Ready for tonight

Have fun tonight Bish!

Bish

Have fun and make sure to give us a report.

Speaking of snow, the news is going crazy in my area, we are supposed to get a major blizzard tonight. Nothing is more fun than shoveling snow. :x

Good Luck Bish. Although I am about 6-12 months away from gigging, I love to read the reports.

Wes, I know what you mean man. We got about 16", had to cancel my guitar lesson. sucks ...

bish,

have fun, and definatley need a detailed report, knock their socks off 8)

Hey guys, thanks!

This place is a stressful place to play. It's a fairly new place so you want to get established into the band rotation. The accoustics are tavernous. It's thunderous even when people are simply talking. So a live band is like sticking your face into your "large" home stereo and turning it up loud. We aren't the best crowd draw due to so many personel changes over the last 5 years. We never know what to expect of our crowd or the bars. Plus, I went to school with the owner and that has no bearing on anything, now that I think about it. :D

I gotta say, it went very well. The place holds about 300 people and there was about 25% capacity when I arrived. I pulled in to the lot and was thinking the parking was spotty but optimistic since the snow wasn't making any statements. As I stroll in I thought the place looked considerably fuller than I thought. And they kept coming in.

We started the night with Stray Cat Strut since it's mellow and a good noise level transition from juke box and yakkers. Crowd applause when done. :shock: Ok that was different. That went on all night. Plus, for every 2 patrons that left 3-6 more would arrive shortly there after. We even had dancers all night. Usually, they need a few drinks before loosening up but they were out there first set.

The bar owners husband is a harpist with another local band that actually played there the previous week. We like to get him up to jam with us. Both our bands play "Train-Train" so he gets up with us on that one. For those not familiar with the song there is a lengthy harp solo leading into the song. As the harp builds, it sounds more and more like a train engine. At a time, usually chosen by the drummer :twisted: , I click off the beginning for the guitarist and myself to come in. When their band plays it, their drummer doesn't give him a very long lead in. Me, I like dynamics. The harpist can play til he's blue in the face if he wants.

So I tell him before the beginning, "Chris, I hope you brought your lungs with you." He starts the beginning and since I never know how long they really want I just sort of let them go until I get a cue or they fall over exhausted. He's jamming the beginning solo (alone of course). I'm thinking its sounding pretty good and we're just about to start when he stops looks back at me all red faced and says, "You weren't kidding were you?!" :lol: Nope, not me never. :wink: :wink: The crowd liked that one. :twisted:

We had been working on adding new songs to our list since December. With my work schedule stepping up a bunch of notches I hadn't been able to get two nights a week to put band practice together let alone time to learn the new songs. We were given practice tapes at New Years and each week told what songs to learn. Most weeks the band would get together but I was forced to learn them at home, alone. So we never played them together until we went live. This week we played 5 new songs without ever rehearsing them together. Kind of a live debut.

We played "Break on Through" / "Riders on the Storm" - Doors, "When September Ends" / "Blvd of Broken Dreams" - Green Day, "Couldn't Get it Right" - Climax Blues Band. (This was the second song starting the night to keep it mellow.)

We had teenagers dancing and old men crying...lol. :lol: We finished at a little after 12:30 to a handful of appreciative partiers. Got packed up and out of there about 1:30 getting home about 2. We usually get paid after we're done packing up and run with the cash :)

Funny thing...we got tipped out. :D They gave us an extra $100 for a good night. I think we'll go back there.

Bish

That was an excellent gig report! Pretty smart to let the owner's husband up there, you'll be back many times for sure.

And $100 extra? Yeah, they liked you. 8)

Thanks for the great report.

bish,

way to go my man, sounds like you guys killed them, i can't wait for our next gig.