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THE DRUMMERS GIG REPORT THREAD...........


race81

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Have a gig this saturday, will take some pics, taste the food and refreshing beverages at this new place for us. Little bit of a roadtrip, little over a hour away. Its one of those venues we took a small hit in the paycheck to get in for the first time. We will see how it turns out. We have been struggling a little with our sound at different venues, depending on how good theyre power is. Sometimes its there and sometimes not....just part of the giggin thing I guess. thought seriously about building a distro to hook directly into the power panels, but not sure I want the headache.

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Is that another new Kit, Tyler????

 

Quote Originally Posted by melvinspeed

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Saturday night... benefit show for a local radio personality who passed away. Biggest venue we've played to date. Capacity around 1,500 - 2,000 (in the spirit of accuracy, we played to about 60 people). Balcony around the top. Nice bar and sound system. Just crappy setup shots, no action photos.


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On Wednesday Night my band, the Ballard Sedentary Sousa Band, played at a concert in the park at Des Moines Beach Park. (Des Moines, WA). What a beautiful location. Right on Puget Sounds just south of Seattle. We played in a little park off of the park with a big grass field with trees on both sides.


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You can't tell from the picture, but where the big bright spot is was a view of the Sound with the mountains behind it.


It was a great gig. The band sounded really good. The crowd loved it. A really fun night.

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Quote Originally Posted by melvinspeed

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Agreed. I can play our stuff soft and quieter, but it doesn't have the same weight... push... gravity (whatever) as when you can lay into the kit. The benefit we played (see above) was a huge venue and man... no worries there about overpowering the room. You guys would have loved it. thumb.gif

 

And a lone minus 1 for loud. I lubs me the sublime tone you get playing quietly, not to mention happy ears, and then there's dynamic range , interpretive drama, lots and lots of musicality ...


Ok I'm done

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This past saturday we headed out to one of those venues where we wanted to get our feet in the door. That being said, we also took a cut in pay to make it happen. I spent the morning sorting, fixing a couple of things and then loaded the tour bus...(not really, but thats what we call it smile.gif...). We were called on friday, asking if we could start at 7:30.....no problem with anyone in the group and we were happy to do so as it means we get home earlier. The road trip ended up being around 50-55 minutes one way, not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Small place, bar and grill, small town. We have lots of fairs this time of year and wasn,t sure what the crowd would be like. Load in at 5:30, set up went well...still working the bugs out of some new equipment. Powered up everything, hit my kick, and boom...it sounded awesome. We have struggled with power at some venues and when I hit the kick I can tell if we have enough power to go or not, its like a night and day difference. We run through a song to tweek levels if needed, and to my amazement the people theyre were clapping!! Strange for a bar. We ordered some grub, sat down to relax before we started in 45 minutes. We got our food, and began eating and the owner came up to us and tells us that the food and drinks were on him for the night..........We were all a little stunned, but very appreciative. That more than made up for the cut in pay we took to get in there. We started around 7:30. Little light on the normal crowd, but I expected that. Everyone there danced and had a great time, and the band as a group played a solid 4 sets. Even was told by a bartender we could turn up, as we were nowhere near being too loud. I cranked it a smidge, then left it alone, everyone was having fun, didnt want to change that.....ended around midnight(scheduled to end at 11:30) after playing a few encore songs.....one of which a special guest came up and sang...(I saw her standing there)...it was cool because he was actually from liverpool, england. Loaded up, back home in bed before 2 am. All in all a good weekend!


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Quote Originally Posted by race81

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Cool BoomBoom! I see lots of instruments there, what type of band and music you all playing?

 

I provided a link (the band name). Check it out. It's a Sousa tribute band! We play Sousa marches and Karl King (the March King) and Filmore and several others. It's a 30 piece band maybe.


I play snare. Another guy plays bass and cymbals (mounted on top of bass drum) and a lady plays auxiliary stuff, bells, Liberty Bell Bundt Pan etc. She is also our "sedentary twirler" and leads the "sedentary drill team" (the crowd).


It's fun. Fun music to play. Low key and fun. Everyone gets along. Not a lot of gear to haul. The leader finds all the gigs and we just show up and play. We practice twice a month and play sweet concert in the park and festival gigs in the summer.

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Quote Originally Posted by Drumstix101

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Hey Race. Were those tin walls behind you? We used to play a blues bar in Wisconsin with a tin roof and the place sounded awesome.

 

Yes!! from the floor to the top. I was really surprised at how good everything sounded in there, may have been attributed to not turning it up too loud..


 

Quote Originally Posted by boomboomdrums

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I provided a link (the band name). Check it out. It's a Sousa tribute band! We play Sousa marches and Karl King (the March King) and Filmore and several others. It's a 30 piece band maybe.


I play snare. Another guy plays bass and cymbals (mounted on top of bass drum) and a lady plays auxiliary stuff, bells, Liberty Bell Bundt Pan etc. She is also our "sedentary twirler" and leads the "sedentary drill team" (the crowd).


It's fun. Fun music to play. Low key and fun. Everyone gets along. Not a lot of gear to haul. The leader finds all the gigs and we just show up and play. We practice twice a month and play sweet concert in the park and festival gigs in the summer.

 

30 pieces....thats a big unit! sounds like a lot of fun! Im guessin you get to site read a lot of music.
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Quote Originally Posted by race81

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30 pieces....thats a big unit! sounds like a lot of fun! Im guessin you get to site read a lot of music.

 

Yes it is! It is a lot of fun. I do get to read a lot of stuff. We have a book with probably 100 tunes. We rotate them around doing different ones at gigs and practice. We always to Stars and Strips Forever as the finale and usually do Washington Post and the Thunderer.


Most of the parts are pretty similar though really. A lot of off beats and 5 stroke rolls. On some of them the last strain is 32 bars long and it's 31 bars of 5 stroke rolls. So thats 64 or so. Most times they are repeated too. So, it's 128 5 stroke rolls in a row! But it's fun to just groove with it. Sort of like playing an AC/DC song or a Stones song. Lock in.


It also allows me to get back to my roots. After high school I joined the Marines and went to their music school and then played with the 1st Marine Air Wing Band. No surprise, we played a lot of the same tunes.

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Thanks Fitch! Im happy with the way we are progressing. Im lucky that everyone gets along real well....even my wife and myself,... The musics good, now we are going to work on having fun and trying to get everyone to smile a little. As the bands booking agent I am learning alot......its not as easy getting gigs as it appears. Booking takes a lot of free time!

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Quote Originally Posted by race81

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Booking takes a lot of free time!

 

And don't forget what a thankless task it is. smile.gif I always really enjoy booking, but it's dependant on having a band that is all on the same page and understanding what you're all looking for.


Getting a gig is easy. Getting a good gig takes more work. thumb.gif

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Gig report: Had a gig tonight with that Jazz band that I've been playing with on Wednesday nights. Everything is going along just fine. Club is starting to fill up, we're playing some tunes that I've played with them before, so I'm feeling comfortable.


Then the terror begins.


Last song of the 1st set, the guitarist starts playing something on his gut string guitar that I don't recognize. I turn to the bass player and ask "what song is this?". He tells me "Spain" (Chick Corea) just before he and the piano guy start going. Talk about getting thrown into the deep end of the pool!! I stumbled through the first half, but managed to fake the rest. Went to the bar after that and got a stiff drink! (you can YouTube it if you're not familiar)


I can't believe they did that to me! Bastards! biggrin.gif


I think I'm finally getting a handle on this Jazz thing.... the start of a LONG journey.

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Quote Originally Posted by the DW

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I think I'm finally getting a handle on this Jazz thing.... the start of a LONG journey.

 

Good for you DW. Sounds like you're playing really challenging music with a good group of players. That's the best way to improve, imo.


I've heard that with Jazz, if you make a mistake... just repeat it. Then it's no longer a mistake. poke.gif

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Quote Originally Posted by the DW

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I can't believe they did that to me! Bastards! biggrin.gif


I think I'm finally getting a handle on this Jazz thing.... the start of a LONG journey.

 

Hahahahaha - that's AWESOME, man. What is it with jazz and the love of throwing people under the bus? I hear those stories all the time about "earning your stripes through being beaten by the band" on stage... it's bewildering to me, but kind of awesome at the same time.


I still bet if I listened to what you guys did, and not being familiar with the song, I bet it sounded fine. thumb.gif

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Quote Originally Posted by melvinspeed

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I've heard that with Jazz, if you make a mistake... just repeat it. Then it's no longer a mistake. poke.gif

 

That sounds about right!


 

Quote Originally Posted by FitchFY

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I still bet if I listened to what you guys did, and not being familiar with the song, I bet it sounded fine.

 

I dunno. It's a Jazz club. I was probably the ONLY person in the whole place that didn't know that song by heart! Major stress!
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Quote Originally Posted by the DW

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I dunno. It's a Jazz club. I was probably the ONLY person in the whole place that didn't know that song by heart! Major stress!

 

But that's the beauty of jazz over rock cover bands. You put your own spin on it. So if it's not like the record, even better. And the audience doesn't expect "like the record" either. So I'd say you're cool unless you were out of time or something which I would expect you weren't.


And, now you'll listen to Chick's version and understand it better and now you have one more tune in our repertoire. Win-Win.

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