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Joined: Apr 2010
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Just do what Danny does. Get roaring drunk, and you won't care if it's any good or not.  Makes the drive home more interesting too. 
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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I am not a pro but did play sax, concertina in a restaurant with a friend about once a fortnight for about six months. My only tip would be to make sure you have a monitor so you can hear yourself! The first night for me was BAD as the place was noisy and i battled to stay with /follow my buddy.
... Nearly sold my gear. Repositioned myself and got a small monitor and BOB's your uncle.
Thats MY story .....
I'm doing allright for Country Trash ....
I used to care, but things have changed (Bob Dylan)
BIAB 2026W + RB
M-Audio FastTrack C600, Rode NT2-A
Digitech VoiceLive 4
Epiphone Sheraton, Ibanez 12str, Washburn 6str, Cort 6Str Nylon
Yanagisawa Tenor Sax
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Joined: May 2003
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Certainly give it more then once.
Good luck.
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My bet is that it will take 2-3 songs then you won't even remember it was your 1st gig in a long time. Then on the ride home you will be asking yourself why it took so long for you to get back into the water?
Break A Leg!
Later, +1 You'll do great Pat. Have fun. I'm as curious as ROG, what songs are on your set list? Inquiring minds want to know. LOL!
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Have the words to "Rawhide" ready, just in case, Pat.
Only joking, I know you'll knock 'em dead.
Cheers,
Keith
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Brunswick Md, in a coffehouse-restaurant that used to be a church. (appropriately named "BEANS IN THE BELFRY"... they have a web site in case you want to check it out) http://www.beansinthebelfry.com/events/ The reason it's in Brunswick is because of a family reunion. My sisters and I used to sing together, and they wanted us to sing at the reunion. I upped the ante and booked a gig at a local venue, mostly because I needed an incentive to "get this show on the road." The restaurant owner knows my sister, and she is OK with the fact that it will be a family sing-along as opposed to the usual fare of local bands playing acoustic sets I'm as curious as ROG, what songs are on your set list? Inquiring minds want to know. LOL! First set will be quiet acoustic sing-along songs from the 70s while people are dining. (James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, CSNY, America, Gordon Lightfoot etc) My sisters will be involved completely in this set Second set will be more orchestrated light rock such as Eagles, 3 dog night etc and some songs by female artists that my sisters will want to cover (Celine Dion, Carole King, Bette Midler etc) General theme in the 1st two sets is "songs with lots of vocal harmonies" The restauarant has a liquor license, so I'm hoping that by the 3rd set the people will want to dance. Hopefully this set will be all me, doing 70s-80s dance songs that baby boomers would get out of their seats for. In the past we've talked about the difference between ARTISTS and ENTERTAINERS. Put me squarely in the ENTERTAINER niche. I'm willing to play all the corny old overplayed tunes that are requested over and over because the audience likes them. Since I've been out of it for years I'm not tired of playing that stuff anymore. I will have more songs prepared than I need, so the final set will be selected at the last minute based on audience response up to that point. But for an audience that will be mostly my sister's friends (who grew up in the 70s) I'm thinking that the standard set bands in my town played in 1971 will be a good starting point. CCR, R&B, blues and top 40 right off the BILLBOARD top 100 songs from 1969-1975 My gut feeling is that such a set will get this crowd dancing. I may ask somebody to take video in case there's a moment that isn't humiliating. If so, I'll post it for your amusement. (don't hold your breath) 
Last edited by Pat Marr; 05/27/13 11:40 AM.
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Just do what Danny does. Get roaring drunk, and you won't care if it's any good or not. Makes the drive home more interesting too. Ahhh so you have seen one of my shows? later,
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Pat,
What are you using for tracks ,if any, and what is your sound system. Just a curiosity from a fellow live player.
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Pat,
What are you using for tracks ,if any, and what is your sound system. Just a curiosity from a fellow live player. Once I committed to the gig, I had a limited amount of time to get ready, and my work imposed mandatory overtime at the same time, which limited my ability to make all the trax I need. So for songs that don't have guitar or other solos (that I would want to play with the guitar synth) I bought karaoke trax. (Shortest distance between 2 points) For any song that I needed to omit both vocals and guitar (most of them), I made my own tracks with RB using the technique I've detailed here many times. Setup is as follows: 1) RB on a laptop, with all tracks mixed down to an audio track of each song, an audio track of the chords (to drive my guitar harmonizer) and a midi track of the chords (to drive all the MIDI gear in my rack... songs will be placed in a jukebox directory and served up using a USB pedal to stop start and advance the jukebox 2) Rack gear includes 2 voiceworks units, a Behringer V-amp guitar processor, a roland XV-3080 MIDI module and a BBE Sonic Maximizer...Midi embedded in the SEQ file changes patches and effects in the rack gear for each song. 3) RB Laptop goes out to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 so I can send one set of outputs to the mixer, and another set of outputs to any external pedals or amps as needed 4) the focusrite sends the backing tracks to a Behringer xenyx 1622 mixer, and the rack stuff also goes to the mixer where everything is merged together, and a light sheen of reverb ties it all together. Also, any extra singers would plug their mics into this mixer 5) mixer goes out to 2 powered speakers on stands (ALTO 15", I forget the model) In case of disaster I have 2 backup powered speakers of equal size that I got on a MF stupid deal of the day for a killer price. 6) all gear is elevated to where I can make adjustments while standing in front of a mic. Elevation is accomplished with adjustable keyboard stands... so all stands are matching black foldable aluminum that can be packed up compactly. 7) everything fits nicely in my new little Scion xB which I bought specifically for hauling gear, and eventually for putting a car wrap on it advertising my music service. that's my whole system. It took years to get all the pieces assembled due to the cost of acquiring each piece of the puzzle.
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Joined: Dec 2011
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All sounds very professional, but what make are the sunglasses?
ROG.
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Joined: May 2000
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Okay, add "Cheap Sunglasses" to the songlist...
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Joined: Dec 2001
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2001
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I'm singing for a senior group at a church next Monday. This will be good because they already have a PA and mike set up for me.
I still watch "Have Gun Will Travel' most every day. I also watch "Gun Smoke", "Bonanza" , and "Wiet Earp". I watch them whenever my Great Grandson is not around.
Like everyone has said, I think after about 2 or 3 songs, you will be ready to play and sing. Good Luck. occ
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Maybe you've done this already but if you haven't give it a thought.
Pack all of your gear into the car ready to travel. Take note of the time and then unpack it, set it up and play a song. see how long it takes to do this and most importantly is it plug and play with no config issues.What will get you on this first gig is if you get all setup and things don't work properly and you have to troubleshoot.Trust me. You don't want that to happen.The stress level at that point becomes tremendous.
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Expert
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Expert
Joined: Apr 2006
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Pat! You're in my area. As a matter of fact, we put the water treatment system in Beans in the Belfry.
I didn't play for 28 years & came back. It's like riding a bike. Remember...you've done this before. Many times. The most difficult part of all of this is getting ready. The rest will be cake!
Break a leg!
Mick
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 236 |
Good luck Pat. I can tell you though, I WILL NOT put my retirement on hold based on my ability (or lack thereof) to perform in front of an audience! But I do plan on practicing enough to perform again without sucking beginning on Sept. 30.
Todd
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Hey Pat, I'll bet it was fun and a great time was had by all. If I'd been in driving distance I'd have been there singing along. So now the question is - are you going to show or tell???? Do we get a video or details....
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Well, the gig was last evening.
The setting was a family reunion with a bunch of siblings who have always sung together for fun. With all the deaths in the family in the last two years, somebody observed that we've all reached the age where you never know which reunion with have an empty chair.
So, just once for the sake of memories, we booked a gig to sing together in public.
I spent the past few months preparing songs thinking it would be a real live performance. Unfortunately, the siblings were not prepared, and our practices sounded so bad I seriously considered cancelling the gig.
At the last minute we switched to a 70's karaoke audience participation sing along, and it went over VERY well. We went back to the same coffeehouse the next evening and people were still talking about the karaoke act
But I learned some things along the way:
1)the best way to pack my gear,
2) which endings worked and which were overkill
3) and perhaps most important was to discover the songs that were well-received when I sang them (NOT the songs I expected)
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Hey Pat, I'll bet it was fun and a great time was had by all. If I'd been in driving distance I'd have been there singing along. So now the question is - are you going to show or tell???? Do we get a video or details.... I did set up a video camera to capture the whole performance, but the battery ran out pretty early in the first set. I haven't hadachance to look at it yet. If I find a snippet that isn't humiliating, I'll post it. But my guess is that no snippet will pass the acceptability threshold.
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+1 to those asking to see some video snippets... and on this comment...
that's my whole system. It took years to get all the pieces assembled due to the cost of acquiring each piece of the puzzle.
...buying the equipment (cost) is only the first step for me...it then takes me years to actually find the time to 'own it' in terms of understanding, setup, and as Silvertones said - troubleshooting unexpected config probelems.
Also curious - which songs went over best, and which were you expecting to go over better that did not - and why do you think that is, in hindsight ?
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