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...

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...

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...

The Wharf Bar 26/3/11 and Sam's Party

Back with the gigs again!

I let myself down a little bit with this one at the Wharf Bar. I really wanted to play some of my new songs but if I'm honest I hadn't practiced my set anywhere near enough this week. All I could do therefore was to fall back on my usual material...

Kicked off with Bitterness, which is never a bad idea. There were quite a few people in the Wharf tonight who I'd never seen before and I think they were taken by surprise by the acoustic guy opening the show with a spiteful rock song! I got a nice big round of applause for that one. Didn't do the fast strums too well, which I put down to the fact that I'd had very little time to warm my hands up, but other than that OK.

I was going to do Girl's Names straight after that but then I remembered that they're in the same key and move more or less at the same speed which is never a good idea, so I went ahead and played Get Out Of My Head instead. This actually went down quite well; it can be a bit hit and miss but I think it's a good song and I reckon the greater majority of the audience thought that as well.

Then I introduced myself and did Wide Open Space by Mansun. Not sure how well this one went. Better than last time, and a lot of the audience were about the right age to recognise it, but it was as though most of them couldn't understand why I was playing a song like that in the middle of my own stuff. I might break that one out at a longer gig but for now I'll think I'll put that one to bed, (as though I ever repeat any of my covers in the same venue...)

Next was Dear Mr Manager. To be honest I think I chose the wrong gig for this song, it was a 'younger' audience and less likely to be appreciative of my speculating how badly working in retail could have ended for me. Plus it's a quiet song and a huge shift in dynamic, which had an effect on the rest of the set. Still, I played it without mucking it up, which isn't common...

THEN I played Girl's Names. I think I played this one OK, but one of the guys in the audience who's seen me before told me that this particular song lacked my usual energy. I don't know about that, but again after Dear Mr Manager it's a massive shift in dynamic which for a gig that small probably doesn't work all that well. Actually, now that I think about it, I've been playing that song for so long now that there's a certain level of familiarity to it to the point where I felt myself switching off when I'm playing it. That's not good...

Ended up with We Will Survive, there was only really one song I was going to end with! I think by then the novelty of the acousitic guy singing rock songs had worn off and the crowd were looking to get some bands on, but hey, this song rarely goes down badly and tonight was no exception. It was as good as could be expected!

So then we bailed out early (not being funny but a 4-band show was supposed to end at 10:20, one of the bands didn't turn up and the last band were still setting up at 10:40,) and journeyed up to Codsall for Sam's birthday party. What I didn't expect was for Sam to have set up a stage at the back of a huge garden for an impromtu gig. And, as so often happens, I got called up to do a slot... and Kayla asking me to play Get Out Of My Head by describing the lyrics to me was, I have to admit, a surreal experience!

I'm not going to go song by song here, this was a desperate attempt to recall some happy/party songs. I kicked off with A Little Respect by Erasure/Wheatus, which never fails to raise a smile and got people dancing which is all good! Then I played Summer of '69, you cannot go wrong with that! 500 Miles by The Proclaimers was next; an impromptu decision and helped out with the words by Sam and Dave, but if ever a party's going flat, all you've got to do is play that song and you're away. I finished up with Hotel Yorba by The White Stripes. Of course it wasn't until I got off the stage that I remembered I could have done Word Up, or On A Day Like This... but hey, there's always next time, right?

Open Mic at the Woodman 18/3/2011

Few are the times that I don't have something to say for myself these days...

Capos are funny things. Considering it's as simple as putting an extra nut on to the guitar so you can play higher notes, it's astonishing how you can come to rely on them, not only as a tool to keep your voice level with the music, but also as a songwriting aid, as sometimes chords sound more melodically suggestive when played higher up the neck. You also come to rely on them to always be in your guitar case, and it's a bit of a let down when you get three quarters of the way to Codsall before you remember that, actually, no, it's in your OTHER guitar case, and you've got to go ahead and do an acoustic gig without your capo. Well done. Sometimes I wonder how seriously I'm taking all of this...

Now there were plenty of people at The Woodman tonight who would happily have lent me a capo but I had a bee in my bonnet and thought no, if I can't even bring a capo to a night like this then I need to face the consequences. So I founf myself playing a load of songs that I hadn't played for a while, some for literally years, that I can do without the capo. I kicked off with Just The Way I'm Feeling by Feeder, and I found it quite startling considering that they're my favourite band that I couldn't remember what order the lyrics appear! I don't think it particularly matters with that song as they all sound near enough the same anyway, and Sam's Mom was singing along to it so that was cool!

Next I played Epiphany by Staind, I haven't played that for almost a year since the gig at the City Tavern in Birmingham. As I was trying to sing it I was struck by how low it actually is, I can barely manage it. As this isn't one of the band's singles, as far as I know, nobody really knew it, but it's the only one I can really manage because if I'm going to do Outside I really need to be in Eflat tuning. All things considered, I played it quite well, though I won't be too quick to put it in any future set lists...

After explaining the situation with my capo to quite a large audience, I launched in to the only one of my songs that I don't really need it for - Get Out Of My Head. For some reason I was a lot less accurate with the plectrum than I normally am, although this may be because that was the first time I'd played it in the week it's been since the last time I played one of Sam's open nights. Nonetheless I was pleased with my performance, I can put quite a bit of drama in to that song which is probably why I like playing it so much!

Last, I went for a performance of Walking On The Sun by Smash Mouth. I like playing that song so I play it to myself sometimes but it's been some months since I last played it at a live show; whether there were enough '90s kids' in the room to know the song I don't know but Sam came up to me afterwards and said it was really good and that he hadn't heard it for ages. I think I'll be keeping that one as an emergency trump card in the future!

It was nice hanging around with Elliot, Kayla and Mike afterwards as well, Sam's open nights always attract a really nice crowd. Looking forward to the next one!

Open Mic Night at the Rainbow, Coven, 9/3/2011

This is another of Sam Draisey's open nights, moved from The Harrow to this rather modern-looking bar. It was also an interesting one for me, as I had to play through illness for the first time...

This being a new place and the fact that I STILL haven't practiced my new songs enough to play them live, at least not after that mess with Dear Mr Manager, I decided to stick to the songs I knew tonight. I haven't forgotten the benefits of starting with a fast one though, and kicked off with We Will Survive. This is usually my set closer but not one I'd necessarily play at an open night these days, having written better songs in the 3 years it's been since I first wrote that one. I played it OK although I messed up a couple of the chords, having said that playing a F when you should be playing a Dm7 isn't the end of the world and as long as you keep singing I guess you get away with it.

Then I played Girl's Names, and this is where I started to notice that coming to play tonight was a bit of a misplaced idea. Having not eaten very well over the last few days my innards weren't functioning at their best and I cut some of the vocal notes short, due to the very real possibility that I was going to be sick. This didn't happen, thankfully, and in all other respects I played the song quite well.

I then explained to the audience that, even though I do give up chocolate, coke and takeaways for Lent, for me the celebration that we might call Mardi Gras goes on for about the week running up to it. Therefore, having spent much of the last few days eating very little else, my stomach wasn't working very well, and now might be a good time to chill out for a bit lest my set be cut short by an emergency trip to the bathroom. Whether anyone other than the 4 people stood at the front gave a monkeys I don't know, but thankfully it's not hard to do with my set with the correct application of a little song called Get Out Of My Head. Couldn't have played that one at a better time for this particular night!

So after a set like that, there was only one thing I could end it with, and that of course was Bitterness. From the way this has gone the last few times that I've played it, I think I can safely conclude that a thinner plectrum makes all the difference! It's the best I've played it for a while; the whole set went down as well as could be expected I suppose, not amazing, but hardly my worst.

So, will I be back? Almost certainly yes, though not for a while, I need to hit Walsall next week and give myself some time to rehearse those songs I've been banging on about for the last couple of months...

Katies Jam Sessions, 2/3/2011

Tonight, this was more of a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that I hadn't done a gig so far this week, and with Sam not doing the open nights this week, Katies was all I had left. Still, that doesn't mean that I didn't get anything out of it...

I ended up jamming with LC and Rob, always a pleasure. LC kicked the first one off with a funky bass line, which I followed with some choppy-choppy barre chords. Holding the chords together with LC's bass line was simple enough, but I think it's a testament to how long it's been since I've jammed properly on guitar that I kept losing my notes every time I tried to put a bit of lead work in there. I can do it on bass but for some reason not on guitar, it's something I think I should work at but then again I usually end up playing bass at this sort of thing anyway.

Next, inspired by Matt from The Fakes at band practice tonight, we had a go at She Hates Me by Puddle of Mudd. Considering I've never really played it in Eflat tuning before, and LC and Rob had never played it before at all as far as I know, we actually did quite well. I clocked a few reactions from some of the younger guys in the room tonight; it's the same with anybody over the age of 25, play them a song they grew up with and they will love it no matter how good or bad you play.

I led the next jam, this time with a funky but heavy riff. LC followed it well but what made this one interesting was the fact that I kept modulating it up a key. The riff usually remained the same so it wasn't too hard to follow but it keeps you on your toes. I enjoyed the breakdown part at the end of it!

I guess what I need to keep in mind about nights like this is that I'm always going to be playing with people who are better - or at least, do things differently - to me. I'll never be wasting my time playing with LC and Rob, and it's going to improve my playing a lot playing with some different people to the usual crowd (which, in the general context of guitar, is exclusively the Fakes these days.)

So thanks to LC for putting that on, I might be down there with Perception at the end of the month, you never know...