Girlfriend in Band Part 2

[Joe Louvar]

No judgement from me on the vocals here, but feel the need to mention that audience members lie. All the time. And many of them are drunk too. I can't tell you how many really crappy cover gigs I played, with really crappy bands that I KNEW were really bad, where people told me, "You guys are the best band I ever heard!!!!" Guitarist in my old band had an issue with people being dishonest about that kind of thing, and I caught HIM countless times doing exactly what irked him - to other bands we played with. "Great singing!" "Great songs!" "Great band!" and none of it was true. I've caught myself at it from time to time also. I usually try to keep my mouth shut if I dont' like what I heard.

I found I need to trust myself, and the very few friends I have who's judgement I trust and who I know will give it to me straight.

+1. Agree

 

[Marko 1]

It matters in real life. Once you post something on the Internet you effectively lose control over it's distribution. An unflattering video or recording of you or your band can potentially hurt your reputation and your ability to land gigs.

And I'm not just speaking about poor performances. Decent performances that are poorly recorded are just as problematic in my opinion.

Meh...,I just don’t see it affecting a bar/club band’s ability to get local gigs. The venue sees what you show them and you get your local reputation from your actual performances.

Imo, musicians tend to be too full of themselves, often to the point of being delusional.


Imo.

 

[Gaius46]

Meh...,I just don’t see it affecting a bar/club band’s ability to get local gigs. The venue sees what you show them and you get your local reputation from your actual performances.

Imo, musicians tend to be too full of themselves, often to the point of being delusional.


Imo.

If I was a club owner and some guy came to me looking to place his band seeing what, if anything, he posted on Youtube, Facebook, Myspace whatever would probably be one of the first things I'd do. That ain't rocket science.

More generally a lot of people still have yet to realize what you say or post on the Internet is permanent and can come back to haunt you years later.

 

[tycobb73]

Yeah I can tell, however I don't call them bad, we call them sloppy, and they are our learning from mistakes stuff. Most of our stuff is private, I share the link with TB or whoever I want to see it. It's not post it to the world. However some of it needs to be available to get us gigs. We are getting booked, and we are way better than most of the other cover bands around here. I know having witnessed the scene firsthand. There are better, and crowd drawing bands. We are not quite there, but have improved quite a bit..

I'm really surprised that my playing did not get picked apart, I mean this is talk bass and all. Robin got all the attention both good and bad in this thread. On a couple of these songs I presented to the crowd I was;

A. A whole step flat joining the third chorus in New Age girl (Yes I knew it and can hear it ),
B. completely off pocket on Let er rip during the guitar solo. (damn walking lines)
C. Too freaking tall and completely blocked off our drummer Lee when he took lead vocals on new age girl.

I am curious about the harmonies on new age girl. I thought they were on, nothing spectacular, was Robin flat there as well? That was a first time playing it too.

In the cover band world no one cares what you do unless you totally mess it up. It's all about the singer. We once did an open mic where I totally blew it, bad. Guitarist was drunk and you could tell. Singer did ok. I made up my mind I was not going to ask the owner for a gig yet. He came up to me and said we sounded great and wanted to boook us. In other words she sounded great and the rest didn't cause any train wrecks.

 

[PopaWoody]

+1. Agree

You know I agree with this statement, but we get it from muso's too. That don't even drink. We chalked it up to a bad night vocally for Robin, it happens. That bar was really smokey and that was all third set late night stuff. Sometimes you get a little something in the throat going on.

Here's another take, a sound guy came up to me at one gig and asked why we run her vocals dry? I have a nice TC electronic reverb / chorus rack unit. Yet I have NO experience running live sound. I get a lot of feedback when we dial up either effect through our boards aux sends. I return the signal as stereo line in on two stereo channels. So I don't add much. Said sound guy tells me it will make her sound better.

This same sound guy wants to work with us. Gave me his card, etc.

 

[MatticusMania]

You know I agree with this statement, but we get it from muso's too. That don't even drink. We chalked it up to a bad night vocally for Robin, it happens. That bar was really smokey and that was all third set late night stuff. Sometimes you get a little something in the throat going on.

Here's another take, a sound guy came up to me at one gig and asked why we run her vocals dry? I have a nice TC electronic reverb / chorus rack unit. Yet I have NO experience running live sound. I get a lot of feedback when we dial up either effect through our boards aux sends. I return the signal as stereo line in on two stereo channels. So I don't add much. Said sound guy tells me it will make her sound better.

This same sound guy wants to work with us. Gave me his card, etc.

I agree that a touch of reverb on the vocals does a lot to add a little something you just dont get running them dry. Something to consider.

 

[countrybass007]

"Keep on Truckin'!"

 

[HeadyVan Halen]

Well guys, it's been over 6 mos since I posted on TB that Robin had joined my band. A lot has changed since then. We renamed the band, that caused so much friction that we ended up letting our guitarist and drummer go. Too much drama over the band name change and some other reasons forced us to find other musician's 3 weeks before a gig. No longer is this my band it is our band and our project. She has come a long way with over coming stage fright and is getting better at working a crowd. Although that last part still needs some work. She has started writing material, melody and words. Some of it is good, catchy phrases.

We've been networking in the local scene since we started this project. Robin and I go see other bands and meet club owners in person and that is working for us. Well we talked to a local full time guy we met at a gig, he recommends a drummer to us. Turns out he saw us at a gig back in Feb and he remembered and liked us.

We jam at a local open jam and we click, sounds tighter than our original guy. He calls a guitarist that is available, that first rehearsal we put together about 25 covers that we both already knew. Gig in 10 days. We cram a few songs they cram a few more. We plan on getting by with 32 or 33 for a full night.

Gig gets cancelled due to a double booking incident that another band put the club owner on the spot for. We moved our gig back 2 weeks to a date the drummer had booked already. Hooray for more prep time.

Anyway I just wanted to update all the cool people that encouraged us, we are stronger than ever, sound better than ever and are getting invited back to clubs we play at. We are getting gigs where a lot of other bands around here do not.

Robin and I are having fun, there is a lot of chemistry between the new guys and us when we are on and we click. Our new guitarist has amazing technique and feel. Is a fellow Jersey native and shares my birthday. He works as a product manager at Dean guitar's and has shared a stage with Michael Angelo Badio.

What a job, working with artist's like MAB and Dave Mustaine, although I hear DM is a total douche bag.

Some recent video's for those that suggested some songs to us 6 months ago. As of today we have gigged 6 times and rehearsed 3 or 4. Things are going well for us weekend warriors


Creep

Dead Eye Dick - New Age girl
Heartbreaker
Let er Rip

Alright! Meet you guys at a gig in May (Blue Ship)..glad to hear it's going well.

If we can do anything to help get this Tampa music scene moving, let us know.
We'll be at Skippers on the 17th of Sept.
Hope to hear/see your new line-up when we get a chance.

Earl

 

[tycobb73]

You know I agree with this statement, but we get it from muso's too. That don't even drink. We chalked it up to a bad night vocally for Robin, it happens. That bar was really smokey and that was all third set late night stuff. Sometimes you get a little something in the throat going on.

Here's another take, a sound guy came up to me at one gig and asked why we run her vocals dry? I have a nice TC electronic reverb / chorus rack unit. Yet I have NO experience running live sound. I get a lot of feedback when we dial up either effect through our boards aux sends. I return the signal as stereo line in on two stereo channels. So I don't add much. Said sound guy tells me it will make her sound better.

This same sound guy wants to work with us. Gave me his card, etc.

Probably the biggest thing you can do is add reverb. Its the vocalist's distortion in that it covers up mistakes. I run it dry to the monitors and wet out front.