Back in a band

So, Radio Gap's first gig is in the books!!! It was FUN, it was an EXPERIENCE, it was FAR FROM PERFECT :-)! But we brought it and we rocked the house!!!

My 10 year old daughter ran up to me after our performance, hugged me, and said "Daddy, you were great!". What more do I need :-)!! None of what follow matters at that point, truly!!!

Sadly, there's no video. Lesson here - you want video, set it up yourself and don't rely on others!

There's audio, but the audio guy apparently isn't used to setting up guitars because you could barely hear me. You could hear drums, you could hear the vocalist....and that's about it. To the layman in the audience, we sounded great...and ultimately that is all that matters.

What did I do? I rocked it...even if nobody, including myself, could hear it! I know for a fact that at the beginning of "Honky Tonk Women" I was banging on a D chord when I should have been banging on a C chord. I couldn't tell because I couldn't hear it! So what, nobody else could hear it either :-)!! I sold it by playing my a$$ off up there. Apparently it worked, because my family said I was great - I was the only one up there moving around getting into it. I learned my lesson from previous performances...

So, it was a great experience, truly. We know that in the future, we need to have more control over our sound!! And no matter what, just go with it and sell it...the average listener in the audience isn't gonna know what is going on!

Next up is an open mic next week. Looking forward to that, even though it will be a smaller audience. At least there I'll be in full control of my sound.

Well, I guess this should start with congratulations!

Its quite a feeling seeing people enjoy what you are doing, kind of a different level. If you are going to direct the band you may as well be the showman to. I know I will never forget the first time we played live.

Here's to a long enjoyable ride.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Well, I guess this should start with congratulations!

Its quite a feeling seeing people enjoy what you are doing, kind of a different level. If you are going to direct the band you may as well be the showman to. I know I will never forget the first time we played live.

Here's to a long enjoyable ride.

Thanks man! Honestly, the open mics I did prior were more of a rush. I was looking into the audience to see if anybody was bobbing their heads or tapping their feet... I saw nothing. My wife said she saw a lot of people getting into the music. I guess I wasn't looking in the right places.

During my soundcheck, I started playing "Long Train Running". When I stopped, I heard the audience singing "...without love....". That was good enough for me!

Yes, this just the start of the ride!!! I'm SOOOO glad I chose to get on it!

Sounds like your debut-gig was a success, even if the sound was bad. You had fun, the audience enjoyed it, and you learned something from this experience, so it doesn't really matter if the sound was bad (that's not something you can control) :)

Congratulations Rich! And your wrong opening chord on Honky Tonk Women is actually a very good omen - the great Keith Richards screwed up the opening to Start Me Up at the beginning of the Stones' massive Hyde Park gig in July 2013 (it had to be digitally corrected for the DVD)! Anyway, can't wait for the next instalment.....all the best, Steve

Thanks guys!! Steve that's a great story about the stones!

I may not have gotten good audio or any video, but my wife took some good pictures. I'll put some of them up.

Here's the audio from our show on Friday if anyone is interested in checking it out:

https://app.box.com/s/e1cosj19lpyh1tguaw3g

I play all of the solos, so once you hone in on that guitar sound, that's me. Sadly my guitar was too low in the mix and I had to turn my guitar down so much that I couldn't get the gritty distorted tone I normally use for Hard to Handle and China Grove. But those are nitpicks for us guitar geeks here - the overall sound (which is really all the audience cares about) was fine and everybody enjoyed it. So, mission accomplished!!!

Hey Rich,
You and your crew did a great job.. Love the singers voice, it fit the tunes you picked. I think everyone had a hiccup or two.
Anyone taking a listen, play the songs in reverse order. It will be how the show went down.
Congrats Radio Gap..

Excellent stuff! The solos sound great and the band is very together. Plus good singers and a charismatic, self-confident frontman! Congratulations and best wishes, Steve

I think I fixed the order thing. Just know that the 01, 02, 03, etc. in the beginning of the file name indicates the track number.

Next up this week will be our open mic. That I'm pretty certain we'll have video...and I'll be in full control of my guitar levels and tone!

Hey Compart1 and Steve -

Thanks so much for having a listen!!! We are VERY fortunate to have the singer we have. He's a really talented singer and a great fun guy who's very passionate about music. He's got some charisma too, so a great guy to have fronting the band. He's a true professional. He is actually a singer in the band we were opening for.

Tonight I'll post some thoughts after our final rehearsal at the music store to get ready for the open mic tomorrow. This will be the last time we perform there as part of the Adult Rock Band program. After this we will also be a 2 guitar band rather than 3. It will be good to shake loose of all of this and focus exclusively on our own thing.

Last night I just had to run through each of the 6 songs we are doing. I'm shocked that only after 8 weeks I have these songs down cold. Plus I learned the outro solo for Hard to Handle. Hopefully it's basically just run throughs with the band also. It should be, especially for the songs we did last Friday.

Until later...

In lieu of video, here are some pictures that were taken during setup and my sound check. I'm the guy on the left in the black Beatles shirt playing the Les Paul.

Thanks Rich for the updates. Apart from the tutors at GT it's stories like yours which spur on the rest of us! The progress you and your band have made in such a short time is really impressive. Plus looking at the pics brings home how difficult it must have been to get things together for a debut gig in the open air. I've been reading your thread on the issues of sound balance and it's clear that running a band poses more than musical problems. So your posts are instructive as well as very encouraging for other guitarists. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Steve!!! Yes, if you want to take your music outside of the basement, there are so many other things to consider. I can only hope others can look back on this and gain some insight as to what it takes as you've pointed out.

If anything, I hope my story can inspire others to get out of their basement and share their gift with others. Go back to the beginning and you'll see it wasn't easy for me - it was downright scary in the beginning. There were plenty of bumps in the road. However, it's all worth it, it really is. The first step is scary has heck, but what a ride it is!!!

So tomorrow night will be our final open mic at the music store with the band in its current configuration. Rehearsal tonight was a bit problematic since our third guitarist was absent the last couple of times. Regardless, I'm sure we will be fine tomorrow night!!

I can't believe we've added 6 songs to our set list! It feels like a great accomplishment. I feel as though I'm not nervous at all about tomorrow night. I'm sure levels will be an issue and our singer will be coming in cold since he couldn't make it tonight for rehearsal. BUT, I know we can play these songs flawlessly, so no matter what happens on stage tomorrow...I know what we can do!

We've already talked about new songs we want to learn and a plan for how we can keep playing out and staying on top of our game. It will be good to be a 2 guitar configuration and to start flying on our own. We are ready...

So, tomorrow I'll report back on how the open mic went, and eventually I should have some video.

Until then...

So, when we did this in the winter, the rehearsal before our final open mic didn't go well. Regardless, we "brought it" at the open mic and it went really well. Rehearsal before the most recent open mic didn't go well either, however neither did the performance. Well, not quite that bad, but under more favorable circumstances, we could have done better.

It started with the 3rd guitar player showing up late by 20 minutes. Our vocalist also didn't have time to fully prepare and didn't know all of the song forms or lyrics. Our drummer dropped a stick at one point. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the lyric "...if you start me up I'll never stop..." in Start Me Up as we struggled to bring the song to an end! Let's call it Start Me Up, the extended version :-).

Regardless, we plowed through and did the best that we could. My new mantra is "perfect is boring!". Certainly I strive for perfection, but sometimes it's the adverse conditions that pop up that make it interesting...and you have to improvise!

I was happy that I pretty much nailed my solos and messed up one chord. It's hard to imagine that when we started this about 2 months ago that I was struggling with some of the solos. I feel like I can do them in my sleep at this point :-).

Video may surface over the weekend. If it does, I'll post a link here.

It's liberating that we are now going out on our own. It will be refreshing to start working on some new songs and building up our setlist while searching out what our next gig will be. At the very least, we'll be regulars at the local open mics that host bands!

I got to talking to a couple other performers at this open mic. It was really cool to socialize with fellow musicians and hear what they are up to. It feels like we are starting to become part of the local music scene.

And so closes a chapter...only for a new one to start! Upwards and onwards!

You might want to think about getting business cards for your band made. Name of the band, who to contact to procure your services.

You will feel great handing out a professional card and the recipient feels like this band has their stuff together and they don't have to figure out someone's hand writing.

Originally Posted by: haghj500You might want to think about getting business cards for your band made. Name of the band, who to contact to procure your services.

You will feel great handing out a professional card and the recipient feels like this band has their stuff together and they don't have to figure out someone's hand writing.

That's a great idea! I'm already setting up a facebook page to start a following and post weekly updates on what we are up to. Similar to what I do here, but more brief and in the context of the band rather than guitar.

We also need to get some sort of a demo we can hand out.

So we have video of our last open mic performance. We weren't rehearsed enough with our singer and we got off track in a few places. Though I hit the solos for Whole Lotta Love, the rest of the band kind of fell apart.

The highlight for me was China Grove...and I think you can tell as you watch me play it :-). I even hit a bad note in the solo...but I didn't care, just kept going.

http://youtu.be/dVNlJ74ZgKc

So, enjoy! For those of you not familiar, I am the guitar player on the singer's immediate right with the grey hair playing the HoneyBurst Les Paul that doesn't have a pickguard. I'm wearing an Olive Green T-Shirt...it has the Beatles on it, but you can't really see it. I also have sunglasses on my head that I forgot to take off since we got distracted waiting for the 3rd guitarist for 20 minutes! He's the guy on the right of your screen.

This will be the last performance of Designation: Unknown, however 5 of us are continuing to rehearse as Radio Gap and hope to hit the local open mic scene in another month. The plan is for next summer to have our own gig or perhaps share the bill with another band at some concerts in the park.

Fantastic set list and good job with the solos for sure.

You were the only guy that had life on stage - everyone else just kinda stood there! Maybe they are at my level where you can either play or you can move, but definitely not both :)

Do you have a guitar effects processor or a pedal board? Saw you stomping on it a couple of times.

I have just a single pedal right now and am wondering if I should build it up. Or work with a guitar processor - the thing with the processors is their user interface just plain sucks.

Quick question: when you are playing, does your band take its cues from the vocalist or does it play to the beat? My band still goes with the singer so if the singer messes up everyone falls apart. We are trying to play to the click but its sloooow progress.

Thanks for posting the video. Pretty cool to watch for people like me that are starting off with their bands.