Gigs in Edinburgh

thomasross20

Good point about Bannerman's. Sound always booms there.

Yeah I'm standing my ground here. Sorry to be a music snob and I know others here play those songs but I can't bring myself to do it, just like our singers don't want to do songs like paradise city, for example. I think a small part if me would die.

Totally agree with your ethos which we've also had since the beginning - other than sweet child, living on a prayer etc, chose great songs that other bands don't play!

ICBM

We have a very simple rule in my band - any member has an absolute veto on any song, and that's accepted by all of us. There are too many good songs in the world to play a song you hate just because everyone else wants to.

thomasross20

8)

thomasross20

I probably shouldn't but we're also doing Binkies Tuesday 23rd so I'll get to hear the sound myself if it's the same guy (honestly, I'll just crank the amp volume!)

Deijavoo

Bannerman's should be a great venue but if you're not from Edinburgh then it isn't. Also that soundguy who is deaf in ome ear, he pretty much destroyed a large part of my hearing one night. We took our own soundguy from that point on.

thomasross20

Opium was EXCELLENT. REALLY good sound guy. Great crowd. Not much money but we were first on and it was a 40 min set. Was great

Jahanasaurus

My tech-metal band Tiberius are supporting this band in Bannermans on Wednesday (Doors 7.30). I'll have some £5 tickets available before the gig if anyones keen:

thomasross20

I can't make that one but I'll defo try to get to another. Do you have any more SoundCloud / YouTube links?

Vaiai

Jahanasaurus said:

My tech-metal band Tiberius are supporting this band in Bannermans on Wednesday (Doors 7.30). I'll have some £5 tickets available before the gig if anyones keen:

Good luck Jahan - rehearsing Wed unfortunately! Hope you get Hef on the desk - he plays with RamageInc so knows his sound. He'll be wandering around with his iPad doing the sliders remotely

BGG

My band GrooveTrain played The Jazz Bar in Edinburgh last night, they got a dep in for me as I didn't fancy doing it.

Coupe of hours drive, can't take gear in the venue til midnight, first set at 12.45am til 01.30am then second set 01.45am til 02.30 then fifteen minutes of encores ... all for pub money ... stuff that

ICBM

BGG said:

My band GrooveTrain played The Jazz Bar in Edinburgh last night, they got a dep in for me as I didn't fancy doing it.

Coupe of hours drive, can't take gear in the venue til midnight, first set at 12.45am til 01.30am then second set 01.45am til 02.30 then fifteen minutes of encores ... all for pub money ... stuff that

I'd have to agree that is taking the piss!

thomasross20

Yeah I agree!

We're on at 10pm Binkies tonight. 

Get this. Venue in Portobello (Dalriada) want us to do a 2 hour set for £100 but NO DRUMS. Noise rules and all that. I said "stuff that." Stick two fingers up to it - drums or nothing! Bassist is keen on us doing acoustic stuff to open up venues but I told him he doesn't realise it's a lot of work to adapt songs PROPERLY (no half-arsing it for me!) for an acoustic set, to sound really effective. I'm not going to bow to these "acoustic gigs" due to bl00dy noise rules. I'd rather not play. By the way, it would have been in 2 weeks' time. No way given my current situation I'd be able to adapt our songs in 2 weeks for acoustic. Do people appreciate how much work goes into guitar parts for bands? 

Moe_Zambeek

No, is the short answer to that last question.

It seems these days that an acoustic duo or trio is the way to get lots of gigs that actually pay reasonable money, or alternatively, an easy way to get 30-45 minute original sets that are almost entirely hassle free, given you only need a couple of acoustics at most. 

I am struggling with this at the moment, I have a songwriting relationship with a great singer and we could quite easily put together 40 minutes of original rock tunes (cos we write with an acoustic) and double that in covers, and we could probably gig every night of the week. Load ins would be easy. Yet....there is very little appeal of this for me. Possibly it's because I find my acoustic so difficult and limiting to play. That's lack of practice I guess, or I have the wrong guitar I suppose these days, we could do that sort of thing with a clean electric sound as well...

It's a bit dispiriting really. It just isn't as much fun as a full band.

thomasross20

Agree. I haven't done an acoustic set and imagine it could be cool in its own way, but I imagine it's not as good as full-on rock with the whole band. I'm not going to lie down for these noise rules. The venue actually asked us as they heard we were a decent band through word of mouth. So hopefully others will turn them down if they ask similar too and they'll get the drift... 

I prefer playing electric guitar, anyway. I'm sure I could do it but we've already got about 50 songs, I've got the album stuff in parallel and it'd be like a new job to do an acoustic set, too. Stuff that.

ICBM

I love doing the acoustic stuff, but unfortunately the singer I work with is finding work and life in general a bit too much to commit to doing much music at the moment.

Acoustic sets can work very well even with an existing band - although the drummer will be upset to be left out if they can't play 'percussion' or some other low-volume substitute - but two weeks isn't really long enough to rework your whole set if you've never done it before. You're right that you can't just play the same stuff on an acoustic as you do on an electric, it doesn't work. (Not even with the 'acoustic-ish' way I approach an electric anyway.)

An electronic drum kit is a tolerable substitute usually, but you will need a good PA if the venue doesn't have one - not so much for volume but because it will just sound pants through a small vocal PA.

A Flats kit is about the best compromise we found, they're small and not that loud, but it's still "drums" in the eyes of most venues - and although not that loud, they're not *that* quiet either, if that makes sense...

thomasross20

Yeah, I can see it could be fun. 

Still, I hate all this noise rules stuff - I'd rather just sit at home and do YouTube videos / further albums than cater to that tosh!

DiscoStu

Out of interest, what is the db cut-off level on venues with limiters? Is it a national figure or down to each Council? I saw a solo performer last week playing an electro nylon and singing, and the limiter was averaging around 82 but regularly peaking at 97. 

thomasross20

No idea!

Binkies was good last night. Tough crowd at first (slow applause) but it picked up. My finger started to bleed from too many bends (lol) and some videographer came in and started taking pics/vids of the band - I think I've seen him before and he puts stuff on YouTube for the local venues. It was funny. Though not for one of our singers who needs to remain discreet for her job..!

ICBM

DiscoStu said:

Out of interest, what is the db cut-off level on venues with limiters? Is it a national figure or down to each Council? I saw a solo performer last week playing an electro nylon and singing, and the limiter was averaging around 82 but regularly peaking at 97. 

I think the councils set the limits, although it's probably fairly consistent. What's stupid is that the positioning of the limiters isn't, and that can make a *huge* difference to how easy it is to apparently go over the level, regardless of how loud it is relative to the rest of the venue. I've played in places where it's reasonably sensible and a band can play at moderate volume without tripping it, and others where it's impossible to play at enough volume to even get over the general noise in the bar.

I did an acoustic (luckily) gig in the old Raeburn House Hotel once, where the limiter was on the back wall of the stage at about head height. When we were setting up I turned round and for a laugh strummed my *unplugged* acoustic guitar at it, quite hard. Three red bars. Didn't bother setting up the monitors as they would have been pointing straight at it too...

Vaiai

Playing Binkies on the 13th of next month - also doing The Starbank in Newhaven but it's 3x45s - (typical pub gig) - Long night and then £50 in your hand - just as well it's a hobby!