Last night my new band GTA played an opening slot for my friend's band Life Is Drama @ Bada Brew in Crest Hill IL. We had a opening slot for 1 hour (9pm-10pm) and we pulled in quite a few friends & family (40ppl). Bada Brew is known for being a "metal bar" so we concentrated our set to include our heavier stuff from our cataloge of tunes which went over VERY well. My wife told me on the way home that she was so impressed with our covers of Life is Agony's "Weeds" and Danzig's "Mother" that she liked ours better than the originals (nice)...I didn't even know she ever heard of "Weeds". I never did until I started playing with this band (SHE IS SO COOL!!!). She also told me that she is more excited about this band's prospects than all the others I have been with (also very nice). We have a couple of great singers up front and the band is SOLID!!! When Katy did "Mother"...WOW!!! Her father (Big Daddy from my previous band Ugoddawanna) was in the audience and he was IMPRESSED!!! I told him that she just started singing that tune 2 practices ago and when she did we KNEW that was her song from now on and it will be a staple in our setlist. She has a sort of "star power" about her...very outgoing personality which is great for a front person. We were going to play the Door's "Roadhouse Blues" and have her dad come up and sing with her (like we used to do in Ugoddawanna) but our set was cut short due to a longer than expected setup time but what we did play went over VERY well. I had a waitress come up and tell me "you guys were GREAT" and the deal was we were to play and if we were good we would get a full 4hr gig there. After the show I got the owners card and he told me to contact him next week to book a show there early next year!!! By then we will be ready to ROCK the house again...but this time we will monitor the house volume because I heard from friends that it was EAR SPLITTING. I guess when the sound guy gets excited he turns it up...he must have been pretty excited during our set then 'cause it was LOUD :)
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Sounds like you guys did a great job. Any pics or recordings?
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
Yes, we have video and pics on our MySpace page. Video is dark but the sound is good.
http://www.myspace.com/grandtheftaudiotheband09
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Nice pics & vids. You all look like you had a good time.
One question; why are there two singers? IMO the blonde girl really sings good,(she reminds me of Gwen Stefani), & seems to be comfortable & enjoying herself up there. The brunette seemed out of place, uncomfortable, and when she did sing, her voice didn't fit the music you guys do. She might be good in a country band. This is just my opinion though, so please don't take it the wrong way.
Let me know if you guys ever play up around the Stateline area, (I'm between Rockford & Madison), and I'll try to stop in.
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
Thanks for the reply Dan. No, I'm not taking it the wrong way at all. Thats a very good question because I think there is only 1 other working band that I know of in Chicago "Yard Fulla Cars" (country) that also has 2 female leads. Actually when I joined the band they had 2 singers and for some reason the bass player INSISTED that we do even though we had only 1 for a while and we were having problems finding a second. Finally we found a second singer that blended well together AND didn't mind sharing the "spotlight". A lot of singers that we talked to wanted to be the only female lead too. Another reason is its rough singing for a full 4 hour show ESPECIALLY if you are doing a Fri/Sat nights back to back. Alergies & weather also play into it as well. Guitar players only have to worry about if its too cold for our fingers to move right.
As far as the tunes go. Margaret (brunette) sings the country tunes VERY well and we do play more of those during our 4 hour set shows (Shania, Faith Hill etc) and we are also branching out into more Top 40 so her higher range will be a better match for that. Now Katy (blonde) REALLY puts herself out there and she is quite the front woman and she and Margaret interact VERY WELL onstage (BIG PLUS). They have matching fedora hats when we play "Beat It" and a "CENSORED" sign they hold up in between them when we play Katy Perry's "KIssed a Girl" where they pretend to kiss after the song. We have been told that with the 2 of them out front and the way they harmonize together this band has quite a future in front of it. Our last couple of practices have just been "electric" and we REALLY rocked the place last night.
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Right on bro, hey half way threw weeds looks like your camera man was lookin for the waitress! The bass player needs more metal!!Hey Fear Factory covers Cars :twisted: Honestly I hate watching these things it just makes me wish I was there, up front, beer in hand! Good Luck for the 4 hour set.
Joel
Where do you get your energies? Well its a vicious circle thing, If I hadn't ever played an instrument then I wouldn't ever need to play one. But now that I've been playing, I need to play. - Eric Clapton 1967 RollingStone interview
Thanks Joel
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
