Duo of Duo Gigs

The Duo (Nancy and Steve) play at the Excelsior Hotel, Brompton, this Friday Night. Bit of a party with some of those who were at The Finsbury Hotel last Saturday with The Negoitators.

Then, on Saturday, they play at the Hamley Bridge Hotel, Hamley Bridge. It's about an hour the other side of Gawler from Adelaide. Good country pub rockin'!

Brewbar Gig - 23 June 2007

On Saturday night The Negotiators played in the Brewbar at the Finnsury Hotel. It was a private show put on to celebrate 'Craig's' fortieth birthday. If the last gig was 5/10, I would have put this one a shade over 7. No really bad stuffups, some really good music, an audience partying on and the band having fun. Mixed in with that, cameos and audience interaction, nice venue, decent hours (7:45 pm start), and a bit of chaos as we blew our first ever main fuse. It was a good evening!

Again, I taped parts of the show. I'm only posting now because it was only last night that I got to listen to my recordings from the third and fourth sets. What I heard on the tapes (despite its quite different sound qualities compared to the actual performance - it was, afterall, only recorded on a walkman through the inbuilt mike on el cheapo tapes) only confirmed what I thought at the time, which is what you read above.

There were around fifty people there for most of the evening, a few more at peak and a few less at start and finish. A pretty cool and friendly crowd who got into the evening. I understand that quite a few were regulars at The Excelsior where The Duo (Nancy and Steve) has played several times. Not a coincidence, I understand. They enjoyed themselves, and made for a good audience.

The venue could have coped with maybe four or five times that many people. It was one big low wooden room with an island bar in the middle, decent size stage at one end. Comfortably lit and wooden pannels, it also had a similar decore colour scheme to our previous show - Club 168 (a sort of deep-peach-rose). I'd say it had less atmosphere than the pool hall, but what would you expect - it was a function room. The pool table, by the way, was in use through the evening.

We played four sets. The longest break we had was when the power blew half way through the second set. It happened at the perfect point in a song (ie. end of a verse). What is it with electricity recently? The Barman Mr Fixit in the main (gambling parlour) section of the hotel was so rush rush that he didn't say a single word or heed the barmaid after she'd alerted him to our plight. I'd say he was damned rude. Anyway, he got the power going so all is forgiven.

Musical highlights of the evening included (for me, anyway) the psychedelic bit in the middle of Whole lotta Love and a couple other numbers, Evie, Prisoner of Society and Rock'n'Roll (our encore) going off, an audience who went the distance in (Am I ever gonna) See Your Face Again, a cameo by a 'guest' drummer (thanks, Leonard) for Honky Tonk Woman and All Right Now, a folksy guitarist/songwriter/singer who wrote and sang a song for the birthday boy (as well as interactive version of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life) and at least a dozen people doing 'the aeroplane' in our penultimate song!

The sound was heaps better. Sharon lurked on the mixing desk, and provided encouragement and an ear in the audience when it counted. We did a few other things a bit different. Steve's amp was miked so that we could put it through foldback and thus all hear it easier. I think that allows for an improvement. It also allows front of house control of the guitar volume - not a bad thing. Depending upon the practicality of it, we might also like to consider miking Barry's bass and my rhythm guitar so that all can hear all. That would be a novelty for a rock band!

Areas of the show that will do with improvement are our all round co-ordination (miking amps through foldback could really help here), a bit of a heavier sound (not necessarily my own personal opinion), more thought into the dynamics of the ensemble.

As for myself personally, I really need to nail down those chord changes in the score or so of songs where my brain doesn't really know what my fingers should be doing at some point! That's just a matter of practice. Will do.

Finally, there was a real classic moment that happened. We'd just played 'American Idiot', and Nancy was saying something about the words 'fuck america' in the song. You can hear on the tape the voice of a guy, who was nearly six foot, tall, shaven headed and expressively dancing much of the evening. He starts singing 'Short Memory' (a song by Midnight Oil, listen to it if you can!). So appropriate a vignette to the way the mindset is of so many of generation X these days.

Must go. I'll let you know the next confirmed gig date when I'm told what it is.

1000 Profile Views!

I guess this is something of a milestone, like the thousandth post or something. Has taken me about three years, and the biggest batch of viewers has come over the most recent year. I seem to have shaken off the statcounter on this blog, so I actually don't have a clue at the moment about who is looking at what for how long. And you know what?

I don't care.

The fact that YOU are reading this is enough to make me want to keep going!

Loading Gear

As I write this I'm watching the light play on the Adelaide Hills as the sun sets on Saturday 23 June. The Negotiators play at the Finsbury for someone's fortieth later this evening. Private show.

I spent a couple hours this afternoon helping steve get the band's gear down to the pub. It's a pretty big job for one person so I was pleased to assist. I got to his place around 2:30, and the last of the gear was on the stage in the pub by just after 3:30. Yes, we get to play on a stage for the second gig in a row!

To give the uninitiated an idea of what's involved, the following is a bit of a list of what has to be moved into the van then into the venue then set up then dismantled then packed back into the van and then moved into its storage place until next used.

P.A. system

2 x front of house speakers (heavy) and stands
3 x foldback speakers
1 x mixing desk (heavy - fragile) and fold up table
1 x CD player and CD collections (fragile - for intervals)
6 x microphone stands
2 boxes of mikes and cables
3 bags of cords and cables

Lighting

4 x boxed lamps (fragile)
1 x light rig poles
1 x 'magic light projector' (fragile
5 x extension leads plus powerboard

Musical gear

2 x music stands
1 x guitar rack
3 x guitars
1 x effects box
1 x Marshall speaker box (wheeled)
1 x Marshall head
1 x Bass amp
1 x Laney guitar amp

Drums

1 x Bass drum assembly
1 x Stool
2 x cymbals and stands
1 x snare drum
1x tom drum

General

1 x 'Negotiators' sign

To give an idea of the contents of the boxes and bags - there's something like 6 mikes and associated leads. Terry once measured the length of cabling on stage when fully rigged. Came to something like 200m. It's a lot of gear!

Barry and myself each bring our own instruments, and I bring a crate of 'goodies' which also acts as a stand for the Laney amp.

And yes, I am aware that I put the drums under a different category to 'musical gear'!

Sunday rehersal at Steve's

I've just got home after a four hour rehersal with the band. It was a good session. We worked through a bit of new material and brushed up the worst of what we did at Club 168 (for a gig report, click here). Sharon stayed for part of the afternoon, she was also of the opinion that this sounded much more like us (and much more likable generally).

This is important as there was a bit of a mixed response within the band to our most recent public performance. Readers of this blog will know what I thought. Steve and Nancy were pretty horrified full stop. Barry and Chris were a bit more acceptant, but were obviously relieved to be back on song today.

It was good to have a show that was fairly crap. We were bound to have one after returning from such a long break. Probably better it happened when and where it did rather than at one of our more regular venues (if we have any of those left).

We next play on Saturday at the Finsbury. Apparently it's a private show in a separate room from the main bar. I guess that if any fans turn up they might try and talk their way in, but I can't guarantee it...

I'll let you know how it went, and when our next is.

PS - you'll note I've slightly reorganised the links on the right of this page. Have included part of my growing collection of tab/chord sites, as well as a bit of a consolidated view of different aspects of the band. I'll update these items as time passes.

Duo plays Burra (again)

Steve and Nancy ('The Negotiators Duo') play at the Burra Hotel (again) from about 8pm on Friay night, 8 June.

They always seem to have a great time there, and the crowd seems to be consistently large. I think the locals appreciate the fact they have an act of this performative character play at their mid-north local. I hear there's a few of our suburban friends/fans heading up for the night also. Having seen a couple of The Duo's gigs, I can vouch for the fact that it's a much more rock'n'roll type experience than any other midi duo I've seen doing the suburban rounds (except perhaps for the irish leprachauns who I saw about seven years ago at the Brecknock).

If anyone who's there for the gig reads this post, I'd be real interested to read your comments about it all.

Optimistic thoughts listening to taped gig

On listening to the tape we recorded at our recent performance the ears shuddered at some times, and at others I thought “wow!”. So here’s a little summary of the tape. Hope I don’t offend anyone. Before you read it, however, you should click here to read the report of the gig itself.

Set 1

Major and dominating problem on the recording, as it was on stage, is the destructively distorted bass amplification. Sort of a high tinny sound, but also just dynamically overblown. Ironically, the ‘warbling’ effect of the screechy bass really suited ‘Come as you are’ (Nirvana). Most of the time however, it overpowers all of the other instruments to the detriment of the whole. I don’t think it’s fair to comment further as, on stage, the effect of the bass amp had exactly the same attention blocking effect as it has on the tape. Lesson to be relearnt: if something seems wrong at the time, fix it. We are all responsible.

Set 2

Much much better. Probably the bestest bit about it is the mix. All instruments become audible and you can hear the timbre of the vocals. At the time and from my position this pretty accurately summed up the improvements in my acoustic surroundings as experienced on stage. That, combined with the fact that I had the volume setting on my guitar up a bit more than usual and my greater familiarity with the material, allowed me to loosen up through this set.

The two observations I recall making at the time were that, firstly, it was much better sounding bass now that Sharon had zapped the ‘high boost’ button and Barry had jiggled the EQ, and secondly, that I could hear Chris much clearer and Steve at least enough to get a bearing on him. I suspect the two were related.

We all made clangers, generally of the type which bespeak a great deal of rust accumulated over previous months of inactivity. Still, I’d hang around and listen to a band that sounded like we did during this set. We obviously were as loose as hell, but were equally obviously having fun and having a go. You can hear it on the tape, it’s infectious.

The potential sound we can make was perhaps most evident in ‘The Wall’ medley, and the Stones numbers, Jumping Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Woman.

Set 3

The third set was in the vein of set 2. I won’t linger too much on it. I will, however, mention something about my own playing which bugs me when I listen to the tape. It is that I really was rusty and really stuffed up some songs which I actually know quite well. The long break from the rigours of gigging has left various parts of our repertoire relatively unvisited as a group. And I have been too slack to go and do my homework revision. Tsk Tsk. At least I have a chance of atoning for this before next gig.

Set 4

I think that this is the best set on the tape. This has come as a surprise, as I felt while playing that we were pretty on the edge all the way through (we had all been up and about in our busy straight lives since about twenty hours earlier). However, listening to the tape, I’d say that the raw bones of what we were doing were being adequately fleshed out with determined attitude. And that counts at a rock gig. We certainly don’t ‘cover’ songs necessarily quite like the original, but if we can learn a bit more about dynamics (eg in Paint it Black), tempo (eg. Little Aeroplane) and interaction of harmony and melody (eg River Deep Mountain High) we’ll be able to consistently pull off what we are only presently showing in glimpses.

In Retrospect

I probably wouldn’t have hung around for the first set if I wasn’t in the band. It sounded pretty harsh, let alone the musicianship. The second set – I’d've stay in the pub to listen, but if I had had to go somewhere meanwhile I would have. Third set, the calculus would swing slightly further towards staying. And I’d definitely have delayed departure to all but a wedding or funeral to catch the last set til the final chord of Little Aeroplane. This is what I think after listening to the tape in the sobre light of day.

Thus, even though I have a fair bit of homework and brushing up to do as a musician, I also remain a great fan (how lucky am I!). Being realistic, and knowing my daytime job will reduce its demand on my limited hours and energy back to the level of a few months ago, I remain confident that we will continue to grind out more good rock and roll in the future.

Club 168 Gig - 1 June 2007

The Negotiators played at Club 168 in Port Adelaide last night. It was a latish starting gig, we kicked off at 10:15 pm. Played though till just after 2:30 am, four sets and none of the breaks over 20 min. Took about an hour to set up, perhaps 35 min to pack up. We didn't need to bring our lights, the venue had its own setup (though Nancy got to use her new battery powered lyric light).A good show to blow off the cobwebs as its been over eight months since we last performed together.

Club 168 was a pretty cool place to play. We got the gig, apparently, because another band had cancelled. They put on bands Fridays and Saturdays, with apparently quite decent crowds on the later. We played on a Friday night, with about a dozen in audience at both beginning and end and a peak of maybe twenty sometime during the third set. This was just enough that the large and spacious poolhall/bar/venue, on 1st floor above old shopping mall entrance on St Vincent Street just down from Blackdiamond Corner, didn't seem on the barren side of empty.

I thought it was really cool that there was a bunch of folk there from the Cumberland Hotel (Glanville) - click here for report from our last gig there. One of them said that they'd not noiced us in gig-guides etc for 9 months. Nice to be noticed (that being the time elapsed since we were last in the gig guides. Genuine fans?

The stairs of Club 168 were neither too steep nor too narrow, the room was big but not echoey, and there was a two layer stage (drum platform slightly elevated) big enough to comfortably accomodate us. Their lighting was neatly done, with some quite trippy sequencing around the dancefloor and stage but calm and subdued light through remainder of venue. A comfortable place.

Sharon was there for the first three sets, kept an ear to our sound and made a few minor adjustments to clarify it for us. Without her feed back we wouldn't have known how we sounded at the far end of a big room (which can be quite scary and sometimes embarassing). Most valuable thing from my point which she did was suggest a few changes to the EQ on Barry's Bass Amp. Pulling down the treble and pumping up the bass in the big space all of a sudden allowed me to hear Steve a lot more clearly for the remainder of the gig, and added a definite bottom end to our music. Thanks Sharon.

It's a bit hard for me to judge how we went as a band, I had a couple real fuckups myself so they tend to dominate my consciousness of the evening. On the other hand, for the rest of the show I held my own quite well. I locked onto Chris's drums as my reference point for most of the night, and relied on Barry to give me hope when I realised a couple times that I'd really messed up a chord sequence.

Chris was cruising really well on the drums. He wasn't laying in as hard in the first set as he was later - which was really good 'cause it then cut through the on-stage noise (which sometimes bears little resemblance to what is happening acoustically in front of the stage). Having spent a bit of time focusing on the drums recently at practice and now at the gig, my appreciation for Chris's style as a muso is continuing to deepen. There's a lot of subtle variation in what he does that allows the listener to 'read him' without too much effort, without it descending into ear candy. And he holds a pretty steady tempo without seeming effort.

Steve and Nancy did well as the lead duo. Steve's leads continue to progress along the rock idiomatic line he has been pursuing over the past year. I also think that his melodic tendencies are again making themselves heard - which is his own stylistic infusion into the leads breaks he manufactures. Is good, because there is a balance between the two aspects of his leads now. As he continues to work with modal theory in his personal practice, I expect this will only continue to develop.

Nancy pumped it out as always. She still has a bandaged hand from last week's electrocution (click here for the story) but, with the exception of the addition of her new battery powered stage light and an infusion of electricity jokes, there seems to be no major effects upon her performance. My favorite electricity repartee from the night was when Nancy introduced 'Rock n Roll is King' as being originally and appropriately by The Electic Light Orcherastra, to which I added that it was just as well she's a good conductor!

The most noticeable addition Nancy has made to her performance spectrum has been a willingness for vocal ad-lib as part of the improvisational mix in the extended instrumental rock hypnotic moments which arose several times through the night.

And I guess it's those moments, which sweep away your sense of hear and now and just drop you in the sonic tides of hard rock, that make this game worth all the hard work. And there were several of them in last night's show. Which says to me that if we can get back into a steady groove of rehearsal and gigging we will get a chance to explore yet another outreach of musical experience. Yay!

We play at what I hear is a private show towards the end of this month down in Pennington. I'll probably post before then with something about that.

The Negotiators Duo (Steve, Nancy and a midi machine) play at Burra this coming Friday (8 June). They always have a good show there.

PS We taped the show with a walkman. Upon listening to the recording several thoughts come to mind which I have posted here.