How did last night's gig go?

ESBlonde

A surprise 60th birthday party in Newmarket. In a social club where the staff were very helpful, the guests up for entertainment. They danced from early on and kept it up all night. We got fed and watered too. Nice easy load out to the cars and a simple drive home.
I had that dry “I’m getting a sore throat” itchy sensation during the day, so took a flask of hot honey and lemon, fisherman friends and lockets. Managed to sing all three sets (about 35+ numbers), although I dropped a few strainers from the set and paced myself. Got through it although sore at the end, but this morning I’m not too bad. So that’s a result.

Flanging_Fred

At 4.30pm on Saturday we got a call from a venue we’ve been trying to get a gig at for a few weeks. The booked band for that night had to pull out at the last minute due to a family problem and could we fill in at (very) short notice?

Yep, we could!

 So a bit of a panic to change my plans for a chilled night in and off to a new venue. I had a few issues with my sound to start with but got it sorted after a couple of songs and had a really good gig. Punters were happy and we got some good feedback. The landlady was really happy that we could save the day so she’s put us on rotation for regular gigs, starting in the new year. So all good.

Next up, a Halloween gig on Friday at a pub we haven’t played at for years. It’s just been relaunched under new management and they are restarting having live music after a long hiatus. 

I’ve got to say, I feel so lucky that so many local pubs and venues are still putting on live music when so many places are shutting down.

stickyfiddle

Nice one @Flanging_Fred !! 

Saturday, not last night, but first gig with a new band that I put together over the summer. 2 hours of Fleetwood Mac plus associated songs with a similar vibe. All went extremely well, 180 people all very happy as far as we can tell and expecting repeat bookings with some changes in the theme plus doing the same show elsewhere when we can get other places hooked.  Super happy with that. AND we should clear £200 each after venue cut and costs, which is fab for a new 6-piece

I now have a laundry list of tweaks & improvements for my own gear and my own performance, plus band logistics etc. But it's all good

Fez

Over half the punters were dressed up in Halloween themed costumes so that was fun. Plenty of drinking and dancing. Monitoring was a slight issue for some reason. We played well so a good night all round. 

firepaulmusic

Played a local social club. Dancers on the floor from the start. We are supporting the Prost8 charity by selling our band badges for £2 each. Sold around 16 so it'll be good if that level keeps up. Used my Waza Tube Amp Expander to power my FM9 through a guitar cab, worked great. Sitting at home now with a whiskey feeling chilled...

greejn

Very strange gig, 5 piece jazz outfit playing for a catholic church do. Then a pub quiz that lasted forever on the history of catholicism, they didn't mention the Spanish Inquisition, but I wasn't expecting that..

Supportact

greejn said:

Very strange gig, 5 piece jazz outfit playing for a catholic church do. Then a pub quiz that lasted forever on the history of catholicism, they didn't mention the Spanish Inquisition, but I wasn't expecting that..

'Catholic Jazz' would be a great album title. 

digitalkettle

Supportact said:

greejn said:

Very strange gig, 5 piece jazz outfit playing for a catholic church do. Then a pub quiz that lasted forever on the history of catholicism, they didn't mention the Spanish Inquisition, but I wasn't expecting that..

'Catholic Jazz' would be a great album title. 

Flanging_Fred

Halloween on a postage stamp…

https://youtu.be/Q1vTyvRTimM?si=NjyZgivQTC_dgQEC

what’s up the smallest space you’ve managed to squeeze you whole band into?

midiman1962

Played a Halloween do at a pub in Langley Mill. The owners had very creatively manufactured a concert venue by covering a beer garden with trestles and tarpaulins. Lots of set dressing and folks up for a good fun night. We’ve had a good run through autumn principally because our lady bass player is very good at getting gigs. This is the 6th version of a guitar bass drums trio I’ve done and easily the most successful which I can only put down to 3 very compatible personalities. We also have a sound and lights guy who excelled last night maybe spurred on by being able to use generous amounts of smoke machine in the inside outside venue.

Benz3ne

"Two" last weekend. 

First one was a shower of sh*t. Turned up at the prerequisite time, everything set up before a formal dinner at 7, sat around until 11:40 then we packed up and left. Organiser tried to short-change us but was challenged on it and conceded. Worst bit was a pint of lemonade cost me £4.80.

Second was a cancer charity fundraiser. Got on at 10:50pm and played until nearly 1am. Was well looked after throughout, really warm reception, people dancing right the way through until closing and an all-round enjoyable night. We didn't play badly either, which was nice given the previous night's shambles.

Supportact

Benz3ne said:

"Two" last weekend. 

First one was a shower of sh*t. Turned up at the prerequisite time, everything set up before a formal dinner at 7, sat around until 11:40 then we packed up and left. Organiser tried to short-change us but was challenged on it and conceded. Worst bit was a pint of lemonade cost me £4.80.

Second was a cancer charity fundraiser. Got on at 10:50pm and played until nearly 1am. Was well looked after throughout, really warm reception, people dancing right the way through until closing and an all-round enjoyable night. We didn't play badly either, which was nice given the previous night's shambles.

So for the first one did they not get you to play at all then? Did they give you any reason why? That's so weird. 

Flanging_Fred

Really great gig on Saturday night. Booked for a birthday party and it was a great happy atmosphere.

Only one injury to a rather inebriated lady who fell off the table she was dancing on. She must have flown a bit because she eventually crashed in to the floor monitors and a mic stand which swivelled around causing some marvellous feedback. Oh the joy of small pub gigs! She was ok thankfully and resumed throwing herself about the place.

After the gig another very pissed punter felt the urgent need to repeatedly inform me that I was the spitting image of a character from Minder.  To be fair, I checked when I got home and he wasn’t far wrong. Learn something new every day.

Stuckfast

Supportact said:

'Catholic Jazz' would be a great album title. 

There's a Jewish version already

gjonesy

Wedding gig, 1st time using our own in-ear setup. Hooked up to FOH without issue, all of the band said it sounded good. Our sound guy wasnt happy with the lack of bass out front, punters seemed happy tho, I thought it might be the room.
Got a message from him yesterday saying that he'd loaned his rig out before this gig and on checking he noticed that the sub amp was set to bridge so the two 18s were cancelling each other out! 

topdog91

gjonesy said:

Wedding gig, 1st time using our own in-ear setup. Hooked up to FOH without issue, all of the band said it sounded good. Our sound guy wasnt happy with the lack of bass out front, punters seemed happy tho, I thought it might be the room.
Got a message from him yesterday saying that he'd loaned his rig out before this gig and on checking he noticed that the sub amp was set to bridge so the two 18s were cancelling each other out! 

How did your band prepare for transitioning to IEMs? Did the drummer play an electronic drum kit? Our keyboard player also does our PA and sounds and insists IEMs require an electronic drum kit but I'm sure this isn't the case. What equipment are you using?

gjonesy

Our drums are programmed on the keys workstation so we dont have that complication. We did a couple fo rehearsals and had to make sure our levels were consistent song to song. We barely had a change a thing on the night.
i dont think you'd have to electronic kit but you would have to match IEM/FoH to the drummer and hope he's consistent.
One thing that did throw us a little was that I run an ambient mic so we dont feel totally isolated, we needed to turn that down and our singer needed to adjust the wet fx mix as he was getting a double shot from iem plus the ambient mic 

Roland

topdog91 said:

How did your band prepare for transitioning to IEMs? Did the drummer play an electronic drum kit? Our keyboard player also does our PA and sounds and insists IEMs require an electronic drum kit but I'm sure this isn't the case. ?

That’s bollocks. We use a normal kit, with mics on kick, snare, toms, and overhead for cymbals. In my IEMs I have kick and snare for timing, and overhead if I want some of the room. 

topdog91

Roland said:

topdog91 said:

How did your band prepare for transitioning to IEMs? Did the drummer play an electronic drum kit? Our keyboard player also does our PA and sounds and insists IEMs require an electronic drum kit but I'm sure this isn't the case. ?

That’s bollocks. We use a normal kit, with mics on kick, snare, toms, and overhead for cymbals. In my IEMs I have kick and snare for timing, and overhead if I want some of the room. 

Perhaps he (understandably) doesn't fancy miking up the drums although I think we sometimes mic the kick anyway. Reading around the interwebs suggests than an overhead is "good enough" in most cases and there is also potentially drum bleed through the vocal mics.

Musicwolf

Roland said:

topdog91 said:

How did your band prepare for transitioning to IEMs? Did the drummer play an electronic drum kit? Our keyboard player also does our PA and sounds and insists IEMs require an electronic drum kit but I'm sure this isn't the case. ?

That’s bollocks. We use a normal kit, with mics on kick, snare, toms, and overhead for cymbals. In my IEMs I have kick and snare for timing, and overhead if I want some of the room. 

When I've used IEMs for small gigs where the drums are not mic'd up through the Front of House I find that just a single overhead pointing at the snare and hi-hat are sufficient for me (bass players may want the kick).

I used an AKG C1000s because I didn't mind it being thrown into a gig bag, hit with a drum stick, used to beat some sense into into the bass player etc.