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

[Bass Pleasures]

We've just set up and checked ready for a show tonight. We're playing in a pub in the small village of Bulkington, Warwickshire.

We always seem to play here when the weather is inclement. Either snow or torrential rain.
Tonight it was heavy rain that has now turned to snow.

Anyway, these folks are a hard-drinking bunch who like their friday nights, so it could be fun!

(Our drummer and lead axeman pi$$ing about whilst the singer looks on.)

 

[ba-dum-ba-dum]

Gig this Saturday night at a place we've played several times now called "Hooker's Resort". Sounds a bit seedy doesn't it? Alas, the stage will not be adorned with prostitutes Instead, this is a bar/restaurant on the banks of the cold Wisconsin river. It has no stage, we perform in a corner, flanked with buzzing neon beer signs. But we have had some good times here. The crowd can be surprising considering the venue's obscure location. It's a resort and many of the people will be vacationers inhabiting the surrounding cabins.

Regardless of the modest size of this establishment, we will have with us our trusted sound guy, Ed, and his big arse P.A. Way overkill, but its cool We will also have an arsenal of borrowed stage lighting for our stageless performance. Big Packer game that night, I hope they win. It could greatly improve the audience's attitude about our deafening P.A.

Here's our setlist for the evening, wish us luck!

Set 1
She's a Lady
Under my Thumb
Green Eyed Lady
Tom Sawyer
Paint it Black
Radar Love
Man in the Box
Burning Down the House
For Your Life
Royal Orleans
Nobody's Fault but Mine
Hots on for Nowhere
Woman

Set 2
Trippin' on a Hole
Manic Depression
Higher Ground
Fire
Monkey Wrench
Everlong
Little Sister
No One Knows
L.A. Woman
Cherub Rock
Been Caught Stealing
Devil Went Down
Spanish Castle Magic
Frankenstein

Set 3
Hot for Teacher
Rio
Beat It/Billie Jean
Fairies Wear Boots
Burning My Soul
46 and 2
AEnima
Lord of this World
Whip it
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy
Jerry Was A Race Car Driver

 

[bassman1185]

My band is opening up a CD release show for a well established local band tomorrow night. Should be a good time.

 

[Bass Pleasures]

Heh heh, our show mentioned above was fairly eventful.
There was a decent-sized crowd in and the first set went very well, which boded well for the second, as people have had more drink by then and are more ready to let their hair down.

One person, however, had obviously had a couple too many, as during the first song of set two, a fight started!
For the record, the song was "Teenage Kicks", which might be seen to be appropriate, I suppose.
Anyway, the miscreant was unceremoniously ejected from the premises by the formidable landlady and her hulking boyfriend and we carried on.

By the second or third song though, the twit who had caused the trouble obviously came back for round two, 'cos I could see a bit of fun and games going on in the car park, through the window. I suspect he got what was coming to him and went home with a sore mouth.

A little later, the police showed up at the pub, to see what the fuss was about. They were assured that it was all over, just one idiot trying to spoil peoples' nights out, so they went to leave, as we were coming to the end of "Satisfaction".
One cop was obviously impressed, as he nodded approvingly and clapped!

All in all, a great night, despite the tiny bit of bother.
We always go down well at this venue and we enjoy playing there.

 

[bassman1185]

My band is opening up a CD release show for a well established local band tomorrow night. Should be a good time.

OK, turns out that it wasn't actually a CD release show. The show went alright, but it was a little bit of a weird crowd. They weren't really that into us or the headliners, but the second band that played (who a friend likened to "a bad Hinder") got a really good reaction. I think that a lot of their people left after they played, though. The sound was pretty sketchy too. Either way, we played pretty well. Here's a video of the last song of our set:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=A4MTvJ4BJQM

My playing was a bit loose, but that was mostly because I was playing my new Squier VM Jazz that I hadn't gotten set up properly, so my left hand was on the verge of cramping up on me the whole song. On a side note, it's amazing what 1/8 of a turn of the truss rod will do for a bass.

 

[ba-dum-ba-dum]

Gig this Saturday night at a place we've played several times now called "Hooker's Resort". Sounds a bit seedy doesn't it? Alas, the stage will not be adorned with prostitutes Instead, this is a bar/restaurant on the banks of the cold Wisconsin river.....

Well, the show was "meh". Crappy turn out and we had to drive home in a terrible snow storm. Not to mention, we ended up renting a UHaul (truck) to bring our crap up there due to BOTH of the band's large vehicles being broke down. No $$$ left this time

I started drinking before the second set. This was the best set as far as crowd participation (and my beer buzz). This seems to be a pattern at this place. The highlight for me was watching a "plump" couple dancing and singing along to "Been Caught Stealing". It was just like the video in the grocery store! Our 2 Michael Jackson songs seemed the most popular...go figure.

By third set I was really tired, had a bit too much alcohol, and the place was pretty much dead (except for the couple of tool songs which always seems to invoke a couple of drunk dudes to run up to us and start flailing about).

Oh well, on to the next....

 

[sb69coupe]

48 hours before the debut gig with my new blues/funk band "The Soul Shakers". We're playing a nice bar in the hip downtown entertainment district, The Blue Martini Link Removed and have been given a regular gig there for the 3rd Saturday each month. It should be an easy load-in and setup. House PA and lights, all we bring is the backline.

We had our final rehearsal last night. We've rehearsed together a grand total of around 10 times, and managed to work up 40 tunes and have them pretty dog-gone tight. The lineup is a four piece, guitar/bass/sax/drums. Guitarist sings the majority of the tunes, but each of the others take a couple tunes on vocals.

I'll report back on the results. The band has gotten lots of good reception at the open jams around town, so I have high hopes that we'll go over well.

 

[Way_Off_Bass]

Tonight...my first time with my new band! *gulp*

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[mimaz]

Great to hear about more "first gigs"........best of luck to you both!

For my part, probably more like gig # ten thousand and something or other.....(yea, I'm old), but that's cool just the same. I'll be playing a local club with The Benders tomorrow night. Tonight, I've got the night off, so I'll spend some time with my kids until they go to bed, then hang around on TalkBass and kill time until I fall asleep myself!

 

[supermonkey]

Good luck to you guys on first gigs!

I'm playing with my original band at a coffeehouse tonight. First time we've played there, but we were told to bring the loud version of the set. So be it, Jedi... I'm hoping we can pack the place out pretty well, but we'll see.

Playing tomorrow night at a venue I know with my Dylan cover band. This one should be fun -- in spite of the fact that our drummer has been hospitalized for apendicitis! Our old drummer is subbing in, so the show will go on. At least, I'm hoping the snow/rain forecast for Atlanta tomorrow doesn't ruin things!

 

[neurotictim]

Got a battle of the bands coming up on the 27th... I'm soooo ready to get back out there. We took time off to write, which turned into a long dry spell. I hate having bandmates with drastically different schedules, makes it a real PITA to book.

 

[jgsbass]

2 clubdates Saturday and a Monday clubdate. Not a bad weekend for January

 

[sb69coupe]

48 hours before the debut gig with my new blues/funk band "The Soul Shakers".....

I'll report back on the results. The band has gotten lots of good reception at the open jams around town, so I have high hopes that we'll go over well.

Well, of course Mother Nature throws a snowstorm at our little Mayberry town. As far as I know the gig is still on, but I'm not counting on a big crowd. Grrrrrr

 

[Bass Pleasures]

Going on in about half an hour. We're in a pub over the other side of town which we've never played before.

To be honest, this place has a "rough" reputation but the punters seem ok to me. A little, ahem, down-to-earth, perhaps but friendly enough.

I'll post again to say how it went, if we get out alive (just kidding).

 

[bassman1185]

My band is playing a weird mish-mash show tomorrow night with a few local bands and a touring alternative/worship band called Annavox. We're playing at a newer venue in Ames called Zeke's, which has an AMAZING sound system.

 

[mimaz]

48 hours before the debut gig with my new blues/funk band "The Soul Shakers". We're playing a nice bar in the hip downtown entertainment district, The Blue Martini Link Removed and have been given a regular gig there for the 3rd Saturday each month. It should be an easy load-in and setup. House PA and lights, all we bring is the backline.

We had our final rehearsal last night. We've rehearsed together a grand total of around 10 times, and managed to work up 40 tunes and have them pretty dog-gone tight. The lineup is a four piece, guitar/bass/sax/drums. Guitarist sings the majority of the tunes, but each of the others take a couple tunes on vocals.

I'll report back on the results. The band has gotten lots of good reception at the open jams around town, so I have high hopes that we'll go over well.

Well, of course Mother Nature throws a snowstorm at our little Mayberry town. As far as I know the gig is still on, but I'm not counting on a big crowd. Grrrrrr

Well, how did it go??

 

[Bass Pleasures]

Our friday night show, mentioned above, went pretty well.
A good, enthusiastic crowd of drunks went slightly mad for us.
Some went a bit too mad, as we had a girl trying to get on the mic and join us in only the third song - never a good idea. Most, however, back down after a simple shake of the head but this one actually tried to grab the mic from the singer's hand.
Then we had a bonkers bloke throwing himself all over the place, jumping on to seats, jumping off seats, falling on the floor and at one point, lying on the bar, pretending to swim!
He kept up these antics ALL night.
Anyway, it was a fun night, even with a six-foot madman disconcertingly crashing about in front of us, so we'll play there again some time.

 

[bassman1185]

My band is playing a weird mish-mash show tomorrow night with a few local bands and a touring alternative/worship band called Annavox. We're playing at a newer venue in Ames called Zeke's, which has an AMAZING sound system.

The show went really well, even though one of our guitarists was about to puke through the whole show. It was a weird crowd for us (lots of people in their 40s and 50s, when we mainly play for teenagers and college students) but we got a pretty good reaction.

 

[chuck stardust]

I am a little late....We played at a local club Friday 1/25 and Saturday 1/26 for our FIRST gig as a new band. I am the newest member, and it was FANTASTIC!!! I REALLY missed playing live...my first REAL gig in at least 10 years! I used my BRAND NEW Ashdown C115 300 combo, and the darn thing sounded INCREDIBLE!!! I had all kinds of people coming up during breaks and at the end telling me how great the bass sounded. I had one guy say that he was a keyboardist and that He was going all over listening to bands in the area, and that my bass had the best tone he ever heard. I gotta say, honestly, it floored me. The little amp sounded great in practice, but once I raised the volume, it came alive. You know how you have those "Magic moments" where you just drift away and you suddenly hear these beautiful notes coming from somewhere, and all of the sudden you grasp the fact that it is YOU playing those notes? I had so many of those Saturday...I almost felt like I couldn't mess up.....THEN I would think,... and mess up! Bass playing is the absolute GREATEST experience for me.
For the record, we play a lot of styles...Rock, Blues, Soul, A little Funk, all stuff you can dance to. I gotta give the Ashdown a thumbs up...best thing I have done in a long time.

Chuck

 

[P. Aaron]

We are playing Friday & Saturday night this weekend. "Home & Away gigs as I like to call them. These are all paying gigs.

One is a bit north: Hamlin Pub in Rochester MI. The other in Madison Heights: D.B. Cooper's, Saturday, mere miles from home.

These are pretty routine. I am ostensibly a "pro", we played over 30 shows last year and are booked through July this year; (at least 3 weekends a month) yet I feel less like a musician than ever.

Nonetheless, I will report back and give y'all an update.