Playing live: under play vs over play

Brad · November 2017

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

+1 for all the above. I'll add how happy/unhappy I am with my playing at any given time too. Sometimes circumstances dictate that I'll take a step back. Some rooms just suck the life out of the sound and it's a fight or other times I'm just in a bad place with my playing, so it can be for my own frame of mind as much as trying to serve the song.

Clarky · November 2017

thinking on this...
the whole underplay v overplay thing leads me to believe that a great many of you have a lot of freedom to improvise live yes?

Danji · November 2017

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

Danji · November 2017

Clarky said:

thinking on this...
the whole underplay v overplay thing leads me to believe that a great many of you have a lot of freedom to improvise live yes?

Yes, I’m from a jazz background. But there’s times when I literally don’t improvise, because it’s not happening.

Jetfire · November 2017

I totally get the room thing.

Barney · November 2017

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

Clarky · November 2017

Danji said:

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

thing is... the sound of the room at soundcheck and the sound when the venue is full are often very different..
I know what you mean where some places make you feel better than others..
but I never allow that to make a difference.. the people the paid to see you in a small backstreet venue are no different to the people that paid to see you in an arena or huge opener festival.. there's just more of them..
either way, they all paid and so they equally deserve the same level of effort and commitment..
so I just get out there and throw everything at it no matter what or where..

some places can be really surprising too..
you walk into a place thinking "hmmmm not sure about this" [even after soundcheck]
then you get playing, the audience are going nuts and the place is totally rocking..
in my lil' opinion it's the audience that really makes the gig [even if your monitoring is pretty challenging]

Clarky · November 2017

Barney said:

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

you'll have fun on the big festival stages then...
cos the monitoring is always difficult..
the stages are so big that you never feel like that band really glues together...
so you just crack on and put on the best show you can...

after you're thinking.. "that was ok I guess.. maybe a little sterile sound wise"
but you're not hearing what the crowd are hearing..
then one of our crew will come up and say "popped out front... you guys sounded massive.. it was amazing"
so knowing that this is often the case you just work as best you can with what you have
and assume everything out front is tip top.. and there's nothing you can do about it anyhow..
so just give it some and have fun

EricTheWeary · November 2017

Clarky said:

thinking on this...
the whole underplay v overplay thing leads me to believe that a great many of you have a lot of freedom to improvise live yes?

At a pub level a lot isn't completely note for note, you can start sticking in extra fills, extending solos. I think 'improvising' probably makes it sound grander than it is.

Barney · November 2017

Clarky saidi:

Barney said:

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

you'll have fun on the big festival stages then...
cos the monitoring is always difficult..
the stages are so big that you never feel like that band really glues together...
so you just crack on and put on the best show you can...

after you're thinking.. "that was ok I guess.. maybe a little sterile sound wise"
but you're not hearing what the crowd are hearing..
then one of our crew will come up and say "popped out front... you guys sounded massive.. it was amazing"
so knowing that this is often the case you just work as best you can with what you have
and assume everything out front is tip top.. and there's nothing you can do about it anyhow..
so just give it some and have fun

The marques are worse than anything ...the sound is just absorbed in the tent ....

Clarky · November 2017

EricTheWeary said:

Clarky said:

thinking on this...
the whole underplay v overplay thing leads me to believe that a great many of you have a lot of freedom to improvise live yes?

At a pub level a lot isn't completely note for note, you can start sticking in extra fills, extending solos. I think 'improvising' probably makes it sound grander than it is.

this is interesting..
we improvise too.. so we have some sections of music that have no fixed length..
this is so that David Cross and David Jackson can have a good ol' shred..
those guys do a great deal of improvisation thought the set..
I on the other hand, play more than 90% set pieces [even in solos where I'm allowed and able to open them up and play longer if I wish]...
this actually came up when we were being interviewed last Friday just before we went on at HRH..
the two Davids love the freedom to improvise.. where I prefer the consistency and repeatability of set pieces..
so even within the same band... one size don't fit all... lol..

Clarky · November 2017

Barney said:

Clarky saidi:

Barney said:

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

you'll have fun on the big festival stages then...
cos the monitoring is always difficult..
the stages are so big that you never feel like that band really glues together...
so you just crack on and put on the best show you can...

after you're thinking.. "that was ok I guess.. maybe a little sterile sound wise"
but you're not hearing what the crowd are hearing..
then one of our crew will come up and say "popped out front... you guys sounded massive.. it was amazing"
so knowing that this is often the case you just work as best you can with what you have
and assume everything out front is tip top.. and there's nothing you can do about it anyhow..
so just give it some and have fun

The marques are worse than anything ...the sound is just absorbed in the tent ....

sound wise, the most difficult place I played was Lucca, Italy..
we were playing open air in a large oval shaped piazza.
we were surrounded by buildings on all sides [there were archways to get in / out of the piazza
when the snare hit, there was an echo thrown right back at you somewhere between 50ms and 100ms [sht guess on my part]..
the echo was almost as loud as the actual hit...
playing in 15/8 etc was a bit of a mare when this echo of the band was coming back at you...
when the place filled with people it helped a little to soak up the echo..
but the solution in the end of to have the monitoring cranked so it totally overpowered the echo..
so in the end we played a good tight gig.. but went completely deaf.. lmao

viz · November 2017

@Clarky said:

Barney said:

Clarky saidi:

Barney said:

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

you'll have fun on the big festival stages then...
cos the monitoring is always difficult..
the stages are so big that you never feel like that band really glues together...
so you just crack on and put on the best show you can...

after you're thinking.. "that was ok I guess.. maybe a little sterile sound wise"
but you're not hearing what the crowd are hearing..
then one of our crew will come up and say "popped out front... you guys sounded massive.. it was amazing"
so knowing that this is often the case you just work as best you can with what you have
and assume everything out front is tip top.. and there's nothing you can do about it anyhow..
so just give it some and have fun

The marques are worse than anything ...the sound is just absorbed in the tent ....

sound wise, the most difficult place I played was Lucca, Italy. We were playing open air in a large oval shaped pizza.

Probably supposed to be a calzone but they forgot the fold-back.

Clarky · November 2017

viz said:

@Clarky said:

Barney said:

Clarky saidi:

Barney said:

Danji said:y

Clarky said:

Danji said:

Depends on a lot of things for me, how my hands are feeling, what’s being played, how good the room sounds, and who I'm playing with.

how the room sounds - this is interesting..
what is your thinking here?

How dry is it, how the room reacts with the ride cymbal , even things like do I get a weird vibe from the place, which is more about how I’m feeling at the time.

And some rooms just reflect the sound wrong if that makes sense? Again, it could be my state of mind.

I can totally associate with this ...sometimes when you walk in a room you can just tell it' going to be a problem ...i have a pet hate for the paper board tile things on suspended ceilings...iff im unhappy with the sounds it really affects my playing

you'll have fun on the big festival stages then...
cos the monitoring is always difficult..
the stages are so big that you never feel like that band really glues together...
so you just crack on and put on the best show you can...

after you're thinking.. "that was ok I guess.. maybe a little sterile sound wise"
but you're not hearing what the crowd are hearing..
then one of our crew will come up and say "popped out front... you guys sounded massive.. it was amazing"
so knowing that this is often the case you just work as best you can with what you have
and assume everything out front is tip top.. and there's nothing you can do about it anyhow..
so just give it some and have fun

The marques are worse than anything ...the sound is just absorbed in the tent ....

sound wise, the most difficult place I played was Lucca, Italy. We were playing open air in a large oval shaped pizza.

Probably supposed to be a calzone but they forgot the fold-back.

boom boom............. boom boom....... lol..

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Playing live: under play vs over play

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