TLDR; Startup had first gig, went well, could've been better
The startup I joined in late June had our inaugural gig this weekend. When I say joined, I was the second person "in" with the BL drummer and we spent this summer seeking our guitarist and KB players. BL re-connected with a previous lead singer who has a great voice and presence and we are lucky enough to have a second nearly equal vocalist to sub for her if we need.
Guitar auditions were a bit painful, but we finally found the right guy in early August. BL initially invited a KB player he knew, but he just had nothing but excuses for not being ready for anything and we had to cut him loose. In late August I introduced a KB that I used to play with (in fact he was the BL of the first band i played with). He fit well and has been busting his butt getting ready for our first gig last Saturday.
The BL's goal is to avoid the bar scene and we target events and private parties. He is a born promoter and actually had gigs booked before we had a band in place. He negotiates for good pay and won't book any cheapo gigs. He also has an elaborate set up with PA and lights. He openly admits to taking a little off the top to cover his expenses and we have no problem with that. This was my highest paying gig to date at $175 per person. I've played gigs where the whole band didn't get that much. Our next gig is also at that rate. (Our local bar gig market winds up being $50-$100 per.)
We rehearse at BL's house. He has a pretty nice rehearsal space built into his shop area. It's 30 minutes away, which is right on my limit for rehearsal travel. LS is driving nearly an hour. The other two are inside 15 minutes. He had the room set in an odd configuration (things were just randomly placed). I talked the BL into rearranging his rehearsal room to be more like a stage set up so that we can approximate gigs. I'm hoping we can take it to the next step and get the mains out of the room and start rehearsing as if on stage (in ears and wedges) so we can get our stage sound dialed in. We had some issues at the gig and I now have some backing to re-approach doing this.
The gig was a birthday party for 75 yo Jack. The party, arranged by his daughter, was at his house in a very upscale area of the region. The address is technically in Auburn CA, but is a little south and in the country. I drove past a lot of horse properties on my 45 minute drive to get there.
The plan: Arrive at 3:30, sound check by 5:30, band eats at 5:30, kick off dinner set at 6:00, with three more sets, ending at 10 or when the crowd leaves, which ever is first.
The reality.
I arrived pretty much right at 3:30 to find the BL, KB and guitar guys setting things up. I'm nursing a hernia, so am not able to help with the loads right now. I have all my gear light enough to manage. BL's brother was also there to help and he stuck around and took some pictures and video for us. Have only seen one little snippet of video so far. Hopefully, they'll make some material's available for us all to utilize.
I know that 2 hours is a lot of time for load in/sound check, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. First the load in was a bit of a bear. We had to traverse a couple hundred feet of uneven lawn to get to to the back porch that would be our stage for the night. We knew this going in, but it was still a PITA. Then we had to move our vehicles to a temporary dirt parking lot that was a couple hundred yards from the property.
Being our first gig/first load in/first sound check, I knew we'd have to learn how to dance. We did pretty well, but it will get better. We got our stage sound set up by around 5:30, and we made some noise to FOH, but never really did a proper sound check. I'll never understand why this is so under considered. We changed out of our road crew clothes and grabbed some dinner. Sorry no food pics - we ended up getting about 10 minutes to eat.
A few pre-gig shots:
Here's our stage, while the guys are dialing in the PA cabling.
Turning around, I can see the north-east end of what's left of Folsom Lake.
Fine tuning the setup.
My familiar rig:
By the time we started, we got a very welcomed breeze. It was a pleasant evening to be outdoors. We scrambled to get 4 hours of music prepared, locking in a couple of songs just the week before. We were still about 10 minutes short, but for a private party, it wouldn't be a big deal and we have plenty of songs that we can stretch out with solos if we felt the need. (We didn't.)
Set list:
1
DREAMS
BRASS IN POCKET
ONLY THE LONELY
VOICES CARRY
BLACK VELVET
MARGARITAVILLE
STUPID GIRL
CHERRY BOMB
GIVE ME ONE REASON
BEER MONEY
2
HIT ME BEST SHOT
JENNY
HEY JEALOUSY
RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM
NEED A LITTLE TASTE
HATE MYSELF
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY
GREEN RIVER
PARIS OOH LA LA
YOU OUGHTA KNOW
3
ONE WAY OUT
I LOVE ROCK N ROLL
OUR LIPS ARE SEALED
MAKE MEMPHIS
EX'S N OH'S
MJs LAST DANCE
SUMMER OF 69'
PLEASANTLY BLUE
HURT SO GOOD
HERE FOR THE PARTY
4
POUR ME
JUST A GIRL
FAST AS YOU /PRETTY WOMAN
VOLCANO GIRLS
DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT /WALK AWAY
FUNKY MUSIC
L A WOMAN
We pretty much stayed on script. Here's n action shot I managed to grab whil I was waiting to come in on Give Me One Reason.
In the second set, we did get a request to play a song that we have in set 4 (Play That Funky Music). It was a great request, because it got people on the dance floor. I made my lead singer debut at this gig. Not really by choice - just pitching in to help cover some time with a couple of quick victory songs (Margaritaville and Rocky Mountain Way). I'm hoping we eventually cut these or just have them in the pocket for requests or what not. I'm really not a front man type of guy. Singin backups is hard enough and I sing backups on about 80% of our songs. LS made a point of complimenting me on Margaritaville after the first set, so it must not have been too bad. I only flubbed on line in Rocky Mountain Way, so I did OK.
All five of us sing and we all had at least one lead vocal for this gig. This really isn't my personal preference for a band of this caliber - I prefer to exploit the monster LS we have and do our best to support her. To me, it's like Glen Frey's response said when asked why he doesn't sing more leads. "I could, but would I when we have a Don Henley?" But she doesn't mind and this is the BL's vision, so that's what we're doing.
By the third set, the party was rockin' and the dance floor was consistently busy. The birthday boy got his cake and his song and all were having a good time. A couple of us never really got good mixes, so it was a bit of a struggle. Hopefully next week, we'll set up the router so we can all control our own mix. It's just such a PITA to have the LG/sound guy tend to every little adjustment for each mix. We must not have been too bad out front, but I doubt it was great mix - in the one little snippet of video I saw, the backing vox can not be heard. At all.
In set 3, we had a 10 year old (or so) boy come up and ask to "sing" a song. LS, waved him up and handed the mic. He started clapping his mic fisted hand to create a kick drum sound to get himself started. Drummer, helped him out. When he started his thing (I guess it was kid rap?), I found his pitch and started a funk/blues groove behind him. LG and KB joined in and we improvised a little Ab groove in support of his performance. It cracked us all up that we had become a backing track for 10 yo. It went over well for the crowd.
The third set also brought a request that we repeat Black Velvet. You're the boss, you got it. We had a few other requests as well, but we brought pretty much our entire collective catalog - we're just too new together to be able to try and wing anything and luckily we never tried.
Middle of set 4, the drummer (BL) tells all that he is cramping up something fierce. We were close to being done, so we played a couple more and called it. We skipped Don't Do Me and LA Woman. Too bad - we just crushed LA Woman on our first pass just a couple weeks before.
I had a few surprise pops when clicking pedals. I added the Analogizer to provide just a touch of dirt. It wasn't popping at home, but at the gig it was even affecting my octave pedal, so I left them off after while. I'll never understand why things behave different out in the wild than they do at home.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed on our execution for the night. Only one noticeable blunder (completely botched the little break in Cherry Bomb - which we specifically worked out last weekend), but still we missed several breaks and the BL suddenly started yelling out "Look Out" when he decided to end a song - not at all what we'd been rehearsing. The LS just made up her own timing a few times and we scrambled to keep up. I know it's growing pains, but there's too much talent in this band for us to make as many mistakes as we did. Everybody that mattered seemed happy, so no harm, no foul. But we're not trying to be just another bar band, so we need to up our game a bit. Hopefully, all in good time.
At the end of the night, it was clear that Jack (birthday boy) had had a lot of fun. And he didn't ant it to end. He tried to get us to do a couple more songs - including repeating Black Velvet again, but BL recognized that he was just drunk and wouldn't remember if we played anything or not in 5 minutes, so we ignored him and started the wrap.
Jack was very pleased with us. He was babbling on about us coming back every month and then later it was every two weeks to play for him. Hopefully he remembers this when he sobers up as he is involved with a big company who has need for live entertainment for Christmas parties and such. Jack also tipped us $100. When BL told us, I suggested that he give it to his brother - he was there for several hours taking pictures and videos. He left after set 3 to drive all the way home to San Jose (about 3 hours from where we were without traffic). Nobody had any problem with paying him the $100 for his help.
Because of my hernia, I had a bar stool on stage, but in the attempt to present properly, I stood for every song I sang on - all but about 8. For those of you who haven't experienced this ailment, it can hurt - like somebody is stabbing me in the groin - just from standing too much. Even though I didn't do any real lifting, at the end of the night, I was hurting pretty bad. Load out was especially painful having to dance around everyone else. I wanted to stay til the bitter end, just to be part of the team even if I couldn't help much, but I let them finish the dregs so I could get my butt lying down in bed to loose the pain. Next gig, I'm going to have to sit most of the night. I really don't like playing sitting down, not to mention I hate the look of it on stage, but it's either that or miss the gig. Surgery is scheduled for end of October, so hopefully I'll be back to healthy by December.
Hopefully I'll get access to some more pictures to share. Our next gig is in 2 weeks at private event in Loomis, CA. And I just was informed of a gig for my other band on the next day. It's good to be busy again!
The startup I joined in late June had our inaugural gig this weekend. When I say joined, I was the second person "in" with the BL drummer and we spent this summer seeking our guitarist and KB players. BL re-connected with a previous lead singer who has a great voice and presence and we are lucky enough to have a second nearly equal vocalist to sub for her if we need.
Guitar auditions were a bit painful, but we finally found the right guy in early August. BL initially invited a KB player he knew, but he just had nothing but excuses for not being ready for anything and we had to cut him loose. In late August I introduced a KB that I used to play with (in fact he was the BL of the first band i played with). He fit well and has been busting his butt getting ready for our first gig last Saturday.
The BL's goal is to avoid the bar scene and we target events and private parties. He is a born promoter and actually had gigs booked before we had a band in place. He negotiates for good pay and won't book any cheapo gigs. He also has an elaborate set up with PA and lights. He openly admits to taking a little off the top to cover his expenses and we have no problem with that. This was my highest paying gig to date at $175 per person. I've played gigs where the whole band didn't get that much. Our next gig is also at that rate. (Our local bar gig market winds up being $50-$100 per.)
We rehearse at BL's house. He has a pretty nice rehearsal space built into his shop area. It's 30 minutes away, which is right on my limit for rehearsal travel. LS is driving nearly an hour. The other two are inside 15 minutes. He had the room set in an odd configuration (things were just randomly placed). I talked the BL into rearranging his rehearsal room to be more like a stage set up so that we can approximate gigs. I'm hoping we can take it to the next step and get the mains out of the room and start rehearsing as if on stage (in ears and wedges) so we can get our stage sound dialed in. We had some issues at the gig and I now have some backing to re-approach doing this.
The gig was a birthday party for 75 yo Jack. The party, arranged by his daughter, was at his house in a very upscale area of the region. The address is technically in Auburn CA, but is a little south and in the country. I drove past a lot of horse properties on my 45 minute drive to get there.
The plan: Arrive at 3:30, sound check by 5:30, band eats at 5:30, kick off dinner set at 6:00, with three more sets, ending at 10 or when the crowd leaves, which ever is first.
The reality.
I arrived pretty much right at 3:30 to find the BL, KB and guitar guys setting things up. I'm nursing a hernia, so am not able to help with the loads right now. I have all my gear light enough to manage. BL's brother was also there to help and he stuck around and took some pictures and video for us. Have only seen one little snippet of video so far. Hopefully, they'll make some material's available for us all to utilize.
I know that 2 hours is a lot of time for load in/sound check, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. First the load in was a bit of a bear. We had to traverse a couple hundred feet of uneven lawn to get to to the back porch that would be our stage for the night. We knew this going in, but it was still a PITA. Then we had to move our vehicles to a temporary dirt parking lot that was a couple hundred yards from the property.
Being our first gig/first load in/first sound check, I knew we'd have to learn how to dance. We did pretty well, but it will get better. We got our stage sound set up by around 5:30, and we made some noise to FOH, but never really did a proper sound check. I'll never understand why this is so under considered. We changed out of our road crew clothes and grabbed some dinner. Sorry no food pics - we ended up getting about 10 minutes to eat.
A few pre-gig shots:
Here's our stage, while the guys are dialing in the PA cabling.
Turning around, I can see the north-east end of what's left of Folsom Lake.
Fine tuning the setup.
By the time we started, we got a very welcomed breeze. It was a pleasant evening to be outdoors. We scrambled to get 4 hours of music prepared, locking in a couple of songs just the week before. We were still about 10 minutes short, but for a private party, it wouldn't be a big deal and we have plenty of songs that we can stretch out with solos if we felt the need. (We didn't.)
Set list:
1
DREAMS
BRASS IN POCKET
ONLY THE LONELY
VOICES CARRY
BLACK VELVET
MARGARITAVILLE
STUPID GIRL
CHERRY BOMB
GIVE ME ONE REASON
BEER MONEY
2
HIT ME BEST SHOT
JENNY
HEY JEALOUSY
RUNNIN’ DOWN A DREAM
NEED A LITTLE TASTE
HATE MYSELF
ROCKY MOUNTAIN WAY
GREEN RIVER
PARIS OOH LA LA
YOU OUGHTA KNOW
3
ONE WAY OUT
I LOVE ROCK N ROLL
OUR LIPS ARE SEALED
MAKE MEMPHIS
EX'S N OH'S
MJs LAST DANCE
SUMMER OF 69'
PLEASANTLY BLUE
HURT SO GOOD
HERE FOR THE PARTY
4
POUR ME
JUST A GIRL
FAST AS YOU /PRETTY WOMAN
VOLCANO GIRLS
DON'T DO ME LIKE THAT /WALK AWAY
FUNKY MUSIC
L A WOMAN
We pretty much stayed on script. Here's n action shot I managed to grab whil I was waiting to come in on Give Me One Reason.
In the second set, we did get a request to play a song that we have in set 4 (Play That Funky Music). It was a great request, because it got people on the dance floor. I made my lead singer debut at this gig. Not really by choice - just pitching in to help cover some time with a couple of quick victory songs (Margaritaville and Rocky Mountain Way). I'm hoping we eventually cut these or just have them in the pocket for requests or what not. I'm really not a front man type of guy. Singin backups is hard enough and I sing backups on about 80% of our songs. LS made a point of complimenting me on Margaritaville after the first set, so it must not have been too bad. I only flubbed on line in Rocky Mountain Way, so I did OK.
All five of us sing and we all had at least one lead vocal for this gig. This really isn't my personal preference for a band of this caliber - I prefer to exploit the monster LS we have and do our best to support her. To me, it's like Glen Frey's response said when asked why he doesn't sing more leads. "I could, but would I when we have a Don Henley?" But she doesn't mind and this is the BL's vision, so that's what we're doing.
By the third set, the party was rockin' and the dance floor was consistently busy. The birthday boy got his cake and his song and all were having a good time. A couple of us never really got good mixes, so it was a bit of a struggle. Hopefully next week, we'll set up the router so we can all control our own mix. It's just such a PITA to have the LG/sound guy tend to every little adjustment for each mix. We must not have been too bad out front, but I doubt it was great mix - in the one little snippet of video I saw, the backing vox can not be heard. At all.
In set 3, we had a 10 year old (or so) boy come up and ask to "sing" a song. LS, waved him up and handed the mic. He started clapping his mic fisted hand to create a kick drum sound to get himself started. Drummer, helped him out. When he started his thing (I guess it was kid rap?), I found his pitch and started a funk/blues groove behind him. LG and KB joined in and we improvised a little Ab groove in support of his performance. It cracked us all up that we had become a backing track for 10 yo. It went over well for the crowd.
The third set also brought a request that we repeat Black Velvet. You're the boss, you got it. We had a few other requests as well, but we brought pretty much our entire collective catalog - we're just too new together to be able to try and wing anything and luckily we never tried.
Middle of set 4, the drummer (BL) tells all that he is cramping up something fierce. We were close to being done, so we played a couple more and called it. We skipped Don't Do Me and LA Woman. Too bad - we just crushed LA Woman on our first pass just a couple weeks before.
I had a few surprise pops when clicking pedals. I added the Analogizer to provide just a touch of dirt. It wasn't popping at home, but at the gig it was even affecting my octave pedal, so I left them off after while. I'll never understand why things behave different out in the wild than they do at home.
Overall, I was a bit disappointed on our execution for the night. Only one noticeable blunder (completely botched the little break in Cherry Bomb - which we specifically worked out last weekend), but still we missed several breaks and the BL suddenly started yelling out "Look Out" when he decided to end a song - not at all what we'd been rehearsing. The LS just made up her own timing a few times and we scrambled to keep up. I know it's growing pains, but there's too much talent in this band for us to make as many mistakes as we did. Everybody that mattered seemed happy, so no harm, no foul. But we're not trying to be just another bar band, so we need to up our game a bit. Hopefully, all in good time.
At the end of the night, it was clear that Jack (birthday boy) had had a lot of fun. And he didn't ant it to end. He tried to get us to do a couple more songs - including repeating Black Velvet again, but BL recognized that he was just drunk and wouldn't remember if we played anything or not in 5 minutes, so we ignored him and started the wrap.
Jack was very pleased with us. He was babbling on about us coming back every month and then later it was every two weeks to play for him. Hopefully he remembers this when he sobers up as he is involved with a big company who has need for live entertainment for Christmas parties and such. Jack also tipped us $100. When BL told us, I suggested that he give it to his brother - he was there for several hours taking pictures and videos. He left after set 3 to drive all the way home to San Jose (about 3 hours from where we were without traffic). Nobody had any problem with paying him the $100 for his help.
Because of my hernia, I had a bar stool on stage, but in the attempt to present properly, I stood for every song I sang on - all but about 8. For those of you who haven't experienced this ailment, it can hurt - like somebody is stabbing me in the groin - just from standing too much. Even though I didn't do any real lifting, at the end of the night, I was hurting pretty bad. Load out was especially painful having to dance around everyone else. I wanted to stay til the bitter end, just to be part of the team even if I couldn't help much, but I let them finish the dregs so I could get my butt lying down in bed to loose the pain. Next gig, I'm going to have to sit most of the night. I really don't like playing sitting down, not to mention I hate the look of it on stage, but it's either that or miss the gig. Surgery is scheduled for end of October, so hopefully I'll be back to healthy by December.
Hopefully I'll get access to some more pictures to share. Our next gig is in 2 weeks at private event in Loomis, CA. And I just was informed of a gig for my other band on the next day. It's good to be busy again!
