First Gig

[jacksplatz]

Well I don't post here often,but I constantly come here for advice and reinforcement.So here goes....

We are a cover band who will eventually be doing originals.

We are a five piece w/a female vocalist,I sing vox,as does the bass player.

We were in the basement for 7 months,went through 2 lead guitar players( I play guitar as well),and well ;last night problems,from the start!

 

1) First time we had ever really set up our Full Pa

.

2)The band never really did a full sound check.(I had to cruise home to get a

flanger for the lead guitarist(who did not have a good show....guys like 49 or so,You would figure that he would pretty much know the songs that he brought into the band.......

 

3)We changed the set right off the bat so the sound man could get the levels right? (I thought this was what the SC was 4.) We played that song. Realized I could hear my guitar better through the front of house than on stage.Aye.

I could not hear my guitar at all. I had to turn way up,this is after I blew the intro to what was supposed to be the intro tune,which we now played second.....aye aye

 

The lights were such that I could'nt see my fretboard very well.

This was much more noticable when I played my PRS than when playing the LP.

 

4)The lead players amp blew up at practice(a week ago).

An old JCM 800 head.

He calls me and says he has to go rent am amp.He got a JCM 800

combo......and bitches about it all night,

At one point he raided my back up f-30 MB for some tubes(because the ones w/the M combo were "not hot enough",well ok then.

 

5) Starting and stopping together was a problem.We never had this problem in practice.There were some organization problems(I blew a song by going back into the verse instead of the outro...aye.

 

6) I hit most of my vocals dead on,except for one stupid journey tune(which I hope we will now drop)so that was fairly good.The f vox did well as well.

The harmonys need work.aye.....

 

7)The L guitarist reads the wrong set list and begins playing a song in drop d.

I am waiting on alannis morrisette to start,and he launches into worst enemy by lit,aye!

I have a guitar specfically for drop D.I wasnt supposed to swith my a/b box until the next set.No drop d guitar is available.I planned to be able to grab a guitar and go....no.

My tuner is freaking out as I'm to drop my now standard tuned guitar into drop d as the song is being played.Have to walk back to my amp and tune down.Of course all of this is going through to FOH.AYE!!!!!!!

 

Well I could go on.Drummer starts to fast,bass player motions for him to slow down.he stops!aye( only time all night)

 

Lead guitarist blew almost every lead.played out of tune.we had to wait while he tuned up.aye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm gonna stop before I get depressed!

 

There were some good things I guess.

Some songs were perfect and got people up dancing.

When I went out into the crowd to hear the mix,some songs were really well done.(oh did I mention we were going to play barracuda.LG launches into Magic Man,we have to yell and say"Barracuda Man!"all the while the set list is at his feet.AYEEEE!!!!Sorry I was being postive remember.....

 

The vox were pretty good for the most part.

some songs really kicked,some were terrible(Because of stop start probs,which we never had in practice.

 

We did'nt get payed,just used the opportunity to get up with our full light show and pa,and well kinda sucked.

 

The sound guy got 100$ and well the owner paid him for us(this was very cool).

Well we got our cherries popped,and it was kinda ugly.I've played on stage before,but never w/this setup.

Please try and help me spin this into a pos as only you guys can.

Thanx

J.

[The*Ataris]

Well, it is what it is: a first show.

 

Some of that stuff was just unfortunate, the other problems are an easy fix in practice...

 

You guys should have your levels figured out in practice so that you have an even stage volume. Sound dude does a line check and you're off to the races. Don't expect full sound checks unless somebody thinks you're really special. In the originals business, the headliner and maybe the first band (because it's convenient) will get a real sound check. Everyone in the middle has to keep the show moving...get used to that.

 

Can't see the fretboard? Well, why are you looking at the fretboard? Engage the audience! Make eye contact with the rest of the band! Guess the fog machine idea is out, huh?

 

Lead guitarist jumping around the set list? Sounds like he was nervous to me...or you guys don't practice your set in order. Either way, I bet that's not an issue at your next show.

 

And why do you have to tune down to drop D just because he did? Was he playing the wrong notes because of it? I'd say you guys need to know how to play the songs a few different ways--a D chord is a D chord no matter what tuning it's in. I mean, what if you break a string in the middle of a song? Are you just going to stop playing?

 

Either way. Just make sure you guys communicate and remedy these problems before the next show. That's what it's all about: making mistakes and learning from them.

[thriftyshirt]

Aye.

[jacksplatz]

your right about learning the songs in standard when its drop d. Had alot on my plate I guess.

[guitarsjb]

I agree with "practice your set list in the order you are going to play it live" idea. I play in an all original band, and we do that, it really helps keep us lined out, we always know where we are, (or pretty close) and the familiarity (sp?) helps with guys not being so nervous. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes, focus on the posotive, and keep having fun!!

[fishmanrod]

Not too awful for a first gig. Admit it, by making those mistakes you all learned. There is nothing like letting the rest of the band down to sharpen your resolve on fixing YOUR problems. A lot of it sounds like nerves. A lot of it sounds like problems my bands have had, too.

 

I assume you are not full time pro's, so 7 months in your basement is probably pretty good for a night full of music.

 

If you are doing heart and Journey you have some good vox in the band, keep concentrating on that, it will set you apart.

 

Learn from the experience, chin up, you will do MUCH better next time.

 

Oh, and not to burst your bubble but even the best most seasoned pro can have an off, or even terrible, night. So expect in the future it will happen again. I have seen some pro's REALLY REALLY suck on some occasions and kill on others. My drummer, who is a huge Aerosmith fan, has seen them at least 15 times, says he has seen them KILL and also suck. It's not that it will happen, it's how you handle it. Don't blamestore, fix it and go on.

 

Cheers!

[jacksplatz]

I feel like we should drop 8 or 9 songs because they don't fit.

of course ,selling that to the band is another story......

And, hell yeah I was nervous.I calmed down somewhat as the show

went on,but never felt truly relaxed.

5 years ago,after 20 or so gigs I could feel relaxed after like the 2nd tune.

I do hope that happens soon.

[jacksplatz]

I really can't believe it...but,the feedback from the crowd was'nt half-bad...

some of them aCTUALLY THOUGHT WE ROCKED!of course we still had all the problemsss.

 

What's the best way to take care of an out of tune guitar?

I use an A/B box w/ a backup thats been tuned right before the start of the set.

Our lead player was so out of tune that we had to wait for him to tune between songs,while our bass player made chit chat.

 

If both guitars are playing different parts(and we were)It's real noticable.

I would like to avoid that again if possible.

He was also testing his volume by using the first few licks from the next tune no no no....

I'm just trying to learn from this because I thought we would go 1,2,3,bang.

 

What do you do if the player starting the song starts another song.

Do you follow him or try and lead him into the right tune?

We just followed the player.

How far back should you have your amp?I mean what do you think is the

distance where you can best hear your amp.

I've always felt it was like at least 8 to 10 feet.?

If you cannot hear yourself at all,do you still keep playing???

Thoughts

[BlueStrat]

What's the best way to take care of an out of tune guitar?

 

 

3 words: in line tuner.

[The*Ataris]

On stage tuning is probably a great individual topic. I'm sure there are a lot of different opinions on the matter.

 

I have a boss TU-2 on my board that I can tune with silently while my volume pedal is down. I try and tune my guitars soon after load in so that they can adjust for a couple of hours to the temperature, humidity, and pressure. Tune up again before the show and I'm usually pretty good. We have designated tuning breaks where the bass player and/or drummer begin extended "lead-ins" to the next song (no "dead air"). They're typically before songs that involve any more than basic triads and riffs...

 

Basically: own stage tuners and use them...

 

Yeah, I don't like it when someone hints at the next song while checking their guitars either--he should find something else to play. Somebody starts the wrong song? Yeah, go with it--who's going to know? It's only going to look bad when everyone stops and makes it a big ordeal...

 

How far back should an amp go? Well, I prefer mine far enough back to where it's not blasting past my knees, but we all know this isn't always possible. On smaller stages, we like to point the guitar amps slightly inward so we're not killing the front row and so we can hear each other when the monitoring is insufficient...Which leads me to my next point: not every PA you play is going to be capable of handling loud rock bands. You've got to learn how to handle these stages...

 

Though it's preferred, I don't need to be able to hear myself to play our set. That just comes with playing enough {censored}ty venues. Everyone follows the drummer and singer and it's cool...