Are you guys still a 3 piece and looking for a singer or did you lose a singer recently?

June 27, 2015 – I had my first gig with a band in 25+ years. I didn’t tell you guys because I have one superstition. I don’t talk about something until I know for sure it will happen or it does happen. I think I’ll jinx it otherwise.

It was simple gig for the band to get its toes wet and work things through. The bass player’s cousin has a fairly large family reunion/golf tournament/BBQ. We have enough material for 1 set of 45-50 minutes. To stretch out the set, 4 of the songs we added at the last minute and never played together. The only  train-wreck happened at the end. The guy who was having the private party really enjoyed us being there. When we finished and said thank you’s, he yells out “Encore. Play some more.”

Oh good gawd. So we fumble around and then play one of the previous songs again. As a band we’ve only been together for a few months and haven’t played other songs confidently.

“Encore… more! Freebird!!!”

All of sudden the keyboard player starts to play Freebird. Then the bass player joins in. I’m looking all around with WTF! My guitarist is looking real nervous. So I did my best impression of knowing how to play this song. I’ve heard it a million times, but never played it. Through help with the keyboardist and bass, we did a decent job of getting through the change ups and performed a 7 minute version of 12 minute song. 

My only nervousness of the gig was the sound of my kit. When we rehearse in the basement, it sounds good. Out in the open on a patio on 3 acres… I was concerned. While the 15” Mackie works well for practice (and weighs a ton), I brought my JBL PRX15, hooked up through the Allen + Heath Mixer. I placed that behind me on a stand, so I can hear me and the band and audience can hear. That all went well. My concern was the right sound level compared to the rest of the band. My kit got the thumbs up. We got there 2 hours early to work out the kinks. Thought we had it, but some folks notice there was an imbalance from the patio and the deck above. Not a big deal. Lesson #1. Another issue we had was a lot of feedback. I let the sound guy and band members figure that out, while I watched and tried to learn… Lesson #2. I had difficult time hearing the singers. The other monitor for me was not turned up. I could barely hear the keyboardist… Lesson #3. All things we need to work out. If I had a go back, I would have stepped away from kit and out where the audience would be to hear the mix and levels to judge for myself. Oh well. I hope to do that next time... Lesson #4. I seriously need to dedicate more time with the PA, mixer and module and work on getting a better sound. While I was satisfied… I think the sound of kit could be better. Lesson #5.

I am sorry there is no video. I tossed that idea out the band a few days ahead of time, but no one has the video equipment yet. I’ve got pics, but they are not very good.

I got one comment about the kit and that was from the guy throwing the party. He just said while looking at my kit… “Drum kits have made some significant changes.” I just smiled.

One of the big take aways from this first gig, besides the ones I mentioned above, actually came from our keyboardist who regular gigs for 25+ years. Most of a gig consists of prepping for the gig. Setting up the equipment… waiting… and breakdown of the equipment. Playing the music, which we all love to do… happens. It’s not work like the set up and breakdown.

So there it is. I feel a success playing an E-kit live.

FREEBIRD!!!! 

Grrrrrrrrr 

Honestly no one gave a sh*t about us, except the guy throwing the party and he was very busy drinking.

Bad day to ask. Yesterday I would have said, yea, chugging along.
Today, I have no idea what happened at rehearsal. 3 new guys showed up. Our two new singers have gone missing. We just dicked around today. Pissed me off. I need to have a talk with our leads. Communication sucks.

I'm not trying to portray hopeless. I'm still hopeful, but we do need better communication, a schedule and goal.

Simple, right

The agreement was 2 weekends a month. If something great should pop up, we can do additional work.

But gigs are not even on our discussions. That's frustrating me. I think they are planning for us to have a full 3 gigs worth of material (45-60 songs) and a show type presentation. We know Propably 20... Maybe. We keep f*cking around with song structure and song choices. I proposed a more structured approach. Forgo getting fancy with stretching songs out, transitions, but most importantly, quit trying to get the studio sound. If we get 90% of the song tackled, we would be doing good.

We just need to move quicker on songs. A couple of us have said our concerns about being a basement band.

Thanks Chip. I need to check this out.

Internet is slow down here. I can read some sites and post sometimes, but videos are impossible. I'll check into it when I get back

Last practice, our male singer let us know there will be a 3 month absence sometime in 2016. WTF dude.

The previous week, our lead wised up and laid out our goals. Each of the singers learn 15 songs, then we start getting short gigs.

Well this just sucks. I just wrote him with a suggestion of singers on Bandmix are in line with our philosophy. Marcus is a good singer, but his immaturity, not fully learning songs for practice and this 3 month absence is NOT helping the band move forward.

It's a very obvious hint. He runs the show with Kim, but I have to let him know how I feel