Glynde Hotel 10 Sept 2005

This was our first gig at the Glynde. Sox did the organising with the venue, I think he used a form letter we have to kick off negotiations on behalf of The Negotiators. Set up was pretty straightforward, we being at ground level in a corner in the main bar, in front of the bingo and shooting game machines. The room was fairly large and open, making a pleasant change from the Glandville ‘play past the pillars’ style of audience interaction. Carpeted, low ceilinged with styrofoam tiles, no unbaffled panes of glass, and a heavy drape covering part of one side of the room (shielding the TAB section of the pub – otherwise would have played to a ‘L’ shaped room) together combined to create a different acoustic environment to what we were used to. Hard to find a balance between grungy-muffled and harsh-choppy.

We also had to do things a bit different in terms of stage space, with my amp going onto the back wall between Steve’s gear and Sox on the drums. I must ask Sox if it was a help or a hinderance. We had to do it this way because it was a narrowish corner and we were already projecting a fair way out into the room (we can take up a lot of space). Sox and Steve were backrow, Me and Terry in front of them, Nancy up front. Seemed to work okay in terms of dynamics. It took a bit for me to get used to having my amp out of easy reach, however, and to be so far forward from it. I think it gave me a better understanding of the mix of the guitars and keyboard.

In brief, the gig was okay. First set was too quick in tempo to play comfortably, just enough that it felt forced. Second set we had Rob on his sax up with us (he played with us at the Glanville first time there also). Between him searching for the right key and Steve (I think) off tune with some of the vocals (and loud, at least through the foldback), I didn’t think it was that good, despite the music pumping along. Several of the audience, however, swore to me afterwards that they thought it was the best set.

Third set cranked up nicely. We opened it with a couple of our own songs (Never Wanted You and Fucked Decisions), so that set a solid platform. ACDC in fact sounded a bit dull after the later piece, but we got it on track by the first chorus. Final set was a bit different as we didn’t know how long the publican would let us keep playing. Started with Killer in a Frock (haven’t played for ages, me on the lead). Was told it was ‘haunting’ later. Closed with ‘Little Aeroplane’ at 1.30 am, probably best we’ve played that for a while (all played riffs right through). Only played around half of the new batch of songs.

Audience was okay for the evening, had between twenty five and thirty people in audience half way through the first set. Knew most of them (in fact, were almost the same mobs that had come on the first Friday we played at the Glanville). This number didn’t go down until near the end of the third, still nearly twenty when we stopped. Not bad, considering it was Crows playing Port in town in a televised knockout hometown semi final for the Australian Football League, the pub up the road (The Alma) being a centre for celebrations for the Crows victory, the 5th Test was on the telly as Australia struggles to retain the ashes, and it was a windy and wet night on top of that. The publican and a handful of locals seemed happy, especially with Johnny Cash. He (the publican, not Johnny Cash) offered us another gig as soon as we could fit it in, straight after the show.

Terry Sox and Nancy each put in solid performances. I think Steve was a bit fast to start with and, because of his volume, that pushed all of us. Into the third set though, was keeping the momentum up neatly through the songs. Once he got rid of the muffled sound on his amp was when things improved. As for me, for the first set and a half I was in a reactive mode, just trying to fill the gaps and keep to the beat. Then I decided to turn up a bit, and used the pick up lever and volume on the guitar itself to modify sound to keep a relatively constant level from where I was standing out front. I kept good focus on my sound and tried to ease it in and out around the various leads (vocal, bass, Steve), picking simple riffs to further add another element to the rythmic passages I was doing. Also used the distortion pedal more than usual, mainly to boost my sound with the gain when I was emphasising individual strings and runs. Through the third and fourth sets I was pretty happy, although it was still pretty experimental. I am, however, starting to critically approach the task of placing arpegios and simple runs in as part of the sonic palette that I see it being the job of the rhythm guitarist to maintain and vary.

In other words, the Negotiators came out of the night ahead, and looking forward to the next two private shows (a netball club function and a fiftieth). Then we’re back at the Glynde for Nancy’s birthday.