Yet again I find myself with a backlog of blogs for the various bits and pieces that I've been doing. I have been a busy boy!
This one, I've got to be honest, didn't feel so good for me. This is unusual for Katies, usually I quite enjoy it, but either I wasn't feeling it, or my confidence was knocked by the people who were walking out while I was playing (I'm sure there were good reasons for it, in fact I spoke to two people afterwards who had perfectly good reasons I'd have to be a cruel man indeed to begrudge them,) or maybe even with the various bank holidays this week people's minds aren't in the right place at the moment. Whatever the reason, tonight wasn't my night.
As it was less than 2 weeks since I last played Katies, I decided to turn my set list on it's head. Not one of my best-timed decisions, if I'm honest; most of the people in the room had never seen me before so it was only Sam and Stefan who would have noticed. Why deviate from what I know works? But I did, and started off with Get Out Of My Head. I managed to intrigue the audience by playing the first verse and chorus without any chords and a backbeat played by banging on my guitar, and I played the rest of the song well enough to polite applause.
I've not written a set list for an acoustic gig for a while now, I tend to only do it if I'm in a band and need everybody else to know what's going on! Acoustic gigs, I generally pick four or five songs I definitely want to play and fill in the gaps with whatever I can think of at the time. I placed We Will Survive next, and I think that was probably not the right time for this song, given I start it with an a'capello chorus - which I'd basically just done with Get Out Of My Head. The idea would have got old after two songs, so it probably didn't do so much damage as I'm suggesting here, but it's one to keep in mind for the future not to put those two songs together.
Girl's Names was next. Apart from the fact that I'm playing the transition to 12/8 a lot more smoothly now than I have been, this song was faily unremarkable. It usually goes down well and for that reason I play it every time I play Katies - but, perhaps as a result, I didn't notice much of a reaction tonight.
I announced a new song and started playing Amy's Song. For those of you who listen to Switchfoot, this is a very different song that I wrote about my girlfriend. This was the first time I'd ever played it live and it's a dramatic change from my usual melancholic style; whether it's a particularly good idea to do it in a set this short is debatable at this point. It's going to take a few more goes before I figure it out. However I noted that it was this point that a significant number of people were walking out, which didn't do much to raise my confidence in playing the song live...
I think at all my gigs I'll always do either Believe or Prisoner of my Mind, and tonight I elected to do Prisoner. I didn't get much of a reaction out of this either, but then again by now there weren't all that many people left to react! Not a good sign for what was once (OK, 3 years ago) considered my best song.
I had at least remembered to put a couple of heavyweights at the end, and even though it was a little too late to pull it back by then there is such a thing as going down fighting. Few of my songs are better for that than Bitterness! Still, I think I'll have to stick with opening with this one. If I'm going to inject the correct amount of bile into the chorus I either need to use it to get the adrenaline going and surprising the audience, or the entire gig has to have gone well, neither of which were the case tonight. But other than that I played it OK.
I ended with Storm from the North, which I think was the first time in a while I made it all the way through the song without forgetting any of the words, kudos to me for that! I think this one will end the greater majority of the shows now, but it's like driving up a hill when it's snowing - I need to have a certain amount of momentum when I hit it, otherwise I'll get stuck half way up. I think that's a reasonable metaphor for, OK it's a good song, but if the gig hasn't been good then it's not going to change anybody's minds.
I doubt that those few people who did watch me all the way though would tell me that it was as bad as all that, and I have been quite harsh on myself this time. But that isn't the sort of gig that I want to make a habit of doing. I've got the Wharf Bar again tonight, and the fact that audiences there generally are quite unresponsive makes that gig very hard work, I don't need to be making it any harder for myself! The mistake was, I think, switching the set around. Bitterness and Get Out Of My Head are the attention grabbers, We Will Survive and Storm from the North are the set-closing epics, everything else is filler though there are some that are good enough to play them at most shows. Let's see what happens tonight...
Saturday 30 April 2011
Wednesday 27 April 2011
The Yardbird, 19/4/11
Right about now there is a burglar alarm going off outside my house and it is driving me INSANE...
I heard that the Yardbird did an open night on Tuesdays so as I was staying in Birmingham last week I decided to go down and have a look. What I didn't know was that there were featured artists on beforehand and the actual open part of the night didn't start until 10pm, so Amy and I ended up going for a Cantonese first which was very nice. Unusually for open nights most of the guys I saw were only doing one or maybe two songs, I told the guy Jason that I had four, took the stage and got on with it...
Regular readers will have heard about my last visit to the Yardbird and while I was there I did a quick mental assessment of the sort of music the guys there would appreciate. As a lot of my songs are quite agressive I was a bit funny about playing some of them, however I was always going to play Get Out Of My Head. I started this one off somewhat slower than usual, I'm not sure whether I like that or not yet but it lends a certain subtlety to it, and the crowd really seemed to like it!
Bitterness was one of the songs I was umming and arring about, but I played it anyway two songs in and I needn't have worried, I got some very appreciative applause for that and it was about this time that I realised that the crowd at the Yardbird is actually really really good, and I'm really looking forward to my next one there.
It was all looking so good... until I did Storm from the North. It began well enough, apart from the previously-described problems with the vocal range being a little too low for me. The problem came when I was belting out the second chorus to have my D string snap on me. Thankfully I knew what had happened straight away, didn't panic and carried on right to the end of the chorus, yanked what remained of the string off and followed it up with the quiet bit. The guitar was obviously a bit out of tune by then, and possibly owing to the stress of breaking the string I also forgot the words to the last bit which I covered up by noodling around on the E string for a bit, but I got to the end of the song to a great applause from the crowd.
Given the circumstances, I decided to call it a night at that point, the other song would have been Walking on the Sun and I can't really do that without the D string. It was unfortunate, but it happens, and I think I made my point. I'll definitely be going to the Yardbird again!
I heard that the Yardbird did an open night on Tuesdays so as I was staying in Birmingham last week I decided to go down and have a look. What I didn't know was that there were featured artists on beforehand and the actual open part of the night didn't start until 10pm, so Amy and I ended up going for a Cantonese first which was very nice. Unusually for open nights most of the guys I saw were only doing one or maybe two songs, I told the guy Jason that I had four, took the stage and got on with it...
Regular readers will have heard about my last visit to the Yardbird and while I was there I did a quick mental assessment of the sort of music the guys there would appreciate. As a lot of my songs are quite agressive I was a bit funny about playing some of them, however I was always going to play Get Out Of My Head. I started this one off somewhat slower than usual, I'm not sure whether I like that or not yet but it lends a certain subtlety to it, and the crowd really seemed to like it!
Bitterness was one of the songs I was umming and arring about, but I played it anyway two songs in and I needn't have worried, I got some very appreciative applause for that and it was about this time that I realised that the crowd at the Yardbird is actually really really good, and I'm really looking forward to my next one there.
It was all looking so good... until I did Storm from the North. It began well enough, apart from the previously-described problems with the vocal range being a little too low for me. The problem came when I was belting out the second chorus to have my D string snap on me. Thankfully I knew what had happened straight away, didn't panic and carried on right to the end of the chorus, yanked what remained of the string off and followed it up with the quiet bit. The guitar was obviously a bit out of tune by then, and possibly owing to the stress of breaking the string I also forgot the words to the last bit which I covered up by noodling around on the E string for a bit, but I got to the end of the song to a great applause from the crowd.
Given the circumstances, I decided to call it a night at that point, the other song would have been Walking on the Sun and I can't really do that without the D string. It was unfortunate, but it happens, and I think I made my point. I'll definitely be going to the Yardbird again!
Tuesday 26 April 2011
Pan and the Poets at The Yardbird, 17/4/2011
I've really got to hurry up with this or I'll have done another gig by the time I've written up all my ones for April...
So as I mentioned earlier, I'm depping on bass for Pan and the Poets now. Or at least I was, more on that later. I had my debut with them at The Yardbird a couple of Sundays ago, I was very impressed with the place and was back there the following Tuesday. After setting up, we had what I can only describe as 'The usual problems with the microphones.' Bearing in mind that I've known Luke since school, and later 6th form, rare are the times when he's happy with how the vocals sound first time. In this case we couldn't hear Andy singing and it took a few minutes to put it right, during which all I could really do was keep quiet until we'd got it sorted, though I did reach for my earplugs when the microphones started to pop...
After this, we began with The Quail and The Cat, because Luke reckons this is a good one to begin with to get the levels sorted out because it's all about the vocals. I don't know about that, but I enjoyed playing it; in the absence of any specific bassline in the verse I twiddled around with the Gm pentatonic over the relevant chords and I think it sounded really good. Highlight for me - and Luke, he told me later - was when he brought the bass in for the second chorus. It's a simple line, but you don't half feel like a pro when you play it!
Next was Girl Like You, which is Pan and the Poet's staple track having done it at every single gig they've played. I played this as well as I needed to, I think; once you know the bass lines to it it's almost impossible to play wrong. I don't know whether it's the band's most inspiring song, but they play it well and we held it together that night.
Victory Cafe came after that, I love this song! If ever a party's going flat, get the Ska out. I don't know what bassline Jack originally played for this track so I considered the style of music and went for something inspired by The Specials. It was working well until the instrumental bridge parts bit, where I forgot what notes I was supposed to be playing and started paying A sharp when I should have been playing A, which threw me on the next note as well. Nobody seemed to notice, but that shouldn't have happened. Concentrate!
Queen of Hearts was a mission, because for some technical reason I can't fathom, I only learned it that day. This was a lot of following Luke's chords and keeping it simple; any attempt to go off on one would be followed very shortly by me falling flat on my face. In spite of this, I think we held it together very well indeed; I made it to the end of the song without any glaring errors and the crowed seemed to like it.
Liberty a Paris (There's supposed to be French punctuation in the title to that song, but by nature of not being French, I don't know where they go) is a really good song to play live because if the gig is going well and it's the right atmosphere, it may well turn into a barn dance. For the most part it's a relatively simple 'Hoe Down' bassline, and I was really pleased when I saw some guys at the front clapping with the band in the a'capello chorus. Tripped up on the final rundown to the root chord at the end, which shouldn't have happened, but hey, the crowd liked the song and that's what counts!
Rat Dog was supposed to end the set. This song is very rhythmic and the bassline is easy enough to follow, right until the fast punky bit at the end. Luke had told me that this part is very busy, so rather than work out anything specific (bearing in mind I had all the other songs to learn as well,) I decided to just go off on one and noodle around E minor for a bit. It would have worked if Ste on guitar hadn't been doing the same thing; I've never been in to the sound of both guitar and bass doing solos at the same time. Granted we had the keyboards and nylon guitar to hold it all together, but in hindsight, I reckon I should have stuck to a riff for this part. Should it come up again, need to have a word with the guitar player before the gig to find out who's doing what!
We ended with Jukebox, which is a nice one to finish a gig with and always takes me back to the first gig I did on bass in the school production of Grease. Not much to say about this one; we played it well and I enjoyed it.
So, my first gig with Pan and the Poets wasn't too bad at all! Unfortunately it's also my last gig with Pan and the Poets, as for his own reasons Luke has decided to leave the band and I can't see the others carrying on without him, not least because Andy will be in Spain from next September. Not a long tenure then, though Luke and I have been friends for a long time now and I do like his songwriting, so I'm sure our paths will cross again.
So what happened at the Yardbird the following Tuesday?
I'll tell you tomorrow...
So as I mentioned earlier, I'm depping on bass for Pan and the Poets now. Or at least I was, more on that later. I had my debut with them at The Yardbird a couple of Sundays ago, I was very impressed with the place and was back there the following Tuesday. After setting up, we had what I can only describe as 'The usual problems with the microphones.' Bearing in mind that I've known Luke since school, and later 6th form, rare are the times when he's happy with how the vocals sound first time. In this case we couldn't hear Andy singing and it took a few minutes to put it right, during which all I could really do was keep quiet until we'd got it sorted, though I did reach for my earplugs when the microphones started to pop...
After this, we began with The Quail and The Cat, because Luke reckons this is a good one to begin with to get the levels sorted out because it's all about the vocals. I don't know about that, but I enjoyed playing it; in the absence of any specific bassline in the verse I twiddled around with the Gm pentatonic over the relevant chords and I think it sounded really good. Highlight for me - and Luke, he told me later - was when he brought the bass in for the second chorus. It's a simple line, but you don't half feel like a pro when you play it!
Next was Girl Like You, which is Pan and the Poet's staple track having done it at every single gig they've played. I played this as well as I needed to, I think; once you know the bass lines to it it's almost impossible to play wrong. I don't know whether it's the band's most inspiring song, but they play it well and we held it together that night.
Victory Cafe came after that, I love this song! If ever a party's going flat, get the Ska out. I don't know what bassline Jack originally played for this track so I considered the style of music and went for something inspired by The Specials. It was working well until the instrumental bridge parts bit, where I forgot what notes I was supposed to be playing and started paying A sharp when I should have been playing A, which threw me on the next note as well. Nobody seemed to notice, but that shouldn't have happened. Concentrate!
Queen of Hearts was a mission, because for some technical reason I can't fathom, I only learned it that day. This was a lot of following Luke's chords and keeping it simple; any attempt to go off on one would be followed very shortly by me falling flat on my face. In spite of this, I think we held it together very well indeed; I made it to the end of the song without any glaring errors and the crowed seemed to like it.
Liberty a Paris (There's supposed to be French punctuation in the title to that song, but by nature of not being French, I don't know where they go) is a really good song to play live because if the gig is going well and it's the right atmosphere, it may well turn into a barn dance. For the most part it's a relatively simple 'Hoe Down' bassline, and I was really pleased when I saw some guys at the front clapping with the band in the a'capello chorus. Tripped up on the final rundown to the root chord at the end, which shouldn't have happened, but hey, the crowd liked the song and that's what counts!
Rat Dog was supposed to end the set. This song is very rhythmic and the bassline is easy enough to follow, right until the fast punky bit at the end. Luke had told me that this part is very busy, so rather than work out anything specific (bearing in mind I had all the other songs to learn as well,) I decided to just go off on one and noodle around E minor for a bit. It would have worked if Ste on guitar hadn't been doing the same thing; I've never been in to the sound of both guitar and bass doing solos at the same time. Granted we had the keyboards and nylon guitar to hold it all together, but in hindsight, I reckon I should have stuck to a riff for this part. Should it come up again, need to have a word with the guitar player before the gig to find out who's doing what!
We ended with Jukebox, which is a nice one to finish a gig with and always takes me back to the first gig I did on bass in the school production of Grease. Not much to say about this one; we played it well and I enjoyed it.
So, my first gig with Pan and the Poets wasn't too bad at all! Unfortunately it's also my last gig with Pan and the Poets, as for his own reasons Luke has decided to leave the band and I can't see the others carrying on without him, not least because Andy will be in Spain from next September. Not a long tenure then, though Luke and I have been friends for a long time now and I do like his songwriting, so I'm sure our paths will cross again.
So what happened at the Yardbird the following Tuesday?
I'll tell you tomorrow...
Sunday 24 April 2011
15/4/11 Katy Fitzgeralds
Whew, am I ever behind in this!
I came back to Amy's from the Bull Ring on Friday to find that Sam had messaged a few people for an emergency booking. I asked if there were any slots left and they were kind enough to give me five songs. Interestingly this was downstairs at Katies; it's not Acoustic Brew so there were supposed to be full bands on. There wasn't a band tonight, but hey, I do what I can.
It didn't get off to a flying start as I kicked off with Bitterness and forgot what song I was playing. It sounds silly but there is a reason for it: Apart from the far larger amount of spite and agression I put in to Bitterness, the intro to it sounds almost exactly the same as Girl's Names, same chord and everything. (Which, incidentally, is why I never put those two songs together in the set list.) So it took me a minute to remember what to do next, which thankfully I passed of as the overlong introduction I sometimes do to Bitterness when I play it first. Apart from that, it all went OK, but my mind probably wasn't in the right place when I kicked off that night!
I followed it up with the fairly predictable Get out of my Head, which actually seems to be more consistent with how well it's going down these days, pleasing to see. Can't say why, maybe I'm playing the relatively difficult song with more confidence these days and it's coming across. I'd like to think so. However, because of the way the sound was mixed, I noticed a few errors. One thing I really shouldn't be doing is playing the A string when I hit the D minor chord, but those bass frequencies were really ringing out through the monitor so I could hear I was doing that a lot. This is especially important in a solo situation because I haven't got a bass player to hit those low notes; it's all coming from me. I shouldn't be wanting Ds and playing As. That one might need a bit more practice.
Then I lent my cement-mixer-like voice to The Kill by 30 Seconds To Mars. Since I've been playing this song I've since discovered that there is an acoustic version of this song already by the band themselves, but in front of the right audience this will never go down badly as long as I play it correctly. Tonight was no exception and when I spoke to some people after the show, this was the one that they remembered. Fine, but I don't like to play the same cover twice in rapid succession; I'll end up boring myself and anyone who comes to see me more than a couple of times a month. Still, that's a good one to break out if it's going a bit flat and my audience is roughly my age or younger!
Girl's Names is a song I think I will play every time I play Katies because this is the one people tend to remember and sing along to when I come back a month later. I enjoy it a lot more now than I did when I first started playing it live, even the 12/8 bit doesn't sound so pretentious to me now! It didn't go down a storm, but then again my mid-set jobbers rarely do once the novelty has worn off. To be honest I don't think I could have done this one much better, and I'm thankful for that!
I finished off with Storm from the North. This one takes me back to my Crashpoint days, not least because the song is about the band, but also because of its position in the set. I remember when the band wrote Get This Manic Off Me; we had one more gig at the Wharf Bar to do before J left the band. J came up with the riff, we wrote the song and thought, "Wow, this is actually really really good!" It was a bit of a gamble but we started the set with the song that we usually finish with, and ended the set with the new song, because we knew it was amazing and we would play it well whatever happened. It was a bit of a shame I never learned the words to it so I could carry the song on after Emma left the band, but then again we were never really the same after that last show with J anyway. We got a little bit better, but...
To return from my digression, I've noticed a couple of things about this song, the first of which is that I forget the words to it; it's always the last bit as well. Thankfully, that night, there was only Amy in the audience who knew what the song was supposed to sound like in the first place, so nobody else seemed to notice that when I was plucking a melody on my top strings it was purely because I didn't know what else to sing. The second thing is that it's a little too low for me to sing comfortably. Normally in this situation I would use a capo, but that's not an option for me with this song. Remember those instrumental sections between the chorus and the verse? Well, that's supposed to have a tin whistle in them. The whistle that I have, whether I like it or not, has a range of D to about high B, I think, the same as a descant recorder. Which means that the best key for me to play in is G or Em. So I can only really play the song in Em. Is it possible to work on my voice so I can sing lower and still make a convincing sound? Time will tell...
Well that's it for the time being, I've got two more gigs to write up but I'm going to have a break for now. See you soon...
I came back to Amy's from the Bull Ring on Friday to find that Sam had messaged a few people for an emergency booking. I asked if there were any slots left and they were kind enough to give me five songs. Interestingly this was downstairs at Katies; it's not Acoustic Brew so there were supposed to be full bands on. There wasn't a band tonight, but hey, I do what I can.
It didn't get off to a flying start as I kicked off with Bitterness and forgot what song I was playing. It sounds silly but there is a reason for it: Apart from the far larger amount of spite and agression I put in to Bitterness, the intro to it sounds almost exactly the same as Girl's Names, same chord and everything. (Which, incidentally, is why I never put those two songs together in the set list.) So it took me a minute to remember what to do next, which thankfully I passed of as the overlong introduction I sometimes do to Bitterness when I play it first. Apart from that, it all went OK, but my mind probably wasn't in the right place when I kicked off that night!
I followed it up with the fairly predictable Get out of my Head, which actually seems to be more consistent with how well it's going down these days, pleasing to see. Can't say why, maybe I'm playing the relatively difficult song with more confidence these days and it's coming across. I'd like to think so. However, because of the way the sound was mixed, I noticed a few errors. One thing I really shouldn't be doing is playing the A string when I hit the D minor chord, but those bass frequencies were really ringing out through the monitor so I could hear I was doing that a lot. This is especially important in a solo situation because I haven't got a bass player to hit those low notes; it's all coming from me. I shouldn't be wanting Ds and playing As. That one might need a bit more practice.
Then I lent my cement-mixer-like voice to The Kill by 30 Seconds To Mars. Since I've been playing this song I've since discovered that there is an acoustic version of this song already by the band themselves, but in front of the right audience this will never go down badly as long as I play it correctly. Tonight was no exception and when I spoke to some people after the show, this was the one that they remembered. Fine, but I don't like to play the same cover twice in rapid succession; I'll end up boring myself and anyone who comes to see me more than a couple of times a month. Still, that's a good one to break out if it's going a bit flat and my audience is roughly my age or younger!
Girl's Names is a song I think I will play every time I play Katies because this is the one people tend to remember and sing along to when I come back a month later. I enjoy it a lot more now than I did when I first started playing it live, even the 12/8 bit doesn't sound so pretentious to me now! It didn't go down a storm, but then again my mid-set jobbers rarely do once the novelty has worn off. To be honest I don't think I could have done this one much better, and I'm thankful for that!
I finished off with Storm from the North. This one takes me back to my Crashpoint days, not least because the song is about the band, but also because of its position in the set. I remember when the band wrote Get This Manic Off Me; we had one more gig at the Wharf Bar to do before J left the band. J came up with the riff, we wrote the song and thought, "Wow, this is actually really really good!" It was a bit of a gamble but we started the set with the song that we usually finish with, and ended the set with the new song, because we knew it was amazing and we would play it well whatever happened. It was a bit of a shame I never learned the words to it so I could carry the song on after Emma left the band, but then again we were never really the same after that last show with J anyway. We got a little bit better, but...
To return from my digression, I've noticed a couple of things about this song, the first of which is that I forget the words to it; it's always the last bit as well. Thankfully, that night, there was only Amy in the audience who knew what the song was supposed to sound like in the first place, so nobody else seemed to notice that when I was plucking a melody on my top strings it was purely because I didn't know what else to sing. The second thing is that it's a little too low for me to sing comfortably. Normally in this situation I would use a capo, but that's not an option for me with this song. Remember those instrumental sections between the chorus and the verse? Well, that's supposed to have a tin whistle in them. The whistle that I have, whether I like it or not, has a range of D to about high B, I think, the same as a descant recorder. Which means that the best key for me to play in is G or Em. So I can only really play the song in Em. Is it possible to work on my voice so I can sing lower and still make a convincing sound? Time will tell...
Well that's it for the time being, I've got two more gigs to write up but I'm going to have a break for now. See you soon...
Friday 8 April 2011
7/4/2011 Jam Night at the Samson and Lion
Hi there. I happened across this one on the way back to the Music Centre from Netherton, and I noticed that there was a jam night there on Thursdays so I thought I'd check it out. I found that it wasn't on the night I went, but when I told the lady at the bar that I'd brought my guitar, she said that by all means I could play it!
I'm not going to go through each and every song I played because it was pretty much making it all up as I go along and I've forgotten most of them now. I remember A Little Respect going down very well indeed, that never fails to raise a smile! This was also the first time that I played On A Day Like This live (not counting the Plastic Pantomime gig, of course,) and as a sing-along chorus I actually think the song is better than Hey Jude (which Ken the keyboard player and owner of the whole gaff put in at some point) but it didn't work so well here because, unless you know the song, you're not going to sing along to it! And with at the very most eight regulars down there that night, not many people knew it. Teenage Kicks went down well, as did Summer of '69, you cannot go wrong with that. And there's a lot of stuff from the '60s that I'd probably better learn as well.
All in all I had a terrific time that night and I'm very glad I went; I don't think it's going to work miracles for me in terms of my own material because the guys seem to prefer covers but maybe there's a gig in it for the Fakes at some point?
Until next time...
I'm not going to go through each and every song I played because it was pretty much making it all up as I go along and I've forgotten most of them now. I remember A Little Respect going down very well indeed, that never fails to raise a smile! This was also the first time that I played On A Day Like This live (not counting the Plastic Pantomime gig, of course,) and as a sing-along chorus I actually think the song is better than Hey Jude (which Ken the keyboard player and owner of the whole gaff put in at some point) but it didn't work so well here because, unless you know the song, you're not going to sing along to it! And with at the very most eight regulars down there that night, not many people knew it. Teenage Kicks went down well, as did Summer of '69, you cannot go wrong with that. And there's a lot of stuff from the '60s that I'd probably better learn as well.
All in all I had a terrific time that night and I'm very glad I went; I don't think it's going to work miracles for me in terms of my own material because the guys seem to prefer covers but maybe there's a gig in it for the Fakes at some point?
Until next time...
Sunday 3 April 2011
Open Mic at the Woodman 31/3/2011
Hi there. As promised...
I said I'd be at Sam's open night when I saw him on his birthday, and I'm not one to go back on my word; this was the night I hoped to play Storm From The North for the first time. I did play it... but actually debuted it at Katies the previous night, as I've already explained.
At open mics like this, especially this one where I hae a certain level of friendly familiarity with the regulars, I can afford to chop and change my set around a little bit so I started with Girl's Names. I played it fine and it went down as well as ever; a little uninspired for a set opener but to be honest I really didn't feel like playing We Will Survive tonight so I went for a way to leave it out of the 4 songs I've got in the time frame.
Next was Get Out Of My Head. I introduced it as the "I forgot my capo" song (a cheeky reference to when I've gone to Sam's open night before and forgot my capo, this song being the only one of my own songs I could therefore play) but I actually played it because I didn't get around to playing it at Sam's birthday last week and I hadn't gorgotten Kayla asking for it! So that one was for her, though to be fair I like playing it too.
Then I played Storm from the North. I announced that I had a new song and went straight in to it, and it went down really well. I know this because Sam confirmed it at the end of my set, Glenn from Under the Banner was trying to figure out my time signatures in the quiet parts (for the record it's one bar of 9/8 and one bar of 12/8) and some of the regular guys told me afterwards that 'That Sea Shanty One' was reallly good. I'm very pleased with this, I put a lot of work in to making sure that song was perfect before I played it live and I'm delighted it went down so well.
I went straight into Bitterness after that, reasoning that I might as well go out with a bang! I played it well enough, however I've played that song so many times now to these guys that I guess the real novelty of it was when I break it down into the bassline and make a joke while I'm playing. In this case, I mentioned that it's always easy to tell who plays drums in the audience because they're tapping along to the songs that I'm playing...
I got talking to Ed and some of the regulars afterwards who seem to think I've got something special going on. Ed in particular likes Dear Mr Manager, a generous thing to say considering I hadn't played it there in a month! And the whole acoustic thing seems to be working for me right now. Thinking about why that is, I guess it's because I'm basically playing rock songs on an acoustic guitar. That's not actually as common as it sounds. Some guys might do acoustic covers of rock songs, I seem to be writing rock songs specifically to play them on acoustic guitar.
Why? Well, to be honest, the only reason I'm playing the acoustic guitar so much these days is because I can't seem to hold it together with a band. Given the choice, I'd much rather be rocking out with the band, it's just that getting one together seems to be almost impossible for me at this point! And I don't listen to a lot of acoustic music either. But these things work to my benefit, because a fondness for modern rock and no pre-conceived idea of how acoustic music is supposed to sound means that what I come up with sits somewhere between the two, which for a great many people I guess is a refreshing change.
Which is good because things aren't looking all that great for either of my bands right now; The Fakes have kept it together for 7 years but with only 5 gigs to show for it one could hardly accuse us of taking it seriously. Perception... it's hard to keep up the enthusiasm for that band when we've never had a complete lineup we've been able to hold on to for more than a couple of weeks in the year we've been together. I did actually think about getting Crashpoint back together, but as that would only count for me and Cj in this day and age, we'd hardly be the band we quit a year ago.
But the momentum's rolling, and for now at least, I'm enjoying it...
I said I'd be at Sam's open night when I saw him on his birthday, and I'm not one to go back on my word; this was the night I hoped to play Storm From The North for the first time. I did play it... but actually debuted it at Katies the previous night, as I've already explained.
At open mics like this, especially this one where I hae a certain level of friendly familiarity with the regulars, I can afford to chop and change my set around a little bit so I started with Girl's Names. I played it fine and it went down as well as ever; a little uninspired for a set opener but to be honest I really didn't feel like playing We Will Survive tonight so I went for a way to leave it out of the 4 songs I've got in the time frame.
Next was Get Out Of My Head. I introduced it as the "I forgot my capo" song (a cheeky reference to when I've gone to Sam's open night before and forgot my capo, this song being the only one of my own songs I could therefore play) but I actually played it because I didn't get around to playing it at Sam's birthday last week and I hadn't gorgotten Kayla asking for it! So that one was for her, though to be fair I like playing it too.
Then I played Storm from the North. I announced that I had a new song and went straight in to it, and it went down really well. I know this because Sam confirmed it at the end of my set, Glenn from Under the Banner was trying to figure out my time signatures in the quiet parts (for the record it's one bar of 9/8 and one bar of 12/8) and some of the regular guys told me afterwards that 'That Sea Shanty One' was reallly good. I'm very pleased with this, I put a lot of work in to making sure that song was perfect before I played it live and I'm delighted it went down so well.
I went straight into Bitterness after that, reasoning that I might as well go out with a bang! I played it well enough, however I've played that song so many times now to these guys that I guess the real novelty of it was when I break it down into the bassline and make a joke while I'm playing. In this case, I mentioned that it's always easy to tell who plays drums in the audience because they're tapping along to the songs that I'm playing...
I got talking to Ed and some of the regulars afterwards who seem to think I've got something special going on. Ed in particular likes Dear Mr Manager, a generous thing to say considering I hadn't played it there in a month! And the whole acoustic thing seems to be working for me right now. Thinking about why that is, I guess it's because I'm basically playing rock songs on an acoustic guitar. That's not actually as common as it sounds. Some guys might do acoustic covers of rock songs, I seem to be writing rock songs specifically to play them on acoustic guitar.
Why? Well, to be honest, the only reason I'm playing the acoustic guitar so much these days is because I can't seem to hold it together with a band. Given the choice, I'd much rather be rocking out with the band, it's just that getting one together seems to be almost impossible for me at this point! And I don't listen to a lot of acoustic music either. But these things work to my benefit, because a fondness for modern rock and no pre-conceived idea of how acoustic music is supposed to sound means that what I come up with sits somewhere between the two, which for a great many people I guess is a refreshing change.
Which is good because things aren't looking all that great for either of my bands right now; The Fakes have kept it together for 7 years but with only 5 gigs to show for it one could hardly accuse us of taking it seriously. Perception... it's hard to keep up the enthusiasm for that band when we've never had a complete lineup we've been able to hold on to for more than a couple of weeks in the year we've been together. I did actually think about getting Crashpoint back together, but as that would only count for me and Cj in this day and age, we'd hardly be the band we quit a year ago.
But the momentum's rolling, and for now at least, I'm enjoying it...
Saturday 2 April 2011
Katy Fitzgeralds 30/3/2011
I got emergency-booked to play Katies again the other night, which is really good because I managed to get on the bill to play Katyfest in May, I'll keep you posted on that!
A big night for me, this one, because I wanted to play Storm from the North live for the first time. I'd been putting it off for a while because I hadn't really rehearsed it well enough. This is also the first one for a while where I've felt my set was consistent enough to make it all my own material rather than throw in a cover. Was it worth the wait? Read on...
I kicked off as ever with my usual combo of Bitterness and Get Out Of My Head. I can um and ar as much as I like about putting most of my heavyweights in at the start of the set but I've got a precedent of three months worth of gigs to suggest to me that this works very well indeed; tonight was no exception. Bitterness contains the usual element of surprise about the acoustic guy playing rock songs, and I think Get Out Of My Head is finally reaching a place where I can play it confidently enough to compensate for it's unfamiliarity and vase switch in styles.
Believe was next; of my two desolate wrist-slashers this is the "Early 00's Goth"-type, why I keep choosing this over the other one (Prisoner of my Mind, the mid-90's shoegazer) I don't know because I actually think Prisoner's the more effective song, but I've pretty much stopped writing set lists these days and make it up as I go along; I know what's supposed to happen at the start of each gig and I can go with the flow from there. This was followed by Dear Mr Manager; not sure how well this one went down because with such a small audience it's difficult to guauge, but this is one of my less enjoyable (if more interesting!) songs, and I think it's no coincidence the applause I was getting from this very modest crowd was noticably quieter. Then again, I could also put it down to the significant reduction in pace, speaking of which...
After advising Sam that I'm 'going loud again,' I played Storm from the North for the first time. Any new song I'll mess up the first couple of times I play it, thankfully in this case it was a matter of a couple of lyrics I was able to bluff. The changin time singatures and the lyrics about 17th century pirate ships (analogy of Crashpoint, as I've explained before) arguably makes this song about as pretentious as I get, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing it and the audience seemed to like it too!
After this I played my two set closers, Girls Names, which never fails to go down well at Katies, and We Will Survive. I happened to mention to the people in the crowd (the number of wich had grown a bit by then) that I'm patiently waiting for the time when people will sing the chorus back to me after I hit the first chord (if you haven't heard it, I start the song with an a'cappello rendition of the first couple of lines of the chorus,) after which Sam affirmed that she and Stefan always do. This being one of my more pacey songs, it's rare that I don't end the show with it, and when I do I can usually leave the stage in a good mood. This was one of those times!
I really enjoyed playing the show tonight, and I think it went really well; the environment is I think more suitable for what I play with my acoustic guitar than at the Wharf Bar (the other place where I do full gigs.) I also played Sam's Open Night at the Woodman the following day, more on that to come later...
A big night for me, this one, because I wanted to play Storm from the North live for the first time. I'd been putting it off for a while because I hadn't really rehearsed it well enough. This is also the first one for a while where I've felt my set was consistent enough to make it all my own material rather than throw in a cover. Was it worth the wait? Read on...
I kicked off as ever with my usual combo of Bitterness and Get Out Of My Head. I can um and ar as much as I like about putting most of my heavyweights in at the start of the set but I've got a precedent of three months worth of gigs to suggest to me that this works very well indeed; tonight was no exception. Bitterness contains the usual element of surprise about the acoustic guy playing rock songs, and I think Get Out Of My Head is finally reaching a place where I can play it confidently enough to compensate for it's unfamiliarity and vase switch in styles.
Believe was next; of my two desolate wrist-slashers this is the "Early 00's Goth"-type, why I keep choosing this over the other one (Prisoner of my Mind, the mid-90's shoegazer) I don't know because I actually think Prisoner's the more effective song, but I've pretty much stopped writing set lists these days and make it up as I go along; I know what's supposed to happen at the start of each gig and I can go with the flow from there. This was followed by Dear Mr Manager; not sure how well this one went down because with such a small audience it's difficult to guauge, but this is one of my less enjoyable (if more interesting!) songs, and I think it's no coincidence the applause I was getting from this very modest crowd was noticably quieter. Then again, I could also put it down to the significant reduction in pace, speaking of which...
After advising Sam that I'm 'going loud again,' I played Storm from the North for the first time. Any new song I'll mess up the first couple of times I play it, thankfully in this case it was a matter of a couple of lyrics I was able to bluff. The changin time singatures and the lyrics about 17th century pirate ships (analogy of Crashpoint, as I've explained before) arguably makes this song about as pretentious as I get, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing it and the audience seemed to like it too!
After this I played my two set closers, Girls Names, which never fails to go down well at Katies, and We Will Survive. I happened to mention to the people in the crowd (the number of wich had grown a bit by then) that I'm patiently waiting for the time when people will sing the chorus back to me after I hit the first chord (if you haven't heard it, I start the song with an a'cappello rendition of the first couple of lines of the chorus,) after which Sam affirmed that she and Stefan always do. This being one of my more pacey songs, it's rare that I don't end the show with it, and when I do I can usually leave the stage in a good mood. This was one of those times!
I really enjoyed playing the show tonight, and I think it went really well; the environment is I think more suitable for what I play with my acoustic guitar than at the Wharf Bar (the other place where I do full gigs.) I also played Sam's Open Night at the Woodman the following day, more on that to come later...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)