EddiePlaysBass Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Sunday marked the occasion of Dr Diddley's second full-length gig. This time we were to play in the Netherlands, in a bar called Café Wilhelmina, located in the Wilhelmina Square ... Despite the name, it was quite an awesome venue, with a thriving live reputation and some relatively big (local) name bookings. And Dr Diddley As with our debut gig, we brought along the guys and gal from Deman Rogue to open for us. This is one tight band, for sure, with a great set list to boot. Excellent musicians all around, and I love their bassist's style and approach. Like before, I told them that we should really be opening for them. But we book the gigs, so we get the second slot During their set, some drunk idiot came and sat with us. He spilled a beer, mumbled incoherently and then started making suggestive moves towards my girlfriend. I put my hand on his chest, nodded "no" in a solemn manner and indicated that he move elsewhere. Afterwards, our guitarist complimented me on handling it "like a pro". He then alluded to my Jedi mind-powers so not sure if he was kidding Once Deman Rogue finished and tore down their equipment, we set up and sound-checked. Like with the first band, attendance was pretty low but hey, this is a Sunday and neither band is exactly a household name, especially in Holland. And I've always been of the opinion that you should give it all you got, even if it ends up being a paid rehearsal. We launched into our opening track (The Blasters' Long White Cadillac, also covered by Dwight Yoakam I believe) and something felt off to me. It seemed like the tempo was dragging a bit, or the beat was wrong. No clue what it was, because listening back to the recordings now I hear nothing wrong whatsoever. I took a few minutes then to check the crowd response and saw people shaking, grooving and smiling so I figured it was me. Unlike last time, we played our entire song list through without breaking it into sets. The singer had asked me to prep the order this time, and everyone agreed it worked better than last time, although in retrospect I would have made some more tweaks left and right. During our set, I started to notice that the bass was incredibly loud on stage. And I mean nauseatingly loud - not sure what gave because I hadn't really cranked up the Orange any more than usual. At least this meant the drummer would be able to hear me, I guess. I did turn down a wee bit but I didn't want to upset the sound guy. We played better than last time. More cohesion between the musicians, the jam aspects in certain songs were slightly better and the overall performance was simply much, much better than our debut gig. We do not rehearse often nor do we play out all that much, so this was a big step forwards for us. We got a great response from the people who were there (including three of my colleagues, one of whom took the train from Amsterdam - 1.5 hours!) and afterwards some drunk dude came and shook my hand, saying I was awesome. Our guitarist also told me that "people like my fretless bass - it's a tone monster". After our set we hung around a while, and then both bands went for a kebab, as basically everyone had had lunch and then nothing until 9PM. First time I played on a near-empty stomach. Between the kebab and the exuberant parking fee, I think I made exactly zero EUR from this particular gig, but we got some great pics, and the audio recordings came out fine, too! Waiting for some Go Pro video footage to make its way towards us. I will update this thread with some links once the audio/video comes in, but until then, here are some shameless FB plugs - feel free to give us some love! Dr Diddley Deman Rogue "I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flemtone Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Sounds like a sweet gig. Congratulations! Play. Just play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danzilla Posted January 23, 2019 Share Posted January 23, 2019 It's always good to get out of the rehearsal room and play live. From the pics I saw on FaceBook, you were enjoying yourself (and the Tony Franklin bass looks great, too). My band had its full-length debut this past Saturday. Over all, it went well, aside from a big noisy issue from my pedal board. In the first set, there was an occasional intermittent burst of buzz from my rig. Seems that the power plug for my pedal board got loose from the power strip, and eventually even killed all power to my board. Weird, but a relatively quick fix. Then the second set, that buzz was back, but more frequent. I even quickly swapped out some cables thinking that might be the issue. The sound man told me that he had to pull me out of the mains as it was not anything he could control from his end. So that was frustrating. Seemed to be an issue with the DI I was giving him out of my Taurus preamp pedal. I ended up running the DI out of the head of my Phil Jones Bass Six Pack; no problems at all on the third set. So I need to trouble shoot my Taurus pedal before next rehearsal. It's a bummer, because I love the tones I get from it, and thought the DI would be a bonus for amp-less gigs (if it ever came to that). Hoping it was just a bad XLR cable, but I doubt it. Aside from that, we had a full house, excited crowd, and plenty of compliments. Now to ride this momentum and book more gigs. Terra Fermata Facebook page Official Terra Fermata web page "Am I enough of a freak to be worth paying to see?"- Separated Out (Marillion) NEW band Old band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddiePlaysBass Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 Shame about the cable, Dan, but glad to read you brought the rawk! As promised, here is some audio. Feedback welcome! "I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lug Posted January 27, 2019 Share Posted January 27, 2019 Shame about the cable, Dan, but glad to read you brought the rawk! As promised, here is some audio. Feedback welcome! It swings! Bass nice and prominent, the way God intended it to be. 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danzilla Posted January 28, 2019 Share Posted January 28, 2019 Sounds good, Dave! Bass is nice and strong, out front but not squashing everything else. Keep it up! And I think I found out my issue. On the Taurus DI, the ground lift button was pushed in. It's on the front of the pedal, so not something I would normally look at. I didn't think a ground lift could make that much of a horrendous racket; more fool me. I will be checking this EVERY gig as soon as I plug in; or will just use the DI on my amp head. "Am I enough of a freak to be worth paying to see?"- Separated Out (Marillion) NEW band Old band Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddiePlaysBass Posted January 29, 2019 Author Share Posted January 29, 2019 Dan, great to hear you figured it out! When is your next chance to try it out in a live setting? You guys are too kind! The band needs work, and plenty of it. And I do not mean gigs We have two more on the books for now, which is fine. Don't want to overdo it. "I'm a work in progress." Micky Barnes The Ross Brown Shirt World Tour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
butcherNburn Posted January 29, 2019 Share Posted January 29, 2019 Sounds like a good experience. There's always something that isn't perfect, keep pushing ahead and correct as you go. A break even gig isn't bad, at least it didn't cost you anything. Sadly that's the way of the world. There's less and less live music out there and paying just to listen someone's laptop is a cheaper option for most venues. Looking forward to hear about your next gig. If you think my playing is bad, you should hear me sing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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