Members nousername Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 We're a new band. New in the sense that five weeks ago our singer joined the four us who have been playing together for about two years, searching for the right singer. We finally found her. Actually, I did. I found her through craigslist looking for a singer to continue my acoustic duo. Then she asked to audition for the band. And here we are.On the 24th, we played six songs at a local open mic that occurs every week. We played: Paranoid-Sabbath, Heaven nor Hell-Volbeat, Hungry Like the Wolf-Duran Duran, Funk #49-James Gang, Where is My Mind?-Pixies, Paranoid-Grand Funk Railroad. Based on those songs, the guy who runs open mic recommended us to the booking agent for the bar. Her and I finally connected tonight and she offered us a solo Friday night on January 10. They're paying $400 plus food & liquor. The venue has a nice drum kit and a 4x10 bass cab with head, so we're only moving a few things like mains, monitors, and two guitar rigs.Band photos are being shot next Saturday. We designed our logo, then had a pro designer redraw it in compatible formats. That's done. We need a banner and a bass drum head with our logo. I want to buy a pair of ELX112P speakers. They seem to be just about perfect for our sound. I can rent a powered subwoofer for about $35. It's an ElectroVoice SxA180. That should be plenty for a 100 person capacity bar show to reinforce the kick drum.In between learning songs with the new singer, we talk a lot about song choices. We lean toward more obscure stuff that we like, versus playing the same songs other local bands play. I think most bands are playing the same songs with varying degrees of quality. We aim to turn those bands on their heads. Of course, playing what we want leads to doubt. "Shouldn't we just play what people want to hear, and do it better than anyone else?" We go back and forth on this topic.Anyway, we're very excited about the whole thing and I wanted to share with anyone who can actually appreciate the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 congrats on the 1st gig. enjoy it and play your best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 Very cool congrats! Look forward to pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 It sounds like you are off and running. congrats. To be real honest I see no reason to rent a sub for a 100 seat room. You should be able to carry that room no problem with the bass amp and acoustic kick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 TIMKEYS wrote: It sounds like you are off and running. congrats. To be real honest I see no reason to rent a sub for a 100 seat room. You should be able to carry that room no problem with the bass amp and acoustic kick. Depends a lot of what type of music they are playing. If they are playing dance stuff, they should probably have a sub regardless of the size of the room if possible.Better to have too much sound reinforcement than not enough. Err on the side of caution. You can always turn things down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 nousername wrote: We're a new band. New in the sense that five weeks ago our singer joined the four us who have been playing together for about two years, searching for the right singer. We finally found her. Actually, I did. I found her through craigslist looking for a singer to continue my acoustic duo. Then she asked to audition for the band. And here we are. On the 24th, we played six songs at a local open mic that occurs every week. We played: Paranoid-Sabbath, Heaven nor Hell-Volbeat, Hungry Like the Wolf-Duran Duran, Funk #49-James Gang, Where is My Mind?-Pixies, Paranoid-Grand Funk Railroad. Based on those songs, the guy who runs open mic recommended us to the booking agent for the bar. Her and I finally connected tonight and she offered us a solo Friday night on January 10. They're paying $400 plus food & liquor. The venue has a nice drum kit and a 4x10 bass cab with head, so we're only moving a few things like mains, monitors, and two guitar rigs. Band photos are being shot next Saturday. We designed our logo, then had a pro designer redraw it in compatible formats. That's done. We need a banner and a bass drum head with our logo. I want to buy a pair of ELX112P speakers. They seem to be just about perfect for our sound. I can rent a powered subwoofer for about $35. It's an ElectroVoice SxA180. That should be plenty for a 100 person capacity bar show to reinforce the kick drum. In between learning songs with the new singer, we talk a lot about song choices. We lean toward more obscure stuff that we like, versus playing the same songs other local bands play. I think most bands are playing the same songs with varying degrees of quality. We aim to turn those bands on their heads. Of course, playing what we want leads to doubt. "Shouldn't we just play what people want to hear, and do it better than anyone else?" We go back and forth on this topic. Anyway, we're very excited about the whole thing and I wanted to share with anyone who can actually appreciate the news. Congrats... I hope it's a success. This is a fun time... don't over think things just enjoy them. Eventually a few months down the road the dust will settle and you'll have an opportunity to explore what's working in your setlist (and what's not) and you can make adjustments along the way. My band has been together over a decade consistently gigging out and our setlist, presentation, style is almost 180 degrees from where we started out. It sounds like you have plenty of PA for the gig. Get all your friends and family out for your first show. The challenge will be pulling them back to future shows and making new friends along the way. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nchangin Posted November 5, 2013 Members Share Posted November 5, 2013 nousername wrote: In between learning songs with the new singer, we talk a lot about song choices. We lean toward more obscure stuff that we like, versus playing the same songs other local bands play. I think most bands are playing the same songs with varying degrees of quality. We aim to turn those bands on their heads. Of course, playing what we want leads to doubt. "Shouldn't we just play what people want to hear, and do it better than anyone else?" We go back and forth on this topic. In response to this, I can say been there done that. I'm guessing you are probably asking yourself, is anyone going to like this? I do know one thing, if you play obscure stuff and you have say 100 girls on the floor and all 100 girls leave the floor cause you play songs they don't know very possible you'll be hearing crickets between songs or they love you and you do great, I have seen it go both ways. Others may say to play the most popular stuff that people know, that can blow up to as they may think "oh jeez here we go again, Jessie's Girl and Summer of 69, barf"As Grant stated, their list has changed 180 % during their history over a 10 year tenure. Lead singers can be me their own worst nightmare and their worst critic, but keep one thing in mind:You will never be able to create a preconceived expectation that matches what happens live no matter how many scenarios you try to imagine.Remember also practice make permanent, what you practice is what you play so don't do anything dumb like try a new song you never rehersed for example, do what you know and what you learned only and keep it simple!Don't be afraid of change, change is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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