Any promoter that walks around during soundcheck handing out redbulls and beers will always get a thumbs up from me, it did seem like it would be a fun night. With very little knowledge of the other band playing that night, we wasn't really sure how to approach the set, and which cover we should do (it was a battle of the bands night, 4 song set, one of which had to be a cover). Eventually we decided on Teenage Kicks to open with, a slight communication mix up meant that a couple members of the band started before all of us were ready, but I think that the slight mix up made us realise that we had to concentrate, and although it isn't my favourite song to play, I thought that we put on a good performance of it.
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26th Aug - Athelstan Arms
This is my second time playing at the Athelstan but the other guys have played there a handful of times now. While setting up and doing the brief soundcheck, I started getting a small electric shock (more like a sharp tingle than a shock) from my microphone, which is never much fun to try and work around, but now i've looked into it a bit more, Ive found a couple causes. One of the good things about pub gigs is the more casual/laid back vibe, which means that you can probably have a bit more fun with the audience than you can at a club gig, because people are just there to have a couple drinks and be entertained, so a little bit of impromptu Take That cover will of course gain a few smiles, as will the cover of Hit Me Baby One More Time that we pull out the bag every so often.
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27th Aug - On The Rocks
When we turned up at On The Rocks we were not sure of how to make room for all 5 of us on stage but with a few old school techniques like putting mic stands on the floor in front of the stage and making them go as high as possible to make them reach the high tower that is myself (a shocking 5ft8ish), and squeezing Bassface somewhere between my amp and Darren's drums, we just about managed it. Due to a last minute cancellation there was no opening act so the evening was ours to just keep playing. Perhaps it was tiredness kicking in but I made a few sloppy mistakes in the first half, so I knew I had to pick it up for the second set, and I think I did just that. The second half was absolutely immense, and it was possibly my favourite EA gig to date. On The Rocks is quite an intimate venue but the big windows at the back of the room that look over the sea make a big difference to the atmosphere (similar to that of Unit22 in Southampton) I think that 99% of people there were up for a bit of a dance and a sing-song and that's exactly what happened, it had that kind of intimate party vibe. Loved this gig!
Tomorrow is a bit of a last minute booking, a day time music festival at a pub in Winton, which will be a totally different bag altogether.
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28th Aug - Talbot
As predicted, this was a totally different gig, and a much tougher crowd compared to last night. It was a family fun day kind of atmosphere, so I was a little apprehensive about launching into songs like Take me Down and Make Your Move with some rather young kids sitting about 6 feet in front of Neil. The strangest thing about this gig though was probably the sound, we had very little time to set up the gear and get on stage, so it was a little slap dash. There were no vocal monitors and because of how the pub is laid out with very little soft furnishings, the vast majority of what I could hear was the echo of Neil's vocals bouncing around off of the walls, which wasn't really a bad thing but just took a bit of getting used to. It seemed to be one of those gigs where stuff went wrong but nobody but the band really noticed; Tom's strap broke, which made him have to play a song sitting down; Darren was having issues with a 'sticky' bass drum; I forgot how to use an Oxford Comma. It was a tough crowd (most of them were there to watch the football match), but we had a bit of fun and we will be back at The Talbot again in the near future for a full length gig.
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