4th of July Gig

[gotto]

My 5 piece band has been on hiatus as of late. It happens when lives get busy.Three of us are retired, the other two work and have families  with grade school kids so while the three of us are fairly free of obligations, two are not.We have an annual street party gig on the 4th, but this year was not working out for practices. No gig was planned......until one week ago when my drummer brother-in-law ( who lies on the block) decided to put one on without the harp player as the bass/primary lead singer was onboard. We gathered last Saturday for the only practice we would have before the gig, only to find the bass player couldn't commit to the gig and wasn't going to show up. Yikes! The billets were out that the street band was going to play and my brother-in-law was on the hook.

I have been developing an Americana trio, an acoustic/light electric band over the last few week, for a gig at my financial advisers annual client barbeque in later July. We will do a fill between sets of a folk singer of 8 songs we have been working on. One member is also in the larger band, the other out of town for the 4th. So we were left with myself, this other guitarist and our drummer of a gig. We tried out the songs of the Americana set as well as a handful of songs I sing lead in the larger group to make a total of 13. We sounded ok but definitely were underwhelming without a bass. I began calling every bass player I knew and a couple of other guitarists who sing to see if I could round up some help. 48 hours before the gig, two friends pitched in, one a very good bass player, the other a singer/guitarist. who tossed in 6 blues songs I thought we could pull off and we had a band! I sent out chart sheets for my songs and the other vocalists shared his over emails. No practice beforehand, we gathered 3 hours before the gig, set up equipment, did a sound check and for 1 1/2 hours did a quick playing review of materials unfamiliar to each other. An hour to relax and hydrate and then we played for 1 1/2 hours . When you play with really good players, it is amazing how you  can pull off something like this with so little preparation  and no practice.  All five of us have played with each other but never together as a group. We were not flawless, I had to button up a couple of my songs early because things were a bit flawed getting into choruses but all-in-all  it was a success. 

I found that in events like this, people just want to hear the music. They are not in tune with whether there is a mistaken note or chord, or if the singer flubs the lyrics, but rather are just into the vibe of the moment. Music is an uplifting, positive experience for the performers and the audience. People thought we were great in spite of a few flaws that we might have noticed in our play. In reality, they really had no clue ( unless they are other musicians) of these mistakes. I also realized that musicians just want the opportunity to play and when asked, are very generous in helping out their friends in dire straits. They truly are some of my best friends. If you get the chance for public performance, jump on it. It is the most fun you will ever have with music.

Greg

 

Edited July 6, 2018 by gotto

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

Rule of thumb playing live...

 

Don't ever stop

[Dave White]

Awesome Greg!

[DianeB]

Way to go Greg! I hope you got a picture.

[Nutty1]

Amazing Greg, well done! Thank you for sharing your story and your thoughts. It sounds like a great time was had by all.??

[Oldjock]

Good job Greg. It would have been to easy to say, "the hell with it" but you hung in there to make it work. Kudo's to you to for giving your neighbors an entertaining evening.

Henk

[gotto]

5 hours ago, DianeB said:

Way to go Greg! I hope you got a picture.

My son video taped the gig on his ipad. No individual pictures. I am not very tech savvy but I will try to see if I can upload one of our songs and share.

Greg

[Wim VD]

Great story, Greg. Thanks for sharing.

[gotto]

https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=IbC6TQk-WLM&video_referrer=watch

Here's one I got up on Youtube. I was fiddling with my low volume, a couple times on this song.

I will try for another

Greg

Edited July 7, 2018 by gotto

[gotto]

Another one....sorry about the video quality and fireworks in the background as well. A little scrappy getting back into the final chorus in unison but such is live impromptu performance sometimes.

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by gotto

[gotto]

..and finally my golden throated friend John who provide 5 great blues songs on the 4th. He plays in a different blues/Americana band but I have played with him in 2 different bands in the past. The bass player is also in a blues band that publicly performs around the Portland area. The lead guitarist in the back and the drummer are my current bandmates. We are missing our regular bass player and primary lead singer ( I sing on 25% of our band songs, and do harmonies), and a harpist who had conflicts or otherwise couldn't attend this event. A lot of fun. 

I have a gig in 3 weeks with my Americana trio. I decided not to share my country songs with forum folks....didn't want to stimulate yawns or hoots.?

 

Edited July 7, 2018 by gotto