the closing time thread

Hi Folks,

Here's an interesting idea (I hope) for an ongoing thread.

The idea here is this; to only add a post from those of you who have just gotten home from their gig.

Right now, it's 5am my time (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada) and I've just driven home from my gig in Charlottetown PEI. A little spot called Hunter's Ale House.

It was a good gig; I happened to break in a new Traynor 40 and an extension cab with an Ash tele replete with hipshot b-bender rig. Good fun.

My other guitarist runs a Z. Clean spankin' tones all around.

We actually had guys coming up and commenting on our clean tone who weren't guitarists! Gotta love that.

High point of the evening - bonking a dude on the head with my mic because he wouldn't get off the stage. Good times.

So there you go. Any of you late nighters just wrapping up a gig? Drop er' down!

:)

Sweet dreams mantis ............... it's 9:14 AM here and i'm getting out of bed !

Closing time? I've just come in from outside watching the sun set and am about to cook dinner. :lol:

Good to hear your gig went well, mate.

Hahahah - wow! Thanks for the kind words - from sundown to sunset, heheh.

I love it here. So many guitarists from so many time zones.

Well...hope to hear some great stories. Would love to hear of the different bars, styles, gear, and so on that my fellow tele pickers could share.

:)

Figured I'd bump this by showing you pics of the last place I played - a nice little spot called "The Rare Bird Pub".

It's located in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Canada. A nice little spot off the water with some very friendly townsfolk.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/78/201353105_615410be3d.jpg?v=0

http://www.edining.ca/photos/168826_edining_RareBirdPub.jpg

http://www.rarebirdpub.com/food/images/image_interior.jpg

Great spot...and some tasty microbrew. ;)

Any takers? I'd love to hear some stories. :)

I'll have to wait until Satuday around 3am. I'm doing my REAL job tonight!

Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Man they believe in painting things in those subtle earth tones, heh?

I'm gigging Thursday, Friday and twice on Saturday, I'll post after at least one of those gigs!

Cheers, Tim

i didn't post over the weekend, but i had two VERY different closing-time experiences.

Friday, i played a hired-gun bar gig with a kid whose dad is paying old pro's good bucks to back up his 18-year-old son, who's a talented Santana-style guitarist but green as grass. they rounded up every piece of gear in the county and set up a massive PA suitable for a large hall. we were supposed to start at 10, but they didn't get the PA up and running til after 11. the few people who hung around left after about the fourth Santana song in a row. after the gig i felt hopeless, like why am i still doing this ***** at my age, and woke up in the morning feeling crappy and burned out.

then Saturday, my band (the Stragglers) played a show with a Cajun band opening for us and an enthusiastic crowd. it was our first full-band gig with a new keyboard player, and he knocked our socks off. it was one of those nights when you wish you could have played til 3 or 4 o'clock. the crowd loved it, and the band felt strengthened and rejuvenated. had to get up early Sunday morning for a family event, but felt great and the buzz lasted for two days. funny how that happens!

just got home from playing a car show (hot rods) in a little tiny town in the parking lot of the store/restaurant... it was pretty dang fun... the bass player and steel turned way up and made it tough for me... I have pretty much decided I'm gonna buy a silver face twin after this gig... then, there is pretty much no ceiling for me....

The promoter brought us beers and tri tip sammiches when we finished AND helped load gear and offered us several more gigs and paid in full and cash! Pretty good gig and the band played okay and several people told us we were "great"... we play an elks lodge tomorrow night.. and we have a regular thing at a local honky tonk next month and in oct...

things are good... right now.

Hi Guys,

Diggin' the stories!

Just finished playing to five people at the Five Points Lounge in Moncton, NB - a tiny little maritime pub that feels more like my extended living room than a bar.

I kicked back, grabbed a nylon string guitar, and played all the Willie Nelson songs I knew.

It was a few bucks and a kick in the a$$, but man, I just love laid back gigs like that sometimes.

Hope this becomes an ongoing thread. It's truly interesting to hear from all you pickers out there. Makes me feel I'm not so alone. :)

Just got home from a packed house at The Saloon in Wilkes-Barre, PA. 5 piece band every Wednesday night for the last 6 years. I have a bad cold but the band played so well tonight I forgot I was sick.

Dan

Tonight was a family adventure for me. My daughter and my son went out to an open mic gig. Since my son is visiting from San Francisco, me and Mrs. Crawdad went out for the fun. I brought my mandolin and Martin and sat in with some of the performers--like my kids--and then I sang a couple tunes on my own. I had a blast--and it was one of those rare "play for free" gigs.

Tomorrow I will be in a club in Birmingham, Michigan--a paid gig. Friday will be an outdoor concert and Saturday is also an outdoor show. Sunday is a solo gig. I can pass on tales from those gigs after they happen. Being a musician is definitely an interesting life!

OK. Tonight was a club date in Birmingham, Michigan with my classic rock band. The place is called Edison's and has a motif based on the inventor. We start at 9pm and do three one hour sets. When we started, there were about six people in the place, but by 9:30 it was pretty much full.

It was a great night for me. Many friends came out and my son, who is visiting from San Fran came, as well as my wife and my daughter, who sang with the band on a number. We got several audience members up to play cowbell and tambourine--or to just be a part of the music on stage. It was a pleasure. Crowd reaction was great and we had a lot of dancers as well as listeners.

I used my Tele, Allen Old Flame and a few effects for the show. Crowd reaction was excellent and the time flew by. I got to drive home with my son, talking about life, music and making a living.

I really feel blessed to be able to make music at my age--to have such wonderful friends and a strong family. It all came together tonight. I'm not getting rich, but I am wealthy when I consider that I have such a wonderful set of family and friends and that I get to put a guitar in my hand to make a living. It is priceless, really.

Tomorrow is the Johnny Cash Tribute Show. Our friend and member here--Rockin' Carl--is also doing some of these shows, so there is a common bond for that show here on the TDPRI. Until then....

Finished up a small gig on bass last night in Covent Garden in London, Pretty diverse members, 1 Italian (vox), 2 Brits(keys & vox), 2 French guys (drums & perc), 1 Belgian (on trumpet)and unclassifiable me, playing groovy latin funk folk.

Its our first gig after 2 2hr rehearsals and we did pretty good :grin:
Watched the following band, had some snacks with the wife and got home early.

i just got up out of bed. we played a charity event for severe ill kids in our neighbour town. weather was fine, beer was cold and food was plenty and a lot of people showed up, so they got a lot of money collected for these kids. PA was ok, there were 4 bands beside us and at the end there was a big session on stage, which ended up as a big mess, because three singers ( of different bands ) started an argument on stage ...which next song to do...what key...who´s singing lead.... and so on. it was a bitter drop in a nice day.
then something wonderful happend , when all the other fellow guitar players and me joined together and imagine or not, we all had the same opinions and headshakes about our front men discussing in front of the audience. so we started playing not giving a darn about them.... giving them a real hard time to come in....
i think only a few out of the audience took notice of this mess, so the people enjoyed themselves very well and had a great day...

zoppotrump
:O)

I just got out of bed, too, forgot to post last night. My brother and I did our acoustic duo thing at a local restaurant (we play there most Thursdays). It's a low-key kind of gig, we play while folks are eating dinner, so we don't get very loud (Mike plays his really sweet Martin D-41 and I play my bass into a Yamaha Magic Stomp into the PA system). As is usually the case, there were very few folks left for the last set, so we had some fun, did some songs we've never practiced ("Behind Blue Eyes" was particularly fun!).

The beer was cold, had some really excellent sushi before the gig, and I got paid, so I reckon I can tolerate being ignored by diners...

Cheers, Tim

Tonight was a Johnny Cash Tribute Show in Wayne, Michigan. For this show, I play my Tele and a martin acoustic on a few tunes, and I do some harmonies and a Carl Perkins cover to give the "Cash" impersonator a break.

It was a hot and muggy night, but there was a crowd of about 350 people who were Johnny Cash fans, eagerly awaiting the show. I got there early. Part of the deal was that the band would get dinner. Well, dinner turned out to be salad and some two hour old pizza which I passed on.

Finally, the band before us finishes and we get set up. For me, most of the show is clean Telecaster into my Allen Old Flame, with a bit of slapback echo. Once I get that dialed in and soundcheck my Martin, I am good to go. The stage is big and we have a pro sound company--big mains and real nice monitors.

We get a good groove happening right from the start. The bass player has a new upright semi-solidbody bass and it is getting that beautiful thump that you only get with such an instrument. The drummer is cracking with crisp energy and our frontman is in great form. I have the Tele set up for that Luther Perkins kind of twang and it is real fun to lock into that stuff. At some points, its almost like early electric Dylan--cool!

We do a chronological pacing of Cash's hits and we have a girl who does the June Cash character. It goes over REALLY well. At the end we do "Jackson" and the crowd brings us back. We do "Hurt". When we finish that song--ten seconds of dead silence--the audience isn't sure that the song is over 'cause it ends abrubtly, but them the applause comes. It is real satisfying. An hour and a half of music and we are all soaked with sweat, but smiling because its gone well. We've done a credible and inspired tribute. I feel like a million bucks because I get to do this stuff. I'm hot and my clothes are soaked, but I drive home, blasting the air, and think about how good it felt to make music tonight. I know all my gigs won't have this kind of payoff, so I bask in the moment and look forward to the next gig tomorrow.

tonight we played the local gin mill(we do it once a month) normally we play 9:00 till whenever they close(usually about 12:30 or one.) with a first set of about 2 hours, take a break and then play till whenever.tonight we decided to break early and do a marathon 2 hour set and close. we got about 8 songs into the second set (about 11:00) and the bartender gives us the "two more songs" sign. we were a little dsmayed but cashed in early nonetheless..
it was a bit of a dissappointment because the crowd, whil small in numbers, was big in enthusiasm. oh well.... we got paid the same!

Well, this is right after a gig of sorts: I just dropped my wife and a load of runners off in far north Austin for an 18 mile training run.

I had two gigs yesterday. One was in the middle of the afternoon at a nursing home. Our fiddler works the Old Folks Circuit, and I try to make this one monthly gig at nursing home with a lot of folks with mental deficits. Sometimes Tom will do a Gospel number. Yesterday he called In the Garden. These little old folks, many of whom can hardly speak, sing or mouth the lyrics along with the band. You look out in the hallway, the staff is singing along too. It is just so touching. We did Amazing Grace there a few months ago, and it was amazingly powerful.

Then last night a little coffee shop gig, just steel, bass and guitar. We do it about once a month in place of a band practice, and publicly try out new tunes or ones with rough spots. When/if we get an audience, it turns into a regular performance.

At both gigs I played my recently acquired DRRI. What a sweet little amp. My SF Twin is my total reference, and the DRRI is a not exactly like a lighter version of the Twin, but a similar, great tone. This was first time I played my Epi Dot (Gibson PU’s) through it at a gig, and it really sounded nice.

I just got in from a gig at a recently reopened pub in Caledonian Road, north London, right opposite HM Prison, Pentonville - yup, a real salubrious area! Knowing from past experience that it was a bit tight for space and also having strained my back recently, I left my 60 lb Music Man amp behind and instead took the little Roland Cube 60 I bought just for fun, using my pedalboard into the JC Clean channel, lined out through the PA.

Stone me, what a great sound I got tonight! The other guys in the band were delighted, the punters were highly complimentary and the guv'nor booked us again for next week after a mere two songs.

I have lots and lots of amps but this one really hit the spot. Has to be the greatest bargain in the whole music trade.

just got home from a gig at Black Eyed Sallys blues +BBQ bar in Hartford Ct. 'Twas an interesting night!
the college kids came out late in their skin tight mini dresses and their boyfriends were drunk and loud. had a few sit-ins. a guy named "Washboard Slim" joined us for a few tunes with a "full dresser" washboard with the bells and whistles and stuff on it. a guy from Laffayette, La joined us on guitar (strat) and then some Irish rugby players came in. large chaps all with orange shirts on. they had just won some kind of tournament and were quite "celebratory". one of them was a novice accordion player and talked the
boss into letting him play a few tunes! pretty unusual for our band, for an accordion "sit-in"! but we did a cool, off-the-cuff- version of "Ratlin Bog"! very weird for a Zydeco band to play irish music to a crowd of teenyboppers! but lot's of fun!
played my Vibro Champ miced into the house PA(only because i know the soundman and he's a good one) sounded great!

FYI i love this thread!

I just got back from a festival gig with my Eagles tribute band. It was a hot rod/muscle car thing, and there were scantily-clad vixens galore during the afternoon (lots of walking around to kill the time at those gigs). At concert time, the vixens showed up and danced in front of the stage while the carboys nursed their Budweisers.
It was a really fun gig. Good crowd, good ambiance, good staffers.
I had a new toy to break in, a BBE Green Screamer, which I like a lot. I was able to dial in a great creamy tone immediately, just before soundcheck. I sing the Henley numbers, and play most of the licks and solos, so there's little time for me to bend down and tweak while playing.
It was a long day. We had to be onsite at 2:30, setup and soundcheck asap, and be done by 5. The gig itself was at 9. That gave us time to wander around and check out the babes and the cars.

Oh, and I bought myself a cowboy hat :-)

Saturday afternoon I played classic rock at an outdoor mall. Though that might sound like a nightmare, it is actually a really fun gig. The band plays and people gather and listen. It becomes a concert atmosphere. We open up the show to requests from time to time and we have fun with the crowd. We had about fifteen little kids onstage dancing at the end, playing percussion instruments and generally going nuts. What a hoot...we usually gather 100-150 people for each set.

Its funny. I look out and see some people who are 60 and up. At first I think--oh no, they want fifties music. But then we will do some AC/DC or something and I see them all singing along. I guess the page has turned.

For the outdoor gigs, I am starting to wish I had a Twin Reverb--just for the clean headroom. Then, I remember I am my own road crew...

I played outdoors in the rain last night. It was for a big restaurant, out on their back deck, overlooking a big beautiful lake. It wasn't my band. I was working for someone else (and that someone else is a bit of a control freak).

It started raining on our second set, complete with thunder and lightning. He ordered us to keep playing. Then suddenly BOOM!!! I didn't see it, but the drummer said that it looked like ball lightning right over our heads! :shock:

I turned my amp off, and yanked the power cord out of the socket. I then lied telling the bandleader (who was strumming flattop electro-acoustic while his wife continued to sing) that my amp died. The set was going overtime anyway, and there was no good reason to continue. He just wanted us to carry on because he said so.

We took a long break, waiting for the rain to let up. It did, and we went back on. Then here came the rain, thunder and lightning again, just as soon as we set back up. This time I was running the guitar through the Morley JD-10 direct to the PA (because my amp was supposedly dead). Two songs later we quit, with the bandleader making the suggestion that we were wimps and unprofessional, etc. etc.

How DARE we want to quit while getting drenched with lightning striking above us! :roll:

My band played last night at a great venue in Grapevine, Tx. called Tolbert's. We were scheduled for 9:00 - 12:00 and they requested that we play an additional hour! So that means after teardown I got home around 3:00 - 3:15, asleep around 4:30. As usual, being "age-challenged" I find it difficult to sleep late, so I was up around 9:00am.

The gig was cool - we "introduced" several "new" tunes we've never played in front of "real people"; Reeling in the Years, Running on Empty, Summer in the City, and Galway Girl. We played Maybe I'm Amazed and Touch of Grey for the second time. I'm pleased to say they didn't suck! The new songs weren't great - but we didn't embarrass ourselves - and everyone loved them! Hard to beat that!

Broke a string on my acoustic during Story in your Eyes - that was inconvenient.

And, we got fed. Tolbert's offers *great* food! If you live in the Metroplex make sure you drop in.

This weekend, I was very happy to perform at the Boardwalk in Saint John, New Brunswick:

http://www.countryinns.com/chi/images/hotels/SAINT/loc3_450.jpg

Basically, just out of view on the left side of the picture was an outdoor stage. It was a beautiful night for playing some good ole country. And surprisingly, it was fairly warm for maritime weather, so no numb fingers! The crowd was polite but receptive.

At the end of the night, we were also treated to a Saint John, port-city, classic - a mini bar brawl between a half dozen fellas. Ah, the maritimes. :lol:

Played with my band on saturday at a bank. It was the bank's anniversary party and they were giving out free lunch to anyone who stopped by. Here is a shot of the band rocking with a couple of teles! I'm the one in the middle playing the paisley. I wish I had a picture of what were were looking at. The parking lot was filled with people showing off their classic cars and cool stuff for the kids. This was sort of our first official gig. We played all classic rock covers. I've got another band who I do all original stuff with, but its more indie rock kinda thing. I've been playing with that band for about a year and a half, it's nice to have a couple different bands to play different types of music with. Tough to have a paying gig without a cover band though.

Overall the gig went pretty well. We played two 45 minute sets and a third short set to close out the afternoon. We had a few rough spots, mostly because we just haven't played together too much but in the second set for sure were gelled pretty well. Got a lot of complements, hopefully more paying gigs for us to come. Other than the heat (like 90 and sunny) it was a pretty cool day!

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii260/promanoski/HFCUgig8-23006.jpg

I am enjoying reading all the gig reports and glad to see so many out there making music!

Today's gig for me was a solo thing at a familiar Carribean themed chain restaurant. Five sets to people munching on dinners and slurping up island drinks. Not much to do but be background entertainment. After three nights of real inspiring venues, this was a "back to reality' gig. Payed well, though.

This Thursday, I have an interesting one nighter on a riverboat cruise. Playing country music no less. If this thread lives, I'll post back with a report.

I am enjoying reading all the gig reports and glad to see so many out there making music!

Today's gig for me was a solo thing at a familiar Carribean themed chain restaurant. Five sets to people munching on dinners and slurping up island drinks. Not much to do but be background entertainment. After three nights of real inspiring venues, this was a "back to reality' gig. Payed well, though.

This Thursday, I have an interesting one nighter on a riverboat cruise. Playing country music no less. If this thread lives, I'll post back with a report.

Five Sets? There oughta be a law...

Dan

This weekend was my annual gig, the Sky-Festival, actually more of a jam for me + some heavy friends from the past (though we never played together). We dedicated our set mostly to Cream, who were favorites of ours back in the days.

Hadn't played the songs in 35-40 years, but strangely I remembered them all: Sunshine of Your Love, I'm So Glad, Strange Brew, Crossroads, Born Under a Bad Sign and Spoonful. (We played some other stuff too though - both soul and country).

I played my '52 RI Tele through my new Blues Junior Ltd. Ed. in relic'd tweed. Holy Mackerel what an amp! I wish I'd used my 60's Classic Tele though, 'cos we played between 2.00 and 3.30 Sunday morning, and it was chilly and damp and the maple fretboard was getting pretty sticky.

The reason we played so late was that we were at the very end of a long playlist, which was probably good 'cos most of the other bands are gigging bands - one even professional. We had a great time though, and I slept on the stage (outside, but with a tarp over it) in a sleeping bag ... But not until I finished my set ... Hee, hee!

One thing I gotta mention: One of my 'heavy friends' - who also brought his own band - (mostly) played a Shadows Custom Signature Burns Ltd. Ed. guitar in Fiesta Red - and man!, what a TWANG!!! He also had a '52 RI Tele '89 model, but the Burns beat it in the twang department. In fact , I don't think I've EVER heard a more twangy guitar sound in my life - at least not in person. He played through a MusicMan 210 'Sixty-Five'. (He played Pipeline, Ghostriders, Ebb Tide a.o.) Absolutely amazing - and beautiful - tone!!!

Five Sets?

Yup. 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 5-7, 10-8...

:mrgreen: Bwaahahahahahahahahaha!

did a gig yesterday at a pub which was having some sort of festival. I was under the impression there would be at least 3 bands, but it was just us. We played from about 7 - 9:30 with a break in between. We played some beatles, elvis and stones as well as some newer stuff like Blur, Arctic Monkeys and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Unfortunatly we had to play inside with speakers outside as it was scheduled to rain. There were lots of drunk people coming in trying to get us outside but we couldnt. Then lots of drunk people came inside and we had to play our hour set again because they liked it so much! It went ok considering our drummer couldnt make it and me and my mate (who isnt in our band) switched between playing drums and playing lead and singing.

I was also testing out my les paul style guitar I made with a strat neck and a gate hinge as a tailpiece. I was actually testing a switch I added which bypasses the volume, so if I set the volume about halfway, when I flick the switch and bypass the volume I get added volume for solos. It worked very well.

again out of the bed....
played a little bar gig, just filling in for a band from farther away, who got stuck in a jammed highway and could not show up in time.
some sort of grab your guitar. basic equipment and rush to the bar, where folks are already waiting to hear some good music.
after the first set a friend from another band showed up and we ended playing the whole night as a duo, trying to remember every song the crowd asked us for.
we got the whole pay from the band, that didn´t show up at all ( after an car accident they closed the highway down for hours ) and were asked to perform every four weeks....
it was a real fun night and i played a lot of songs i never pplayed before...

zoppotrump
:O)

It's 3am Atlantic time and I just finished playing a bunch of Waylon tunes at the local watering hole. Place holds about 50 people. Just me, my nylon string, and 15 of my friends.

Best gig I had all week. :razz:

I've been home a few hours.

Played outside near Iowa City IA.

Nice warm day.

Not many clothes. :shock:

Started a band divorce.

Other than that, every thing was normal.

:wink:

Weekend stint for me.
Huge festival gig near Ottawa on Saturday, wedding gig with a friend's band (on bass) on Sunday. Much distance in between the two gigs, like the Eagles sang: "I had to stop for the night"...
Got home around 3 this morning, there are bags and cases all over the place.
Reminds me of my touring days. As soon as the espresso kicks in, I may start thinking about doing some laundry and putting stuff away.

Wait.
The friggin' cat is clawing away at my Coveramp.
Think I'll put that away first.

Played an "End of Summer" Labor day gig yesterday. We went on at 5 pm but didn't play til about fifteen mins later due to PA problems. The event had a racetrack, so there were plenty of race fans ... there was a Beergarden handily erected right in front of the stage so we had a built-in crowd. Plenty of eye candy... I love late summer :mrgreen:

played a birthday party in a beergarden for a happy group of people.
a lot of dancing, drinking, but just funny people.
had to add another hour to our regular program for some extra cash...
weather was fine and everybody, including us, had a good time.

zoppotrump
:O)

Started a band divorce.

¿Qué? :confused: :sad:

mud

How'd I miss this thread?

Last Sunday, we did a no-drums trio outdoors in the amphitheater at The River shopping center in Rancho Mirage, CA. (They don't allow drums on account of they're too freakin loud, even when you ask them not to). I love this gig in spite of the challenging weather - SoCal desert, gig time temp @ 6 pm sneaking over the 100 degree mark, and humid (for the desert) - it's monsoon season, so you can get 30-40% RH at times. Kinda rough, but folks stroll by, then stop & sit down to watch. By the middle of each set we'll accumulate 50 - 100 people, then most will wander off during break. The crowds are always very appreciative, responsive and generous (!) - for a 3 set gig we'll pull tips ranging from $20 - 40 per man, which covers gas & drinks. Plus the $100 each for the show, I call it a good day. We'll be there lots through the fall - as the weather cools down a bit, it becomes a cherry gig!

This last show was notable for me, as I brought my new '07 Sunburst MIM Std down, as a back-up, but mostly to show the guys my pretty baby. Well, I got to my usual abusive hatchet job on my acoustic and broke TWO strings (diff'nt ones, at diff'nt times). The first, at the end of the first set, but the second happened midway thru the 2nd - so I grabbed the Tele ... :shock: ... :shock: ... it only occured to me for an instant that I had never really played an electric guitar in public before ... :shock:

Aw, went fine enough ... it ain't like rocket surgery, or nuthin. I even threw a lead or two at 'em!

Next up: The Monthly Restaurant Gig, this Friday.

mud

sorry to state, that an nice thread like this one will die and disappear in the tdpri deserts, due to poor participation....

zoppotrump
:O(

oh man! it is 3:20... I've been home for a bit... we had a gig at Daisy's in San Juan Bautista (an historic town as it was where the Donner party was headed when they got stranded!) We dig playing Daisy's because the crowd is eclectic... anyway a couple of band members have been bickering and I was pretty sure we were gonna have a terrible gig and the band could break up and the fight over the setlist was totally insane....

So, I was pretty bummed going to the gig... And.... packed house (a bunch of german tourists who were AWESOME! they loved us and bought tshirts! woo hoo) anyway, a rarity for me, I had a couple of beers and just went for it... we played great and the crowd was super responsive and fun... and we got paid and the bar owner grabbed them mic and announced we were 'his band!' and that he would have us there as much as we want to play! sweet!

So, go figure, sometimes things work out... one really fun and odd thing... the steel player showed up tonight with his steel (and a mando) but had the gk pickup on the mando and played organ and electric piano and piano about half the night... and it sounded cool...

Anyway, a really great gig... and at this stage of the game... I'm banking it!

Oh yeah.. a highlight.. the last set there were three younger guys doing the 'guitar thing' where they watch what you are doing... etc... anyway, they were giving the thumbs up stuff (all hammered) anyway, they were digging my tone king... the last song we do 'thats all right mama' kinda waylon, oklahoma funk style... everyone always dances to it and we jam for a bit on it.... anyway, I went rock star on the solo and the kids loved it... and were high fiving me when we were done and asking a bunch of questions... very fun! usually we're musical wallpaper...

How did I miss this thread?! I'm asking myself that too, Mud! How did I miss this one?!

It's 8:16 in the morning and I've been home for just a bit. I'm still wide awake and I would imagine my bandmates are too - it's so hard to SLEEP when you rrrrrreally wanna sleep. Especially after a drive. For me anyway, my brain is still seeing the white line and a car in front of me!

We finished off the last lot of our merch last night thanks to an absolutely amazing merch boy (which is AWESOME...and awful all at the same time. Our new order won't be ready for a bit and that means all we have is $1 stickers and 1" buttons. No t-shirts at all until the new batch is in - that seriously cuts into your nickles and dimes!) and that's going to make these next few shows a little bit harder.

¿Qué? :confused: :sad:

mud

Let's all sing together... (courtesy of Miss Tammy Wynette)

Our little band is 5 years old,
and quite a messed up group.

So we spell all the hurting words,
we don't want it to hear.

Like F-U-N or maybe E-N-J-O-Y-M-E-N-T
but the words we're keeping from it now
tear the heart right out of me

Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E
becomes final in February

and Mick, Ed, Bruce, and Scott and me
will be going our ways...

Well you get the idea.

We've been playing 5 years...which is probably 4 years longer than I thought it would last.

Last week we played 3 sets, and NEVER ONCE found the groove.

We've gone through 3 bass players.

Which, I guess, should tell us something. Three bass players and the issue is still with us. Don't think it has been the bass players. :wink:

I'll probably be having a fire sale on Teles! :shock:

is now 10:30pm AEST, so not quite straight after the gig... (I too missed this one):oops:
But... got back about 4 hours ago from a Fri-Sat gig up in a very nice (read EXPENSIVE) restaurant at the Mt Buller snowfields, (season's just ending), playing as "Mojo Bros 2 man trio"- me, a harp player and Mr Tambourine Man...a tambourine on a pedal!!
Took the two younger wallet-molesters for a spot of snowboarding, so the weekend only owes me $300.....:shock:

Let's all sing together... (courtesy of Miss Tammy Wynette)

Our little band is 5 years old,
and quite a messed up group.

So we spell all the hurting words,
we don't want it to hear.

Like F-U-N or maybe E-N-J-O-Y-M-E-N-Tbut the words we're keeping from it now
tear the heart right out of me

Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E
becomes final in February

and Mick, Ed, Bruce, and Scott and me
will be going our ways...

Well you get the idea.



Buck, I don't want you guys to go through a band D-I-V-O-R-C-E but that cracked me up!!

Even if it comes to an end though...you'll be back in something else in no time at all and you know it! (...but still save that pink sparkle twangcaster for me just in case!)

...and thanks. Now I'm going to be singing that one alllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day.

...deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. ....veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....oooooooooooo...
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....ceeeeeeeeeee....eeeeeeeeee eeeeeeee becomes final today!

...thanks again.

man, i love this thread!

i've been off for the last two weekends, but i'm giging vicariously through you guys!
well, harvrst fair season is upon us so i'll be back at it next weekend. hope to have new shocks on the van by then.

The only sad thing with this thread, is that I can't post again in almost a year's time, since I only gig once a year :oops:

Last nite at closing time, I played the song Closing Time. Right after a bachelorette party left...GOOD TIME, GOOD TIMES...

Last nite at closing time, I played the song Closing Time. Right after a bachelorette party left...GOOD TIME, GOOD TIMES...

Ehhhhxcellent, Smithers! :lol:

Also - Randy, you make me wish I lived closer, man. San Juan Bautista, eh? 390 mi ... dang. :sad:

mud

Anyhoo, we did the River acoustic thing again yesterday, was ... meh.

But, then we stopped by a bar where we thought a friend would be playing (go figure, the one time I actually would have liked to have my bud drag me up to get my Zep on), but they had switched with the band that was there - and they ROCKED! Did stuff like Ozzie & ZZTop, very well. Fun time.

mud

No t-shirts at all until the new batch is in
I'd guess there are a few people here who would love to have a MM/CHL t-shirt. Your schedule says the band is playing in Cleveland next month; that's a heck of a drive from Indianapolis. A lot more driving time than playing time I bet.

Ahhhh, you guys are way too good to me already!

I never really thought about that before Sean - we usually do drive longer than we play! Hmmm. I never even thought about that. Haha! That Cleveland show is one I'm really nervous about...it's going to be my second "solo" show - just me and an acoustic. I just swallowed hard as I typed that hahaha! My bandmates are my security blanket (...big time) so I'm pretty nervous about being up there all alone. My first solo show (the night before that Cleveland show) is with Justin Townes Earle (Steve's boy) and it's my only chance to get my feet wet before the Cleveland show at the Fryer, which is a little bit longer set than the "in the round" Justin Townes Earle show. The majority of those songs I've never sang in front of anyone other than my husband too...so that's kind of scary. And I'm used to just writing fun rockabilly/alt. country stuff and this solo stuff isn't that in the least - it's all the more serious stuff that I'm not sure would go over very well with the band...some of it is sort of funny, I guess, but it's mostly ballad type, from the heart kind of stuff. I don't do that much haha! I'm anxious and nervous and I have no idea how you guys can get up there all alone! Without nobody!

i seems, i never make it up to my computer when i come home from gigging.
so it´s again 10 in the morning and i already had breakfast...

friday night we played a local county fair and it was perfect. best weather, good crowd, about 500 people in the tent and after the first set really everybody was dancing so they had to rearrange the tables and opened up another bigger dance floor...
a lot of encores and requests ....and got booked for the next time again !!

saturday a 180 miles drive to a big dance hall deep in south germany. soundcheck was good, but we noticed that there were a lot of tourists - mostly people from italy and france , so the beginning was tough, we struggled ourselfs through the first set. it seemed like those people were hearing these songs for the first time in their lives.
second set is our classic set, and all of a sudden we got them !!
it turned out to be a nice evening and we got a lot of shots at the end.
glad we stayed overnight.....

zoppotrump
:O)

i had my first gig with my new band about a week and a half ago. we played 45 minutes worth of originals and we got alot of complements, along with getting asked back to play a headlining set in october, so i guess you gotta call the night a success!

haha we have a few videos of the gig posted on our myspace site www.myspace.com/somethingtoshine

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eN703dhIobQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eN703dhIobQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

theres a really cool thread about everyone's band going on - http://www.tdpri.com/forum/bad-dog-cafe/123069-tell-us-about-your-band.html

it'd be cool to see what everyone is doing band-wise

the song i posted above is actually untitled as of now, i uploaded the wrong video to youtube, my computer is a mess!

it seems i never make it to my computer when i come home after gigging.
yesterday night we played a county fair at a tiny littel village, but they bulid a pretty big tent with about 250 people and a pretty fine stage.
things started very soft, with a lot of folks dancing. at halftime we were told to get a little rougher, because of lots of young folks had come in.
so we did, and even the the "elder" people turned into rocking folks.
then a lot of the younger ones got really drunk , because of a never ending happy hour at the bar..... first we thought, things might become a little difficult, it was just on the edge of us getting in trouble with some "rock stars", but after we played our famous medley "sweet home alabama/all summer long-tush-honky tonk woman" everybody was satisfied and we finished the gig as planned.
after all, i´m glad the county fair season is over now, due to the weather getting pretty cold at nights.
take care everybody

zoppotrump
:O)

played a benefit at a local Legion , been years since i visited a Legion .
I made a big boo boo and walked in wearing a hat ..oop!s. Forgot about the no hat rule , almost had to buy a round for the house!
got to try out my new esquire , awesome guitar.

I played two jobs this past Saturday, but the evening gig was the really fruity one. There was this crazy drunk broad that kept messing with me all night. She sauntered up and blurted unitelligible phrases into my reluctant ear and showered me with spittle on several occasions. I did my sincere best to communicate with this lady as I was singing and playing, but it was totally pointless. Finally, she scrawled a hand written note - on the sheet of wax paper that had formerly supported her basket of hot wings - and stuffed it between my shirt and my relatively expensive musical instrument, which left my shirt and the back of my relatively expensive musical instrument bathing in a thick coat of grease. I removed the sheet of wax paper and attempted to read the note, but no luck - it was some sort of chicken scratched hieroglyphic shorthand. Somewhat miffed by this point, I crumpled the paper up, tossed it aside, and set about to finish my job. This didn't set well with the young lady, who immediately became irate and commenced to raising hell, quite verbally and quite loudly. The other patrons in attendance were noticably irritated with her behavior, so I guess it wasn't just me. I watched as management escorted her out of the building, kicking and screaming all the while. I finished my job, collected my pay, counted and divvied up the tips, packed up, and went home. I've no idea in hell what sort of message this woman was attempting to convey to me. All in a day's work, I suppose.

played a benefit at a local Legion , been years since i visited a Legion .
I made a big boo boo and walked in wearing a hat ..oop!s. Forgot about the no hat rule , almost had to buy a round for the house!
got to try out my new esquire , awesome guitar.

Yeah if you ever wanna get jumped by a bunch of old geezers just walk into a Legion wearing a hat. I know from experience.:shock:

Actually there's not many old timers left in those halls. Anytime I've gigged there it's a pretty young crowd that's inside for the most part. I like most of the Legions I've played, usually pretty friendly bunch.

I played two jobs this past Saturday, but the evening gig was the really fruity one. There was this crazy drunk broad that kept messing with me all night. She sauntered up and blurted unitelligible phrases into my reluctant ear and showered me with spittle on several occasions. I did my sincere best to communicate with this lady as I was singing and playing, but it was totally pointless. Finally, she scrawled a hand written note - on the sheet of wax paper that had formerly supported her basket of hot wings - and stuffed it between my shirt and my relatively expensive musical instrument, which left my shirt and the back of my relatively expensive musical instrument bathing in a thick coat of grease. I removed the sheet of wax paper and attempted to read the note, but no luck - it was some sort of chicken scratched hieroglyphic shorthand. Somewhat miffed by this point, I crumpled the paper up, tossed it aside, and set about to finish my job. This didn't set well with the young lady, who immediately became irate and commenced to raising hell, quite verbally and quite loudly. The other patrons in attendance were noticably irritated with her behavior, so I guess it wasn't just me. I watched as management escorted her out of the building, kicking and screaming all the while. I finished my job, collected my pay, counted and divvied up the tips, packed up, and went home. I've no idea in hell what sort of message this woman was attempting to convey to me. All in a day's work, I suppose.

She probably just wanted to talk and get to know you better.:wink:

She probably just wanted to talk and get to know you better.:wink:

Could be... it's a shame that gibberish isn't my second language, and that I wasn't wearing scuba diving attire at the time...

whoah boy.. not a good night tonight. We have a gig tomorrow night and we are on the radio (and on internet radio.. kpig.com) sunday.... for some reason the bass player brought his buddy a keyboard player... oy yoy yoy... I think he is a good player.... but doesn't know the tunes, no cheat book.... and plays pretty loud.. = oof.

Tomorrow night will be better...

Good things: I took my compressor off my pedal board. I took my sparkle drive off my pedal board. I took my dd3 off my pedal board... I added some stuff... now I have an Award JD10 (wow... we do a couple of 'rockier songs' that I need the drive for) a boss tuner, my ps5 for twin guitar stuff, my homemade phaser and I bought the really giant Danelectro spring king fake tape echo... man, that thing is cool (got it new for 89.00)
... so, I had my sound together.. I played the buckocaster with nocasters all night... love that guitar! Dikkers kicks ass.

I had an awesome gig two weeks ago... they don't come every night.. some nights are just okay (or pretty good for the crowd)... I wish I was better!

okay, friday night gig. my favorite place to play... good house til about midnight then it thinnned out... some nice cougar action... the main singer had a cold and at least half the band had a bad night... it was brutal.. but, the owner booked us for 6 more gigs in the next two months and was super nice and said we were his favorite band... we had several regulars cheering...

I'm tired. Too much work and two stressful band adventures in two day... get through the radio show and re-assess....

Pretty weird how happy the patrons are.. and I am smiling but I get in the car to leave and had that feeling that I was escaping...

Do any of the rest of you guys enjoy it when attractive women flirt with you? Not too overt.. but, it is a real vibe... I have no intentions.... I just kind of dig feeling like I'm attractive to someone... or is that bad or something?

Anyway... it is 2 am and I have to give two speeches tomorrow and take my son to the cal football game... best bag some zzzz's.

If you aren't gigging... don't feel bad... it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.. I'm friggin tired from the loadin and loadout.

If you aren't gigging... don't feel bad... it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.. I'm friggin tired from the loadin and loadout.

It sounds exciting?!? I keed, I keed ... we do it 'cause we love it. It sure as heck ain't for the money.

I'm back at The River tonite (Saturday), bringing the new (old) Ibanez Artwood!

mud

Mud,

Oh man! I forgot... I played the original buckocaster tonight! that part was awesome... and my jd10 and danelectro spring king (or whatever) was terrific.. that was all good...

I just got in from a gig at a recently reopened pub in Caledonian Road, north London, right opposite HM Prison, Pentonville - yup, a real salubrious area! Knowing from past experience that it was a bit tight for space and also having strained my back recently, I left my 60 lb Music Man amp behind and instead took the little Roland Cube 60 I bought just for fun, using my pedalboard into the JC Clean channel, lined out through the PA.

Stone me, what a great sound I got tonight! The other guys in the band were delighted, the punters were highly complimentary and the guv'nor booked us again for next week after a mere two songs.

I have lots and lots of amps but this one really hit the spot. Has to be the greatest bargain in the whole music trade.


Tony, Tim's brother Mike here...

It doesn't surprise me that you got a great sound with a Roland Cube...they are outstanding little powerhouse amps!!! As I've gotten older, I've traded in my heavy Fender amps (Hot Rod Deville 4x10, Deluxe Reverb) for a Vox AD-30VT, which tips the scales at a (not) whopping 26.5 lbs, much easier on the back, and kicks ass on the gig!!! Tim & I played (with our drummer Bubba) at our electric gig in Ocean City last night, and (as usual) there was a good crowd there, lots of dancin', drinkin', and general fun being had by all...best part is, we get to do it again tonight...I use my Strat & Gibson SG for tonal diversity, but the Vox sounds sweet regardless of what gets plugged into it...

Rock on!!!:smile:

Mike

Tony, Tim's brother Mike here...

It doesn't surprise me that you got a great sound with a Roland Cube...they are outstanding little powerhouse amps!!!

Indeed - in fact, I also grabbed a Bass Cube 100 recently when it came up almost new on UK eBay at an excellent price.

Thing is, I now have a house full of great amps, large, small, old and new(ish) and can't bring myself to part with any of them. Oh, well, guess the space they occupy helps cut down on the heating bill...

Back in that same pub tonight... Not the Royal Albert Hall but a lot better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

Do any of the rest of you guys enjoy it when attractive women flirt with you?

If memory serves, I think so...

If you aren't gigging... don't feel bad... it is not nearly as exciting as it sounds.. I'm friggin tired from the loadin and loadout.

Oh, I dunno. My long-time bass-playing pal Jim, whom I'm fond of quoting, once came out with: "Gigs are a bit like sex - even when they're bad, they're still fairly good..."

Well, here it is, 2 a.m. or so British Summer Time and I just got in from the gig. Went well enough - I used the ESP 400 Tele with the GFS pickups for a change and it sounded nice. And it turned out that, not for the first time, my best buddy's band was in the next pub down the road and they dropped in towards the end of our gig during their break, as they were playing later hours.

So far, so-so, but here's the thing... While we were on our break I nipped out for a smoke and decided to check on the car, which I'd parked in a side road with no parking restrictions at that hour. Imagine my joy to discover a parking ticket on it - this is on a Saturday night - as I'd parked with two wheels on the inch-high kerb. Oh, pooh, thought I (or words to that effect), but I might as well leave it where it is now... Don't you believe it! When I got back to the car after the gig it had been ticketed again at two minutes past midnight - same offence, different day, you see.

This was in the London Borough of Islington, well-known for its animosity towards motor cars and anything else that represents personal freedom of any kind. I mean, one ticket's bad enough for such a minor and trivial matter, but having a so-called "Civil Enforcement Officer" lurking and ready to pounce again as the clock strikes twelve is a bloody disgrace and taking the piss. And these tickets aren't cheap. Not only have they wiped out what I earned from the gig but half as much again too.

Sorry, I'm venting here. I don't know whether this outrageously over-zealous parking enforcement is perpetrated by local authorities in American cities, but I could imagine that people have been shot for less.

Oh well, at least I'll know not to park that way next time - but one ticket would have sufficed for that.

friday:
gig with my trio at the local gin mill.played my Gibson acoustic all night to a nice crowd. a bunch of my buddys from high school showed up and we all did shots and sang a bunch of tunes we used to do at keg partys( cover of the rolling stone came up first, in drunken hamony!) folks seemed to respond best to songs about marijuana and i was suprised at how many drug related songs i know!(Henry, Panama Red, Free Mexican Airforce, Shanty Mama, the list goes on). good gig. got paid 80 bucks
saturday:
GREAT gig! played with the Zydeco Hogs at a beerfest! free beer and a couple hundred people all drinking! ya can't lose! drunk chicks were on stage all night trying out the washboard! did i mention free beer? got paid $200
plus we got out early enough to stop by a club where a friend of mine was playing with his new band, sort of a pop-cover band with a bunch of his originals tossed in. they did a lot of Van Morrison. i was saddened to see that he was playing a PRS in lieu of his tele, or strat. or gretsch C.G. or his gibson 347. but i guess it worked well for him doing all that cover music. he used to be a prolific songwriter with his own band and a few albums under his belt, but he burned out and is just returning after a 3 year hiatus. good to see him back in the saddle. his band:www.asylumhill.com.
Today:
at noon we head for Arlington Ma. to play a dance hall gig with the Z-hogs. the tranny in the van started slippiing in second gear last night so i'm loading the small sound system in the Subaru outback! everyone else is on their own! i'll prolly make $100 today. but that will go right back into the van repair.

that's my weekend guys., a busy one for sure! me likey!

by the way, i love this thread!

*yawn*

It's almost 10 and I'm just rolling out of bed. What a great time last night.

I subbed for the guitarist in a four-piece jump blues group; harp, upright bass, drums, me. To say I was a bit nervous beforehand is an understatement. The lead gave me a list of 165 songs and said, "We mostly play tunes from that list." Lot's of Little Walter, Hollywood Fats, Jimmy Reed, T-Bone Walker, Rod Piazza, Big Walter Horton... Then he asked me to provide 15 tunes of my own to sing. He'd start every number with "do you know ...?" I'm thinking, [I]note for note? Probably not! Just tell me what key it's in and I'll manage.

The venue was the bar at a schwanky hotel in Dana Point, CA that overlooks the ocean from a cliff. The same place, actually, that my wife and I had our rehearsal dinner 10 years ago. Interesting room. We set up in a corner with sofas and lounge chairs right up next to the band. The harp player's mic stand was inches from the head of a patron when we started up.

Anyway, great fun! The first set was a little shaky, but we all locked in for the second and by the third we had it going pretty good.

Midway through the second set a wedding party came in. Dressed to the nines, ebullient. Drunk. By the end of the third set, they were dancing, hooting (sometimes for the band, even), and drinking some more.

One couple requested, "Moondance," which we did. Somewhat convincingly. The harp player nailed the melody on his chromatic, which really pulled the song together.

The couple dancing not two feet in front of me were practically having sex with their clothes on. I was like: Hey! Don't get anything on my Tele! It being a hotel and all, I imagine they eventually got a room. :wink:

I played my Tele, plugged into a TS-9, into my '70 SFDR 15". It sounded better than ever; one of those occasions where the guitar made my playing better. I'm so glad I left the 335 at home.

My beautiful bride dropped in with her mother to listen to a set, had a drink, and then headed back out into the fog for the peace and quiet of home. To top it all off, I got paid; more than I expected, at that, and the drinks were "taken care of" by the bar manager.

Great gig!

Just got home from playing on kpig.com a really great radio station in watsonville. the studio is tiny and we were wedged in pretty tight... but sleepy john is a legend (the dj) and a great opp for the band and just plain fun! my amp was in one room and I was in a bathroom area.. no headphones, so really hard to hear... and when you sing.. the sound just disappears! kinda nerve wracking (I hardly ever get nervous, but I was today) anyway it went fine.. we got great feedback from the folks there and we were asked back! too fun!

I think the next time I'll have a lot better sense of what we need to do... but, it was cool to do our 3 songs and then have them ask if we could another... that never happens on that show (from what I'm told)

So, overall, great time! Yay!

GetBent... where on kpig.com do we go to have a listen? I'd love to hear!

db,
The show is called 'please stand by' the band I was playing with is called the buffalo canyon band. I don't know if they archive the show or not... our bandleader got a cd from the guys at the station... I'm sure he'll lend me the cd and I can rip and post it for you if they don't archive...


btw, I remember taking a girl on a date to restaurant called 'the quiet cannon' in Dana Point (prom maybe?) our table was out over the cliff's edge and there was an alarm in case of earthquake... the dinner was woefully expensive... but I remember it was big fun....

We sailed out of the DP harbor when we scattered my dad's ashes... I'd have loved to have heard your band!

saturday night we were booked to play a country-night for about 300 people in a nice old music-hall. the owner told us, the show has been sold out for days, what cheered us up. soundcheck was a horror, cause of the drum-echos, an empty hall with a high ceiling...but when the crowd filled the hall, it got better and better. At the end, we had to do two rounds of encores, before they let us close down. loadin and loadout was hard, because it was pretty cold at 3am and we had to carry all the equipment about 100yards to the trailer ( no better access possible with 2 times stairs included ). pay was good, but everybody was dead-tired at the end.

zoppotrump
:O)

I played steel guitar with Delilah DeWylde at the Nunica Bar and Store west of Grand Rapids. Yeehaw. Light crowd and every one of'em drunk. No stage so no barrier. Couple of drunk man dancers got too close to Delilah and she kicked one of'em in the jaw.

Crowd quote of the night "SHUT UP N RAWK!" We didn't stop playing between songs otherwise cuz that's when the drunks start in to bothering us.

Then an hour drive home at 2 AM.

http://drewhoward.com/jpg/lostboys_small.jpg

I've been avoiding this thread because when I get home from gigs, I'm usually in lurk only mode. I don't wanna type anything unless I hafta.

My trio hosted an open jam night in Flint tonight. It was pretty dead, and only one sitters in - a guitarist named Herb who plays very well. He came in with one of them Ibanez Artists that looks kinda like a double cutaway Les Paul. A GORGEOUS guitar! Sounded great too!

Since there was a lack of jammers, the few people that were there played "Stump the band" and had us playing everything from "Boot Scoot Boogie" to "All Along the Watchtower". We try to be versatile.

We did our first gig as a band tonight. . . at the State Fair on one of the minor stages. The other guitar player hadn't performed in public for 20 odd years, but you'd have never known it tonight. He rocked!

I took the CV Tele I bought a few weeks ago, and just loved the sounds I was getting. This little marvel has just shouldered my ASAT and MIM Tele slam out of the way for "most favored axe" status. In the past I've literally paid twice as much for half the guitar . . .

We had 'em up and dancing for a good chunk of the show. I guess that means we did it right!

It's four in the morning and once more...I just got back from another gig in London's salubrious (not) Holloway Road. Midnight to 2.30 a.m. spot. Looked fairly good for a change - good few people up dancing, reasonably good atmosphere, the AV62RI Custom was sounding sweet. So far, so...Aargh! About 25 minutes in, the PA amp blew up. Clouds of smoke and a nasty smell; seemingly the power transformer gave up the ghost.

Very luckily someone was able to lend us an old Yamaha EMX that enabled us to do the rest of the gig after a pause, and we got through it without taking another break. Still got a little docked off the fee, but no parking fines this time.

It could have been a lot worse but in future I'm taking my Mackie as a backup. Or we may have to use it anyway if the other one can't be fixed.

... Since there was a lack of jammers, the few people that were there played "Stump the band" and had us playing everything from "Boot Scoot Boogie" to "All Along the Watchtower". We try to be versatile.

Ah, versatilitivity!

We did our first gig as a band tonight. . . at the State Fair on one of the minor stages. The other guitar player hadn't performed in public for 20 odd years, but you'd have never known it tonight. He rocked!

.... snip ....

We had 'em up and dancing for a good chunk of the show. I guess that means we did it right!

Congrats! That would be my definition of a good night!

mud

We played the Garber IA Fire Department dance tonight...in beautiful downtown Edgewood.

I'm not sure, but I think Bruce might need a shot of penicillin for something that he was exposed to...

If you know what I mean.

:wink:

My Eagles tribute band played a theater last night. About 3 1/2 hours away, and I had to pick up and drop off another guitarist on the way. People got up and danced in the aisles, which is a good sign, and I was trying out my Hamer with its brand new Lauzon P-90s. Almost didn't touch the Tele... it was THAT good. The voice held up too, even though I feel a cold coming on (everyone has it, or so it seems). The venue had great sound, lights and techies. Had a great pizza for dinner: peperoni, garlic butter and pesto.
Just got home, I'm starting to feel the adrenalin ebb and it's getting harder to type.

G'night.

Fizzle, not a bang.

Played a wedding reception at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum. Band played great, but nobody was paying a lick of attention. Good food, though, and a lot of babes, everybody dressed to the nines.

Got the hell out of there and had to spank it to get to a gig at Club 21. Played 4 hours and the thing just sort of went pffft towards the end. I sort of went pffft too. Tired.

Don't even know what sort of $$ I made on the wedding gig, I had to get out of there and get movin. Guess I'll find out.

saturday night we were playing in a big dancehall for about 800 people. it was a 5 hour drive to get there and we just made it in time for the soundcheck. food was ok, the usual burgers, but we got free drinks, so we were relaxed. played 5 hours for a nice crowd, a lot of dancers , no dead drunks not stress, just nice and kind folks.
we got several rounds of shots from some of the guys, but it was no problem, for we alreday had planned to stay overnight. rooms were provided in the contract.
sunday morning after breakfast, we ran home and got stuck in a major traffic jam, so it took us almost 7 hours to get home. pay was good and we got 2 more gigs in the same place.

zoppotrump
:O)

yesterday afternoon/night i played a outdoor party/festival/jam. there were two bands proper(one of wich was mine) and the rest was all conglomerations of members of 3 0r 4 area cajun/zydeco groups plus two members of Curley Taylors band from Louisianna. as i was leaving the stage after our set, Corey Brossard(of curleys band) told me to stay and sit in on their set, so we were rotating musicians every 4 or 5 songs. it was great fun! i got to jam with a couple guitarists who we frequently share bills with. it was cool to play with guys you have watched and studied chatted with on many occasions!
but the coolest, COOLEST thing about the day was....i got to play through a Carr Rambler all night! it belonged to my friend Mark Trishka of the Slippery Sneakers band. WHAT A RIG! it has a 12 watt and a 20 watt setting(i used the 20 watt). i think maybe someday i'll save my pennies for one, but for now $1700 bucks is out of my leaugue! anyoo i really dug it and it was a great gig even with the low pay and lower temperatures!!

Saturday night we played in the bar of a well-known pub in Hayes, West London, and by coincidence the band in the adjoining function room was the one I used to play bass in. Both bands had a terrific time, the atmosphere was great and the only thing that went wrong was when one of our tripod-mounted speakers got pushed over accidentally in the somewhat cramped space. Duh! No harm done, nobody hurt, we got paid a little bonus and we're there again next Sunday. This is a bit more like it...

Does this count? Just played the baby to bed... One year old boy, OOO-style locally made acoustic and some slow traditional Irish music. He went down without a fuss!

2:40am in Austin Texas, just got home from one of those lovely Tuesday night gigs!

Played to about thirty folks at Creek Side Lounge of 7th in the 12am timeslot. There's the typical GIANT Texas flag hung on the back wall, just in case anyone forgets what state there in--way too proud.

Our bands name is "Colour Wheel," but the sign read "The Colour Whell," but what's name recognition anyway?

Good set, played the THINLUXE Partscaster for the whole set through my Samamp 30W--set to 12 watts.

All in all a good, tight set with a small but responsive crowd and a few good beers, sweating through my T-shirt, I can't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday night.

Next gig is Saturday in San Marcos...

6:57 pst... just got home from playing what was supposed to be 1-5 but got extended... our band has been pretty dang close to breaking up... but we had a great time today... big crowd, entusiastic, cheering each song.. drinking heavily (on a sunday!) owner gave us a bonus to play a little extra, we got more dates.. everyone played pretty well...

The owner and the main bartender (an attractive lass) insisted we have a couple of beers after... I just walked in and wanted to post before I get busy and eat etc...

I played my 100 watt mm rp 112... had a little trouble taming and bummer of bummers... somehow a knob on my JD10 is broken... anyway, the jd10 and the musicman are not nearly as dialed in as my tone king is... oh well... we played well and the locals were happy...

One more gig with this band and we sit and see what we wanna do...

it is an interesting time in a band when you can tell which song will make a crowd really 'get it'... we got ownage in set three about the 4th song in.. great fun from there....

Had two fairly standard gigs this weekend. Saturday night was a church social club with a big rattly hall that was not all that well populated, while last night, Sunday, we were back in a familiar West London pub. Both gigs went well (last night's edged it as the better of the two), but what was interesting to me was that, as an experiment, I used my Tech 21 Trademark 60 instead of the Roland Cube 60 I've been using and praising to the skies recently.

The TM60 is a great amp but, though it sounded sweet enough, in this particular situation of mine it quite definitely lacked a certain something that the Cube 60 has in abundance. Can't identify it exactly but it's a sort of midrange punch and overall balance from the little Roland that just seem to work perfectly for what we're doing. I'm now thinking of buying a second one as a backup - unusually, they're priced quite a lot lower in the UK than in the USA.

another saturday night in a small cosy dancebar. about 150 people jammed into it and there was a lot of moving and twirling on the dancefloor. no accidents amongst the dancers and everybody was having a good time, us included. it was the 5th time we played that place and we got booked again...:O). it was all in all a very pleaseant evening:
no bad drunks, no monitor squieks, quite a few rounds for the band and happy faces all around and only 30 min drive home !! pay was good for that little bar so we didn´t mind to do some songs more as planned.
take care everybody

zoppotrump
:O)

We played tonight.. small, small crowd which was fun because we learned 4 new songs, 3 of which were originals that were brand new and we were making up parts as we played.. in each case the 12 people wanted to hear it again and all of them had suggestions... very fun...

my jd10 has a broken knob, but continues to work just fine... tonight was a fun, creative night... happy moments... good times! two in a row!

My JD10 has a broken knob, but continues to work just fine...

Why not PM Steward Ward? I'm sure he could organise a replacement by air mail or something. Meanwhile, hope you're enjoying your MM 112RP-100 as much as I enjoy mine. I'd like to use it more but these days the Cube 60 is more appropriate to my particular situation.

I think I"m gonna contact Stewart. I have fallen in love with my jd 10....

and the mm just roars... I have too many amps... I have not even taken my twin out.. sheesh.

Hoo boy - it hit the fan this evening. I had a call from Owen, our bass-player, at 6.30, saying his van's gearbox had packed up and he couldn't get to the gig. So I had to leave an hour early to go and pick him up at a point twice as far from my place as the gig itself, and in a completely different direction. I took my Bass Cube 100 for him to use so that everything would fit in my MPV (I think that's what you in the colonies might call a minivan), including two young females who generally accompany him, and we actually made it to the gig in Archway, North London, without being desperately late.

As it turned out, it was just as well that we used the Bass Cube, as the tiny corner stage was almost completely filled by the drum kit and I had to perch my Cube 60 actually on top of the Mackie 808S PA amp. But as it happens the gig itself went extremely well, Owen was well impressed by my little bass amp and we were promised further bookings.

But tell me - what is it that, at the end of the gig, makes people congregate right by the doors, both inside and out, just when you need to get the gear out?

3:19 AM here, just got in from our two Saturday jobs. We played an outdoor festival Saturday afternoon, opening up for Robert Randolph & the Family Band. We had a pretty good crowd, everyone seemed to enjoy it. We couldn't stick around to hear Robert's set, which was very disappointing. I talked to his bass player, seemed like a nice guy. The guitarist had his guitars in a rack, a Les Paul, a CS Tele, a Bo Diddley cigar box guitar and another I didn't recognize.
This evening, we played the local "opry" to a really good crowd, had fun there, too. When we got done there, I went to the local bluegrass jam, but they'd moved it to the host's house; I got there and a bunch of folks were sitting around a campfire with acoustics. It was a long day, but very enjoyable.

10:30 on Sunday. Just finished breakfast.

Played a "theme" BBQ restaurant out in Brea, CA last night as part of a three piece: upright bass, harp, and guitar (me). It was the first time I'd ever played a gig without a drummer. It was a little "floaty," if you get me drift. Not exactly easy to lock in, but I think we sounded okay on most of the tunes (a few however... sheesh... didn't realize that a train could derail completely and then get back on the tracks).

The venue was a little strange. A big, sprawling place packed full of people and we were stuffed in a corner under a TV that was showing the World Series game. The bass player had to be mindful that the head of his bass didn't knock the screen. There was literally a table with a couple eating ribs about 10 inches from my right elbow. I was tempted to steal a hush puppy when the lady got up to use the restroom.

I brought my Tele, a Tube Screamer, and a Blues Jr., which was mic'd and piped through the house PA. Never got her past 1.5 on the master volume, but the sound was good. Got better as the night progressed.

The biggest laugh of the evening was the "marquee" above the bar. It read: "LIVE BLUES SAT NIGHT - SISSY BLUE." The name of the band is "Satin Blue" (kind of an odd choice for a jump blues group, but hey... it pays well). The harp/vocalist had a ball with that one between numbers. He can work a crowd...

For these fill-in gigs, I'm definitely the "newbie." So far the guys I've played with have loads more experience than I, and they've been really supportive. They make a point of the fact that I'm pretty green, though. Still, I'm having a ball, learning a lot, getting my playing smoothed out, and getting paid all the while. Can't complain about that! :grin:

Does this count? Just played the baby to bed... One year old boy, OOO-style locally made acoustic and some slow traditional Irish music. He went down without a fuss!

Sounds like you won over a tough crowd. Those are always the most satisfying gigs. :grin:

we played at a brewhouse saturday night and it was a tough job. mostly people get there for the really good food ( and you get big plates !! ) and for the special brewed beer. so only a few folks got up to the dancefloor. it was strange to see most people sitting on their tables, watching them eat and drink the whole evening. though they liked us and applaused very well, it was strange. when we were about to finish, they somehow got reanimated and asked for several encores... the manager showed a big grin , because they had made a good profit, so we got booked again. at least we had great food, enjoyed some fine beer and the pay was ok too.

zoppotrump
:O)

Oh, dear - it looks as if I have a roadie's job for the next six weeks or so. As if Owen, the bass-player, didn't have enough problems with his crocked van, today someone came round to his place, trashed his vehicle and physically attacked him, his GF and her sister. They've all spent the whole day at the hospital; he has a broken foot sustained in a struggle while the girls had minor injuries. I've just got back from picking them up and depositing them at the GF's family home. The perp was arrested, but Owen's in deep doo-doos for doing gigs, so we'll be relying on my equipment and transport until his vehicle's fixed and he's able to drive it again.

Ain't life fun?

Well, it's the first time I've fired up the computer since I got home. It's been an interesting week. First of all, the couple in my band split up last Monday. She moved out. We cancelled Monday rehearsal, needless to say. We got together Wednesday and Thursday. He and She were being civil, but he left the room a few times with her trailing after. In spite of that, and three weeks off before two important Halloween shows, we sounded good.

The first show was Friday night at the Avalon Ballroom in Boulder for "The Journey to the Underworld." We shared the bill with a singer-songwriter who played kick drum and processed acoustic guitar. He was quite good. We played, then an African drum and dance troupe performed followed by DJ's until the wee hours. The producer of our CD, who is a member of a popular local band who usually headlines this annual show, sat in with us and added some nice touches to things. Our singer/violinist was getting sick, but she hung in for the gig. There weren't as many people as last year, but the energy was good, the people friendly and the costumes outragous. I got home about 2:00 AM.

On Saturday the singer called with times for load in and sound check. She was getting sicker. I drove her and I down so she could rest and as payback for her driving the night before. Sound was being done by the same guy who mixed the night before, but another guy who's worked with us before was doing the actual mixing. A very good thing.

This show was another annual event called "The Witch's Ball" and was held in a Masonic Temple in Denver. There were three levels of activity, venders in the basement, a drum circle on the second floor and us in the Ballroom.
Everyone was there almost on time except, the guitar player who had the Suburban with all the gear who was late. Load in was a bit hurried. The stage was tiny. We put the amps on the wings of the stage pointing in toward us and my guitar amp was behind the bass rig on a table where I could just hear it. The upright bass got put on the floor in front of the stage. Luckily, we only use it on a couple of songs (and none of the dancers fell into it).

This is where having a great soundman came in handy. Our guitarist was blasting the stage and the drummers were whining, so the sound guy, grabbed a road case lid and put it in front of the offending amp and put it in the monitor so it was only blasting the guitarist. With the amps firing sideways, he had more control over the house mix without the blast from the stage amps. And we could hear better, too.

We played two sets. The first was mellower music. The lights were up and the kitchen was behind the stage, so people getting food would enter through the door on one side of the stage and exit by the other on the other side of the stage. It felt a little weird. Our singer was now losing her voice. It was an OK set but the vibe was scattered. Our set was followed by belly dancers, the costume contest and more belly dancers. I walked around to talk to friends and sat upstairs to chill and people watch.

For the second set we got the lights turned off. We had a few dancers at first, but a friend who is a male Polynesian dancer got things shaking. Once he starts, things start to happen. The dance floor filled up and we had them going for the next hour or so. There were several hundred people in the crowd. It was so much fun! There were a group of women dancing in front of the stage, a Pirate, a Fallen Angel, a Farm Woman and a witch who were totally losing themselves to the music. I played directly to them and they were lovin' it. After we got done I chatted with the Pirate and it seems we made some new fans. We sold every CD we had, (someone forgot our backstock or we would have sold more...) and we got a lot of new names on our mailing list. We also had people come down from the Boulder gig just to hear us. We're starting to make a name for ourselves in Denver and Boulder.

After the show we had to load out and get on the road and after a stop at Wendy's for fries and iced tea for the singer we cruised up I-25 and home. I hit the pillow at about 2:00 AM. I got woken up by my brother-in-law who was inviting my sweetie and I out to breakfast, forgetting that I had a gig the night before. Luckily, I got back to sleep and slept until noon-thirty. I got up, showered and dressed, ate and jumped on my bike to hear a gentleman speak who would like to become our next president with 20,000+ of my closest friends.

It was quite a weekend! There is nothing like playing music for appreciative audiences. Now if we can just start drawing people like the presidential candidate we'll be all set! ;-)

this weekend, we played at the annual country music fair in germany. our personal gig was very good and the crowd cheered and got booked from some promoters, but the best was to see and listen to over 70 bands and performers from all over europe and to meet and greet friends and folks we haven´t seen for a while due to big distances. it was a blast and sure, we had a "few" beers and made some good sessions around this fair.
io think, i have to recover at least 2 days from this weekend....

zoppotrump
:O)

still super sick but made the gig.... mostly because we're doing some new songs and I was excited to play them and I am trying out my new Rhomco Varicaster.... OMG, maybe it is the cold medicine but I had a blast. Everyone played great, good moods and, hey, I am in love with that guitar... I dig the models... we broke into "games people play" here comes the sitar baby!

we've decided to cut a cd of originals and I can't wait.. it will be a blast.... anyway... I need nyquil and to stop friggin coughing! OUT.

Couldn't find this thread when i got home from our gig last Sat. night, so I'm posting a bit late...

Had a great show, lots of people, lots of dancing; unfortunately, our bass amp started acting up after the first couple of songs, so we made a short break and went directly into the PA with the bass.
Very mixed crowd, from teenagers to over40year olds - and some 18 or 20 year old girl complimented our singer on playing a Woody Guthrie song (we do "DoReMi", with me on lap steel) - he was quite astonished that such a youngster would know Woody Guthrie.

Low-point of the evening: our singer's car got towed, so I had to drive him all across town after the gig to get it back (the lot is open 24/7).

Oh, and the club booked us for another Sat. night gig!

last night, we played a gig at a little bar to help out a befriended band.
on arrival, we thought - ups, very small, few people, ok, let´s do our sets and go.
but after the end of first set, that bar was stacked, people couldn´t hardly move.
it turned ou to be a very cute gig, for some musicians we know showed up and we had a real fun session. and at the end the pay was pretty good - way more than we first had expected. the bad thing was, i was the driver and had to drive 2 hours back and could not have drink....

zoppotrump
:O)

We play infrequently. I think today was gig #5 for the year.

Anyway we played at a 70th birthday party for the singers' wifes' Aunt. We did 2 sets of about 35min each. All covers, nothing newer than about 1987, because we're all old-ish. The singers 81 year old father did 2 solo sets playing old jazz standards on his keyboard, man he was good.

He hadn't practices for this one as it came about at short notice and didn't have time, but it all came together OK.

We have a bad habit though of letting people come up on stage to "sing". Sometimes it can be OK but other times it's a complete train wreck. And of course since I'm the bass player and 3rd singer it's always my side of the stage that gets the "special guest artist". Luckily todays SGA could actually sing, even though we mostly do guy songs she seemed to carry it off OK (and she was easy on the eyes from behind).

The venue was a Bowling Club (lawn bowls) here in Sydney. The club seemed to like us as they made mention that they were looking to have a band come in sometime and asked for some contact details, so here hoping we get some paid work out of it.

Played with my band on saturday at a bank. It was the bank's anniversary party and they were giving out free lunch to anyone who stopped by. Here is a shot of the band rocking with a couple of teles! I'm the one in the middle playing the paisley. I wish I had a picture of what were were looking at. The parking lot was filled with people showing off their classic cars and cool stuff for the kids. This was sort of our first official gig. We played all classic rock covers. I've got another band who I do all original stuff with, but its more indie rock kinda thing. I've been playing with that band for about a year and a half, it's nice to have a couple different bands to play different types of music with. Tough to have a paying gig without a cover band though.

Overall the gig went pretty well. We played two 45 minute sets and a third short set to close out the afternoon. We had a few rough spots, mostly because we just haven't played together too much but in the second set for sure were gelled pretty well. Got a lot of complements, hopefully more paying gigs for us to come. Other than the heat (like 90 and sunny) it was a pretty cool day!

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii260/promanoski/HFCUgig8-23006.jpg

I like the way you made the bass player stand in the sun!

Just got home from a gig in SJB. I love playing there.. there are two bars in town that have bands and during the breaks everyone always checks everyone else out.. pretty funny (I only hear about) but we packed'em in tonight! we got a 100.00 bonus and one of our 'fans' passed a bucket and we nabbed another 60 odd dollars from that.... the bar manager and the bartenders were really happy with how we did and commented.."hey, we never get people who come because of the band unless they are related and we had a bunch of people who wanted to see you guys."

Pretty cool. We played okay, not stellar, but we had a bunch of attractive dancers tonight and lots of people coming up at the break to thank us and give praise... very fun and all I can say is.... the crowd makes the whole thing... when they are happy and having fun... it just makes for a great gig.....

We're shutting it down until the first of the year gig wise... we're working on originals and we're gonna record a cd. I found out the other day that our radio thing we did a month ago has been getting AIRPLAY! Crazy!

Anyway, I am the perpetual 'waiting for the other shoe to drop' type... but, tonight was really, really fun and a great object lesson for why being in a band and playing gigs is cool. We actually have fans... (I can't imagine why, but I'm not arguing.)

Anyway, that is my report.

Got home about an hour ago from a gig in Southern Minnesota. We played a new club tonight in a town of about 6000. Really nice stage, and new room. Wasn't much of a crowd because I don't think they did much advertising. Everybody loved us though.
We had a little problem, as the lead singer had a sinus infection that has been making it's way through the area. I ended up singing most of the songs on the last two sets. NOBODY deserves that.
We have a steel player that is just killer and we have a gas when we play trying to "out-riff" each other.
The only drag was the drive. But otherwise a good night.
The sandman is beating me to death so I am going seepy-bye now. Good night.

Just got back from a very weird gig - it was at a club in the suburbs of Vienna that I had never heard about. Very weirdly shaped room - long and narrow, but the stage wasn't at one end, but right in the middle - and the stage was long and narrow, too, so the drummer had to sit in the "front row" with the rest of the band.
Weird audience, too - 50% 16-yr.-old highschool kids dressed like ravers, 50% local village drunks; neither of those groups seemed really interested in the music, so we didn't even play an encore; the surprise of the evening: we got 250€ for that gig (not bad for small local clubs over here...)
Oh, and there were two guys who were constantly paying rounds of drinks for the whole band - since I had to drive, I sneaked them on to my girlfriend, but our singer and our bassplayer got pretty wasted...

Hope our gig tomorrow night is better (private graduation party)...

It's Saturday morning after our monthly gig at the Rainbow hotel here in Melbourne.
We normally play the whole night (9:30 - 12:30 or there about) but last night there was a support act. Female vox with guitar and drums. Kinda jazzy old standards. It's a pretty small stage so even though the other drummer used most of our guys kit, we couldn't really set anything else up before hand. So a quick 15 minute turnaround, including setting up extra mic's and getting levels.
Bit of a weird vibe as we got started - some tension in the air, or something.
Anyway, we got going and things gradually picked up as the night wore on.
We did something a little different to start the second set:- a few weeks ago at rehearsal while waiting for the others to arrive, I started to do a funky/jazzy kinda blues thing that I just mess around with at home - kinda Wes Montgomery via Stevie Ray - just coz I love the sound of it on my Am.Se. Tele; the drummer and bass player joined in and when we finished they suggested we should do something with it. So at rehearsal on Thurs night they suggest we use it on Fri night in the set somewhere - so we did. The three of us got up without the harp player (Chris) and our other guitarist (Steve) and opened the second set with it. Went down a treat! My DRRI was sounding sweet and my fingers just found where to go.
It's only a small bar and it wasn't the biggest crowd we've had there, but all in all a pretty good night.

the Stragglers played for the door as headliner for a three-band concert in the local big-box venue ... extremely cold for here, driving rain all night, several great shows in town ... we didn't draw flies. i counted eight people in the audience during the middle of our set (the opener played to, oh, at least 30!). luckily, the fiddler was buying us all shots of Jack to kill the pain.

but we played our asses off regardless. those eight people will remember that night.

Had a couple of dep gigs on bass with my best buddy's band last night and tonight, as my own bandleader fouled up on bookings. Nice little Country/Irish outfit - simple stuff, but the frontman, Pat, knows his market thoroughly and goes down very well with his target audience.

Last night my buddy Jeff was playing through his HRDx, while I used my Bass Cube 100 and Pat went through his Cube 60 (we've all got 'em). Tonight Jeff used his too; for the first time it was an all-Cube backline and it sounded bloody brilliant.

The Bass Cube is possibly even more remarkable than the Cube 60 guitar amp (and that isn't easy to achieve, IMNPHO). The selection of modelled voices is comprehensive and my word, it's a pokey little beast. Sound out of all proportion to its tiny size. I hardly had any gain or volume dialled in, but Pat (whose guitar skills are a bit basic) still kept asking me to turn down. Bit rich, I thought, when his amp next to mine was belting out the "nanga-nanga-nanga" of his rhythm work at, shall we say, quite a healthy level...

Never mind. It was good fun, the crowd (including some very fetching young ladies) never stopped dancing and a good time was had by all.

Today's gig was funny/weird - great for the band, but I hated my own playing...

It all started off well, until about the 4 or 5th song of the set, when my amp started acting up - and died during the next song (I hope it was only a tube that died, haven't gotten around looking into it yet); well, I had not brought a backup amp, but we had a backup bass amp - on one of our previous gigs, our ancient Peavey bass amp had some problems, and while we had those fixed in the meantime, we just wanted to play it safe, so I brought my own Markbass Little Mark 250 as a backup; the bass player didn't need it, but I plugged it into my Tele and guitar cabinet after my guitar amp died (I knew from previous experiments that I could get a decent clean sound out of that Markbass for guitar).
So, problem solved, but my nerves kinda shook up...
Well, the next time I look into the audience, who do I see? My old guitar teacher (who's a friend of the people who had hired our band for that private graduation party) - whoa, I've got something to prove now... Unfortunatley, I totally messed up the real simple solo on "Jambalaya" that was one of my soloing highlights of our set - total blackout, I didn't even remember what key we were in; EXTREMELY embarrassing, my old guitar teacher's girlfriend ( a great musician herself - she plays violin in a Western Swing band) gave me a knowing, sympathetic look, I wished the ground would have opened up and swallowed me that moment...
Well, after that I played it safe, reduced my solos to the necessary minimum, and really tried to backing up he singer without stepping to the front, even on my "alloted" solo spots.
I don't know what to do about that, though - I've prracticed that song a million times, and I have also played it a million times befor in rehearsals and previous gigs - I feel really bad about messing it up, and in such a noticeable way....

But anyway, the concert went really well, after all, everybody in the audience (about 60 to 70 people) liked it (mostly due to the great showmanship of our singer - he really nows how to "work" the audience), lots of people dancing and singing along, great! The boss of the club even said he'd like to hire us for another gig in the future (and my old guitar teacher complimented us on finding our own unique style of interpreting old classics - thankfully, he didn't comment on my playing...)

Well, we've got a bit of a gigging break coming up, everybody's ultra-busy during the holiday season, and we need January to catch up on rehearsals, but we already go some gigs lined up for February and March...

we played friday night a well frequented saloon within one hour drive. nice crowd, a lot of dancers and good athmosphere. i don´t know what happend to me that evening. i think i messed it up totally. just as RomanSwrote above, i had complete blackouts on soloparts, i never failed. started licks some frets to low or to high, didn´t play tight on some tunes and most embarrassing, started at least 3 songs tuned on drop D while the song was in E, just forget to tune up after the previous songs.... a total mess !! my band mates stared at me from time to time, as if i was an alien player they never saw before. the only good thing was my sound, but that was not a big help.
BUT , the weirdest thing was, after we finished our encores !! the people came up and told us , how great we have been and they loved our songlist and had enjoyed themselves very god. BLABLABLA......i don´t know, if somebody share my feelings about that. you only wish a big dep hole in the stage, you wnat to jump in and people tell you , you´ve been great ....??? sometimes i really don´t get it. or is it the audience not getting it right...... let´s forget about this friday night - cheers !!!

zoppotrump
:O)

Played an Eagles tribute gig at Le Medley in downtown Montreal last night. We've played there 4 times with that show, and it's one of my favorite places to play. Great venue, great staff, and we always draw a good crowd. Last night was our least full house, with Xmas looming and people having way too many other things to do and spend their money on, but we still had a lot of people, and everyone was excited.

We were breaking in a new drummer who had to do his share of our 5 part harmonies, and he was pretty nervous about it. He did really well, and his playing and personality bring a fresh new energy to the band. As for me, I had a tough time all night. I've been really busy for the last few months, and the last few weeks especially with an album launch this Monday, and I felt tired and had a hard time focusing. I sing Henley's vocals and play most of the electric guitar parts, and last night, my brain was working overtime keeping an eye on the drummer and his vocal parts, and I kept forgetting lyrics, which audiences NEVER let you get away with when you're playing songs that have been around for 30 years... After the show ended, I thought I'd given a very average performance, and wasn't too pleased with myself. But folks kept coming up and telling me how great we sounded, how good we made them feel and thanking us for a great evening. I even gave a lengthy interview to a guy who has an online magazine about the local scene, which will be posted sometime in January.

It was especially nice to have a lot of musicians come up and congratulating us, and to talk gear and parts with other guitar players. As a singer and guitarist, this gig is a workout. We must nail every harmony, every lick and fill, and tones too, or else the whole thing goes to the crapper in a hurry. So when another guitarist comes up to chat, it's always nice to have someone who knows give you kudos. I wound up getting home after 4AM, after a bite with the drummer, and my gf slept all the way home, making for a loooong drive by myself, with the radio acting as my don't-fall-asleep-at-the-wheel-you-jackass security.

Today's a day off, with nothing but restringing and maintenance fueled by a few espressos, under the watchful eyes of the dogs making sure I don't eff off and abandon them again for another long night.

Hey there everyone!

Well, I saw that a few folks liked this thread, so I thought I'd bring it back. The stories are just great, guys!

Here's a new one from me:

Just this past saturday, my band The Divorcees had an opportunity to play for about 200 people and share a stage with a heckuva player named Tim Hus. The night went super well and the bar brought a tub of 48 beer and one jug of Jack on stage for us!

Gotta love that.

Viewer discretion advised ...

We did our outdoor "acoustic" drumless trio at The River in Rancho Mirage, CA again today - someone wised up and rescheduled us for 2-5pm instead of the usual 6-9pm, as by that time at night, it gets stupid cool outside ... it was actually almost pleasant for the first two sets, until the sun went down behind the mountains. :roll:

Anyway: Hi, my name is Ed, and I'm a Pick Abuser.

http://i532.photobucket.com/albums/ee328/mudbean/Gig%20Stuff/PickAbuse01.jpg

Above you see today's victims, with a virgin pick for reference. You can see that I use the soft corners - if I strummed with the pointy tip, I'd probably hurt somebody in the audience. You can also see that I'm all over the place - especially today, it was so freakin cold that I could barely feel my fingers, and the picks were rollin around pretty good. This was the result of one set on each pick - I like the feel and response of the Dunlop Tortex, but they do wear a bit. I'm not complaining, BTW, if I try to use something like a tortoise shell plastic, they shatter in minutes.

Here's the culprit, beating the snot out of a poor Ibanez Artwood ...

http://i532.photobucket.com/albums/ee328/mudbean/Gig%20Stuff/MudatTheRiver12-27-0801.jpg

That's my MIM Standard burst on backup duties ... she was lonely today, I actually made it through an entire gig without breaking a string! Go figure. You can also see my Kustom Sienna 35, on the amp stand, peaking around from the right corner - a dozen shows so far and I continue to be pleased by that little sleeper.

mud

So, Mudbean, it looks like you beat that Artwood pretty hard. When you switch to your tele (I got one zactly like it), do you have to lighten up your attack? Or do you have pretty heavy strings on that tele?

So, Mudbean, it looks like you beat that Artwood pretty hard. When you switch to your tele (I got one zactly like it), do you have to lighten up your attack? Or do you have pretty heavy strings on that tele?

To be perfectly honest, I pray to God that I don't need to pick up the Tele, for just that reason. It eats me up like Nibbler. I have to play like I'm hardly touching 'er. I do have 11-52s on both guitars, to try to minimize the culture shock.

mud

okay... well.... All the New Year's threads kinda bummed me out... I felt kind of foolish for being excited to have a gig at my favorite place for new year's eve.... but... I was/am... Our first two sets.... I was kinda bummed I thought we weren't gonna 'get' the crowd and the bar kept filling... we had had about a 2 week layoff from playing together and a couple of the guys were having some issues... the groove was just not happening.... but, in the 3rd set we started hitting and the we won them over (I suspect the alcohol didn't hurt either) but it was a full house and we made good dough and the tip bucket had 3 20's in it and several 10's and a bunch of 5's! The owner gave us a bonus (we kinda asked for it) and he wants us to play there at least twice a month for the next year...

I'm not in the market by any stretch but holy cow there were some 'lookers' tonight... sheesh!

I had a very very very mediocre night playing... weird because I played a bunch today and was playing great at home... the not good groove is a contributing factor... our big mishap tonight was a woman who fell into the singer/fiddle players mic stand and smashed him in the mouth... he was freaked out for a second but I told him "you're not bleeding, keep going..." and he did.

In all, a good night.. not without challenges but I'm glad we played the gig... we keep getting airplay on two local stations and it seems to be attracting new people to gigs... pretty fun for a bunch of old guys.... and not a bad way to start the new year....

My NYE booking wasn't too bad at all - nothing remarkable to report re the gig itself; we played, everyone enjoyed it and a good time was had by all. But it was at Sydenham in the extreme south-east of London and, to get to it, about the only way for me to get there is right through the middle. But in anticipation of all the midnight revels the police had closed a lot of routes, including Westminster Bridge (that's the one by the famous Big Ben clock tower*). So I had to divert but got to the venue in time anyway.

However, on the way back afterwards I've never seen anything like it. The traffic was unbelievable - as bad as the worst rush-hour snarl-up I've ever experienced. Park Lane northbound was the worst - it took half an hour to go half a mile. I'd have been better off taking a 50-mile detour and skirting around the capital, but hindsight is always crystal clear, isn't it? Still, almost any gig is better than no gig and I'd do it again without hesitation.

Just as well we don't have the tip-jar system here - we'd all starve to death!

*It's really St. Stephen's Tower - Big Ben is actually the large hour-striking bell itself.

I never knew about the English and tipping thing... go figure...

The tip jar thing for us came from a patron who said (drunkenly about 5 gigs ago) "I don't care what they are paying you guys, it ain't enough" and she passed the hat... The owner pays us our contracted amount (and often a bonus based on the house) so, it is like a bonus... The tip jar has never failed to pay for everyone's gas at minimum... so, it is a good thing.

Best of both worlds then... In general here in England cover and tribute bands work for a fixed fee agreed in advance, at least in the situations I've been familiar with. (OTOH, for guys doing original material, trying to break into the market and get a record deal, pay-to-play is still not unheard-of, but that's really a different market altogether.)

I didn't encounter the tip-jar system until I first visited the USA... as a fellow-musician in the audience I feel it's a matter of professional courtesy, so to speak, to slip a few bucks in even if the band isn't much good (which is rare). But, however well they play, I imagine it can be very dependent on external factors like weather, day of the week, who's in the next bar, etc.

Mind you, I once played a whole gig with a pal of mine near Austin, just for fun and the privilege of being asked to do it. As a foreign visitor to the USA, of course I'm not allowed to work for pay, but my buddy set aside "my" share of the tip-jar to take me and my wife out for a nice dinner locally, which was nice of him and also surprising because there hadn't seemed to be that many people in the bar that night...

I did a fill-in for a band in a small bar/restaurant in southern Pennsylvania last night. It was a very small crowd, not much money, but one of the most enjoyable jobs I've played in a long time. The crowd was very appreciative of the music, I played well (for me) and I was very pleased with my tone. I also got to play with a pedal steel player I used to work with many years ago; that was a treat. As a bonus, the drummer's brother was there and he needs a guitarist/singer this Saturday for his band, so I picked up another job. Made it home safely (I don't drink), time to watch some football now!

... I felt kind of foolish for being excited ...

Silly, you know you needn't do that!

... our big mishap tonight was a woman who fell into the singer/fiddle players mic stand and smashed him in the mouth... he was freaked out for a second but I told him "you're not bleeding, keep going..." and he did.

Been there, right there ... it's really scary when you're playing a country club NYE party, and the lady going down over your monitor is, like, A HUNDRED, and you're wondering if she's gonna get up, or if this is a broken hip or "the big one."

In all, a good night.. not without challenges but I'm glad we played the gig... we keep getting airplay on two local stations and it seems to be attracting new people to gigs... pretty fun for a bunch of old guys.... and not a bad way to start the new year....

Swing on, brothah!

mud

i know, it is a little late, but i really forgot to post:
we played a gig short after x-mas in a ig dance hall. maybe it was because of the holidays, that the audience did not move very much, though it was crowded and sold out. it took us two sets to get them to fill the dance floor. when we finished, an ice rain had just started, so we decided to stay for the night and went straight to the bar....
next day travel was much better and no mess at all.

zoppotrump
:O)

when we finished, an ice rain had just started...

Hail, Caesar!

OK, I'll bite. Just got home from my gig tonight. Played the Broken Spoke here in town, and had us a nice big crowd, band sounded good and we all had fun. People seemed to be still having the holiday spirit and a good time was had by all. I'm kind of wound up and not able to get to sleep so I have the Tee Vee on and the laptop in my lap and here we are. As for Tele content as prescribed by law, I played my old Tele tonight, I'd been neglecting her for the past month or so, been playing the 52RI on my gigs lately. I ran her through my 69 Pro Reverb via Tuner, Keeley Comp, Keeley Katana and Boss DM-2. She felt good and barked and purred like a good Tele should.
That's about it. Gonna hit the rack now.

got home kinda late 2:30. Woof... we started kinda slow last night... a smaller crowd to be sure... the bar manager said not to worry the 'serious drinkers' were in the house... and by the 3rd set they'd come alive... the owner asked if we'd play a couple of extras at the end of the night and we were so glad to be cookin' we were happy to do it.

He asked us to sit down with him after the gig and plan out the year and when we'd like to play there and what would work for him... a really nice conversation with the calendar out...

a couple of our guys had pretty rough nights playing wise and just being kind of 'scattered' but, I guess it worked out okay... Can you really have a conversation about it as a band? The defense is such a natural.. 'What are you worried about? Happy customers, dancing folks, we got paid, everybody is happy... why can't you just enjoy it?'

So, I think, let it go, right? I'm sure the guys were tired or whatever...

In all, a good gig... the last hour was a blast... we are getting a lot of requests now.. many of the tunes I know... but, the band has not worked them up...

yesterday we played our annual gig at the local county jail. we started this 3 years ago and is still something special.
the gig took place in the church of the jail !! and we had about 300 people attending ( all volunteerly attending ! ) amongst them about 60 women, separated from the guys on the upper gallery.
it was weird as always, when we started our first song, everybody was sitting, no one move, no holler, nothing....
after the last chord, it is like breaking through, the whole crowd jumped up and cheered and howled.
we played for two hours and during the encores everybody was on their feet. even the wardens were swaying a little bit....
i like these gigs, we don´t charge anything, but when you pass these big beton walls and these huge gates on your way out, you feel always a little bit reliefed...

zoppotrump
:O)

Just got back from a great gig; played at a small bar, the place was packed, people were really getting into it, dancing in the little space there was, singing along, lots of fun; we played over 3 hours, and they didn't want to let us get off the stage (figuratively speaking - actually, there was no real stage, we played on the same level as the audience).
Made quite a bit of money, too, and got booked for a gig at a rock'n'roll festival in May - perfect!

I'm still on a bit of an adrenaline rush, so I'm editing the pics my girlfriend took, and surfing TDPRI to wind down...

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/bm3787.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/bm3789.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/bm3802.jpg

Roman, those are awesome pictures! I can't believe you are 37! You look more like 25! You must be living right!

I kinda forgot to post in this thread... I'd decided to always post here after a gig and I've missed a few. We played at Daisy's tonight... pretty small crowd.. but, they got way into it and we'd learned a couple of the owners favorites and he was thrilled that we played them...

At the end of the night a really attractive woman came up to the bandstand and put a 100.00 in the tip jar and said, "play two fast songs for a hundred?" Man! my amp was off!... and ON again in two seconds... we did a roarin' Hot Rod Lincoln and Folsom Prison Blues and the locals loved it.

I played my sherwood green homebuilt tele all night... and my twin... I think I have a problem with the twin... it was HOT at the end of the night. I had a great night... some very nice folks and several who liked my playing and two guys at the bar who stopped me and said, "your guitar makes me smile! its twangy and it sounds 'real'."

Kind of a cool compliment (I'll take it).... the downside, I woke up this morning with a fever... gave a 2 hour presentation (driving all the way to Elk Grove) drove home feeling lousy, took my son to little league practice, threw batting practice for an hour of a 2 hour practice.... came home, showered, ate, loaded up and just got home. I've got 102º and feel pretty yucky... but, I made it through and nobody knew (except my bandmates who appreciated me not being a ***** about it.)

So, my head is fuzzy and I"m tired, but I can't sleep yet.... a good gig... I made my share of mistakes tonight... no one seems to notice... I need to find a way to get my mind right about... I HATE making mistakes.

Frequently, on the way to gigs, I actually get mad at myself and ask "Why am I subjecting myself to this...?" and then it is fun and I am happy about it.... I guess I'll always be like that...

time for nyquil.

Last night we played our monthly gig in town.
Just to change things up a bit, we threw in a couple of songs we hadn't done before, including an original.
It all went well. It was actually a pretty relaxed kinda feel to the night for us.
I think we are finally starting to gel as a band, and the result is that we feel more comfortable and able to tackle any "situation" that may arise on stage.
We played with a lot more dynamics, light and shade, and took a few of the regular numbers into previously uncharted waters!
A very pleasant night.

Roman, those are awesome pictures! I can't believe you are 37! You look more like 25! You must be living right!



Hey, thanks! I guess having so much fun on stage makes you look younger (that, or it's the fat padding out the wrinkles... :mrgreen:)

Good on ya RomanS and PeteMac for digging this up. I couldn't find it last night- maybe my computer driving skills were kinda impaired...
We played the Eltham RSL last night, my local. Loading the car took about 3 times as long as the drive!!! We have some photos too, but until I get bandwidth back, they'll have to wait.
When I got there, I was a little perplexed as to the unannounced covercharge. But it turned out that the club was collecting $5 a head for the bushfire relief fund. So, no complaints from me!!
Had a good crowd, including quite a few of my better half's workmates. It's frightening what childcare workers get up to out-of-hours!! Also saw Mr and Mrs MacDog... Thanks for coming, guys!!
#1 son has been working on his vocals, and also watching lotsa YouTube of SRV to check out Tommy Shannon. Last night, it showed. It's a little spooky listening to the fruit of your own loins singing harmony with you:shock:
We also did a Chuck Berry/Stones double, "Oh, Carol" and "Little Queenie" with our drummer Darren's 8yo daughter Audrey singing. They always say never work with kids or animals...:grin: She was a scene-stealer!!
I've been using Darren's cymbal case as a prehistoric beam blocker for a while now. It works great! Where before I couldn't get the AC30 over about 12-1 o'clock on the volume for fear of making the ears bleed of those poor unfortunates in front of me, now I can get it to 2:30-3 o'clock. It makes my 52RI just sing... Also did 3 or 4 tunes on slide with my Blazer, and that sounded sweeter than it has for quite a while.
Towards the end of the night I noticed the barmaids- they were dancing!!
After the gig, the bar manager said "You were the loudest band we've had so far... you were also the best." I was stoked with that, and also the extra bookings.
Putting the "loud" thing into perspective, I checked out a "band" there a few weeks back. As I got off my bike in the carpark, I couldn't hear any music. I walked into the bar area, and found a drummerless 4 piece (sequencer backing...:rolleyes:). About 60 folks in there, and the conversation noise was louder than the music. There was a guy next to me at the bar, mid-50ish. He turns to me and says, "...And we are paying for this..."
Let's keep this one going, it's good to hear what everyone's up to!!

...with the version of "Voodoo Chile" we did last night. I've been messing around with that song ever since I bought a crybaby pedal ten years ago, and I never though I would have the balls to play it onstage. Several guys in the crowd said that when they realised what I was about to attempt, they couldn't believe I had the nerve, then they said it was the best part of the whole show. My wife said she got "chills".

I'm not boasting exactly, because I know there are guys here who can probably nail that song, but my band is a bunch of weekenders with straight day jobs, and our idea of a good show is where we each make a hundred bucks and have enough left over to pay the sound man and the bar tab. We started out doing mocking punk-style covers of silly pop songs, but we pepper the act with some honest attempts to do justice to some of the good songs we like. Lately, with our new drummer, we've been playing some pretty good stuff.

Anyway, I used the neck pickup on my nashville telecaster through a dunlop crybaby and my hot rod deluxe, and the ol' tele turned in a good performance. I know Jimi preferred the strat, but I think he would have liked what we did last night.

Oh yeah, and a little PS here, I just remembered, last night during a break, the singer in my other a-bit-more-serious band came up to me and told me we are scheduled to open for Fred Eaglesmith this spring! It was a good night for everyone. The kids in that band are well excited, I can tell you.

Did our "first Friday of the month" gig last night...:roll:
What a crock, on my part. I felt like I had rented the hands of an idiot for the evening. Darren, our drummer, who has a lot of experience in bands, reckons he couldn't tell, but I felt like I spent the whole night "chasing", instead of making music... if you catch my drift.
Ever had one of those nights?..

Yeah Dave, most nights . . .

We had one at the Rosstown last night.
Soulless, pokeys filled hole !!!

We had to wait for the bistro to finish serving, and for the diners that were using the tables where we were to set up to finish. Then had to set up the pub's p.a. as well as our own gear. Just as we start moving tables the duty manager waltzes by and asks, "You guys ready to go?" !!! I almost threw the table I was moving at him!

Despite that, and the fact there was no crowd once they had finished eating, we played and sounded good. We had a good time anyway.

. . . and you know what really chews my biscuit, the only reason they have bands there is so that they can have more poker machines there !!!

We had another gig booked there for early next month . . . we cancelled it today!

saturday night, we played an small venue somewhere out in the woods - i never been in this part of the country and was wondering, if there would be any audience at all...
but it turned out to be a very nice, comfortable gig. awesome friendly people, listening to the music and dancing as well - everybody had a great time and we got booked again.
we even got a few stagehands to help us getting our equipment back into the car...
i could get used to this....

take care everybody
zoppotrump
:O)

Yeah, that's my experience, too, in those remote places off the beaten track audiences are often more appreciative of good bands than the "seen it all" guys in the city...

I missed my last chance to post about my last job with the old band back in early February...

Lots of tension on stage.

The drummer let somebody sit in for him...and that was interesting.

The three guys who quit us to form a new band obviously played some of their new arrangements during the night. Oops! :smile:

As we were tearing down I announced that I was taking my stuff how with me that night...so we had the official band divorce right there on the stage as we loaded out.


The Mighty Ford Power Ranger was COMPLETELY full on the way back...but shoot...if I hadn't picked out my gear then, I don't know when I would have.

Anyway, that part of my life is over.

We had a gig like Zoppotrump's last night too-The Levee, in Dunnellon Florida, about a 90 minute drive from home-guy said "oh we have a big PA, don't worry, it should be fine". So we get there, and the PA is one of those little box mixer deals, and actually less powerful than my own... room is pretty small, and totally empty when we get there. By the time we started to play, on the other hand... it was SRO, they were bringing in extra tables and chairs trying to seat everybody... by the third song, they were all up and dancing and singing along with the band (blues-rockabilly-r&b) the singer, who hadn't really played in a band and didn't know her stagecraft that well, started taking my cues and worked the crowd-the place was absolutely rocking! At the end of the night, the owner comes up to us and rebooks a full weekend at the end of the month, with more gigs to come in April...

The only drag of the night was getting home-90 minutes of back roads and speed traps (and no I didn't get caught!)

Franc Robert

www.myspace.com/deltaaces

...
The only drag of the night was getting home-90 minutes of back roads and speed traps...

Speed traps in Florida?

Surely you jest!

Oy, got behind... I have two to report. we played a birthday party... pretty good but about 20 minutes before we started a woman (who knows) comes up and says "you are gonna play the songs we discussed, right?" and I smile and say, "Oh, I wasn't the one who you spoke to... lets find out." turns out she NEVER had the conversation, she was just 'thinking of having it'... what are the songs? There are just 5... and we don't do any of them... no problem, we all kinda know them... they have wireless and a printer, I have my laptop... I find three that we agree on, clean'em up real fast, print them for the band... we're playing 3 hours... we do them at the beginning of the third hour... kinda okay... everybody happy. Thank you wireless! I wanna figure out a printing adapter for my iphone now.... (I guess a pen and paper would do just fine)

Last nights gig was a good one. we all made a few mistakes, but I can tell we are finally swinging in a regular fashion and without a ton of effort. The crowd was smaller but enthusiastic and several VERY attractive women who were putting on a show for the boys!

I took the tone king last night and I'm back to my homemade phaser, delay, drive pedal, I still have my Boss tuner and PS5... kinda nice to have a simple setup and mostly homemade... The big change was I spent about 2 hours dialing in amp and guitar in the morning... I must have adjusted the pickups about 10 different ways (no casters) man, that rig sounded great! if you've never played an imperial... it is just a wonderful experience.

We had about 120 in the tip jar plus our usual rate... so, it was a good night... the bar has guinness on tap... so, I enjoyed two of them last night... omg, if you had seen these girls dancing last night... the bouncer told us he hated to have to kinda warn them, but it was getting a little out of hand... fortunately, it was all happening right in front of me....

the fiddle player and I agreed that when we are old geezers (more than now) we'll sit in our rockers and think of those two...

what is that old Charley Pride song "you're so good, when you're bad."

... omg, if you had seen these girls dancing last night... the bouncer told us he hated to have to kinda warn them, but it was getting a little out of hand... fortunately, it was all happening right in front of me....

So what's the deal?

Do you have the world's ONLY iPhone that doesn't take pictures?

Don't forget that Uncle Buck is living vicariously through those of you who are still playing.

:wink:

oh man, there were some camera phones going on... I was busy, what was I doing? oh yeah... making mistakes on my guitar! plus, unless I remember to put my iphone in airplane mode it makes a racket on the amp when I get new mail which is way too often.

Buck, I do have moments where i feel guilty that I"m gigging and guys who are thousands of times better than me at home....

oh wait, I gotta tell you about two of the girls.... one was bsh (first word brick) just built for speed, grey tshirt and jeans... reminded me of a girlfriend in college.. dark brown hair... cowboy boots... the second is wearing carhart overalls (I told you this place is uh 'informal') and a wife beater tshirt... blonde and SASSY, mouthy in a funny drunk way.... at a break she asks me if she is underdressed and I laugh and say..."first, a girl in overalls and wife beater tshirt might be my favorite outfit for a girl... second, uhh, is that blood on those carharts?" She starts laughing and says, "we were pig hunting (they are from Prunedale.. in our total area there is a pretty big wild pig 'problem') and couldn't find any so we were getting rid of bunnies in the groves (again, another problem for growers)... and they laugh... I ask, "what kind of gun were you using" (we used to eradicate using a pellet gun at my families avo orchards) she says, "a 270."

"Holy Cats, was there any bunny left when you shot them?" "about half."

As the night wore on... the straps, second tshirt and eventually the carharts were no more to reveal some very tasty shorts and work boots on the one gal and a sports bra, jeans and cowboy boots on the other...

These two girls (very early 20's) also knew the lyrics to more than half of our songs (old 60's and 70's country)... They talked us into an encore too...

Oink Oink!

:wink:

suuuuuuueeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyy....

buck, these are our kind of girls (like 20 year ago for me...)

Thems the kind of wimmens I wanna meet . . .



Just got home from a gig in town . . . it was always gonna be "one of those nights" right from the get go.
First up: it was our first gig without our harp player (Chris), great guy, great player and an integral part of our sound. Lots of stuff going on in his life and he felt it's time for a break.
Second: We had all spoken about it and agreed that we wouldn't get any replacement just yet, and no "sit-ins" or try-outs. Just get through a couple of gigs as a 4 peice. . . so we get to the gig and the drummer (kinda band leader) has invited a banjo player along to sit in on a couple of numbers !!! . . . A banjo player in an electric blues band !!! So we picked out a few songs that we thought would suit (little bit o' cajun, little slow country blues) and it did sound kinda neat. (But we had already agreed . . . !!! )
Third: The pub's regular sound desk was out for repairs - replacement desk was totally different, wired up wrong and had been messed with by previous bands . . . no front of house sound (we only mic vocals) and screaming feedback from the monitors - despite ALL the faders being OFF !

So we battled through the first set (our drummer did the set list tonight and, due to a recent back injury, made it a 3 shorter set night) while the owner of the pub did his best with the P.A. Second set was only marginally better.
At the second break we got it fixed - and in the third set, just went for it.
Friends and some regulars said we've never sounded better !!!
We had a blast, and dragged that last set out - it felt so good we didn't want to stop. :grin: But time was up... :sad:

oh man. it is 2:08. I just got home. Great gig. Good crowd, lots of regulars, lots of very wild women who were drinking big time and lots of nice folks full of compliments, a happy bar owner and manager and 5 more gigs at least.

The bar has been struggling and we sat down and worked up a plan that will help them and us... we had 180 in the tip jar on top of 500 for the night. We sold 4 tshirts.. and get this... I've been taking my zoom H2 for the last 5 or 6 gigs and recording the band... I cleaned up some tracks and got 11 that were okay.... so, I made them into a cd and I have a sleeve that I can put 'Live at _____' their location. We sell them for 10.00 (we have about 2.00 into them i'd guess) we sold 12 tonight! yeah!

The wild girls were back tonight... and some of the older women were 'competing' with them... we got flashed 3 times tonight! sweet! no, no cameras... you know, you kinda gotta be there for that stuff....

I have decided that doing the bar band thing where we play what we like and people get into it.. is the way to go.... it is so fun....

for all the hassle of loading and unloading and the occasional weird patron or problem... a good gig is... well, really really really fun... I'm exhausted but happy...

If you haven't played in a band.... you owe it to yourself.

Did a solo acoustic gig warming up for two bands at a new venue called "Route 31" in Dandenong---stop snickering, PeteMac---. Went to the address on the worksheet. "31A Lonsdale St"... Hmmm. this looks suspiciously like the Iveco truck factory... Get out the phone... "Ah,... 31A Langhorne St"...
Find the address, club is down an alley off a ratty sidestreet, at the back of strip joint:roll:
Work my way through the line-- of guys waiting to get into the strip joint-- to find the venue basically empty. Oh, well... (I didn't really expect any different)

So, I got bar staff and members of the bands walking in with gear and a captive audience of one sound guy. His name was Gavin. So I set myself the task of entertaining Gavin for an hour.:grin:
In the end, I enjoyed myself, Gavin liked it, one of the barmaids got up (with her mum...??) and danced to "I just Wanna make Love to You" (and, no I didn't really...). The other bands liked it. The manager liked it- probably because he got three acts on a door deal-- But I ain't driving an hour for a 1/3 split of "Sweet F.A." again, that's for sure!!:wink:

Had a great gig at a local bar/pub yesterday night; we playedtwo ninety minute sets, and by the end EVERYBODY was dancing. The owner was really happy with us and said he would book us again soon.
It also seems like we're slowly developing a fan-base, quite a few faces looked familiar from previous gigs; and it seems audience members are referring us to unusual events & locations - in the next months we're going to play at the 40th anniversary of a soccer club, at a dog breeders organisations' annual meeting, at a small outdoor festival at the local commercial harbour, and other stuff like that (all paying good money, too!)

Just came back from the very first gig with my "other" project (not my country-rock/rockabilly band that I usually play with) - this is a duo with a singer-songwriter, we play mostly originals, and a few covers (Dave Alvin, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, etc.)

Well, I guess it was not a "real" gig - we played a 45min. set at an "Open Stage" folk/roots/singer-songwriter night at a local club.
We were supposed to be the second band on stage, but the first one never showed up, so we had to do a minimal sound-check and start playing within 5 min. after arriving at the place, that kinda caught me on the wrong foot; I usually don't suffer from stage fright at all, but that and the fact that 90% of the audience were other musicians, and that you can't hide behind the band when making a mistake in a duo really made me nervous, and I think that showed in my playing; we made a couple of mistakes, but were able to pull through with every song.
But even though I didn't like my playing a lot tonight, it seems that the audience dug it - a couple of guys came up to us after our set, one wants to use our music for a low-budget film-production of the local Film School of Arts, and another one booked us for a show - on January 1st, 2010 :shock: I guess that leaves us plenty of time for practicing more... He organizes this annual festival commemorating the deaths of Hank Williams and Townes Van Zandt, and since both of them died on Jan 1st (or in the night before), that festival is also on that date.

Two more concerts coming up this week, with my regular band, one on Fri., one on Sat. (and the latter one is of the well-payed kind...:mrgreen:)

The wild girls were back tonight... and some of the older women were 'competing' with them... we got flashed 3 times tonight! sweet! no, no cameras... you know, you kinda gotta be there for that stuff....

Awright, that's it - I'm takin a roadtrip to come see you play! :grin:

If you haven't played in a band.... you owe it to yourself.

+1,000,000

mud

Am I the only one keeping this thread alive? Gigging players, where are you?

Just came back from the second of two very different gigs in a row, with my country rock/rockabilly band...

Yesterday we played at a club popular with local university students; the place was packed; really hot, really bad air, my clothes still smell like an ashtray. Great rocking gig, everybody was dancing, lots of pretty girls (one asked our singer during our break whether I'm still single - fortunately (unfortunately?) my girlfriend was also there...) Had lots of fun, but it was a very exhausting gig.
An old friend I hadn't seen in a long time was there, she's got a BA in fine arts and took some great gig pics for our homepage; also, usually she listens to hardcore punk rock, and said she was only there to meet me, and would only stay for a couple of songs, because that wasn't her kind of music - well, she stayed for the full two sets & encore in the end...

Today we played at a place on the outskirts of town (I guess in the US you'd call it a roadhouse) - lots of people again, but the average age was 50+ So we played much more relaxed, a bit slower, a bit less loud, I think we never played that good (in a technical sense) before. There were some members of a line dancing club there, and they asked for "Achy Breaky Heart" - well, none of us knows or likes that song, so that had to be satisfied with a medley of Jambalaya and Ring Of Fire. Made quite a bit of money too, and the owner of the place said that he wants us to play there once a month...

OK . . . just got home from our second gig as an acoustic blues 3 piece.
Great fun. We're not the tightest nuts on the car right now, but it's only our 2nd gig and as many practices...
Just doing some standard old blues stuff, some good stuff that we give (try to give) a bluesier feel than they might have begun with and some country'ish type things (Stones'y) that have some swing.
No music up as yet, but some videos will be up shortly.
www.myspace.com/theboneyarsedboys

Pete.

A fun night was had by all at the Williamstown RSL tonight, by golly...
First set, I brought out the new member of the family- a Cort strat copy I bought Tuesday, and set up yesterday. Picked it up at a hock shop for $150AUD. 2 point trem, Squier body (apparently they build the MIK Squiers)routed h/s/h, kinda creamy, off-white colour, maple neck, 1 ply pg, std pups. The worst thing about it is the BONE-fugly headstock. I can see a flapper-disc-on-the-angle-grinder session in my immediate future... Pups are pretty thin sounding, so they are coming OUT. Trem stays in tune really well (used it for 6 songs, including Peter Gunn- riding the talent bar!!). I picked up a freebie Squier which I was going to upgrade, but this one beats it into the ground. The freebie is going to the teenage boys....
We have been working with a guy who's been doing an Elvis show, so we got him up for 7 songs tonight; Blue Suede Shoes, Trouble, See See Rider, Johnny B Goode, Jailhouse Rock, Lawdy Miss Claudie, and Little Sister. Great fun, and the crowd dug the amped-up rockabilly style backing. Dialled up some slapback in the ol' Zoom pedal, middle position on the switch and instant authentic-ish guitar sound!!
We were supposed to finish at 11, but we were having such a good one, and the dancers wouldn't stop, so I decided to run them into the ground... 40 minutes overtime!! The extra paid for the post-gig pizzas.:grin:


BTW, got some gear photos up on our website, if you wanna take a squizz.

sorry to be late to the party. I've not backed an elvis imitator, but we do a couple of elvis songs... they are big fun.

We've had 3 gigs since I last posted. Last sunday was a fun, super hot (temperature wise) shindig at a reasonably local watering hole/biker bar. Tons of motor sickle enthusiasts came through during the day... (we played from 1:30 - 6) we also decided to take only 10 minute breaks and less talk from the bandstand. The original goal was to play all the songs we knew as a band... we came up about 15 short!

I played my bender and green tele. I'm still struggling with not actuating the bender, but making progress!

We played last night for a smaller, shorter event... which was fine but uneventful. Nice people and very kind and we played fine.... it has been a super long week at work, lots of late nights... so, I focused on playing well and a little less exuberance... which was the right thing for this job... we were just musical wall paper.

Today we played a wine festival in a town called boulder creek. It was just an hour spot, very nice! roadies! Sound system provided! No humping gear! woo hoo.

We were down a player today (no steel player for two gigs) and we played just fine! A small but appreciative crowd... we were really kind of overwhelmed at how many people came up after we played with nice comments and compliments. Got home about 3:30 and took a nap....

We got the trailer loaded up and we won't be opening it up again until next friday when we play at our favorite place... I can hardly wait!

The arrow on the icon indicates that I've posted to this thread previously.

Saturday night's job was a heartbreaker. It was at a martini bar that I've played countless times over the years, and have built a loyal following at. This was the first night under new management. Before and after sets, there was incongruous, pulverizing hiphop bass, complete with horrendously obscene lyrics. The new management had decided that it would be cool if there were two entirely different types of music on both levels of the club, with us on the top floor, and much louder rap nonsense below. We didn't stand a chance. During our second set, the new manager came up after our second tune and asked us to quit playing because there was an Ultimate Fighting Championship contest on the television. This is exactly the sort of scenario that I've worked so hard to avoid over the years. We've always packed this room to the gills, but by this time, many of of our loyal regulars had respectfully bid us goodnight, and I've the feeling they won't be back to this room. By the end of the evening, some drunk broad had invited herself onstage and had decided to sing badly and grope my unsuspecting butt. You can't buy class, you can't even rent it.

I think the new manager's marketing aims are transparent; he wants to please everybody. However, having been in this game for three decades, I can say without a doubt that you can't please everyone. If a venue regularly attracts a mellow and substantial listening and drinking/eating clientele, there's really no reason to turn it into instant gratification/American Idol/karaoke/rap stupidity, simply because you happen to be in charge and happen to be a stupid, clueless person. And from a marketing standpoint, my experience also indicates that you won't be around for long if you're not sure as to what sort of clientele you wish to attract (kindest way of saying it).

As of Saturday night, I've lost forever much of the clientele that I've busted my ass to build within that bar over the years, and I'm sure of it. They were as pissed with the scenario as was I, but I had to work. When asked about future dates at the end of the night, I begged forgiveness and said that I'd forgotten my "little black book"; the truth of the matter is that I've about as much interest in playing that bar again under current mgmt. as I do in being impaled by Vlad Dracula in the fifteenth century. I won't be back under the current regime, apologies in advance, thank you very much.

a few days ago, we played in a big "biergarten". only about 10% of the people were into country music, but nevertheless, it was a very pleasing audience. applause, encores and because it stayed crowded till closing time, the manager gave us a 10% surplus on our rate. sometimes it is real fun and some sort of interesting to play your songs to people, who normaly never would listen to your tunes in an other place.

as for the upcoming weekend, we will be performing sunday night at the second biggest country & trucker festival in germany. that will be a blast. can´t wait till sunday....

zoppotrump

I'll start with excuses: I've had a nasty bug all week and stayed in bed most of the day today... we've played with different guys playing different roles of late.... the whole group hadn't played together in two weeks....

Oh man. The bar had a weird vibe... our set up went okay... a few weeks back two members delicately suggested that they maybe could do a better job at doing the sound... No problem says I! and they ran the sound... but really struggled and nearly smoked the mains because they had some buttons pushed incorrectly which caused the coils to heat up and catch fire....

all rear view mirror stuff except when I discovered what they'd done and suggested that unless we wanted to buy new mains we could fix it.... anyway, tonight they decided that the best sound check was 'screw it, it will be fine.'

NO test of the mics. First song... instant feedback.... it rattled our fiddle player and he started forgetting lyrics. I can't actually list everything that went wrong tonight.... it would be like Moby Dick or something....

One of our players just stopped playing in about the 3rd set and declared that he just couldn't get in tune. I've never actually had that happen before.... I think he just hit a wall...

Anyway, I did not play particularly well, but I soldiered on and sometimes thats gotta do... I was surprised at how many parts that I know how to play for the other melody instruments...

We did well enough in the last two sets that the locals (a very drunk and celebratory crowd including a new grandfather who bought the house not one, but two drinks!) cheered and went nuts and we let them sing on "I love this bar" (a song that is painful to listen to and play, but they love it)

In the end, the band was pretty freaked out, but we got 6 more dates, a 100.00 bonus and we made 160.00 in tips, sold 5 tshirts and 3 cds....

We kept smiling throughout... but I have a headache (did not drink, just sinuses hating on me) I'll drink a couple of glasses of water and get some shuteye.... I cannot believe how much I sweat!

Last night, I went to see my nephew's band "The Higher" play a show.... very tight, very professional 8 songs and gone.... the crowd (of very attractive mostly young ladies) went berserk...

Tonight was anything BUT professional... A good dose of humility is healthy... when I wake up in the morning (if I'm not struck down for sucking) I'm going to create a plan for myself to make sure that I play NO role in poor play. Sure, you can have an off night, but, I think that maybe by becoming more proficient, I can raise the level of the band and maybe encourage the other guys to take it up a notch...

Not all gigs go well. A good friend has a rhythm section with a drummer (he's a bass player and they have keys too) and he said he and the drummer backed this guy last weekend who was so embarrassing that he said he played with his back to the audience hoping no one would recognize him.... after the gig as he was skulking back to his truck... the guy chased after him and said, "dude, you guys were awesome... would, uh, you guys like to have a band?"

this stuff can be hard! it is 2:25... best get some sleep.

Quiet night last night. We went pretty well, had some video shot for promo purposes that went ok, played the Korean hockshop queen for a couple of tunes until the D string broke:roll: Am awaiting my little parcel'o'fun from GFS soon, so I'll be looking forward to the next gig.
I've been getting a pretty good sound by using the drummer's cymbal case in front of the AC30, moving it around until it's just right. Like a beamblocker without the price tag:grin:
I've been using these gigs as a chance to lash out when it comes to solos and fills, having a bit of an experiment with sounds, but more so to stretch out and break some habits. Don't always suceed, though!
Young PeteMac dropped in for a beer after his acoustic gig (in the next street) Haven't caught up in the real world for a while, we always seem to be playing on the same night!
Some money was made, pizza was ordered, the cycle continues...:cool:

last weekend we played germanys biggest country music festival and it was great on one side and a mess on the other.
the total weekend was perfect, lots of nice fellow musicians and people, great big audience ( every day around 5-6000 people ) and the weather fitted in.
the bad thing was, that the sound company had installed a new digital mixing console for public and stage monitoring...
as we had a very sharp stage-changing schedule in between the different bands of only 20 minutes, so everyone had to do the whole soundcheck all before the days show started.
and guess what happened - some freaking i***t erased all the saved soundcheck settings of the whole day, we were scheduled to perform.
and it´s a well known szenario, that things mostly get worse, when you try to ajust or repair things in a ultra -hurry !!
so these "specialists" tried to ajust the sound on stage and to the public adress during the sets !!!
that meant, f.e. that after 2 songs, your voice was totally off your monitor, whilst the drummer was screaming, that his ears got destroyed by the female singers voice so much too loud.
people in the audience told us, that for 2 songs, no singer or background could be heard at all, it was weird watching us sing and only see the lip movements, and so on....
we had a 2 hour set to go and only the last 40 minutes were so, we could say, it was ok.
the bands before and after us had the same experiences and from time to time, the let shreeking feedback wake up the whole audience.
the manager of the festival was freaking mad and cancelled the contract for the PA company for the next events the same day.
we had a fun weekend and sure needed a few shots and beers backstage to calmdown...

zoppotrump
:O)

I have a job next Tuesday.

WMT Tractorcade.

11:00 am

I hope I am up for writing an after action report when I get in.

It should be something like 4:30 pm.

Hope I can gut it out! :roll:

Here I am, just back from the WMT Tractorcade (http://www.wmtradio.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=119017&article=4798661).

We played in Holy Cross IA. In a tent. About 20 feet from the road.

Beautiful day.

Overcast. A few sprinkles. High 60s to the 70s. I don't think we saw anything in the 80s.

I didn't even break a sweat during the load in OR load out.

We had drums, bass, fiddle, and two guitars.

Played polkas, waltzes, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings, Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, Hank Snow, Orange Blossom Special (x 2), Soldiers Joy, David Allan Coe, Pee Wee King, Won't You Ride in My Little Red Wagon, Statler Brothers, 3 Dog Night, CCR, some bluegrass...it was about as eclectic as you could imagine.

So here's the deal on Tractorcade. They spend the day riding their tractors. Today's trip started in Dubuque IA and they took about 25 miles of county roads to Holy Cross. They lunched over in Holy Cross and then drove a different 25 miles of county roads back to Dubuque. That's what they did yesterday, today, and they will do it again tomorrow, spending each night at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds.

Seas of RED. Oceans of GREEN. A little bit of ORANGE and BLUE.

They were traveling in "groups." About 100 per group. There were either 6 or 7 groups. I lost track. That's a lot of tractors.

That street that was 20 feet away?

Aha! That's where they parked!

Can you imagine the sounds and smells as 100 gasoline, diesel, or propane tractors crank up and pull away?

Of course, only to be replaced by the next group to arrive.

The drivers would park their tractors. Go into the school and grab some foods, come outside and sit on the picnic tables in front of us, eat the foods, talk tractors, shout out requests, and listen to the tunes.

Played Happy Birthday four (4) times!

There was a couple HONEYMOONING on the Tractorcade so we did something special for them.

It was an absolute hoot and a half!

I would do it everyday this summer if I could.

Here is the Joe Schmitt Orchestra, in one of our many configurations, one night in LaCrosse WI. Playing for DAIRY FARMERS no less!

http://www.backwaterpartymusic.com/%20buttercaster/emeraldcaster/JoeSchmittAtLaCrosse.jpg

(I'm the one playing the Sparklecaster. Go figure!)

awesome man! you guys clean up nice! you didn't tell us that Tater was your bass player!

I'd hire you boys... what 3 dog night song did you play?

awesome man! you guys clean up nice! you didn't tell us that Tater was your bass player!

I'd hire you boys... what 3 dog night song did you play?

Joy to the World of course.

Joe's not short.

He just wears real low shoes.

I was hoping for either "easy to be hard" (why has viagra not picked that one up as a theme song?) or "Chest Fever" with a couple of overdriven fiddles...

bomm bomm bommm bommmm

Joe may not be short... but I think my cowboy boots would reach his upper thigh (notice my restraint)

I think ya'll should do "humdinger" by the farmer boys.

You scrub up OK, Buck-o!!

Played the St Kilda Army Navy Club last night; lucky my better half and #1 son's #1 squeeze came along...:roll:
Meanwhile, across the road, 150 fools cram into a cafe with a live DJ...
"A paid rehearsal," as Darren the drummer says.
You know, I've played in some sh#t bands in my time, and this ain't one of 'em.
Lucky I love playing live.

Q-- How do you end up with $1,000,000 playing music??
A-- Start with $2,000,000

Just got home from the second of two nights at the Colorado Central Station casino,subbing with a new band.The music( country) fit pretty well both nights.Friday there were a lot of people carousing,tonight was a little more laid back and it was definitely more work than partying.Got a little more practice switching off between 6 string and steel in the same song.A little awkward holding a Tele on my lap and playing pedal with a flatpick,but a skill worth developing.All in all,a fun weekend,with (maybe) some more work in the offing.

last saturday we played a small town festival about 200 miles from our location.
folks were very friendly and helpful, provided some roadies and drinks and food.
the gig went well, a lot of people dancing, it was a big tent for about 500 people, but in the halftime it started to rain and some water was running through the tent.
a lot of people left and we finished our gig for only 100 folks left.

monday night saw us at a big volksfest in the south of germany.
it was damping hot and humide and we were soaking wet after we got set and did the soundcheck.
the gig was good but took andifficult turn, when about 150 ! already slightly drunk youngsters, highschool absolvents, came into the tent to party.
after convincing them, that we were not metallica nor ac/dc, we played some more rocking county stuff and all of a sudden, it was the turn of the girls... the asked us to play johnny cash, willie nelson, keith urban and so on. we had to play achy breaky heart 4 times!!!
we were lucky, that the manager told us to stop at midnight, because they had no further permit. and he booked us again for next spring.

zoppotrump
:O)

Bit late, but better late than never...:grin:
Our regular "first Friday of the month" gig at the Old Colonial in Fitzroy went pretty well. Played a bunch of new tunes (new to us, anyway), "Fortunate Son", "Last Dance with Mary Jane" being amongst them, plus a bunch of songs we haven't done in a while. Even had a crowd!!
#1 son's vocals are coming along nicely, he's singing bv's on most songs. He's looking for a song to sing, so I'm looking forward to that. Give me (and the audience:grin:) a break.
I'm getting close to the use-by date on the EL84's in my AC30, I think- had a couple of "valve-on-the-way-out" sounds early in the night, maybe swap them around in the holders until I get another set. I usually get 50-60 gigs out of a set, before I start getting tone issues.
Played the Korean hockshop queen for a set, until I broke a string... trem abuse!! Still needs a tweak on pup heights, but it's gettin' there.
All in all, a good one.
Let's hear what you're all up to guys....:wink:

I returned from a wedding gig last night (it's currently 11:40 AM here). It was a wedding of our drummer's daughter. Small crowd, but very nice gig. We got food and drinks before the gig (had even places reserved on the table with the others!). We played outside in a small party tent. By the time we started playing it had also started to rain. No problem, the tent was packed and the gig was quite intimate :lol: . We played a couple of tunes especially requested by the bride & groom. The groom also sang one song to the bride while we backed him. The gig was a two-set of 10 + 11 songs, covers and originals. The crowd was happy and so were we :grin:

Had a GREAT GREAT GREAT gig last night! I'm still high on adrenaline, so excuse my exuberance...

We were the main band at the 40 years anniversary celebrations of a soccer club of a small town North of here, on the Czech border. Originally it should have been an open air event, but due to some bad weather recently, they opted for erecting a tent; unfortunately, yesterday afternoon there was a big thunderstorm, so they had to cancel all the soccer matches for the anniversary, so only about half as much people as expected showed up - but they really loved us, everybody dancing, even after we'd done all teh songs we still remembered for an encore, they didn't want to let us go - and all of this despite a really bad sound: The organiser had told us that they had a good PA, so we left most of our PA stuff at home (only brought a couple of monitors) - when we came there, we saw a pile of sh*tty Behringer stuff - dang, should have brought our own, after all...; theoretically, the Behringer stuff might have worked, if the guy behind the mixer would have known what he's doing - which he did not... Predictable, the sound sucked, and after a couple of songs those crappy Behringer powered monitors started cutting out and making weird noises, so we unplugged them and relied on our three own monitor boxes; also, everytime I hit a low G on my Tele, something in the tent construction started vibrating, and made didgeridoo-like sounds - very weird...
But, as I said, the bad sound didn't influence the audience, they LOVED the show; we got booked for at least 3 or 4 other shows that night (one VERY well paying one, apparently).
Oh, and we got free board at a really nice bed & breakfast, too - cool!

Some pics/impressions:

announcement posters by the side of the road - a first for our band:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/4102.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/4129.jpg

yours truly:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/0099.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/4126.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/0108.jpg

the fans:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/0061.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/0070.jpg

after the gig - exhausted, but happy...
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e323/RomanSonnleitner/TaSRB/0123.jpg

Good work, Roman.
That 2nd pic from the bottom has a real "Goodnight, and thank you Cleveland" look about it:grin:

weekend gig in Charlotte closed fine. Lots of friends came by, we covered a bunch of tunes across several decades.

We have been gigging with local Charlotte based drummer, Ray Mitchell, great song "drummer" and singer as well, he really added a spark...

More gigs booked at the same venue, no tickets on the way home, no accidents, (that I know of ) and the Classic 30 was really puttin' out the DB's,


We, The Bender's , are up at Puckett's in Charlotte Sept 19...same lineup.

t

PS..I hate Sweet Home Alabama and if I ever have to play it again there will be retribution or revenge whatever...someone's gonna get hurt !:twisted:

Ok this is a bit late but as Dave-O says, "better late than never".

Last night (Saturday) we played the 50th birthday party for a golfing buddy of our drummer. I guess there were about 50 people or so there, down at the golf club. It was an OK night. A few people got up and danced, the rest sat back and drank. We played OK. Everyone made a few mistakes (myself included). We're not the tightest band in the world, but the crowd seemed to appreciated what we did. (We laughingly call ourselves "The Approximators" even though that's not the bands name).

Anyway it was my last gig with these guys as far as I can tell because I'm moving away in 3 weeks with my family. It would've been nice to have a final gig with a big PA and hoards of screming fans, but that was never going to happen. At least this way we got fed and paid. :lol:

so...one day the HS secretary looks at me, takes my temperature, and says, "You're going home!"

Okay, I didn't argue.

So I am laying around reading a book on a Thursday morning, the phone rings and it is "Entertainment Manager" from a microbrewery 20 miles up the road. Their main band for "Octoberfest" has crapped out on them with less than 2 weeks to go.

Entertainment Manager, "Do you still have that band you have been trying to book here for the last year?"

Me, "Sure do!" (I wasn't about to let this slip through my fingers!)

so we worked out the details.

then I got on the phone...trying to form a band...it took about a week to line everybody up...cutting it pretty close actually...got the last confirmation 4 days before the job...:roll:

found two other guys: banjo/fiddle/mandolin/guitar along with a bass player.

With me on guitar, that makes three.

I tell them to each come with 20 songs that they can do.

With my 20 that gives us 60. Even with duplications that is more than enough for 4 hours.

It was supposed to be outside under a tent, but it was 45° and sort of raining so the party got moved in.

Maybe 20 tables and room at the bar. That gives room for about 100 people. The place was packed for 4 hours.

A good time was had by all.

Nary a Telecaster in sight! (I played a Gallagher Doc Watson w/a cutaway.)

They will have us back.

Hope it is easier to find a band the next time.

and now you know

I ran sound for an Ohio State Buckeyes party outside yesterday. A huge big screen TV was brought in (probably 10' high by 12' across). An acoustic duo opened the festivities, followed by a performance by a few Ohio State Alumni cheerleaders. Note.... they get hotter as they get older!
After the game, a solo acoustic act playing 'music to drink beer by'...pretty easy night at the mix board. I froze my butt off, but it was a pretty easy day (although long), and I made pretty good money.
Not as exciting as the rest of the stories here, but hey... cheerleaders!

Tough weekend...we played Friday & Saturday at the Eagles club in Couer D'alene Id. Pretty nice venue. Friday night was pretty good. Had lots of dancers and the crowd really enjoyed it. LAST night however was pretty different. There was a crowd, but they definitely werent there for the band/music/dancing. Its like we weren't even there. We played our hearts out and after every song it was nothing but crickets.:shock: I sure don't expect a standing ovation after every song, but wow it was a tough crowd. Only a few dancers all night. Oh well. Thats the breaks of the game I suppose. But we had fun...as usual. :cool:

...Not as exciting as the rest of the stories here, but hey... cheerleaders!

Respect....:mrgreen:

... and boy, am I tired.
It's been a long time since my last 3 gig weekend, and yesterday's afternoon gig was a bit of a slog.

Friday night was a good one, Country Music Guild of Australasia@ the Pascoe Vale RSL with the Prairie Oysters. They have a very good following amongst the "traditional" country fans in Melbourne.

Saturday night was "entertaining". Filled in with a Stones tribute band, "Jagger's Banquet". I'd have to say that they nail the "loose, sloppy Stones" thing. To a "T":grin:.
Darren, drummer in The Hard Way, also plays in this band. The venue was Club362 in St Kilda. 2 nights a week it's a band venue. 4 nights a week it's... a kinda "cheerful" place. Probably half the audience would have been big "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" fans, if you catch my drift. It's a miracle what you can do with a push-up bra nowadays... Played quite a bit of slide, not something I do a lot of usually. Especially not on my 52RI, but as I wasn't singing I could make sure I didn't "fret out". Had my Blazer in 5-string-open-G tuning for the signature riffs. The night went well, overall.

Sunday back with the Oysters at the Bass Hotel. While setting up, I thought it would be a quiet one, but around 1:30, a cavalcade of rods, bikes and classics started rolling in. We had around 100-120 folks, and even though I was knackered, it was a lot of fun.

All in all, a great weekend. Made some cash- very helpful at this time. Had some fun- essential!! Drank some free beer... and who wouldn't?
Got some nice compliments- and don't we all need that now and again.:wink:

Last night ( it's 7:45 Saturday morning - why can't I sleep in!!!) DaveO very kindly invited me to sit in with his band The Hard Way for the night.
Had a great time, played some songs I'd never played before, and got to help close the night with "Sympathy for the devil". (woo wooo, woo wooo, ).

Oh, and did one of the dumbest things I can remember doing (on-stage) for a long time. . . Setting up at the start of the night, found a place for my amp (DRRI) plugged in, tuned up, ready to go. As the first set is travelling along, I'm thinking, "hmmm, I thought the ol' DRRI would hang with the band a bit better than this!" So I turned it up a couple of notches to about 5-6. No change. Hmmm. A little later, same again.
Well into the second set I'm thinking it's sounding just ok, but, you know ... ?
Just before the third set, I go and check my amp and notice something . . . I'm not plugged in - well, not to the usual (reverb) channel !!! . . . I was plugged into the Normal channel, but was turning up the Reverb channel, and wondering why I wasn't getting anywhere !!! DOH !!!

But thanks Dave for a splendid night, and some very fine wood fired pizza down Lygon street after ...

Yes indeedy, it was some fun...
My first cigarette-free gig in a lot of years. I still spent the breaks standing outside though!! And the "wrong channel" thing had me smiling for hours... Too many knobs on that DRRI, Pete:grin:
I think we're gonna have some good gigs next year...

Gotta revive that old thread...

Just got back from a gig - the second weekend in a row our set was interrupted/stopped by thunderstorms...

Last weekend I played with my cover band at a "Country Music Fest" at what you could call a roadhouse on the outskirts of town - a last minute gig, another band was supposed to play there, but their singer go sick, so they asked us to play, even though we aren't a "pure" country band (we play a lot of rockabilly, 60s R&B stuff, CCR songs, etc., too...) We were supposed to play in the courtyard - well, of course right in the middle of our first set, it started to rain... Moved our gear inside as fast as possible; there was a horde of line-dancers there, and while I'm usually not that keen on playing for those, they really helped us out by doing their thing to recorded music inside the roadhouse, while we set up our gear there in the "ballroom" - played two more sets inside, by the end everybody was dancing on the tables and singing along, great gig (even got some offers for more gigs by a few people there); because those line dancer guys really helped us out, we even played "Achy Breaky Heart" for them (something we usually refuse to do...)

This weekend my other band (alt.country, folk-rock type stuff, mostly our own original songs) was booked for a private garden party; the venue was a mansion surrounded by vineyards, the guy who lives there is the owner of the biggest music-store in Vienna, and also runs a rental company for sound equipment - they set up a really great sound system, only the best stuff, heck, the monitor system alone was larger/better than our own PA; they even had a professional light-show. Right next to the stage was one of those huge party tents, with a couple of cooks and bartenders providing food and drinks for everybody - nice!
The audience was weird - quite a few artsy musician types, lots of them typical baby-boomers; and quite a few pretty clueless posh upper-class types - pretty weird mixture; when we finished our sound check, one of the posh women came up to the stage, complimented us on the music, and then said "So, that was nice, but I hope you are going to play a few more songs?" (Duh, that's the sound check, lady!) Another one asked me whether I played the "electronic zither" (she meant my lap steel...)
Anyway we played our first set (and were attacked by a million moskitos), then took a short break, and wanted to start our second set, when we saw lightning flashes all around; within a few minutes, all hell broke loose - a torrent of rain, lightning, strong wind, a real thunderstorm; luckily, there was a kind of sun-roof over the stage, so the back-line was safe, but the mixing desk sat right in the middle of the lawn - you never saw a sound crew move a whole FOH system inside so quickly!
Well, didn't look like it was going to stop raining (actually, it still is raining outside at the moment), so we packed ours stuff and went home - only our singer stayed behind, he planned on doing an unplugged solo set in the living room of the mansion, gotta ask him tomorrow how that went...

Yikes! I stopped by a jam that my buddy plays for on the way home from my gig this evening and met and got to play onstage with Joey Covington, drummer from Hot Tuna and the Jefferson Airplane/Starship.

http://smokinggunsproductions.com/0_joey_covington_cn.jpg

He's alive and well and living in the Coachella Valley. Still can bring it, too! I'm still smiling ... what a night!!!

mud

Roman, you got me back on that thread....

had a 3 gig weekend, 2 shows with our trio and one with thefull band.
the friday gig with the whole band was at a county fair and we had very low
expectations due to rainy weather and knowing, that these people had booked a country band for the first time. but surprise, sometimes these gigs turn out to be the best. we played ( no self flattering ) pretty darn good and after the first set, we got the whole tent ( about 300 people ) hooked on. everybody was dancing, even the older ones and we all had a great time.
it is always a little bit weird, when 17teen year old kids, with metallica t-shirts tell you, they loved the show....???

saturday it was a big private birthday party, and we were the special birthday present to the guy. he had no idea, that we would show up , so it was a jaw dropper. all the people kinda knew us, so it was more or less a homerun.

sunday we were booked to a bee breeder club ( i don´t know if that is right..) and everybody was very attentive , but 2 guys, who coplained the whole time about the volume. ( we played our acoustic trio and i think even totally unplugged they would have made complaints ) i learned later on, that they did not want a country trio, so ....
people danced and had a ´good time, ( we were playing old merle , waylon and willie stuff ) and all of a sudden, the club president came to us and thanked us for a good show. we had to stop playing because it was "already very late" .....exactly 11pm !!!! and they wanted to go home....
so it was an early return home that sunday night, not too bad either....

All of these accounts are great. I wish more people would participate with at least just a little account of their gigs. I don't gig or I would participate.

Hopefully you guys who post regular will keep it up.

Maybe we could ask the mods to put this in the "Epic Threads" section:lol:

Got a 2 gig weekend- Played Friday for the Country Music Guild of Australasia (cool name, eh?) at the Pascoe Vale RSL. This room is always a little bit of a sound problem, so I've been using my little Peavey Rage instead of my AC30. Last night I had it sitting next to my wedge and angled up at me with a SM57 on it. I'm liking this, and we'll get the FOH sorted over the next few gigs ( It's a drive-it-yourself rig, driven by the drummer. Normally sounds good, too.)
Lee the Leadman continues to showcase his guitarshop/garage with a new set-up every night, it seems.
Last week it was a Matchless and a TV Jones equipped Thinline, last night it was a '64ish AC15 and a very convincing relic'd rosewood-fingerboard Partscaster in Lake Placid Blue. If you're into relics...
A good night as always. These guys are fun to play with, and we don't take ourselves too seriously. Or at all seriously:mrgreen:


Recording this afternoon before work; a bunch of guitar tracks and a guide bass track for one of my tunes, and a tremelo arm workout for one of Rob the drummer's songs. We use a Line 6 Pod XT (I think.) It's a big floor pedal thing that links up to a 'puter with a program call Toneport. I've got a bunch of presets I've setup- AC30, Tweed Bassman, BF Deluxe, Plexi Marshall and a HiWatt. I'm really digging this thing!! That kinda rig would set me back a truckload in real life-- and probably end up costing me my testicles if the better half thought I'd just spent $10k+ on amps!!

Tomorrow morning:shock: we have a gig at a hotrod and custom car show. Looking forward to this one- outside with a stonking big PA. Will be setting up my AC30 side of stage. Hopefully have some pics of cool cars and guitars. Don't get much better than that!! (Except for maybe cheerleaders...:grin:)

Got up at 7:30, had a coffee, had another coffee, then saddled up and rode to the gig for 8:30 to help set up the PA. This was too early for the Darling Bride and the Princess Granddaughter, so they were going to arrive at around 10:30 with my rig for a 11:00am start.

Thankfully I was mistaken as to where we were playing. It was around 9C today (40s for you Fahrenheiters) windy, raining buckets and occasionally hail. So we were down in the undercover parking area-- about 6 acres of concrete floor and roof. But regardless of the weather, there were a huge turnout of rods, bikes, customs and streetcars. I'd guesstimate at least 400.
Our soundguy for the day was an old bandmate of mine and Rob's, Mark Wooldridge from MAD Productions. Mark is the man responsible for my AC30 affliction, as I spent 4 years playing bass behind him as he'd nightly do something to blow my socks off with a late 60s Strat and an early 60s AC30. He runs PAs now all over Melbourne, but has just gotten his paws on a JMP 50watter with a basketweave quad...
When Rob hit his kick for the first time we've all turned to Mark and said "Turn off the reverb". There must have been a good 1 1/2 secs of natural reverb in the carpark
Lee the Leadman brought yet another piece of exotica (for these parts, anyway...) a DrZ Maz 18watter in red Tolex. I took some photos but my phone got bored and deleted them.
While waiting for the Darling Bride we set up Lee's "spare" rig so I could linecheck...http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs171.snc4/37896_142098589152419_100000568364913_330088_15249 98_n.jpg
Now I know that there are people who'd sell their granny for a genuine BF Deluxe and R7 Les Paul. But I'm not one of them. It's a fine guitar, and maybe the Deluxe records well, but there's no way I'd pay what people ask for them. That's just me, I suppose.
Thankfully she arrived before we started so...
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs231.snc4/38886_142098622485749_100000568364913_330089_25689 4_n.jpg
Whew...

Anyway, we played 3 sets, had a great time as usual, sold some CDs, got some further bookings, got some little kids dancing to a Wiggles cover, made everyone's ears ring, came home smelling of exhaust fumes-- in other words a good day was had:mrgreen:
Some shots of the stars of the show-- the cars-- here (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=330088&id=100000568364913#!/album.php?aid=24532&id=100000568364913)

just woke up after a hardcore weekend ( at least for us )
we had a gig on saturday on a western festival about 500 miles from our hometown and we were scheduled to play at least 6 hours from 9pm up to 3 am. it turned out to be 7 hours and the crowd, about 1500 people went really nuts and got more and more drunk. i haven´t seen so many lit up guys and girls on one place yet....
but it was no wonder because the charged for a bottle of Jim Beam and 2 Bottles of coke only 40 dollars......a bottle of wodka 25 bucks and beer 2 dollars.....
the gig went very good, though we had to defend the stage to some "surprise guests" and the manager gave us a big smile afterwards.

after 3 hours of sleep, whe had to head back 600 miles downsouth to our sunday gig on a German-American Volksfest at Grafenwöhr, which is the biggest US garrison in Europe.
there we played in a big tent. the folks were applausing very good, but they first ones started dancing in the 3d set ( of 4 ).
nothing spectacular happended so after 4 hours playing we tore it down and headed back home. dead tired and looking forward to 4 ! upcoming gigs in a row from wednesday to saturday next weekend.....

D'you know, I never noticed this thread before?! I'm a coupla days late with this one, but here goes.

Got home about 1:00 yesterday morning. I'm part of a five piece classic rock/blues cover band - me on guitar/occasional vox, a male lead vox, young female vox/occasional rhythm guitar, bass and drums. We were booked to play a village fete about 15 miles away. It was a bad sign when we were collared by a member of the committee that booked us saying they couldn't afford our full fee, so we had to drop the price by 50 notes for 'em. Asked to set up at 5pm, we'd soundchecked by 6 and had 3 hours of kicking our heels. We're playing in a tiny marquee and it started to rain at 8pm - not good! Start at 9 and we're off to a bad start - female vocalist has her 5th bout of tonsillitis so far this year and she is going to be struggling from the off.

Rip into a cover of Crossroads - I'm playing Tele most of the night, and the tone through my Boogie V-Twin and Vibrolux is absolutely top notch. There's only a small crowd, and they seem a bit indifferent... So we're really working hard to try to win them over. Finish our first set with a couple of acoustic numbers and halfway through the last acoustic song I lose a string - crap! There's time to get to the toilet, have a quick cigarette and some water, then we're back on it.

We're four songs short for the second set - the female vocalist just can't sing anymore, so I start the second set with an impromptu guitar and vox cover of Steve Earle's Copperhead Road - which seems to go down OK - realise once I've started that I'm playing entirely the wrong guitar - I'm on Strat when it really would have been better on the Baja, but it's all good. And then we're back into it - chuck in some ZZ Top (Tush and Sharp Dressed Man). Strat sounds great for the slide on Tush, but the drummer seems to have forgotten where we finish, and my slide solos seem to go on all night! Finish up the planned set and there are chants of "one more song" so we busk a version of "Wild Thing". Switch the amp off, disconnect the pedals and there are more chants of "one more song!", so we do an encore of Crossroads. I'm dripping with sweat, shattered and longing for a beer, so I signal to the singer that we're done. Get paid, get home. Collapse on the sofa - waiting for a cup of tea to brew and wake up at 4am. Ooops! Time for bed. Pretty much out of it most of yesterday.

All in all, a pretty mixed gig, but the crowd went from indifferent to not wanting us to stop, so I'm happy!

Just got back from a truly COOL (OK, make that COLD) gig...
With my cover band we played again at that little country town we played about a year ago (see a bit above on this thread). This time it wasn't at the soccer field, but on top of a small hill, and it wasn't in a tent, but outside; and again we had bad luck with the weather. Yesterday evening it was quite cold outside for August - around 15°C (= 60°F); in addition to that, there was quite a bit of wind, and it looked like it was going to rain any minute.
Well, we set up our stuff, nevertheless (the stage was covered), started to play at 9:15 PM; due to the weather, much less people than expected showed up; however, those that did go there seemed to enjoy it a lot, danced, and didn't let us go until past midnight.
We really had a bad time on stage, though - the stage was facing in the direction of the wind, so it was like playing inside a wind tunnel; I never took of my jacket, and my fingers were really cold, which made me botch a few slides in solos. The whole stage was rattling and swaying from the wind; our bass player, to keep warm, was jumping up and down like a rubber ball - I was expecting him to break through the floor-boards of the stage any second...
Oh, and right when we played the last chorus of our encore, it did start to rain!
After the concert, and after we had packed all our gear, we hung around a bit with the locals, this place is in a wine region, so quite a few bottles were emptied - the organizer had arranged for us to stay at a nice bed & breakfast, so we didn't have to drive; he also said he'd book us again for some town festival this fall, inside a hall this time; oh, and we got paid in full, despite the low turn out of people.
Drove back today, unloaded our gear at the rehearsal place, now I need to catch a bit more sleep...

Some pics my GF took:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs228.snc4/38743_1465934260377_1594145365_1072707_3504279_n.j pg

Yours truly (on the right), rocking out...
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs243.snc4/39473_1465934900393_1594145365_1072719_855755_n.jp g

Must have been a slow song:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs228.snc4/38743_1465934420381_1594145365_1072711_2606788_n.j pg

Our singer also plays a Tele:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs243.snc4/39473_1465934860392_1594145365_1072718_3612577_n.j pg

Whoa, long one ... did an EIGHT HOUR gig yesterday. My first as the bass player for the house band for a local roadhouse jam. The jam officially goes from 4 - 10 pm, but at 10 the bar was packed & rockin, so we kept right on goin, 'til midnight ... didn't stop at all for the last two hours, either. When we started, at 4 pm, the place was kinda empty, so we played 3 fairly standard sets of rock, blues & country with short breaks between. Folks started coming in in numbers at around 7 ... no bass players, though, so it was all me. Fortunately, a complete band of young guys came in and did six songs, followed by an acoustic duet, so I got about a 45 minute break at about 9, which is good - I got to eat, at least, and the bar makes the best chicken quesadillas I've ever had.

Oh, my sore fingers! Oh, my achin' neck!

mud

Well, we got to play "The Espy" last night !!!

The Esplanade Hotel in StKilda is an icon of the music scene here in Melbourne.
It's a real rock'n'roll pub with 3 band rooms and a great atmosphere.
I've been seeing bands there since I was 18 years old (WHOA!!! That's 30 years ! )

We had a great night . . . played well, sounded good and there was a crowd to play to (always a plus! )

I was a little worried beforehand that the "occasion" might overwhelm me a bit, and that I might get a bit too nervous on stage (I mean, this is the ESPY! )
But, y'know, I was relaxed as anything. It just felt really comfortable and I was able to enjoy the moment fully. I think it may have been that it was such a familiar place, having been there so many times over the years.

Ah well, . . . chalk another one up.

Great Day … Great weather … great gig

It’s amazing the difference between playing outdoor gigs and bars …(this was our 4th outdoor gig) … what you hear, how you think it sounds and - I guess the biggest thing to me/that I noticed (thinking back with a beer or two in me) that the clean thang was working fine, the dirt just didn’t sound as good … specifically, the dirt works in a bar … but outside …. It kind of goes into thin air

Bit late to the party on this one, guys. Started writing this nearly 9 hours ago, but fell asleep on the couch!

OK, so it's just gone 2am UK time as I start this - there's bread in the toaster and a cup of tea brewing. Just played a cracking little gig in the courtyard of the pub over the road from my house (it really doesn't get much better, right?) I was expecting terrible things - practise on Thursday night was awful.

The pub was holding it's annual beer festival, it's a bank holiday and it's a busy wee place at the best of times. Add to that the fact that this was the first gig in years that I've played where I've been able to drink, due to not needing to drive and all the ingredients are there (alcohol will be consumed my me tonight)!

I arrived an hour before everyone else - I was fully set up before anyone turned up. I bust my new top "E" restringing the Strat and didn't have a spare, so had to use a "B" - not a good start.

The rest of the guys arrive, they setup and we soundcheck. My soundcheck playing is seriously poor, so I'm not looking forward to the gig.

Our acoustic band goes first. I only play two acoustic songs, but those two get everyone cheering for our female lead singer - she nails a perfect KT Tunstall tone on "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree" and an acoustic version of The Jacksons "Want You Back" goes down a storm.

So then we move on to the rock set. We open with a version of Crossroads and people look reasonably interested. Jean Genie gets 'em nodding... ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man" Brings the house down and "Whole Lotta Rosie" blows 'em all away.

Now, I've lived in this village for 4 years and very few people know that I play. Tonight, everyone knows and I am really on form for a change. I play to the audience and do the ole' behind the head soloing on "Johnny B. Goode".

This is meant to be our female singer's swansong gig with us, she's off to join the acoustic band. But tonight all the magic happens, and she really enjoyed it. The crowd loved it. We loved it. I have a quick word with her afterwards - she's considering staying with the rock band, now!

We even chucked in a version of "Brown Sugar" - a song we've only played once before (at Thursday night's practise) and although it was a bit rough and ready, it went down a treat.

All in all, a great night and a great gig. Even if the singer has managed to become the first person I know to kill a Shure SM58!

Had a big one this weekend.

Friday night was the Les Keats Awards (http://www.northwestfm.org/countrymusicguild) night for the Country Music Guild here in Melbourne. 3 bands- The Dalton Gang, Tim Faron Band and ourselves. Helen Stewart from The Dalton Gang won the gong for Best Vocalist, and we snagged Most Popular Band. Again! Now I've got a neat looking glass trophy to put in my office (Another story-- no more night shifts!!). A big night as usual for the Guild Awards, and it's a bit of a chance to meet some of the folks I've been hearing about for a lot of years. High points of the night (apart from winning my first ever award)--
1) Breaking the high E on the first strum of the first song, and realising my Blazer was still in the car... Luckily it was only a 30 minute set. I played slide from then on...
2) Having Leo Dalton compliment me on the sound of my Peavey Rage. At least I think it was a compliment-- "F#@k, that little thing's LOUD!"

Saturday night finds us in the little hamlet of Ruby, about 3 hours southwest of Melbourne in the beautiful Gippsland region. Playing an engagement party. They like their country in Gippsland...
Lee the Leadman brings another new combination to the gig-- a pine-bodied Glendale blackguard, and a '64 (I think) Super Reverb. His theory is that he has to do a whole gig with every amp so that the caps don't dry out. We'll see what next week brings.:mrgreen:
The gig is a good 'un, even if we suffer from the malady of having one crowd inside listening, and another crowd outside, huddled around the bonfire on a balmy 3deg night, smoking. Free drinks and food, friendly people (even when they have trouble standing up...) and a 3 hour drive home in Tony's car with no heater. Wait, that was in the "cons" column:mrgreen:

Sunday at 11am I slide my weary carcass out of bed after hitting the hay at 4:30am, to play an afternoon gig at The Stamford Hotel in beautiful leafy Rowville... They've been putting on country bands for the last month or so as a trial, and so far it seem to be working out.
2pm til 6pm, so I get there about 12ish to set up and make sure we don't have any problems with the house PA. A good rig, even if it has a trick multicore:grin:
I wasn't too sure how it would go, as there was a $5 door charge. But we got 100 or so out on a Sunday arvo when they could have gone 20 minutes down the road in 3 different directions to 3 different free gigs. Hopefully this gig takes off. They're booking a different band each week, and we're about the 5th band to play there. Doug Bruce played the week before us and apparently did really well.
Needless to say when I got home I was trashed. Hit the couch at 8:30, woke up at 2am.
And to think I used to do this every week when I was a young 'un!!

Just got home from the Monash Hotel in deepest, darkest Clayton. Bout 100ish braved the weather and came out--not a shabby crowd considering it's a shocking night and it's finals footy on TV.
Lee's Amp Shop this weekend-- a Dr Z Maz and a Germino Marshall clone running 6V6s for about 25watts of Plexi goodness.
House PA, horns blown in the centre wedges:roll: Luckily Rob brought some little powered PA speakers in his van, so we set them up for foldback. A good night in all, some folks we haven't seen before who bought CDs, a guest vocalist- http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/140/l_b23c24aebd064288bbb2fedcec62d592.jpgKelly from The Dirty Boogie (RRRRAWRRR!:twisted:) who got up and sang "These Boots Were Made For Walking" and "Proud Mary". As Yorkie said when she made her exit, "The stage never smelt so good"...
So just a quiet one after last weekend's madness. And tomorrow(today??) is Father's Day here, so happy Father's and Grandpop's Day to you all. I'm going to bed.

Had a Friday night and a Sunday afternoon gig this weekend. A quiet Friday night, in a room that is not charitable when half empty. Put it this way,... ever done a gig with a 7.5watt amp (my Peavey Rage--15watts into 4ohms), and get told to turn down?? We got that sorted, but the washup that Robert (drummer) couldn't here a f@#kin' thing that we played:mrgreen:
Sunday's gig was a little better, but we had one of them hi-falutin' epiphany things. We cart around about 4 times as much gear for foldback (4 sends for 5 of us) than we're using FOH in the venues we're playing. But we've come across these (http://www.behringer.com.au/EN/Products/MA400.aspx) things- Each one costs the princely sum of $50ish AUD. We'll carry them as part of our individual kit- headphone amp, mic lead, power supply, extension headphone lead and TRS phono lead back from the PA desk.
We'll have them for our next gigs (CD launch over a 3 gig weekend) so I'll give you guys a review:grin:

My report is a day or so late, but here goes...

About a month ago I got a call from my old guitarist back in Sydney. He's having his 50th birthday soon and is putting a band together for the night. He's not going to play so it will be myself and the singer from our band, plus the core of my band from the 80's - 90's, 3 siblings who play guitar, drums and keyboards (I'm a bass player).

I haven't played with the siblings since we broke up the band back in early 1996. In fact I hadn't seen any of them since about 1997. Not only have I not played with them, but none of them have played much since we broke up. We played primarily 80s-90s Top 40 with a smattering of 70s classics for good luck. So acts like Bon Jovi, Van Halen, John Mellencamp, AC/DC, Journey etc.

I was a bit concerned when I saw the initial set list, but after a week or so of to-ing and fro-ing between the various parties down in Sydney a setlist was finalised. (I wasn't consulted about the setlist - I'm only a bass player after all). 2 sets of 10 songs each.

Anyway with the setlist finalised I could start re-learning songs I hadn't played in a decade and a half. With about 3 weeks to go I was spending every available moment either sourcing or re-writing charts, compiling a practice CD or actually practicing. Thankfully I have a great music room at home where I can go and play. Headphones made late night / early morning practice possible and disturbance free for the rest of the family. Living 400 kms away made rehearsal with the band impossible, so the best we could hope for was learning the songs pretty much in their original arrangement.

The party was last Saturday night, so my wife and I loaded the car and made the trip down to Sydney.

So how did it go? In a word, fantastic. We meshed together like we'd never stopped playing. Everyone had a great time, the crowd relly enjoyed the music. We all got lots of compliments on our playing etc, so it was all worth the blood, sweat and tears.

So what's next? Well they've lined up a function to play in another month or so down in Sydney, and the siblings really want me to be apart of it, so it looks like I'll be making another trip to the big smoke soon.

3/5ths of the Oysters (myself, Tony the bassplayer and Rob the drummer) played a short-notice fill-in gig tonight. Tony and I used it as a tech rehearsal with the in-ear monitors. In short, we're sold. They were great- more than enough level. We were each able to mix in the other guys enough to pitch off them. I haven't felt this comfortable with my foldback since... hell, EVER. Worth looking into, fellas.

The gig was what you would call "a real hoot". Church social club dance. But we had fun. And more importantly, the folks paying us had fun. And that's what musicians have done from way back when we'd bang sticks and bones together round the cave fireplace.

Mainly played the Korean Hockshop Queen, did some Tele slinging in the last set. If I'd taken the V, the priest probably would have thrown me out for playing the Devil's music:mrgreen:

CD launch next weekend, will keep you posted on the wash-up of that...:wink:

1st night of our CD launch weekend last night...
Pascoe Vale RSL w/ special guests Alice Plumb Band (http://www.aliceplumb.com/):shock:
In a few years we'll be watching this girl on TV and saying "Yeah, we did a gig with Alice Plumb back in the day..."
She's a great performer and one hell of a singer. She's so tiny, you wonder where that voice comes from:grin: Keep an ear out, Aussie TDPRIers, because at the moment she doesn't have a regular lead player...
Played the Pointy Bird (http://sacfs.asn.au/my_favourite/poem/pointy_birds.htm) (yes, I've named my V after the poem from ''The Man with 2 Brains"...) all night. It plays really well, once I got used to the way it hangs-- all Gibson-y with the neck sticking out in the breeze. You know how it feels when you pick up an SG for the first time, and it feels really long, even though it's got the shorter scale... Anyway, it's a keeper. Next step is to rip out those EMG thingys and replace- I have a line on a pair of Seth's from an R9...:twisted:

Tonight we head out to the beautiful (but possibly very damp) Gippsland region to play a Power Ranch gig with the Silverstring Outlaws (http://silverstring-outlaws.com.au/)-- not seen them, but they seem nice guys. And like us, still playing even though we're old enough to know better.
Then Sunday when they let us out of Intensive Care we're doing the 3rd and final launch gig at 3pm at the Hallam Hotel, with Adam Toms as special guest.

It's going to be bigger than John Holmes' underpants...

It was our first time there and it was just too much fun.

We knew we were going to have to wait for some tables to clear and be moved before we could set up … meaning start set up at 9:30 and go on at 10. The owner changed his mind and had us set up next to the bar.

66870


So, we get started and everything is going great and I am looking at the singer and then I turn back and there’s this girl standing right in front of me ... she is sooo close, that I’m thinking she’s going kiss me … all of a sudden, she gets closer and yells in my ear … “PLAY SOME BRUCE”. I guess I was surprised that she felt comfortable talking to me while I was playing. (… as it was happening, all I could think of was that animation post during the summer …. Play Brown Eyed Girl)

Nice work, Joefish. And I hope you're having a good holiday season.

An update from my last post re: Seth Lovers in my V.
Got them, fitted them, lovin' them.
In a word- fantastic. Hopefully I can get some recorded product soon featuring The Pointy Bird.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs391.ash2/66992_163466687015609_100000568364913_446622_39769 23_n.jpg


No NYE gig this year, so our last gig for 2010 was a Christmas party for a printing company in Springvale. A big set-up--- the plant owner also had a jumping castle, clowns, face-painting, miniature train- and pony-rides for the kiddies. They paid us silly money to play from 1:30pm until 3:30pm. Booked back for next year- so long as the billing issue is sorted (Prairie Oysters 1st, pony rides 2nd...:mrgreen:)

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Just got done playing a short bday party, 2 hours, 100$ a piece. Not bad. The father of the daughter(birthday girl) was so drunk, he fell in the pool with some of her presents. I had to laugh. Usually I miss all the good stuff between sets because I'm posting here or texting my wife.

Soooo now to get ready for tonight's gig, wedding reception. So help me girl by Joe diffie is the official wedding song. Easy enough.

I just got home from playing. I thought a thur night house gig 1 1/2 hrs away would be a goo idea. 3 weeks in im realizing just how quickly 7am gets here.

Has no-one played a gig since November last year? :confused:

I'm playing the best little whorehouse in Texas thus weekend. At a local Rsl club.

Please report in when you get home and tell us all about it.

What a great thread, didn't know this existed!
Friday I'm playing in a place called Grindelwald, in front of the Eiger, I'll let you know how it goes!

Has no-one played a gig since November last year? :confused:

Funny you should say that...or maybe not so funny. For some years I've been working steadily with a band I never liked much to begin with and grew to dislike very greatly indeed. Many reasons, but never mind that. But hey, a gig's a gig and at least the work was regular, which is an achievement in itself these days. However, despite that, there comes a point... so I'd finally had enough and quit. I'm bandless and gigless at the moment and the way things are may remain so for a while unless I'm very lucky.

So an apposite coincidence that this thread should be revived at this point in time. In regard to my former situation, closing time indeed.

Please report in when you get home and tell us all about it.

It's good. I'm dipping for the regular guy, so I'm a bit under rehearsed. But it's a good production, and a decent musical I did a show last Sunday.

Nostalgia's not what it used to be... For no good reason I've just read back through this whole thread and realised what fun I was having with my previous band. Only reason I moved on was that the leader was not the best at keeping the diary in order and we lost out on some work as a result. Normally this wouldn't have mattered terribly, but in the summer of 2009 I got asked to stand in with the more recent band (with whom I'd previously played bass for a while) for a couple of months or so due to the serious ill-health of their usual guitarist, Billy. After some deliberation and with some reluctance I agreed, thinking it was only temporary. But it didn't work out that way; poor Billy's condition worsened, he was never able to play again and tragically he passed away some months ago. So over three years later, there I still was and hating almost every moment of it.

Hindsight is of course always crystal clear but I wish I'd stayed where I was. Silly old me. The gig schedule might have been a bit iffy but what work did materialise was enjoyable and I could be myself. Oh well...just having a rueful vent.

Since it looks like it's been awhile since the last post I'll put one up.
We re-formed our group and played our first gig Jan. 4th. We took me and the bass player from our band and joined with a guitar player and drummer from another band. Now the other guitar player, bassist and me (guitar) have played together on and off since 1995. It was a three hour gig and it was amazing! The three of us played like we had never stoped playing together. It's been since around 2010 since the last time we were together. Everyone that knew us before at the club was glad to see we were back together. We video taped it and it wasn't half bad. We still need to fine tune a few things but overall it went better than we thought it would. We have our next gig this Saturday the 11th at another club that really used to like us so this should be just as fun. I'll post how it went this weekend. We play classic rock, southern rock, blues, country. A little something for everyone.

Well our gig this weekend went off without a hitch. Everyone had a great time. The new band is starting to jell real good and can only get better. I can't be any happier with the new line up. Everyone was glad to see us back together at the club which was nice. I'll post again after our next gig.

That's great news. Glad to hear yo are having a good time and the punters are too.

Just discovered this thread, so I'm a couple of days late...

Did a small gig this saturday, as a 3 piece (bass/guit/piano) at a dinner party held by a local Rotary club. Our job was to play as the guests arrived, mingled and drank champagne. Very different from last saturday with 5 piece and full PA... We played the same event last year, same setlist, and have not rehearsed these songs since then...

Brough my tele and a 5w combo, there was a small vocal PA there, so no messing with gear.

Dropped my wife off at the gym, arrived 15 minutes in advance, plugged in, played for 30 min, unplugged, picked up wife and was home by 8 PM...

Loud, late bar gigs are fun, but after this gig my back and ears are happy :-)

Sorry so late. And so long.

We did a job on Friday Feb. 1st which turned out really well. It's a place we play every few months. Everyone was into it and we had a great time. Then Saturday Feb. 2nd we played a private anniversary party. Didn't know what to really expect. We get to the place and the person holding the party had a two and a half car gagrage turned into a party bar. It was decked out with a pool table, jukebox, bathroom, full kitchen, tv. It was awesome. Had plenty of seating. I've played bars that wasn't this nice. All kinds of stuff to eat and drink. Needless to say we had a great time. But what was knida funny was as soon as my wife and I walk in we hear a familure voice. It was a friend of ours who we used to play at his bar. So we ended up knowing him and the person who owned the place we were playing so it was even better for us. They had such a good time they paid us extra to play another hr. It's been a while since we played 5 hrs. But we did it and it was a blast.

Thanks for the excellent report. It's always great when a gig goes better than expecred.

Thanks for the excellent report. It's always great when a gig goes better than expecred.


Your welcome Hoodie. Yea we didn't expect it to turn out as fun as it did. Those are the times it makes you feel good about playing out. I'd much rather play for a small croud that appreciates a band than a big club that's only half into you. :razz:

TL

Sorry I'm late again. Feb 16th we played a club in Winchester Indiana (Moose Lodge). The other guitar player has played there before but this was the first time with the new band. We had a great crowd and they were there to party. We video'd the show and it turned out pretty good. You can find it on YouTube in 7 segments (winchester indiana moose ambush band). We did so good they called a couple days later to book us back right away plus more jobs.

March 9th we played our hometown Richmond Indiana Moose. Had kind of a small crowd for there (around 50 people) but everyone had a really good time. We made new cards and Schedules they went over real well. I had kind of a rough first set. I was trying out a new amp and wasn't happy with it lucky for me I had my other amp still there so I changed them out at break and back to normal. I have since tweaked out the new amp and am ready to try it again.

We now have our Facebook page (the ambush band, richmond, Indiana) going good and are almost ready to put our website (www.theambushband.com) live. We've got a lot of pictures and links to our videos on YouTube.

We play this Friday and Saturday. I'll post how it went later. Thanks for reading
TL

Well we played at the Richmond eagles Interaction Singles dance again last night. It was the best crowed we've had in a long time. A lot of people remembered us as the Ambush Band and was very glad we went back to that name. Everything jelled just right. Both the other guitar player and I bought Fender Frontman R25 amps and put Ragin Cajun speakers in them and they held up Great! We didn't need a lot of volume so these amps were perfect. We didn't get one complaint for volume. Something else we've been trying is table toppers and schedules the toppers tell a little about the band members and we set out the schedules and cards with our info and Facebook and website info on them and they are going over really well. Plus we're having so much fun. And it was a great telecaster night. We play again tonight and i'll post about it tomorrow. Thanks again for reading my ramblings.
TL

Well here we go again. We played the Winchester Indiana Moose again (last time was Feb 16th post is above). I thought the first time was a lot of fun but last night was past our expectations. We had an awesome crowd again and even had around 15 people show up from our home town Moose (which is about a 25-30 mile drive). This was a bigger place but we still used the Fender Frontman R25 amps. But this time we mic'd them up and they were great. The Schedules and flyers are really working out good. We had a minor glitch when the PA stoped working. It was the outlet we had it pluged into. All the outlet were old and loose when you plug into them. But we pluged it back in and went on with the show. It really made us feel good when the Governor of the club came up to us and let us know that out of the three favorite bands they like (we are one of them) that we draw the biggest crowd. I guess we're doing something right. We have two more jobs there but he said he's getting with the guy who books the bands and is making sure he books us out the rest of the year. Now we have three weeks before our next gig. So we'll practice and get ready for the next show. I'll post again then.

TL