I booked and played my new acoustic solo guitar thing; a 45 minute set warming up for my other alt.rock original trio. Very pleased with the results. Sad that the recording came out so very very bad; whatever the sound guy was sending to the recorder was the wrong send. I keep telling them that they can make the meters dance higher than they think they should, but to no avail. And this recording sounds like it just got the wet return from the reverb unit. Ugly.

I blasted through 16 tunes in that time. I need to do a little more banter between songs and not feel bad about vamping an extra 8 bars before starting the verse. The headset mic that I bought was a brilliant idea. It worked so very well, and was so much easier to use than an SM58. I didn't cough or sneeze into the mic, so that's good. Bless you. I got my nose out of the charts, but was able to find the right spots back in the charts when needed 'cause of my stand light, big letters, and the unrestrained head movements that the headset mic allowed. And set up and tear down was easier with no mic stand and boom to lug around.

I've made 15 discs, and am scattering them around town. Next up is a myspace page to better access the wineries before they start booking for the summer.

A big step. Hooray for me.

Please note - Kinda longish. I'm not posting this to complain. I'm just sayin'

One of the locally ownened "franchise family restaurants" has decided to embark on providing live music. They are kind of new to this, and they really didn't do a lot of advertising, but they did manage to touch all the local "name" bands and book a few of them. Three sets - 2100 to 2400 (3 hours at an agreed rate). Smallish stage with more than adequat access to outlets - smallish dance floor (that had two Hugh Jazz tables in the middle of it), horrible acoustics (my low A just hung there. FOREVER!) The dummer noticed a gap in the schedule and manged to get the manager to book us. We've had reasonable success outside of town (lounges and biker bars) but this is the first time we were playing to a general audience of "normal" people in town.

Unbeknownst to us (and the manager), the owner booked a band for the same night. Rather than cancel one of us, they booked the other band in the lounge from 2000-2200 and us in the restaurant from 2200-2400. Still paying the agreed rate (now 2 hours at the same agreed rate).

At 1630, the guitars and drummer are finsihed setting up the PA and the manager shows up. Seems the bassist for the other band was significantly injured (aterial bleeding) from an industrial accident that afternoon, so the other band had to cancel. So, in one weeks time, I had to mobilize, then demobilize, then remobilize the Hanford Militia to make sure the venue knew we had a "following".

Drummer than asked the manager "So, you want us to start at 9:00?" The manager says "Sure! Can you start at 8:30?". Drummer says "OK!" (back to three hours at the same agreed rate). One of the guitars (who sweats the money) stood there agast.

Anyway, props to the venue for not taking the low road (which they had multiple opportunites to take). We played three hours and had a check in our hands at the end of the night.

New keys makes us 300% better right friggin' now. I love having someone in the band that I can go "B7?" and have a response "No, Bm7, but your bass note is F#." And I don't get that "look".

We brought in five new songs (why, I don't know, we have a 72 song set list, let's just do the crap we do well for now) and the guitars boogered some of it up. On the whole, the manager love our set list, loved our sound and really liked the crowd we bought in - participating, dancing animated, BOUGHT DRINKS!, BOUGH FOOD!, but never became overly rowdy or obnoxious.

Total damage - four business cards out, one booking (the restaurante wants us back next month and are offering a little better money), and one fraternal organization looking to see what's open on their calendar so they can book us later.

Most important - I had a blast playing. Towards the end of the jazz combo with the egos, the ultimatums and the bitching, it nice to be able to play with four other guys that are in it for the desire to play music live and not grind their own little axes.

Oh, yeah. Off to the VFW tonight.

It's 50 degress and overcast and my dumb bass unloaded the van this morning and now I have to load it all up again this afternoon. The gear could have sat and it would have been fine.

We feel your pain.

Update -

The fraternal organization wants three bookings in March/April and we've picked up an out of town wedding in May.

The VFW wants weekly house band for two months.

Not bad for the first night in town.

Got paid. Easy load in/out on a two nighter. Played better Saturday than Friday. No one picked up the tip jar money on Friday, but it was still there tonight! Lots of dancers. I'm home now.

What a week.
Great gig with Balkan group Delicatessen which went quite splendidly but we struggled to fit on the tiny stage in the packed venue.



Then last night my jazz trio Furniture played a double bill with an improv comedy duo which attracted quite a crowd. We played an original jazz set, then the improv comedy guys did their thing and finally we had an audience participation freestyle hip-hop jam

Performed "pro bono" with the jazz trio for the Junior Acheivement executive dinner.

Third time out live. Due to problems with hearing ourselves last time out, I bought a pair of Kustom 10" passives and a GemSound 300. First time out with the full PA.

Noticed the vox when singing something she was confident with, her vocals were compleletly different. Good projection, a desire to take the "old standards" and make them her own without being unbearable. The monitors helped her out with her confidence since she could here each other.

As I said, we played free. One of the waitresses put out a tip jar (unbeknownst to me - I would have vetoed) and ended up with $100+ in tips for basically a set an a half.

Have a paid gig next Saturday at the local wine and cheese shop. I think we should present a good account of ourselves.

Hey - nothing wrong with the tip jar - kind of really shows you and the band that your music was appreciated. When folk dig out hard cash from their pocket - that is a very high vote of "like".

Second gig with the new band tonight, we'll be playing a couple of our orignals. Full report tomorrow!

------UPDATE----------

Gig went fairly well, lot of PA problems and we had a couple of rough spots but nothing too bad. Small crowd 40-50 with a fair number of them other musicans waiting to play.

Still, it was enjoyable and the response to our original numbers was very positive.

Well, back to the woodshed!

Cheers!

Moody - Yeah, but when we're doing a benefit, I'd prefer not to put a jar out.

The singer had to hire a babysitter to make the gig, so the Keys and I elected to let her take money for the sitter. The rest got dumped back into the charitable cause.

Next week is a straight cash gig. I'll have the mondo-plastic brandy snifter out.

That is really cool!!!

I can't help but think of this Deadwood dialogue, though:

Merrick: "The vaccine will be distributed gratis."
Al: "Free gratis."
Merrick: "Free gratis is a redundancy."
EB: "Does that mean 'repeats itself'?"
Merrick: "Yes."
Al: "Then leave gratis out."

Off to Foxwoods Casino this weekend for a Friday & Saturday night....fun venue...nice stage, great soundman.

Love the groove on this one Phil, and nice impromptu solo too. Great to have a video!

Have a great gig Dan!

Wally

Played my 1st gig with the 6-string. I stumbled with it once or twice but it can only get better. Got lots of positive comments about the sound of it.

Crowd really enjoyed the band. I know because I could look out over the audience and see both air-guitarists AND air-drummers. :^)

Played a gig with Starnes & Shah last night at Hoboken, NJ's famous venue, Maxwells. The club staff is very cool and supportive.

It does seem that you should bring your own amplification here. On this gig we wound up sharing the backline wiht the headliners. We were opening for a touring act that you would have thought would have a decent bass amp. Instead, they had a small MarkBass combo with 1 x 12" and the preamp input wound up clipping while I was using a clean sound. Thankfully, the house sound man was very good. And I would think that anyone who's touring the Northeast should make a point of playing Maxwell's when they're in the NYC vicinity.

Thanks mate!

Last night was a first - played an (unrehearsed) Ceilidh set for Scottish dancing - great fun: violin, piano, bass and drums. Much fun!

This Tuesday I'm playing a kids Gospel concert at the Albert Hall: 100 piece orchestra, gospel choir, drumming group plus 100s of school kids. Lots of reading and some great basslines!

Well, I'm on YouTube now This from the first "gig" we played in Feb. it was at an open mic at a club down by the University. It was very cold that night so everyone hung out inside so we ended up having a decent crowd.

The PA was virtually non-existant and the recordong was made with a handheld video cam so unfortunately the sound isn't very good. The videos from the "Sky Bar" are me the other tracks aren't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldXTWANPBmg

What is really cool is the video of Billy (guitar) and Calvin (drums) playing with Tony Franklin!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7tpKSd6r00

Hopefully we will have some video of better quality before too long.

Annnyyywayy, Thanks for "listening"!

Cheers!

The Perfect Storm - I have the perfect PA, the perfect band mates and the perfect set list for the small venue cheese and wine shop last Saturday.

It went perfect.

The band brought out a crowd that the managers observed was one of the largest "music night" crowds yet. Everyone bought food and wine. The biggest tipper was a regular who was not part of the possie - said we were the best thing he's heard in there. The managers loved us and stated that they would like us back sooner rather than later.

Had a couple of gripes - too much time between songs, not proficient on some otheres, but they don't get bands in there doing the old standards. Singer's got a little confidence and is way better than I though she would be, even improving a little without being too annoying or obvious.

All in all, this is EXACTLY the sound and band I wanted for these venues. On to the wineries soon.

Hey, Basshappi, I thought that was a great rendition of Manic Depression. You guys sounded great!

+1. Makes me want to try that song...and it's not even funk!

(But why are you holding your bass backwards? )

Very nice...

The Albert Hall gig was a blast...loud, raucous audience. And grooving with that huge orchestra was fun.

Better watch out, Nancy, you'll end up being Rockslap Mama if you ain't careful. Jimi's stuff is seductive...

I took the skinny string ax to Belize with me, and played at a pizza place on the ocean. Acoustic guitar and no mic isn't enough to compete with the ocean. That, and some guy pretending to be super drunk tried to pick my wallet while I was playing. He was not successful, but he's apparently pretty good at his craft.

I have not shaved yet. The wife is not happy with this situation.

Small venue with the Balkan/Mediterranean band.
Bohemian vibe to the venue, live oil painting etc.
Was a lot of fun.
Played a lot of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian music and the Turkish people in the crowd came to party!

Sorry for the size of that last pic but love haw the Wal looks in it!

Haha saw it on your FB and I had the exact same thought re: the Wal