked like he was having a great time along with everyone else.

Small stage so both singers on the dance floor which I'm never comfortable with and that was justified when an over excited girl knocked over singers water which ran straight towards a mains bar. Quick mop up by club members and off we went again. 

Very hot last night even with the 18" fan on full I was still soaking wet. All part of the job I guess. 

All seemed to go well and we test run 3 new songs which were played well enough for a first outing. We just need more plays to get to the point you don't need to think about what you're  playing.

2 x 1hr sets extended for the encores. Club wants us back same time next year as they are fully booked. 

Decided to use the Handbox WB100 again for this gig and what a difference an all valve amp makes. It's full, deep and warm sound just fills a room far better IMO and I'm always able to hear myself better. Had the gain set just right where I got a nice full warm tone when aying a little lighter but when I dug in for some songs I got that slightly overdriven edge with a bit of clank to go with it. Had my Keeley comp on just to limit my volume.

Sandberg Vm4 into WB100 and Mesa cabs. Just glorious. 

Nice wee one hr drive home mostly motorway with no hold ups.

Happy chappy this morning and will be using my HB more often. I think I'm just a valve amp guy. I always get a better sound.

Dave

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Bluewine said:

We have another gig booked there on August 12th. We decided on the way home to cancel it.

 

One good thing. It was an $800.00 gig.

 

Musical integrity!

[Stub Mandrel]

51 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Had the gain set just right where I got a nice full warm tone when aying a little lighter but when I dug in for some songs I got that slightly overdriven edge with a bit of clank to go with it. H

 

That's what I love about my Orange Terror, it's easy to find the 'golden zone' for different basses.

[mikebass456]

55 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

That's what I love about my Orange Terror, it's easy to find the 'golden zone' for different basses.

Absolutely - wouldn't be without mine now. I have two - the first and second versions. I do prefer the first version, it seems to have a bit more grunt to it. I now use the MK1 for the punk band, and the MK2 for the blues band. This has the added advantage of not having to mess with the settings for different gigs......

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

That's what I love about my Orange Terror, it's easy to find the 'golden zone' for different basses.

I tried one at guitar guitar with the new Orange 12" cabs a few yrs back now and was hugely impressed with how deep and warm it sounded. Are they a hybrid amp with valve preamp and class D power or something similar. ?

Dave

Edited Sunday at 11:20 by dmccombe7

[Stub Mandrel]

1 minute ago, dmccombe7 said:

I tried one at guitar guitar with the new Orange 12" cabs a few yrs back now and was hugely impressed with how deep and warm it sounded. Are they a hybrid amp with valve preamp and SS power or something similar. ?

Dave

 

Yes. Lots of valvey goodness with enough class D headroom to crank up.