How was your gig last night?

[JPJ]

We took our southern rock covers band to Trillians, a small independent venue in the centre of Newcastle. This venue has in-house PA and engineer. We took our Behringer XR18 to run our IEMs using a passive split. Gearwise, I used my Overwater 5 string jazz, Shure GLXD16+, Empress compressor, Jad Freer Capo, and SushiboxFx Finally DI. I did have my Ashdown ABM 500W 1x15 combo on stage but that was more for show due to the aforementioned in-house PA and our IEMs. Despite being down a fiddle player, we still had a great night and the punters seemed to enjoy themselves with the venue full from the get go. One of those gigs you wish you could play every week 😎

Edited 22 hours ago by JPJ

[Chienmortbb]

Return to gigging for me last night after a medical "holiday". The Rebbels played a new venue, Bluebird Social Club, Longham (just north of Poole and Bournemouth). My partner said it was "a dump" last time she went there, although that was decades ago.

 

There was a vintage carpet on the floor, but it was tidy and the tables and chairs were new and pristine. At 7pm it was empty. I took both my Fender Aerodyne and my Kala U Bass Solid Body as I am recovering slowly from a rotator cuff/shoulder injury and could not even pick the Fender until last Wednesday. However, a good practice session at home was encouraging, and I started playing the Fender. After about 5 songs, it was clear that I would have to switch to the Kala.

 

By this time, the audience had swelled to around 40, although the place still looked empty they were enthusiastic, clapping more than was just polite applause and some line dancers were on the huge dance floor from the start. The audience reaction seemed to energise the singer, who was not only on the top of his game vocally but great in between songs. 

 

Despite the audience size, we were paid £25 extra and immediately booked again for the new year. I returned home happy 🤩, but knackered.

[dave_bass5]

Had a fantastic gig last night. Small social club but it was packed. 
First set went well but no one dancing. Plenty of clapping though. 3 songs in to the second set, we played Valerie. Suddenly about 30 people started dancing, and they were up for the rest of the night. A good vibe on and off stage. 
 

Now the issue i had. We use an XR18 with an external 5Ghz router. It’s been fine up until the last two gigs. Mixing station on the iPad keeps freezing up, or rather lagging,  and it’s hit or miss if we can trust it. The iPad isn’t losing connection, and there wasn’t many WiFi connections showing up at this venue to be causing an obvious issue. My Drummer couldn’t even connect to the XR18 from his phone. The plan is now to use Ethernet from the iPad to the router. We will keep the WiFi going but i feel safer with a wired connection. 
The XR18 itself was fine, no drop outs etc. I’m tempted to also get a new router but I’ll try the cable first. 

Edited 17 hours ago by dave_bass5

[lozkerr]

Fantastic night last night at Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar with the 80s covers band. We were doing a two-hander with a 90s band and the place was packed - we came within 27 tickets of selling out! No, the venue, not the band 😉 People were dancing from the first song, which is always good to see and loudly singing along to the last few numbers.

 

We hadn't gigged since June, because reasons, so it was great to blow away the cobwebs. Bass was my Sterling Stingray V into the venue's Peavey amp - I still don't know the model number. Maybe I'll look when I'm back there next week, if I remember.

 

In the meantime, here's me grinning like a gargoyle while belting out Love Shack:

[Al Krow]

4 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

Had a fantastic gig last night. Small social club but it was packed. 
First set went well but no one dancing. Plenty of clapping though. 3 songs in to the second set, we played Valerie. Suddenly about 30 people started dancing, and they were up for the rest of the night. A good vibe on and off stage. 
 

Now the issue i had. We use an XR18 with an external 5Ghz router. It’s been fine up until the last two gigs. Mixing station on the iPad keeps freezing up, or rather lagging,  and it’s hit or miss if we can trust it. The iPad isn’t losing connection, and there wasn’t many WiFi connections showing up at this venue to be causing an obvious issue. My Drummer couldn’t even connect to the XR18 from his phone. The plan is now to use Ethernet from the iPad to the router. We will keep the WiFi going but i feel safer with a wired connection. 
The XR18 itself was fine, no drop outs etc. I’m tempted to also get a new router but I’ll try the cable first. 

 

Nice one Dave! Thank god for the Zoutons, eh?!

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

 

 

We had a crowd, however it was awkward.Nice room, nice stage and sound.  We bought our own lighting. Like I said this place is more for the Saturday night party bands.

 

There were a few "screw ups" musically . Good paying gig and some nice tips.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BTJQAGVN2/

 

Daryl

 

Lights look very professional. 

[Stub Mandrel]

Nice reminder of why it's good to sound check tonight. Started playing Uprising, lead came in and it just sounded off and I had to pull the plug. Let's try Crossroads instead. I'm convinced I'm out of key. Stumbles to a halt, I say to guitarist "I was sure we play that in A". "Oh shït" he replies "I'm still tuned down to D from last night".

 

Pub gig, not crowded. We played a bit quieter than usual, they loved it,  especially the landlord. Our recent rehearsal meant few mistakes and better discipline all round. A good night.

 

 

 

 

[Norris]

22 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Nice reminder of why it's good to sound check tonight.

Or at least tune up before you start playing 😂

[Woodinblack]

Well, I didn't sleep last night and felt terrible today, so that was fine as I had a gig in the afternoon at 2. I felt dizzy and sick. Easy setup but felt very cold and hot and generally unwell. Couldn't get warm in the first half which I think was me as the guitarist was complaining about being hot, but also hands were working like they were cold. We thought at the start it was goimg to be be poorly attended but it wasnt, it was pretty crowded. Second half I had put a fleece on so I was warmer and things were flowing better, but singing was an issue due to feeling sick. It all went well in the end and luckily it was an affternoon gig so we could leave at 4:30. Had a request at the end for surfing USA, but couldn't do that, I would have been sick. Luckily it wasn't very far and it was an easy breakdown and drive home. Came in, had some rice, laid down for 5 minutes, woke up at 10!

Glad I got through it!

[martthebass]

1 minute ago, Woodinblack said:

Well, I didn't sleep last night and felt terrible today, so that was fine as I had a gig in the afternoon at 2. I felt dizzy and sick. Easy setup but felt very cold and hot and generally unwell. Couldn't get warm in the first half which I think was me as the guitarist was complaining about being hot, but also hands were working like they were cold. We thought at the start it was goimg to be be poorly attended but it wasnt, it was pretty crowded. Second half I had put a fleece on so I was warmer and things were flowing better, but singing was an issue due to feeling sick. It all went well in the end and luckily it was an affternoon gig so we could leave at 4:30. Had a request at the end for surfing USA, but couldn't do that, I would have been sick. Luckily it wasn't very far and it was an easy breakdown and drive home. Came in, had some rice, laid down for 5 minutes, woke up at 10!

Glad I got through it!

Hope you’re feeling better matey. Can remember doing a gig once with a raging UTI and had to keep a bucket next to my cab….good times 🤣🤣🤣

[Obrienp]

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Well, I didn't sleep last night and felt terrible today, so that was fine as I had a gig in the afternoon at 2. I felt dizzy and sick. Easy setup but felt very cold and hot and generally unwell. Couldn't get warm in the first half which I think was me as the guitarist was complaining about being hot, but also hands were working like they were cold. We thought at the start it was goimg to be be poorly attended but it wasnt, it was pretty crowded. Second half I had put a fleece on so I was warmer and things were flowing better, but singing was an issue due to feeling sick. It all went well in the end and luckily it was an affternoon gig so we could leave at 4:30. Had a request at the end for surfing USA, but couldn't do that, I would have been sick. Luckily it wasn't very far and it was an easy breakdown and drive home. Came in, had some rice, laid down for 5 minutes, woke up at 10!

Glad I got through it!

Sounds like what I had a couple of weeks ago that led to my current chest infection. Take it seriously and treat yourself kindly, a mate has just ended up in hospital with pneumonia after a similar bug.

[martthebass]

Played a private members club last night, didn’t know what to expect as they normally have old school R&B and classic rock type acts. Still they seemed to enjoy it and got another booking for next year so all’s good.

 

Had a major faux pas just before soundcheck when I discovered I’d packed the wrong strap, the one without strap locks, had to do a quick dash home (fortunately only 5 miles on this occasion)…..I found out how nippy the go kart mode was on the Mini Cooper S.

 

Starry night shorty stingray and the normal silver converse.

Banana between the 2 sets and a post gig Glen Morangie.

 

Edited 11 hours ago by martthebass

[theplumber]

Trip to Edinburgh with the 9 piece band SHOUT! Played at STRAMASH. Great venue packed with mainly young lads and lassies! It's a student area so no surprise. Stage was ok. There is 9 of us as mentioned so it can get a bit tight at times. I managed to clout one of the singers in the back of the head....but no damage to the bass which was a Godin Classic Shifter. Nice to have some free beer and water as well! Back there in January and looking forward to it!

 

Edited 10 hours ago by theplumber

[MichaelDean]

A three gig weekend. Mini tour? A first in a very long while! We were playing with a Belgian doom band. Nice guys, but they need to find a real drummer. Their backing track was bad. Like they thought, we're in a metal band so we need to be loud, lets put the velocity of all of the MIDI drums to 100%. Some of them were clipping in places and they lacked nuance. It's the sort of music where a bit of ebbing and flowing of the tempo can really enhance it and being too rigid doesn't work in your favour. There were also a few times where the bassist seemed to be quite out of tune on his fretless. 

 

Gear

Dingwall Combustion -> Boss GX-100 -> Laney Digbeth -> Whatever cabs were available.

 

Friday - The Victoria, Swindon

We were on second of 4 bands and I think we were a little sloppy due to low stage volume and we probably should have all turned up a bit. It probably would have helped if we'd have had a practice in the week before the run of gigs. Still a good reception. The first band was the new band of a guitarist we'd played with before (Onieromancer). They were really good. The singer had the full range of metal noises that some make and did amazingly well for his first gig. The other band (Boss Cloth) were a real blend of a few different things. A bt punk, a bit metal, a bit indie. Fretless 5 string Yamaha that was in tune.

 

Saturday - The Victory, Hereford

This is a cool venue. The whole bar is the side of a ship with cannons above. The back room for the music had lots of rope and nets and other nautical things and a rather unfortunate pole/mast in the middle of the stage. Where we stored gear was up on a balcony that was done up to look like rigging. What was even amazing was that a Wye Valley pale ale was only £3.70 a pint! We played better than the previous night. I was going into a 115 and 210 and we just had more stage volume. The mast was quite annoying for trying to move around a bit though. I was quite conscious of it and didn't want to smack my headstock on it. Very dark stage too. I struggled to see the fret markers at times. I'm starting to consider installing luminlays on my Combustion...

 

At War With The Sun played first and managed to fill a set with about 3 songs. Just the sort of self indulgence I like! And Mudlarker were really good too. Not my favourite style of vocals to listen to, but they were very good.

 

Oh, and we apparently met the entirety of the Hereford metal scene on that night 😂 Sold two t-shirts though!

 

Sunday - Fuel Rock Club, Cardiff

This is a fun place to play. We played once before and the sound guy just seems to know how to get the best out of the venue. I think it was my best performance of the weekend. Also the only one where I hadn't had a beer as I was driving. A correlation methinks... It was also the lowest turnout, but when it's a rainy Sunday night and the opening band (Root Zero) already played there on Friday night, how many are you really expecting? They were really good though. As 6 piece, they looked quite snug on the stage!

 

It was a really fun weekend, but I'm very much wishing I'd taken the day off today!

[Chienmortbb]

10 hours ago, martthebass said:

post gig Glen Morangie

You my friend have very good taste in tipples