Upcoming gig

[Armistice]

So that thing I did for work has borne fruit. The other two that played on that day, who I provided the PA for, do acoustic blues stuff and are pretty good at it - and they play around the joint here and there, and at blues festivals and the like.

Not long after the work gig Graeme, the main guy, wanted to know if I wanted to do a double bill with them at a venue called The Gasoline Pony - a small bar in Sydney - because the owner likes to book double acts as it saves him worrying about it. They've played there before on a Saturday afternoon a few times. I said "Sure!" thinking the owner wouldn't go for it, but apparently he has, so we're on - Sat 11 Jan - which gives me a month to prepare.

One of the main attractions of it to me is that The Gasoline Pony is 5 minutes from where I live. And I just need an acoustic guitar and effects pedals, leads, mics etc. ie. single load / carry.

The catch is that I have to play for an hour - one set. Then changeover, and they play for an hour and a half. I don't actually have an hour of Jongleurs songs - I have only 7 that I wrote, so I'm currently scrambling to see what Honey Hunters stuff I can re-purpose, and if there are Armistice instrumentals I can still play for light and shade.

I've also had to dig out my Boss GT-10 multi-effect out and work out how to program it again as an hour of some guy with just an acoustic guitar moaning original material at you will be too much for anyone, so I'll use lots of delays and reverbs and vibratos and tremolos and all that shit to make it sonically more interesting instead of the same sound song after song. It's what I did in The Jongleurs anyway but I have to write new patches for new tunes.

And then there's the looper - about which I'm undecided, as it's seriously complex (Boss RC50) - I can, however sound like a goddamn orchestra using it - but again, I haven't touched it for 4 years and I don't know how it works anymore. But all The Jongleurs stuff is still stored in it, so perhaps over Christmas I'll see if I can get it all working again.

Anyhoo, I have my 7 Jongleurs songs + 1 more that was never recorded + Sometime Soon & Dream's Malfunction from Honey Hunters + 2 instrumentals so far, and a new song I've just written on acoustic - that's 13 tunes. I reckon I'll need 15 with a bit of bantz in between tunes - that'll have to do. And an obscure cover or two in the back pocket, just in case.

It sounds like "bring your own crowd" gig and it's unpaid (by the venue) but apparently there's a "pass the hat around" thing that happens, and the last time the two guys played there they said they got about $400. Not bad. I don't really care - just good to stretch out and do something live again. If it turns into a regular thing money would be nice, but not the main driver at the moment.

Back to work for me, then ...

[JD01]

Ergghh, don't go for a looper. Generic bloke strumming muted, (loop), thumping his guitar for a kick, (loop), the tapping his guitar with a pick for a snare, (loop), has been done to death now. Its just irritating watching the same buildup every time.

If I were you, I'd re-work and strip down as much Honey Hunters as you can prior to the gig. They're good songs, they're interesting and unusual so should keep people's attention.

Why not use an electric guitar? ~Like Jeff Buckley's early solo stuff where he just played a Tele and sang. Stuff like this:
[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKlnDtgvAs[/BBvideo]
If I was coming to see you play, that's the sort of thing I'd like.

[Armistice]

If that was what I used a looper to do, I'd agree with you, but I don't use it that way. A lot I've seen / heard just drone on endlessly around the same chord sequence and it bores the tits off me. The RC50 lets you build 3 separate loops, which is enough to cover the different sections of most songs. And I preload it with drum and other samples. Team it up with an electric guitar multi-effect unit that I use to create very different sounding guitar tracks, and a separate mic through the looper for vocal adds, and it probably doesn't sound like anything you'll have heard before from a looper/acoustic guitar. It's a tool. Most people don't master the possibilities of their tools. I worked out how to do off the wall stuff with it before I realised most people didn't - that expansive song-based live looping seemed to be too complicated for them. When I was doing it with The Jongleurs it was like tap dancing. Always something going on down at the feet. Looper. Effect pedal. I'm stepping on something every couple of bars. Easily the most complicated live playing I've ever done. Way beyond any simple band duties as lead or only guitarist & singer.

That said, I'd only do it on 2 or 3 songs. Light and shade.

I thought about the Tele thing actually, but for what may be a one-off gig in a venue I know nothing about it's falling into the "too hard" basket for me. Means a second guitar, amp (or Kemper), more mics and stands, and there are a limited number of songs I could do it with.

An hour of original material is a significant amount of work as it is, without adding another guitar into the mix. I have to draw from what I have and that's very much based around acoustic. Maybe I'll look at it in the future, if it becomes a regular thing. I'd actually like to do it because it does create different textures.

[JD01]

Fair enough.. although the tap dancing you describe sounds a shit load more complicated than just playing simplified arrangements of your songs on an electric.

I was listening to Honey Hunters in work this afternoon. You could easily take an hour to just play the album.

I suppose what sounds simple to me, might be different for you. I can already play stripped down clean arrangement of most of my songs as that's how they were probably worked on for a long time. The idea of that much pedal tap dancing fills me with dread.

[Armistice]

I do want to get a couple more HH songs into the set - just haven't worked out which yet or done any work on them. Choose Your Weapons and Goodbye Mr Pills are the ones I'm thinking.

I'm trying to introduce songs a few at a time so I'm not learning 8 new ones all at once. I'll get to them.

And like I said - I'm undecided on the looper anyway - it is a shitload of work for a single gig. The Jongleurs ended up dropping it, because when you have a limited amount of time at open mics etc. - including set up - you want to get as many songs as you can out there, rather than do 2 or 3 less and have big epics of some of the others - so in the end, when we stopped doing gigs as an act and mainly did open mics occasionally, we stopped using it.

[JD01]

Forgetting would work well as a solo piece too.

[rayc]

All three mentioned HH's would be good in the setting I reckon.
Hey, why not pick one of them, strip the lead & vocal and play along with it just to make the point?

[Armistice]

Forgetting would work well as a solo piece too.

Yeah, that's on my radar as well but it's quite tricky to play and I've never tried to play it and sing it at the same time, but I'll give a run and see.

Really funny not being able to remember how to play songs that you wrote but that have only ever been played during the recording process.

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey good luck with that Armi sounbds liek a nice way to ring in the new year and dust off some cobwebs and get inspired. You never know what you might tap into while trying to prepare.

Sadly, i think i can relate to the bit about writing stuff during a recording process. The bits of original material i have written laying around (unfinished, lol) would be a nightmare for me live. I think that may be the curse of the bedroom / basement enthusiasts like myself. I doubt i'd be able to play and sing anything i have written in the last few years live.

Although i would probably be ok with a short notice gig request as it would most certainly light a fire under my ass to finish at least one original tune HaHa

[Armistice]

Ta [mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention] - yeah I'm full tilt into it now. Trying to work out interesting sounds to make it sound a whole lot less like just a guy with an acoustic guitar. These big multi effects units are awesome for patching together a sound without having to worry about stepping on 6 individual pedals that you've set, just so. Let's face it, acoustic guitar piezo pickup straight into PA sound fidelity isn't the best anyway, so I might as well bugger it up even further.

I've just found the Slicer effect. Reckon that could work for Choose Your Weapons.

[Armistice]

Make a poster, they said...

FB_IMG_1576966001244.jpg

Looks like I have to do everything...

Today I break out the looper and see if I can remember how it works.

[grimtraveller]

Definitely go with the looper, mate ! You think like a band in your music ~ you pretty much always have ~ and technology now gives you the scope to do it.
I remember, I used to use two drum machines playing live, one programmed with the patterns for the verses, one for the choruses. It was always tense as I approached the choruses and I always thought I'd confuse my steps but I never did. I wish I'd had a looper back then !

[Armistice]

Definitely go with the looper, mate ! You think like a band in your music ~ you pretty much always have ~ and technology now gives you the scope to do it.
I remember, I used to use two drum machines playing live, one programmed with the patterns for the verses, one for the choruses. It was always tense as I approached the choruses and I always thought I'd confuse my steps but I never did. I wish I'd had a looper back then !

Yeah,I got it out of the cupboard and it still works - remembering how to use it is another thing, but it's starting to come back to me. I'll do it on max 3 songs, I think. I was just arranging one of the noobies - and there are two older ones that I'll have to do some work on to get back up to speed. Problem is that it takes so much effort and it's a bit of a rabbit hole, so while I'm fucking around with the looper, I'm not practicing the others.

I'll have to give them all a run through tomorrow, without it - I'm still a long way from being ready and I haven't got a mic out yet. Doing looping in the lounge room is one thing but having to sing into a mic at the same time makes it just that little bit more difficult*, but I have done it before. And what with the festive season, getting time to myself to actually practice is difficult. I have tomorrow morning, then next opportunity will probably be Saturday.


*I've made a two tier pedalboard with looper on the ground and multi effect on top and back, and having to balance on one leg while aiming at the multi-effect with the right foot and singing into a mic at the same time is "interesting" - used to be able to do it, but as we get older, the balance goes a bit. Practice!

[Bubba]

How's it going Armi? I'm learning Bankrobber at the moment for our set and it's a slight struggle developing and learning a decent sounding guitar part that will cover for the missing piano in the mix. If drums, bass and vocals do their bit well, though, nobody will be listening to me!

[Armistice]

How's it going Armi? I'm learning Bankrobber at the moment for our set and it's a slight struggle developing and learning a decent sounding guitar part that will cover for the missing piano in the mix. If drums, bass and vocals do their bit well, though, nobody will be listening to me!

The looper will be the death of me - but I can't really just strum away for an hour, people will fall asleep or worse, throw stuff at me - I have to bring some light and shade into it, so I'm persevering. I just did a couple of hours practice then. The songs without the looper are all in reasonable nick, it's the 3 I'm using it on that are problematic, and there's nothing for it but to practice, practice, practice and get the moves memorised.

If I have to concentrate too much on what's going on down on my feet, it really impacts the vocal performance. I have two more days off work, then a week to the gig, so hopefully I'll have it under control by then, as long as I plug away at it in the meantime.

I'm looping Sometime Soon (HH), Just Say The Word (J) and Tears and Mascara (J). I have other loops set up for Jongleurs songs but they sort of rely upon having a second guitar on stage.

Good luck with the piano part - they rarely "fit" well on a guitar! I remember when I was in my first band and we were playing some song that had a keyboard melody in it which I had to do, and there was really no way to actually play the last note apart from hitting it against the fretboard with my right hand - thus discovering tapping of my own accord without knowing that it was an actual technique. Very early 80s I guess. But I had such a crappy low gain clean amp that I discarded the concept as being useless... I think we ditched the song.

[Bubba]

It sounds like you're getting to grips with it though. I think it's commendable that you're aiming to do much more than a strum-and-yodel session, something that actually reflects what you do. Do you have any plans to record it? I'd love to see a live performance.

[JD01]

Do you have any plans to record it? I'd love to see a live performance.

[mention]Armistice[/mention] I agree.

[Armistice]

It sounds like you're getting to grips with it though. I think it's commendable that you're aiming to do much more than a strum-and-yodel session, something that actually reflects what you do. Do you have any plans to record it? I'd love to see a live performance.

Alas my film crew of choice isn't available that day, otherwise... @[mention]JD01[/mention]

No, not really. Last thing I need is more pressure, and I don't have a device to record the audio on anyway. Plus I've never even been to this bar so I have no idea of the set up. I'll be trying to keep it as simple as possible. (Plug these three things in. One left. One right. Mic on middle with phantom power on*, leave the rest to me)

So I'll tell my GF to record some of it on her phone, but that's fraught with difficulty in itself - she's not particularly technical (landscape / stand somewhere where no-one's going to walk in front of you / stand somewhere where the mic on the camera is aiming towards a speaker and not the back of the room - do you even know where the mic on the phone is? At the base... / be ready, don't start it halfway through a song / leave lots of space around the frame) - and I'm not sure I want her standing there mucking around with a phone anyway, because she will not get all of the instructions correct, and will be tut tutting and fucking around with her phone and looking at me for assistance, because that's what she does ... more stress.

It might be just snapshots...



* my live mic is a condenser. Some of you will remember the story of my cousin buying me a very expensive mic for a major birthday, despite not knowing the first thing about mics. Which is how I ended up with a Neumann KMS104 in the mic cabinet.

[JD01]

It sounds like you're getting to grips with it though. I think it's commendable that you're aiming to do much more than a strum-and-yodel session, something that actually reflects what you do. Do you have any plans to record it? I'd love to see a live performance.

Alas my film crew of choice isn't available that day, otherwise... @@JD01

No, not really. Last thing I need is more pressure, and I don't have a device to record the audio on anyway. Plus I've never even been to this bar so I have no idea of the set up. I'll be trying to keep it as simple as possible. (Plug these three things in. One left. One right. Mic on middle with phantom power on*, leave the rest to me)

So I'll tell my GF to record some of it on her phone, but that's fraught with difficulty in itself - she's not particularly technical (landscape / stand somewhere where no-one's going to walk in front of you / stand somewhere where the mic on the camera is aiming towards a speaker and not the back of the room - do you even know where the mic on the phone is? At the base... / be ready, don't start it halfway through a song / leave lots of space around the frame) - and I'm not sure I want her standing there mucking around with a phone anyway, because she will not get all of the instructions correct, and will be tut tutting and fucking around with her phone and looking at me for assistance, because that's what she does ... more stress.

It might be just snapshots...



* my live mic is a condenser. Some of you will remember the story of my cousin buying me a very expensive mic for a major birthday, despite not knowing the first thing about mics. Which is how I ended up with a Neumann KMS104 in the mic cabinet.

You could do it at home though, record one of your rehearsals.

[Armistice]

Alas my film crew of choice isn't available that day, otherwise... @@JD01

No, not really. Last thing I need is more pressure, and I don't have a device to record the audio on anyway. Plus I've never even been to this bar so I have no idea of the set up. I'll be trying to keep it as simple as possible. (Plug these three things in. One left. One right. Mic on middle with phantom power on*, leave the rest to me)

So I'll tell my GF to record some of it on her phone, but that's fraught with difficulty in itself - she's not particularly technical (landscape / stand somewhere where no-one's going to walk in front of you / stand somewhere where the mic on the camera is aiming towards a speaker and not the back of the room - do you even know where the mic on the phone is? At the base... / be ready, don't start it halfway through a song / leave lots of space around the frame) - and I'm not sure I want her standing there mucking around with a phone anyway, because she will not get all of the instructions correct, and will be tut tutting and fucking around with her phone and looking at me for assistance, because that's what she does ... more stress.

It might be just snapshots...



* my live mic is a condenser. Some of you will remember the story of my cousin buying me a very expensive mic for a major birthday, despite not knowing the first thing about mics. Which is how I ended up with a Neumann KMS104 in the mic cabinet.

You could do it at home though, record one of your rehearsals.

I may try that one night this week. Won't work in the day as the light's behind me radiating through a curtain. Plus it's a scorcher day today so I'm off home from GF's place soon to run through the set in order before it gets too steamy. No aircon.

Went past the venue yesterday - closed still over Christmas so I couldn't go in. Basically think high street shop, only 5 or 6m wide, but deep. Performance area is right in the front window. Bar to the left along one side. Some tables scattered about but not much room. If you got 100 people in it would be standing room only. Weird place/layout. It being on a Saturday afternoon, I'm just hoping it's not completely empty!

Easy for the owner I guess seeing we play for tips - why not have some music? Don't personally care about any money from it, it was more about seeing if I can do it and what it involves and whether anything comes of it - it's a 5 minute drive from my apartment.

The other Jongleur is back in town from a year OS with his family today - I wonder if he'll turn up! Damn well better... Solidarity.