How was your gig last night?

[Obrienp]

Played a gig at a classic car show yesterday afternoon with the covers/originals band. The venue was a farm/caravan site in Nelson’s birthplace. We were playing in the doorway of a barn which had been converted into the amenities block for the caravan site, so not as bad as it might originally sound: it even had coir carpeting in the band area. This faced across the main entry road to a courtyard/stable block which had been converted into a cafe, bar and shop. The classic car display was in a field to the right of this area. All a bit odd in terms of our audience but on the other hand, the owner was extremely welcoming, told us to get whatever we wanted from the catering for free and paid slightly more than the usual local pub rate👍.

 

It turned out that kit messages were somewhat confused prior to the gig, such that I arrived with my EV active 12”  PA speakers, as did the keyboard player with his Yamaha equivalents, the drummer also brought an active sub. Given the distance from our location to the punters, we opted to use all of it and DI everything. That made my two LFSys Monzas somewhat overkill for “onstage” and consequently I didn’t get my chance to open them up.

 

The gig itself went OK but seemed a bit of a paid rehearsal as most of the punters were a long way away. It was like a sauna in the barn entrance but fortunately I had brought a towel and a change of shirt. I got somewhat irritated with the lead guitarist who was constantly turning round, urging us to speed up. I agree that we took a few numbers at a leisurely place but given the lack of A/C, or fans, I thought our drummer was heroic. Everything has to be taken at breakneck speed, or the lead is not happy. IMO some stuff just doesn’t work fast: I Can See Clearly now at almost 150 BPM; nah! It’s also pretty tiring over a 2 to 3 hour set.
 

Anyway, we got a lot of compliments from punters; even some we couldn’t actually see during the set but evidently they had no issues hearing us given our double PA 😀. More importantly we have got a follow on booking from the venue.👍🤟

[WalMan]

2 hours ago, JPJ said:

So our gig yesterday was er challenging.

 

Firstly our singer arrived at the gig with a sore throat which got progressively worse over the two sets. Then, just one song from the end of the first set, the PA tripped. Looks like one of our extension reels took exception to the rather warm and humid conditions and tripped its thermal protection, even though the reel itself was stone cold and the cable was fully uncoiled (a lesson learned from the past). Then, during soundcheck all our in-ears were working fine, but as soon as we fired up in earnest, mine started suffering massive dropouts. So I quickly had our roadie/helper/harmonica player reel out another XLR to move my transmitter to my side of the ‘stage’ at which point I had perfect signal, but the singer/guitarist then suffered drop outs (we’re both using X-Vives and we’ve never had this before). So I finished the first set old school, no plugs or IEM’s and I had forgotten just how loud this is, and how difficult it is to pick your bass out in the mix when you are a) stood virtually on top of you cab, and b) right next to the drums. Second set I went wired with my Behringer P2M and no further problems. 

Oh and did I mention it was hotter than hell in the venue, a smallish pub with a great reputation for live music and fine ales. 

That’s a curse, and why I eventually bit the bullet and got a sennheiser system…better sound to my ears and no problem with dropouts I had with xvive (which I must sell BTW 😁)

[WalMan]

10 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

I've seen people that do that. You're up there performing and they want to have a conversation with you. It's like they're saying; " You're not doing anything important so this is ok".

 

Daryl

Yup I just shrugged indicated the blue sparkly IEM plug and mouthed “I can’t hear you” 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

[Stub Mandrel]

15 minutes ago, WalMan said:

Yup I just shrugged indicated the blue sparkly IEM plug and mouthed “I can’t hear you” 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

 

From Cybus Industries?

Watch it... you could get upgraded.

[Woodinblack]

30 minutes ago, WalMan said:

Yup I just shrugged indicated the blue sparkly IEM plug and mouthed “I can’t hear you” 🤷🏼‍♂️🤣

 

Did that at a gig once and some woman pulled my headphone out to tell me something related to some argument she was having with another woman.

[Phil Starr]

30 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Did that at a gig once and some woman pulled my headphone out to tell me something related to some argument she was having with another woman.

About 6 months ago I was playing in the Vintage, Wellington which is a decent music pub with densely packed and usually inebriated audiences. Anyone who has played there will know there is little delineation between the stage and the audience.  One young woman, tall, willowy attractive but very drunk came up behind me an wrapped her arms round mine whilst I was playing and started a conversation about which songs she wanted. It's remakably difficult to go on playing and singing with 6 feet of drunken young woman draped over you with your arms pinned to your side. In the end her boyfriend who clearly though it was hilarious came up and politely asked if I would like him to take her away. What is the etiquette in this situation?

[neepheid]

4 minutes ago, Phil Starr said:

About 6 months ago I was playing in the Vintage, Wellington which is a decent music pub with densely packed and usually inebriated audiences. Anyone who has played there will know there is little delineation between the stage and the audience.  One young woman, tall, willowy attractive but very drunk came up behind me an wrapped her arms round mine whilst I was playing and started a conversation about which songs she wanted. It's remakably difficult to go on playing and singing with 6 feet of drunken young woman draped over you with your arms pinned to your side. In the end her boyfriend who clearly though it was hilarious came up and politely asked if I would like him to take her away. What is the etiquette in this situation?

 

Entirely depends upon the desired outcome - freedom from her clutches?  A punch in the mouth?  An STI?

 

[martthebass]

20 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

The Dingwalls are cracking basses for the money but i'm not spending a lot on any more gigging basses after my VM4 was knocked off its stand by a drunken bum while sitting on stage and i was getting changed after the gig. If i can and have the space i take my bass into changing area when not on stage but not all changing rooms have that amount of space.

Dave

Ouch.  That's what stops me taking the expensive stuff - especially on easily accessible/zero stages.  Never bothered me when it was the old jeans and T Shirt bands.

 

BTW - Black bass and LEDS!

[tegs07]

wrong place!

Edited 3 hours ago by tegs07

[tony_m]

Saturday evening saw Rascallion return to our spiritual home of Anderby Village Hall. The atmosphere was a bit subdued, partly due to the heat which had kept a number of regulars away and reduced the size of the audience, but also in the knowledge that the RNLI and Coastguard were engaged in searching for a teenager who was missing in the sea just a couple of miles away (sad to report, his body was located in the early hours of Sunday morning). 

 

After being fed and watered (copiously!), we launched into our usual opener of CCR's "Green River" with all due respect to John Fogerty who'd played the same tune (as well as several others of his / ours) at Glastonbury earlier in the day. Apart from a) forgetting to un-mute the amp as we kicked off (fortunately I was in the PA too, so nobody noticed the lack of bass apart from me and Mr Drums, and I managed to sort it a couple of bars in!), b) the usual couple of curveballs courtesy of Mr Singer (including an almost complete trainwreck in Steve Miller's "Rock'n' Me" which we somehow managed to salvage), and c) a few more minor incidents caused by sweaty fingers, we got through the evening OK, and even the new stuff we were debuting went acceptably well. 

 

Gear was my 1997 CIJ Jazz, Trace AH200 head (acquired from @Deedee on here) and Trace BLX-110 cab, the usual Micro Thumpinator > NUX tuner > Ampeg OptoComp > Ampeg Scrambler > Ampeg Liquifier > Ashdown 12-band Graphic EQ/DI > Behringer DI600P DI, with charcoal Converse AllStars taking care of the footwear department. 

 

Now, let's see if I can get a phone video snippet to load...

 

 

[martthebass]

A very hot and sticky this last Saturday; a Bikers Rally at the Breighton Ferry.  Absolutely cracking gig with lots of enthusiastic punters; sound was a bit of a problem as there was a wall in front of me a couple of metres out which gave me some horrible harsh sound spikes in the first spot.....the ears are still complaining despite me having moulded 21db Decibulz plugs.....

[Clint]

On 19/04/2025 at 11:07, basexperience said:

I recently joined an Alanis Morissette tribute act, Jagged Little Alanis. First full set was last weekend at the Essex Arms in Brentwood - great little venue. The amazing fella who did sound videos everything. Here’s me trying to be Flea 🙄

 

 

Good stuff! I was part of an Alanis Tribute band up until 2021. Coincidence that I play a Les Paul Bass. Fun Songs to play. 

[Jackroadkill]

1 hour ago, Phil Starr said:

What is the etiquette in this situation?

 

Be grateful it wasn't your drummer, I think.

[Phil Starr]

18 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

 

Be grateful it wasn't your drummer, I think.

Funny you should say that, 😂