How did last night's gig go?

thecolourbox

Did a lovely "picnic and piano" concert event at Wednesbury Museum and Art Gallery this lunch time, it's a lovely gallery room with a baby grand and a very friendly crowd. Not as many as we would have liked, but the people who did come all joined in and left with smiles on their faces. 

2 hours of music on the theme of love in general, from the 16th century to the present day, piano all the way through and a few singing - Always A Woman to Me, Songbird, Greensleeves, Thinking Out Loud etc on the vocals, loads of stuff on just the piano with folks singing along.

There's not many gigs where you get to do a Tudor ballad, some romantic era classical piano, music hall, American song book jazz, 70s pop and  rock, Disney, more recent stuff, all in the same set. Good fun

RocknRollDave

Played with a lineup last night where the setup is basically that me and the other non-drumming guy alternate between guitar and bass duties, depending on the song (and how hard it is to sing lead and play bass on simultaneously).
In practice, I usually do about 2/3 of the show on bass.


Set my gear up last night and managed to unlock THE best guitar sound I have EVER achieved in all the hundreds of gigs I have played.

And how many songs did I end up playing guitar on…? 

Oh, reader, I think you know the answer to that question:


Zero.

Monkeybone

In short, rubbish. The crowd just wasn't in to it at all last night. Still played it like I always do, full effort. I ended with Sweet Caroline, and when it got to "that" section, the people did join in, so I had to stop and say "bloody hell, you are out there!", which did get a few laughs. Really wanted to say when I finished "I'd like to say you've been a fantastic audience, but hey" but didn't want to risk looking petty.

Tonight's gig at Stoke-sub-Hamdon Working Mens Club will be better.

Open_G

Friday night played a sweaty marquee in the middle of a vintage rally. 

Pretty much everything went wrong… I spent 20mins driving round the huge site trying to find a steward to direct me, the drummers in ear decided to intermittently lose the first click on his count, so we had to just wait for the tracks to start and join in. There was a power outage half way through set 2. Our banner fell over and landed on singers head midway through a song. 

Oddly feedback from the crowd was that they had had a great night and enjoyed it a great deal.  

Rowby1

Just got home from a local festival gig. Second time out for my originals country band Route 65. 

700 people, nice stage, good PA and a nice response to a bunch of songs the audience didn’t know. 

Monitor mix at these things is always a lottery and it was ok/passable today. No sound check of course just line check and a quick “what do you want in your monitor?” conversation with the sound guy. 

It was bloody hot though!! 3rd song in and I could barely see from the sweat running in my eyes. 

Nice response from the crowd though so I count it as a worthwhile effort! The band that followed on were quite complimentary too. 

Monkeybone

Much better gig last night, quieter than normal at Stoke-sub-Hamdon Working Mens Club, but it was a hot day, everyone wanted to be outside. But, people reacted to the music, even had some dancing.

Stratavarious

Third one in a row over bank holiday weekend.

It's all a blur and my fingers and feet hurt now!  Lots of drinking, lots of dancing, lots of £££ for more gear! 

Col_Decker

Tribute festival in Bromsgrove on Saturday night. Loved every second of it. Crowd were up for it, band was tight, sound on stage was amazing.

Some seriously red bellies in the crowd though, lads with tops off drinking cider all day in blazing sun. Bet it hurt in the morning.

firepaulmusic

Monkeybone said:

In short, rubbish. The crowd just wasn't in to it at all last night. Still played it like I always do, full effort. I ended with Sweet Caroline, and when it got to "that" section, the people did join in, so I had to stop and say "bloody hell, you are out there!", which did get a few laughs. Really wanted to say when I finished "I'd like to say you've been a fantastic audience, but hey" but didn't want to risk looking petty.

Tonight's gig at Stoke-sub-Hamdon Working Mens Club will be better.

I'm local to you, where was the gig?

Monkeybone

firepaulmusic said:

Monkeybone said:

In short, rubbish. The crowd just wasn't in to it at all last night. Still played it like I always do, full effort. I ended with Sweet Caroline, and when it got to "that" section, the people did join in, so I had to stop and say "bloody hell, you are out there!", which did get a few laughs. Really wanted to say when I finished "I'd like to say you've been a fantastic audience, but hey" but didn't want to risk looking petty.

Tonight's gig at Stoke-sub-Hamdon Working Mens Club will be better.

I'm local to you, where was the gig?

The Bird In Hand, North Curry.

Ironically, similar thing yesterday, started out with slight applause, then that trickled off to nothing. Outdoor gig, no shade, ended up mildly cooked. I did have some nice comments afterwards, but just during the gig felt a bit pants.

Stuckfast

Friday we played the Stirling Castle in Bridlington. Rough looking pub and a pissed up crowd but a really great setup, including the best house drum kit I've ever heard. Mostly went OK. Saturday we played at the local drinking festival but unfortunately we were last on at one of the venues that's a little out of the way so wasn't busy.

firepaulmusic

Monkeybone said:

firepaulmusic said:

Monkeybone said:

In short, rubbish. The crowd just wasn't in to it at all last night. Still played it like I always do, full effort. I ended with Sweet Caroline, and when it got to "that" section, the people did join in, so I had to stop and say "bloody hell, you are out there!", which did get a few laughs. Really wanted to say when I finished "I'd like to say you've been a fantastic audience, but hey" but didn't want to risk looking petty.

Tonight's gig at Stoke-sub-Hamdon Working Mens Club will be better.

I'm local to you, where was the gig?

The Bird In Hand, North Curry.

Ironically, similar thing yesterday, started out with slight applause, then that trickled off to nothing. Outdoor gig, no shade, ended up mildly cooked. I did have some nice comments afterwards, but just during the gig felt a bit pants.

Yep, been there many times and it's worse as a solo. Looking forward to the Dillington weekend...

Monkeybone

Played at The Bath And West Show last night with the band, great fun, the crowd seemed to like it

Snags

Great gig last night in an old venue but with new owners, and they loved us and want us back ASAP (which is next year unless we get cancellations).

However, I have finally resolved to ignore all helpful input from the many highly experienced sound engineers in the audience because it inevitably fucks the mix more than it helps in the second set.

Doesn't help that our audience often contains a good slug of friends who also play. But from here forward it's smile, day thanks, and fiddle with the DFA knobs for a happier life. 

firepaulmusic

Snags said:

Great gig last night in an old venue but with new owners, and they loved us and want us back ASAP (which is next year unless we get cancellations).

However, I have finally resolved to ignore all helpful input from the many highly experienced sound engineers in the audience because it inevitably fucks the mix more than it helps in the second set.

Doesn't help that our audience often contains a good slug of friends who also play. But from here forward it's smile, day thanks, and fiddle with the DFA knobs for a happier life. 

Strange how your music mates can't wait to tell you what's wrong with the mix as soon as you finish the first set. Great advice to give them a stiff ignoring and pretend to fiddle with the knobs...

Benz3ne

3 in 3 days over the weekend.

Birthday do on the Friday, the area it was in always brings a fun crowd and we had a good few people up and dancing which was nice. Nice venue with a 'wide' stage, so plenty of room for us to spread out a bit. Our dep drummer for that night was grand, good fun and easy to find a good rhythm with (pun obviously intended).

Saturday was a charity fundraiser, which we've done the previous 2 years. We'd always played indoors which was fairly cramped but were in a marquee next to an estuary that night. Lovely backdrop and everyone brought their A-game. We had a belter of a dep drummer that night who gave us very high praise (especially to our singer and myself which was a nice ego boost), which is always a nice reassurance when you inherently focus on the negative aspects of your own band's sound. It ended with people dancing on the chairs and tables and singing along and we were about the tightest and most balanced, sound-wise, we'd ever sounded.

Sunday was a miscommunication, essentially. Supposed to be booked for the bank holiday Sunday but both the venue owner and our band member got that date wrong. Worked out alright though, we started early and finished a little ahead of 11pm which was nice for a school night. Again, dep drummer, but someone we've played with before. He hits them bloody loud so our overall volume was up a bit and, in my opinion, we might have lost some fidelity, but the crowd danced throughout and no one complained about volumes. Very glad I wear plugs, however.

Was tired Monday, though fortunately I had the foresight to have booked it off work.

ElectricXII

Benz3ne said:

3 in 3 days over the weekend.

Birthday do on the Friday, the area it was in always brings a fun crowd and we had a good few people up and dancing which was nice. Nice venue with a 'wide' stage, so plenty of room for us to spread out a bit. Our dep drummer for that night was grand, good fun and easy to find a good rhythm with (pun obviously intended).

Saturday was a charity fundraiser, which we've done the previous 2 years. We'd always played indoors which was fairly cramped but were in a marquee next to an estuary that night. Lovely backdrop and everyone brought their A-game. We had a belter of a dep drummer that night who gave us very high praise (especially to our singer and myself which was a nice ego boost), which is always a nice reassurance when you inherently focus on the negative aspects of your own band's sound. It ended with people dancing on the chairs and tables and singing along and we were about the tightest and most balanced, sound-wise, we'd ever sounded.

Sunday was a miscommunication, essentially. Supposed to be booked for the bank holiday Sunday but both the venue owner and our band member got that date wrong. Worked out alright though, we started early and finished a little ahead of 11pm which was nice for a school night. Again, dep drummer, but someone we've played with before. He hits them bloody loud so our overall volume was up a bit and, in my opinion, we might have lost some fidelity, but the crowd danced throughout and no one complained about volumes. Very glad I wear plugs, however.

Was tired Monday, though fortunately I had the foresight to have booked it off work.

3 in a row? I'd call that a tour these days!

digitalkettle

ElectricXII said:

Benz3ne said:

3 in 3 days over the weekend.
...

3 in a row? I'd call that a tour these days!

I did a gig in Scotland which included overnight in a B&B...that one went down as an international tour

Open_G

Stuckfast said:

Friday we played the Stirling Castle in Bridlington. Rough looking pub and a pissed up crowd but a really great setup, including the best house drum kit I've ever heard. Mostly went OK. Saturday we played at the local drinking festival but unfortunately we were last on at one of the venues that's a little out of the way so wasn't busy.

Stirling Castle is really supportive of live music, Previous guitar player in my current band played there with his brand new originals metal band very recently. 

Benz3ne

ElectricXII said:

Benz3ne said:

3 in 3 days over the weekend.

Birthday do on the Friday, the area it was in always brings a fun crowd and we had a good few people up and dancing which was nice. Nice venue with a 'wide' stage, so plenty of room for us to spread out a bit. Our dep drummer for that night was grand, good fun and easy to find a good rhythm with (pun obviously intended).

Saturday was a charity fundraiser, which we've done the previous 2 years. We'd always played indoors which was fairly cramped but were in a marquee next to an estuary that night. Lovely backdrop and everyone brought their A-game. We had a belter of a dep drummer that night who gave us very high praise (especially to our singer and myself which was a nice ego boost), which is always a nice reassurance when you inherently focus on the negative aspects of your own band's sound. It ended with people dancing on the chairs and tables and singing along and we were about the tightest and most balanced, sound-wise, we'd ever sounded.

Sunday was a miscommunication, essentially. Supposed to be booked for the bank holiday Sunday but both the venue owner and our band member got that date wrong. Worked out alright though, we started early and finished a little ahead of 11pm which was nice for a school night. Again, dep drummer, but someone we've played with before. He hits them bloody loud so our overall volume was up a bit and, in my opinion, we might have lost some fidelity, but the crowd danced throughout and no one complained about volumes. Very glad I wear plugs, however.

Was tired Monday, though fortunately I had the foresight to have booked it off work.

3 in a row? I'd call that a tour these days!

Haha, absolutely. We were all pretty tired by the end of it. I have a 4 month old, too, who is fantastic at sleeping until 5am given our weekday routine, so I'd worked out that I was running on about 4 hours sleep per gig. 

Sleep is for the weak.

In other news, it was the first exposure of my Brunetti Maranello Black Top to a gig setting. I left it in triode mode at a 'measly' 5 watts, which, coupled with it's 'paltry' 94.3db of sensitivity through the Jensen speaker was still plenty loud. I debated turning it to the 20W pentode-driven but it coped absolutely fine at 5...