The B-Side Band returned to Jan's Lounge in Orangevale.
For this gig we had the same sub drummer that we used last time. He was actually a little less effective than the last time, with a couple of extra drum solos to close out songs. Overall, he did good though.
It's a little odd how the BL approaches the 4 hour gigs (we mostly do 3 hour slots): he still uses three sets and they are maybe 2 or 3 songs longer - not really enough music to properly fill the time. At second break he kinda realized that were a set short and knew we'd have to stretch a few songs and ad lib the last 40 minutes or so. No problem, we do a lot of call outs with these guys.
As I mentioned a few reports ago, I've played here several times and it's almost always the same scenario: fairly light crowd to start, heavy, enthusiastic crowd for the middle 60-90 minutes, then the crowd essentially files out around midnight and we're left playing to the bar staff and a few cling-ons. I don't understand why they don't schedule 8-12 or just cut it off at midnight, but this place has always been just been a little off.
For the last 30-40 minutes, BL was just calling stuff out because we'd burned through our set lists. I know a good chunk of their stuff, so it's not too big a deal, but doing that with two subs (me and the drummer) seems dicey. One call out was Jenny, which I've played many times, but don't have locked down at the moment. I was scrambling to find my chart on my tablet, but it wasn't happening, so I really fumbled my way through it. Then he pulled out a couple of Beatles tunes and kicked them off way too fast. I Saw Her Standing There is a bit of a beast at proper tempo; at +20 BPM, it was a downright monster. Got through it OK, but I'm thinking "We're trying to kill time, why are we rushing these songs?"
We finally got tot he end, and BL calls out "Wagon Wheel - I can't find my capo so let's do it in G." and started strumming. Geez. Lucky for him I approach stuff so that I can usually transpose on the fly, but it did put me in a different position and had to work for it. I muttered to LG that "that was not in my contract" as we finished and he laughed.
Our next gig is Friday, April 5 at the Powerhouse Pub in Folsom. It got added to the calendar just a couple weeks ago, so they must have had a cancelation or something - the band has been trying to book this place for over a year. I've never been, but have heard it's a great venue, so looking forward.
For this gig we had the same sub drummer that we used last time. He was actually a little less effective than the last time, with a couple of extra drum solos to close out songs. Overall, he did good though.
It's a little odd how the BL approaches the 4 hour gigs (we mostly do 3 hour slots): he still uses three sets and they are maybe 2 or 3 songs longer - not really enough music to properly fill the time. At second break he kinda realized that were a set short and knew we'd have to stretch a few songs and ad lib the last 40 minutes or so. No problem, we do a lot of call outs with these guys.
As I mentioned a few reports ago, I've played here several times and it's almost always the same scenario: fairly light crowd to start, heavy, enthusiastic crowd for the middle 60-90 minutes, then the crowd essentially files out around midnight and we're left playing to the bar staff and a few cling-ons. I don't understand why they don't schedule 8-12 or just cut it off at midnight, but this place has always been just been a little off.
For the last 30-40 minutes, BL was just calling stuff out because we'd burned through our set lists. I know a good chunk of their stuff, so it's not too big a deal, but doing that with two subs (me and the drummer) seems dicey. One call out was Jenny, which I've played many times, but don't have locked down at the moment. I was scrambling to find my chart on my tablet, but it wasn't happening, so I really fumbled my way through it. Then he pulled out a couple of Beatles tunes and kicked them off way too fast. I Saw Her Standing There is a bit of a beast at proper tempo; at +20 BPM, it was a downright monster. Got through it OK, but I'm thinking "We're trying to kill time, why are we rushing these songs?"
We finally got tot he end, and BL calls out "Wagon Wheel - I can't find my capo so let's do it in G." and started strumming. Geez. Lucky for him I approach stuff so that I can usually transpose on the fly, but it did put me in a different position and had to work for it. I muttered to LG that "that was not in my contract" as we finished and he laughed.
Our next gig is Friday, April 5 at the Powerhouse Pub in Folsom. It got added to the calendar just a couple weeks ago, so they must have had a cancelation or something - the band has been trying to book this place for over a year. I've never been, but have heard it's a great venue, so looking forward.
