General Music Chat

Last night my band played a Squirrel Camp Party. Squirrel season opened in our area this weekend and a farmer in the area has an annual party this has been going on for close to 20 years now. Ive played in other groups for this party in the past.

We were outdoors and the weather could not have been any better. In fact a bunch of freinds came out and camped, along with a bunch of other folks that camped. Being outside we were able to let the PA rip. I played my half stack and cranked it up. We had probably 400 people there at any one time.

We sounded really good and everyone was on thier game musically. We got into some of our jam deals we do and they just smoked. I took a lot of libertys with our songs and except for a couple of hickups, I nailed it all night long. Plus we got paid really really well for this.

As does at a lot of these deals around 1:30 a fight broke out. They almost ran over our mixer board and tent. This kinda took a lot of people away, so that ended the playing night for us. But our system is one of the coolest disco systems on the planet and we keep plenty of music just for that. SInce a large number of folks were camping, noone was leaving so we wound up dancing for a couple of hours after the show. We dont get to do that very often, ussually as soon as we get done we are tearing down. I imagine some of the folks are still out there spread al over the ground. I only live 30 minutes from it so I got in around 6am, but strangely today I dont feel tires at all.

The only down note for the band is one of power amps went down.

As always heres a few pictures from the gig.

Wait a minute...

Is that the bass player that's leaving you guys, with the shaved logo on his head? LOL

You guys know how to make your fans have fun!

I'm EXTREMELY jealous!

LOL

Well except for the fight sounds like fun. Squirrel season dont open here till october.

Yeah Craig thats our bassist. If you go on myspace and see him he had really long hair until a month or so. I told him his next step is to be a cue ball like me, and knowing him he will before long. We will have to hold down our singer and shave his head! ha ha

On his back problems they have given him some sort of injections, he just had one last thursday so hopefully it will improve things to where he can continue. Ive played a bunch in the last couple of weeks in my duo solo stuff so it was a real blessing to play with the guys. Especially with the weather and the crowd that was there. The pictures look cool, but they dont really show how much fun we all had sat night. Of course I cant remember too many gigs with this group that I would call a bummer.

We had a friend guitarist come over and I had an extra amp setup and tryed to let him jam with us. Andy our bassist came over and said look if you want to keep me up here playing tonight hes got to go. I had to tell the guy to sit down, then the whole rest of the night I had to listen to him asking me why I told him to sit down. He and his bass player got up and played a couple of songs with our drummer. They were just basically making noise to me on some original jam, then Show Me How To Live, which we play. I told him that we played it and he said why didnt you guys play it then. I replyed I didnt want to make you guys look bad. Then the went into a rocked out Folsom Prison Blues which brought the crowd back around. They finished with a Dick Dale song, which I cant remember the name of. I think the Cash song saved their ass w the crowd.

Which brings me to the point of the last paragraph. If you are going to sit in with a group. Make sure you have maybe 2-3 songs that you can just nail blindfolded. And once you play your songs graciuosly sit down. I guess Im more talented than I thought cause I have the ability to sit in with just about anyone without throwing things off, and a lot of times if Im not sure I just dont play anything at all in sections Im not sure about. Then come back in when Im sure where the song is going. Sometimes its what you dont play that makes the difference. In this guys case I had an amp set for him to play some on and I had already set the controls. So what did he do? Goes over and just dimes the amp out and of course was squealing and howling everytime he quit playing. This brings up another point if you are the band that has someone sitting in and they are making you sound bad, get them out of there as quick as possible. Im not to subtle in this, I ran over between songs and said cut the amp off and play air guitar or sit down. He said why? I said you dont know the songs. He said I can follow along, I said I just gave you 2 simple songs to follow on and all you did was mess them up. I was saying all this while we started into another song. My bassist was smiling, but it kinda made me feel like a heel.

George as far as fights go. In my area there arent many gigs that dont have some sort of drama going on. Its ussually in the parking lot of a bar so we dont see it as much. In this case it started in the dance area and moved away from the stage. We had just started Whipping Post, our singer abandoned the stage and was on the mic trying to get folks to calm down, meanwhile we just played on. Oddly it was one of our better versions of this song. Around the time the song does the big build up the mob got really close to our sound board and was freaking our soundman out. I guess Ive come to accept fights as just part of the program. After a while you get used to this stuff. I have learned to not get involved, if you arent careful the whole crowd will turn on you as a musician and that can be not so pretty. Al lot of times if theres a brawl we will play Jailhouse Rock or 30 Days In The Hole. We didnt get around to it the other night. Our singer looked at me and said thats it pull the plug. We had already been paid, so the fight actually kept us from playing another hour or two. We had started at 9pm and finished up our part of the deal around 1:30 am.

For what it's worth John, you have to defend your bands reputation right?
There is nothing confrontational about the truth.
Although it usually stings a bit. For both of you, if you have any concence at all.

Well,

When I see a big fight in a club break out with lots of men involved, it gets me up out of my seat right away!!!



... Cause it's a really good time to walk over to the bar and talk to their girlfriends!

.

Im with Craig

If I dont know whats going on or didnt see what started it theres no way Im getting involved. The problem w being a musician is you are essentially a sitting duck. If your doing a gig you have your equipment in there, you cant just leave and run to the hills. The places I play in dont pay me to be a bouncer. Ive always said if there is a gunfight Im going to bend over and run, the only target they will have is my ass, I dont want to mess up my pretty face, har har..

Recently I was playing pool and this gal comes over and said that a guy had hit her. The problem for me is I know this gal and shes an instigator. She finally got someone to defend her honor and beat this guy up. It turns out that the truth was she was hitting on him and he wasnt interested and she got mad and start this mess that ended in him getting his ass whupped, for nothing.

Like I said If I dont see what caused a problem Im not getting in the middle of it. In the club world you cant believe anything you hear. Use your common sense.

That,s sad.
It's people like that why I no longer go to bars.
Beer is cheaper and safer at home.

George I played in a gospel,bluegrass,rock thingie for a while and saw 2 fights break out at those gigs. Go figure

You think my music turns people to violence?

LOL, I am not surprised, people are people after all, somebody has always got to be a dickhead when there is a large crowd around.

I just love outdoor gigs. I wish we could do more of them. We did an outdoor gig many years ago, very early 90's, way out in the middle of nowhere. It was out in farmland and the gig was spread word of mouth. I didn't expect more than a few dozen people. Wrong! Hundreds of people, tons of bikers, bonfires, a huge wet tee shirt contest, young guys coming up jamming with us, our drummer taking a ten minute solo in One Way Out (we went offstage and had a beer), it was a very memorable evening to say the least. I can't say we ever had a fight at any of our gigs. I think when you get a lot of women up dancing something happens to male glands. We've never really been a big dance band, most everyone stays and listens (stay is the operative word) and drinks. Looks like apart from the fight you had a great time. Wish there were more outdoor gigs, I'd do all of them.

Bob,

You mention tons of bikers at one of your outdoor gigs.

That got me thinking: I've played probably a half dozen biker rallies at least, and NOT ONCE do I ever remember a fight at one. No joke. Girls are flashing themselves all over the place, everyone is drunk off their asses, and they are just partying and having a good time.

Maybe it's cause they prefer fighting at other people's clubs and events?

LOL

Bob,

You mention tons of bikers at one of your outdoor gigs.

That got me thinking: I've played probably a half dozen biker rallies at least, and NOT ONCE do I ever remember a fight at one. No joke. Girls are flashing themselves all over the place, everyone is drunk off their asses, and they are just partying and having a good time.

Maybe it's cause they prefer fighting at other people's clubs and events?

LOL

Generally speaking people don't fu*k with bikers. They have a deserved reputation for finishing fights, not starting them. And if they like the music especially they will never be any trouble.

I have interacted with individuals from several of the various Bike clubs when I was gunsmithing. Other than the vulgar in your face languge on their vests and jackets, almost to the man they were more respectfull of me as an employee and smith, than the general public are.