We had the grandson and family over for Easter, but somehow I managed to avoid getting
diverted into a pub on the gig day.
However, I was feeling viral with a bit of a sniffy nose - could be tree
pollen borne down to Bury on the Northerly wind from Thetford Forest? Nephew Phil helped me load up and at 6:15pm I
followed Chris the bass down town to the gig.
We were able to park up close to the short flight of stairs up to the
club. Chris the drum was already parked
and setting up. Getting the gear in
wasn't too bad; but we wasted a bit of
time looking for Chris's keys (left on a table upstairs!) before looking at set
up. We needed to run power quite a long
way down from the bar and over the fire escape for the band amplification. For the lights Chris ran a lead over the
other side of the club from the TV socket.
Without looking too closely we could see there would be floor space for
a Bose each side of a rather large alcove; and we positioned the Bose bases one
each side before loading the bass stack into position. So far so good. Then I came to fit the speaker poles to the
base unit and it became immediately apparent that the Bose poles would be an
inch too tight to fit in under the low ceiling.
I took a few minutes to think through the options and decided we would
try it with the half poles. The room
wasn't massive and if we needed more oomph I could bring in a Line 6. So we completed set up and sound checked. Despite the half height Bose there was a
definite feedback ring that we would have to work within. Actually, it sounded OK in our playing
positions and listening out front to the mics I thought it was a bit less toppy
but it would be a good enough! One
problem emerged though: Chris the drum's
SM58 clone mic sounded excessively bassy and I couldn't fix it with the simple
EQ on the Stagescape mixer. Eventually I
had to drill down into the advanced EQ and fix it there. Whilst I felt it was good enough for this
small gig I made a mental note that it would benefit from a complete re-set up
when we get the opportunity. In fact I
am wondering if this particular mic is failing and changing characteristics on
the way because it sounds much bassier than Chris the bass's identical mic? I reckon I might get Chris the drum to use my
spare Shure SM58 next time out.
Taking soundings in the break, I
was assured that the band balance was OK.
Mind you we weren't playing very loud and volume would have been limited
by feedback in this boxy alcove anyway.
We had a beer and returned for set 2 starting with
"Apache". I was able to take a
'walk' out front and the guitar sound was fine and solid. Not a bad balance; if anything the rhythm section was down in
the mix, but I thought it better to
lower the guitar a tad rather than ask the boys to get louder. We followed up
with "Do You Wanna Dance" and
I could see a bit of audience at the bar wriggling even if they didn't actually
come up for a dance. Next up was Chris
the drum's vocal on "Happy Together".
I bantered a suitable announcement which went down well, then I got us underway with the guitar
intro. I glanced round and Chris didn't
look like he was ready to sing so I added a couple more riffs and then entered
the song proper expecting to hear his vocal.
Nope not there - he had switched the mic off and was having trouble
switching it back on. So I went back
through the intro and finally we got going.
I think we were all a bit rattled by it as we messed up the coda to end
the song - not fatally, just got at
cross purposes with the words. But we
followed up with a well played "Daydream Believer"; I have taken to using just the hi harmony on
the harmoniser in the chorus and I think it works better than the muddier full
harmony I was doing. Chris the drum was
back on form with "Delilah" which went down well with this audience
who sang a long in all the right places.
We followed up with a dancey sequence of "Bad Moon Rising, Move
It, Summertime Blues and Jailhouse
Rock" There were a few up and
dancing in places and we got good applause.
Chris the drum did his version of "Proud Mary next; following a
slow start with a fast song body. It was
a tad nervy I thought, but it went well
with the audience. We started a 70's
sequence with "Don't Stop Thinkin About Tomorrow". Apart from the odd word juxtaposition on my
part I thought we played it the best we have done so far - shows it can take
several months for a song to truly bed down.
Then it was straight into "Yellow River". The rhythm section in this song always sounds
weak to me and, being brutally
honest, it just doesn't suit Chris the
drum's voice. Not a massive crowd
pleaser either. I am going to propose we
drop it and find something more meaty for Chris to sing there. Chris the bass signalled a 5 minute warning
so we finished with a well played "Hot Love" and "Wonder of
You".
In the meantime, several of Chris the drum's band supporters had arrived
and with Jacqui and nephew Phil arriving about 8:30 there were about 25 in the
club as we approached 9pm show time. Not full for sure, but there was a positive atmosphere of
enthusiastic anticipation. I found an
alcove near the toilets to get changed into our home strip of white tees and
black waistcoats / trousers. As we took
to the stage. I spotted that the mixer
had entered a rare software glitch phase I had occasionally seen before. It doesn't affect the sound, but the mixing sensors glow blue instead of
the green and not all of them light up. Not
good for making adjustments on the fly so I powered it down and re-booted without
fuss as we took our positions. We opened
with Flingel Bunt and I thought the guitar sound was a bit weaker than
normal. I put it down to the half poles
but then noticed that the guitar pick up selector was in position 4 rather than
5 - so I was getting the blend of the neck and middle pick ups rather than just
the neck which has a commanding sound. I
switched it for the last verse and we ended in good order. "Just One Look" and
"Heartbeat" allowed me enough time to make some adjustments to Chris
the drum's mic to kill hints of toppy feedback.
At last I was able to take stock of the audience reaction - actually we
were going down pretty well and getting appreciative applause! I relaxed into a good bantery frame of mind
as we progressed though a typical set 1.
I did pre-warn the boys that we would link a couple of rock n roll songs
together in this set. On the night I
chose "Rock Around the Clock" in G then straight into "Blue
Suede" in A - and I am pleased to report it worked a treat! I elected to finish the set with the debut of
"A Little Bit More" that we had been rehearsing recently. I find it is quite demanding to sing with the
lead line sitting just lower than falsetto. I had arranged it such that the harmoniser
would do high harmony in the second part of the verses and through the chorus;
and Chris the drum would add a low harmony just in the chorus. Despite a
slightly nervy and hurried performance,
I thought it went pretty well for first time out - and we got a good
response for it!
I felt unnaturally tired (viral) as we returned for set 3 but I was
determined to give it a good shot. I was
toying with opening with "Dance the Night Away" but I could see the
guys were geared up for "Great Balls" so I went with that. Wish I hadn't - we were a little fast and off
the beat I thought. So next I did call for "Dance the Night Away" and
we played that pretty well and even got a bit of dancing going. I think we will open with this for the next
few gigs. Chris the drum had another
delayed vocal start with "Saw Her Standing There" - mic switching problems
again. Once into it, it was another nervy, slightly off the beat performance. Things improved with "Pretty Woman"
and I did notice Chris the drum had done a bit of homework putting in some of
the catchy drum tweaks that are on the record - well done! Then we played through a well established
continuity sequence of: "Saturday
Night at the Movies, Come on Over to My
Place, Sweet Caroline, Hey Baby, Hi Ho Silver,
All Right Now". We got
little bits of dancing and singing going through this sequence and I had livened
up considerably as well. But I still decided
to skip "Trilogy" as I was a bit under par on vocal stamina, so I called for "Mustang Sally". I sing the verse and Chris the bass sings the
chorus. It went well: we kept the dancey sing a long vibe and I had
the opportunity to bring Chris in with the phrase 'and now all the ladies sing'. There was just time for "Hippy Hippy
Shake" (a tad fast - my fault!) and "Johnny B Goode" to wrap
up. It was midnight so no time (or call)
for an encore. I got changed and set about tear down. I was now exhausted, it was a good job I had help shifting the
gear out! We loaded up but there was
only one spare seat in my car so Chris gave Jacqui a lift back. It was about 1am when we got in. I felt like boxer must feel after a hard
fight; I slept for over 8 hours and still
recovering a couple of days later. Must be a virus?
