How was your gig last night?

[stingrayPete1977]

Wedding gig with Indie covers band, good payer, late night. Genz on form as usual, Half the set on the super Jazz and half on my EBMM 4 string without getting in a muddle after playing my five almost exclusively since December so that is a bonus

[Dr.Dave]

At the end of a cracker at The Hop , Wakefield I laid my Blueflower 54P reish on top of my rak bag as I always do and went back to the front of the stage to soak the glory up etc.............

caught my foot in the lead - bass fell from about 5ft onto a combination of wooden stage and metal railing.

Result......... not a scratch. Nothing. Didn't even go out of tune.

[gary mac]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='1151788' date='Mar 6 2011, 07:23 PM']At the end of a cracker at The Hop , Wakefield I laid my Blueflower 54P reish on top of my rak bag as I always do and went back to the front of the stage to soak the glory up etc.............

caught my foot in the lead - bass fell from about 5ft onto a combination of wooden stage and metal railing.

Result......... not a scratch. Nothing. Didn't even go out of tune.[/quote]

I was cringing reading this waiting for the details of damage.

Glad it was a happy ending.

[Dr.Dave]

[quote name='gary mac' post='1151812' date='Mar 6 2011, 07:44 PM']I was cringing reading this waiting for the details of damage.

Glad it was a happy ending.[/quote]

It's def. why I take a reish to most gigs rather than my treasured 73. Small stages in pubs are never ideal. There are always hazzards and problems and on top of that there's drinking involved (by enthusiastic audience members even if the band are tee total). I'm sure your average H and S officer would never allow it.

The Hop is a particular bug bare of mine. OK - some pubs were never built to house four or five people with drum kits and backline etc but the Hop is only a couple of years old and live music from bands was not just desirable - it's a requirement of their licence. Still they have leg traps on one side of the stage , a cut out on the other that I've stumbled off several times , it's two small and there's a 4ft high metal railing round one side. Somebody actually designed that , and designed it in full knowledge of what it would be used for. Even worse - somebody with even greater knowledge of what it would be used for accepted that design , and one of the joint owners is a musician himself.

I'd like to meet these people and ask them what the f**k they were thinking about. I hate bad design.

[Doctor J]

We played the semi final of the Wacken Metal Battle, the winners get to play at the Wacken festival in Germany. Got through to the final, good times.

[cheddatom]

We played the Sugarmill again on Saturday. On drums again. Oh well. I broke all my sticks and had to use some fat bastards I only normally practise with. My arms are still aching!!

It went down very well, people cheered etc even though most of them were there to see other bands. Still, we didn't sell any CDs. Do I assume the cheering is sychophantic or are they just not music fans?

[Doctor J]

Have you checked to see how many Russian mp3 sites your music is available on?

We put our last E.P. up for free on our site and, even still, it was on hundreds of dodgy mp3 sites within two days, the buggers will even steal free music

[BottomE]

Did a session on Wave FM last night - medium sized station on 105 down here in the southern delta. Singer and guitarist did acoustic versions of a couple of tracks and then interview. It was really cool and we got a lot of feedback and hits on the websites already!

[Mog]

Strange one in Cork last night. Dyin with the man flu but got through it. On to Dublin tonight with the same bands. Wasn't very happy with the main act who apologised to the crowd during their set stating: "sorry we're not heavy tonight, our own amps are back in Sweden" Goes without saying that they wont be using any of our gear tonight. The guitard didn't even know what the standby switch on the head did, or how to switch channels. What kind of band goes on tour without amp heads? The type that use Epi V's and T'birds, thats who! I bet ya theres stacks of Marshall MG's back in Sweden that would be more suitable. Look! One power switch! (rant over)

The second band were fantastic. Age of Taurus. London based I think. If you're into doom then check em out.

[Jambo10]

Played in a hotel in Callander last night, we played there last year and it is a pretty nice venue, downside is that its a 4 hour round trip for me with the PA etc in the van.
Gig consisted of 2x 1hour 10min sets roughly, band sounding tight, punters seemed to enjoy themselves anyway and toddled off home quite merry.
A pretty fast take down of the gear,finished playing at just gone midnight and was driving out of their carpark at 12:40 and home for 2:30. All in all a good venue but the distance is a killer.

[Clarky]

Rattlin Bone played the 12 Bar in Tin Pan Alley last night. 12 of us for a stage that struggles to hold 4! The band after us cancelled so we could do a decent length set (45 minutes). Really pleased with how it went and my Eminence EUB had its first outing - sounded very DB-like so I'm chuffed with that. Got a very good audience reaction so a good evening Big thanks to BC'ers Happy Jack, Low End Bee and Thunderbird13 for coming along - cheers gents!

Pic below:
[attachment=74605:P1040093.JPG]

[WalMan]

With Epsilon on a Prog night. Good fun and not the utter nightmare that the last one was. For me anyway it went pretty well. Good crowd who were there for some prog. And even the bass player got some comps at the end of the night - which was nice!

Just been going through the recordings on the digital recorder. Sounds not too bad, Fluffs, but hey IT'S LIVE!!

[b][font="Impact"][color="#FF0000"]Warning Prog content follows!![/color][/font][/b]

[url="http://www.the-alibi.org.uk/sounds/Epsilon/I_Know_What_I_Like-11Mar11.mp3"]I Know What I Like[/url]

[url="http://www.the-alibi.org.uk/sounds/Epsilon/Roundabout-11Mar11.mp3"]Roundabout[/url] - fretted G&L sounding yummy - IMBO

Edited March 12, 2011 by WalMan

[Doctor J]

[quote name='Mog' post='1157985' date='Mar 11 2011, 12:55 PM']Strange one in Cork last night. Dyin with the man flu but got through it. On to Dublin tonight with the same bands. Wasn't very happy with the main act who apologised to the crowd during their set stating: "sorry we're not heavy tonight, our own amps are back in Sweden" Goes without saying that they wont be using any of our gear tonight. The guitard didn't even know what the standby switch on the head did, or how to switch channels. What kind of band goes on tour without amp heads? The type that use Epi V's and T'birds, thats who! I bet ya theres stacks of Marshall MG's back in Sweden that would be more suitable. Look! One power switch! (rant over)

The second band were fantastic. Age of Taurus. London based I think. If you're into doom then check em out.[/quote]
Portrait? Time stopped in 1983 for them, Mog, go easy. Things are strage and unusual in the future for them, just like in Back To The Future II

[dave_bass5]

Not left for tonights gig yet but ive already finished off a large Chicken Doner, 2 rum and cokes and learnt a new song.

Rock'n'roll.

Edited March 12, 2011 by dave_bass5

[Old Horse Murphy]

Long-standing regular gig last night in Wimbledon.

The ne Drummer offered to help take the PA so popped round mine first. I told him it was in the garage and he loaded the monitors and mixing desk in his car.

90 minutes later we arrive and set up. unfortunately the Drummer has brought my camping table rather than the mixer!

Martin the landlord is unflappable and phones a mate who arrives with a spare desk in less than 5 minutes.

The gig went really well and the Drummer is now referred to as Baden Powell

[BigRedX]

Mixed...

At The Golden Fleece in Nottingham which tends to be acoustic stuff and the stage is a bit small once you've got a drum kit on there.

A little disorganised - we were there nice and early to set up and soundcheck, but the opening act turned up half and hour late and then spent what seemed like forever sorting out one mic stand and plugging in his acoustic guitar. Also the band on just before just left all their equipment on the stage after playing and disappeared off for a fag break instead of packing up. As a result the evening over-ran and being on last, we had to cut our set short by two songs, which is a bit pants considering that we were only planning to do 11 with an average song length of just under 3 minutes...

Also there was a problem with the electricity on the guitarist's side of the stage which meant that her amp and pedals kept switching off - looked like a dodgy 4-way distribution board (one supplied by the PA).

When we were playing it was nice and tight and sounded good on stage (and out front apparently). Lots of positive comments afterwards - many about how much better our new guitarist is - and we even sold some badges. Overall good but we could have done without all the various hassles.

[Len_derby]

Success with 'new' gear.

I bit the bullet and took the Ibanez acoustic bass guitar out for its first live outing (without a solid-body backup, to make sure I didn't chicken out). It was better than OK really, a nice deep resonant sound through my Roland Cube 100. The band line up was me, an acoustic guitarist playing with a piezo pickup through a combo, an electric piano and a violinist. The set was a bit 'lounge jazz' but a very nice way to spend the early part of a Sunday evening. And visually the acoustic fitted in with rest of the band spot-on. I got quite a few comments. In Britain at least, lots of folk don't seem to have ever seen an acoustic bass guitar. More than one person said 'Thats, interesting, I didn't know they made those'.
It's never going to play like an electric, but for some live situations I think it's going to be right choice.

[Mog]

[quote name='Doctor J' post='1159365' date='Mar 12 2011, 02:54 PM']Portrait? Time stopped in 1983 for them, Mog, go easy. Things are strage and unusual in the future for them, just like in Back To The Future II [/quote]

Aye true lad. Thought it was a bit off though. The Pint in Dublin was a lot better. No sound check though and I broke a string on the 6th tune Oh how we laughed. See ya @ the siege Doc. Tis gonna be a cracker.

[thisnameistaken]

Opened a 4-band bill headlined by Random Hand. RH were f***ing excellent, but I'm fairly happy we smoked the other supports. Lots of good feedback, tight performance, two virgin tunes went down well with established fans, I feel like we're really getting confident with our own sound now instead of trying to appease a scene audience, and it's nice because listeners are getting behind us and obviously appreciating the diversity we bring.

We're still looking for someone to track trombone for our new EP, our trumpet player (a photographer whose work is already featured on Random Hand T-shirts and posters) was intending to approach them about recording for us tonight but I don't know how that went yet. Fingers X'd...

[WalMan]

Quite good actually. One of the guitarists had to cry off first thing this morning, and it was the one we have been with for years and used to go out as a three piece (plus vox) with so we know we can if it happens.

The other guitarist we have also known years, and is good, but we have never done the cut down version with him but he was happy to give it a go so we did.

He spent all afternoon working through the sets sorting out solos he doesn't normally do. I sat through the rugby (well the first two games) with a bass on my lap warming up and getting back into the swing of filling more sonic space.

The gig is one of those PITA ones where the crowd walks through the middle of you to the bogs & smoking area, and they seemed to have exceptionally weak bladders tonight. Quite where Max will go next time is anyones guess!?

Still Mike did a top job and we had a pretty good night all in all - and more cash as we were one light, RESULT! So we have learnt another new thing now. It can be done.

Got through Good Times Bad Times on the fretless abd remembered all my bits this time.

Vocalist was getting a bit p155ed off with the constant traffic at the end of the night.

Drummer & I remained pretty solid throughout and there was a fair bit of laughing & knowing nods going on throughout. So generally pretty good fun...just wish I'd taken the recorder, but that would probably have put the kibosh on it.

Also confirmed that "Maniac" is not a song to end the second set with. Laugh to do, particularly for the quizzical looks (particularly from from the other bands) of people trying to work out where they have heard it before followed by realisation dawning. Went down well, but leaves them a bit too stunned with the hanging cadence to end (if I remember my Music O-level correctly).

Edited March 20, 2011 by WalMan

[thisnameistaken]

Worst gig ever. Turned up to soundcheck on time, the only band on time, got a nice relaxed check because nobody else was ready, everything sounded good, tonnes of people turned up to see us. We were opening for Neville Staple so it was going to be a fun night.

We were sharing drum shells brought by the other support - we had no choice in this it's always the way, there's not enough time to change over between bands. But the drummer from the other support had brought a bass drum with a split in the head (he was using a rubber beater on a head with no pad on it) that our drummer didn't notice. Apparently their drummer had noticed it but "didn't have time" to replace it before the gig, although they'd been there from 5pm waiting for their bassist who didn't turn up until 6:30pm, there is a music shop open late a two minute walk from the venue, literally around the corner...

Anyway we discovered how broken the bass drum was when our drummer put his beater through it at the end of our second song. He hadn't brought a bass drum for gear-sharing reasons, so that was us done for the night. Unpleasant.

On the plus side we've been offered a main support slot with The Beat to make up for it.

[thisnameistaken]

And the sad part is the other band were nice guys and chatty and friendly (although I didn't meet the drummer, maybe he was a twat) and they were talented too, but I've come home pissed off at them. :\

[chrismuzz]

Turned up at 6:30pm with all our gear for a gig the other night. First band was due to start at 8pm and we were on at 8:50pm. By the time we were due on the first band hadn't even started because the sound engineer hadn't even bothered to check the PA was working. Which it wasn't. At 9pm they had managed to get things working, barely... "F*** this." we all said, and just packed our stuff and went home!

Edited March 27, 2011 by chrismuzz

[uke]

Just back from a Simon & Garfunkel tribute charity night with some of Glasgows finest!
Acoustic mostly first half, bands second, I was playing with the house band, everything from "Bridge over Troubled Water" to "You can call me Al"
Such great songwriting, a pleasure, learnt in a week and laid to rest now, to the next challenge!
Big up to the horns! No Rehearsal! Fab.

[Jambo10]

Did a wedding gig on friday night there. Was supposed to get into the venue about 6:30, but they were running late with the meal, no big deal, so by the time we got in and set everything up, there was no chance to sound check, just had to go for the first dance. luckily sound levels were pretty good, a wee tweek here and there. Had to drop x amount of numbers from first set, which was fine by us, it's their time after all.
All in all we got some good feedback, several people asked for business cards, 4 people added our fb page from it and we got a booking for a wedding next year, so I suppose we have to say it was a success.