How was your gig last night?

[Al Krow]

 

There's something so energising about an audience up and dancing and loving your music! LA Mixtrax (@lamixtrax) • Instagram photos and videos

 

Had a couple of great back to back gigs on Friday and Sat night, at two different venues, both of which left me and my crew with a happy grin on our faces. Could have been a disaster last night with our drummer having a flat tyre! But he managed to set up double quick, and we started our sets with only a 15 minute delay, and made up the time by taking a shorter break.

 

Our PA/sound set-up is relatively simple: 2 x RCF 912As (no backline) which delivers a meaty low end without needing a sub, but is not as good as the higher-end RCF 932A's for mids so we probably will think of upgrading at some point this year. The band had a few line-up changes at the start of the year and we no longer have a keys player; so it's now a pretty basic instrumental trio of guitar, drums and bass with female vox fronting, but we're starting to figure out how to fill out the sound e.g. by making sure that any doubling-up of bass and guitar lines are kept to a minimum or me occasionally adding a little octave or synth when the guitarist is solo'ing.

 

The current line-up all use IEMs (wasn't the case previously: guitarists, in particular, seem to much prefer their amps and backline to IEMs, whereas singers seem to love them - maybe because it shuts out the guitarists' amps? 😅). The band are all starting to appreciate the flexibility provided by our A&H CQ desk to give them their own personal monitor feeds and I'm sure this has been key in IEMs now working so well for us.

 

I love the work that has been put in by the new band members to get on top of 5 hours of set material which allows us to keep things fresh/varied at our residencies for both us and our audiences, and we're all getting rewarded by the reception we've been getting when things fall into place, as they seemed to on Fri and Sat night.

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Al Krow

[msb]

18 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

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

 

Daryl

 

 

We used to do the odd gig on a harbour tour boat. Lurching around on the boat was always fun , sometimes the power was iffy , and it could be packed.
One night after loading out the drummer noticed some movement by the dock and cried out   “Hey ! A squirrel!” 

[Buddster]

Gig yesterday afternoon. Multi band outdoors community event. Nothing special to report about the gig, but it seems the pa guy was kinda stitched up as to the nature of the event. 

So we took along our Soundcraft Ui24 which we use for gigs (which we run a silent stage). We also use this for rehearsals with IEMs. So we all plugged into that as normal (Roland Electric drum kit), gave him a stereo feed with our ipad for mixing and took our aux feeds as normal. 

Worked a treat. Great sound on the IEMs and had a hassle free fun gig. 

Win win 

[Norris]

We had a lovely day yesterday. It was a VE80 celebration organised by the local council and the Royal British Legion branch. It started off at 2:30 with the Leicester Big Band.

 

 

The decorations were fantastic and the room was packed. After that was a ukelele band in the other room (I was, erm, too busy to go and watch them 😜)

 

So the evening was then split between our guitarist's brother's Beatles tribute band and us. We shared kit - most of it ours. I didn't get any photos of us, but shot these 3 that I've chucked together in a collage...

 

I was quite pleased with that set of shots

 

Usual Sire into Rumble. More importantly footwear were my custom suede Converse

[Norris]

Oh, I forgot to say that the left-handed guitarist in the middle was playing a left-handed guitar, but strung right-handed! 🤯

[bassbiscuits]

1 hour ago, Norris said:

Oh, I forgot to say that the left-handed guitarist in the middle was playing a left-handed guitar, but strung right-handed! 🤯

Good rhythm section there - Rick and Joe. 

[bassbiscuits]

Just back from playing a solo gig at VE celebration in a local pub beer garden. Personal best - 3mins door to door from my house yay!

Scorching hot afternoon but my acoustic guitar miraculously stayed in tune despite the heat (I took a big cloth to cover my kit when not in use).
 

First time there but it went down well enough for the gaffer to ask me about coming back, so that’s a win. 

 

Edited 20 hours ago by bassbiscuits

[Bluewine]

10 hours ago, msb said:

 

We used to do the odd gig on a harbour tour boat. Lurching around on the boat was always fun , sometimes the power was iffy , and it could be packed.
One night after loading out the drummer noticed some movement by the dock and cried out   “Hey ! A squirrel!” 

Agreed on the iffy power. And yes usually packed and alot of cocktails flowing.

 

Daryl

[BigRedX]

Played The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday supporting The Faces Of Sarah.

 

It's a decent-sized venue with a great PA and lighting system, but is upstairs from a student pub. Every time, no matter what time of year, I have been here, the pub downstairs has been rammed full of students all in fancy dress getting very drunk. It's a complete contrast to the audience upstairs. A slightly smaller crowd than usual, but still very appreciative. Plenty of people down the front dancing. Fewer problems than two weeks ago. The footswitch problem appears to have been solved by a different choice of footwear and the wireless bug stayed firmly attached to my bass. However our singer managed to forget the words to the second verse of a different song to last time. Still sold a decent amount of T-shirts and CDs afterwards. We're close to selling out of copies of "Lost Souls", we have two gigs coming up in a fortnight's time and after those they may well all be gone.

 

As usual gig photos courtesy of Oh My Goth:

 

 

Next gigs are in two week's time first on Saturday 24th May in Bradford at the 1-12 Club as part of the ReVamped event and then on Sunday 25th in Nottingham at The Chapel as part of the Dot-To-Dot Festival.

[Muzz]

Played an end-of-season outdoor festival at a local(ish) footy club; you know the thing - bouncy castles, ropey burgers, BYOB, a charity raffle, generally a family day out on the pitch, with a proper stage, unfortunately facing into the sun, so it was verrrry hot (the drummer/PA engineer's iPad shut down at one point because he'd left it on the stage in the sun and it overheated), but a good day. Mostly singers with backing tracks, a couple of solo acoustic types, we closed it out for an hour at half seven. 

 

I'd brought my QSC 12.2 just in case the cobbled-together PA wasn't up to much bottom end, and it's a good job I did, as one of the (12") subs (we had 2 x 12" full range cabs each side, too) sharted itself just before we went on, so I brought the QSC up to the front on my side (where the bust sub was) and didn't go through the desk. Made it loud onstage on my side, but I went out front with my wireless and blimey charlie o'reilly that QSC can generate some bass; lots of it even a good way from the stage. Admittedly we weren't at Knebworth levels of volume, but lots of people said how well it all sounded, and I'd never have imagined playing an outside venue with one bass cab and being heard more than 40ft from the stage against a miked-up drummer, guitar and vocals in the PA. Extraordinary. It didn't break a sweat, either, and was on about 75% volume, with 50% more (linear) input from the Stomp to come, too; clean (Stomp patch dependent) and very nice...as I say, the onstage sound was naturally bass-heavy on my side, but it was the overall amount of sound the thing is capable of which surprised me - I can't think of a full stack rig I've ever used that would've made more, and that's including an Ampeg fridge and SVT...

[cheddatom]

Eh Up Mi Duck festival on Saturday night. All day drinking tends to mean a lot of early nights at these festivals but we were on at 9:15 which is a good time to start. Quick line check and sound was ready in under a minute. Sounded great from behind the kit and loads of compliments afterwards!

 

A single error - When I do any "out there" fills, it can put the singer right off. I try to concentrate and use the same fills over and over, keeping anything slightly "jazzy" for the recording studio. Unfortunately as the huge crowd were so into it, I found myself go to auto-pilot - enjoying the crowd response and "vibe" instead of concentrating on the drums. Out came a particularly off-beat fill (I'm sure any drummers would appreciate it) and sure enough the singer went half a bar out! Ooopsie! 🤣 Other than that, an absolutely flawless gig and such positivity from the crowd I'm still buzzing two days later

 

We sold loads of merch. The new songs from our forthcoming album are going down great and people seem to know the words already! We put it on "pre order" this morning and we've already had orders for 20+ CDs and a load of vinyl and bundles. Very cool

 

Edited 4 hours ago by cheddatom

[Dad3353]

44 minutes ago, cheddatom said:

... Out came a particularly off-beat fill (I'm sure any drummers would appreciate it...

 

Yes, I'm prone to doing this, too; luckily our singer (and the rest of the band...) know how to keep the 'beat' in their heads, and don't rely on the drums to bring themselves in. I could fold up inanimate, they'd all come back in on time..! 

[cheddatom]

10 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Yes, I'm prone to doing this, too; luckily our singer (and the rest of the band...) know how to keep the 'beat' in their heads, and don't rely on the drums to bring themselves in. I could fold up inanimate, they'd all come back in on time..! 

 

The guitarist and bassist are fine, obviously, it's just the frontman who has an unusual sense of time. We often have to follow him if he skips half a bar etc. but keeping the drum fills simple, with snare hits on the backbeat, tends to help a lot. 

[casapete]

I played two gigs this weekend with blues rock band ‘ The Alligators’. 
 

Saturday night we were at a pub on the east coast, which we’d done before. Not many

punters in when we started our first set, and then quite a few left due to a guy who was

off his head ( not from drink) floundering dangerously around the dance floor in front of the 

small stage. At one point he tried climbing the stairs onto the stage, so I stopped playing

and gave him my best death stare, something I’m not great at to be fair. Amazingly he

backed off ( thank god) but by this time the damage was done. Second set was brought

forward and only saved by a group of ladies coming in on a night out. Got paid and then

beat a hasty retreat - we have two more dates at this venue later in the year, but I’m not

keen to return. 
 

Sunday’s gig was entirely different, thank goodness. Nice pub in Filey where we played

a late afternoon session, starting at 4pm and finishing around 6.30pm. We had nearly a 

full pub of blues fans, including a few local musos, and went down really well. The landlady

is soon moving to another venue in West Yorkshire and wants us to play there, so could be

interesting. Used my usual passive Precision Lyte straight into my Rumble 500, along with

a very comfortable ( but potentially uncool/embarrassing ) pair of Clark’s trainers.

 

No photos of the gigs, but a nice one of Filey looking towards Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve.

Also for the vintage gear heads, a shot of our ancient ( (1970’s?) Peavey PA amp - and yes,

those are jack inputs 😆

 

 

[Bluewine]

1 hour ago, cheddatom said:

Eh Up Mi Duck festival on Saturday night. All day drinking tends to mean a lot of early nights at these festivals but we were on at 9:15 which is a good time to start. Quick line check and sound was ready in under a minute. Sounded great from behind the kit and loads of compliments afterwards!

 

A single error - When I do any "out there" fills, it can put the singer right off. I try to concentrate and use the same fills over and over, keeping anything slightly "jazzy" for the recording studio. Unfortunately as the huge crowd were so into it, I found myself go to auto-pilot - enjoying the crowd response and "vibe" instead of concentrating on the drums. Out came a particularly off-beat fill (I'm sure any drummers would appreciate it) and sure enough the singer went half a bar out! Ooopsie! 🤣 Other than that, an absolutely flawless gig and such positivity from the crowd I'm still buzzing two days later

 

We sold loads of merch. The new songs from our forthcoming album are going down great and people seem to know the words already! We put it on "pre order" this morning and we've already had orders for 20+ CDs and a load of vinyl and bundles. Very cool

 

 

 

Great pic !

 

Daryl

[howdenspur]

Stillingfleet Beer Festival, Saturday afternoon. I've played there probably half a dozen times in the last 15 years and the weather has always been glorious!

The band's first proper gig, albeit with a stand in drummer - kudos, he was great! We went down well and were happy with how we sounded, with some lessons for future bookings.

[bassintheface]

So I've spent the last week rehearsing & playing bass for the excellent (and lovely) Whitney Lyman - a singer songwriter from the USA.

 

I got booked a few weeks back and she arrived from LA last Monday.

we rehearsed Tuesday, then played in London on weds, then a few gigs up North at the brilliant Focus Wales festival.

 

Some recording  got done yesterday and a little more later in the week, then she's back to sunny California.

 

Had  great time, band was sh1t hot and enjoyed it.

 

Used my Jazz basses, Peavey MiniMax500 and my Barefaced 2x10 - good compliments on the sound from the sound engineer too (and the EQ was flat as  a pancake).

 

Plans being made for another visit and some festival dates all being well.....

just need to get asked to do some USA dates now 🤣

[51m0n]

Best load in comparison stories

 

https://facebook.com/groups/1197286767066014/

 

The easier the load in the worse the score 🤣

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, Muzz said:

Played an end-of-season outdoor festival at a local(ish) footy club; you know the thing - bouncy castles, ropey burgers, BYOB, a charity raffle, generally a family day out on the pitch, with a proper stage, unfortunately facing into the sun, so it was verrrry hot (the drummer/PA engineer's iPad shut down at one point because he'd left it on the stage in the sun and it overheated), but a good day. Mostly singers with backing tracks, a couple of solo acoustic types, we closed it out for an hour at half seven. 

 

I'd brought my QSC 12.2 just in case the cobbled-together PA wasn't up to much bottom end, and it's a good job I did, as one of the (12") subs (we had 2 x 12" full range cabs each side, too) sharted itself just before we went on, so I brought the QSC up to the front on my side (where the bust sub was) and didn't go through the desk. Made it loud onstage on my side, but I went out front with my wireless and blimey charlie o'reilly that QSC can generate some bass; lots of it even a good way from the stage. Admittedly we weren't at Knebworth levels of volume, but lots of people said how well it all sounded, and I'd never have imagined playing an outside venue with one bass cab and being heard more than 40ft from the stage against a miked-up drummer, guitar and vocals in the PA. Extraordinary. It didn't break a sweat, either, and was on about 75% volume, with 50% more (linear) input from the Stomp to come, too; clean (Stomp patch dependent) and very nice...as I say, the onstage sound was naturally bass-heavy on my side, but it was the overall amount of sound the thing is capable of which surprised me - I can't think of a full stack rig I've ever used that would've made more, and that's including an Ampeg fridge and SVT...

I might give our drummers QSC 12.2 cabs a we shot with my bass.

He has the 12.2, 3 way 15 cabs and subs but we generally just use the 15's.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

2 minutes ago, bassintheface said:

So I've spent the last week rehearsing & playing bass for the excellent (and lovely) Whitney Lyman - a singer songwriter from the USA.

 

I got booked a few weeks back and she arrived from LA last Monday.

we rehearsed Tuesday, then played in London on weds, then a few gigs up North at the brilliant Focus Wales festival.

 

Some recording  got done yesterday and a little more later in the week, then she's back to sunny California.

 

Had  great time, band was sh1t hot and enjoyed it.

 

Used my Jazz basses, Peavey MiniMax500 and my Barefaced 2x10 - good compliments on the sound from the sound engineer too (and the EQ was flat as  a pancake).

 

Plans being made for another visit and some festival dates all being well.....

just need to get asked to do some USA dates now 🤣

Superb and huge respect being able to take on work like that without regular rehearsals. Takes a good musician to be able to do that.

Not sure I could do it.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

5 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Played The Lending Room in Leeds on Saturday supporting The Faces Of Sarah.

 

It's a decent-sized venue with a great PA and lighting system, but is upstairs from a student pub. Every time, no matter what time of year, I have been here, the pub downstairs has been rammed full of students all in fancy dress getting very drunk. It's a complete contrast to the audience upstairs. A slightly smaller crowd than usual, but still very appreciative. Plenty of people down the front dancing. Fewer problems than two weeks ago. The footswitch problem appears to have been solved by a different choice of footwear and the wireless bug stayed firmly attached to my bass. However our singer managed to forget the words to the second verse of a different song to last time. Still sold a decent amount of T-shirts and CDs afterwards. We're close to selling out of copies of "Lost Souls", we have two gigs coming up in a fortnight's time and after those they may well all be gone.

 

As usual gig photos courtesy of Oh My Goth:

 

 

Next gigs are in two week's time first on Saturday 24th May in Bradford at the 1-12 Club as part of the ReVamped event and then on Sunday 25th in Nottingham at The Chapel as part of the Dot-To-Dot Festival.

Always great classy pics you have.

Dave

[Boodang]

2 hours ago, casapete said:

 

 

 

I don’t about vintage more like something you find in an archeological dig! The copycat is awesome tho!

[casapete]

I think it’s an old 210 watt mixer amp. We use it with a pair of 1x10 passive cabs ( just for two vocal mics )

and it’s actually pretty good! Bloody heavy though. 
On every gig we just turn it on and don’t touch any settings and it sounds great, whatever the room.

No soundchecks needed! One day it will surely conk out I reckon, but old Peavey USA stuff was always

pretty bombproof - I had a Mark111 bass amp from the same era and it was just as reliable.