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3rd gig - smaller venue, bigger crowd


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Hi peeps,

 

My band was recently invited to play in someone's living room, as part of a town festival called 30 30 30 (30 bands, 30 locations, 30 April). For me this was a first, and we decided to go full on electric instead of stripping anything down. Part of me regretted not having practiced my electric upright for so long, as it would have been an excellent excuse to take her out again.

 

I arrived 5 minutes after the agreed-upon time, kicking myself for being late. Turns out I was first :) The guy who opened his house for us had a small but very cosy place, which lent itself very well to a concert-setting! I noticed a piano and some guitars so told him to join us for a jam at the end. He laughed and declined - missed opportunity! He did record everything with a view to mixing it later.

 

We set up, then hung around and talked with our host for a while. When we wanted to start sound checking, some guests started arriving. At one point I told the singer that his guitar was way too loud. He replied: "I can't turn down, my amp is set to 2" which I countered with: "Your guitar has a volume knob." This got a very approving nod from the drummer, and a confused look from the singer, who proceeded to investigate which knob on his guitar did what :)

 

We kicked off with a Blasters tune (Long White Cadillac - also known in a Dwight Yoakum version, apparently) and when we finished, three elder ladies up and went, saying: "It's lovely music, but too loud for us." Rock'n'roll!

 

All in all we played fairly well - no real train wrecks to speak of. I play fretless in this band, and my intonation was sometimes slightly off. I also play with a pick a LOT, and for some reason I missed the string a few times. Heeding the advice that "play it once, it's wrong; play it twice, it's jazz" I would often repeat the "mistake" again - as if playing it intentionally :) [edit]After the show one guy asked about the fretless, and said he didn't really notice that I played fretless. At first I took (mild) offence, but it dawned on me that this is quite the compliment indeed![/edit]

 

We have a bit of a jam band mentality and in some songs we'll extend solo's and add or deduct bits and pieces as we see fit. This also means we'll sometimes throw out known lines in favour of spur-of-the-moment inspiration. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it could be better. But all in all we got good feedback from the 16-ish people who stuck around to the end. My misses has been to all our gigs so far, and said this was the best of the 3 (+ 1), so we are getting better!

"I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes

 

The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour

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So would I! There's also some video shot ... It will be ugly :)

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that aside from missed picked notes, I also started one or two songs with the volume turned down ... Oy, and this with 20 years of experience under my belt!

"I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes

 

The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour

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  • 2 weeks later...
They're not clams - they're 'improvisational explorations'.

 

I don't make mistakes. I make choices. Sometimes they're terrible, terrible choices. But nevertheless.

"Tours widely in the southwestern tip of Kentucky"
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I made a sampler of the gig - not all songs this time. Would like some feedback on this, also from the POV of using it for promotional purposes:

 

 

Be fair, be constructive :thu:

 

Well, that was a lot of fun! Only thing you might consider is editing down Track 4 at the end - your guitarist drifts off-key for the last few notes but then comes back during the fade. You may want to fade the tune out a bar or two earlier to avoid those unfortunate notes.

 

Aside from that, I liked it! Good tone, clean recordings, great fretless sweep in Stray Cat Strut ( :D ). I think that'd be a great booking tool. Throw in a Frampton Audience Cheer at the end of SCS and you'll be at Wembley by July.

Play. Just play.
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I made a sampler of the gig - not all songs this time. Would like some feedback on this, also from the POV of using it for promotional purposes:

 

 

Be fair, be constructive :thu:

 

Sounds great, bassist needs to turn his volume knob a bit clockwise. :D

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

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