Talk About Your Last Gig Here

Wedding at the Mandarin Oriental last night- a very swanky hotel in Boston. It was a black tie situation, one of those gigs where you gotta shine your shoes beforehand and tape down all your cables. No cases on stage, no walking through the front door with any gear at all.

It was a very good crowd who were absolutely there to dance, but as often happens at high end venues; a four gig started with two hour and thirty minute dinner set. The bride and groom had planned a ton of uptempo dance music with me, but they also seated both sets of grandparents directly in front of the PA speakers (despite me drawing a diagram explaining how speakers project and where the loudest spot in the room would be), so our hands were a little tied. We got them up and dancing between courses during dinner, but the catering people came over and asked us to get everybody to sit down, so we had to resort to jazz.

It was a good night and we got a nice tip, but I really do hate it when I feel like the client isn't getting quite what they paid for.

 

My last gig that would be considered eventful was July 4th.

Drummer whose band I used to play in, contacted one of my bandmates and me to play the barn dance at a "family fun fest" in his town. My bandmate played bass and sang, I sang and played guitar. The son of the festival coordinator was supposed to be a third vocalist and play keys--but he didn't show up and didn't bother to call his mother either. We called an acquaintance who lived nearby, older guy, he arrived just about halfway through the first set with a nifty CAR Tele, and proceeded to play the crap out of it. Once we got levels set and settled in a bit, it was quite a good time and we made good money. I have a decent video of me doing Willie Nelson's "Remember Me" but I can't lift it off our FB page (try Facebook searching: Kountry Klassics band Beckville Texas).

We stopped down for almost an hour for their fireworks show. There is one guy in the town, a volunteer fireman, who has a pyrotechnics permit--and I was told he also bought all the fireworks personally. Well, he must have spent a five-figure sum, because the show was 45 solid minutes, and quite impressive--more than any of us expected.

The only other issue was that bits of paper and fireworks dust got all over EVERYTHING...my guitar, my amp, my pedals, my truck, my girlfriend, my head, etc. I have to say the show was well worth the mess.

It actually wasn't that hot, either, for an East Texas Fourth of July. All in all, a very good gig though it got off to a shaky start.

 

Our variety band drove 7 hours to play a casino gig in northern California on Friday. We drove through a lot of smoke and took a detour due to the raging fires here. Friday night was not a fun gig; not much turnout. Last night, Saturday, the casino had booked a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute band to play a concert in the main room. We bumped into them during the day Saturday and had a chance to say hi. Last night before our gig we got to see part of their show and they did a great job. We played the bar again last night and had a nice overflow crowd come in after their show ended. The Skynnyn Lynnyrd band came in and hung out for a while. It was fun playing with them in the room and hanging out during breaks. it was a long but fun weekend.

 

Tonight one of the two blues bands I played in had one of our "open rehearsals" at the blues pub that is our main venue for bimonthly gigs.

The open rehearsal concept came from the fact that we needed a place to practice for the actual gigs on Thursday nights, but the bar couldn't simply close on Sundays to give us space. So we set up this idea where anyone who wants to can come in for a drink, listen to us practice new material. We've been doing it for a year on alternate Sundays, so the regulars have gotten used to the idea that they may hear a song 2 or 3 times, a few false starts, some debates among the band members, and that we'll all be facing in any which direction.

Kind of fun for the audience (there's rarely more than 6 or 8 of them), and we get to test drive our stuff in the actual venue before the official shows to a full house.

Tonight wasn't really stellar... our co-lead singer/ harmonica man didn't make it, but we worked up some nice dynamics on a couple of slower ballads. And the attractive youn woman who bartends and has a good singing voice sat in on a couple of tunes.

 

we played an antique show today. The organizer informed us that our pay was gonna be in tri tip and did we want it already barbecued or ready to be frozen. We each got 6! I got all mine cooked (the people who do them are fantastic and they freeze just fine after cooking and we'll eat them over the next month or so (everyone paleo'in at my house or south beach)

One of the guys was pissed, so I offered to buy his 6 for 75.00... he thought about it and decided to take his home too.. They also gave us a nice sandwich.

We were supposed to play for 1:45 minutes, but the other bands cancelled when they found out NO CASH. So, we played for 4 hours. Great crowd, great tips, lots of fun and TONS of people video taping us which I think is strange, but I don't care.

I didn't play great today... just passable, but I think the folks were happy...

I'm gonna have tri tip and eggs for breakast.

 

Played at a City Park from 6 8 tonight (Sunday).
I was very surprised by the Quality of the PA that was supplied by the Event Organizers.

This was down-right STUD!

Yeah, the Boards ... Wow!
The Line array's. One of a kind.
Designed in ITALY, 3-D Printed over here.
Full 220 degree dispersion. I had walk around them several times to make sure I was really hearing what I was hearing.

And all for us.
We were the only Band on the Bill.
Were OK but, this PA ... pure Ego-Stoke!

Monitor guy was all over us like you would hope.
Not a bad thing to say about any of it except that I wish we had played better.

 

We could have done that gig with an 8-channel, self-powered Top-Box and a couple of speakers on sticks.
This is what I played through.

Modest but, effective at the old-man volume I play at.

The Gig itself went well.
Started on time. Traffic was very bad and our poor Drummer took the worst of it. But we all pitched-in to help him carry his drums about a half-a-block to the Stage.
We had a solid 6 minutes to spare before we had to start.

Weather was nice. Low 80's with light wind.
Once again, lots of little kids out there dancing the TWIST, much to the delight of their Parents and Grandparents.

 

Friday night on the huge patio of a bar overlooking the Susquehanna River. A beautiful night, a great crowd and whole lot of fun.
Actually had requests for songs that we knew...

 

Outdoor jobby on Saturday night,for our sins we were opening for local country hotshot. It went well,always nice to just roll up with stage gear and not have to worry about pa. Good to be looked after with beer/wine and nibbles too!

It was a windy and sometimes wet and windy night,the girls had to hang onto their hats!It has rained here for most of July and August seems to be following suit.

 

We played an outdoor bar/restaurant on the beach that is known as a live music venue and has all the biggest local and regional acts (and us). It was our second gig with our new/substitute guitarist.

It went great. New guy brought all his PA, subs, etc and the sound was really good. We had no rehearsals and no set list. We just called songs and the key and played. The crowd was great and danced, sang, tipped, drank, and ate. Our modest tip jar was filled to overflowing and had an assortment of 5, 10, and 20 dollar bills.

It wasn't nearly as hot this time as it was last time we played there. It was only about 90 degrees and we were in the shade and there was good breeze.

I've got some good pictures but I'm on the road now (heading to Amish country and then the Martin factory). I'll try to post them at some point.

 

My friend George and I played a house concert at a nice home Saturday night.
George is wonderful song writer and has a nice Orbison-esque voice.
About 30 people, mostly couples showed up.
We felt the love, the audience was very receptive.
We played and sang completely unplugged, and the host recorded the performance.
There was great pot-luck offering and lots of good beer and wine.
It was an extremely gratifying evening!

 

This was not my last gig, but it was second or third to last. We played an art space opening (note the bitchin' elementary school chair in the background). I'd just met the rhythm section that afternoon. They didn't know each other either.

 

Last night 3 hour patio bar gig. Perfect weather, free beer and nice coin. Good walkup crowd and we held them, so bar had us tack on extra. Folks dancing, clapping, singing along. A band on tour that was playing later on that street stopped by, stayed the whole time, took pics, and generally whooped it up. Always nice when musicians dig what you're doing. All in all a great time.

 

2 90 minute sets at a very cool little joint in an old industrial area.
In the same town as my label and they have the idea, "If it's good enough for Lanark Records, it's good enough for us."
Nice to play to a new crowd who loves to listen and have fun, and doesn't need to hear covers.
First time our producer sat where I could see him (only the 2nd time he's been to a gig), and he kind of freaked me out. He's usually so animated, but he sat there looking totally stony and serious.
In the middle of the 1st set, he yelled out, "Play something I haven't heard." So I did.
After the set he cornered me, told me that my guitar sounded amazing, the new tunes were f***ing genius and he wants me to come to the studio and record more stuff, not to worry about money and let's get some of this new material OUT THERE!
I was really relieved!
I guess he get serious looking when he's psyched!

 

Played last evening at a local church's annual "Jam Fest," with a group of long-time friends (40+ years in a couple of cases), including former Dodger pitcher Carl Erskine on harmonica. Got paid with a wonderful barbecued chicken breast dinner. Oh, yeah...

 

Been a few weeks since we have played due to summer vacations and stuff.

Last gig was at our favorite bar, which is the same bar Scotty Anderson plays in every Wednesday. There was a pub crawl that night so the first set and a half the place was packed. After they left we still had a decent crowd owner paid us more to play an hour longer and a great time was had by all.

 

Saturday night we had our first gig at the preeminent country bar in this area. We've been trying to get into this place for over a year.
Gig went spectacularly! We had people on the dance floor right up to 2:00 AM. Great crowd that really seemed to enjoy what we were doing.
Ownership was happy and invited us back. Everybody happy. Woohoo!

 

It was called Twilight at the Zoo. A very cool fund raising event. We had a very enthusiastic audience and it was a great time.

 

This is a cool thread.
Nice to hear what the gigging members are up to.