Great Gig Last Night!

Good morning everyone!

Last night we had the debut of my latest acousitc duo, "Table For Two" at a local bar/bowling alley. The bar itself hold about 50 people sitting, plus the crowd goign back and forth to the lanes...the place was packed to the gills! Not one spot to sit, and tough to move around, perfect setting for a good gig!

Set-up at 7:00pm to start at 9:00pm, kinda early but since it was our first gig at this place I did not want ot take any chances, turned out to be a good move since I got a praking spot in front of the gig making load-in/out easy and acess to the area we were playing easy.

Gear set, sound check in, we are good to go by 8:15 so we have some time to relax, people start pouring in...some friends show up, booze starts moving about and people start filling the place...the stage is set, dim the lights, let's have some fun!

First set starts at 9:00 sharp and by 9:15 the bar is packed! We hit it into overdrive with tunes people were not expecting from an acoustic duo, girls will be girls and the dancing starts while the dumb looking boys just gaze at the breasts jumping up and down in awe, as if they are looking at a miracle of life...wait...aren't they? Still mazes me to this day how long it will take a guy to follow a girl to the dance floor...from my point of view one can see the intention brewing, the idea forming and as the courage in the form of a beer and a shot comes creeping up untill he makes the move, almost tragic to watch but I help along, warming up his girl for him with hot tunes that will get her blood flowing! An hour later the well deserved break and a chance to relax and talk with friends...

Set two starts with a guest guitar player and we do three tunes from "My Girl" to "House of the Rising Sun"...acoustic you say...yes and it was fun! By now liquor is flowing, libidos were high and people are ready for fun, bring out Bon Jovi and the place, here in New Jersey goes wild! A choir of voices makes singing easy, almost feel I can be silent and they won't even notice, at this point I am more maestro guiding the mass of enibriated bodies into motion, up and down, side to side...all of them Born to Be My baby...third set goes wild, girls are dancing, people requesting songs, shots being sent our way, and the bar keep gets busier and busier...he is smiling...so will we! One and a half hour long set, now I am getting tired!

No one is leaving, people want more it's a party now! Lock the doors, keep the bar open and let the fun carry through the night, and so we did! Third set starts and the world as we know it is contained inside the walls of this bar! Tonight I am a rock star and these are my raving fans...this is why we do this! I have no idea what time we started, I only remember the bar owner letting us know it's the last song around 1:45 am...did we really play that late!? Apparently so as my loyal friend the clock would confirm...

I have no clue were time went, we did songs that were not in the set list from acapella versions of "I don't Want To Miss a Thing" from Aerosmith, to "Crazy Train" by Ozzy with another guitar player coming up to help fill the sound, passing through "Hunger Strike", "Boheminan Raphsody", etc...the things one will do for a cute girl with a smile and bulgin breasts!!! We are nothing but testosterone driven robots letting our male egos be played by college girls that send you a smile...

And so it went, turn off the lights, break down the gear, say good buy to all these new "best" friends that we will most likely never see again...it is now 2:00 am...life is good! So now the closing segment of our story, the onwer comes over to thank us and settle...so they did well...very well...better than they have in a long time, here is an extra hundred a man to thank you and make you come back...and what bar tap? You guys are taken care of, thanks, come again, cue the credits, turn off the lights, fade out with me crashing in bed with my dog licking my face...what a good night!

Rod

Set List

1. The Weight

2. Me & Julio

3. Jessie’s Girl

4. Melt With You

5. You May Be Right

6. What I got

7. Blister in the Sun

8. What’s Up?

9. Laid

10. Patience

11. Hey Jealousy

12. Sweet Home

13. Jersey Girl

Set Two

1. Born to be my Baby

2. Hotel California

3. Danny’s Song

4. Jack & Diane

5. Like a Virgin

6. Every Rose has it’s Thorn

7. Pour Some Sugar on Me

8. Piano Man

9. Folsom Prison Blues

10. Angel of Harlem

11. The Boxer

12. Don’t Stop Believing

Set Three

1. Blues Suede Shoes

2. Burning Love

3. Rock Around the Clock

4. Unchained Melody

5. Great Balls of Fire

6. Tutti Frutti

7. Johnny B’ Good

8. I Saw Her Standing There

9. Runaway

10. Let It Be

11. Friends in Low Places

12. Jenny Jenny

13. Closing Time

Extras:

1. Knocking on Heaven’s Door

2. Brown Eyed Girl

3. I Can See Clearly Now

4. Runaway Train

5. I Will Survive

6. If You Can Only See

7. Blaze of Glory

8. I Remember You

9. Turn the Page

10. Hey You

11. Daniel

12. Stairway to Heaven

13. House of the Rising Sun

14. Sultans of Swing

15. Free Falling

Closing time - Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen or someone else entirely?

Sounds like you had fun!

Yes I had fun! Going from corporate/wedding bands every boring week after boring week, it's fun to have some freedom to have fun!!!

I have no clue who wrote Closing Time, i think it's Smeisonic, link below:

Rod

damn sounds awesome

post pics

I will tomorrow when I get them, maybe a video as well!

Rod

That's a killer setlist. Sounds like you guys had a blast. I'd love to hear the acoustic version of Like A Virgin, lol

It is so fun! Every girl in the bar came over to dance and sing, I barely had to do anything! Just mark the verses for them! Hopefully the video captured it!

Oh! And I fixed the set list with the extras, I had doubled the last set by mistake, so tired!

Rod

how do you remember so much stuff? It's damn near impossible for me to remember lyrics and complex song structures, even if I've played them 100 times.

It's easier to remember my own stuff, but still not what I would call a cinch.

There are quite a few gems on that set list. I would have had a good time there. Congrats on a great show.

Great show tale! I love that. Cool to "the boxer" in there. Fun song for the girls.

Thanks everyone!

Duke...I mean Prince...for this specific set as an acoustic duo we practiced for two months before becoming gig ready, most of the songs we have both been playing in party bands for a looooong time, they are band standards so the key was to get an arrangement ready for acoustic, stripping it down if you will. I know hundreds and hundreds of songs well enough to get through in a pinch, most party band musicians do.

For the acoustic thing I do use a song book arranged in the order of the set list, the reason for it is that we need to improvise much more depending on crowd reaction, we can extend songs, or mix them with others as we feel the need so I use the song list as a guide if you will. Having a music stand is a big controversy in music forums, I am Ok with it for acoustic gig as well as when I am playing wedding/corporate, sometimes we need to learn 10 new tunes in a week and I have a day job so...for the bar/club bands I would think having a music stand would be crippling to the singer however, I have seen great performers that use them and don't let it become an obtrusion between them and the audience. I for one prefer to see a music stand on stage and great delivery instead of no music stand and a sloppy set. JMO.

One more note, all songs are done in the original key, I can strip down a song but never bastardize it!

Rod

HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?!?!?!!?!? Congrats Rod!!

How did you "Don't Stop Believin'" then? I'll be really impressed if it was in the same octave of the original key sang by Steve Perry .

Well then, be impressed! I can as can many others, it was tougher for the acoustic guitar player to come up with an arrangement that sounded full enough to do the song justice!

Singing wise, Sebastian Back from Skid Row on "I Remember You" is much tougher than Perry.

Rod

Oddly enough someone shot a video of it and posted on Facebook! If you befriend me (Rod Clement - Edison, NJ) you will see the video in my wall with all the drunk girls with a microphone in their hands! It was such a mess, I had no clue where they/I were singing! Great fun!

Rod

Wow, sounds good.

I need videos!

Interesting (cool) set list

How does the Modern English tune go over?

Hey Mike, it goes over better than expected, this was one tune I tought people would just talk over you know but everyone was singing it, once we got to the hum-hums pretty much everyone was doing it at the bar, we go back straight into the chorus so the tempo picks up with sing a longs, made a great pre-set for You May Be Right that we start right away with voice and guitar at the same time.

Rod