the closing time thread

[Tony474]

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?

[Fendrcaster]

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.

[drewsblues]

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!

[drewsblues]

Originally Posted by Chris Browne

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.

[zoppotrump]

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)

[Tony474]

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?

[Paul in Colorado]

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! ;-)

[zoppotrump]

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)

[getbent]

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.

[RomanS]

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!

[zoppotrump]

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)

[HoodieMcFoodie]

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.

[guitaradelic]

Originally Posted by romo

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!

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

[getbent]

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.

[garytelecastor]

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.

[RomanS]

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)...

[PeteMac]

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.

[woodman]

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.

[Tony474]

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.

[RomanS]

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...