How did last night's gig go?

ESBlonde

It was my last gig with a band I’ve depped with for well over a year. As both singist and main guitarerer, I’ve got the style down and honed the set list. It was smooth, well coordinated and they danced all night. It ended up two 45s and a final hour, it was a great gig to finish with. Got told several times we were the best band they’d ever had (it’s the material and punter based approach). Rhythm guitarist is also my first rate roadie because my body is broken, and the setup/strike was neat and rapid. I wish I’d recorded or filmed some of it, but my mind is too preoccupied with lights, PA, singing and playing to do that.

maltingsaudio

As I said never work NYE go to my local pub instead. As I live in a village with a strong community spirit, I leant said pub my HK Polar 12’s for a bit of music. So not working but … they set them up and both sides of the room linked them together by Bluetooth and Bluetoothed background music to them from behind the bar. Worked brilliantly with no one in the bar, however as soon as the bar filled up Bluetooth between the stacks had a head fit. Cue me standing on tables to fly a cable from one stack to the other problem solved and a couple of pints earned. Settled in for a nice meal with Mrs M and friends then come 10 O’clock punter comes up and asks can you put some decent music on , didn’t comprehend I was only donating gear, there is always one!

firepaulmusic

Setting up our Bowie tribute band in a local 100 seater arts centre last night all was going well, until sound check. The bass and guitar had howling feedback as soon as we turned up. Vocals, drums and keys no issues. Initially we thought there could be some sort of hearing loop turned on or a bad grounding issue so we changed the socket for one in another part of the building. Nothing helped. The doors were due to open in 25 minutes so we had to make a decision to either quickly sound check and hope for the best or cancel. We thought sod it let's just try and see what happens, the howling was not there when playing, only when we stopped so we would have to quickly turn down when not playing. 
With the room full of punters we got on stage and from my side things had somewhat improved so it was easy for me to carry on, the bass player still had to turn down if he wasn't playing. We got through the gig and nobody noticed, people sang along and danced and we even had compliments on the sound.
One more fly in the ointment. The button I use on my FM9 for solos decided to stop working. I turned off and on in the break and it corrected itself...

Keefy

firepaulmusic said:

Setting up our Bowie tribute band in a local 100 seater arts centre last night all was going well, until sound check. The bass and guitar had howling feedback as soon as we turned up. Vocals, drums and keys no issues. Initially we thought there could be some sort of hearing loop turned on or a bad grounding issue so we changed the socket for one in another part of the building. Nothing helped. The doors were due to open in 25 minutes so we had to make a decision to either quickly sound check and hope for the best or cancel. We thought sod it let's just try and see what happens, the howling was not there when playing, only when we stopped so we would have to quickly turn down when not playing. 
With the room full of punters we got on stage and from my side things had somewhat improved so it was easy for me to carry on, the bass player still had to turn down if he wasn't playing. We got through the gig and nobody noticed, people sang along and danced and we even had compliments on the sound.
One more fly in the ointment. The button I use on my FM9 for solos decided to stop working. I turned off and on in the break and it corrected itself...

That’s weird, not just because of what happened to you, but because of what happened to me and the other guitarist in our Bowie tribute last week. Another 100-seater arts centre, and the other guitarist was getting mad feedback on his gainy sounds. I initially thought it was a combination of excessive gain (wah made it worse) and high ambient sound levels (most of the band had to use wedge monitors rather than IEMs because of problems with the venue’s tie lines). Later I realised I was getting a bit too - it sounded like microphonic feedback, even though my amp was turned down pretty low and I had none of my guitar in my own wedge.

The gig went great in the end, but it wasn’t until the next morning that I realised it could have been a hearing aid induction loop (which I confirmed the venue does have). That will be the first thing I check next time we play there, but grounding is a good call for something else to check (I carry a ring main tester).

firepaulmusic

Keefy said:

firepaulmusic said:

Setting up our Bowie tribute band in a local 100 seater arts centre last night all was going well, until sound check. The bass and guitar had howling feedback as soon as we turned up. Vocals, drums and keys no issues. Initially we thought there could be some sort of hearing loop turned on or a bad grounding issue so we changed the socket for one in another part of the building. Nothing helped. The doors were due to open in 25 minutes so we had to make a decision to either quickly sound check and hope for the best or cancel. We thought sod it let's just try and see what happens, the howling was not there when playing, only when we stopped so we would have to quickly turn down when not playing. 
With the room full of punters we got on stage and from my side things had somewhat improved so it was easy for me to carry on, the bass player still had to turn down if he wasn't playing. We got through the gig and nobody noticed, people sang along and danced and we even had compliments on the sound.
One more fly in the ointment. The button I use on my FM9 for solos decided to stop working. I turned off and on in the break and it corrected itself...

That’s weird, not just because of what happened to you, but because of what happened to me and the other guitarist in our Bowie tribute last week. Another 100-seater arts centre, and the other guitarist was getting mad feedback on his gainy sounds. I initially thought it was a combination of excessive gain (wah made it worse) and high ambient sound levels (most of the band had to use wedge monitors rather than IEMs because of problems with the venue’s tie lines). Later I realised I was getting a bit too - it sounded like microphonic feedback, even though my amp was turned down pretty low and I had none of my guitar in my own wedge.

The gig went great in the end, but it wasn’t until the next morning that I realised it could have been a hearing aid induction loop (which I confirmed the venue does have). That will be the first thing I check next time we play there, but grounding is a good call for something else to check (I carry a ring main tester).

The Bowie link makes it even weirder, sounds like the same gig! I did ask the soundman if there was an induction loop and he said no but I'm not convinced as he was fairly new there. I'm going to need to set up.my PA before the next gig just to make sure it's not at fault somewhere...

Moltisanti

Forgive my ignorance but what is a hearing aid induction loop ?

Roland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_induction_loop

Roland

So we set up, and do a line check through the monitors. A lady walks over and complains that we are much too loud. I wonder what she thought when we turned on FoH. 

jeztone2

We played Northern Guitars Bar in Leeds. Leeds Lost to Arsenal yesterday. So wasn’t sure what to expect. But the crowd were great. Only issue was some mains hum on my rig. But it’s such a tight space in there. I’m wondering if a cable got partially dislodged and caused it?  Will check over today. 

Flanging_Fred

I’m not entirely sure if it’s actually possible to fit a functioning four piece band into an area smaller than this!

Not s bad first go at “Whar’s Up”…

https://youtu.be/I-xz-J5Dg6M

firepaulmusic

Our 3-piece covers band squeezed into the smallest corner of a pub. The drummer had to sit on the fixed bench to save a few inches. The bass player was situated right in front of a really hot wood burner, the landlord loaned us his Dyson fan. A really nice crowd for a 50th wedding anniversary party...

Fez

Reasonable crowd, plenty of dancing, we seem to have acquired a groupie Lol.
Other guitarist had some hassles with his new pedalboard which we will have to get to the bottom of when he gets back from holiday. Plod came in and had a look around probably because there was an incident last Saturday. Slightly earlier finish than we used to do there when my lad was deputy manager.

Stuckfast

jeztone2 said:

We played Northern Guitars Bar in Leeds. Leeds Lost to Arsenal yesterday. So wasn’t sure what to expect. But the crowd were great. Only issue was some mains hum on my rig. But it’s such a tight space in there. I’m wondering if a cable got partially dislodged and caused it?  Will check over today. 

Ooooh. We've got a gig there next month. Bit worried about the space as we need to get a drum kit and pedal steel on stage. How small is it?

Fez

The gig at the Plough in Crawley was a replacement for one at the Swan which is currently closed. We had to wait a few minutes to start setting up because of the football. We were without second guitarist who has absconded to Costa Rica still we managed OK, there were a couple of near disasters. The crowd wanted more so we ended up doing an under rehearsed Whole lotta Rosie which isn't properly in the set yet - soon will be though it went down a storm.

Keefy

Dep on rhythm guitar with Dire Streets at The Barn in Ringwood - here's a taster, although I don't get to play anything until 1:20!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGzDyP9_Feg

topdog91

Played Maddens Bar in East Finchley. Nice to shake things up with four new songs, and shock horror, my first gig without an amp. It was absolutely fine; I had IEMs connected to the mixer but I didn't use them as I could hear well enough through the PA anyway, it's a small venue after all. We don't have a soundman and I think the keyboards were a bit too loud but every time it will get better as I get used to it and be more assertive about asking for what I want (keyboard player controls the mixer, I'm not ).

One of the good things about this setup is that essentially what I hear is what is heard out front (okay, it's a little different behind the PA but it's similar) so if I'm quiet it's not just a case of turn my amp up and pray it blends in, I'm now a first-class citizen in the mix. At the start I had the Helix set at 75% on the master output knob to leave some buffer if I needed to turn to 11, and it was pretty good, then the mixer blew up in the middle; we had to reboot it and hadn't saved the settings and afterwards it was more of a fight, I turned the master up to full and I was fighting for space.

But overall a good experience and I don't miss lugging the amp, I never thought this would happen but I'm not going to ignore what I hear because tubes. Loved one trip from the venue to the car.

Stuckfast

Stuckfast said:

jeztone2 said:

We played Northern Guitars Bar in Leeds. Leeds Lost to Arsenal yesterday. So wasn’t sure what to expect. But the crowd were great. Only issue was some mains hum on my rig. But it’s such a tight space in there. I’m wondering if a cable got partially dislodged and caused it?  Will check over today. 

Ooooh. We've got a gig there next month. Bit worried about the space as we need to get a drum kit and pedal steel on stage. How small is it?

Had our gig at Northern Guitars last night. Went OK in the end but it was pretty stressful. I don't really enjoy gigs where I have to do sound as well as playing, especially when the desk is in total darkness and there's only one monitor which won't go nearly loud enough without feeding back. And then we had to leg it to get the last train back to Hull.

Nice venue but I'd rather be a punter than a musician.

xOilCityPickups

We played the Phoenix rooms in Harlow last night ... first gig for the new band: Marie and the Meltdowns.

We play punk/pop originals.  We were first on on a multi band line-up and I had some issues with my guitar transmitter that kept squirting out white noise on the sound check - so I swapped to a conventional lead and all was well. 100w Marshall and my Dynasonic powered Gretsch. It was  The house PA was a bit buggy with feedback issues but we did pretty well for a first outing ... plenty of high fives backstage (especially when I got a beer in my hand).

firepaulmusic

Played in my 3-piece covers band in a local pub, first gig in 3 weeks. My 64 Audio IEMs played up with one not working. Not the end of the world, just popped it out and could hear enough to get by. The audience of mainly drunk folk were ok, a bit OTT and in our faces but friendly enough. Tried swapping the cable ends this morning and the dead one worked so new cable on order. Had visions of forking out bucks for some new ones so pretty relieved...

firepaulmusic

Last night was the last gig for a Bowie tribute band which has lasted for 9 nine years playing 79 times and rehearsing many more. We travelled from Somerset to Looe in Cornwall to Trelawne Manor holiday park for their 70's weekend starting out at 1pm because the venue opened for the kids club at 5, not a very rock and roll start. 
The room was fairly big and the PA was already set up with a very friendly sound guy called Ben waiting for us. We decided to use our X-Air system and give him L/R only so we could use our in-ears. He downloaded the app and was soon ready to mix us. I was using my Fractal FM9 DI stereo with mono going back to my Laney IRT15 head return and Marshall 1x12 cab. Guitars were PRS heavy relic gold top DGT and Fender 1985 Photoflame Strat with Simms LEDs. We were all done by 5 with around 50 very excited under 10's doing knee skids on the dance floor.
We had hours to kill before our 10:30pm slot so decamped to Looe for some pub grub. At the pub we went through all of our past gigs reminiscing and having a good old laugh.
Long story short, the wait to get on the stage ended up being very tiresome with Meatloaf and Freddie Mercury karaoke type acts before us. The gig went great, just all the well know hits as we only had an hour. Life on Mars encore, job done. Another band has lived and is now done.