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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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Played a joint anniversary/birthday party in a very posh house is Esher last Sat. We were playing in the pool house, with the pool covered by the dance floor.
gig went well (other than some form of earthing issue that caused my rig to have a whistle when plugged in ot our PA), the sound was very good, great crowd, great food and we got a £100 tip.

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We've had a fairly active week for us, 2 gigs at the weekend and the opening act for an outdoor yearly Blues festival last night.
Yesterday was nice in a few different ways, getting to play in fantastic weather in the early evening outdoors to a mainly appreciative audience that were there to have fun.
It wasn't the easiest gig to do, no sound check straight on using the house back -line.. the levels were all over the shop on stage for the first couple of numbers, you could hear all the constant tweaking going on :) But credit to the sound guys people out front said it sounded good.
A couple of pics
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/8374568@N07/9364117022/][/url]
and my newish pride and joy
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/8374568@N07/9364114714/][/url]
Excuse the self indulgence

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Hi Bert and thanks.
The bass i bought off Bram on here. The serial dates it to a 1970, Bram had it in bits and i think most of it is original, the scratch plate has shrunk and is celliloid so guess it is also from around that time or close. Its a very nice weight not that late 70's backbreakers type i had before. Very brite and resonat ad easy to play, it really is a beaut. I bought it to be a player and not something to be left in the case. A lot of people say the older Fenders are well over priced and over rated, but find a decent one and youll have no regrets.. One day maybe something pre CBS, but that might be one that would only come out on special occasions, or when ive stopped giging.
The pics were the self indulgence, my daughter took them, so proud Dad posted

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Really enjoyable gig tonight at the Old Volunteer in Nottingham, which is always a good venue. Great sound and a great audience.

All made a bit more special by the fact that my son was depping for us on drums - first time I've gigged with him which was nice. And it also lowered the average age of the band by a considerable margin!

Edited by simon1964
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Back from this weeks dep. A new dep, but there might be more as it went well played both the fretless (which doesn't get used enough) and fretted L2500's & they sounded sweet through the rig - well to me anyway.

Another set of songs to learn, most of which I've heard but never played before, so it was fun to do some different stuff. Everything from Van Morrison to Van Halen :lol: so a fair old cross section, but nothing to drastically difficult & I am a sucker for a bit of cheese.

Nice & local so early bck - though I still need to wind down.

Wedding & in a marquee so the sound was a bit ... but it came together.

Now then. Wedged up and off to the For Sale section :rolleyes:

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Not an experience I particularly want to repeat. Not the pre-gig stuff, anyway, though the gig itself was good.

We, The Lightning, were playing support to Seventh Syndicate. The venue was supposed to be sorting out the basic drum kit, with the respective drummers bringing breakables.

The venue organiser emailed Mrs Zero via Farcebook at 3.30 (we were supposed to be getting there at 7) saying that she couldn't get a drum kit after all. She had phone numbers for both me and Mrs Zero but didn't bother using them. Mrs Zero isn't a Farcebook addict and so didn't get the message. Then the organiser told us that the main band's drummer had injured her leg and wouldn't be playing. Our drummer would have had to journey back to Redditch from Tamworth to pick up his kit. Eventually Mrs Zero asked the organiser to ask the main band (who hadn't yet arrived and were closer to home than us) to bring a kit.

I'd already gone back home once for my stool in case we finished up playing a set that would last longer than my back did, then again because the extension reel that the venue had provided was completely shagged. Then I finally got to plug in the bass, and got no sound whatsoever. Thought that the amp had gone funny on me, so went home yet again to pick up my little Crate Powerblock. On the way home, thought I might as well pick up my 1x12 speaker as well, just in case. Got back to venue, plugged in 1x12, and got sound!

I haven't yet mentioned that the venue has no car park and the closest one is about a five minute walk away. You can park outside to load and unload but that's it, and it means going through a long one-way system, so after the initial load-in I carried everything from the car park.

When Seventh Syndicate turned up with the drumkit, the drummer showed remarkably undamaged legs but there were only three of them (band members, not drummer's legs). It was actually the lead guitarist who'd broken his foot and they'd decided to go ahead as a three-piece.

So after all that, we finally struck up and had a really good time of it. Mrs Zero was wearing a bright orange wig as part of a fundraiser for the MS Society, which subsequently got passed round the pub. Audience enjoyed it and so did we. And Seventh Syndicate were enjoyable, despite being a man down.

Photos of the evening taken by an audience member finished up on Facebook: [url="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547077801996523.1073741828.100000829252794&type=1&l=3894607ff4"]https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.547077801996523.1073741828.100000829252794&type=1&l=3894607ff4[/url]

And even Youtube:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1JnNaMF7M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI1JnNaMF7M[/url]

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My first gig with the band I've just joined. My - and their - first wedding gig (it's a rock band, but the bride and groom did know what they were booking).

The happy couple own the pub and they'd closed off the garden for the day. We were playing under a gazebo (a fairly decent one, with decking, the poles lashed to the ground and wired up permanently).

We couldn't set up until well over an hour after we were due to (do weddings ever run on time?). When we were finally allowed to set up the sun had gone and the clouds began to gather.

I don't think we'd done more than one song before the rain started. the gazebo was water proof, but the rain running off the edges ran onto our amps and the edge of the mixer desk. We gradually slid everything towards the middle of the gazebo - apart from the poor drummer who ended up with a very wet back and soggy seat.

By this time the crowd had all sought shelter, so we were facing an almost empty pub garden with a few brave souls under umbrellas or scattered among other gazebos at the far end. The biggest shelter was the smokers' one right behind us.

We decided to take a very short break and go straight into our second set. To play to the crowd we turned ourselves round, so we were facing the drummer - and our amps, while the PA was swivelled round so it was behind us.

No idea how it would have sounded because the power suddenly went off. Lights, PA and our amps all went off.

So we packed up early.

I hope the other gigs with this band go a bit more smoothly!

On the other hand, I used my new custom [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/206179-re-bodied-warwick-corvette/page__fromsearch__1"]Corvette[/url] and I was very happy with the sound - as were the rest of the band.

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Friday's was pretty good, pub gig with a new dep guitarist, the venue wasn't designed with bands in mind and so wasn't brilliantly laid out for dancers, so we had a few people watching and enjoying themselves but not many dancing. Dep guitarist was fantastic though, could realy play but didn't over do it and had great vocals too - was like having two frontmen, but in a good way, so we just leapt around and had a blast. Paid for it the next day though, shattered and ached all day long.

Saturday was a different ketle of fish all round, was a 40th birthday party at an equestrian vetenarian's farm in the middle of nowhere in the Sussex countryside - about half way between Horsham and Cranleigh for anyone local. I'd voiced concerns about the weather to the guitatist from first thing but he was confident we had a waterproof marquee and staging so thought it would be okay........well you can see where this is going: staging turned out to be a couple of pieces of plywood not dramatically bigger than the drumkit and the "marquee" was not exactly waterproof - there was water dripping very close to the electrics and I couldn't find anywhere dry to put my amp to start with. I suggested to the singer that I'd forget the amp tonight and just go through the PA with my Sansamp but he wasn't keen as it only had 12" speakers and he didn't think they would handle the bass frequencies; I disagreed but didn't press the issue as it's his equipment and if he's not happy no point In antagonising him and then have him worry all night.

So I ended up putting the amp infront of the snare and hi-hat and squeezing into whatever space was left, fortunatly with my Compact/Steamliner I wasn't taking up all the space left.

We decided to play a shorter set than usual and they got about an hour and a half from us, which I think wasn't bad in the circumstances - constantly worrying that the rain was going to get worse and come through the marquee or if we'd get electrical problems from the lightening nearby.

And, I almost forgot, virtually no light in the marquee too, singer was using a torch to see his lyric sheets by the end.

Still, once we did get started it went pretty well, had dancers at the end after we played Sweet Home Alabama - party had a wild west theme so that seemed to do the trick, and I think played almost flawlessly - probably because I didn't have space to move around much.

Was not happy to start with though, almost walked away and I did drop Alex at Barefaced a message this morning saying how happy I was to be able to run to the car through the rain with my cab and most of the rest of my gear rather than drag it on a trolley in several jorneys.

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nothing but bum notes from me!! :o good job it was a beer festival so nobody hardly cared one single jot but always nice to see quite a few peeps up and shaking their groove thang about

FOH guys even commented on how good the overall sound was (one of them a bass player too) - FOH excellent desk and sound (ASTRA i think it was to give them a plug)

Edited by steve-bbb
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What was going to be our biggest, most credible gig to date turned out to be a bit of a wash-out. Outdoor gig with other bands including Tir na Nog and The Coal Porters. Heavens opened five minutes into the set and most of the audience fled to the relative safety of their tents. A few stalwarts braved teh rain (plastic ponchos over tie dye tee shirts - well it was a Grateful Dead Appreciation Society show)! At least the thunder and lightning held off until the headliners!

Played well and band sounded great with proper PA, I did manage to completely forget one riff and it wasn't until 2/3 of the way home I remembered it!!

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Sat night's gig was one of those typical hit and miss wedding affairs. We aren't really a wedding band but sometimes we are specifically approached to do one and if we can do it we try to please. I think the link from us to the wedding was a bit vague for Sat's gig so I don't think they really knew what they were getting, hence a pretty quiet dance floor for large portions of the set. Lack of decent air con didn't really help either, I wouldn't have danced in that temp either and the DJ booked was also struggling to get people going with even the usual guaranteed floor fillers. It wasn't that well paid so we didn't feel obliged to do a great deal. Bit of a downer at the end in that my mobile went missing and the venue hasn't had it handed in, probably have to get another one. Was only a cheapo pay as you go so didn't owe me anything, just inconvenience of getting a new number etc unless the company can arrange for me to keep the existing one somehow.

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Just got back from Indietracks, proper good little festival! Had no idea what to expect really but it was a pleasant surprise. Bis were playing the mainstage when we arrived which was decent, chatted sh*t with 'em over a curry after too.

Most disjointed weekend i've ever had musically. We were supposed to be staying with our drummer's girlfriend, however they both decided to ignore us all week and still haven't made contact... Cue us roping in a friend who'd never played with us before at 9am friday in time to open the main stage saturday. He was absolutely blinding in all honesty, can't believe how well he coped with it all - played a song i'd never even heard the notes to half way through and even that didn't go completely tits up.

All in all, went surprisingly well!

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[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1375086859' post='2156410'] ... Bit of a downer at the end in that my mobile went missing and the venue hasn't had it handed in, probably have to get another one. Was only a cheapo pay as you go so didn't owe me anything, just inconvenience of getting a new number etc unless the company can arrange for me to keep the existing one somehow.
[/quote]

Talk to your phone provider - they should be able to brick your old phone and port your old number over to a new SIM card.

David

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Not really a last night one but we played The Picket in Liverpool on Saturday.

Guitarist brought his new amp. a Fender Studio 85, a played one of his other guitars, an Epiphone 335.

I played into a Trace Elliot full stack with my Thunderbird. it sounded brilliant :gas:

Sound was spot on and apart from me going to B instead of E in our last song and our drummer snapping and dropping a stick in Molly's Chambers it was a good gig.

2 week break now until we're back at the O2 Academy

Cant wait :lol:

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Played at the Asylum in Birmingham. Not a great turn out but the crowd really got into the set. Had a few friends join us on stage to do some backing vocals which was really good fun.
I ran my Ashdown head through a 4x10 Ampeg Cab and omg that was the best I have ever heard my bass.
Did make a few cock ups but that was down to the lights flashing and me not being able to see my frets

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My own trio, [i]trio[/i] East gigged last night, doing mostly my own compositions. I mp3'd the gig and am pleasantely surprised at how musical it is. Some real clinkers and issues due to inadequate rehearsal time on what are sometimes quite complex tunes/hard reads but, in general, I am happy with most of what we did. The time is good, the 'sound' is good, the compositions seem to hang together reasonably well (although some are a bit 'naive' for my tastes). Trouble is, without any rehearsal, the harder tunes I write never get looked at in sufficient detail to allow us to risk them on a gig.

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Saturday night we played at a private party/mini festival thing in Somerset.

It was mostly Cover bands all afternoon, some good, some questionable, but big respect for getting on stage and giving it a whirl. We were set to go on last, we thought it was going to be at about 11:30 or midnight, but we didnt go on till 2.

By then we were absolutely ruined. I had polished off 3 quarters of a bottle of Havana Club, drummer was the same with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and singer and guitarist were hitting the jagers hard.
We all went on swigging our bottles of spirits and rocked as hard as we could, surprisingly very few mistakes considering how drunk we were!

Went down very very well, there was only one other originals act earlier in the night, some spacey early floyd type affair, and we are a very dancy Rock outfit, jumping around being drunk on stage like everyone in the crowd.

Massive hangover in the morning.

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Last Saturday night at the New Inn at Wilsden near Bradford.

Landlord is a an ex drummer in a band and really working hard on making the pub a success which seems to be working as we had a good crowd in who danced a lot.

Half way through the first set he noticed my glass was empty ( I was playing against the side of the bar ) and he not only gave me another he actually remembered what I had and hung a little note over it to check I was ok with it. Little things like that make you want to return and keep bringing bigger crowds in.

Excellent pub with a brilliant landlord.

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Last night with Dick Venom & The Terrortones in our regular slot opening proceedings at Dick Venom Presents...

First gig with our new drummer and a set composed mostly of songs written in the last few months. On top of that I couldn't resist trying out my recently purchased Warwick Star Bass. Audience was a bit down as it was also the Rebellion festival this weekend, but those that turned up were enthusiastic and our set went really well. Could have done with a bit more practice using the Star Bass before gigging it, but I doubt anyone but me noticed the mistakes and everyone commented on how good it looked and sounded. Made some new fans and sold some CDs.

The obligatory live photos:

[IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/Dick%20Venom%20Live/1005247_10151732112824651_177566340_n_zpsfd27e930.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n249/BigRedX/Dick%20Venom%20Live/1002355_10151732113349651_1941988708_n_zpsf09eb6d6.jpg[/IMG]

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