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GIG REPORT - 3AM @ House of Blues Foundation Room (Chicago)

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(@tommy-guns)
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I didn’t realize I haven’t posted a gig report from my gig at the House of Blues Foundation Room (Chicago). My schedule has been hectic with work, holidays, and weather issues so sorry for the delay so here it goes.

On Thursday (11/21/13) we played our first “warm up” gig at the House of Blues Foundation Room (Chicago) as “3AM”. We changed our format, now we're a "Tribute to Matchbox 20". We can play 2 hours of Matchbox 20/Rob Thomas or if its a (3-1/2hr) gig we also incorporate Goo Goo Dolls, Lifehouse, 3 Doors Down into the set list. The House of Blues is one of the PREMIER venues in Chicago to play and we played upstairs in the VIP Lounge (Foundation Room).

We were told to load in down at the loading dock and they gave us directions on how to get there. I couldn’t picture where it was located, so we drove down the block and turned into an alley and followed it down and around, under the street level. It was dark, VERY DIRTY/ GRUNGY and pot holes everywhere from all the truck traffic. They still had train tracks down there from when they used to move train cars around…very industrial. As I came around the corner I see this HUGE SHINY tour bus, now I knew I was in the right spot. I parked, called upstairs and they said they’d send “production” down for us. 2 guys came down the freight elevator and loaded all our gear onto the elevator for the ride up to the 4th floor, gave me a parking pass labeled “HOB-Talent” to display in my windshield so our cars wouldn’t get towed and told us to park in front of the tour bus. COOL!! :D The production staff took us up and we met our sound guy for the night “Dallas”. Now the Foundation Room is small, but to have a sound guy provided to us for the night, that was AWESOME!!

We set all our stuff up, turn the power on and we trip the circuit breaker. Then we had even MORE staff (electricians) running around trying to figure out where the panel is so they can reset it. We tripped it a bunch more times before we figured out how to spread out the electrical load of our amps in the room. I guess they usually have just acoustic acts and we’ve have tube amps which was drawing too much power.

We were playing as a 3 piece this night with backing tracks for the bass and drums. Our bass player wasn’t up to speed with all the material and the drummer had to work that night so we decided to go this route which worked fine and REALLY gave a good representation of how we sound as a FULL band. We played 2 sets (2hrs) and we played great!! The only issue we had was the amps kept fading in & out due to the electrical load which was driving the sound guy crazy!! We hired a professional photographer to shoot us and the room b/c it’s a dark room and it’s a hard room to get good pictures without the flash just whiting everything out. I’ve seen him before at the Foundation Room shooting other events so I hired him. He did a great job and I asked him to take pics of people coming into the room in front of the HOB Foundation Room “screen” like they do at Hollywood events. This way our night had an “VIP" event” feel to it.

At the end of the night they LOVED us and said we had the 2nd highest draw for a Thursday night “Live in the Lounge” event!! We had around 40-50ppl there and they want to bring us back in 2014 as a full band!! That would be cool!! I also got to network with the HOB’s booking agent and he said he’d be interested in working with us playing the main stage sometime. Like a “90’s Tribute” night with some other local tribute bands in the area. That would be AWESOME!!!

At the end of the night they came up to me and said, let us know when your ready to load out and we’ll send production back up. So we took all our gear back down and as I walked out of the freight elevator I saw these 4 girls holding signs near the tour bus waiting for the “national act” to come out so they could sign autographs, take pics etc. That was pretty cool to see, I don’t know how they knew where to find the tour bus. I would’ve NEVER found it & I thought…I wonder if this is what Kid Rock or Buckcherry see after the show when they play here??

Our first FULL BAND gig is Saturday 1/18/14 at Gippers II (Coal City)!!! :D

Thanks for reading and all the great comments KEEP ROCKIN’ !!!!

Tommy Guns

Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!

 
Posted : 08/01/2014 8:02 pm