Playing music is a personal thing

[phatduckk]

I usually put most of the weight in deciding if a gig was good or bad on how happy I was with my playing that night .... last night i had a bad gig.

So we went on at almost 11 and I honestly just wasn't with it at all. I just could not get into it. One peice of supporting evidence is that I only used 1 pick thru the whole set, I usually end up going thru 4 - 7, but not last night.

So after out set i grabbed a beer and just sat in a corner and all sorts of people came by to say how great the set was and how things sounded awesome. The drummer from my old band was there and he told me it was great (he wouldnt lie to me just to be nice).

So i guess its all personal - I totally wasnt with it and my muscle memory just saved the day. to me this was a reminder of "its not how you play, its how you feel when playing".

 

[tkarter]

Music is personal and that leads to audience personal. A concept for sure.

tk

 

[bovinehost]

I just got to thinking that this was probably not the best idea we ever had on the company board.

PM the Fat Duck if you want more information.

 

[phatduckk]

Music is personal and that leads to audience personal. A concept for sure.

tk

ya, totally TK. music and your style is an extension of your personality (or hidden personality or your second personality). Being in a bad mood etc dramatically effects how you deliver the music ... sure you can phsically play your bass and nail each note, but its not the same if youre not into it and I think most audiences can pick up on that.

I mean ... you see a band live for their energy and personality right? otherwise you'd pop in a CD.

 

[tkarter]

Right you are. Recent gig I had was so hot outside nothing felt right about it. However once they started dancing I could tell it was going to be okay. Got totally back into playing when all I really wanted to do was go have a beer.

Turned out great that gig did. I still felt like you know you can play better than that.

Just proof a MusicMan bass will get you through even your down gigs. They can't sound bad.

IMHO of course

tk

 

[phatduckk]

one thing that annoyed me was that our rhythm guitarist/singer asked me to turn my amp's volume down twice. I dont know why but that really annoyed the hell out of me. its been at the same EQ and volume settings since I joined the band and last night he wanted me to turn down

its not like im not trying drown out the whole band but i wanna be heard. Its a punk band, i play bass and i have the chops ... i should be loud dammit!

 

[johans]

felt you arin

 

[roballanson]

YEah we played last night and it was quite a small pub - and there was just no love from the punters at first.
So we treated it as a rehearsal and threw in some rock star moves as well - my the usual bouncing bass player. By the second set we had people singing so loud we could hear them over the PA. Funny how things can change when you put a spark of love, fun and look like you are enjoying yourself..

 

[mike not fat]

i should be loud dammit!

Good old Lemmy agrees...(see below)

 

[mike not fat]

I aggree with you Phatty, there are some days you just can't feel right while playing. The audience doesn't necessarily feel it, but you now it and it spoils the pleasure you have while giging. Two years ago, I played while being seriously ill ; I didn't take any pleasure standing there with fever and wanting to be in a bed ; but after the gig, the guitarist was congratuling me, saying I never was such in time during reharsals...

We use the different mood we're in in the band I play with since january. We have some song basis, but we always play them a different way depending the mood we're in. Even if I'm not always happy with what i played, I think it make things interesting : a song that was cool can get darker, what felt folk suddenly sounds jazzier, a song that lasted 4 min last 10 minutes with parts we never played before...I just like it, because thongs are not static.

MNF

 

[roballanson]

its not like im not trying drown out the whole band but i wanna be heard. Its a punk band, i play bass and i have the chops ... i should be loud dammit!

Defo agree with that....tell the guitarist to turn down!!!

 

[SteveB]

Arin,

You can't have the great shows without some not-so-great ones for comparison.

 

[The Rodg]

I've noticed an upward trend of club owners wanting "live bands" to sound like juke boxes ( low and consistent volumes under 90 decibels). I thought that was the whole point to "live" music. And whats with the 90 year old folks always sitting 6 feet from the speaker with their hearing aids cranked to the max hollering for YOU to turn the noise down. I digress.......

Ever done a steak house gig where you plug into THEIR PA which has limiters and your not allowed to bring an amp? Thank God those days are over for me!!!!!

How about the never ending jam where every drunk fool has to have a turn at the MIC and they always choose YOUR microphone to spit in.

I personally have issues with the fact that clubs don't wire their stages (built solely for live sound) for live sound. BUZZ BUZZ. Good old 60 cycle. Then you unplug all the neons, turn off all the dimmer knobs, and boom, no stage lights.

I could go on but I think my blood pressure is rising.

p.s.
I am still waiting to do a gig that has chicken wire across the front of the stage

 

[Mobay45]

Hey Rodg, I guess I'm having some of the opposite problem in some of the clubs we play in.

I don't like it when it is so loud that half of the people in the audience are wearing ear plugs. It's not overly loud on stage, but the FOH system is cranked up to the point that it is painful to listen to.

I think a lot of these sound men have run the sound so loud for so long without hearing protection that they can't hear their mix without blasting it WFO!

I want our sound to be loud but not painfully loud.

 

[Father Gino]

I read an interview with Jerry Garcia. The Dead, as you might suspect, recorded lots of their shows. Jerry said he was very surprised by some of the results. Sometimes when he thought it was a great, spirited show, the tape disagreed. Other times when he thought the show was a bummer, the tape sounded great. It would be really interesting (and scary perhaps) if we could all do this.

Live music is... well... it's live music. It's not at all the same as a recording. Live, music is a momentary experience shared by performers & audience. They feed each other for good or ill. You just have to be there and be part of the energy (or lack thereof). It's just not the same the next morning on a tape.

 

[The Rodg]

I don't like it when it is so loud that half of the people in the audience are wearing ear plugs. It's not overly loud on stage, but the FOH system is cranked up to the point that it is painful to listen to.

I think a lot of these sound men have run the sound so loud for so long without hearing protection that they can't hear their mix without blasting it WFO!
.

Don't misunderstand me. There is a difference between loud and TOO loud. Keeping the stage volume under 90 is really hard to do Especially when the acoustic drums 2 feet away are atleast that loud. What I'm talking about is playing a medium to large room and the managment wanting you to sound like background music so folks can talk in a normal fashion. Crowd noise (200 to 300) in normal conversation mode reaches 90 decibels (we've checked with meters). My point is why hire a band to entertain folks if your just going to stick them in the corner and make a juke box out of em. It would be cheaper to run the jukebox. Maybe I'm wrong..................

I do agree with ya on the hearing loss. Our lead singer is so deaf he has to run his monitor wedge just above squeal not because of stage volume but because he's half deaf. He is to cheap to get ear monitors. That causes me to have to wear ear plugs to protect my ears. The guitar player uses a 60 watt fender amp and has wonderfully low stage volume and I've gotten use to just runnning DI into the PA with no amp or cab. So the only thing loud on stage is the drummer and singer. We are not at all at the extreme of what subjectivly is being labeled "too loud." FOH usually fluctuates between 80 and 100db. I think some folks are predispositioned to ask bands to turn down by default. Nothin like showing up for a gig, starting to unload equipment, having the owner tell you "Don't play too loud tonight like our last band did" and you ain't even struck a note.

 

[Mobay45]

Yeah, I remember that from my old days of playing country covers.

Now that I play in rock venues, it's totally different though. I think in-ear monitors are going to be my next purchase.

 

[Moondog]

Sometimes it's not ez getting in the right "mood".
I suspect that is why some guys use mood altering
drugs . . . or a couple shots & beer.

 

[stretch80]

interesting topic phatd... your next gig will probably be "on"!

Some of guys in my band are "impervious" to the mood of the crowd - they just play, and totally focus on that. I definitely feel the mood of the room, and tend to play better when we've got the crowd going. So I try to make that happen.

But some nights my hands are just not there -- and it's hard not to feel like things suck.... but usually, after the show, people think its cool, and you find out just how much peope DON'T focus on the bass playing. IF its reasonably solid and LOUD, things are usually OK.. if the bass is too low in the mix, that really hurts, so if things are not feeling good, my rule is to play simple and turn UP!

 

[SteveB]

I played a gig about 2 weeks ago. During the show, I felt that we were playing badly. My wife videotaped it, and it was a lot better than I thought. Go figure!

I am also considering in-ear monitors. Maybe someone who owns some or has experience with them could start a new thread and give us the lowdown?