General Music Chat

Remember your sunglasses!

A good in-ear monitor works wonders. Worth the investment.

we play outside quite often, its different but no problem , once we requested provisions for rain & when we got there they had taped umbrellas to our mic stands . funny... now .

we play outside quite often, its different but no problem , once we requested provisions for rain & when we got there they had taped umbrellas to our mic stands . funny... now .

I hope you got pictures of that!

Thanks for all the great info. We played on schedule, and overall everything went well except for my voice bombing out :/ haha. We had 8 songs in our set and I sang the first 3. I forgot a few lines, but I think despite my faux pas, it went decently well for my first live performance.

The first song in the set was summer of 69 - not really my vocal strength but I pushed through it. I think I still had early morning voice plus I was nervous so my throat dried up like an apricot. Next up was psycho killer, which was a bit of a reprieve vocally, but then came living after midnight - fortunately we have a back-up singer - she has a pretty decent voice and covered for me in my time of "need" lol. I sucked down a bunch of water but I'll tell you - as soon as the water went down, it dried right up - basically didn't help a bit!! I think a beer would have actually been a better choice for me - I usually have a beer during practice at that really relaxes the old vocal chords for the entire night.

Anyways, my wife was there taking pictures so I'll postem as soon as I gettem off her camera. I also recorded video. Don't think I'll post living after midnight cause I botched the vocals so badly on that I'd rather not re live it

I suddenly realized another role of the man behind the mixer - vocal control. Seems he saw me struggling and turned my vocals down in favor of the back-up singer Think I'm gonna send him a gift for that.

The stage was awesome. It was BIG and covered so we were in the shade and it was cool.

I also see what you were sayin about sound just flying away. The people I spoke with said it was "loud", but from where I was standing, all I could hear was what came out of my monitor and the amps directly behind me.

My monitor had a mix of the backup vocals though which I wasn't expecting - the entire time we practiced the songs that I sang, there were really no backup vocals, but when we played, all of a sudden I had a keyboardist singing out of key on my left, and my backup singer singing slightly out of key on my right and I couild bare hear myself! It was crazy unnerving. I couldn't tell if I was on or not alot of the time. :/ I'm also bringing my own amp this time. the amp I was given to play through lacked inspirational tone. Very hard to solo with cause I wasn't getting the real organic tube-vibe I'm used to hearing. I didn't have time to learn all the solos either - I found out I was singing two more songs that I wasn't expecting to sing til about 2 weeks before ths show so I spent all my time learning the lyrics. Ug. It's one thing playing - a completely different experience playing AND singing. Not much time for lyric memory recall when you're thinking of what next chord to play, and vice versa.

Anyhoo - didn't mean to bore you with all that, but wanted to say thanks for prep tips and let you know the show went decently well. Will post a vid or two and pics later.

Chris

Watch your tuning with guitars with temperature changes.

Be careful of sudden high winds.

Avoid lightning, it will cause major key changes,(mostly from the singer).

Most important is never get payed in wooden nickels.

GeezeI came real late to this party.

Actually sounds pretty typical of an outside show. Things happen and you just learn to deal with them.

On the July fourth videos I have posted, during the show there were literally millions of little sugar ants everywhere.

I'd be playing along chasing them up and down the strings on my guitar.

Live Forever - our drummer stepped up to sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6x6-fwcO7I

Learn to Fly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-am9q9S9oU

Middle of the road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQc0mk-tYc

The stage

Not for nuthin, you really should keep your drummers ass nailed to the throne. He's pretty good as a drummer, as a singer frontman...

YAWN,,,

Thanks for sharing Jams. COOL

Live Forever - our drummer stepped up to sing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6x6-fwcO7I

Learn to Fly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-am9q9S9oU

Middle of the road
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STQc0mk-tYc

Overall You guys sounded good.. It was also cool of you to let the drummer step up and front for a song. Now that he's had a taste, it could mean a new level of articulation in his drumming...meaning , he'll relate better to what the others are trying to get done in a performance.

An over all good sound ...

Just to add some observation / critique ...

Seems the nerves not only dried out your throat but hamstrung some of the enthusiasm.

Another thought ... it's cool to me that ypur group is seems pretty diverse.

That to me is a good thing and offers room for growth and to " spread out " musically.

Can't tell you how much I respect your posting this out for all to see.
That shows your dedication more than anything you could say.

ROCK ON DUDE !!

An over all good sound ...

Just to add some observation / critique ...

Seems the nerves not only dried out your throat but hamstrung some of the enthusiasm.

Another thought ... it's cool to me that ypur group is seems pretty diverse.

That to me is a good thing and offers room for growth and to " spread out " musically.

Can't tell you how much I respect your posting this out for all to see.
That shows your dedication more than anything you could say.

ROCK ON DUDE !!

I can't argue that for sure ... it was my *first* live performance at a venue on a big stage - an art and wine festival and I was nervous as all could get out I may look calm in some of the pictures posted here, but under that facade, I was like "oh my... ". I calmed down by the last few songs, but this really was a new experience for me. there was an event photographer down low taking pictures up my nose while singing too - from the local newspaper - they got our names afterwards so I had to that going on in my mind too - like what am I doing here? plus, I had to open the set playing and singing Summer of 69.... you know, it starts with me strumming and singing solo - ug / AWKWARD.

here are pictures of the members of the band - I really dig the tie-dye - our keyboardist dressed 70's for the event and I think he brought in the tie-dye tapestries for added effect.

http://ckersey.smugmug.com/Music/Band/L ... 05_6hZPJcz

cheers

Great Pics, looked like a lot of fun.