Who gigs?

[Dave Bryce]

So, how many of you guys are doing the live playing out thing?

 

Who do you play with? What kind of music do you play? How often do you play out?

 

...and, of course...tell us about your rig!

 

I'm currently playing with a rock 'n roll band called Dirty Pictures. Two guitars, bass, drums and me. We only play a few times a month, but it's enough. Usually three set gigs, a few originals in the first two sets, but mostly covers from the 60s, 70s, 80s...Stones, Beatles, Cars, Tom Petty - you get the idea....

 

My rig with them is as simple as it gets - QS8 on an double braced x stand, Motion Sound KP 200S, and a Roland SPD-S to trigger a few samples. If the room has a big stage, I also bring a PEK/PER, and put the boards on my Invisible stand.

 

dB

[mrcpro]

I'll probably post my details tomorrow, but right now I'm on my way to my Thurs. night gig.

[Furrball]

I play in a corporate/party dance band with 5 regular pieces and sometimes 9 depending if we call in the extra horns.

 

We have guitar ,drums,bass ,sax and keys as a core band. We just added the sax and the horns and have our first gig as a horn band in two weeks. We gig about 1-2 times a month right now. We have been together about 6 months.

 

I play on what I had on hand ( I used to play guitar) A Yamaha P-200 and a Yamaha Y-pp 50 76 keys. The ypp 50 works with the Motif Rack, all set up on an apex stand and a peavey amp stand for the Motif. If I didn't hear about all the new gear out since joining KC and KSS ,I wouldn't know I had to worry about my gear It works and sound great.

 

We play things like : Van Morrison,

J. Giels,Huey Lewis ,Brian Setzer orchestra ,Cherry Poppin Daddies,Robert Palmer.Average White Band T Birds lookin to add some more jazzier things for weddings

 

I used to play lead guitar in an all original band , and our 12 piece church band. I'm going to ask if I can move to the synth in church

 

 

aka Trill at KC

 

[sizzlemeister]

I'm... in between gigging "projects". Actually, for the last several active projects/bands I was playing guitar. Then, the last project which for all intents and purposes never played a proper gig I was doing guitar and keys. Since I moved and have just finished the studio, I'm sort of on the fence what role I'll adopt - I'm leaning towards strictly just keys. All of these were and will be original music.

 

In the meantime I've sat in here and there, and a group of us formed a Pink Floyd tribute and played a couple of shows. I played keys in both.

 

I like to keep it simple as for keyboard players there's always a lot of crap to drag around no matter what - it's worse when you're doing multiple instruments. Prior to the move my rig for keys was an Ion and either an ESQ1 or the SY22 plus either a delay pedal or some racked effects. I'd use whatever to monitor and the PA for amplificaton.

 

I plan to still use the Ion, but have dumped the ESQ1 and SY22 and will use a JV80 in their place. I'll probably use the rack(s) for effects and I'm looking at a couple of different combos to monitor with (haven't decided yet).

[TheRain]

I play solo acoustic shows. Once in a while I'll play a partially synth backed track by hitting play on my Sony PSP

 

I'm on myspace at http://www.myspace.com/themusicofcollinmeyer

[Miket156]

Hey Dave-"Dirty Pictures", cool name.

 

I just played my first gig in ten years, so I guess that qualifies. I

[eric]

I love playing gigs and this time of year is pretty full of them, considering it's a part-time weekend passion/obsession.

 

My main gig is a part time weekend thing with a 9-10 piece 70's funk/soul/etc. band. SoulerCoaster

 

Some folks call our market the "general business" or GB market. We play mainly weddings, corporate parties and music festivals. We do play out in clubs about every 6 weeks or so, for fun and exposure.

 

This band is primarily for fun and a weekend escape from reality, but we've actually built up some pretty decent name recognition and make good money doing this. It does not float my boat as much as playing in an original act, which I did for many years and still do off and on. But once I got over my perception of the stigma associated with being in a cover band, it is actually a TON of fun. The guys in the band get along great and we do several gigs throughout the year in which we donate all or part of our time to charities - we agree to a pay cut in exchange for promotion and this is great for those silent auctions to benefit the American Heart Association or whatever it may be. So it is fun and fulfilling.

 

I have done the full original thing for 10 years plus and shared the stage with plenty of notorious artists. Nowadays, I'm happy to play covers for decent cash and pick up the occasional "rock star" gig a couple times a year.

 

As for gear, I am INCREDIBLY OBSESSED with it. I've kept one core rig pretty stable over the past couple of years, consisting of these items:

 

- Yamaha S90

- Nord Electro

- Stereo Motion Sound KT-80 amps

- Invisible Stands

 

I am constantly checking out other gear and go through a lot of real analog and virtual analog stuff that serves as the 3rd keyboard in my rig, when there is room for it on stage. Right now, I have a PEK/PER rig that is totally sweet and I'm proud of it. I don't use it as often as I would like, so have been trying to work out ways to integrate it into a 2 KB rig, with varying degrees of success. This will be no surprise for those of you that know me. As for ongoing GAS, right now I'm craving the new Yamaha S90ES and/or the Nord STAGE.

 

Enough about me. You can read more about me and my gear here.

 

Regards,

Eric

[tucktronix]

Same here, love the gigging thing. I'm currently a member of 3 bands, but actively gigging with only one of them:

 

Mind Sky - progressive rock originals and a few covers. Their website: www.mindskyband.com. Just released a CD that has been met with plenty of great reviews.

 

Rochester's Finest - 70's/80's/90's and beyond Funk/R&B and some blues covers. Just played my first few gigs with them that were very well recepted. Considering the repertoire, musicianship and the strength of the vocals, we should getting a lot of work in the near future.

 

Steve Grills & The Roadmasters - Chicago & some N'awlins style blues, been the most active with this band. Usually gig at least 4 nights a month. Been with these guys over 12 years. The lead singer/guitarist is very well known here in town.

[dabowsa]

I play in the Sublime tribute band Badfish.

 

The core of the band is guitar, bass and drums with me on keys and trumpet with a sax player playing on half the songs. Since my second kid and the explosion of gigs, I've been teaching the sax player all my parts and sold him my Alesis QS6.1.

 

I do miss the road trips - a week in Key West in February is hard to pass up, and now they're starting to play Colorado ski resorts...but I'm just happy to have been a part of something that has become so big. And I'm always down for the local shows once or twice a month.

 

The QS6.1 is a great bread & butter portable board for throwing in the trunk. Usable pianos, organs, synths and sampling capabilities with great split/layering capabilities.

[RockXtreme]

I play in 60s theme band named Rock Xtreme. We do a full video and sound show featuring clips from the era. We focus on peace, love and protest music while trying to recreate the whole hippie scene. We play 2 to 3 weekends a month. We get a lot of biker festivals due to the fact that we are in Florida which attracts these types of events as well as the fact that our music fits with the whole retro-biker movement.

 

I play a Roland F30 piano, Roland VK8, and an Alesis 7.1.

I run my keys bi-amped through 2 sets of EV and custom made speakers with a Behringer mixer. I use a heavy duty three tier stand which I concocted from various pieeces of stand I have had through the years.

[wheresgrant3]

Originally posted by dabowsa I play in the Sublime tribute band Badfish . The core of the band is guitar, bass and drums with me on keys and trumpet with a sax player playing on half the songs. Since my second kid and the explosion of gigs, I've been teaching the sax player all my parts and sold him my Alesis QS6.1. I do miss the road trips - a week in Key West in February is hard to pass up, and now they're starting to play Colorado ski resorts...but I'm just happy to have been a part of something that has become so big. And I'm always down for the local shows once or twice a month. The QS6.1 is a great bread & butter portable board for throwing in the trunk. Usable pianos, organs, synths and sampling capabilities with great split/layering capabilities.

 

I've seen Badfish play in Poughkeepsie, NY !!! You guys were fantastic! The core of my current band (singer, bassiest and drums) toured as a Rage Against the Machine Tribute called People of The Sun that played all over the Northeast... had quite a following in NE. Played Bob's in Bridgewater, Mass, Geraldine's in Springfield.

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by dabowsa I play in the Sublime tribute band Badfish.

Sublime rocks.

 

We do a bunch of their stuff...Santeria and Smoke Two Joints are probably my faves to play, but I really like doing What I Got as well.

 

dB

[BillyWa]

I gig Romplerista style with Fantom and Triton, along with the occasional strap-on AX-7 controller. We are pretentiously The Last Band on Earth, mostly 70's, 80's rock as well as two CDs worth of original party rock, mostly southern style. Most of our CDs sell in the beer producing nations of Northern Europe and also in Italy.

 

The geetar player grew up with SRV in Austin and was greatly influenced by him and also ZZ top. He is also well known locally for his computer artwork, sort of a futuristic anime meets trailer trash style. Lots of samples on the website (link in my sig). We are also selling a lot of band stuff (Hats, tees, pin-up calendar, etc) with proceeds going to Red Cross Katrina relief efforts.

 

We are currently limited to two gigs a month by Yoko (bass player's common law ball & chain) but I get out a lot and do a few guest spots with the other local bands almost every weekend.

 

My main musical influences are Bach, Chopin, Strauss and Rossini followed by 60/70/80s 'supergroups' like Styx, Queen, Cars, Supertramp, The Who, Led Zeppelin and most significantly Pink Floyd. I played piano, violin and banjo growing up and stuck with piano only.

 

Recently I have become a synth collector, fueled by GAS from reading this forum. I am not concerned with the perfect studio or ease of effort for music writing, I just like collecting. I have never sold anything I have ever had but I had one effects pedal stolen (1980 mutronics phaser, IIRC) and I gave my first electric instrument (Yamaha CP-20) to GoodWill last year cuz they needed instruments for a local kids group. I have been trying to get up the nerve to sell a few things to members here, but have yet to follow through, so sorry...not that I have that great of a collection to begin with.

 

My other hobby is photography, which I tend to post samples of mostly in the p120dude thread.

 

Strayed a little off topic here, hmmm, now I have an entry for the getting to know you thread! Sorry for the duplicity...

 

[Nixkeys]

I play once saturday night and twice on sunday every week for a catholic church in Dallas. I play an old beat up knabe grand piano with a guitar player who plays an acoustic. The priest loves for us to jam, so not like the usual church organ music. And I have been on salary for the last ten years. I also play solo background music for social folks in Dallas with my Fantom X8.

 

Love this Forum,

Been reading the posts for the last few years but this is my first post.

 

Howdy from Dallas, Texas!

Nixkeys.

[Unsound Practices]

I gig as part of a five piece cover band (keys, 2 guitars, bass, drums). Band practice once per week, and we take on a max of two gigs per month. Our niche is as a "guest band" as most of the venues in our area have bands on three month contracts, and we do corporate functions if loud dance rock music is appropriate.

 

Live rig is the ES7, the PC1x, and the Electro. L-shaped rig, stage right. Both FOH and my backline is mono. If the stage is small, the Electro stays home and I cover the B3 parts with the ES7 and the Rhodes parts with the PC1x. The ES has two AN cards for my VA needs, and the PC1x has the Classic Keys ROM.

 

Music ranges from the Stones through The Killers, so we draw a good mixed crowd. I'm still a complete hack at keys but practice my butt off daily.

 

At home, no recording gear what so ever. All gets played live and is lost to the ether forever. Maybe that's a good thing...

[Roald]

hmmm, I play about once a month live, now. I used to play at least once per 2 weeks, mostly more, with my soul/party/student band The Groove Phenomenon. I played with a hiphopband 'Mosaik' in Berlin, and now with either my own, still unnamed band, sometimes with a rockband called 'The Popes'. I also stand in for keyboardists in various bands, get called, check out the chords and play, which can be tremendous fun. Live gear: Nord Electro + Fender Bassman. Sometimes I also take the Rhodes out, when it's a good gig.

 

with Mosaik

 

[sneakthief]

(this is a dupe post of from the "Getting to know you" thread... but it's still relevant )

 

I make a living from releasing 12" records and doing live performances of electronic dance music. Influences & musical styles: mainly 70's & early 80's funk/italo-disco/EBM/electro/detroit techno. My two recording projects are Sneak-Thief and Polygamy Boys. My wife, Lindsay-J, performs live with me - she does vocals and also uses a windsynth.

 

My live setup is a blast to use: 2 RS7000's, 2 Nord Micromodular's, a Rozzbox and a tiny 1kg PC running Kontakt 2 and with 6gb of my homemade samples. (I don't bring a monitor, mouse, or kb - just turn it on and control it over midi). It's hard to bring anymore because I usually have to fly to my gigs so my max is about 35kg for both checked+carry-on. Lindsay-J brings Yamaha EW-20 windsynth and we perform our own non-stop booty-shaking material for anywhere b/w 1 and 3 hours.

 

 

Our next gig is on sept. 24th at a very strange mad-max'ish festival, http://Robodock.org, held in Amsterdam.

 

At home I also have an FS1r, Fireworks, Notron, AN1x, Juno 106, MG-1, A3000, CZ101, RM1x, SixTrack... still sequence everything using hardware

 

Cheers,

michel

[Artur Meinild]

Check! I play in a power metal band called 7thorns. With the current line up (and we still miss a bass player) we've only played for 9 months and 4 gigs so far, but we have a support job for the Canadian heavyrock band Anvil in early november.

 

My rig is 2 keyboard controllers (one Korg and one Roland), a Triton Rack, a Virus Rack and an old Roland module running through an even older line mixer... I just recently tried tilting my 2 keyboards the other way, meaning they point somewhat towards the audience - it is the style of Finnish power metal keyboard players like Jens Johansson of Stratovarius... This is fun and should be a blast at our next gig - I honestly fell that I have more contact with the audience this way, instead of being hidden behind a wall of keyboards... Unfortunately we have no live pictures online yet, but they are coming soon!

 

Some samples can be heard at our website: www.7thorns.dk

[Bones]

I have three paying projects going these days, playing 3-4 gigs a month.

 

Main project is RU Ready - mainly 60's & 70's covers. Five pieces - 2 guitars, keys, bass, drums. All 5 can sing well and tight vocal work is probably our hallmark. Set-up for this band is an Orla KX980 (for organs, horns, & such), Juno-D (for piano, EPs & clavs mostly), Micron (synths) and a TG-100 (for pads mostly). Everything played through a Roland KC-550. Just recently dropped an SY35 from the mix.

 

Second project is with the backing band, called True Blue, for a local blues artist. Five pieces in this band as well. Play all night on the Orla's clonewheel drawbars and Juno-D pianos. Sneak the Micron into the mix here and there.

 

Third project is an acoustic trio called Jilted. 2 Guitars and bass. We all sing well - great vocals, nice tight harmonies. Group does mostly 60's and early 70's tunes. I play guitar for this.

[alfadawg01]

Good mornin' all!

 

My regular gig is with the praise & worship band at West Hills Community Church in Town & Country, MO, a suburb of St. Louis. The band is piano/synth/guitar (1 or 2)/bass/drums/singers (up to 4), and I'm the synth guy. Two services every Sunday with rehearsals each Wednesday. Music is contemporary Christian worship songs (MWS, Hillsongs, Chris Tomlin, etc.) with some homebrewed arrangements of traditional hymns.

 

My rig consists of an Ensoniq SD1, Roland JV1080 & Alesis Ion. The SD1 comes with me every Sunday and the JV and the Ion join in when the music suggests their unique sounds. Always lots of fun and it's a steady gig!

[LANSTARR]

My band is called Dirty Bath Water. We play at least once a week. Sometimes more. But we've been mostly relaxing this summer. We recently opened up on side stage for the Dave Matthews Band. Our music is described by others as a mix between DMB, The Roots, and Outkast. Our PA sux, we usually use the venues PA or rent out one. We have a Keyboard (Kurz SP88 and Triton Extreme 88), Acoustic Guitar (Martin from 1990. He has an electric also), a Bass (think its a Fender), Drums (pearl), and I play Trumpet (1991, King Silver Flair), Valve Trombone (1980 Amati), and Flugelhorn (1980 Amati). Sometimes I bring my CZ101 to mess around with. We gig all around NYC and Long Island, NY. We tend to play for 1:30 - 2:30 hours straight with no break. We do all original music.

[Trillian]

I toured the US a few times with a pretty conventional Blues / Rock band, nothing special on the rig, Roland weighted controller and lots of rack stuff but mostly piano and organ sounds.

 

In 1992 - 1994 I had a band in LA that was a bit like Pet Shop Boys and we were doing very complex electro pop stuff with tons of sequenced parts. Eventually most of band flaked and it was just myself (vocals / keys) and the guitarist who also played a little keys. We used a DAT with the backing tracks and we had two keyboards on stage, an O1W and a K2000, and we had a percussionist playing Simmons drums, everything else was on the DAT.

 

We carried our own sidefill monitor rig consisting of a 300 watt stereo power amp and two speakers on stands. It was a hassle to carry around and setup but was insurance against potentially marginal club monitors.

 

Prob early next year I will be expected to do some live gigs in support of a UK release later this year and I honestly do not know exactly how I'm going to do it. I really don't want to go the backing track route if I can avoid it and I sure don't want to have a laptop up there, so we shall see. I'd like to have some string players (maybe a cello and a couple violins) but that's probably a long shot.

 

-Shryl

[Pawnz]

I've been gigging since 1980, during my last year of high school. Started off doing weddings/corporate dances then went almost exclusively into clubs, now about 75% weddings/corporate dances and 25% clubs. I've been in the same band ("Pawnz") for over 20 years, consisting of a female singer, saxophone, guitar, bass, drums, and keys. Our sax man and guitar player sing lead as well; just background vox for me. We probably play out about three weekends per month, on average.

 

My club rig consists of a Kurzweil K2600, Korg Triton Pro, and a ton of stuff in a rack to include Yamaha Motif Rack ES, Roland Super Jupiter (MKS-80, rev. 5), Roland D-550, Voce Micro B II (blown through a Dynacord CLS-222), Alesis QSR, and a Triton Rack.

 

My wedding/corporate dance rig essentially represents a scaled-down version of my club rig: Kurzweil K2600, Triton Pro, and a smaller rack consisting of Nord Lead 2XR and Motif Rack ES.

 

I wish I had the time to play out more....nagging work responsibilities always seem to get in the way of having fun!

 

Chris

[analogaddict]

I gig a lot right now... I play in two steady cover bands playing about 2 weekends a month each and the occasional weekday gig. I used to have a house band gig playing in a band backing a new guest artist every week, but none of us have the time for it right now. I'm mostly working with a show group, we'll be playing 6 days and having 3 days off on a continuus schedule later this year. In between, I'm doing recording sessions, both commercial and projects my friends have. I also have an 80's cover band, a few blues projects and the usual subbing to keep me active! The centerpiece of my setup is the Electro, but I have a kind of modular system which lets me bring what I need for the gig. Right now, I can choose between a trusty old A-90, a CME UF7, an Andromeda and a Micron for keys and Motif, Triton, SE-1 and XV-2020 racks. If (when!) I get a Receptor, I'll probably ditch my rack romplers. My Micro Modular and Evolver usually stay in the studio with the vintage stuff (Clav D6 through Moogerfooger filter and phaser and a Small Stone, Rhodes, Wurly, CP80, Motion-Sound Pro-3T/Low Pro setup with Speakeasy preamp). Lots of work right now, but lots of fun!

[mrcpro]

At 58 I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do what I love most. A good friend once told me that the first words out of my mouth must have been "Where's the stage?" Somehow miraculously I'm still able to scrounge up 3-4 nights a week.

 

In the last 45 years I've done it all...bands of all types, cocktail piano, piano bar, and although I still do those occasionally, most of the time I'm a one man band in dance rooms.

 

Keyboards: usually just a Fantom S 61 expanded with SRX07, 09,and 11 and a Fatar Studiologic SL-880 MIDIed to it for pianos.

 

My PA reflects the fact that I'm competing with bands and DJs...double 18s, 15" two-way tops, 5000 watts.

 

I put all my backing tracks together myself one note at a time and played on the job from a HP laptop. Tone module is a maxxed out and extensively reworked JV-1080, and Digitech Vocalist for harmonies. I'll replace the 1080 eventually...it's not a money thing but a time thing...re-creating hundreds of custom patches. I stay in the MIDI realm so I can pull kick, snare, and bass out of the main mix and adjust according to the room. Sometimes I'll run the bass through a Hartke system to give more of a sense of a real bass player.

 

My favorite rooms are places where Merle and classic rock are equally at home.