Well, the owners (same place as our gig on the 8th) talked up how much busier they were on Friday nights and we gave 'em another chance. They asked for more country, so we added a few country songs. We had 2 requests last time for Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorns, so we added it (with me singing it :shock: ). Me and singer/guitarist left work early to make the 1+ hour drive down and get set up. We started promptly at 8pm to an audience of about 10 people. While we were last time, we had planned on 3 longer sets but this time I did 4 set lists with 10 or 11 songs in each. That worked out perfectly. We played about 45 minutes and took a break. The owner said that people would start showing up around 9 or so. There was supposed to be a birthday party for one of the employees there that night.
We started back at 9 and a few more people rolled in. During this set, our guitar player took over bass and I played acoustic guitar and sang Folsom Prison Blues (I can't sing and play bass on it yet). That went over pretty well. Ended the 2nd set and the place was still pretty empty. They close at 12, unlike the other 2 local bars. And having a $5 cover, I didn't really see many more people showing up after 10. During the 3rd set, we skipped a couple of songs and played a CCR song from our 4th set due to a request. We did Every Rose in this set and I was pleasantly surprise with how I sang it. The original is tuned a half step down (F#), but we play it in standard G. We got the most "woohoos" during and after that one than we did any other song. While we were playing Show Me the Way, a girl came up to the stage and asked me in the middle of the song if we'd play Freebird. I told her "later", so we started the 4th set off with it. We had a few dancing couples who tried to hang in when it kicked up to the faster part. We kept it to about 7 minutes as we ended it right after the last couple gave up dancing to it. :D
We ended it with our guitarist going nuts on his version of Eruption, going into You Really Got Me. By that point, there were only a few people left, so we were just having fun. Drummer split the money up as we were loading out and I didn't even count it, just stuck it in my pocket cause I knew it wasn't going to be very much. Turned out to be $30, which is better than I thought it would be, but no where near what we went in expecting. I don't see us going back there any time soon. They are nice people, but it's just not worth the drive, all the gear hauling and all that for such a little amount. We have fun playing, but we can have fun a lot closer to home. Now, we are focusing on prepping for our 2 shows on Oct 12 and 19th that are near home and our friends and family will come out to support. And we have a guaranteed paycheck for them.
I'm sorry to hear that your Friday night crowd turned out to be little more than a full closet. This must be one of those nights that you take away intangibles to make it seem worth it. Another gig, more practice with new gear, a lovely nght-time drive home, um.....
Well, I hope the next two coming up get better crowds at least. Good luck! 8) 8)
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
I'm sorry to hear that your Friday night crowd turned out to be little more than a full closet. This must be one of those nights that you take away intangibles to make it seem worth it. Another gig, more practice with new gear, a lovely nght-time drive home, um.....
Well, I hope the next two coming up get better crowds at least. Good luck! 8) 8)
Yea, we tried a slightly different set up with our onstage monitoring which allowed us to reduce 1 piece of gear. We learned a few things and got to try out new songs in front of a crowd, so there are positives to take away. Just playing live is always a positive. I've been amazed at how much my skill level has progressed in the past year playing with this band. We are doing songs live that we decided to add 2 weeks ago and had 1 practice session to go over them. We added Gimme 3 Steps, which has a very prominent bass line. 2 weeks ago, I only knew what key the song was in and the basic chord progression (since it's mostly a 1-4-5 song). We played it live Friday night and I nailed the bass line, with the exception of when one of the guitarists played the wrong part and I had to follow him.
That drive home was rough. I rode down with the singer/guitarist that lives on my side of town and my car was parked at his house. We got back to his house around 2. I had about 5 hours of sleep the night before and had been up since 6am and worked almost a full day and still had a 20 minute drive to my house. Once I got home, I stayed awake long enough to change clothes and I was out.
Hey JW, your reports remind me of my first gigs (not so long ago)!!! Keep at it and the crowds will come!!! Its tough just starting out, I think w/my first band we did less than 10 gigs in 2 years BUT in those 2 years of playing in a band my lead playing skills improved EXPONENTIALLY!!! I was SO MUCH BETTER after the band broke up that when I had an auditon with my next band I beat out a bunch of players!! I would've NEVER been able to do that w/o those 2 years.
AND its a LOT OF FUN playing live!!! :D
Looking forward to hearing more stories from your tour!!! :D
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
