17/5/2011: The Yardbird Open Night

I was a bit cheeky with this one; I knew the open part of the night didn't start until 10pm so I went to the city, couldn't park my car, turned up at around 10:15 and asked for a slot. There were some other guys on so time was tight, but I did at least manage to get a couple of songs in so big thanks to Jason for that.

It was a bit tougher this time; I played Storm From The North first considering how well it went down last time and I actually played it significantly better. Partly because I know the song so much better now. Mostly because I got all the way thorugh it without forgetting the words or breaking a string. It seemed to go down OK but considering I went down a, er, Storm, last time I played the Yardbird, somehow the same magic just didn't seem to be there.

I had one more song and because it had gone down so well when I did Full Volume the Friday before, I elected to play We Will Survive. I don't think this was the right decision to be honest, I'd have been better off with Get Out Of My Head. There's usually a substantial divide between audiences; people looking to be 'entertained' tend to prefer the fast rocky songs like We Will Survive, and people looking for a bit more depth in their songs - and this tends to coincide with the audience being a bit older, though not necessarily at the Yardbird - prefer my 'arty' songs like Get Out Of My Head. In hindsight, I'd suggest that the Yardbird falls under the latter category, and I abstained from playing one of my more complex songs in front of an audience that would really appreciate it. That being said, I played it OK, got a cheer from someone when I said I'd played it at Stafford University, and I saw Amy singing along to the chorus as well so that's always a nice feeling.

All in all not my best, but given the circumstances I don't think I can be blamed for that. At least I was better than the two lads who were on before me singing about having threesomes...

13/5/2011: Full Volume at Stafford University

How did I get in to this one???

Actually it was because one of the team, Jess, knew Sam Draisey through a mutual friend. Sam text me on Monday asking if I wanted a gig at Stafford Uni on Friday, I got in touch with Jess, Jess got back to me two days later asking if I could come for a rehearsal and the gig on Friday, both of which I assumed would be in the evening and actually turned out to be in the day, and on Friday we actually played a recorded TV show for a student project. Without knowing what will eventually come of it, I did 2 takes. The first was with 2 songs and a short interview, and the second was with three songs. Here's how it went...

For the first one I did Bitterness, this and Get Out Of My Head arguably being my two best songs and as such the ones I wanted to showcase on TV! I played Bitterness as well as I needed to, I think, though I had to edit out the naughty words because of the nature of the gig. Always good to find these things out! This is probably the first time I've been nervous for a while, because recording for a TV show isn't all that familiar to me, so the adrenaline was pumping and I was sweating and all the rest of it. I'm sure you wanted that image. But I needn't have worried, the song went down very well and Jude who was directing it said she had it going around in her head afterwards so I can't argue with that!

Next came Get Out Of My Head. A bit different to what had gone before! This one I played well, I fluffed a chord in the first take I think, and some of the words trying to get back on track, but I'm pretty sure they're going to run with the second take anyway so I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'm not sure this one went down as well; the audience being mainly students they were less convinced by my more arty, pretentious material than they were by my spiteful aggression.

At the first take, the audience were supposed to vote for their favourite band/artist. The Kiesters Brown won it, I didn't get any votes as far as I could see but I'm cool with that; the audience was comprised of the friends that the bands had brought with them and were hardly likely to vote for anyone else no matter how well they played!

When I was asked for a third song it was between Storm from the North or We Will Survive. I went with Survive partly because of the demographic, and also because of the fact that I know the song that little bit better, and for the reasons previously discussed I find Storm quite difficult to play properly. I was being recorded, after all. I announced it as my DragonForce style ballad, played it to quite raucous applause from a crowd who seemed to really like it!

When they send me the DVD to it I'll put my parts up on YouTube for all to see. I'll leave the rest alone, though I will try and link up with all the other bands so that they can see what we've been up to. But for now, I'm very pleased with the way it went and I hope to work with those guys again in the future!

11/5/2011: Hartley Arms Open Night

Literally a week later...

Sam Draisey was good enough to send me a list of the open nights he was doing this week, and I hadn't played the Hartley Arms so I thought I'd give it a go. After googlemapping it and finding out that, no, Wheaton Aston isn't anywhere near Aston in Birmingham, and blasting it up near enough to Stafford for what turned out to be the first of three times that week, I plugged my guitar in and began...

I'm beginning to notice that gigs in places that I've never been before are actually starting to go better than my old stomping grounds. Maybe this is because the stakes are slightly higher, this being the first time I get to win over this particular audience, or maybe it's because the fact that I can actually play my own songs now makes me deliver a more convincing performance first time. Whatever the reason, I can't seem to go wrong with the venerable opening combo of Get Out Of My Head and Bitterness. I noticed a smile and a nod from Sam where I replaced the naughty word in Bitterness for 'nonsense.' Normally I wouldn't worry too much about minding my Ps and Qs once the promoter has told me that it's OK, but in this case there were some people in the crowd who were quite young. It pays to be concious of that, and to be honest I vent enough venom in that song anyway to make my point!

I told the story to how Storm From The North came about and played that one next. Strange thing, I've lost my tuner. This doesn't give me any problems in tuning, per se - my guitar stays in tune very well, and I can pretty much do it by ear. The trouble is when I eventually get around to using a tuner on it I'll discover that my strings are slightly flat; not flat enough for anyone to notice but since my absolute bottom note is E, trying to sing lower than that can be disastrous. It wasn't too bad tonight but it's getting there. That being said, this I think was the first time I'd played it live without mucking it up at any point, and also Sam said he really liked that one when I'd finished. Not surprising, this is my most folky/storytelling song so people who like that sort of thing tend to like this one.

I finished off with We Will Survive because it had gone really well up to that point and I wanted to end on a high. This one was a wise choice! I think people tend to latch on to this one because of the hook in the chorus and the fact that it's one of the few songs that I play regularly that is in a major key. Other than that, not much to say about this one...

Well as open mic nights go I actually think this one went very well. I picked the right songs and played to the right crowd, on this occasion I couldn't have asked for better. I picked up a card from Open Mic UK, which I believe is a kind of social network for open mic artists, I haven't made a profile on there yet because I've not had time (and I've still got another 3 blogs to do before the end of the week,) but I'm sure I will soon! Well done to Sam for putting it on, it means a lot! See you next time...

The Maverick, 4/5/2011

Well this one was interesting...

Some of you may remember my previous blog I did when I played a jam night at the Maverick back in February. While they are nice people in there and the night works very well, it's not one I've made much effort to return to. Possibly because it was the first time in quite a while I'd felt out of my depth when I've been playing live, or maybe it's because the music tends to be of a 'Classic Rock' nature, and I'm not a big fan of Classic Rock. I never understood what was so great about Led Zeppelin or Bad Company, for example, glorified blues bands don't do all that much for me. I prefer Roxy Music (who were doing it just a little bit differently and not basing it so heavily on the blues) and AC/DC (who put a LOT of energy into their music.) So it's not often I go to the Maverick.

On this occasion, I asked the guy running the show if there was any chance of a few songs, and he said yes, all well and good, I went to sit down and wait for my go. Stood next to me was a guy I recognised, who turned out to be Pete from House of Eternity, who I'd seen play Katie's Jam Night some time ago. We shook hands and said hello, I told him I was playing later. "Do you need a drummer?" he asks me. Well, I'm playing my own stuff solo with an acoustic guitar... but do you know what, I play those same songs every week, why not try something a bit different? I asked the gaffer if it was OK for Pete to join me as well and he said that was fine.

Of course, with a drummer it's also germane to have a bass player, and Pete suggested we ask Matt, the resident bass player for that Jam Night. So on his way to the bar I accosted the guy and asked if he'd play bass for me, he agreed, and I had a rhythm section. We got as far as the stage area and a young guy called Ash on guitar was hanging around there, and I thought we might as well let him play too. So, for the first time, I played my songs live with a full band...

We started with Get Out Of My Head, after telling the guys that we're looking for a slow, funky feel, like Maroon 5 or Simply Red. I started playing the chords and the guys came in very well indeed, Pete and Matt holding it together while Ash was riffing quietly over the band. The chord changes might have thrown them a couple of times but as it was the first time any of them had heard the song I can hardly begrudge them that. We kept it together and stopped at the same time, it was brilliant.

Then we tried Bitterness. I told the guys we were after a fast, punky, MCR sort of sound, although without wishing to sound patronising I don't know if any of the 'band' knew who I meant! This suffered from a false start; because the song goes quite fast and uses a capo, it can be a bit difficult to follow if you don't know what you're doing. So I stopped the song and took the capo off so that Ash and Matt could follow my barre chords. In a song that fast they're not going to keep up all the time, and this was probably the one that showed the most mistakes, but they seemed to enjoy it!

I had to think on my feet for the next one, the original plan was supposed to be Storm From The North but I didn't want to have to explain the odd times to anyone before playing it. I eventually settled on Prisoner of my Mind. I told the lads we're looking for a shoegazing Radiohead sort of sound and that it changes key. This was probably the highlight of the set for me, grim though the song is, when I told Ash to play a solo and after turning the amp up he complimented the song perfectly with his guitar - despite the fact that we're in F minor, not a guitar-friendly key. Pete told me afterwards that he really liked this song too, though, again with the patronising, Pete looks about the right age to have Radiohead as an integral part to the soundtrack to his life.

So, matt486 plays with a band for the first time, and I think it went really really well given the circumstances. I'd love to do it again; despite the best intentions from all concerned I doubt I'll ever get this lineup together again but I'd love to give it a go, and if it can be arranged perhaps develop it in to something more permanent. But I was immensely satisfied with the fact that, simply by being arsed to do go out and do it, I managed to get a whole new reality onto my music...

1/5/2011: Lock 42, Leicester

A long way from home today! This came about through keeping in touch with Ian Babington, one of the main players from the Monochrome Museum glory days. Ian was kind enough to offer me this gig in aid of the Young Minds charity, and since I've never really done one of my own gigs outside the West Midlands, it was too good an opportunity to turn down...

Not wanting to mess this one up, I kicked off with the Bitterness/Get Out Of My Head combo. I was amazed at the fact that even though the size of the audience was modest (7 people at best,) they were all watching me attentively as I was playing my songs. I've only come across that before at the Yardbird in Birmingham and it's definitely not something I'm used to! But yeah, we'll have some more of that. Apart from a few fluffed chords, I played the songs well, all the better because people were actually listening to me. That went a long way to making me feel like it mattered.

The next song was interesting, and is one of the few times where an impulse decision to play a song actually worked out OK. I decided to play Let's Start A Band by Amy MacDonald, having been singing it to myself all the way up the M6. I'd never really played that song on my own before - at all, not even rehearsed. I know it because it comes up in Perception, so being the guitar player from that band I know the chords to it, and for how often Hannah misses practice I often end up singing it as well so I know all the words. It was a risky move, but it actually went really well and definitely one to break out again in the right atmosphere!

I did Storm From the North next, after announcing that it was about my old band Crashpoint, and that I wouldn't embarrass anybody by asking them if they'd heard of the band! Again, I fluffed the last part and covered it up by noodling around on the guitar until I remembered the words, and funnily enough it all seemed to work. It's always nice for it to be one of the songs people remember, in this case having it described to me as "The Sea Shanty One." Thinking about it, this song takes me back to the Nightwish gig back in '08, when they were touring Dark Passion Play and put The Poet and The Pendulum as the 'mid-set epic.' For how many parts there are to that song, the middle of the set is probably a good place to put it, where the crowd are hooked and will at that point be interested enough to digest some more abstract material, and it's the same with Storm From The North. It's about as progressive as I get and I think in future I'll be putting this song in the middle, where it can do it's job providing variation from what I've been playing up to that point, while people are still interested...

Moving swifty on, I had a go at Believe. For a song I wrote almost 5 years ago, it's still going strong, and in front of an audience that really was appreciating the music, it went down very well. I played it OK, that's about all I've got to say about that one...

One of the guys in the audience (who turns out to work in Dudley, of all places,) was wearing a Feeder Tshirt, and I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to play a Feeder song in front of someone who wants to hear one! I played High, which is probably the best song of theirs to play at a gig like this because it doesn't necessarily rely on the heavy guitars, but is interesting enough for it to be played on acoustic with one guitar and one voice. It was nice to see people singing along to it as well!

Too late, I realised I'd forgotten to play Girl's Names (I'd have done it instead of Believe if I'd remembered,) but after a gig like this there was only one way I was going to end it, and that was by playing We Will Survive. Not much to say about how I played it; it's all getting tighter! What was interesting was being asked by Ian whether that song was my own, and on telling him it was, (notwithstanding the not-so-obvious fact that I copied most of the music off DragonForce) being told "Well, if writing hooks is the game, you're winning!"

All in all a very good gig and probably the best solo gig that I've done. It felt a lot better for the audience, to be honest. I'd rather play to 7 people who were listening to me than 50 people who weren't. I remember my therapist telling me about The Police's first gig in America. I don't know if it's true or it's an urban myth, but apparently that first gig 8 people turned up to it. The Police did the same show that they'd do to 10,000 people, and good for them, because those 8 people turned out to be New York's most influential journalists and The Police shot up to fame in a very small space of time. Whether that will ever happen to me I don't know, but I think the real message of that is, if the people you saw enjoyed your show, it doesn't matter how many of them there are. It's a bit of a same that I've got to go all the way to Leicester to manage it... but it was a great laugh and I'd happily do it again. Hopefully I'll see you all again soon!

The Wharf Bar, 30/4/11

A couple of things before I get started: This is probably the last of the string of gigs I've been doing at the Wharf Bar that has lasted about 7 months, so thanks to Jon for re-booking me all those times and thanks to anyone who came to see me during this time! Also, as I mentioned the other day, my choice of songs was largely influenced by my not-so-good gig at Katies on Wednesday, so if this all seems familiar, there's a reason for it...

I got started with the venerable combo of Bitterness and Get Out Of My Head. I've marked those two songs as my attention-grabbers and until I write something that can surpass them in that role (I might! I wrote both of them roughly a year ago so it's not like I'm recycling any of my really old songs,) that is how they're likely to remain. I guess now that I have two, I can get away with switching one around from time to time if I want to try something new, but if I need the gig to go well, definitely open with those two songs.

Impulse decisions to play songs are never usually a good idea but I fancied playing something fast, so I went into a rendition of Hall of Mirrors by The Distillers, something I've not tried for a while. It all went OK actually, I don't think anybody knew it but I was playing that for myself rather than anybody else. Trouble is when I got to the quiet bit, I had to keep up the pace AND keep quiet and I lost it a bit. Other than that it went OK, but I'd be careful where I play it; not one to do if I'm minding my Ps and Qs!

We Will Survive was next, which now that I think about it is a similar sort of pace in a different key so this was probably as good a place as any to put it in the set, though it's usually best reserved as the closer. It's a bit wierd with that song actually because I was reluctant to play it live for a while (last year, before I started doing regular blogs like this.) I always liked the lyrics to it but I find the "Hurricanes and avalanches, fodder for the human monsters" part to be a bit clumsy. Now that I play it at near enough every gig I do, certainly when I'm playing more than about 4 songs, I can't imagine it sounding any other way, and it's become one of the main songs that I play sticking with the 'rock songs on an acoustic guitar' theme I appear to be doing so well. Anyway...

I chose to play Prisoner Of My Mind today to see if it would go down any better here. Again, it might; there's usually a number of people in the audience at the Wharf who are experienced enough to remember Radiohead at their peak, and we almost always get Creep played between bands, so catering for the shoegazing Indie audience isn't too much of a bad idea in this context. It went down as well as it ever does, I guess, but when the new material starts to take shape it might have to be relegated to the longer gigs because it's not exactly uplifing.

Linger by the Cranberries was next; I know Dave told me to leave that one alone but everyone else seemed to like it when I tried it before so I gave it another go. In hindsight, it would have helped if I'd have practiced it before. I need to be more careful with that chorus though; there's only so long I can hold 'finger' on without feeling very silly. I made mistakes with that A6 chord that is pretty much integral to the song and shouldn't have happened. And I can't shake off the feeling that, even though I have no trouble hitting the notes, the song doesn't necessarily fit my voice too well. Still, it's a nice, safe song to play if the occasion calls for it, and it seemed to go down OK.

I finished off with Storm From The North. Again, this proved an interesting one: apart from mucking up the chords occasionally, I once again found myself forgetting the words to the last part of the song. Now you would think, wouldn't you, that after playing this song live for nearly a month I'd make some semblence of an effort to learn the words properly, especially as it's always the same bit I get wrong. Obviously I haven't... but thinking about why not, I think it's because I actually quite like being able to cover up the fact that I don't know the words to my own song by noodling around on the E string for a while. Who else is going to know? I don't think there was anybody in the room other than the sound guy (I think) who had heard me play it before. With a suitably climatic ending I think it's a good one to end the set with, though I may have to let it achieve a more familiar place in my set before I put it there again.

So, all in all a far more focused and effective gig than the last solo outing. The reaction was near enough the same but that's more typical of the venue as much as anything else. I was happier with the way that I'd played and my choice of songs, and kudos to Mezzotonic who never fail to ensure that I'm having a really great time for half an hour...

29/5/2011 The Fakes: Baseline Venue, The Earl of Dudley Arms

For those of you who don't know, The Fakes are my indie-rock covers band that keep quite a low profile but always do great shows. We've known Frank and James literally since they started the Basement studios and it's a pleasure to play in their venue.

For the uninitiated, a quick history of the band and my involvement with it: I was asked to join on bass guitar back in 2004 when I answered an ad in what I believe was the Dudley Chronicle. It turned out Drewey on the drums and Harvey the singer had been in bands before, they pulled Matt on guitar in from Drewey's work and Steve on guitar from... somewhere, I never found out where. We spent the following couple of years putting together a set of different popular songs, basically choosing them on the basis of what we enjoyed playing. Gigs were not regular because of various other bits and pieces the band were involved with (they're all a bit older than me and were getting married, having kids, etc.) Steve had to leave in 07 when he hurt his hand to the point that posed a significant risk to him should he continue to play guitar, and after floundering around for a while, we eventually recruited Steve (different Steve) on bass and I switched to lead guitar. 6 gigs in 7 years is not great, but you know what, we've kept it together for that long which is more than you can say for any of my other bands...

So this was our first gig in a while! I'm not going to do a track-by-track review of our own gig here. We knew it was going to go well because it always does; we play the right kind of music for the right kind of people. Yes, there were mistakes, there always are, and sometimes I joke that we trade on the idea that everyone's hammered and can't tell if we're mucking it up. Being far less cynical about it, it's more likely that we like to make sure that EVERYBODY in the room is having a good time, all of the time.

The original plan was 10 songs, because of the way things work at the Baseline. So we chose 10 of our heavyweights and got ready to play them, to discover that one of the bands had pulled the gig and it was actually 14-15 songs we could play. Highlights of the set... Opening with She Sells Sanctuary is something every cover band should do at least once, and is not a moment any of us are likely to forget. I was very pleased with myself when we nailed She Bangs The Drums. Our ska version of 7 Nation Army wasn't as well-received as I'd have liked, perhaps we need to work on that a bit more with more references to the style of music. Set closer Dakota was by far the best one we did that night, and possibly ever.

Criticisms? Well, the crowd were reluctant to let us leave the stage - which, for all the gigs I've been doing this year, is a rare and pleasant feeling - but we stuck around for far too long playing songs that we hadn't really rehearsed, and it showed. We know the songs well enough to get all the way through them, but the cracks were there and were getting ever larger. Kudos to Frank for calling a halt to proceedings when he did. Being drunk (as a band) and high as a kite on adrenaline is not a good combination and we need to be a bit more disciplined about that in the future.

For now, though, let's take a moment to remember the mot enjoyable gig I have done for a long, long time...