Music Weekend, Kicking Kays, [inrem] (continued)

So yesterday I posted about the first live music event I attended this weekend where I went along to support my mates and their band. And then the next day I had a gig of my own, which turned out to be the most fun I’ve had playing a show in a long time, possibly ever.

So we arrived without any real hiccups, set up and sound-checked while Roger Federer and Andy Roddick were battling out in the Wimbledon final on TV which we ended up missing the end of because we went to subway. Never mind, subway was good. But anyway there’s not really a great deal to say about anything that happened before or after we played, but the other bands were alright. I’m not entirely sure what the first band was called, possibly Seethe, but I’m not sure, and they were distinctly alright I think. They were pretty much generic metal with some cool guitar bits in there but they could easily have been any other local heavy metal band on the scene, with heavy, pounding and shredding guitars and a massive guy at the front roaring down the mic, as I’ve said, they were alright, the lead singer would make a good front man on a bigger stage I reckon, but on the whole they were pretty much the same as most of the bands that we play with, relentlessly heavy tracks which you can’t really distinguish between because they’re all kind of the same.

Although they did stick in my mind more than either of the other bands, neither of whom do I know the names of but if I remember correctly they were both again, alright. When it came time for us to play I wasn’t expecting it to be anything special. Just another gig in a pub like we’ve done hundreds of before. But while we were setting up Dan (vocalist) turned round to all of us and said, “Right, I wouldn’t worry too much about being super-tight tonight, lets just give it energy up the ass crack” so when we started playing we all immediately began jumping around as usual trying to look energetic and impulsive without looking like I’m trying to look energetic and impulsive. I don’t feel like I ever look completely natural onstage, I feel like I’m just kind of moving around because everyone else is, but on Sunday night while playing that gig, in a small pub in front of about 15 people I suddenly just got lost in the music and full on went for it. I don’t think I’ve ever exuded that much energy before during a live show, but I felt like I was completely at ease and knew what I was doing.

It was the first time I’ve ever played a gig in shorts as well, and I’m not a big believer in co-incidences so I reckon it was the shorts freeing my legs that allowed me to move around so freely and naturally. Now that I’ve done that, I cannot wait for our next gig because it’s a battle of the bands final which is being headlined by Exit Avenue, one of the biggest bands still gigging locally, and it’s in a professional theatre with a stage that’s bigger than the whole pub we played in on Sunday and so now I’ve properly got my groove on, I think that gig is gonna be insane, and it’ll be nice if we win but I’ve heard all the other bands are pretty good so we’ll have to pull something special out of the bag if we want to have a good chance.

So that’s pretty much it, I had an eventful weekend and found my form while playing live onstage, we have two more band practices, then I’m away for a week and Dan is away for two weeks, then when we get back, we’ve got the final, so let’s hope that sun, sea and general merriment doesn’t erase all of our performance skill and make us forget how to play our songs lol. Although given the amount I’m planning on drinking and the overall amount of the holiday that will probably be gone from my memory by the time I get back, I wouldn’t be surprised if some other stuff went with it!

Either way, I’ll keep you up to date about who, when, why, where and what shizz goes down. X

Success/Failure with Ex-Nihlo

So Saturday night was the night that I traded in my old six string for the chunkier, heavier four-stringed version, the bass guitar for one night only. One of my friend’s bands was in need and who was i to decline? I’d spent the Wednesday night and the Friday night learning the songs and it was all going to go seamlessly.  But anyway, we arrived and got told that we were playing first which wasn’t really ideal because nobody ever remembers the first band on, and seeing as it was a battle of the bands final we could have done with people remembering us , but hey, someone has to go first and I guess we just drew the short straw.

So after sound-checks and a short measure of merriment we were being told “5 minutes!” so we strapped on our respective axes, wheeled the amps onto the playing area (or carried the ones that didn’t have wheels) and began to put plugs in sockets, then before I knew it, we had started.

The first song did not go well. Not for me anyway, even though I had convinced myself that I knew all of the riffs and would be fine, as soon as the first song started, I had the familiar feeling that I recognised from practising with the guys, the feeling of  “oh crap, what am I supposed to be doing in this bit?”. But it wasn’t so bad in practise because when I got lost either Matt or Jonny (the guitarists) would turn and show me their fretboard so that I could just follow along with the root notes, but they were both moving far too much during the live show, and with enough hair to keep a wig maker happy for a year between them, i could barely see their fingers among the flashing lights and flying locks, let alone their position on the fretboard, so I had to kind of ‘wing’ the first track.

It got easier after the first song because I knew that the bass started the second one, and that was an easy riff, and then the rest of the song just sort of rolled out without too many hiccups. All the while I was kind of, rocking on the spot, trying to look impulsive and energetic rather than uncomfortable and trying too hard, although I think with the amount of time i spent blatantly staring at the guitars for guidance I probably did look uncomfortable but hey, I was playing  strange songs on a strange instrument and I was under pressure, and I think most people knew that, well, most people that were there to see us anyway, so I think I got away with maybe not looking entirely natural onstage.

By the time the third song came around I was thankful for a break. The third song was a slower one that was simply 3 notes all the way through on bass, the old 4, 4, open, 2 sequence (fret numbers) and so we all just had a bit of a chill out for that one which was nice considering my mouth was dryer than Gandhi’s flip flops by this point and sweat was pouring out of places I didn’t even know existed. All this was about to change with the beginning of the fourth song. This number was the most technically challenging with quite a bit of fast finger moving which I’m usually ok with, but everything is so much bigger and involves more effort when playing bass and pretty soon, my fret hand had almost seized up, but I just tried to relax it a bit and keep going, it wasn’t like I could just stop playing.

I think the fifth song drew the set to a close, I can’t remember if it was 5 or 6 that we played, but either way I was absolutely gone and as soon as we’d finished playing I tried to wheel my bass amp out round the back of the venue (the way we came in) to my car, I immediately regretted this as it was pouring down with the fattest heaviest rain I’ve seen in a while, and then when I got round there I discovered that the gate was locked and i couldn’t get out with it. Brilliant. So I had to wheel it back through the hordes of people I’d just had to steer it through along with many “excuse me”s and “sorry”s  and so five minutes later I was back inside with my amp having achieved nothing with that struggle except got very wet. So I thought “right, sod the amp for now, I’m gonna go see what the guys thought of the show”. 

So I went to find them, and basically spent the next couple of hours just chillin round a sheltered table outside. I got the impression that the rest of the band thought it went really well, Matt said that he hadn’t enjoyed a gig that much in ages and they all seemed to think it went pretty well, and so did I truth be told. I thought it was a good performance backed up by powerful music which despite a few cock ups on the bass, sounded pretty awesome.

I had left before the result was announced (it was a battle of the bands final)  and so I had to find out that we didn’t win by a text from a highly inebriated guitarist. So we didn’t win the battle of the bands, which would have been the icing on the cake, however I considered it a small personal victory as it was my first time playing bass live onstage and I didn’t completely screw it up, in fact, I think it went quite well.

See the beginning of this story – Bass Guitar

Until next time I have a story to tell,

Speak to you later x