Talk About Your Last Gig Here

[Stratocast]

I took off work Tuesday and yesterday to play at a major theme park. We set up on a stage right at the entrance so people could immediately see and hear us as they came in. it was fun to watch their reactions. A lot were dancing as they came in. Even had positive comments from employees. Load in and load out was not fun but as the saying goes, you get paid for setting up and tearing down and play for free.
Tomorrow we travel to Carson City, NV. for our first gig at a venue there. Saturday we play an adult living community; outside and it is supposed to be 100 degrees plus. Sunday afternoon we play a local bar. Hope I survive.

Yep that’s how it was with our band …paid for setting up and hauling out. Play for free. Occasionally. The bar would give us free drinks. But only 2 of us drank alcohol and 1 pf those 2 was only a beer drinker.

 

[Stratocast]

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.

I may be stupid. But. What is a tri tip. ? A rib. ?

 

[Stratocast]

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.

That sounded pretty good. But as a guitarist I would have preferred the guitar a little louder of the bass a little quieter. In the video. Mostly heard the bass. The vocals came out well though. Perhaps the sound E.Q. Sounded better being there in person? The only band we had a sound guy for was the last band I was in .. so I suppose there were a few gigs before that. when our guitars were either too loud or too soft as well. But good luck to you Guys. Hope your band continues to gig plenty.

 

[Stratocast]

I like this thread a lot, too. It's cool to hear the wide variety of gigs going on out there. I don't know about you guys, but I got a nice feeling reading about the house gig up above. I have never had a bad time at a house gig- and it's always 25 or 30 people, but they are really listening. I did one last year where I opened for Peter Case of the Plimsouls and it was wonderful. I sold all the merch I brought with me.

Ha. 25 of 30 people was a good night for our band. Most gigs we did were 10 or less. Many times by the time we started the last set we were playing to about 4 or 5 people. When we packed up our gear many nights only the bartender was there. Ha. One or two times the bartender asked us to make sure the doors were locked behind us. As they wanted to leave before we finished hauling our stuff out.

 

[Stratocast]

Not my gig per se but I turned music pages for my wife, she's a pianist, who was accompaning a solo vocalist during a funeral service. I wore a suit AS IT SHOULD BE !!

Wow does a gig like that pay well ? Or did you guys do it for free out of respect for the one who passed away. ? Did you know them ? My son played guitar at his mothers funeral years ago. He played an acoustic instrumental version of the Titanic’s theme song. The Leonardo di Caprio movie. It was my late wife’s favorite song. But he played for free. Very sad.

 

[Stratocast]

Did a two-fer last weekend, one in the afternoon for an hour at 3pm, then one at 9pm for a full evening. The 3pm set started just as the sun passed the last branch of the tree tha twas shading my mic. Basically it felt like standing in a laser beam while standing next to a blast furnace! It was HOT!!! This photo belies just how uncomfortable it was, but trust me, it was hard to concentrate! When we were done 1hr later, everything I had on was drenched. Outdoors is always a challenge for me.

The bass player is using a 76 Alembic Series 1 into two Genz Benz heads and two Acme Bass cabinets (2x10 and 1x12). Drummer is on a Geo. H. Way kit. Keys hard left (and out of photo) is a Hammond SK-1.

Paul, it blows my mind how the "Sunstroke Serenaders" (Grateful Dead) played so well in the heat in Oregon for "The Field Trip" in 72. I believe it was 105d that day, with the sun in their face. Wow.

You’re not alone. Every outdoor gig I played I got drenched. And I played keys besides guitar. And when the sun was on the wrong spot I could not make out the settings for the electric keyboard. They were L.C.D. Readout. And the sunshine blotted it out. The guitar pedal read outs weren’t much better either. They were Led ‘s but still very hard to read. One gig outside was on a windy day and no one had windscreens on their mics. What a pain !

 

[Stratocast]

It was a few weeks ago, but a great gig. Place was packed, lively / responsive crowd, sound was dialed in, etc. A lot of fun from start to finish.

Had a party bus show up toward the middle of the last set. Not sure exactly what they were celebrating, but they'd obviously been doing quite a bit of it. Cheers, applause and requests were flying, the dance floor was packed and the alcohol was flowing...which ultimately ended up with some blonde chick doing a header into one of the 15" floor monitors. She was ok...monitor was ok...so all was good.

It was a few weeks ago, but a great gig. Place was packed, lively / responsive crowd, sound was dialed in, etc. A lot of fun from start to finish.

Had a party bus show up toward the middle of the last set. Not sure exactly what they were celebrating, but they'd obviously been doing quite a bit of it. Cheers, applause and requests were flying, the dance floor was packed and the alcohol was flowing...which ultimately ended up with some blonde chick doing a header into one of the 15" floor monitors. She was ok...monitor was ok...so all was good.

Our band had something like that happen years ago. Only in our case it was a bus load of college cheerleaders ..they got out and came into the bar dancing their way out to the dance floor. I do not know what it was all about …it happened during the middle of our second set and were gone by the time we finished our 3rd set. Nice …but hard to concentrate with 20 cheerleaders in their frilly outfits dancing among the folks in there We were playing at an American Legion hall. Most of Us there were over 60. Until they showed up.

 

[getbent]

I may be stupid. But. What is a tri tip. ? A rib. ?

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/santa_maria_style_tri_tip/

One tri tip can feed maybe 6-8 people... santa maria bbq is pretty good. In Ca, we eat this way more than brisket.

 

[padreraven]

I may be stupid. But. What is a tri tip. ? A rib. ?

I never heard of it either until I moved to the California Central Coast. It's a roast cut from three different "tips" (like sirloin tip) and everywhere you go up and down the coast and into the Santa Cruz mountains you see shop keepers with charcoal grills cooking them outside. I started thinking it was the only kind of roast they ate there. It is pretty good.

 

[brookdalebill]

I had another very pleasant gig with Nathan in Smithville, Tx. last evening.
It was a short, sweet concert under a pavilion by the old railway station/city offices.
We played to a good, attentive and generous crowd!
The full five piece band played, and sounded our best!

 

[brookdalebill]

I just returned home from my very pleasant gig with Nathan at Watterson Hall.
The full five piece band sounded it’s best.
All the things I like about this gig were in abundance.
Happy, sane, fully functional folk of all ages dancing, playing, eating, drinking and enjoying their Saturday night.
Yes!

 

[Gene O.]

Yesterday was supposed to be the debut for our 5-piece band at a new venue - a brew pub in a tiny little rural village with a population of about 3300-3500. Although we had beautiful weather the last week, yesterday was the end of it, and the threat of rain cancelled our gig out on the patio. So we moved inside. I switched to my hybrid acoustic setup (Godin A6 Ultra & Fishman Loudbox) and the bass player used a tiny GK wedgie amp. But since the available space inside was barely 5' x 7', it was only the girl singer, the bass player and me... and it was tight... probably the tightest setup I've every experienced.

This new-ish (established in or around 2015) brew pub is family owned and run by a young couple who are super friendly, as is the entire, very young staff. The couple's father/FIL stopped to ask about my A6 Ultra on his way out the door and asked if I was looking for anymore guitars (I guess he has a few for sale). I kindly declined, saying my buying days are over, but he was very friendly nevertheless. Even though the pub has that modern farm design, featuring salvaged 75 year old beams from the family's barn that was struck by lightning and burned down (read about it hear), it had surprisingly good acoustics.

The crazy cozy setup didn't effect us in the least, other than the bass player couldn't sit and pump out quarter notes on the SPD:1 kick pedal. But that didn't hamper things at all. We still managed to play with energy and our usual 95% accuracy (we're never perfect). But even with glitches here and there, we sounded pretty damn good - a lot more sound than they are used to with the solo acts that usually play there - and the crowd was very positively responsive. We had about a dozen friends show up and made lots of new ones. Tips were great as well.

These small, quaint, rural towns can be surprising. Our drummer, who lives in a very rural area just 15 minutes away from this little town, told us that yesterday was the town's annual jazz fest and that it was a big deal. Really? A jazz fest in a tiny rural town??? Who knew? Certainly not me, since that was the first I heard of it. Maybe we should spend the next year putting together some sort of smooth jazz ensemble to play there next year.

 

[Old Plank]

Last night our fully improv trio F Block Combo made its debut, at a joint 50th birthday gathering for the other 2 guys in the band. (I'm the 'old guy'.) The venue was a really cool music hall, where recording, lessons, shows etc. take place, and it had a nice performance vibe. There were about 35 friends and family members at tables, lots of good food and beverage. We 'opened' for our drummer's other, long-time group The Intergalactic Yurt Band who play high energy acoustic/electric bluegrass, great harmonies and presentation, really fun! The F Block modus operandi is, one of us just starts playing something/anything, and the others fall in and off we go creating on the fly to whatever may happen. We did 3-4 pieces over an hour, and a bit to my surprise we were very enthusiastically received, especially as we get 'out there' and weird at times. Over the rest of the night after we finished, about everyone there came up and expressed how much they liked it and dug what we're doing, so that was great for giving us some confidence in keeping it going, although we know that gigs aren't going to be real plentiful for this sort of thing. Good times!

 

[dannyh]

My last gig was yesterday, another two-fer with the Rhythmators. Played Springfest in downtown Cleburne Texas from 2:30 to 4. Pretty blazing hot day (we don’t slip into summer slowly around here), but there was a pretty good breeze blowing and I had my turbine fan. Had a little bit of shade but not a lot. Small-ish stage with pretty decent sound provided. I used the Princeton to cut back on my foot print, as tight as we all were. They had it mic’d and it was fine. Nice receptive crowd, pretty good pay, easy gig (except for the heat).

Next we blasted off to Eddie V’s Dallas. I kinda sponged off in the restroom of the parking garage and cleaned up and “deodorized” as best I could. Kinda slow night but ok tips. Had some requests, fulfilled most of them, all in all a good gig. They FINALLY got the Bose back in working order. Nice to hear myself while singing for a change.

Played the AVRI 57 Strat on the first gig and the 62 on the second. The strings on the 57 were toast after the outside gig.

 

[ndcaster]

My last gig was this past Saturday in Boerne, TX. A country band I play with sometimes had a wedding reception down there. Beautiful venue overlooking the Guadalupe River, really nice family and staff, good money and a nice comped dinner. The room was a bit of a challenge (an acoustic nightmare) but we managed to adjust, eventually. Good gig. Played my blonde parts-Tele and Gretsch Tele through the BF Deluxe.

love to see the steel, too

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

Did a VFW Fundraiser Benefit last night. Really fun gig. Dance floor was hopping!

 

[dougstrum]

Saturday afternoon went well at the winery. Last gig was middle of April, so I really needed to get out and play. Have had a lot going on the past couple of months, including enrolling my mom in hospice~

Anyway it felt good and we sounded good. Had several young families out, and one Three year old was enthusiastically playing air guitar while dancing with his mom Also did happy birthday for a couple of folks.
Fun
afternoon, here's our corner setup, we played in side because of threatening storms~

 

[dannyh]

love to see the steel, too

Wish I had a better pic…I don’t remember what brand it is. He was playing it thru a brand new Tonemaster Twin Reverb. That amp sounded really good.

 

[brookdalebill]

My gig with Nathan at Sweet Home Community Center was fun.
It was well attended, and went off without a hitch.

 

[OlRedNeckHippy]

Trying to post a short video from Saturday's VFW gig.
Love them Line Dancer Girls!