Playing live music 2024

troutpocket

troutpocket

Stillwater strategist
Forum Supporter
Carrying over content from last year. https://pnwflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/playing-live-music-2023.4801/

I booked the first gig for the New Year yesterday. We were invited back to play Friday night at Bares and Broncs Rodeo in May.

Doing the dad band thing means taking breaks, reflecting, working on new music, and gauging how much availability is in my life for gigs. I expect to start playing out regularly again in April.
 
Ok, for the new thread crowd:
Krontonamo is playing their 2nd gig at Graham's in Glacier in about 90 minutes with Machine Animal.

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Our first stickers are a throwback to Metalmücil's original "Go Home" sticker. Since the other guitarist and I started Metalmücil back in the day it's fair play.
KrontonamoGOHOME.jpeg
 
@Driftless Dan thanks for the recommendations. There’s lots of contemporary music from touring bands that I like. I’m hoping to focus this thread on music being performed by forum members. If you play out, I’d like to hear about it!
 
Gig report: it got rowdy! A small town full of weekenders and locals with a bunch of pent-up energy that should have been expended on the mountain made it super fun. Plus, we had some minor Spinal Tap moments for the true experience. Hello Cleveland!
One pic of yours truly from the internet.
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And Machine Animal is awesome!
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Edit: Next show is at Graham's in Glacier on Sunday Feb 11 for the Legendary Banked Slalom ender party. Assuming there's enough snow left for the race. It'll be nuts either way.
 
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troutpocket said:
That looks fun….and LOUD. Well done 🤘
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We brought a bucket of earplugs for the crowd. :)

I was playing my Reverend Ron Asheton Volcano through a late '60s 50 watt Ampeg VT40 (4x10) plus a 212 cab. Other guitarist was playing one of the new Epiphone Flying Vs through a 50 watt Victory Kraken and 412.

Machine Animal had a Hiwatt 100 + 412 and I think a Fender Twin.
 
https://pnwflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/playing-live-music-2023.4801/post-138553
I stated in the previous 2023 thread, my community theatre musical calls dried up when Covid started, with one local theatre company going under.
My wife and I went to see the "A Christmas Story" musical at the local community theatre in December. They used canned music because orchestra musicians are at a premium during the holiday season, but the company's Music Director was there talking with someone at the doors after the show. I stopped on the way out to say "Hi" and he asked if I was available to play the Guitar 1 book for an upcoming production of "All Shook Up."

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My last production was "Big Fish" in 2019. It is a wonderful love story of a man and his son with an incredibly musically-diverse score where I played the Guitar 1 book with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tenor banjo, and mandolin parts. Now that was a difficult book because I don't consider two of those instruments my "primary." Also I had to make as many as 3 instrument changes during some numbers (without getting lost). But for the most part I was an ensemble player with only a few "features" and soli (doubled with other instruments) parts, and I'd been doing two or three productions a year up until that show so my playing and reading chops were OK.

The All Shook Up book appears to only be electric guitar, but almost the entire score is a "guitar feature" with quite a few soli and solo sections used as cues by the singers and dancers. Thankfully I have been given permission to improvise sections that aren't cues or soli but I'll be putting in an insane number of hours learning-practicing the book before the opening in March. Pulling this off will be immensely rewarding for me.

Beware that old adage... "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it." o_O
 
Brian Miller said:
I stated in the previous 2023 thread, my community theatre musical calls dried up when Covid started, with one local theatre company going under.
My wife and I went to see the "A Christmas Story" musical at the local community theatre in December. They used canned music because orchestra musicians are at a premium during the holiday season, but the company's Music Director was there talking with someone at the doors after the show. I stopped on the way out to say "Hi" and he asked if I was available to play the Guitar 1 book for an upcoming production of "All Shook Up."

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My last production was "Big Fish" in 2019. It is a wonderful love story of a man and his son with an incredibly musically-diverse score where I played the Guitar 1 book with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tenor banjo, and mandolin parts. Now that was a difficult book because I don't consider two of those instruments my "primary." Also I had to make as many as 3 instrument changes during some numbers (without getting lost). But for the most part I was an ensemble player with only a few "features" and soli (doubled with other instruments) parts, and I'd been doing two or three productions a year up until that show so my playing and reading chops were OK.

The All Shook Up book appears to only be electric guitar, but almost the entire score is a "guitar feature" with quite a few soli and solo sections used as cues by the singers and dancers. Thankfully I have been given permission to improvise sections that aren't cues or soli but I'll be putting in an insane number of hours learning-practicing the book before the opening in March. Pulling this off will be immensely rewarding for me.

Beware that old adage... "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it." o_O
Click to expand...
The "All Shook Up" Guitar 1 book turned out to be 107 pages of sheet music with a lot of written and improvised solo sections. I've been putting in many-many hours of hard work learning it well enough to perform from it. We opened Friday to a sold out house and performed 3 shows over the weekend. There are 7 more shows over the next two weekends, and I have heard almost every show is sold out. This theater's pit is under the stage so I'll never get to actually see the play because licenses for video and photography are too expensive to purchase. But I can hear the actors and singers through my in-ear monitors (IEMs). Since the show features Elvis Presly's music the audience has had a lot older folks (like me!) in attendance and I can hear they're really enjoying the show even with IEMs that have -35db to -54db of ambient noise isolation. I got quite a few positive comments from audience members about the performances and the orchestra(!) during intermission and after the show. I have been sticking "post-it" notes onto sections I'd like to improve on after each rehearsal and performance and will continue to work on it right up to the last show.
Here's a couple of pics from the "pit". From an early rehearsal,
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On opening night the show's producer had left a custom iced cookie on each musician's stand as a little "Thank You" for the work we've all put in.
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posed with my instrument ;)
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Warming up prior to "curtain",
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adamcu280 said:
I heard somewhere that “sonically, there is no substitute for moving a metric f*ckton of air”
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Moving a lot of air in the pit isn't practical at all for a show but I think the '65 Blackface Twin Reverb and '58 Tweed Bassman patches I programmed into this rig for direct to the house board sound pretty good (& authentic) for the show's 50's-60's era music and plot.
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As the opening got closer it was pretty stressful because I had so much music to learn and so much technique to rebuild but I had "help". It does feel good to be "performing" again after 4 years.
 
I’m three rehearsals out from kicking off my gig season. First up, we’re doing 90 minutes in the beer garden following the spring rodeo in Ellensburg. Then a private party (usually fun), and a week later an outdoor show at Dru Bru in Cle Elum. We’ve worked up a set-worth of new tunes and I’m itching to play-’em out.
 
Last weekend Krontonamo and the I Me Mines closed out Mt. Baker's closing weekend at Graham's in Glacier.

Greg and I decided to go for dueling Explorers vs. our usual dueling Vs.

 
Mini gig report…this was our first show of the year. We were well rehearsed for the tunes but the technical details of managing our own sound are the things that get easier with repetition. Had a couple misfires there, but nothing really disruptive to the evening. It’s always good to be reminded how the energy changes when you play out in the wild. Our best stretch of tunes had the whole crowd dancing for 15-20 minutes. And we got connected with another venue for a local gig.
 
troutpocket said:
Mini gig report…this was our first show of the year. We were well rehearsed for the tunes but the technical details of managing our own sound are the things that get easier with repetition. Had a couple misfires there, but nothing really disruptive to the evening. It’s always good to be reminded how the energy changes when you play out in the wild. Our best stretch of tunes had the whole crowd dancing for 15-20 minutes. And we got connected with another venue for a local gig.
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Running your own sound from the stage while playing is super tough!! And the energy from the crowd is so fun when it works. ;)
 
I’ve played out the last two weekends. Last night in Cle Elum at Dru Bru (excellent beer!). We ran sound for the first band then played 90 minutes wrapping up at 8:30. Random excited audience guy made some uncomfortable eye contact while playing air drums and bass 🤣
I guess it’s good to have enthusiasm?

Dru Bru asked us back and another person contacted us for a private party in August. Playing out is our best marketing.
 
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