General Music Chat

A few pictures from sat night.

This was one of the best gigs weve done in while. Between 10:30 and 12:30 it was so packed that when we took a break I couldnt get out of the place.

It was one of those cinder block road house type places called The Cyprus Hut. We used to play there in the 90s and they said that was the biggest crowd theyve had there since we used to play there. Thats about as good a compliment as a band can get.

Heres some more pics from sat night

Weirdest request of the night?

We had a bunch of people request Smoke On The Water! It was on the radio on the way out there. Im sure glad I heard it like that. It sounded killer!

Best throwdown song was Paradise City! It just smoked, it was the first time we played it live and it just killed. We even pulled out Outshined sat night, didnt get that great a response.

Looks like you had a great time, JW! Keep the pics coming. I love to see ppl having fun.

Congrats on the fun gig, looks like a great crowd

Is that mel gibson singing for you? haha

Yea Kramer thats the Mel from Braveheart.

Ive been told by a few pictures that see Kevin he looks like Mel Gibson. Im scared tosay something cause with him you never know what might set him off! You never know with singers.

Actually behind the scenes of sats gig. Sat morning at 7 am Kevin calls me and tell me that we should cancel the gig. Im like What? He says Im sick, and he actually sounded really rough on the phone. So I ask point blank What do you want me to do? Cancel or try to make it thru? I can sing a set or two, I can get someone to sub a set or so if you can handle an hour or so. He says dont cancel just find me some help.

I called everyone I knew and of course they are all busy. I mean who wouldnt want a chance to front our band? At the moment we are a well oiled rock n roll machine. One guy who I thought would do it for sure and has set in with us many times, just said he was scared to try to take over for Kevin.

I finally found a guy from the area named Bruce Steele, who sings in another group in the are and even has his own following. He comes out early when Im setting up and we work out a couple of sets of material that we can do together. 9 pm Kevin shows up ready to rock his ass off. Weve got a packed house and 2 singers. Bruce wound up doing about half a set with us 6-7 songs and did an awesome job. He even did some old AC/DC, the old Bon Scott stuff thats so tough on singers and he just wailed. The rest of the songs we did with him we hadnt ever played so we just rocked the f**k out of them. He told me he had a blast and just call anytime.

Now Kevin after sounding like he was on deaths bed that morning came to life. It was one of the best shows hes done in a while. We did Paradise City which is tough as hell vocally, but he just nailed it along with Man In The Box and even some Soundgarden. What was the cure? A bottle of Crown. I dont know if I could sing or play after drinking Crown but it woke Kevin up sat night and Im going to have a bottle under my seat at all gigs in the future just in case.

I love those kind of gigs, your not sure whats gonna happen when you get out there on stage, it almost becomes a little relaxing (after the first song you start to realize everthing is gonna be alright), kind of takes you out of your comfort zone a bit, it keeps you on your toes.
You start to lighten up and haveing a good time and the audience responds to that.

From a singers standpoint when you are sick it kills your confidence, it feels like your off balance all night, these illnesses force you to breathe and sing differently, and can cause nodules to grow on your vocal chords
(permenently damage your voice), drinking to heavily the night before a gig will dehydrate you and make you feel the same way. It is especially hard when you sing those hard to sing songs that require a little more breath, it will force you to sing from the throat instead of your diaphram.
A little competition always helps in bringing the best out of someone too.

Haley

My drummer suggested I line up another singer to come to every gig to keep Kevin on his toes.

On the other hand he is the most awesome singer Ive ever worked with. He has the vocal chops to cover somewhere around 250 songs at the moment. Plus he can entertain a crowd. Hes the whole package a rock n roll machine. Im glad to be in a band with him. Cause I dont know of any other singers in my area that hold a candle to him. And Ive gotten to know a lot of bands the past 3 yrs in my area. I havent seen a singer yet to compete with him head to head. Hes that good at what he does.

Well, he's definitely got the Dio look down haha
Hey, John, how much did those band posters cost you?

Andragon,

I havent bought a poster in so long I dont remember.

Find a print shop and get a quote. Ours is heavy vinyl and has the heavy grommet metal holes so you can hang it anywhere.

The one in those pictures is about 15 yrs old, we have another one we got around 20 yrs ago and still have it also. The guys like this one with the girl on the stripper pole in the middle.

I would suggest before you make one for your band make sure everyone is happy with the layout before you get it made up. Most print shops can handle these for you. Make sure you have it like you want it before they make it.

I wouldnt think they are very expensive, if you are gigging I wouold think a band backdrop would be essential.

Ive personally never been in a band that didnt have some kind of backdrop for the band. A lot of them were homemade, but Ive always been in bands that had them.

Jw thats great, I tried to talk the guy's into getting a lead singer and they didn't want to do it, between the 3 of us we actually are doing a good job.
All 3 of us are lead singers in our own right also we are (bass, drums and guitar) but it sure would be nice to not have to worry about my voice when I am sick not to mention a lead singer really helps with the overall show if they have carisma. Do you guy's do a lot of vocal harmony stuff?

Banners run $150.00 to about $600.00 depending on how many colors you have and most print shops do make them, we got a pretty nice one for $200.00

Haley,

I probably come across as a clown on here most of the time, but we take our act, sound and image very seriously.

We just worked up Paradise City by GnR. If you listen you hear harmonys all over the song. We worked them out, so yea we do a lot of harmonizing and all 4 of us can sing. I ussually do the real low stuff and then oddly in falsetto I do the real high raspy stuff. Over the years we have learned to just naturally find the suitable part for our voices.

Another example would be Sweet Emotion. I just cringe when I hear most bands do the chorus part and used to cringe when we did it. But over the past few monthes its really come together. We sometimes just stop the music and sing the lines like a barbershop quartet or something.

Kidding about singers, but I actually sang in quite a few bands when I was younger. Im just not comfortable with it. Sat if we hadnt gotten another singer in I would have sung everything I could. I got out my old music stand and song book to put in place in case I needed to. Its just over the years I concentrated on guitar and also seemed to be in situations with singers who were much better than me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH I have to get back to civilization...
so I can have as much fun as you JW!
looks like you guys have a blast every show; your very lucky to have a "group" as opposed to a band!

ROCK ON JW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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