4/1/2011: A Band of (almost) Strangers at the Maverick

Happy New Year...

So what happened with this one then? I've not spoken all that kindly of the Maverick in the past. I'll confide the reasons why to almost anyone in person, but since the remark is quite spiteful, when I'm online I tend to explain it away as being the only venue I've played so far where I've actually felt out of my depth. However, with no gig booked this week, not returning from Amy's until Tuesday and Sam having moved the Hartley Arms open mic to Mondays, this was basically the only option left that I was aware of. With starting off at DPA again, and work to do for Coady Consultants, this was not the time to start looking for a new gig. So, I spent the preceding week trying to learn some old covers, including Because The Night and Do The Strand, more on that later, to play at a venue that appreciates it's old rock.

I got there to find an old friend, Pete, and a couple of other people. He was looking forward to going up and having a jam and asked me if I'd like to come up and play with him, and I agreed after finding out he loved Because The Night and reasoning that we should be able to come up with another couple of songs to play. When our turn came around, we put a band together of myself on guitar and vocals, Pete on the drums, Steve on bass, my DPA colleague Al on eletric mandolin and Josh on guitar (a young guy with a Les Paul, and also the only member of the 'band' I'd never met before.) Having to teach them all the songs we eventually played was not a trivial task, but...

We began with Because The Night. Of all the ones we did, this one probably went down the best because of the time in which it was realeased, and probably the one we played the best as well! I've not long learned the song so I don't know if I got all the lyrics right, but to be honest it was hard enough making sure all the band knew what they were doing without worrying about what I was doing. Pete knowing the song helped as well, Steve was following the chords well and I imagine Josh was following Steve because he was stood behind me and wouldn't have been able to see what I was doing. Al... Well, Al I know as a drummer. When he plays stringed instruments, it's either the mandolin (I've never played one but I'm told they're tuned similarly to the violin,) or slide guitar in open tuning. He seems to have refined his technique on both of those instruments to the point where you can just say 'it's in B minor,' and he'll come up with something convincing, and this was no exception. Well done.

After some discussion we elected to play Losing My Religion by REM next. This one actually has a mandolin part, however I didn't help the band by playing it in the wrong key. I was halfway through the song before I realised it should have been in A minor, not E minor. I'm not sure how, if at all, it affected my delivery of the song, because I didn't struggle with the singing and I knew all the words, but if any of the band new it, it would very likely have confused them! But the punters seemed to recognise it and appreciate it.

Then I fell back on the one song I do that never fails to please, A Little Respect. Pete seemed to know it, but I reckon Steve and the others needed to listen to what I was doing to make any sense - not an easy thing to do since my guitar was plugged in to the PA, and there was no foldback monitors meaning that it was hard to hear what the PA was doing on stage. They actually did really well all things considered.

So, for all my trepidations about playing The Maverick, tonight wasn't too bad at all. Pete suggested to me afterwards, and not for the first time, that he and I should do a band. The idea of putting together a band to play my songs live is something I'd quite like to do, however I barely have time for the 3 bands that I'm in so it's not going to happen yet. I'm not ruling it out, and if what is happening with the other bands allows time for me to put the project together I might consider it, but right now I'll stick with the acoustic gigs as this is something I can handle myself without any need for other musicians.

See you next week...

1/6/11: The Maverick Jam Night

And now for something completely (but not really) different...

I decided to go down The Maverick again and was pleasantly surprised to see Andy Fisher from Wordsley School down there; a really great guy who runs a terrific music department at his school. I also came across Pete who'd played drums with me before, so after recruiting Matt once again on bass and dashing off to my car to get my Strat, we began...

To be honest this suffered from the electric guitar. I guess when I'm playing my own stuff on my acoustic I take it for granted the dynamic range of the instrument, e.g. if you play soft you get a soft sound and if you play hard you get a more aggressive sound, whereas with the electric it basically depends on how the amp is set up and how loud it is, which for Get Out Of My Head was far too loud. Also, because the amp I was plugged in to was on the opposite side of the stage to the bass player, that made it almost impossible for Matt to see what I was doing, so he was finding it hard to follow my chords. They did their best, fair play to them, but by comparison I think it sounded a lot more messy than it did when I did the same thing with the acoustic guitar a few weeks past. Bitterness didn't sound too good either for the same reason, though at least the electric guitar was the sound I had in mind for it when I first wrote the song. The sound of the guitar was far too bright but as I was borrowing an amp, I shouldn't complain.

I didn't want to play Prisoner Of My Mind again after the last time (if you missed that blog, VERY broadly, the band liked it, the audience not so much.) and I was at a loss to which other of my own songs to play. We Will Survive would probably fit the bill but I need a guitar player capable of playing the DragonForce style pyrotechnics I'm planning for that one! So I decided to switch to covers. After establishing that none of the band knew Walkin' On The Sun, I elected to run with Local Boy In The Photograph, since we'd been talking about Stereophonics earlier and it's easy enough to follow the chords. This went fairly well and was probably the best song we played on the night, not necessarily the right venue (it seems to prefer classic rock,) but hey, it worked.

Nobody told me to leave at that point so we did Come As You Are by Nirvana, making this my only guitar solo of the evening. I need to make up my mind which 'voice' I'm going to use when I sing this; do I go with the safe low version which I know I can do? Or do I do the higher version which cuts through better but I can only do if I'm up for it? I actually did the one that I shouldn't have done, which was a mixture of the two and therefore lacked consistency. Also because I was playing it in standard tuning it threw Matt, who is used to playing it in D.

All in all, not one of my better ones, and I'll need to give it some serious thought before I play this one again. But it's all learning experience and Pete really wants to play drums with me on my own stuff. It's something I'll keep in mind but with anything up to 4 bands at the moment, this isn't looking likely right now.

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...

Maverick Jam Night 16/2/11

This set for me was a wake-up call. Not least because it filled my New Year Resolution to play, in addition to one gig every week, one new venue every month; while I've been aware of the Maverick in Amblecote for some time, even been there once many moons ago, I'd never actually played there before. But to appreciate why this was an important night for me, we've got to look at some of the other shows I've been doing this year:

My regular blog readers will have noticed the pattern emerging in the places I choose to play; more often than not it's either Katy Fitzgeralds or one of the open nights that Sam Draisey does. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but I don't think the fact that my last few shows have been a bit lacklustre is any coincidence. When I've played the songs that are more than about half a year old, it feels like I'm going though the motions, when I play something new, I screw it up. And I get away with it, to a certain extent, because I'm on friendly familiar terms with most of the guys at the aforementioned venues, but on the other hand it creates an atmosphere where I don't feel as though the stakes are particularly high...

Whereas I turned up at the Maverick last night not having a clue what to expect, to find Al (a colleague at DPA and a VERY good drummer) and Peter setting up and launching into some old bluesey rock which they played extremely well; precise, good sound mix, very professional. And there I was with my acoustic guitar, my less-than-precise playing style and a voice that sounds like a cement mixer full of toads. And cement. No question about it, I had to be on top of my game this time, and for the first time in quite a while I felt nervous. Thankfully this was the 'good' version of nervous; despite playing most of my songs at twice the usual speed, I barely made any mistakes at all, which by the precedent of my last few gigs is almost unheard of...

I kicked off with Get Out Of My Head. It sounded a bit strange because the mix in my monitor was very loud; I didn't want to do anything about it though because a) I couldn't tell which of the many dials on the PA was controlling the monitor output, b) stopping in the middle of a song to alter settings never goes down well, and c) I don't like moaning about the sound to the sound guy in the middle of a gig; once I'm on, I'm on. But one thing that I guess it's hard for a lot of people to appreciate is this: The sound in the monitors can be crystal clear, a complete mess, or anything in between. The sound out front - i.e. what the audience can hear - probably doesn't sound anything like your monitors. Fundamentally, one doesn't affect the other. It's only when the sound in the monitor starts to affect how you're playing that some change occurs. So when I can hear the sound from the monitor louder than I can hear my own voice and guitar, (not quite the same thing,) the temptation is to quiet down a little bit. This is almost completely subliminal and I don't know if this had an effect on the night, but chances are it did; it's something to keep in mind for the future. As far as playing the song was concerned, I was... not incorrect, but certainly more aware of how I was delivering the lines that don't quite fit in with the music. This isn't a good thing or a bad thing in terms of what the audience heard but I rarely do that these days. I think out of all the songs I played that night, this one probably went down the best.

After introducing myself as Matt from Lower Gornal, Girls Names was next, adding the Scrubs reference to the song name which I really must stop doing because it seems to get completely the opposite reaction from the one I intended. This one's a bit of a mixed bag; even though I don't think it's all that good, it tends to go down well, and given the general age and demographic of the audience I figured the 'storytelling' nature of the lyrics would be well-received. I don't know why but it didn't really work out that way. Maybe it's because I was playing the place for the first time, or maybe it was because - bearing in mind what went on for the rest of the night - they were waiting for me to play something they actually know, but the people who were watching appeared to be losing interest.

I then explained that some of these songs were years old and went into Believe, which I wrote in 06. I was mainly sticking to my slower songs tonight, again because of the age and demographic of the audience; it tends to go down better with the older guys. Once again I became concious of my own playing, namely my rapidly improving ability to switch between fingers and plectrum. That being the only song in my set where I actually need to do it, it's not a skill that gets consciously practiced all that often, but now that I'm teaching guitar I do a lot more fingerpicking so that might be it. I played it well and received a polite applause.

I was allowed to do one more song (no extra long solos when there's only one guy on the stage with an acoustic guitar!) and went in to Bitterness. I thought I may as well end with what's considered by many to be my best song! This is the one where I was really aware of my volume to the point where I was barely making any noise with the guitar at all in the verses; never was I so grateful of my ability to palm-mute! I was also aware that I was playing it far too quickly, and the combination of these factors plus my heavier-than-usual plectrum meant that I wasn't quite hitting the fast strumming bits in time, but oh well, these things happen. I'm not sure but I think this one went down a little better, as I left the stage...

However, as most of you will know by now, sometimes I'm my own worst critic, and talking to some of the people afterwards suggested to me that it wasn't quite as bad as all that. The people I was sitting with appeared to like it, Al thought I did well, and Peter asked me to come back at a later time! I might at that, though I think I would like to get some more of my newer songs sorted out properly before I play there again, because the music I've been writing recently lends itself better to that environment. Hell, I might even bring one of my electrics in and start jamming with some of the other guys...