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How was your gig last night?


bassninja

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First time in Arbroath with BLOCKBUSTARZ last night in Royal British Legion. Sold out again which is always a great morale booster.

Audience were up for it from the first song.

Lots of people turned up in Glam gear too which is always great to see from the stage. It was so enjoyable we had a contest for best dancer and best glam dresser who both won one of our T shirts. A few others we gave out our new pin badges.

Was very warm even with our fans on but air-con units above the stage were firing out warm air all night.

We had a smaller upstairs function room to get changed in which was good too. Lot better than a small cupboard sized room that some venues have given us in the past. 4 blokes and a female singer doesn't work in cramped spaces  :biggrin: 

My usual gear, Sandberg VM4 into Ampeg SVT7 and Mesa SW210/115 cabs. Shure wireless unit. Stage a bit boomy even with gramma board it was a bit noticeable. Had to turn the bass EQ down a bit on the amp to clean it up but no big deal.

They want to book us for 3 nights in 2025 incl a Xmas gig.

Bit of a drive tho 2.5hrs on way there and 3hrs on way home. On way home the roads were quiet but they closed the main M90 right after the Queensferry bridge crossing meaning i had to take a detour. Wasn't home till 4am so by the time i unloaded the car with my bass gear and the 3 way 15" PA cabs it was 4:30am and then a coffee to wind down getting to bed at 5am and back up with a cat banging cupboard doors at 8am. Bit tired this morning to say the least. :crazy:

Probably one of the most enjoyable gigs we've played. Just great fun all night. One or two wee hiccups but nothing we couldn't cover.

Dave

Edited by dmccombe7
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The cello had an outing last night - so the gig was a bit different to most here... orchestra in a church in Carlisle with two operatic soloist. And yes, orchestras have similar issues with sound as bands, even though we're unamplified. Our issues is that church acoustics are almost always awful, overly resonant and leads to mushy sound, particularly in the bass department.... where have I heard that before?

 

Decent audience. Only one on the very tricky opera arias had significant 'moments' 

 

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Edited by zbd1960
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The gig itself was OK, loads of mmistakes, but seemed to go down well, however, we found out that the singer is in another band, which takes his count up to three bands and a solo, singer/songwriter/cover act around the local pub circuit. Our guitarist is less than happy, and we ended up having a band discussion prior to the gig, but he's a singer, therefore he's an egotistical, self-centred narcissist.

 

 

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Last Night:

Bloxwich hockey club's end of season awards/prizegiving/dinner/pissup at Old Wyrley Hall in Walsall (I think?) with Down to the Floor - 5 piece girl-fronted modern popular music beat combo.
Britney, Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Arianna Grande, Rhianna, Girls Aloud, Spice Girls, Whitney type stuff.

Load in at 5 so we're set up, soundchecked  and out of the way before the awards and speeches.

The stage is about the size of a postage stamp (a normal one, not one of the big commemorative ones) so there was barely room for my size 12s and the New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB). The Bass amp was on the other side of the stage and I had to fold my stand up between sets, it was that small.

I had a bit of a mare setting up as the Bass amp (not mine) decided to commit suicide (luckily I had mine with me) AND my midi controller decided it didn't want to play nicely, so I took ages to set up and had to soundcheck without IEMs and hope it would all be fine.

Soundcheck done (sort of) and with some time to kill, a couple of us went to the drummer's gaff and watched most of Pretty Woman with his Mrs (Spoiler Alert: Julia Roberts is pretty and also a woman. Richard Gere is also in it (He's not a woman, as far as I am aware. I wouldn't call him 'pretty' either, but I believe he is generally considered to be quite handsome (if you like that sort of thing))).

Back to the venue for 9ish, sat around and kicked our heels (and had the singer paint my nails a fetching shade of purple) while the prizegiving and roistering continued, went on about 10:30 to a room full of incredibly excited and heavily refreshed hockey players - imagine rugby players but without the restraint, decorum or dignity.

They absolutely loved it, the dancefloor was packed from the first note, we played really well despite being wedged onto a tiny stage - I was so close to the drummer, I could smell his earwax.

We had our first choice singer, she's fantastic - she's always nervous about Love on Top (the song), but she smashed it - including the four key changes and the whistle register stuff.

Highlights were Toxic, which we nailed (a relief after we totally flubbed it last time) and Crazy in Love/Crazy mashup which is our collective favourite now we've nailed the arrangment (It's easy enough: 6, 4, 2, 8, 8, (4), 8, 10, Crazy, 6, 4, loads, (*4), ending).

Two 45 minute sets, finished about half midnight... they would have had us playing til 3 AM, they were loving it that much.

The organisers loved us, they want us back next year (again) and have promised a bigger venue (again).

Played the 'Ray 5 -> New Improved Enormous Pedalboard (NIEPB) -> MB 802 (with PA support - I'd love to hear the OC-2 and C4 synth bassline on 'How will I know?' through those subs)

Foot fans: White DMs with purple laces (to match the white shirt with purple tie and purple fingernails - you think I just throw these outfits together?!)

Packed up (the drummer can now officially carry his entire kit including cymbals and hardware in one trip), home about 2 for last nights curry and a Westons reserve (8.2% ABV).

Great night.

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48 minutes ago, Skybone said:

The gig itself was OK, loads of mmistakes, but seemed to go down well, however, we found out that the singer is in another band, which takes his count up to three bands and a solo, singer/songwriter/cover act around the local pub circuit. Our guitarist is less than happy, and we ended up having a band discussion prior to the gig, but he's a singer, therefore he's an egotistical, self-centred narcissist.

 

In the past a band I played in got around the problem of having a guitarist who thought he could be multiple bands by booking gigs for every Friday and Saturday as far into the future as possible. When his other bands realised that he wouldn't be available to play for them for the next 3-4 months they quickly dispensed with his services.

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A return to the Apple and Parrott in Torquay last night. Our drummer couldn't make it as he had tickets for Mr Big, so we drafted in our previous drummer, my son, who still deps for us. It was party central and plenty of people up for dancing and a good time. In house PA and engineer always gives a great FOH sounds, although the stage sound can be a bit odd, but was sorted for set 2. It's a great vibe there which we can feed off. Lots of great compliments from people afterwards,  including one guy who admired my playing and my Stingray. It was a late finish, but at least no PA to breakdown. Looking forward to the next one. My usual set up, Stingray 2eq, Ashdown RM 500-Evo II, BF 210 on gramma pad due to raised stage.

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8 hours ago, BigRedX said:

 

In the past a band I played in got around the problem of having a guitarist who thought he could be multiple bands by booking gigs for every Friday and Saturday as far into the future as possible. When his other bands realised that he wouldn't be available to play for them for the next 3-4 months they quickly dispensed with his services.

Spoke to the guitarist today, he is not a happy bunny...

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Another of our semi-regular acoustic duo gigs at The Lookout in Scarborough this evening.

Took two basses with me ( Taylor and Ibanez) to compare, but somehow managed to leave

my holdall behind which has all my leads, stand and mic in it! Disaster averted though by my 

guitarist pal having spares, and the venue having a euro lead for my Rumble combo.

 

Anyway, a full house of diners and shed loads of requests. Along with the usual kind of 

stuff you’d expect a duo like us to play, we also did some we hadn’t done before / for

a long time - such as ‘Sir Duke’, ‘Mr Bojangles’ ( which I really don’t like) and ‘Little red rooster’

with my mate using a half pint glass as a slide for his guitar. Ended with ‘Come up and see me’

in tribute to Steve Harley.
We return there in three weeks time, when I’ll make sure I have a full compliment of kit with me.

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22 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Some pics arrived from Sat nights gig iin Arbroath at the Royal British Legion Club with BLOCKBUSTARZ. (see earlier post)

image.thumb.png.babaf321f948cc30c24d3a0b77d689e3.png

 

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image.thumb.png.8ee7668ea6b52b80127c6f7cc81f58ba.png

 

image.thumb.png.30b6bc300fc502899fd01b068776e780.png

 

I do like the pictures of King Charles.  they add a certain 'authority' to you all....esp the drummer :)

 

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18 minutes ago, Piers_Williamson said:

 

I do like the pictures of King Charles.  they add a certain 'authority' to you all....esp the drummer :)

 

We decided it wasn't a good idea to put the back drop up in this venue. :biggrin:

The club has some fantastic pics around the walls incl a cracking Lancaster parked in a fog while service guys do their thing.

Dave

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One of my very occasional solo acoustic / vocal gigs at the Organ Grinder in Loughborough last night.

 

Sunday early evenings are quite mellow, with an audience including a spectacularly large golden retriever who seemed to enjoy himself.

 

I’d been having some gremlins with my PA (dodgy leads, broken 9v adaptor for pedals etc) so I was relieved it all sounded ok.
 

Played my £40 FB marketplace Yamaha acoustic with a Seymour Duncan Woody pickup and it sounded glorious. 
 

Job done. 👍 

 

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On 23/03/2024 at 13:11, Dan Dare said:

How was my gig last night? A struggle. Won't disclose location, but it was in a south western city where they like to chuck statues in the harbour.

 

The venue was smallish, with a hollow wooden stage. The backline (provided, which was nice) was a couple of modestly sized and decent quality combos, so we thought it would be simple to play at reasonable onstage levels and let the PA take care of out front.

 

Afraid not. The PA cabs stood directly on the stage. No stands or isolation. The top boxes were 15s+horns and the subs were 15s. The subs made the stage resonate like a giant double bass and the result was one note bass flub. The walls were bare, the ceiling was low and it was an echo chamber. The sound was horrible.

 

The soundman's solution was to push the levels - out front and monitors - even harder when we explained we were having difficulty hearing what was going on during the soundcheck. Eventually, I asked politely if he could lose a lot of the low end and dial the subs right back. Everything cleaned up noticeably and we were reasonably happy.

 

Problem solved? If only. The minute we began our set, the sub levels went back up and all the low end we had asked to be removed re-appeared. I had to play entirely by sight. Couldn't distinguish individual notes at all. Our singer did a great job. The way she managed without being able to hear anything she was doing was impressive.

 

What is it about subs that causes people to crank them so hard that every bass note and kick drum beat results in a giant BOOOOOF? We wondered whether it was just a quirk of the stage sound, but when we stayed to hear a couple of numbers from the second band, it was the same out in the room. I'm getting too old for this caper.

I wonder if the dance music and hip-hop generation are pre-conditioned to want excessive low end? Our gig was on Friday so went to our local club. I don't usually like "professional karaoke" singers but this bloke could really sing. In the interval he put on some "backgroud music" that was so bass heavy it would  have drowned out the sounds of a full scale Red Army onslaught.

 

When I was being trained as an apprentice on both audio and video, the general rule was to turn the controls until you could see/hear a difference, then back them off a tiny amount. Nowadays the control knobs/faders for the bottom end are rammed against the end stops.

 

It is a good job that most digital mixers use rotary encoders or even touch screens for control.

Edited by Chienmortbb
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3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

There is a very high pitched overtone parallel with the singer - Is it an effect / distortion or a member of the public?

 

 

Ignore me I am an idiot - I didn't see you had another singer due to the location of the camera!

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2 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

There is a very high pitched overtone parallel with the singer - Is it an effect / distortion or a member of the public?

 

Female singer just behind the male singer. You can see her in the pics i posted on an earlier post.

Dave

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