GIG REPORT - Slightly Offensive (Shakers, Ottawa)

This past Sat night I played a gig with my old band SLIGHTLY OFFENSIVE @ Shakers in Ottawa, IL. Shakers is 1 1/2hrs away from me and they have many “bigger” bands in the area play there on a consistent basis so I was looking forward to playing here, it was a good sized room. :D The setup had the stage at the back of the bar coming off the corner, enough for a drum kit and our amps w/little room to stand so I spent most of the time on the floor. Just off the stage was the dance floor and there were a couple of tables by us but the bulk of the activity/bar area was to our right (video games/booths & a large bar).

On Sat night we had a “fill in” bass player from the local band Slippery When Wet. He and the guitar player drove together and the bass player brought along a small guitar so he could learn some of the tunes during the drive :shock: . We also substituted a bunch of Bon Jovi/Journey tunes so the learning curve wouldn't be so steep for him. Got my rig all set up and I had a white noise coming out of my amp...great, here we go again...but I noticed that I had a patch cable that came halfway out and once I plugged it in the noise went away.

We stared with about 50ppl there and we played our usual set of songs during the first set. By the 5th song I was thinking, “Man we sound like we've been playing together for months now!!!” Very tight!!! We had little bit of a hiccup with one song in the second set but we locked in after the first verse. We had a LOT of fun playing together Sat night and the crowd eventually thinned down to about 20ppl by the time we ended but we did have about 10 people dancing and singing along w/us on the dance floor by the 3rd set which made up for the thin crowd. We really pulled off Sat night like a bunch of "pros" I thought!! :D

My next gig is a “fill in” gig on SATURDAY (10/1/11) w/the ODD POPS @ The Irish Legend (8933 S Archer Ave, Willow Springs IL). I'll be playing some different styles this night (Classic Rock, Island, Reggae), think Santana, Matchbox 20, Buffett etc. We play from 9:00pm-1:00am. Its a nice room, check it out at theirishlegend.com and the band site oddpops.com

Thanks for reading and all the great comments & KEEP ROCKIN' !!!!

Tommy Gunz