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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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Wedding gig last night. Anything up to 500 people there, so we expected a really good night. Wrong! The first set was punctuated by the odd small child playing tennis on the dance floor, and whilst the second set was a lot better and quite a few people got up to dance, it was a huge hall and they looked lost. The most annoying thing though was that when the dj came on in the interval and after we finished, he played all the old wedding standards (Hi Ho Silver Lining, Tiger Feet, Shang a Lang, etc, and they went wild for it! We are seriously thinking of having an "A" setlist for weddings with a "B" setlist containing nothing but the old standards as an emergency measure for gigs that prefer them. Does anyone else do this? Its not just a case of slipping the odd old one in, but I think this is the second gig recently where the patrons really didnt want anything else but oldies.

Just to make things worse, I was suffering from a chest infection all night so didnt really enjoy the experience, and woke up this morning with severe conjunctivitis! One of the band said "why are you always ill Bob?" How do I know?? Is it possible to have the same fluctuating infection for 2 years? In the past, the Doc said it would get better of its own accord, and tested me just to make sure I hadnt had a heart attack!

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I think, depending on what type of band and what type of gigs, a "B" set of the standard classics is a good idea. Ultimately, if the intention of the band is to entertain and get people up & dancing, being able to pull those out of the bag will keep the bookings coming in.

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The previous band I was in kept experimenting at wedding gigs with certain songs at the break and after ( we ran the "disco" from the drummers laptop ) and when we found a dance floor winner we learnt it and used it. Songs that spring to mind are Mr Brightside and Foo Fighters Times Like These that stopped us having to resort to Summer of 69 etc

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Superb gig tonight , we played as solid all the way through as we ever have , with the added advantage of a clean sound . As I am learning to mix recordings I applied some of the thinking to our sound and Rhythm guitar is fantastic, he did what I asked and we all seemed to have sooooo much more space to play in without resorting to volume wars , maybe the room helped , I dont know , but the feedback we had was awesome , I really think we have stepped up , chuffed to bits .


Gutted for you Jezza , it can't be nice that , if he cant do it in rehearsal though , I would not have put the show on .

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Another long drive yesterday. London to Windermere and back, but I got home at a surprisingly early 4.10am. A great gig - and my rig sounded awesome, stunning scenery and the wedding party were really up for a good time. Job done on all counts.

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Good wedding gig last night - full rock'n'roll set, no slow numbers at all!
The sound was good, the food was good and the beer even better. :D
Collapsed into bed at 02:45hrs only to be woken by next doors dog at 05:10hrs.
C'est la Vie!
Funnily enough, that was the married couples first dance song as well. :o

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After my amp blew up on Thursday I was very worried as to how this weekends gigs could have worked out using borrowed and unfamiliar gear.

However, I needn't have worried as the SWR Workingman's 10 I borrowed did very well on both nights! I had a matching 1x10 cab but simply did not need it.

Fridays gig was a bar on Eton Hugh street (Eton's a wonderful looking place, well worth a visit if you ever end up in Slough or Windsor) and we went down very well. Luckily a couple of birthday parties were in and decided to stay. Great crowd full of very lovely ladies!

Last nights was a Sports Club near Luton. First set went down very well but because the club was full of wedding revellers that had been beering it up since 2pm, the place emptied during the interval! Ended up finishing to the bar staff and a few laggers. Oh well, good pay and got another couple of gigs out of it.

Tempted to find and buy a Workingman's 10 now. Perfect little amp for the gigs I do at the moment when I need to use my own gear and takes up absolutely bo space at all! Can't believe I used to lug around 4x10's and 1x15 cabs and heads to use at the same volume as this little 1x10 combo!

Truckstop

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Just about recovered from this weekend shenanigans...

2 gig on Friday - one of which we had to supply the PA/do our own sound.
So Friday afternoon legged it from work to the second venue we were playing, set up PA and kit on my own as the rest
of the band were finishing their work later than me, then when that was done, went to venue of first gig, soundchecked,
hung about for 20 mins before stage time. We were supporting another band who kindly let us use their gear so we didn't
have too much faff. Gig went well, our BBoy fans were there doing there thing. Great sound from the bass rig which is identical
to mine so made a note of the settings!

When we finished the first gig we had 20 mins to leg it down the road, plug in and line check and start. Just about made it in time
but the bar manager insisted we played in the big bay window and the sound was shocking. Windows on all sides and a 30ft high
ceiling defeated any attempts to get a decent sound. Anyway, we got paid but we won't be going back there.

Saturday night was a Mental Health Fundraiser. Had a bit of a panic as our percussionist had car failure and couldn't make it - only
found out an hour before the gig! I tried to get a dep in but the singer went apeshit at having to pay someone (only £40 - £4 each!)
and we had a bit of a pregig tantrum - something having only had 3 hours sleep doesn't help! Anyway, venue was packed full of fun
dancers and despite some sax mic feedback nonsense we had a great gig, each of us trying to sneak 'Happy Birthday' into our solos
as it was the sax player's birthday! Singer happy at the end, everyone else happy but I think we will be doing less gigs infuture but making
sure they are quality ones.

Ps played through an Orange Bass Terror and an orange 1x10" - sounded ok!

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Decent gig to a slightly modest but enthusiastic crowd last night. Sadly the venue closes in August so we'll probably only get to play it once more in July before it goes. Never a big paying gig but it will be a shame to lose another pub that's been putting bands on for years.
Managed to persuade the rest of the band to join me at a jam session this afternoon. We only did 4 songs but after I got home the landlord was on the phone offering us a full gig even though he wasn't actually in the pub when we played (he went on the recommendation of the guy who was doing the sound at the session). Also there was a local booker/agent at the jam session and he said he might put some work our way too. All in all a worthwhile 4 song workout!

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Really great jam night last night. For the first time I was actually brave enough to encourage some friends to come along, and a little posse from my drama group turned up. Well, since they were all actors I felt obliged to put on a bit of a show. So I made sure I really rocked out as much as possible. I had a blast - really got into the posturing rock chick role. This was however at the expense of musical accuracy, and a few bum notes ensued especially during our rendition of Heart Shaped Box. :blush: I convinced myself that it's supposed to sound a bit off key anyway.

There were loads of people in - they all seemed to be enjoying it. We could see some of them singing along to a couple of numbers. My little posse of luvvies went wild with cheers and shouts of 'more'! It's great having some plants in the audience! :lol:

Drummer and I were up for 2 slots with the new band and one slot with the old band. So we did 9 songs in all - goodness me, that's nearly half a set! :happy:
Drummer was right on form - as were the rest of the band in fact. But drummer in particular was really giving it some wellie.

Towards the end of the evening the ricktey old pub drum kit had taken a bit of a pounding and bass drum started to creep across the floor. We were up with the old band doing 'Cars' by Gary Numan, when the bass drum moved out of drummers reach and then the whole kit virtually collapsed. I'm sure he did it semi- deliberately as we always get the ending to that one wrong as none of us are ever sure when to stop. We found that a collapsing drum kit makes quite an effective ending! :lol:

I had to play the last number (our 'original' blues song) standing directly in front of the bass drum with it sort of propped up against my leg. This had the effect of obscuring the drummer from view, and placing me directly in front of a large mirror on a pillar in the bar so every time I looked up I could see myself! It was quite off putting. Note to self.. wear more lipstick next time!

Anyway, a great time was had by all and I feel pretty chuffed. B)

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[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1368629325' post='2079449']
Sounds like you had a blast Shell :D I agree you have to rock it up more if you have supporters :P

The collapsing drum kit is one way to end a challenging song :lol:
[/quote]

Yeh it was loads of fun thanks, Deb :)

I had some nice texts from a couple of my friends today as well, so I think they did genuinely enjoy it. It's the first time I have felt really high after a gig in the same way as I would after a drama or comedy performance. Just hoping I can avoid the inevitable come down that usually follows! :huh:

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2 gigs this weekend:
Friday night played The Yard in Cardiff, fairly shocking onstage sound even though there was a house engineer but
we still had fun and got everyone involved even though it's a bit of a sleepy older crowd.

Saturday played a birthday party in Swansea - amazing night! Had our new stand-in singer on half the set and she was
on fire! I'm really chuffed with my ability to find brilliant musicians for this band :)
As we had the van for this gig I took the extra 15" cab and it made so much difference - allowed me to get exactly the tone I wanted
whereas the 2x10 has been struggling on it's own of late. It's a shame the 1x15" is so flipping massive - looks like I may be in the market
for a smaller 1x15" cab or the TC electronic 1x12" soon...

Oh, and the birthday girl invited us all back to hers to jump in the hot tub with her and her mates - happy days!

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Brilliant. My psych-prog outfit The Wood Demons played a small local pub in Mortlake. Previously our last (and only) gig was a year ago, and this was our first gig with our new drummer. It wasn't perfect (is it ever?), but there weren't too many glaring cock-ups and the 40-odd people who turned up were very complimentary. We couldn't do the second encore because we'd run out of songs. Really up for more gigs now.

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[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1368605361' post='2078991']
Really great jam night last night. .....

bass drum started to creep across the floor. ...
I had to play the last number (our 'original' blues song) standing directly in front of the bass drum with it sort of propped up against my leg.
[/quote]
Really glad it went well.

Sliding drum kit happened to us the other day too.

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[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1368977182' post='2083600']
2 gigs this weekend:
Friday night played The Yard in Cardiff, fairly shocking onstage sound even though there was a house engineer but
we still had fun and got everyone involved even though it's a bit of a sleepy older crowd.

Saturday played a birthday party in Swansea - amazing night!

Oh, and the birthday girl invited us all back to hers to jump in the hot tub with her and her mates - happy days!
[/quote]

Every time I've gone near the Yard it's been dead!!

Party and hot tub sound awesome :P

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