the closing time thread

[mudbean]

Originally Posted by getbent

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!

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

+1,000,000

mud

[RomanS]

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...

[PeteMac]

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.

[Dave_O]

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.


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

[getbent]

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!

[Tim Bowen]

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.

[zoppotrump]

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

[getbent]

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.

[Dave_O]

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 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
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...

[zoppotrump]

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)

[Buckocaster51]

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!

[Buckocaster51]

Here I am, just back from the WMT Tractorcade.

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!



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

[getbent]

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?

[Buckocaster51]

Originally Posted by getbent

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.

[getbent]

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.

[Dave_O]

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...
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

[Dave Hopping]

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.

[zoppotrump]

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)

[Dave_O]

Bit late, but better late than never...
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) 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....

[JNE]

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 . 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

[RomanS]

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:




yours truly:

[RomanS]

the fans:




after the gig - exhausted, but happy...

[Dave_O]

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

[T Prior]

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 !

[HoodieMcFoodie]

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.

[Buckocaster51]

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...

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

[Offbeat]

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!

[CDKopf]

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. 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.

[Dave_O]

Originally Posted by Offbeat

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

Respect....

[Dave_O]

... 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".
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.

[PeteMac]

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 ...

[Dave_O]

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
I think we're gonna have some good gigs next year...