"Check In" here before and after your gigs this weekend!

[four2oh]

Ok, i played a twofer over the weekend with my bluegrass string band.

Friday night we had a gig up in Rosyln, WA at The Brick (oldest drinking establishment in WA, opened in 1882!), opening up for Flowmotion (Seattle's most popular jam band). I was really surprised at the large turn-out we had, as Rosyln is a little mountain town, but the tourists were around for the holiday weekend. We played a slamming 90mins set. Sound was excellent!

Saturday evening we performed at the Northwest Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center, in Seattle, WA. HUGE music and folk art festival! Lovely rainless day, and we were booked on an inside stage. But, the room was packed, and the audience was receptive, even though the sound guy did not know what the hell he was doing, and the FOH mix was crap, and I couldn't hear anything on stage (were the monitors even on!?). 30 min set, so we made do.

 

[sb69coupe]

Got a gig this coming Saturday. Typical 4 hour bar gig, we're playing 3 sets, 16/19/16 tunes. We haven't played this place since New Years Eve 2005, and it looks like we've got quite a crowd that's going to show up to help us kick off the summer right. The band has been on the back burner for the last year or so, with the guitarist recovering from some surgery. We haven't had as much time to rehearse as we'd like, but we're as ready as we'll ever be.

I'm going to use my Variax 5 string and my Lakland Darryl Jones 5 string for the gig. I'm planning on using the Variax for some Stray Cats stuff (upright model) and Cheap Trick (12 string model), then use the DJ on the straight-ahead stuff. It should be a really fun gig.

 

[IanStephenson]

Well tonight was "OK"... Moderatly busy. The support band almost didn't turn up - which would have been fine, as we usually play for 2 hours, whereas tonight we only had to play 1 hour, but they eventually turned up an hour before showtime without drums or bass amp. I know the bass player, so let her use my amp (under supervision - we were DI'd so it was turned down anyway), but the drummer quite understandably didn't want some stranger using his brand new kit, so the drummer had to go home and get his kit - result: so sound check for support band.

Once we gt playing it was a lot of fun - slightly bigger stage than we're used to. The audience we load and appreciative - and there were enough of them the place didn't look empty for a Wednesday night. We go to run around, and ham things up a bit to people who wanted to hear our stuff, which was great.

The downside is we put a LOT of effort into promoting tonight, but the venue really hadn't - nothing up outside, not listed on their flyers etc. We pulled in a few new faces, but not enough to justify the effort. We got paid less than half what we would normally get for a gig, and the audience are all out of pocket too.

We'll probably do it again, but not in any rush - better to play somewhere the bar pays us: We get more cash, and the audience has more money to spend on beer.

Ian

 

[jgsbass]

... I still have a pretty busy weekend: 2 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday.

again

 

[Lazylion]

We play next on Thursday the 31st, at Boonsboro MD, the first carnival of the summer season.

And of course the weatherman is calling for 95 degrees and poss. showers this afternoon. We got rained on there last year, started late & ended early. They had a tarp overhead that covered the middle of the stage, but not my stuff out on stage left.

 

[DblG]

They had a tarp overhead that covered the middle of the stage, but not my stuff out on stage left.

I have one of those blue 10' x 10' tarps in my van for instances like this. I might have only used it once, but folded up it only takes up as much room as a newspaper.

gg

 

[Lazylion]

^^ yeah, we always carry tarps for these gigs. But my thing is, if you're preparing the venue for shows, and you're putting up a tarp anyway, why cover only part of the stage?? Duh, it's Maryland in the late spring/early summer!! It's probably gonna rain, folks! We know this! Why not do a complete job, instead of a partial job?? Idiots.

 

[flakeh]

Just got back from first School BOTB with the new band, man it was fuuuuun! we placed third, eh no biggie, and were going to the finals in two weeks. Our school has a really nifty thing were they have 2 BOTB's a month, and all the top 3 from each one go into a huge one in the end, twill be fun.

On the downside though, Someone used my new behringer rig (4x10 + 1x15 and a BX4500H head). not only were they terrible with amps, but he was new with bass, so he had no idea what he was doing. he cranked the input gain, cranked every knob, had the ultra-bass cranked, and output cranked, bright/deep and shape filter all on! and he had it on full volume! man the sound it made! as much of a assly thing it is to do, i walked out on the stage an shut him off mid song. he tried arguing that the amp was supposed to sound like that.


All in all though, it was a real fun night. Met some new people, some attractive new people and played Rammstein's Zestoren reeeeally loud. perfect

-flakeh

 

[Alan Vorse]

Here's a strange one.

I was playing in a covers rock band that I wasn't completly thrilled with. I gave my notice back in March (as did the drummer) and played one last show with them. They re-configured the band and I went off to do my projects.

Shortly after the last show, I get a call from the guitarist of the cover band. He says there is a show booked for June 1st and he dosen't believe the new line-up will be ready in time for the gig. So he invites my band to play the first set.

We are a sax/piano/bass/drums quartet that currently plays Real Book songs.

Well, we are playing the gig. I am a bit nervous as to how a sports bar type audience is going to receive us.

Then 2 weeks after that call, the guitarist calls me again and says the bass player they got to replace me walked out on the band, and they need me to play the last 2 sets with the cover band.

On top of that, my fiancee is finding out if she got a job she interviewed for and its my best friend's birthday.

Get ready for an evening of Wayne Shorter and Stone Temple Pilots.

 

[PSPookie]

My band is playing this weekend at the Powder Springs "Country Gathering." This will be the first time that the band or myself has played in front of a crowd (aside from BBQs that a band member has thrown). So I guess that makes this our/my first real gig. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm a little nervous as well.

 

[Lazylion]

And of course the weatherman is calling for 95 degrees and poss. showers this afternoon.

We lucked out on the weather. It cooled off a bit and no rain. The show went pretty well, crowd liked us and we played pretty well (I haven't heard the recording). Our girl singer had to return from her grandmother's funeral in Arkansas to make the show, but she was there early enough, and did a great job onstage.
We did one long set, 19 songs, 100 minutes. I was allowed to sing lead on one song, the final big number to close the show, ZZ Top's "La Grange". Two other songs of mine were low on the list, and were cut as we were running overtime. Meanwhile, the soundman sang 6 or 7 tunes.
I'm getting real tired of that happening, and tired of having to complain about it repeatedly to the bandleader. I can see the end of my rope from here.

 

[bassman1185]

I've got an outdoor benefit show tonight for a girl in the area who was diagnosed with cancer. We're playing witha bunch of local bands and Spoken (who we played with a couple of weeks ago), who will be doing an acoustic set. It should be cool as long as the weather holds out. We've been having some crazy rainy weather the last few weeks.

 

[jgsbass]

again

Now its down to 3:Saturdays vocal job was "a mistake".
Lets see, I book me, they book 20-30 people. Who's more likely to goof?Or lie

 

[jumbosilverette]

Two day, outdoor festival in a park, Nortridge, CA. Put on by the city parks dept. We go on Sunday a.m. Many other bands. My first time playing with the Avatar/Peavey rig, though the whole thing will end up di. Will report back later.

 

[mimaz]

Well, we dodged the storms and had a great gig last night at a beautiful new outdoor ampitheatre.

Tomorrow, back to one of our favorite gigs, a tiny little hometown bar that always has a great crowd!

 

[mimaz]

Kinda forgot to mention, my other band (Steel Cassa) is playing an outdoor show this afternoon, then head on out for gig #2 later tonite.

It's gonna be a long day.

 

[spunj13]

had a gig last night...
(slow weekend for me... usually it's two or three a weekend, but... just one this weekend... we were supposed to be recording in chicago, but that fell through at the last minute)

haven't been that sweaty in a gig since last summer sometime... all i wanted to do was strip down to my skivvies and play that way... don't think the gf... or perhaps the audience would've appreciated that too much...
got to start using a sweatband... couldn't hardly keep my fingers on the neck... kept sliding ... (which... in some cases is good...but this was going a bit far)

oh well...
two shows next weekend and a week to play with the OC-2 pedal someone brought me last night... (got a specific use for it in a song that we're already playing)

[spunj13]

 

[jgsbass]

1 down, 2 to go.
Last night was an alumni dinner dance at Iona College. The best thing 'bout clubdates is you can occasionally be surprised by who shows up to play. Last night I got to play with drummer Terry Silverlight.

 

[Loose Cannon]

We had a great two-night gig last weekend that I should have written about sooner but I guess it took a week to recover!

Memorial Day weekend - Saturday and Sunday night at The No-Wake Cafe, Stockton Lake Missouri. Cool place; a floating restaurant/bar and we have played there several times, usually outdoors, but with rain showers around, we set up inside. Saturday night the crowd began packing the place by the middle of the second set, and since most were staying in the campground adjacent they didn't have to worry about driving home and came ready to party!! I noticed there seemed to be people of all age ranges there and they were really digging it.We let several audience members come up to sing a song.

We are replacing one of the band members and it was his last night Saturday. He missed chords and lyrics quite a few times, but the crowd didn't seem to notice too much.

Sunday night we played with a guy we had jammed with a lot in the past and his better energy and fun attitude went over great with a mainly college-age crowd that showed up that night. I don't think we had ever played a better show than we did that night. At times the audience was singing louder than the PA so we just let them do parts of some choruses!

When it came time to quit, it was a bit frightening for a few minutes. They started stomping their feet and chanting "One more song!" The owner said it was time to stop due to liquor laws but they kept insisting on one more, and there must have been 15-20 football player looking guys right in front of us. I began to wonder if we were going to be able to pack up and carry out any equipment past them. We decided to just walk outside for a few minutes and visit with some of the people until the place started to clear out a bit. I even had some coming over to me and saying stuff about how good they thought I played so I just said "Oh, I just make sh** up!"

I got a free spot in the campground from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon, had fun all weekend,and made money. What more could anyone want?

 

[bassman1185]

I've got an outdoor benefit show tonight for a girl in the area who was diagnosed with cancer. We're playing witha bunch of local bands and Spoken (who we played with a couple of weeks ago), who will be doing an acoustic set. It should be cool as long as the weather holds out. We've been having some crazy rainy weather the last few weeks.

Interesting gig... I got to the place about an hour before we were supposed to go on. A church had allowed the people who were putting on the show to use a pretty stinking nice PA system, which was way cool... until it started raining. We got the PA stuff covered up, but the church decided that they were going to take back their stuff, which is totally understandable. It had been raining on and off for all day. The people in charge called Spoken up to see if they could make it down earlier than they planned and just play a totally unplugged set in the picnic shelter. By now the rain had stopped (it only really rained for like 5 minutes) and the sun had come back out. My band decided that we wanted to play one way or another. One of our friends' dad is apparantly a DJ, so we were able to wrangle a PA system out of him, so we set up our stuff and kept the show going. I don't know exactly how much we ended up raising, but I guess it was quite a bit.