How was your gig last night?

[dmccombe7]

7 hours ago, Staggering on said:

Played a set at a bluegrass festival last night as a trio of guitar, mandolin and DB and we all sing. We have done this before and it went well but the leader and main vocalist was not feeling well and it showed with sloppy intros and endings and some other slip ups that are not normal for us. On Saturday and Sunday we play two more sets but with the full 5 piece band and by that time we are hoping the leader has recovered. Not our finest set but that's just the way it goes sometimes.🙄

Sometimes its hard when someone isnt well but at least you still did the gig rather than cancel.

We played a very busy venue once where our female singer was so unwell she had to leave stage to vomit in the band toilet next to stage area. She carried on until the end and we sent her home right away. We could have played the gig with just the one singer but she insisted she wanted to play it as its her local rock venue.

Fortunately the audience were aware she wasn't well and were very appreciative that the band continued as normal.

Its not an easy decision to cancel a gig so for me i think maybe a little praise for your singer that they didn't cancel and take it as a positive rather than a negative.

Dave

[ezbass]

18 hours ago, DGBass said:

Must admit I prefer the Sunday afternoon shows at this venue rather than late week nights.

If it was anything like the time my band played The Corn Exchange, I know where you’re coming from.

[Staggering on]

3 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Sometimes its hard when someone isnt well but at least you still did the gig rather than cancel.

We played a very busy venue once where our female singer was so unwell she had to leave stage to vomit in the band toilet next to stage area. She carried on until the end and we sent her home right away. We could have played the gig with just the one singer but she insisted she wanted to play it as its her local rock venue.

Fortunately the audience were aware she wasn't well and were very appreciative that the band continued as normal.

Its not an easy decision to cancel a gig so for me i think maybe a little praise for your singer that they didn't cancel and take it as a positive rather than a negative.

Dave

Good point, I hope he is feeling better for tomorrow and Sunday. I tried to text him this morning but over here in the colonies there are places in the northern areas where there is no cell service and that is where he is, camping in his RV at the festival site. 🙄🤞

[WalMan]

Yesterday I was a Punk Pirate, having been to the Brighton Guitar Show with #2 son during the day and managed to avoid an impulse buy of a 72 P bass. It was very nice as was the 73 and the canary yellow 75 , but I just resisted.

 

Having left there around 3:30 and dropped son off I headed over to Emsworth for a little light pirating at Kingsfest.

 

Almost didn’t bother with IEM’s because it was quick turnarounds, but guitar from my usual main band said the onstage sound was a bit muddled, so in the end I set it up and just took a mono aux with bass, guitar and vox and put one plug in and it worked well.

 

Timings for the day got out of sync due to weather and the Fest starting indoors then moving out. Would have helped if the acoustic duo had used the second stage rather than main, so when the compère said “the Pirates will be on in 15 minutes” there were cries of “I don’t think so!” but we were on pretty quick. Still somewhat curtailed of set time, not helped by my right leg going through the stage just before we started so so quick patching required…”I be capsizin’ cap’n” … “‘‘tis but a scratch ya scurvy scum” 🤣

 

Pretty solid set generally. Some flubs, but we’re Punk Pirates, nobody died, and it was generally good. Good crowd up for it and a lot of money made for a dementia charity, so all good.

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by WalMan

[Norris]

Just back from a sports and social club over in Nuneaton about 12 miles away. There were quite a few in, which made for a good evening, and a bit of dancing in the last set. We've played there before but I think there were a few more in this time.

 

The guitarist had a bit of an off night, making some silly mistakes in songs we've played loads of times. However we were pleasantly surprised at how well Sir Duke came together after just learning our bits at home and then playing it together for the first time in the gig. I love playing with such talented guys.

 

I love the painted back wall.

 

The usual Stingish bass into GT-6B (operated by burgundy suede Converse one-stars) into Fender Rumble v3 500 combo.

 

Passable cheese and onion batch (we ventured from our native cob-eating Leicester into batch-eating Nuneaton) from the bar - only £1.50 - bargain

 

[dmccombe7]

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest.

Sound check went well and everything sounded great.

Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. 

Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels.

Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days.

Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂

2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. 

Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice.

It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy.

Usual gear :-

Sandberg VM4

Shure GLXD+ wireless

Keeley Bassist Comp.

Handbox WB100

Barefaced 212 cab

 

Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ  abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig.

No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand.

 

All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too.

50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed.

Night night guys.

Dave 

Edited 15 hours ago by dmccombe7

[WalMan]

IEM’s save me from digging in too hard, though that does require whoever is handling FOH to be on it else you’re fine but the crowd is thinking “what’s that bloke doing on stage?” 🤦🏼‍♂️

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, WalMan said:

IEM’s save me from digging in too hard, though that does require whoever is handling FOH to be on it else you’re fine but the crowd is thinking “what’s that bloke doing on stage?” 🤦🏼‍♂️

Audience probably think that about me anyways 😂

Our singers and drummer use IEM's but they seem to have some sort of issues at every gig. Probably cheap IEM systems but its kind of put me off a wee bit but i like the idea of no bass cabs to humph around at gigs.

Dave

[Cat Burrito]

We played the fabulous Richard Jefferies Museum in Swindon. A beautiful setting with what I thought was a respectable crowd. I flew back from Spain yesterday so we hadn’t really rehearsed. I think we have it in the bank though. A varied crowd from 3-87yrs old and the under 10s all helped us pack up. Luckily, the other half of my duo is a teacher so he was able to coordinate them so we had no breakages! 
 

Everyone was super friendly and it was certainly one of the more memorable gigs. 
 

[jezzaboy]

17 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Blockbustarz Glam covers at The Dreadnought in Bathgate. One of my fav gigs to be honest.

Sound check went well and everything sounded great.

Then for some weird reason i started to struggle to hear the bass out front. I had deliberately kept my on stage volume low and assumed the SE was on top of FOH. 

Unfortunately i spoke with my wife at the end and she said she struggled to hear the bass at times. I'll have a word with SE next time we play. He was experienced a deep feedback ring that we couldn't identify and maybe he's dropped the bass FOH to help and possibly forgot to turn it back up. My wee fingers are aching tonight as i automatically play harder when i'm struggling to hear myself. In future i'll be setting my stage volume to suit me if FOH are just gonna turn me down. I always set my stage level to balance drum levels.

Other than that we had dancers from the get go. Only sold 40 tickets but a lot of walk-ins which the owner said was pretty normal these days.

Ended up reasonably busy when we started and the audience remained. We had folks up from Galashiels and some came over from Livingston to see us so we have a fan base out there 😂

2x1hr sets or thereabouts. 2 encores which was nice. 

Odd thing was we had a crowd of Goths in and they were loving it and dancing virtually every song. At the end while loading car I overheard one of them say he's not danced that much in ages and loved it. So that was nice.

It was an 80-20% ticket deal tonight and we did OK with that as we usually do. Back again Sat before Xmas which is always a fun party night and very busy.

Usual gear :-

Sandberg VM4

Shure GLXD+ wireless

Keeley Bassist Comp.

Handbox WB100

Barefaced 212 cab

 

Loving this bass cab. Its lightweight and easy to lift but retains so much depth and the wide angle dispersion means i can clearly hear it if standing right next to it. Only downside is i always find 12's lack the mid punch of a 10" speaker but its still a superb cab and i just need to tweak my EQ  abit more. I am loving the tone i'm getting with this rig.

No more distortion when i play slightly harder now since i dropped the P pick up a touch on the VM4. I can still trigger it if i dig in really hard but i'm trying to play a bit lighter these days to save damaging my wee fingertips on plucking hand.

 

All in all a great wee night and the Pizza from next door was pretty good too.

50min drive home on quiet roads and a nice wee toasted pancake and coffee and now time for bed.

Night night guys.

Dave 

My mob is in there next week Dave and as we were only booked a week ago we haven`t had much time to push the gig. Hope folk turn up! 

[Merton]

Had an absolutely banging gig today down in Poole at Country In The Park with Katy Hurt. We opened proceedings and had an absolute blast.

 

Interesting moments..:

I didn’t read the set list so was almost caught out by the first song

My (Dunlop) strap lock popped out during the first song so I ended up having to improvise til

I could sort myself out (embarrassing photo below)

Cris, playing lap steel/acoustic guitar/mandolin kept stepping on my lead so I couldn’t wander the stage as freely as I’d been trying to do. Ironically I drove home via  @franzbassist to pick up his Rockboard Tree 3.0 so I can have a bigger board to fit my wireless receiver… needed more forward planning on my part!

 

But on the whole, an absolute blast of a gig. Very hot, very fun, and I hope we made some new friends. Shoes were the lo top Soul Cals again.

 

Me pretending to play djent when the strap popped out:

The whole band just having fun:

 

[bassbiscuits]

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. 
Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound.

 

Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. 

Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all  afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. 
 

Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs. 

Edited 3 hours ago by bassbiscuits

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

My mob is in there next week Dave and as we were only booked a week ago we haven`t had much time to push the gig. Hope folk turn up! 

Can't remember what the band is @jezzaboy ? Is yours the ac/dc tribute band ? 

I think it gets a steady crowd every week but a lot are waiting to the last minute and just paying at the door.

If i've got your band right i reckon it should be pretty busy. Just keep in mind schools finish this week in Edinburgh area so might be a few on hols.

Dave

 

[dmccombe7]

46 minutes ago, bassbiscuits said:

Cool weekend of gigs. Friday night playing bass with Superbad at the Sapcote Social Club in Leicestershire. 
Really good turnout, lots of dancing and good sound.

 

Saturday night playing bass with my own band (the Andy Wales Band) at Bar Dos Hermanos in Leicester. We were all knackered and it was a bit ragged and “seat of pants” at times but still plenty of good bits, a decent crowd and some righteous noises were made by all. Gear for both gigs was a Yamaha BB604 and little Markbass traveller rig. 

Then Sunday, helping our local village guitar teacher with his twice yearly gig for his students (including my eldest lad who’s just discovered Nirvana). It’s quite inspiring to see the youngsters grow as musicians over the few years we’ve been involved. The biblical rain from the morning thankfully stayed away all  afternoon and it was a lovely outdoor shindig in his back garden, with me providing the PA and bass gear, being a general helper and being roped in on bass for one song. 
 

Gig below from Saturday night and Sunday afternoon’s gigs. 

All credit to you for a busy weekend @bassbiscuits

Dave

[Burns-bass]

Did a really lovely gig by the seaside near Swanage and, as well as a large fee, was allowed to order anything form the menu, which included this £70 lobster.

 

Would have been rude not to!

 

 

[Woodinblack]

Busy weekend, after a while of not doing anything. Had an hour slot at a local festival, Party by the Parrett, and got the 6pm slot which was nice. We had played a wedding and a party at the venue, and the guy that run the club liked us. Very well organised (stocked fridge back stage and everything) and handily the two main sound guys were the guitarists friend and one of the guitarists in my other band. We had argued a bit trying to get the set list down, we had been asked to do mainly rock (there was a more poppy band and a ska band on after us, so we stuck to the rock mostly) seemed to go down well and we managed to get it down to 1hr and 3 minutes, so went over a bit, which messed stuff up a bit but not too bad. We had quite a few dancers .

My guitarist / sound guy did a video from the side  

 

 

Today we played a pub, outside, on shingle which is a bit of a pain for getting dust everywhere and trying to stand your drink up. Also not good for wasps (or well, good depending on if you are a wasp or not!), back to the normal 2.5 hour set. To be honest I wasn't really feeling it as my hand hurt for some reason but it went well with only a few notable mistakes, like going to do the organ backing section of Brick in the wall, and not realising I didn't change my patch from the backing track of Baker street (which is like a bell), which was quite amusing. 

We had a request for timber which we hadn't done for a year or so but the singer couldn't remember how to play it!

 

Glad to get back to work tomorrow for a rest!

 

 

 

 

 

[Staggering on]

Finished up at the bluegrass festival this afternoon in very heavy rain. Full 5 piece band and we had a good rehearsal before our set and then found out it was shortened to 30 minutes instead of the normal 45-55 minutes. Not much playing and a two hour drive each way. Yesterday we played at noon and the band was in good form and we were very tight and did a beautiful version of Seven Bridges Road, the acapella part was wonderful four part harmony, a good set and the crowd enjoyed it and our leader and lead vocal was back in good health. 

Usual festival set up, Czech DB with Nux wireless into Traynor amp and DI to PA, excellent sound guys and we sounded good.

Edited 31 minutes ago by Staggering on