Tag: Cover Band

Gig is Getting Close

The band’s next gig is December 30th. With Christmas and everything happening between now and then, the date is actually much closer than it looks on the calendar. Our drummer sent out a rough draft of a setlist today. Let then arguing begin! Personally, I like to wait until we’ve actually played through a set before I suggest changes. I just like to know how it all feels, you know?

I am going to be using my Fender Deluxe Reverb for this show instead of my Marshall. I really love it except that when I use my two Big Muff pedals together it sounds like an over compressed mess. I’m going to see about swapping out the second muff for an overdrive pedal and try to use it as a clean boost. I already have one setup that way in front of the first Muff pedal in order to give the signal a little extra push. Now I want to add one after the first Muff to try and get a volume boost for leads. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Stoner Gigs?

Massachusetts legalized recreational marijuana.

How will that effect me as a musician?

I hadn’t even considered it until earlier tonight when I was listening to a podcast that discussed the differences between playing to a stoned crowd vs playing to a drunk crowd. I have experienced with the drunk side of the equation, but not the stoned side.

If I have my facts right, the referendum in Massachusetts goes into effect on 12/1/16. Our next gig is on 12/30/16, but it’s in New Hampshire. I really want the show that follows that one to be in Mass. I want to see if folks are going to come out to bars equipped with pot brownies or something edible they can use while inside a room with a smoking ban. All bars in MA and NH have smoking bans. Will designated smoking areas outside of bars allow for weed as well as tobacco? Probably not, but maybe.

Drunk crowds tend to get more raucous as the night wears on, so our sets get louder and rock a little harder. They also tend to focus on songs that are maybe not in as good a shape as those we play earlier, because most of the crowd will have left, and those that remain will be tanked. Will we need to do the opposite for stoners? Will our sets need to get mellower as they go on?

I don’t really expect that it will make any difference at all, but who knows. The dynamics of playing in a bar band might be changing slightly due to the country’s changing attitude toward weed.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

We Were Okay Tonight

Band practice tonight. We did the gig on 10/8, then took two weeks off. Last week was the first practice back, but we were short a singer. Tonight was the first practice with all of us. It wasn’t bad. We hacked our way through a few songs that we’re hoping to add to the set for the next show. Nothing was good, but nothing was disastrous either. I’m using the Fender amp now at rehearsals. That’s a big change gear wise for me, but I’m okay with it so far. The Big Muff with Tone Wicker doesn’t play nicely with the Fender. I need to figure out an alternative. It might be time to try out a clone, who knows. Other than that, all is pretty well right now. Part of me is thinking that maybe it’s time to dial back on the all out fuzz box attack and move back into the overdrive world. Not sure. Maybe.

The next practice should be next Sunday, but we’ll probably be off for a couple of weeks after that. I need to practice more this week, and I am really hoping my Les Paul comes home from the shop. Fingers crossed on that one.

Band Practice Firsts

Two things happened to me at tonight’s band practice that haven’t happened in all the years I’ve been practicing with bands.

First, my trusty Dunlop Cry Baby Wah-Wah pedal actually broke. I pushed down on the pedal to turn it on for a screaming psychedelic guitar solo and then stepped on it to turn if off when I was done… except it didn’t turn off.

After the song ended I tried to click the button with my hand and that didn’t turn it off either. The switch seems to have died a heroes death. I’ve owned three of those pedals over the years and I’ve never had one die before. I had one stolen once, but that doesn’t count. If I can’t fix it I’ll have to use the back up that’s in my cellar right now. Kinda glad I put together that stay at home pedal board.

The second thing that happened tonight that has never happened to me before is another tragic failure. I wear ear plugs when we play. Practice, gigs, whatever. If there is full band volume, I’m wearing ear plugs.

Tonight we sounded kinda loud. I chalked it up to last-rehearsal-before-the-gig-over-exuberance. Then at about the 2 and a quarter hour mark it happened. The ear plug in my left ear… fell out. How’s that for odd. That’s never happened to me before. One minute it’s in there, the next, boop, it’s on the floor. Safe to say that the reason for the extra volume can now be explained as my ear plug wasn’t in right. It felt okay going in, but I guess not.

Now everything on my left sounds like it’s far away and surrounded by ocean waves. Damn it.