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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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[quote name='misrule' post='215139' date='Jun 8 2008, 10:16 PM']Our newly-formed covers band played a village fete on Saturday -- the biggest crowd in my short career (several hundred, with 1,000 tickets sold) and 10k PA outdoors.

The sound was gorgeous -- but we were on too early and vanished into a pool of listener apathy without so much as a ripple. Or we were crap, depending on your viewpoint. :)

I prayed for the ground to swallow me up as we played song after song for 75 minutes with nothing but the faintest, polite clapping between and about 100 yards to the nearest punter. And it's amazing how a situation like that saps morale all round, leading to f-ups and blunders. We started out playing our best ever but ended up shambling about like dullards.

Then the second band came on and comprehensively blew us away.

This morning, I was dejectedly wondering if I should jack it all in. We certainly need a serious shake-up in many areas, including the set list.

The only good news -- we got £75 each, a personal best. Rant over -- thanks for listening.

Cheers

Mark[/quote]

You did well...
75 minutes outside in the afternoon with loads of distractions for the audience is a hard gig for anyone, let alone a new band.
Just to get through it is an acheivement.
However I'd suggest you stick to gigs after dusk for a while. Punters are a tad easier to entertain then :huh:

and it could have been worse, You could have been on [i]after[/i] that other band ....

:huh:

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[quote name='OldGit' post='215144' date='Jun 8 2008, 10:40 PM']You did well...
75 minutes outside in the afternoon with loads of distractions for the audience is a hard gig for anyone, let alone a new band.
Just to get through it is an acheivement.
However I'd suggest you stick to gigs after dusk for a while. Punters are a tad easier to entertain then :)

and it could have been worse, You could have been on [i]after[/i] that other band ....

:huh:[/quote]
Thanks for your kind words. I think we'll stick to pub gigs for a while until we find our feet.

This was our third outing -- the previous, at a social club, was a disaster of similar proportions.

The only way is up ... baby. :huh:

Cheers

Mark

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[quote name='misrule' post='215139' date='Jun 8 2008, 10:16 PM']....I prayed for the ground to swallow me up as we played song after song for 75 minutes with nothing but the faintest, polite clapping between and about 100 yards to the nearest punter. And it's amazing how a situation like that saps morale all round, leading to f-ups and blunders. We started out playing our best ever but ended up shambling about like dullards.

.....This morning, I was dejectedly wondering if I should jack it all in. We certainly need a serious shake-up in many areas, including the set list.[/quote]
I used to hate gigs where you're not getting any rapturous feedback from an audience (if indeed there was one) and would just get visibly more and more fed up as the set dragged on but now I don't mind them. At worst they are a paid rehearsal. We did one to about 30 people a few weeks back and I put in as much effort as I usually do and had a blast in the process. Stick with it man.

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[quote name='Ou7shined' post='215189' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:35 AM']I used to hate gigs where you're not getting any rapturous feedback from an audience ... but now I don't mind them.[/quote]
Me neither. Good job really, we're sh*te! :huh: After 20 years we really should be better. :)

Havant Arts Centre this Thursday though - big stage, big PA, sh*t-hot soundman, new pedalboard to play with, not the last band on so a chance to get mullered at the very least... :huh:

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Friday's gig was alright, 2 x 1 hour pub sets. It was pissing it down on Friday night so the town was dead, but the pub seemed to fill up around 15 minutes before the end of our first set and then stayed that way until about 15 minutes before the end of the last set. We weren't what you'd call loud, but some fella in the audience kept telling us we were too loud and drowning the singer - I came close to drowning him myself in the end. We were quieter than in rehearsal in the end.

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Friday was a scooter rally in peterhead, magic gig! went down really well, actually got to play for just over an hour! there were about 150 there and a ginger nutter who kept running towards us with a chair held above his head screaming 'f*** off' at top volume :) and a guy who liked to grab a mike and shout obsenities in the instrumental bits of tunes, ha ha funny as f***! :huh: Dance floor was full all night with all the mods/modettes showing there appreciation for a nice bit of old school punk and of course we threw in 4 Jam tunes! got an encore and did 'gotta get away' by slf, f***ed up the start, got loads of abuse and counter abouse from us to them and nailed it second time! A really fun but slightly scarey night! :huh:

Saturdays gig was back to the usual sh*te, Frasersburgh Leisure centre, nice big stage but we were last minute additions to the bill and on first and there was nobody really there at 8pm when we went on for our 30 minute set but still enjoyed it as much as you can in a sh*tehole like frasersburgh!

Roll on the next weekend double header which is in august :huh:

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[quote name='misrule' post='215181' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:13 AM']Thanks for your kind words. I think we'll stick to pub gigs for a while until we find our feet.

This was our third outing -- the previous, at a social club, was a disaster of similar proportions.

The only way is up ... baby. :)

Cheers

Mark[/quote]

PM me if you want some tips

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[quote name='Ou7shined' post='215189' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:35 AM']I used to hate gigs where you're not getting any rapturous feedback from an audience (if indeed there was one) and would just get visibly more and more fed up as the set dragged on but now I don't mind them. At worst they are a paid rehearsal. We did one to about 30 people a few weeks back and I put in as much effort as I usually do and had a blast in the process. Stick with it man.[/quote]

yeah paid rehearsal of your full stage show ..

I learned ages ago that playing really, really, well to the 30 people who bothered to turn up is a really good way to draw a bigger crowd next time ...
They go off and tell people about this great band they saw, what their mates were mssing and how well they played "even though there was just 30 of us, it was like a personal concert" etc ..
Works wonders ...

However if you turn in a lacklustre performance 'cos "no one" turned up then no one will next time either ...

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Had a great Wedding Gig on Friday with my Function band.... 350 people.... mostly Russian which was very strange.... OTT payer and as it was in a private hall there was no curfew on time.... we decided to play the last song at midnight.... then the best man came up and gave each of us £50 to carry on playing..... we stopped again after 20 mins..... then he came up and gave us another £50 each..... in total it happened 3 times..... that was on top of our fee!!!!!

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[quote name='crez5150' post='215352' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:21 PM']Had a great Wedding Gig on Friday with my Function band.... 350 people.... mostly Russian which was very strange.... OTT payer and as it was in a private hall there was no curfew on time.... we decided to play the last song at midnight.... then the best man came up and gave each of us £50 to carry on playing..... we stopped again after 20 mins..... then he came up and gave us another £50 each..... in total it happened 3 times..... that was on top of our fee!!!!![/quote]

He he Hey Crez, just remind us of your fee rates again?
Where can I get those gigs???

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Well I may be looking for a reliable dep at some point this season as work is a flooding in..... Plus we have just been featured in Brides magazine also.... so thats bound to create a stir.... fee rates from October are starting at £2500 inc DJ...

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[quote name='crez5150' post='215370' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:45 PM']Well I may be looking for a reliable dep at some point this season as work is a flooding in..... Plus we have just been featured in Brides magazine also.... so thats bound to create a stir.... fee rates from October are starting at £2500 inc DJ...[/quote]

:)
neat

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[quote name='Ou7shined' post='215189' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:35 AM']I used to hate gigs where you're not getting any rapturous feedback from an audience (if indeed there was one) and would just get visibly more and more fed up as the set dragged on but now I don't mind them. At worst they are a paid rehearsal. We did one to about 30 people a few weeks back and I put in as much effort as I usually do and had a blast in the process. Stick with it man.[/quote]
Thanks for the reassurance, Ou7shined. I once went to a gig in Putney, by a reasonably known band, where I was the only one there. The sound was good so I leant a chair against the back wall. :)

After our gig at this village fete, I deliberately stood in the vast, empty field in front of the stage to encourage other people to watch the band on after us. They were good guys.

[quote name='OldGit' post='215349' date='Jun 9 2008, 12:13 PM']PM me if you want some tips[/quote]
Thanks. I'd be glad of any tips you can send. I'm in another, classic rock covers band that goes down better -- but the lead guitarist and singer are genius-level people with other commitments. And we only play support slots or friendly pubs.

Cheers

Mark

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Rather a fun weekend all in all. We went on a bit of a mini tour, and I had some new gear to play with.

On Thursday we had a corporate bash at Stamford Bridge Stadium. All very nice, and we had a corporate box over the pitch as our greenroom. They'd hired the PA guys (never a good thing in my eyes), and they'd paid MASSIVELY over the odds for a pair of untrained monkeys. We DI everything, and have no stage volume, so foldback is critical and it was all over the place. They confessed to not being able to work out the desk. Secondly the council got called for noise abatement and were there with their microphones from 4pm til midnight. 20mins before the end of our set they pulled the plug and the russian gangstars doing security bundled us of stage before we knew what was happening. Sweet.
As a gig though it was all fun and we had 1000 european local government guys and girls dancing round like an episode of Going for Gold (ala Henry Kelly). Marvellous. The Estonian delegation was particularly welcome... :huh:

After all that we packed up and headed off to a wedding on the Isle of Wight. Smashing weather, a nice cruise with the guys, country lanes with 'Blood Sugar' pumping out. Loved it. Free accomodation, decent grub and the best crowd in ages meant it was a corker. It was a marquee wedding on a clifftop with fantastic views, and I'd hired a quality Turbosound rig (4x18" and 4x15"!!) and the PA guys were awesome. Such a change from thursday.

The only problem came when, halfway through our soundcheck, one of the ushers arrived red faced and told us to turn it all off... because they could hear us playing Whitesnake in the ceremony 1 mile away !!! :) Fortunately it was all laughed off and it was the running joke of the day. Fortunately.

Having finally sold my SVT4 I was using my Eden Navigator and SVP-Pro preamps for the first time (both bought on this forum). The Navigator was perfect for the corporate affair and had endless warmth and control. And the Ampeg.... just ripped shreds off of everything and everyone. So so so punchy and tight. I ran it with my active Jazz and the bite at the top would cut through metal. Simply awesome. I'm now looking to get an AB/Y sorted so I can switch between them according to the song etc.

All in all a smashing weekend, and topped off by some clifftop lime-golf.

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Played our second gig in a few weeks at the Old Tramshed in Saltaire last night, with 2 more in July to come.
We decided to mix the set up so dusted off "Let there be Love". A couple who had booked us a short notice for their wedding in 2 weeks were there and it was fun watching them guess the tunes from the intros and you could see they were pleased they had chosen us.

Second set we had some tech problems with the backing tracks for the more modern tunes, our CD player was cutting out and not pushing the sound through the PA so we could do with a more robust solution. What do others use? (don't say a drummer...!)

At the end (which we completed through clenched teeth) another couple came up to us to book us for their wedding in August which was nice too and shows that often what you percieve as a problem for the band during a performance is not noticed by the average punter.

Bren Travis, a fellow basschatter showed up as well and we got free food and beers from the venue too!

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Well! I have my first gig without PA support tonight! We've decided that due to the size (or lack) of the venue its silly watching the PA struggle with all the synths and vocals aswell as bass when my schroeder would probably be more than capable!
I also know the house backline is a marshall hybrid head and marshall 2x10 cab... im thinking line out from my markbass and a really overdriven tone from the marshall... we'll see!

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[quote name='ste_m3' post='218193' date='Jun 13 2008, 11:38 AM']Well! I have my first gig without PA support tonight! We've decided that due to the size (or lack) of the venue its silly watching the PA struggle with all the synths and vocals aswell as bass when my schroeder would probably be more than capable!
I also know the house backline is a marshall hybrid head and marshall 2x10 cab... im thinking line out from my markbass and a really overdriven tone from the marshall... we'll see![/quote]

You have nothing to worry about. Nearly all my gigs are without PA support and i still get asked to turn down when using my 1210R and LMII.

Good luck.

I have my first gig tomorrow with my new 1212L (again, without PA support) and it will be the first time i have played with a drummer using an electronic kit.

Should be interesting.

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[quote name='dave_bass5' post='218198' date='Jun 13 2008, 11:41 AM']You have nothing to worry about. Nearly all my gigs are without PA support and i still get asked to turn down when using my 1210R and LMII.

Good luck.

I have my first gig tomorrow with my new 1212L (again, without PA support) and it will be the first time i have played with a drummer using an electronic kit.

Should be interesting.[/quote]


When I switched to the Schro 1212L I took myself out of our (mostly just vocal) PA. I used to need a tiddly bit in to throw it to the back of the room ... Same with the Bergantinos, audible all over with no need to go into the PA.

Or drummer uses an electronic kit now and then. It really is weird that all that noise is suddenly not coming from the kit but from the monitors and FoH ... Takes a good set of speakers and a good bit of getting used to.
Of course the upside is that you can turn the drummer down :)

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[quote name='OldGit' post='218302' date='Jun 13 2008, 01:47 PM']When I switched to the Schro 1212L I took myself out of our (mostly just vocal) PA. I used to need a tiddly bit in to throw it to the back of the room ... Same with the Bergantinos, audible all over with no need to go into the PA.

Or drummer uses an electronic kit now and then. It really is weird that all that noise is suddenly not coming from the kit but from the monitors and FoH ... Takes a good set of speakers and a good bit of getting used to.
Of course the upside is that you can turn the drummer down :)[/quote]


Yeah, i still keep a bit in, just to throw some of the top end out over the audience but to be honest we can live without me doing that.

Our drummer has his own power amp and two big monitors for his kit so we should be ok.

For the first time, ever, i had to ask our drummer to turn up at rehearsals the other night. felt strange.

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First gig of the year this coming sunday...

it's a talent show thing in my school theres 30 seperate acts and we're opening the second half, with Funeral For a Friend's - into oblivion...

i'm hoping all goes well and that we get a bit of cash out of it...

will post some pictures when i get them...

if you wanna see what the bands doing at the minute you can check the website...

[url="http://sumotitsarocka.synthasite.com"]http://sumotitsarocka.synthasite.com[/url]

:)

i'll let you know how it went on monday...

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[quote name='OldGit' post='218354' date='Jun 13 2008, 02:41 PM']Yeah I'm a bit deaf these days too :)[/quote]


WHAT?.......HALF PAST 7 MATE LOL.

Actually i think this will just be one or two gigs. we had a bit of a band bust up last month. Our Analogue drummer will be back soon.

This Roland kit makes some wonderful noises though. It could quite easily replace me and the guitarist. something not quite Rock and roll about it though.
when he really goes for it it seems that the dynamics dont change like a real kit.


Good luck teen. sounds like a full day. Let us know how it goes.

Edited by dave_bass5
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[quote name='teen t-shirt' post='218353' date='Jun 13 2008, 02:40 PM']First gig of the year this coming sunday...

it's a talent show thing in my school theres 30 seperate acts and we're opening the second half, with Funeral For a Friend's - into oblivion...

i'm hoping all goes well and that we get a bit of cash out of it...

will post some pictures when i get them...

if you wanna see what the bands doing at the minute you can check the website...

[url="http://sumotitsarocka.synthasite.com"]http://sumotitsarocka.synthasite.com[/url]

:)

i'll let you know how it went on monday...[/quote]

Good luck Matey .. I hope Tinman, et al, will be there cheering for you...

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