How did last night's gig go?

Fez

Great gig in the White Hart Crawley, home turf for us and it was really nice to see some regulars.

Supportact

Nice little pub gig playing original songs. Small but friendly crowd,  sound was fine. 

The only struggle was caused by me. I'd swapped my reverb pedal (HOF replaced by Catalinbread talisman) and for just one song i need to have a really long delay time (I normally just adjust the knob in the gap between songs). But I couldn't see the knob labels on the new pedal with my bad eyesight (I'd added fluorescent dots to the old one as a helpful guide, but forgot to do similar on the new one). Put on my glasses which then immediately steamed up, and the song started so I just played that song with totally random reverb settings! I don't think anyone even noticed.  

ElectricXII

Supportact said:

Nice little pub gig playing original songs. Small but friendly crowd,  sound was fine. 

The only struggle was caused by me. I'd swapped my reverb pedal (HOF replaced by Catalinbread talisman) and for just one song i need to have a really long delay time (I normally just adjust the knob in the gap between songs). But I couldn't see the knob labels on the new pedal with my bad eyesight (I'd added fluorescent dots to the old one as a helpful guide, but forgot to do similar on the new one). Put on my glasses which then immediately steamed up, and the song started so I just played that song with totally random reverb settings! I don't think anyone even noticed.  

I've added a second delay pedal to my board for the very reason you mention. My main delay is a Catalinbread Belle Epoch, and between-song adjustments rarely end well for me!

firepaulmusic

We played with our Bowie tribute band at a John Fowler holiday camp in Devon on Saturday. This was booked through an agent for their 70's weekend. We were on stage at 10:15 for an hour but had to be sound checked by 5pm. We left home at 1:45 and arrived at the venue for 3:30 to set up. Legacy PA were doing the sound so setup was fairly quick with the  drummer/keys players dragging their heels as usual. 
The soundcheck went fine and we retired to our digs (caravan) to get some food and watch 'Strictly'. There were two solo acts before us the last of which was an amazing Neil Diamond impersonator, bloody brilliant! We spotted a few Bowie T shirts in the crowd and also the head barmaid and sound engineer were fans as well. Shout out to Waine from Legacy for a great job.
We started on time and played all the big crowd pleasers, album tracks are for hardened Bowie fans. 
The performance went really well, we had a lovely reception and sold a few T shirts. Packing up was easy as the venue had kicked out just after we finished. Wearily we drove the 1'45" home. A 12 hour round trip, good job we don't look at the hourly rate eh?

Supportact

ElectricXII said:

Supportact said:

Nice little pub gig playing original songs. Small but friendly crowd,  sound was fine. 

The only struggle was caused by me. I'd swapped my reverb pedal (HOF replaced by Catalinbread talisman) and for just one song i need to have a really long delay time (I normally just adjust the knob in the gap between songs). But I couldn't see the knob labels on the new pedal with my bad eyesight (I'd added fluorescent dots to the old one as a helpful guide, but forgot to do similar on the new one). Put on my glasses which then immediately steamed up, and the song started so I just played that song with totally random reverb settings! I don't think anyone even noticed.  

I've added a second delay pedal to my board for the very reason you mention. My main delay is a Catalinbread Belle Epoch, and between-song adjustments rarely end well for me!

Yes ideally I'd do that, I've thought about getting something tiny (like the mini HOF) just for that sound. Trying to keep the live board small as possible though (some of the venues we play are tiny) for practical reasons though, so I suppose it's always a compromise.  

Roland

So, two gigs today at the Oxjam festival in Beeston. Firstly with my pop covers band. It was one of those gigs where everything seemed to work, helped enormously by a talented soundman. It was also refreshing to play without IEMs, and hear the sound coming back off the walls.

Afterwards I went next door where @darius was playing with Agent Utah. They’d turned up to find there was only half a drum kit: kick and floor tom, but no snare, and no stands for cymbals. Luckily my drummer had taken most of his kit just in case, and was able to lend it.

Second gig was depping for a disco band. Turned up in time for a 20 minute changeover between bands to find there’s no power to my side of the “stage”. The soundman said “You mean you didn’t bring your own extension”, but did eventually run a cable out. 

jeztone2

I did Oxjam. My originals band did a 40 minute set at The Commercial. We seemed to go down well. But I was having a couple of pedalboard issues and the bassist forgot an entire verse. But overall the band went down really well. Saw a couple of good bands. But the later part of the day everything seemed to be covers. 

Fez

Bit of a weird one last night. First half a good number of people who were dancing and jumping around. Second half a bit quieter some fans came though and we played well. All considered not a bad gig.

topdog91

Fez said:

Bit of a weird one last night. First half a good number of people who were dancing and jumping around. Second half a bit quieter some fans came though and we played well. All considered not a bad gig.

Interesting. I find most of the time the crowd takes a while to warm up, this is the opposite. I guess there are no rules.

Which leads to the age-old question; start with bangers to try and get them dancing or save the bangers for when they've actually decided to do more than rattle their jewellery.

Dan

Played my first gig in about 20 years on Sat night.

We all really enjoyed it and think it went down well. Had a few compliments from randomers and also the sound guy, who liked our songs and was surprised it was our first gig. Mrs Dan like it too and she would have said if it was shite. Had a few....lets just say "remixes" of our songs but nothing major.

No real bad bits but forgotten how much of a faff load in / out is and had what I though was a relatively normal amount of gear (1x12 combo, 2 x guitars, pedal board bag and bag of stuff).  Also sound check was a bit rushed and couldnt really tweek my sound but thats to be expected and a bit of naivety from me. Should have raised my amp off the floor too. Think im going to try a 2x12 and head next time to see if it a better sound for me.

Long night but all in all really pleased with it.

Got another couple booked in this year and will look to get some more in the new year so really looking forward to these.

ElectricXII

Our covers band played a new venue, a relatively large bar with a small, low stage, on Saturday night. We didn't have any preconceptions about the gig, but it turned into a great night, with a decent crowd made up of all generations, especially kids in their late teens and earlly twenties. I was again surprised how the yonger ones often knew, and appreciated, some of our older cover tunes. Spotify isn't all bad I suppose.

I'd just taken delivery of a Zvex Box of Rock (thanks again @GavRichList !), and had spent an hour at home wiring it into my pedalboard before the gig. I tested and retested everything before leaving, however during soundcheck, the new pedal and the tuner before it were getting no power. With 5 minutes to go I had to do an emergency rewire and replacement of the power cables under stage lights. No mean feat, as 4 out of the 5 outlets on my Fuel Tank Junior are feeding two pedals, and everything is cable tied under the board. The BOR sounded glorious through my 1962 Bluesbreaker, so all good.

I did a full diagnostic check on the suspected faulty cables and PSU yesterday, and couldn't replicate the fault. Typical!

Fez

Despite the bad weather we had a good turnout at the White Hart in Crawley last night. It's home turf so plenty of friendly faces and some new ones too.

shufflebeat

Dan said:

…Should have raised my amp off the floor too. Think im going to try a 2x12 and head next time to see if it a better sound for me.

From both a guitarist and a sound-tech guy point of view I would strongly recommend a small amp stand to raise up your combo and tip it back so it’s pointing at your ears and not the back of your knees, the usual position for most.

It will improve the sound in the room no end and I suspect provide the fix you’re looking for.

snowblind

@shufflebeat Yep.  Played this afternoon and first bach of songs I had the baby Laney pointed at my ankles. Couldn't hear a damn thing. Second block had it angled up about 20-30 degrees. Much better all round. Only a small venue and no mics on the amps so nothing coming back from the monitors. Sometimes ya gotta work for a living.

Rowby1

With Gun Money at Spondon Liberal Club yesterday afternoon. Was a bit quiet at our official start time of 4:30 so delayed it ‘til 5 by which time it was filling up nicely. 

Don’t know why but it was one of those gigs where we (the band) really felt up for it and judging by the audience reaction and post gig conversations it must have showed. Place was pretty well packed by the end too. 

Don’t think we necessarily played any better than we usually do (we all make/made mistakes) but it just felt like a whole lot of fun. The crowd seemed to think so too. 

Keefy

Regular dep with a rock’n’roll covers band that draws from a pool of bass players and guitarists. I was on lead guitar, and felt like I played really well. A lot of the credit must go to the bass player who I hadn’t worked with before. When I say I hardly noticed he was there it’s a big compliment to him, in that he played in a solid and reliable way that made everything sound better. (By contrast, one of their previous bass players had been a guitarist who thought he’d have a go at bass, but played it like a guitar and with a horrid honky tone. I came to dread playing with him.)

Towards the end we got a request for Stray Cat Strut. One of the other ‘pool’ guitarists normally plays and sings this but I had been brushing up on it during the week and duly jumped in, with very pleasing results.

All in all, a cracking night.

LionAquaLooper

Wedding gig on Saturday. No band rehearsal prior but luckily we all did our homework and it all came together nicely. Great fun but unfortunately venue only had permission to be loud until 9pm. Definitely didn't get our fill which was a bummer. But fun nonetheless. 

Roland

We had our last gig of the year booked for Friday. It didn’t happen. I woke up with chest pain, which got steadily worse until I couldn’t even lift a phone to my ear. Pain has gone now, and I don’t know what caused it.

I’m shocked and annoyed at having to cancel. It’s the first time in 50 years that I’ve had to do that. It feels so wrong to let a customer down. I hate letting the band down. It also worries me that something like this might force me to stop gigging altogether. I don’t play that frequently any more, but it’s a fundamental part of my life, and would leave an enormous hole.

topdog91

Roland said:

We had our last gig of the year booked for Friday. It didn’t happen. I woke up with chest pain, which got steadily worse until I couldn’t even lift a phone to my ear. Pain has gone now, and I don’t know what caused it.

I’m shocked and annoyed at having to cancel. It’s the first time in 50 years that I’ve had to do that. It feels so wrong to let a customer down. I hate letting the band down. It also worries me that something like this might force me to stop gigging altogether. I don’t play that frequently any more, but it’s a fundamental part of my life, and would leave an enormous hole.

Wish you well and please go to the doctor or hospital.

ElectricXII

topdog91 said:

Roland said:

We had our last gig of the year booked for Friday. It didn’t happen. I woke up with chest pain, which got steadily worse until I couldn’t even lift a phone to my ear. Pain has gone now, and I don’t know what caused it.

I’m shocked and annoyed at having to cancel. It’s the first time in 50 years that I’ve had to do that. It feels so wrong to let a customer down. I hate letting the band down. It also worries me that something like this might force me to stop gigging altogether. I don’t play that frequently any more, but it’s a fundamental part of my life, and would leave an enormous hole.

Wish you well and please go to the doctor or hospital.

Absolutely! Chest pains are a bad sign.

@Roland Our drummer is having to quit because his tinnitus is getting worse. He's absolutely gutted to have to stop playing, but his hearing is more important and he recognises this. I really feel for him, and for you. I dread not being able to gig.

Hopefully a medical check up will show that you've nothing serious wrong with you.