Gig Report - Slightly Offensive @ Jack Desmonds (2/11/11)

This past Friday night my band SLIGHTLY OFFENSIVE played a return engagement @ Jack Desmond's (Chicago Ridge). We played here for NYE and there had to be 150ppl there that night. It was PACKED on NYE. The week didn't go so well for the band, on Monday our bass player's mom had a brain aneurism so he left to be with her up in Wisconsin and he was unable to play the gig & our other guitar player had a gig with his other band (Slippery When Wet) so we asked a friend of ours to cover on bass (as he knew 90% of the material already) and we asked our old guitar player to play 1 gig w/us so that we'd have enough material to cover the night and then any tunes the bass player didn't know he could just follow the other guitar player for the chords while I play the leads.

We had 1 rehearsal on Thursday night for 4 hours and we did the gig the following night. We pulled the whole thing off without a hitch. The only downside to the night was that we were LOUD!!! My wife said we were too loud for the small room and the drummer used an electronic kit last time but he is adamant about NOT using one again. So at the end of the night we discussed it while breaking down and he said his only hitting at 60% power so...what are you going to do?

At this gig I broke in a new piece of gear, an ISP Decimator Noise Gate which REALLY worked well for me. My high gain preamps used to be VERY noisy (white noise/feedback etc) but now this thing cuts out all that noise AND the noise I was getting from the power outlets at some gigs. My wife said I sounded REALLY good and she could hear all my individual notes (and even my mistakes) clearly. So I'm very happy with this new piece of gear. :D

Overall it was a great night and again, a young crowd (mid 20's) asking for Katy Perry tunes and I got some great applause for some of my leads, but the size of the crowd was less than 50ppl this time, which is fine w/me. We just need to build on it. Either way the bar loved us and they said “we can book you the rest of the year if you want” so that was COOL!!! Looks like we're playing here once a month now which is good and now we can start building a following here with a young crowd!!! We're scheduled to play here again on St Patty's Day and hopefully we can move The Tilted Kilt gig back to Sat 3/19.
Pics are will be up soon on my Facebook page (Tom McLaughlin) & on MySpace (Tommy Gunz) and I'm sure they will be up soon on the band's Facebook page “Rock Slightly Offensive Band” & at slightlyoffensiveband.com. Also check us out on MySpace too!!!

Next Gig TOMORROW!!! 2/17/11 – We're BACK @ The Tilted Kilt (6401 W 95th St, Chicago Ridge IL) Another return, but this time they're expecting us!!!

Then Again THIS SAT 2/19/11 - Rokwelz (11265 West 159th Street, Orland Park IL) A NEW VENUE for us!!!