Aki Maera's first gig. This one had been a long time coming... and I also forgot to blog it. Now, I didn't really analyse the band's performance, only my own, so this time I'm just going to write out the set list and comment on the whole thing. The songs we played were:
Valkyries
In the Attic
Blissful Moment
Until Then
Shy
Drifted
Rise
Monday It's Too Late (encore)
We had some quite positive feedback from this, given that it was our first gig, and to be fair we played the songs pretty tightly. There were mistakes, there always are, and there were definitely some points where Cj was running out of steam on those drums and playing the songs a lot slower than we rehearsed, but this is all part of the learning curve. Marcus and Ian did very well indeed, considering neither of them had played a gig before. And the promoters seemed to enjoy it as well.
However someone who wishes to remain anonymous (I don't know who it is) provided us with some constructive feedback. Our biggest issue at the moment is the transition between songs; we use 3 different tunings in the band and having to change them between 4 out of the 8 songs we played deprived the set of any momentum. The way around it is basically to arrange the set more efficiently; some songs are better grouped together than others. It will blunt the impact of the set somewhat, because with the exception of Monday It's Too Late (this was an unplanned addition) that was the best order the songs could have gone in. But unless we can get a guitar tech to help us out, plus another 2 guitars for Marcus, we should try to rearrange the set. Constantly having to retune our guitars is more trouble than it's worth.
The other problem was our levels were out. Well, it's all very well people saying that after the gig when we can't do anything about it, but we were never going to notice during the show. Cj hadn't got a monitor, we could barely hear anything but ourselves, and even if we could, we know enough about playing live to know that the sound we get on the stage is nothing like how it sounds at the front of the house. One of the promoters needed to tell us that our levels were out and how to put them right; there was nothing really we could have done about it.
There were also apparently some less-than-kind comments about Marcus' voice. I haven't read them. I'm not going to worry too much about this, though. For one thing, I've seen a marked improvement in the whole band and particularly his voice over the last couple of months. For another, someone signed Kings of Leon and that guy's got a very rough voice. So if it's going to get better like it has been doing, and doesn't really matter too much anyway, then there's no problem!
We have no more gigs booked yet and I don't know when we're practicing next so watch this space...
Showing posts with label Walsall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walsall. Show all posts
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
November Gigs
Once again I find myself behind in my blogs, and I've got a whole months worth of gigs to talk about and another two to go. Trying to blog them all individually would of course be more work than fun, apart from anything else some of it was weeks ago and I literally can't remember what happened, so I'm just going to give a quick run down of each one:
5/11/11: The Royal Oak, Amblecote: Another Prickly gig, thanks to Joy for booking me for this one! My guitar actually doesn't sound too bad through an amp. Didn't play so well, unfortunately. I think probably I was distracted with the thought of the fireworks display that I was going to afterwards, and I was on first which would never be my, ahem, 'first' choice. It wasn't bad... but by no stretch of the imagination was it my best one. I said to Amy afterwards, I think I was mistaken in my assumtion that I can play a reasonable show (I did Katies a couple of weeks before,) not play my guitar for a week and a half and expect to be able to play just as good a show when I get it out again. Something to remember for the future, though it will be a while before my next scheduled acoustic gig.
6/11/11: 82s at Just Kroozin Fundraising Event, Four Ashes: Nearly forgot about this one! This was the time where we were trying out our new bass player West. He seems to fit the bill OK and having the keyboards there does fill out the sound quite a bit. We played OK, as ever I did make some mistakes but I was rather more concerned about being upstaged by Almost Easy who were on before! Terrific fundrasing event to raise money for research into Lukemeia, so I was glad to have been a part of it, though it was freezing cold!
12/11/11: The Wharf Bar, Walsall: Regular readers of my blog will know that it is a rare time indeed when I speak kindly of The Wharf Bar. There's never usually anyone there, the whole place smells of sick (which comes from the canal, by the way; it's not actually their fault) and the only people to watch me tend to be the other bands who are either leaving the venue or counting down the minutes until it's their turn to go on. Quite often, the best I can say about it is that at least they do still book me for gigs. So imagine how pleased I was when not only were the modest audience actually listening to me and, as they told me afterwards, enjoying it, but I actually found myself enjoying it as well! That was certainly the best I'd ever played at the Wharf Bar, I've got another one there on the 10th so I'm actually looking forward to it. That's almost unheard of!
16/11/11: 82s: Cover Band Showcase in Cannock: We have - not a deal - but a good working relationship with some booking agents in the area, who invited us to play this showcase to several booking agents who may or may not want us for gigs in the future. We got all our big guns out, which were Word Up, Trick Me and Sound of the Underground. Quite far removed from what we orignally put the band together to do, and I think there is a concern that it's not representative of the set, so you may see some changes with this in the future.
22/11/11 Recording Christmas Song with Sam Draisey: Sam's putting together another Christmas album of original material and I went up today to record mine. I hadn't rehearsed it nearly enough and I know it, the guitar took a few goes, but my vocals I did pretty much in one take. I don't know whether I like the song or not; it's hardly full of Chirstmas Cheer and lyrically it's very lazy, there isn't a single line I haven't copied off someone, not least of whom myself! Still, it will hopefully work for the album, and it will be interesting to see what the other guys come up with this time.
So, there you have it! Aki Maera's first gig is coming up next Wednesday, which will be... interesting. See you all there!
5/11/11: The Royal Oak, Amblecote: Another Prickly gig, thanks to Joy for booking me for this one! My guitar actually doesn't sound too bad through an amp. Didn't play so well, unfortunately. I think probably I was distracted with the thought of the fireworks display that I was going to afterwards, and I was on first which would never be my, ahem, 'first' choice. It wasn't bad... but by no stretch of the imagination was it my best one. I said to Amy afterwards, I think I was mistaken in my assumtion that I can play a reasonable show (I did Katies a couple of weeks before,) not play my guitar for a week and a half and expect to be able to play just as good a show when I get it out again. Something to remember for the future, though it will be a while before my next scheduled acoustic gig.
6/11/11: 82s at Just Kroozin Fundraising Event, Four Ashes: Nearly forgot about this one! This was the time where we were trying out our new bass player West. He seems to fit the bill OK and having the keyboards there does fill out the sound quite a bit. We played OK, as ever I did make some mistakes but I was rather more concerned about being upstaged by Almost Easy who were on before! Terrific fundrasing event to raise money for research into Lukemeia, so I was glad to have been a part of it, though it was freezing cold!
12/11/11: The Wharf Bar, Walsall: Regular readers of my blog will know that it is a rare time indeed when I speak kindly of The Wharf Bar. There's never usually anyone there, the whole place smells of sick (which comes from the canal, by the way; it's not actually their fault) and the only people to watch me tend to be the other bands who are either leaving the venue or counting down the minutes until it's their turn to go on. Quite often, the best I can say about it is that at least they do still book me for gigs. So imagine how pleased I was when not only were the modest audience actually listening to me and, as they told me afterwards, enjoying it, but I actually found myself enjoying it as well! That was certainly the best I'd ever played at the Wharf Bar, I've got another one there on the 10th so I'm actually looking forward to it. That's almost unheard of!
16/11/11: 82s: Cover Band Showcase in Cannock: We have - not a deal - but a good working relationship with some booking agents in the area, who invited us to play this showcase to several booking agents who may or may not want us for gigs in the future. We got all our big guns out, which were Word Up, Trick Me and Sound of the Underground. Quite far removed from what we orignally put the band together to do, and I think there is a concern that it's not representative of the set, so you may see some changes with this in the future.
22/11/11 Recording Christmas Song with Sam Draisey: Sam's putting together another Christmas album of original material and I went up today to record mine. I hadn't rehearsed it nearly enough and I know it, the guitar took a few goes, but my vocals I did pretty much in one take. I don't know whether I like the song or not; it's hardly full of Chirstmas Cheer and lyrically it's very lazy, there isn't a single line I haven't copied off someone, not least of whom myself! Still, it will hopefully work for the album, and it will be interesting to see what the other guys come up with this time.
So, there you have it! Aki Maera's first gig is coming up next Wednesday, which will be... interesting. See you all there!
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
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...
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...
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