Gig Reports - How did your gig go?

[picker]

Normal gig last night. small crowd but responsive. The band tried a new tune without any rehearsal, "West LA Fadeaway" by the Dead, with a minimal number of clams, and the audience loved it. Made our way through "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen/Oye Com Va" for the second time reasonably well. My voice is not quite recovered from the infection I had last week, no control over the high notes. Had to either fake a lot of stuff or my voice cracked trying to hit them.

Afterward, the drummer was pissed because his check was short, made several statements to the effect of"I'm not putting up with this crap, this is how I make my living" and "I'm a PROFESSIONAL, for f***s sake", "I'm sorry I won't be playing with you anymore, you're a monster player" etc, swore it would be his last gig with us. After stomping around the parking lot for a while, repeating these settlements several times for effect, he and the bass player went in and spoke to the other guitarist(who is the musical director for the bar we do this in twice a week). I went home and was awakened by a call from the other guitarist an hour or so later. He asked if my check was the right amount, apparently the bar owner wrote the wrong amounts on two of them by mistake. Mine was right. He told me the drummer was okay after their discussion and the cutting of a new check, and would keep playing with us.

 

Like I said, normal gig.

[butcherNburn]

And you you thought you played on a small stage. Pretty cool.

[video:youtube]

[Ross Brown]

We opened for another band at a decent, good sized venue on Saturday night. We played 1 hour.

 

The Good:

 

We played a very tight set. Some songs folks recognized, some that would be new to them, for sure. They seemed to react well to all of it. Guitarist's girlfriend said she heard someone say we were the best opening band they ever had there. Cool. Our singer blew everyone away. She was on fire!! During Gimmie Shelter she even played keys and sang the high, background parts. (I taught her the keys part this week. She is fearless). Sounded good.

 

Drummer was on. Guitarist was on. I was on. Great crowd reaction. It was one of those gigs where you just know it is working

 

The Bad:

 

Feedback. Some wicked feedback on stage. Friend out front said that it did not carry to the house sound and that we sounded good. The solution by Einstein the sound guy was to cut the vocal monitors completely. We were singing from muscle memory fortunately that is not usually a big problem for us. I could hear myself from the bounce off of the back wall to some degree. That helped a little.

 

The crowd thinned out quite a bit during the main act's show. They did not get the same response. I suppose they wont ask us back. They did however, say nice things about our set. They thought we did a great job and thanked us. They are a good band. I think maybe they were just too loud.

 

[picker]

Doncha just hate that whole politics thing, "opening band better not outshine the headliner if they wanna get hired back" bit? I've seen a number of opening acts blow the "headliner" off the stage. Ted Nugent ripped Bad Company a whole new one, Heart came out hungry and loaded for bear while Starship came out loaded, period. Santana played with joy and energy while even Clapton's chick singers did better in their solo bits than Clapton did. A bunch of others, too.

[Ross Brown]

I'd rather blow the roof off once, than suck and get asked back.... perverted logic I suppose.... I actually prefer to blow the roof off AND THEN get asked back to headline.... It was one of the most powerful sets I have ever been part of....

[Richard W]

Doncha just hate that whole politics thing, "opening band better not outshine the headliner if they wanna get hired back" bit? I've seen a number of opening acts blow the "headliner" off the stage. Ted Nugent ripped Bad Company a whole new one, Heart came out hungry and loaded for bear while Starship came out loaded, period. Santana played with joy and energy while even Clapton's chick singers did better in their solo bits than Clapton did. A bunch of others, too.

 

And when Jimi Hendrix opened for the Monkees in 1967...

[butcherNburn]

True but the audience was all a bunch of screaming 12 year old girls there for the Monkeys. It probably took them a few years to kick themselves for missing the real show.

[Richard W]

We did an "acoustic" set last night, so deemed only because our drummer couldn't make it, as part of a benefit concert for the local school district. Set list: Blue Bayou (L. Ronstadt); Two of Us and Oh, Darling (Beatles); Sandy and Pink Cadillac (Springsteen); Home (S. Crow); Give Me One Reason (T. Chapman); You Can't Always Get What You Want (Stones, which we also morph into Feeling All Right by Dave Mason); Out on the Weekend (N. Young); and Night Moves (B. Seger).

 

Two interesting moments. In the middle of Sandy, my amp and the guitarist's amp stopped working--we lost power. Finished the song anyway, and then discovered that the guitarist had been tapping his foot on the power cord and dislodged the amps' plugs. We were in sort of a cramped space and there were a lot of cords laying around that wouldn't have been there normally. It happened a second time during another song, but we fixed it mid-song.

 

The other flub was that during Two of Us, our lead guitarist simply forgot to go into the second bridge ("...you and I have memories..."), but we muddled through and I don't think anyone in the audience really noticed.

 

While it's always fun to play, I generally don't like just playing a single set. You just get warmed up and the evening is over.

 

 

[Ed Friedland]

Last night I opened for the newly configured NRBQ with a local band called Matt Smith's World. Our set went great, even though our keyboard wasn't there. I used my Shuttle Max 9.2/NeoXt 212 rig with my Lull P5. That rig is absolutely golden with a P bass! Outstanding! I dial in a nice clear tone with the SS channel, then a grittier tone with a little mid bump around 1.2K with the tube - then blend. It's amazing.

 

So, we kicked butt doing our thing which is kind of a soul/latin/r&b/rock/blues/jazz hybrid. NRBQ was interesting. It's just Terry Adams now with three young guys. They sounded good, but the music just wasn't what I would expect from them. It was more like Squeeze/XTC/Elvis Costello meets Chuck Berry's second cousin than the rootsy rockin' stuff I associate with that band. I mean, it sounded good, but... where's Joey Spampinato? Oh well. I guess it's tough to reinvent a band that's been around as long as they have.

[Wally Malone]

Not a gig but I did go to a friend's house party last night and there were a great bunch of musicians jammin' away. I didn't take my bass but did play a handful of songs. The bass player had a Musicman five string and a fretless MIM Jazz bass. I chose to use the fretless even though it's been years since I've played one. The bass played great and had such low action. Had a great time!

 

Wally

[jeremy c]

While it's always fun to play, I generally don't like just playing a single set. You just get warmed up and the evening is over.

 

Well, you could have been on my gig. It was a six hour gig in three different rooms of a hotel.

 

one hour wedding ceremony

one hour background music during cocktails

four hours dinner/dance, some background, all kinds of dancing.

 

Five piece band (only two played the first two hours). No rehearsal, the five of us all knew each other well but had never actually played together as a group.

 

I was the leader which meant I brought the PA system and ran it, made all announcements, managed to convince everyone to get on the dance floor, coordinated the two musicians and worked with the party planner, helped the two guys move from room to room, made copies of important charts, transposed the first dance for the lead singer (which she sang for the first time ever when it was time to for the dance).

 

We played Israeli folk music, Klezmer (Eastern European Jewish music), bossa nova, swing, lite rock, 60's rock, Motown music, disco, 70's soul music and probably more. I'm getting ready to unload my van which is full from top to bottom.

 

Oh yeah, I played bass and sang lead on a few songs and backup on all the others.

 

It would be nice to play a one hour acoustic set and go home, but probably not as lucrative.

 

 

[Ross Brown]

sounds lucrative.... sounds like hard work too....

[EddiePlaysBass]

Played the third gig with the blues band. This time we played the same venue as our debut gig, opening for Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat. They had set up most of their gear, and then asked us what to move so we had space. Turned out only their keyboard needed a bit of a shift, and that was that.

 

There was little fraternizing between the bands, but their drummer did immediately suggest that we use his kit. I went to ask the bassist if I could use his amp, or take the house amp (I knew I did not need to bring my own gear) and he said it was a rental anyway so he didn't mind. I told him I'd leave his settings alone (it helped that he also played a Fender Jazz :grin: ) and gave him a guitar stand for his bass. Come to think of it, I left that at the venue. I should have brought a mic and a stand, because we ended up with one short and since I do the least amount of backing vox and our drummer is the better backing vocalist, we decided I would forego vocals.

 

We were told beforehand we could play 80 minutes but at the venue it was cut down to 60, then brought back to 70. According to my recordings, we played about 80 minutes anyway We did end up cancelling two songs (a standard shuffle called "Bamboozled" and Rory Gallagher's "Bad Penny"). I think about half the set was new material compared to the last time we played, which I think is important for venues with "regulars".

 

It's funny how things go: I thought we didn't go over well and the crowd was not that into us. But by the end of the set, when we played "Sweet Home Chicago" they all sang and cheered along, and afterwards people told us we are getting better and better.

We put business cards on all the tables and a lot of them were gone by the end of the evening. Some guy took a picture of our set list so I told him to just take the paper instead His friend asked our names, so I think he may have been a reporter for some website or something, no idea.

 

Anyway, I had fun!

[EddiePlaysBass]

Partial video of our rendition of John Mayall's

. I need to work on my dance moves

[J J]

Hey guys, thought I'd give an update on the VH tribute band. I popped in here a little while back and haven't said much since. We played a gig in Rockford, IL last weekend and had a great turnout. It was a little overdue for us to have a good gig like this one. The wheels took a while to get moving but after the gig last weekend everyone's starting to come alive and be optimistic once again! Here's a link the the closing song we did, "Hot for Teacher"

 

 

I know, I know there's a few mistakes here and there, but I hope you guys enjoy!

[jolietdave]

You each get a check?

[EddiePlaysBass]

More video, surprisingly good quality too:

.

[slowfinger]

We played our 1st gig in over a year last night. What with band members travelling or breaking arms (mostly me) the band sort of drifted apart for a while. A charity gig came up (that's next week) so we started rehearsing again, and found it good. Last night's gig came about because a friend of the rhythm git asked us to support their gig, and it seemed like a good idea.

 

The venue was a small pub in Brunswick - an inner-city suburb just north of the Melbourne CBD. There is a small stage in the front bar. We were due to go on at 10.30pm (past my bed-time). When I got there about 8.30 the first band was setting up - it took them over an hour. They got going towards 10pm and played well and put on a good show - laser lights, fog machine, sample loops etc. They play mostly Hawkwind covers and similar stuff - the small audience clapped politely.

 

We got on just after midnight and had to finish at 1am. Well, all I can say is that we brought the RAWK big time. Punters came in from the beer garden out the back to see us. We played:

Sorry (Aussie band Easybeats song -

)

Green River

Substitute

One after 9:09

Folsom Prison Blues

Little Queenie

Gloria

I'll Make you Happy (another Easybeats song)

Nowhere Man

Heroes

New York Mining Disaster

Running Down A Dream

They clapped, cheered, hooted, some danced. Even the sound guy clapped. Afterwards there was back slapping and 'good on ya mate' as we packed up.

 

Sadly we have no recording or pics of this happy return to playing out.

 

 

[Ross Brown]

One after 9:09..... cool... cool... cool... i want to do this song!

 

Glad it went well...

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Eagles Arie in the next town. Nice stage, some grounding issues (a power converter for the PA is on Santa's list), nomally a good, four set gig at scale except only eight people were there - not including the two band wives. Three were working, one was married to one of the workers.

 

Times like these, we kinda use them at paid practices. Half the band hit the bridge too soon coming out of the solos for "Spooky" and we (as a band) couldn't figure out how to end "Running Down a Dream", but the rest of it went well. We run Folsom as part of a C&W "mini-set" first set.

[Ross Brown]

fade out....

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Our want is to do the C-D-E progression four times (one of the few occations where I actually provide backing vocals), then do the "Running Down a Dream" with the A-G-E and stop. The lead guitar never looked up from his axe. Since we have "rearranged" ourselfs with me in the middle and the guitars on either end, I now have to read the facial contortions of the band leader and relay them to the lead in something that resembles English.

 

I recommended we have Lamb Chop and Sherrie Lewis do "The Song That Never Ends".

[EddiePlaysBass]

fade out....

 

That's kind of how we tend to end "Damn Right, I Got The Blues" (Buddy Guy, I think). We just hold the A chord and bring it down.

[jeremy c]

Played with a jazz trio for a dinner the other night....guitar, sax, bass. (a pickup band, no rehearsal) Lots of room to stretch out and I was given many solos. After one of them, the guitarist turned to me, and said, "nice lyrical solo". That made my day.

 

We played standards for a very appreciative audience and besides getting paid well, we were also served an excellent dinner.

 

The event was at a church which had a full band's worth of equipment set up, a great sound system, and a good soundman. All we had to do was walk in, plug in, and play.

 

I wish all gigs could be like that.

 

On top of all of that, the party finished early and they sent us home almost an hour earlier than we had been contracted for.

[wraub]

As I have moved from the BK with more gigs than I could take to a culturally deficient, backwater podunk burg with a large population (but no one apparently musical with any aspirations but cover bands and label recognition), I mainly gig the living room nowadays.

I will not say that I am not jealous (yes, I know, but the grammar police can just suck it. )

Good on you all. Break a leg.

 

Peace,

 

wraub

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Burger King?

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Pulled three sets at one of the local franchise "bar and grills". Project Geezer is tighter than ever and we work through MAJOR miscues without letting on the we screwed up.

 

Begining of set three, the "Society of Slightly Inebreated Women" made two requests. One, "Mustang Sally". Two, that we accomadate said group on stage so they could provide backing vocals. The BL concurred and soon the lead and I (stage right of the drums) were backed into the corner with our amps while this group piled onto the stage to sing "Ride, Sally, Ride" and inexplicably scream in the stop before "getting your flat feet on the ground."

 

If I were in a "real band", I probably wouldn't put up with that nonsense. But for those of us in a bar band ... buzzed women on stage for one song and NO ONE touches the gear? Can that be goodwill that can be cashed in on later?

[BEMcCut]

A couple of weeks ago, we opened and closed for David Allan Coe at a local bar. The room was packed and from what I hear there were about 500 people. The bad part was setting up around David's stuff, having to tear everything down and then set back up after he was done. The crowd was into our first set. David came on and played his set plus an extra 30 minutes. After he was finished, we set up as quickly as possible. Roadies provided by the club really helped. They cleared off the dance floor and people were ready to party. We played our set plus a half hour of encore. The sound guy was great and made us sound great. To top off the night, the bar owner gave us $400 extra dollars. Fun night.

[Phil W]

Fan video just posted of our cafe gig on November 4th - some Greek music for you!

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2j3aZE_QPU

 

 

[Paul K]

Three solo gigs in 9 days time. Smooth as silk. Still can sing three hours into the night. Almost no brain farts. So good physical and mental stamina. Good response from employers and patrons alike on performance and tune selection. I bought (after selling my first one a couple years ago) an Aphex XCiter pedal since my Behringer rack unit sounds so good in the practice room. In the solo setting the Xciter/big bottom thing really is nice. It got lost on bass in a band setting, which is why I sold it originally. Solo, it's truly astounding. Sparkly and full round sound, either on acoustic/electric (Lace Acela) or electric (Univox coily or Univox hi-flyer).

 

Gonna bum out a bit with the downtime scheduled in Jan and Feb for new hips. I don't really know how much time to allow for healing. Have been billing these gigs a "The Pre-Bionic Tour" in gig spam. That'll set up "The Bionic Tour" gig spam after I resume gigging: With my Steve Austin parts, I can run faster, jump higher, and play louder than ever before.