How was your gig last night?

[woodyratm]

We played a charity gig last night. Furthest one from home (about 1.5hrs). 40 min set in a town hall. 
 

can’t say it was mobbed but it was pretty fun. 
 

Used dark ray into my QC and the sound guy was chuffed. Random amp onstage for DI (which was set flat). Some weird screaming from my IEMs and my guitarist seemed to lose his guitar in his mix. We haven’t figured why…

 

Overall, happy! 

[mep]

Love the Dark Ray there @woodyratm

[Greg Edwards69]

At the Sarah Moore on Saturday night. The 'performance area' in this pub is rather cramped for a band of our size, but as we were a man down (Liam, our co-lead singer was unavailable), it meant I had the opportunity to move from normal 2 square feet stuck behind a guitarist and move up front next to Jenny as I was doing the majority of backing vocals. And I have to say, she did a fantastic job covering both her and his songs, including a couple she had never sung lead on before.

 

This was the first time I used my new Darkglass Anagram outside the house. I decided to tempt fate and leave the Helix at home. I needn't have worried, as the anagram sounded great; besides, the pub is only 5 mins from home, so I could have gone home to get the Helix if I needed it (and I keep a Sonicake Boom Ave in my bag just in case). I still need to tweak several things with my presets and get midi control from Bandhelper up and running. Pressing two footswitches simultaneously to change presets is not the easiest thing to do. But I really appreciated the much smaller and lighter unit by my feet. This will be very useful in tight venues.

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention. My tone sounded fine in soundcheck, but in our first set, my bass sounded muffled and lacked definition. My initial thought was it was due to using the Anagram, and perhaps it wasn't EQ'd in as well as the Helix, so I quickly added some high-end EQ with the Anagram's global EQ. It was only at the last song of the first set that I realised my bass' tone control was rolled nearly all the way off.  Doh! I'm sure I'm not the only bassist in the world to have done this and not realise the obvious.

 

The gig itself went well, but the pub was a bit quiet. I put this down to being the last weekend before payday, and the month after, many people have had expensive family holidays. But the manager was very happy with us and hoping to get us back next year, lease pending.

 

Next week, our regular overseas stint at Starr Sport on Canvey Island.

Edited 8 hours ago by Greg Edwards69

[casapete]

Our first gig for the duo ( since our annual break ) was yesterday afternoon at a local vineyard, playing for a

60th birthday party. Great venue set on the edge of the wolds, overlooking the Humber estuary.

Only about 40 guests, and a surprise do for the birthday lady so we played ‘Happy Birthday’ as she

walked into the room. Not many requests, but the family were big Fleetwood Mac fans so it gave

us a challenge to sort some keys out for a few of the female led vocal tunes, some of which worked 

and the odd one didn’t! Still, some dancers towards the end of the afternoon so we just kept the 

well known material flowing, along with the sparkling wine which was delicious!

Used the Fender Kingman into my Rumble 100v3 combo, more than adequate in rather lively

room - barn like with bare wood everywhere. Home by 6pm, well paid / fed / watered etc.
We have 3 more gigs this week, so back with a vengeance!

 

 

 

[BigRedX]

How was your gig last night? - Mixed. There were good bits and terrible bits as I'll describe.

 

We were playing the St Lucifer 10th anniversary gig and the only band in the lineup that didn't include previous members of St Lucifer. 

 

There was a last-minute change of venue due to the place we were originally supposed to be playing being flooded. Luckily an alternative venue could be found so we were upstairs at Gulliver's on Oldham Street in Manchester instead of underwater at Fuel The Music. Apart from having one of the most inconvenient load ins ever - from a narrow street with double-yellows both "sides" so we do get everything out of the car in double quick time, set up and sound check went smoothly.

 

For a change the sound on stage when we started playing was the same as when we sound checked. Everything was going brilliantly with plenty of people in the audience dancing and singing along to our better-known songs. Then during the penultimate song the drums on the backing track cut out. No error messages on the computer which is what normally happens and the track was still playing and outputting MIDI data, just no audio to the PA. We played through to the end of the song without drums which got us an extra loud round of applause, but after that it proved impossible to get the audio to work again. Time was tight and after two unsuccessful attempts to make it work we had admit defeat and not place our last song. Really gutted, especially as up to the point where the backing failed it had been going so well. There were at least two people who'd come from Nottingham especially to see us play and we felt that we'd let the audience down.

 

Of course now I'm back home the backing plays fine with no audio cut outs. Still extensive testing to do before our next gig on Saturday at The Berliner in Beeston as part of the OxJam festival (BTW I've started a thread about it in the gigs section and if any other Basschatters are playing it would be great for you to add your venues and playing times to it).

 

In the meantime here is a collage of photos from the night including one of us while everything was still going well:

[martthebass]

57 minutes ago, casapete said:

Our first gig for the duo ( since our annual break ) was yesterday afternoon at a local vineyard, playing for a

60th birthday party. Great venue set on the edge of the wolds, overlooking the Humber estuary.

Only about 40 guests, and a surprise do for the birthday lady so we played ‘Happy Birthday’ as she

walked into the room. Not many requests, but the family were big Fleetwood Mac fans so it gave

us a challenge to sort some keys out for a few of the female led vocal tunes, some of which worked 

and the odd one didn’t! Still, some dancers towards the end of the afternoon so we just kept the 

well known material flowing, along with the sparkling wine which was delicious!

Used the Fender Kingman into my Rumble 100v3 combo, more than adequate in rather lively

room - barn like with bare wood everywhere. Home by 6pm, well paid / fed / watered etc.
We have 3 more gigs this week, so back with a vengeance!

 

 

 

Thought you was retired! lol.

[casapete]

33 minutes ago, martthebass said:

Thought you was retired! lol.

So did I ! I’ve settled on ‘semi-retirement’ Mart - no longer doing the touring thing, just mainly duo

and occasional dep gigs nearer home. Oh yeah, and a weekly rock n roll club night too!
Not sure I’ll ever stop completely, although my body may decide otherwise. 😄

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, casapete said:

local vineyard ... overlooking the Humber estuary

 

That's one for the climate change sceptics!

[stewblack]

Cancelled.

[tauzero]

Friday was with The Bonnevilles at the Gate in Sutton Coldfield. It's a pub on two levels - last time I played there we were at bar level, this time (as a few times before) we were at front door level which is a metre or so lower. It's OK for space. All went well, most of the punters stayed there and there were a few dancers in the tiny area available. Fortunately the singer (with the PA) and I managed to get parking close to the door, it's not a great place for access.

 

Sei Flamboyant 5 headless -> Lekato wireless -> Zoom MS-60B+ -> Tecamp Puma 900 -> GR Bass AT212. Caravelle memory foam trainers with socks.

 

 

Saturday was with Dirty Roses at the Wheatsheaf in Atherstone. There is a reasonable amount of space there (though I should have got them to put the pool table at the side rather than the back). Load in and out is crap, you have to find somewhere close by on the street to leave the car and then get the gear through a narrow passageway leading to the rear of the pub. Gig itself went OK - did seem a bit fraught at one point as two big blokes (I only came up to their shoulders) seemed to be squaring up right in front of us, but someone cooled them down a bit and separated them, and they were back to being besties an hour later. It's one of those transient pubs where people move on, and by the end of the night the audience had dwindled from about 50 to about 20. And I forgot to take my glasses and my phone - fortunately the only small writing I have to make out is MIDI IN and OUT and I could manage that, the other small (and faint) writing is "Transmitter" and "Receiver" on the wireless and that's now labelled with a big "Tx" and "Rx" that I have no problem making out.

 

Same gear and footwear as last night.

 

No phone so no photo from me. David Bailey quality photo from the drummer.

 

[dmccombe7]

On 28/09/2025 at 16:22, Bluewine said:

 

Thanks Dave,

 

There was no special event to support the gig. Just us, no advertising and we can't pull a crowd on our own in Milwaukee. 

 

Dave, it was bad.

 

Daryl

That's poor from HD with no advertising. Don't understand that at all. Why spend money on a band and have poor turnout by not advertising it. Its just stupidity especially when HD aint doing so well at the moment.

Onto the next one Daryl.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

20 hours ago, woodyratm said:

We played a charity gig last night. Furthest one from home (about 1.5hrs). 40 min set in a town hall. 
 

can’t say it was mobbed but it was pretty fun. 
 

Used dark ray into my QC and the sound guy was chuffed. Random amp onstage for DI (which was set flat). Some weird screaming from my IEMs and my guitarist seemed to lose his guitar in his mix. We haven’t figured why…

 

Overall, happy! 

Liking that Stingray bass @woodyratm. Very nice indeed.

Dave

[dmccombe7]

8 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said:

 

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention. My tone sounded fine in soundcheck, but in our first set, my bass sounded muffled and lacked definition. My initial thought was it was due to using the Anagram, and perhaps it wasn't EQ'd in as well as the Helix, so I quickly added some high-end EQ with the Anagram's global EQ. It was only at the last song of the first set that I realised my bass' tone control was rolled nearly all the way off.  Doh! I'm sure I'm not the only bassist in the world to have done this and not realise the obvious.

 

 

Absolutely not.

I always check my knob before playing. 😜

When i was using a single bass stand the bass knob used to touch the lower support and turn itself almost all the way off as i sat the bass down. I would start playing and wonder where the bass had gone. Now i always centre my onboard EQ when tuning before we start each set. I also tend to use a double stand now so its not an issue now.  

Dave

[dmccombe7]

6 hours ago, martthebass said:

Thought you was retired! lol.

Bass players never retire, they just slow down. 😂

Dave

[dmccombe7]

2 hours ago, stewblack said:

Cancelled.

what happened there ?

Dave