Just a quick one...
Aki Maera played a gig at a hall in Penkridge who's name I can't remember at this point. It was the same set list as before; we hadn't had time to rehearse again or iron out the previous identified faults, and the only real difference to the procedings - including all the delays - was the fact that I broke my A string half way through In The Attic. To be honest this was my fault as it had been nearly 2 years since I last changed the things, I should never have allowed that to happen and I know it.
More than that though, the band just weren't feeling it. I guess, with some semblance of sound management, we sounded better than we did at the Wheat Sheaf a couple of weeks before. But we didn't come away from this one feeling anywhere near as good as we did after that. All bands have a bad gig at some point and the onus will be on us to make sure it doesn't happen again, but as I said before, we have got a lot of work to do before we get there...
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Thursday, 15 December 2011
14/12/2011: Acoustic Brew at Katy Fitzgeralds with Sam Draisey and Elliot Burton
This is part of an experiment between me, Sam and Elliot; we've been putting together some good sets between us over the last few years, and after Codfest, I felt that the next step was to take the show on the road. We're trying to get gigs with some local promoters getting us all playing on the same night, to get people used to the idea that the 3 of us are playing together. We're tentatively calling it 'The Travelling Fools' at the moment. It was a modest audience tonight in Katies, no more than about 6 or 7 people at the most. Nonetheless, I felt the stakes for me were quite high after some truly storming sets from Elliot and Sam. Elliot dispensed with his usual covers in favour of his own material; it really drove home just what a good songwriter he actually is, and Sam was as ever immaculate. His Christmas song, which is called 'Nan's song' and is available to download, by the way, will set familiar memories off with a great many people...
It didn't get off to a flying start for me. Following the other's example I opened with my Christmas song The First Footprint, and proceeded to forget the words halfway through. Stopping to figure it out was a mistake that I really shouldn't be making at this stage, but as I said afterwards, in my defence I only play that song a couple of times a year anyway.
I then went in to Storm from the North. It was originally my intention to open with it because I wanted to experiment by putting it at a different point in the set. (Regular blog readers will know I almost always put it either 5th, or as close to the middle as I can.) I found the low E a little difficult to sing but other than that it went quite well. Elliot said afterwards that this was the song he remembered as having the widest vocal range, and from low E to high C I'm inclined to agree. I forgot he hadn't heard me play this one yet!
Next was Girl's Names. That country lick at the start's getting smoother! That song is quite familiar to me now and I had to make an effort to keep concentrating but I managed it.
I then tried We Will Survive with a 'slow' intro. I'll have to be careful where I'm going with that, I haven't forgotten the Crashpoint days where I'd come up with a fast rock song, then come up with a slower picked version of the same song and Emma would like the slow version better. It worked well enough tonight in front of what was let's face it a very familiar audience, but if people don't know what the song's supposed to sound like in the first place, I doubt it would make much of an impact and would be misleading to the people who then heard the 'real' version.
I realised too late that I'd played We Will Survive too early; and I had to put Get Out Of My Head and A Lonely Night - two songs that move at a very similar pace - together. Not something I would have chosen to do, but I haven't written a set list for near enough a year now so I'm bound to make mistakes like that on occasion. I played A Lonely Night, after refusing to explain what it was about (poor gig attendance) as the small number of people who were there would find it quite patronising. Dale and Sam listened to my lyrics and were amused when they figured it out, and Dale looked surprised, shocked, and not a little entertained by the foul language in the song which for once I was allowed to use. There were times when I was about a tenth of a second away from forgetting the words to it and came in quite late with the vocals, but with that kind of loose vocal style it didn't make much difference.
I tried Get Out Of My Head, I've taken to doing a 'buzzsaw' intro to it which I like, and if an audience has seen me before I think it's probably good for them to be going, 'Oh wow, what's he going to do now?' and then play something familiar. The song went pretty well actually, and my earlier mistake with the order of the songs didn't seem to matter.
I ended with Bitterness, after dedicating it to the Wharf Bar, where I sat for three and a half hours last Saturday and didn't get to play. As you can imagine, this put me in a foul mood, and I might have another song out of that if I can sort some music out to it. I was very impressed tonight when I started stomping in the quiet bit and everybody else started stomping along with me, and imitated the 'bang bang bang' bit on the tables! That's probably the best I've ever ended a show, and Sam told me afterwards it was the best he'd ever seen me!
Overall I'm very pleased with how I played, it was once again an example of a time where I've played to a small but appreciative audience and really enjoyed the experience.
With the set lists, by the way, perhaps in the future I might be able to organise my set a little better if I, you know, write one. But the most I usually play is 7 songs, and it only really helps if I've got a band with me who need to know what they're supposed to be doing. So at present, I'll stick to what I'm doing...
See you a week on Friday at the Holly Bush in Cradley Heath!
It didn't get off to a flying start for me. Following the other's example I opened with my Christmas song The First Footprint, and proceeded to forget the words halfway through. Stopping to figure it out was a mistake that I really shouldn't be making at this stage, but as I said afterwards, in my defence I only play that song a couple of times a year anyway.
I then went in to Storm from the North. It was originally my intention to open with it because I wanted to experiment by putting it at a different point in the set. (Regular blog readers will know I almost always put it either 5th, or as close to the middle as I can.) I found the low E a little difficult to sing but other than that it went quite well. Elliot said afterwards that this was the song he remembered as having the widest vocal range, and from low E to high C I'm inclined to agree. I forgot he hadn't heard me play this one yet!
Next was Girl's Names. That country lick at the start's getting smoother! That song is quite familiar to me now and I had to make an effort to keep concentrating but I managed it.
I then tried We Will Survive with a 'slow' intro. I'll have to be careful where I'm going with that, I haven't forgotten the Crashpoint days where I'd come up with a fast rock song, then come up with a slower picked version of the same song and Emma would like the slow version better. It worked well enough tonight in front of what was let's face it a very familiar audience, but if people don't know what the song's supposed to sound like in the first place, I doubt it would make much of an impact and would be misleading to the people who then heard the 'real' version.
I realised too late that I'd played We Will Survive too early; and I had to put Get Out Of My Head and A Lonely Night - two songs that move at a very similar pace - together. Not something I would have chosen to do, but I haven't written a set list for near enough a year now so I'm bound to make mistakes like that on occasion. I played A Lonely Night, after refusing to explain what it was about (poor gig attendance) as the small number of people who were there would find it quite patronising. Dale and Sam listened to my lyrics and were amused when they figured it out, and Dale looked surprised, shocked, and not a little entertained by the foul language in the song which for once I was allowed to use. There were times when I was about a tenth of a second away from forgetting the words to it and came in quite late with the vocals, but with that kind of loose vocal style it didn't make much difference.
I tried Get Out Of My Head, I've taken to doing a 'buzzsaw' intro to it which I like, and if an audience has seen me before I think it's probably good for them to be going, 'Oh wow, what's he going to do now?' and then play something familiar. The song went pretty well actually, and my earlier mistake with the order of the songs didn't seem to matter.
I ended with Bitterness, after dedicating it to the Wharf Bar, where I sat for three and a half hours last Saturday and didn't get to play. As you can imagine, this put me in a foul mood, and I might have another song out of that if I can sort some music out to it. I was very impressed tonight when I started stomping in the quiet bit and everybody else started stomping along with me, and imitated the 'bang bang bang' bit on the tables! That's probably the best I've ever ended a show, and Sam told me afterwards it was the best he'd ever seen me!
Overall I'm very pleased with how I played, it was once again an example of a time where I've played to a small but appreciative audience and really enjoyed the experience.
With the set lists, by the way, perhaps in the future I might be able to organise my set a little better if I, you know, write one. But the most I usually play is 7 songs, and it only really helps if I've got a band with me who need to know what they're supposed to be doing. So at present, I'll stick to what I'm doing...
See you a week on Friday at the Holly Bush in Cradley Heath!
Thursday, 8 December 2011
6/12/2011: Open Mic at the Hartley Arms
The open mic at the Hartley Arms that Sam runs has now been moved to Mondays for various reasons, most of which pertaining to the pub's domino team. Since then, the turnout has been modest, at best. That doesn't mean we can't have a laugh with it though...
As I did the last time I did an open mic with Sam, I decided to do a set of mainly covers. I told the people in the pub that I reckoned that some of my covers need a bit of practice; no time like the present. I began with Linger by The Cranberries, where I was once again reminded of how silly I feel singing the 7 syllables in the word 'finger.' I played it OK but to make that song work I really need to get that A6 chord in the right place. One to keep in mind for next time I'm playing with a girl singer though!
Next I did a Christmas song, The Power of Love, after a not-so-quick scramble to tune my guitar up. I fudged the E11 chord a couple of times, and I know I'm missing some chords because I'm pretty sure there's a Bm in there somewhere and I didn't play it once. It's also a little too high for me to sing, but that didn't stop me trying!
I followed that up with my one original song for the evening - The First Footprint, which I wrote for the Christmas album last year. Given the fact that it's been near enough that long since I last played it, I was surprised that I remembered all the words, though I did mess up a couple of chords. I certainly enjoy playing it more than my new one, which I haven't learned properly yet and doesn't really capture that same Christmassy spirit...
I explained to the audience that despite my intentions to enjoy Christmas last year when I wrote that song, I found it very difficult owing to the onion in my basement, and spilling oil over the engine of my car. Realising that I was moaning far too much, I decided to cheer up a little bit with A Little Respect, the one cover I do that I can play near enough perfectly because I play it so much. Need to be careful with those Bflats, other than that I'm there.
When I went up for my second set, I began by playing a song that I hadn't played for years and certainly never played live, Let Robeson Sing by the Manic Street Preachers. It's one of the ones I learned to play when I was just starting to learn to play guitar, and for that reason I think has stuck with me since then; I'm still getting most of it right including the words. Not bad, not bad!
I then reduced the volume to barely even a whisper and played Mad World, closer to the Gary Jules version as much as anything else. I have to be careful when I'm doing this, and I certainly don't do it much, but in this case it really worked because the room went quiet and you could hear a pin drop. I'll certainly break this one out again for a suitably morbid gig!
Then I decided to play some Feeder, settling on Yesterday Went Too Soon, which I'm enjoying playing more than High at the moment. I should probably learn some of the songs of their more recent albums to cover their later career; people barely recognise Feeder songs anyway so it's not as though it will make much difference to the impact of the show. In any case, Yesterday proved a little too high for my voice tonight, and I could feel it breaking in some places. Still love playing it though!
I finished off with probably my favourite Stone Roses tune, She Bangs The Drums. That one always goes down well no matter who I play it to, which says something given what a 'scene' band the Stone Roses were. One I think I shall keep and do again in the future.
Not a bad show, all in all, though it was a case of experimenting with some different songs to a small but familiar audience. It's certainly been useful for finding out what covers work and what don't, so I know which to break out in the future!
As I did the last time I did an open mic with Sam, I decided to do a set of mainly covers. I told the people in the pub that I reckoned that some of my covers need a bit of practice; no time like the present. I began with Linger by The Cranberries, where I was once again reminded of how silly I feel singing the 7 syllables in the word 'finger.' I played it OK but to make that song work I really need to get that A6 chord in the right place. One to keep in mind for next time I'm playing with a girl singer though!
Next I did a Christmas song, The Power of Love, after a not-so-quick scramble to tune my guitar up. I fudged the E11 chord a couple of times, and I know I'm missing some chords because I'm pretty sure there's a Bm in there somewhere and I didn't play it once. It's also a little too high for me to sing, but that didn't stop me trying!
I followed that up with my one original song for the evening - The First Footprint, which I wrote for the Christmas album last year. Given the fact that it's been near enough that long since I last played it, I was surprised that I remembered all the words, though I did mess up a couple of chords. I certainly enjoy playing it more than my new one, which I haven't learned properly yet and doesn't really capture that same Christmassy spirit...
I explained to the audience that despite my intentions to enjoy Christmas last year when I wrote that song, I found it very difficult owing to the onion in my basement, and spilling oil over the engine of my car. Realising that I was moaning far too much, I decided to cheer up a little bit with A Little Respect, the one cover I do that I can play near enough perfectly because I play it so much. Need to be careful with those Bflats, other than that I'm there.
When I went up for my second set, I began by playing a song that I hadn't played for years and certainly never played live, Let Robeson Sing by the Manic Street Preachers. It's one of the ones I learned to play when I was just starting to learn to play guitar, and for that reason I think has stuck with me since then; I'm still getting most of it right including the words. Not bad, not bad!
I then reduced the volume to barely even a whisper and played Mad World, closer to the Gary Jules version as much as anything else. I have to be careful when I'm doing this, and I certainly don't do it much, but in this case it really worked because the room went quiet and you could hear a pin drop. I'll certainly break this one out again for a suitably morbid gig!
Then I decided to play some Feeder, settling on Yesterday Went Too Soon, which I'm enjoying playing more than High at the moment. I should probably learn some of the songs of their more recent albums to cover their later career; people barely recognise Feeder songs anyway so it's not as though it will make much difference to the impact of the show. In any case, Yesterday proved a little too high for my voice tonight, and I could feel it breaking in some places. Still love playing it though!
I finished off with probably my favourite Stone Roses tune, She Bangs The Drums. That one always goes down well no matter who I play it to, which says something given what a 'scene' band the Stone Roses were. One I think I shall keep and do again in the future.
Not a bad show, all in all, though it was a case of experimenting with some different songs to a small but familiar audience. It's certainly been useful for finding out what covers work and what don't, so I know which to break out in the future!
30/11/2011: Aki Maera: The Wheatsheaf, Walsall
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...
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...
3/12/2011: The Fakes: The Blue Brick, Brierly Hill
What's this, you say? 3 Fakes gigs in one year? Are you sure?
Yes, I am, although to be fair this was our first 'full' gig in over two years, the previous 2 gigs were at the Baseline and we can play for a lot longer than time constraints usually allow with those guys. Long-term blog readers will remember we completely bombed the last time we did a gig, and I won't lie there has been talk of "If we do a gig that shit again, let's call it a day." I won't go into the reasons why that gig went the way it did, but suffice to say the stakes were quite high for this one.
And we very nearly had to pull it! During the soundcheck it became apparent that our PA was cutting out every 2-3 minutes. We reckon it was because a capacitator had blown in the circuitry; how that could have happened on a PA that I think we've only used 3 times so far I don't know, but it had certainly been a long time since we last used it. Thankfully we knew someone in Wall Heath we could hire a PA mixer from and we went through that. Close call though.
What was different about this gig is that we had our own sound engineer (we usually do it ourselves) called Ryan helping us out. What he was basically doing all the way through the gig, fair play to him, was boosting the vocals when we needed them, so if he could see either me or Matt was about to sing he'd turn up our mics and back down again afterwards to stop them feeding back. The result, we were reliably informed by Bob Drew, was the best vocal mix we'd ever had. The same could not be said for the guitars, though. Ryan had told me to turn mine down, which from where he was standing was probably the right thing to do as I was overpowering the other instruments. However the sound was not carrying across the whole room, which meant for the first half of the gig no one could hear my guitar solos. I turned it up again for the next half of the show, but there was a huge variation of volume I needed for some of the songs and it's a difficult call to make. Seemed to work OK though, everyone enjoyed it...
Highlights? I think that was the best I ever played She Bangs The Drums, and I really like that song anyway so it was good to see people enjoy it. Steve running off the stage to go to the toilet before playing I Wanna Be Adored was amusing, if nothing else. Fire by Kasabian was a good one as well, I think I got an overall better sound by stroking the strings gently with my fingers. Probably shouldn't rule out the whammy bar though. And the gig overall felt better than the last one we did, we really enjoyed it and can't wait to be there again!
Development points: With the levels, I'm just going to have to be really aware of what I'm doing with the lead guitar. The easy option is to buy a boost pedal, but to be honest I'd only really use it in the Fakes (There's rarely a need to boost my sound in the 82s, and I play bass in Aki Maera) and that's a lot of money to spend on a pedal just to use on a few songs in a covers band that at the most does 3 gigs a year. I'd like to get some new songs rolling out for the next gig but that's going to be a little tricky. Things are going to slow down for The Fakes now in terms of rehearsals because Drewey's going to be working away for the next couple of months, and we'll only really have Friday to rehearse - if we can all make it. That's by no means a guarantee, given that I'm off to see Amy every couple of weeks, or she comes up to me, and Steve's shifts not being conducive to a regular practicing pattern! But I'll see what I can do with getting them to play some new songs, or at least some songs we've never played live before. We should get Acquiesce by Oasis out by next gig, I think.
Looking forward to it, whatever happens!
Yes, I am, although to be fair this was our first 'full' gig in over two years, the previous 2 gigs were at the Baseline and we can play for a lot longer than time constraints usually allow with those guys. Long-term blog readers will remember we completely bombed the last time we did a gig, and I won't lie there has been talk of "If we do a gig that shit again, let's call it a day." I won't go into the reasons why that gig went the way it did, but suffice to say the stakes were quite high for this one.
And we very nearly had to pull it! During the soundcheck it became apparent that our PA was cutting out every 2-3 minutes. We reckon it was because a capacitator had blown in the circuitry; how that could have happened on a PA that I think we've only used 3 times so far I don't know, but it had certainly been a long time since we last used it. Thankfully we knew someone in Wall Heath we could hire a PA mixer from and we went through that. Close call though.
What was different about this gig is that we had our own sound engineer (we usually do it ourselves) called Ryan helping us out. What he was basically doing all the way through the gig, fair play to him, was boosting the vocals when we needed them, so if he could see either me or Matt was about to sing he'd turn up our mics and back down again afterwards to stop them feeding back. The result, we were reliably informed by Bob Drew, was the best vocal mix we'd ever had. The same could not be said for the guitars, though. Ryan had told me to turn mine down, which from where he was standing was probably the right thing to do as I was overpowering the other instruments. However the sound was not carrying across the whole room, which meant for the first half of the gig no one could hear my guitar solos. I turned it up again for the next half of the show, but there was a huge variation of volume I needed for some of the songs and it's a difficult call to make. Seemed to work OK though, everyone enjoyed it...
Highlights? I think that was the best I ever played She Bangs The Drums, and I really like that song anyway so it was good to see people enjoy it. Steve running off the stage to go to the toilet before playing I Wanna Be Adored was amusing, if nothing else. Fire by Kasabian was a good one as well, I think I got an overall better sound by stroking the strings gently with my fingers. Probably shouldn't rule out the whammy bar though. And the gig overall felt better than the last one we did, we really enjoyed it and can't wait to be there again!
Development points: With the levels, I'm just going to have to be really aware of what I'm doing with the lead guitar. The easy option is to buy a boost pedal, but to be honest I'd only really use it in the Fakes (There's rarely a need to boost my sound in the 82s, and I play bass in Aki Maera) and that's a lot of money to spend on a pedal just to use on a few songs in a covers band that at the most does 3 gigs a year. I'd like to get some new songs rolling out for the next gig but that's going to be a little tricky. Things are going to slow down for The Fakes now in terms of rehearsals because Drewey's going to be working away for the next couple of months, and we'll only really have Friday to rehearse - if we can all make it. That's by no means a guarantee, given that I'm off to see Amy every couple of weeks, or she comes up to me, and Steve's shifts not being conducive to a regular practicing pattern! But I'll see what I can do with getting them to play some new songs, or at least some songs we've never played live before. We should get Acquiesce by Oasis out by next gig, I think.
Looking forward to it, whatever happens!
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
26/11/2011: Coven Beer Festival, Coven Memorial Hall
Now I know what you're thinking: What the hell am I doing in a Beer festival?
How this came about is that Sam was doing an open mic for the day there. It transpired that not all that many people turned up for the open mic (probably too busy with their Christmas Shopping) so when Sam texted me at 1.30 asking people to come then I was happy to oblige. I got there around about 3 and found that Sam had been more or less playing on his own for an hour and a half, with a short set from Baden to break things up a little bit. So, I took the quite impressive stage, and began:
Because of what was happening, I decided to do a set of mostly covers. I began with an old favourite, High by Feeder. Again I suffered from not concentrating; it's not a hard song to play and for that reason I tend to keep playing the wrong chords; I probably get away with it to a certain extent because the Gsus chords cloud the sound anyway but I shouldn't really be doing that at this stage. It went down to a kind of passive indifference, as is so often the case with Feeder songs, but they rarely go down badly.
Followed that up with the song that I now know is called Never Forget You by the Noisettes. This went absolutely fine until the key change and then I kept fluffing up the chords once again. I do get a bit confused with this one; as I've said before I do this song in the 82s and we do it in a different key to the original to fit the vocal style a little better. Fine, except sometimes it's hard to remember which version of the song I'm actually playing and I end up making a complete mess of it from time to time, in both the band and the solo. The answer? Practice more...
Wanting to play one of my own songs but not wishing to let down the cheery atmosphere I then went on to play We Will Survive. I played it ok, I think, and it was the best reaction I could have expected given the environment. I felt exhausted though. Need to work on my fitness, I shouldn't be knackered after three songs!
Back to the covers for the next one, which was A Little Respect. This is where it started to work a bit better for me, because I could see some people singing along and getting in to it a little more than they were before, the difference obviously was I was playing something they actually know. This was probably the best song I played for the afternoon, I sang it fine and didn't mess up the guitar playing at all.
Sam was kind enough to give me another couple of songs so I went with another of my own, Bitterness. I always wanted to play this one anyway, but I've been taken to task before now for playing that one next to We Will Survive, and I had plans to end the gig so I needed to make sure I had enough songs to play it before I did! This went well; needed to edit out the swearing as it was a family event, but that's cool, and with a more energetic song I felt able to put a lot more into the performance.
Finally wrapped it up with On A Day Like This by Elbow. This was only the second time I've played that song live; it's a bit of a gamble because people need to sing along to the last part, otherwise it doesn't really work. Last time I tried it, it really didn't. But this time it did; some people were singing along with it and made it work! Trouble is it's been that song since I played it I forgot the sequece of vocal variations in the song, but never mind, we got there in the end.
So, not a bad one, and certainly quite good for an impromptu show like that. I think I need to practice some of those covers more if I'm going to take them out live though, those earlier songs were a bit sloppy.
Gig with Aki Maera tonight, Wheatsheaf in Walsall. Starts at 8! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, but we'd appreciate your support if you could make it!
How this came about is that Sam was doing an open mic for the day there. It transpired that not all that many people turned up for the open mic (probably too busy with their Christmas Shopping) so when Sam texted me at 1.30 asking people to come then I was happy to oblige. I got there around about 3 and found that Sam had been more or less playing on his own for an hour and a half, with a short set from Baden to break things up a little bit. So, I took the quite impressive stage, and began:
Because of what was happening, I decided to do a set of mostly covers. I began with an old favourite, High by Feeder. Again I suffered from not concentrating; it's not a hard song to play and for that reason I tend to keep playing the wrong chords; I probably get away with it to a certain extent because the Gsus chords cloud the sound anyway but I shouldn't really be doing that at this stage. It went down to a kind of passive indifference, as is so often the case with Feeder songs, but they rarely go down badly.
Followed that up with the song that I now know is called Never Forget You by the Noisettes. This went absolutely fine until the key change and then I kept fluffing up the chords once again. I do get a bit confused with this one; as I've said before I do this song in the 82s and we do it in a different key to the original to fit the vocal style a little better. Fine, except sometimes it's hard to remember which version of the song I'm actually playing and I end up making a complete mess of it from time to time, in both the band and the solo. The answer? Practice more...
Wanting to play one of my own songs but not wishing to let down the cheery atmosphere I then went on to play We Will Survive. I played it ok, I think, and it was the best reaction I could have expected given the environment. I felt exhausted though. Need to work on my fitness, I shouldn't be knackered after three songs!
Back to the covers for the next one, which was A Little Respect. This is where it started to work a bit better for me, because I could see some people singing along and getting in to it a little more than they were before, the difference obviously was I was playing something they actually know. This was probably the best song I played for the afternoon, I sang it fine and didn't mess up the guitar playing at all.
Sam was kind enough to give me another couple of songs so I went with another of my own, Bitterness. I always wanted to play this one anyway, but I've been taken to task before now for playing that one next to We Will Survive, and I had plans to end the gig so I needed to make sure I had enough songs to play it before I did! This went well; needed to edit out the swearing as it was a family event, but that's cool, and with a more energetic song I felt able to put a lot more into the performance.
Finally wrapped it up with On A Day Like This by Elbow. This was only the second time I've played that song live; it's a bit of a gamble because people need to sing along to the last part, otherwise it doesn't really work. Last time I tried it, it really didn't. But this time it did; some people were singing along with it and made it work! Trouble is it's been that song since I played it I forgot the sequece of vocal variations in the song, but never mind, we got there in the end.
So, not a bad one, and certainly quite good for an impromptu show like that. I think I need to practice some of those covers more if I'm going to take them out live though, those earlier songs were a bit sloppy.
Gig with Aki Maera tonight, Wheatsheaf in Walsall. Starts at 8! I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, but we'd appreciate your support if you could make it!
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!
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